Page 31 of Defiance
“We smell like each other?”
Novak looked up at her rosy cheeks and his cock thumped desperately. He licked his fangs, swallowing down venom that had given her a twinge ofhimin her aroma and that same blissed out expression less than a day ago.
“Hjarna aren’t a scenting species, but they’re not the only ones that will be there. Most hjarna security details are mixed species, and pretty much everyone else will be able to smell us, one way or another.”
He poured a spoonful of the powder into his palm and rubbed them together, then scrubbed around his face and brow, careful to avoid direct contact with hiscoleara.The powder dropped off him to the floor.
Charlie took some too, rubbing it between her index finger and thumb. She brushed it away and, satisfied that it didn’t stain her pale skin, took more to rub over her hands and arms. Then she smelled her own wrist and hummed.
“Smells like autumn,” she mused, wriggling her hips. His eyes glued to the crutch of her thighs at level with his snout and stilled, afraid to breathe. Her edges crackled, the magenta tint of herchemiafilling the room.
“Rub it… everywhere?” Charlie stood and waved her hand vaguely over her groin.
“Yes.”
“You got it.”
Novak stood, breathing in as his eyes closed.
“Take the bag,” he rasped. “I have another.”
She gave him a cheeky salute, took her bag of groundsakharel,and sidled around him. Novak remained there like a stone, his muzzle angled towards the top of her head as she brushed by.
At the last second, he grabbed her arm, breathing her in like his lungs were a cavern. He filled every nook of his insides with her, until there was no room left.
“I’m not going to disappear on the ship,” she attempted to tease. It came out breathless, and potent moisture dotted her neck behind her ear. Novak wanted to lick it away.
“You never know,” he purred, dropping her arm.
As soon as the door whispered shut behind her, Novak rubbed his nose into his sheets with a snarl of frustration.
14
I reclined in my bunk with my holotab’s screen hovering in front of my knees like I was balancing a book against my thighs. The narrow bed, the porthole, the hum of the ship… It was like a lullaby, putting me in the mood to lose track of time. Only the occasional bark of laughter and mottled conversations of the crew walking through the halls reminded me of where I was or that my lower back was starting to ache.
I’d spent all day holed up, convinced that if anyone needed me, they’d come find me. Instead of scrutinizing my confused loins and grappling with the feelings I couldn’t have, I looked through all my luggage and studied what I was bringing purely out of curiosity. One of the “lesser” gifts—Zufi’s description in his very thorough diplomatic primer—was a dried and shredded squid from Dharatee that left me with pressing questions. Was a shilpakaari eating a squid like a chicken eating nuggets?
Inquiring minds had to know.
I was tempted to risk an anaphylactic response to give it a try, which told me it was probably well past dinner. I closed my holoscreen and rubbed my straining eyes as the door binged and the lights dimmed for a beat.
“Commander Xata has requested entrance,” the ship sounded in a female voice.
I lifted one corner of my upper lip. “Brilliant. Let her in.”
The door slid into the wall as I climbed off my bed and Xata strode in, her tendrils roiling around her shoulders as she examined the room with her hands on her hips.
“Sakharel?”she said by way of greeting. I crossed my arms over my chest, bra discarded hours ago.
“Yup.”
She raised one brow. “Smart.”
“How can I help you, Commander?” I asked. “Came to see if I know how to use the foodbay? Latch up my trousers?”
Xata grinned crookedly and held out her hand, a thin disc pinched between her fingers. It was translucent like wax paper, with a gelatinous bump in the center. I leaned in close enough to see a hair-thin copper wire sandwiched within its layers.
When she opened a knife in her other hand, I snapped back a step.
