Page 12 of Star Claimed Omega
Her friend choked on her food.
‘You speak of it like it’s a curse.’
‘It was!’ Soleil hissed.
‘I opened the stall door, and there he stood. Beneath the shower, like some war god forged from marble, gilded metal, sin, and wet dreams, covered in ink.’
‘Nude?’
‘Butt naked as the day he was born.’
Her last words caught the attention of two maintenance workers passing by.
One whistled.
Soleil ignored their intrusion.
‘His eyes,’ she continued, her voice holding a slight tremor of disbelief. ‘Sapphire blue and indigo locked straight into me. Then he smiled.’
‘Oh, the sheer horror,’ Astra deadpanned, savoring every detail.
‘Nada, you don’t understand. I got rooted to the spot, until my freakin’ knees almost collapsed on me.’
Astra inhaled and even grunted, her body shaking with silent mirth.
‘I couldn’t even execute a decent retreat. I mumbled an apology, tried to bolt, but then he asked if I was new to the deck.’
Astra’s head struck the wall behind her in exasperation.
‘Please tell me you flirted with him?’
‘Nada! I panicked. I squeaked something about being the cleaner and then sprinted away like my jumpsuit was on fire.’
Astra erupted in laughter, almost losing her breath.
‘Woman, only you would run from a chance to score a hot date with a naked Adonis!’
Soleil delivered a quick, reproachful kick to her friend under the table, yet the heat of her encounter remained on her cheeks.
When her gaze fell to her mug again, her mind’s eye kept seeing his face. She could not banish the image ofhim, no matter the strength of her will.
Nor the vision of the water cascading over the carved lines of his inked chest.
That amused, unbothered expression.
The curve of his mouth.
That voice, not a crime, and the way he pronouncedcariño, his timbre not unlike molasses and thunder wrapped in midnight.
She exhaled, the heat pooling in her belly once more.
‘Who was he?’
Astra asked, her fingers flicking across her cracked data pad.
Soleil managed a shrug, hiding her flushed face in her palms.
‘I don’t even know his name.’
