Page 35 of Collision!
A message from Suvan.
The memories of last night’s pleasures swept through her, erasing any other thought.Followed quickly by frantic possibilities of what the message might be: a short-sweet good morning, an apology and rejection, a NSFW hologram of parts of him she hadn’t yet seen…
She should probably open it and find out.
‘The Juraszczyk ghostform will be arrayed at the start of third-shift.’
That was it.
Well, she hadn’t ever deluded herself that Suvan was a romantic under his thorns.And that was fine, because she had that covered.
Not covered at the moment, of course, since she was still naked.
Dreamily, she trailed tingling fingers down her body, seeking the places deliciously abraded from the points of his quill-scales that hadn’t ever pierced her.But ooh, so close.
He had teased her, his fingers inside her, sweet venom poised at her clit…
Before the memory—or her touch—got too hot and heavy, she pushed back the covers.Maybe she should sendhima NSFW hologram.
Would his quartz-bright eyes light up?
Anyway, itwasromantic that he’d given her named credit for the ship’s vaguely monstrous mask.So she messaged back ‘good morning’ and went to shower.
As she was braiding her hair—musing on how easily it had come undone in his hand—her datpad pinged again.
Lub’s lure and one bulbous eyeball bobbed on the screen.
With a smile, Mariah accepted the incoming comm.“Good morning to you too, Lub.”
“I forgot to tell you to come to the supply bay,” Suvan said, squashing his pet’s head out of the way.“That’s where we’ve staged the ghostform.”Then he paused.“You will be there, yes?”
Biting the inside of her cheek to stop her smile from widening at the note of diffidence in his voice, she nodded.“I’m excited to see it—and you.”Without waiting for an answer, she chirped, “Gotta go get breakfast before they’re out of coffee,” and disconnected.
She blew out a hard breath.
Was she coming on too strong for her reserved engineer?Maybe.But if he needed data to make his decisions, she couldn’t be coy.
Even if revealing her heart felt a little like offering a soap bubble to a porcupine with knitting needles.
+ + +
There was still plenty of coffee left when she wandered into the salon.
“It’s really not that bad,” she told Remy, who was again behind the bar thinning the black sludge.
Remy snorted.“I am in awe at how you see the bright side of everything.”
Feeling a little stung—and not in a good way, although she wasn’t sure why, since she’d heard it more than once and often in a more snappy or sneering tone—Mariah shrugged.“If not the bright side, what?Staying in the dark?”
“Hey, sorry.”With an apologetic grimace, Remy nudged a brimming mug across the bar.“I wasn’t taking a crack at you.I’m genuinely jealous.”
Considering the statuesque redhead had sung an elemental entity into being, that was flattering.Mariah let out a little sigh.“Sorry back at you.Mostly I love my rose-colored glasses.I guess I’m a little sensitive this morning.”
Leaning both elbows on the bar, Remy canted forward with a smirk.“Really?I would’ve never guessed Chief would leave his engines.So I say again: Totally in awe.”
Maybe that teasing should’ve bothered Mariah too but… It was true.Also, she knew she was blushing hard enough that she couldn’t hide anything.“I’m meeting him later when they install the ship’s disguise.”
“Which Ikaryo tells me is amazing.He’s been working around the clock so we can get out of this asteroid junkyard.”She levered herself upright again.“Also why I’m jealous: You got to spend the night with your sexy alien lover.”
