Page 68 of Collision!
“Say again?”Nehivar growled.
Clasping Mariah even tighter—which wasn’t possible, considering how close she already was, but he believed in the impossible—Suvan punched the tether return, high speed.
“Hold tight,” he warned.
“Always.”
They hit the deck hard, and the moment their boots cleared the lock, the hatch slammed closed.Even with inertia dampeners, as the Love Boat I fled ahead of the wave, they rolled across the bay floor, still tangled together, helmets knocking.
They came to rest, staring dazedly into each other’s eyes.
She reached up to touch his visor, her gaze searching his intently.“You didn’t forget again?”
“That I love you?”He echoed her gesture.“If you remind me every day, I promise I’ll prove it every night.”
Chapter 19
Mariah helped Suvan shed his helmet and gloves so that he could race to the storage bay console, patching through his datpad to check on his engines.
A girl could take the engineer out into space and even kiss him—not in space, obviously—but she’d never take the engines out of the engineer.Or however that Earther saying went.
And she didn’t want him any other way.
When he returned to her side to lift her bodily out of the heavy suit bottom, she clung to him.She held him as tight as she could while his quill-scales were smoothed down in his suit.He might remember he loved her, but would he also recall his fear that she couldn’t handle a poke or two?
She’d have to remind him how far the resonark had come for its reunion.
Speaking of… “How’s the ship?”
“We’re out ahead of the resonark cloud fusion, gathering as much data as we can while not getting our rear stabilizers burned.But the engine optimization is holding steady.”He squeezed her back with exultant satisfaction.
Maybe she could make him forget his safety protocols by quoting diagnostics at him.
Courtship via circuitry.Lovemaking by laser light.Fabricating forever.
He set her on her feet and cupped her cheek with his bare hand.“How areyou?Your eyes went hazy for a moment.Was it another vision?”
“A vision of you—and me together.”She tilted her head into the caress, reveling in his touch.“I wondered why the resonark didn’t send me a vision the first time like everyone else.It was because I was already living my dream.”
“And I don’t need memory or harmonic resonance to know I love you.”He brushed his thumb over her lip.“I feel it.”
Slowly, his mouth descended on hers, a gentle collision of soft breaths and yearning flesh.Her eyes drifted closed, melting against him, all her senses hijacked by his presence.
This was beyond any dream.
The captain’s sharp command echoed through the empty bay.“Chief engineer to the bridge.Now.”
With one last quick glance shared—an unvoiced promise—they rushed for the inner hatch.
Griiek was waiting.“That was amazing,” she enthused as she loped along beside them.“The resonark fused with the cloud like…like a romantic embrace.”She clutched all four hands beneath her chin, big eyes shining.“Just like in the IDA brochures.Remy and Ikaryo said the signals became a perfect chord spanning every octave they could follow.”
“Yes, like in the brochures.”Suvan slanted a wry glance at Mariah.
She bit back a smile at the Monbrakkan’s innocent excitement.“I can’t wait to hear their new song.”
She could already feel the rhythm.
Love.Love.Love.
