Page 36 of Adrift!
Chapter 12
Ikaryo roused at an insistent chime from his datpad, abandoned on the bedside table.
Remy’s bed.
He rolled over to silence it, and when he shifted back, she was awake, green eyes still hazed with sleep. But sharpening fast.
“What now?” Her voice was husky and disgruntled.
Did she mean what had triggered the wakeup…or where they would go from here?
Maybe being adrift wasn’t all bad if it meant he didn’t have to answer that second part.
“Good morning.” He leaned over to kiss her, slow and sweet, to show her whatever else was happening, she mattered too.
And he would happily begin his mornings—even the possibly disastrous ones, or maybe especially those—with a cantankerous beauty who felt like home…
Even as the implications of that thought seized him, she was yielding beneath his lips, one hand rising to curl behind his nape.
“Very good morning,” he murmured when he finally lifted his head.
“Mm.” She stretched, her hips nudging his. “I didn’t believe the space docs when they said the IDA vaccinations cured morning breath permanently.”
“Who would lie about something like that?” He kissed her again—a little quicker this time since the chimehadbeen insistent. “Captain called an all-hands. I have to go.”
Rolling off the side of the bed, he padded over to the couch where his uniform had slipped to the floor. When he was leaning down, a breathy whistle of appreciation made him glance over his shoulder.
Remy tilted her head to blink at him slyly through her lashes. “Sorry. That just slipped out. Lack of sleep, ya know?”
He postured a little under the lusty regard and left the front seal of his uniform mostly undone. “Too sleepy for a private breakfast?”
When she sat up, the blanket sagged just enough for him to ogle a bit too. “Coffee?” But even as she said it, she was shaking her head, tangled red hair tumbling around her bare shoulders. “You need to answer that alarm. I’ll do breakfast in the salon with the others.”
Just days ago, she’d been so reluctant to join in, and tonight she’d perform for them despite her avowal that she’d left her music back on Earth.
Returning to the bedside, he smoothed one hand over her hair and leaned down again, for a deeper kiss this time. “I’ll see you there,” he murmured against her lips.
She clung to him, just for a heartbeat. “Okay.”
Was she? He glanced back again before he left, and she was still in the bed, her gaze angled toward the black viewport.
She must’ve felt his regard because she pivoted to face him. “I hear your gears grinding. Quit it.” Her smile was about as real as his synthequers. “I’m not going anywhere else.”
Because she was choosing to stay? Or because they were stuck?
The question haunted him as he hurried to the Starlit Salon where Chef and Griiek had already set up the breakfast buffet. They waved off his apologies for being late—although Chef waggled their phonoplasts suggestively—and then Felicity arrived with the draft of an announcement for the evening’s “entertainment”.
He looked it over. “I think the entertainment should probably have a say.”
Felicity nodded. “She should be at the all-hands too.” She glanced up at him when he didn’t respond. “There is a risk for everyone on this ship, and maybe farther than that,” she reminded him. “We’re all in this together, including Remy.”
“I just want her to be…” Jaw tensed, he couldn’t continue.
Felicity touched the back of his hand, her voice low when she said, “Ellix is the same way.”
Knowing the big Kufzasin fretted about his Earther lover didn’t reassure Ikaryo that his feelings were reasonable. Because if the ship’s captain had doubts they’d make it—
But the rest of the Cosmic Connections Cruise passengers were already streaming in, looking for coffee and pastries.
