Page 29 of Collision!
She waited a moment: because she came to him and…?But when he didn’t continue, a faint twinge of dismay chilled her.Was he only interested because she’d invaded his privacy when no one else would?
Of course, she’d all but admitted she wanted more of his venom, so…
“Sometimes it’s the littlest things,” she said.“All my projects start with one stitch.”
“That was not a small thing.Not to me.”His hand, still cradling her cheek, skimmed down to her shoulder where her nighttime braid was resting and gave the end a gentle tug.
The tweak tingled across her scalp.Not even a direct touch, but she felt it like a spark beneath kindling.That was what he meant: not a trifling effect.
“On my homeworld,” he continued, “my people are renowned for gregariousness and epic festivities.”
She shook her head in surprise, tugging lightly on her hair in his grasp.“You’re joking.”
“I’m not.I am not good with any jokes.Unlike most Szauralithyn.”He sighed.“We even have a religious holiday devoted to puns, although that is not as popular on the tourism routes.The sociability was probably an adaptation to the long months stuck underground.But as you might imagine, I was often…on the outside.”
When she gasped in outrage, he clarified, “Not literally.They were not so cruel as to banish me to the sandstorms.Just to the outside of their merriment.”
The vulnerability in those words, the confession of unvoiced pain beneath them, made her eyes sting.This fierce, guarded engineer who lived alone with his engines and his goblhob, who bristled with literal and figurative defenses…
He was choosing to be soft, in his own way, with her.
Forgetting to be careful of his quill-scales, she put her hand over his, still holding the end of her braid like a lifeline.She pressed his clenched knuckles to her heart, ignoring the warning prick.
“I’m sorry, Suvan,” she said.“That must’ve been hard for you.And I’m sorry for them that they didn’t appreciate how droll you are, or see how you’re clever and caring.How devoted you are to this ship, keeping every soul aboard it alive, as if you are holding it in your hands like the most fragile, intricate lace.”
She leaned toward him, not quite close enough for another kiss, but so she could stare into those shattering quartz eyes.“I’ve seen it.And I think it’s wonderful.”
“Even when it was too dark for Earther eyes, you saw me.”
The moment hung between them, and she felt the possibilities spiraling out around them, as incomprehensible as the resonark’s quantum edges.And she didn’t care about any of that.She wanted this, here, now, with him.
“And what if I touched you?”she whispered.“What if I tasted you?”
“You already have.”Though his gravelly voice shook like a mountain about to break, his hand on her breastbone didn’t move.
“What if I wanted more?”
“I would give it to you.”
She wondered if he could feel her heart pounding against his knuckles.“But would you want it too?”
“Like the air we both breathe.”
And finally his big hand unfurled against her, fingers spanning the valley between her breasts.
When his mouth descended on hers this time, she met him with lips already parted, ready to feast at this alien party of two.
He tugged at her hair again, releasing the tie holding the braid.The ribbon glided down to tangle in the quill-scales on the outer edge of his biceps.
This could get tricky…
With brutal restraint, barely leashed, he raked his hands up into her hair.“I have wanted to do this,” he growled as the strands sprang loose around her face, twining through his thorny fingers.
She tilted her head back, half closing her eyes at the yearning in the rough caress and his rasping voice.“I thought you craved order.”
“Apparently not with you.”
That he’d lose control for her…
