Page 13 of Collision!
And still the force continued inward, into the hidden unknowns of him, not merely atomic but metaphysical.
The touch of her fingertips on his chest reversed the shockwave, summoning all that energy back to her, as if his heart sought to leap into her hand.
He jerked away, his own startled exhale leaving him lightheaded.
He would have blamed the resonark for the surge of sensation still swirling through him, but there was no further sign the anomaly was synchronizing with her or emitting any energy beyond its knot.
Still in his shadow, Mariah stared up at him, the fingers that had grazed his chest rising to press to her lips.
“Mariah…” His voice cracked, and he imagined the universal translator snugged against his brain, waiting impatiently for whatever he intended to say.
He hadn’t meant to be so abrupt and vehement.Though he hadn’t bothered reading all the Earther-specific IDA handbooks on interspecies relationships—he was crew, not customer—he’d comprehended the point of romance, wooing, and pre-contact consensus.
But keeping to himself in the engine module hadn’t given him the experience to read the expression on her face now.
“Are you… I shouldn’t have… The resonark.”Perversely, reminding himself of that troublesome anomaly steadied him.“Did you feel it touch you?”
She blinked at him, so slowly he wondered if she’d succumbed to that entangling energy.But then she let her hand drop away from her lips.“Youtouched me.”A rapid flurry of blinks.“Youkissedme.”
Which was a true but incomplete analysis on her part.“You were glowing,” he told her.“With the resonark’s shadowlight.I thought it had taken hold of you.”
She leaned forward to frown at him from approximately ten degrees closer.“Youtook hold of me.”
He shifted back on his heels eleven degrees.“Only…your mouth.”
“It wasn’t the resonark.”She was staring at him so hard he felt pinned by those sharp little needles and the even sharper scissors, plus a nano-edge diode laser.“It was you.Like in my dream.”
She’d dreamed of him?
The accusation chilled him.Could he be guilty of appearing in a random neural signaling during her sleep cycle?
“I apologize,” he said stiffly, taking a longer step back.“I should not have touched you.The energy fluctuation of the anomaly seemed to be indicating a state change.And I thought—wrongly—that its energy was bridging to you, the same way it manifested in your weaving.”
“So you decided to…make contact first?”Another five degrees toward him.If she went another degree, likely she’d fall.
And he’d have to catch her.
He flexed his hands into fists, as if bristling his quill-scales would discharge the embarrassment.“As I said, wrongly.I should never have violated your autonomy.”
“You kissed me without asking because you thought the resonark was possessing me?Then I forgive you.”
“Not the word I would have used, but yes.”
“You wouldn’t call that a kiss?”Her lips pursed, just a little and slightly off center.“What do Szauralithyn call it?”
He hissed out a breath.“It was a kiss.But not possession.”
“Words.”She waved her hand dismissively.“I’m talking about feelings.You felt I was in danger.”
Even with the safer distance between them, he caught her scent.After she’d left the engine module, a hint of musky sweetness had lingered in the humming air.At the smell, Lub had coughed up a ball of monofilament, and Suvan had increased the atmo exchange speed.
But it had persisted still in the quill-scales on the back of his wrist even though he’d cleansed.Several times.
He took yet another step back, reluctantly exposing her to the resonark’s light again.He’d been appallingly wrong about its effects on her.
And it seemed he was more danger to her than the anomaly.
Because mostly what he’dfeltwas a shocking hunger for more of her.
