Page 14 of Collision!
“I shall report my misconduct to the captain and accept any disciplinary action—”
Finally, she straightened.“What?Why?”
Was she torturing him for his transgression?“For kissing you without asking.”
“You kissedme, not the captain.It’s me who deserves your apology and any amends.And I said I forgive you.Because you wanted to save me from the resonark.”
She gave him one of those Earther smiles, which made him wary because he knew there were many ways to interpret the flash of teeth.
Then she added, “And thank you for that,” while she pressed the insides of her wrists together, hands fisted, and bowed her head for a moment: a Szauralithyn gesture of appreciation.
He stared at her.No surprise she’d studied various ways of expressing gratitude; he’d already noticed she seemed to perceive the universe itself as a gift.
But he should explain to her that the captain needed to be aware of all potential concerns on his ship.He should object to any implication of heroics.He should warn her not to thank him, much less forgive him.
Because he couldn’t promise he wouldn’t kiss her again.
But he returned the gesture.“I…thank you for your understanding.”
She inclined her head.“I can’t blame you for not trusting the resonark.It hijacked the ship, and then you had to sacrifice your engines to catch it.And now it’s just”—she flicked one finger upward—“hanging out in the lounge here like a slacker, making us guess and fuss.No wonder you overreacted.”
That…had not been why he kissed her, not quite.
But he couldn’t find the words to confess that if she was going to be possessed…
It would only be by him.
Chapter 5
The grim gargoyle engineer had kissed her.
Mariah was prone to believing a lot of fantastical notions and outright improbabilities.As they hurt no one, why not?Maybe the chunks of quartz she found on the northern California beaches back home had no mystical powers, but they were semi-smooth and sparkly which was delightful enough.And sure, unicorns might not exist, but it was tricky to prove a negative—and impossible to do so across the infinity of spacetime.
Plus, shewantedto believe in unicorns.
But she couldn’t believe Suvan had kissed her to save her.
Unfortunately, there was no time to consult her tarot to bring order to her thoughts.
Suvan corralled her back to the booth, though she noted he very carefully didn’t touch her again.“Gather your things,” he said, sounding subdued.“Even if the resonark is not a threat, it’s late, and I cannot leave you here alone.”
She wanted to protest that it wasn’t so late, and she wasn’t alone because he was there too.But since he probably had to work, she should give him a break.
Plus he was right that she shouldn’t be alone here.Not because she feared the resonark, but because she’d hoped winning a ticket to this Cosmic Connections Cruise would be the—what had Suvan called it?—the state change she’d been seeking.
“It’ll just take me a second,” she told him.
As she started to sweep her stash into her moon-face tote, Suvan winced.“They will tangle.”
He’d worried about that before, and she’d joked about scissors.She felt bad now, hearing the suppressed note of agitation in his gravelly voice.
“I suppose as chief engineer, you need to be conscientious about maintaining order, to keep the ship running.”She angled her hips into the booth and settled herself for a more organized retrieval.“Can’t have a ship running amok right into the heart of a null cloud.Unless there’s an energy ghost haunting it, of course.”
With an aggrieved glance at the resonark and one slightly more resigned toward her, Suvan settled again opposite her.He reached for the hanks nearest him, putting them in sequence of color, although not quite as she would’ve expected, choosing by saturation instead of hue.“And yet I behaved without sense.Iamsorry.”
She paused to catch his eye.“Chief, if you think I’m in trouble, please do whatever you think is best to save me.Although yeah, ask first if there’s time.And I’ll do the same for you.Deal?”
For the longest moment, she thought he would scoff at the possibility of her needing to save him.But then he nodded, a slightly jerky imitation of the Earther movement—or maybe he didn’t often agree with others.“Deal.”
