Page 5 of Collision!
For an instant, they stared at each other.
With a shriek, Lub launched itself out of the shadows.
Suvan blocked the goblhob before it could impact with the Earther female, taking the blow of claws and fangs and stubby little horns.
He turned to find her rising like a short, round warrior with the spanner hefted high—
“No!”He half-spun away, tucking Lub under his elbow, although the squirming of the squat, muscular body was harder to contain than a quantum anomaly.“Don’t mind her.She’s not a significant threat.”
“Really?Just insignificant?”The Earther peered at Lub.“She looks like a menace.What is she?”
“It’s not a she.And I wasn’t talking to you.”
After a moment, she laughed, setting the spanner aside.Slowly, she spread her hands.“Okay then.Shall we try the introductions again?I’m Mariah.Who is this lovely creature?”Even more slowly, she turned one hand upward in offering.“I see you have a bioluminescent lure.So pretty with that sunny little light.Does that mean you have stronger senses than sight?”Her own wide brown eyes were bright with curiosity.“We probably startled you with all that noise.Or maybe I smell weird?”
The lilting cadence of her voice was like the weaving of her braid—the croon a soft ensnaring.
And her hand… Her grasp had been surprisingly strong, but her fingertips even softer against his unprotected inner wrist.
If he checked, would her scent be imprinted on his skin?
Suvan tightened his grip on Lub, like a shield.“Goblhobs see well enough in low-light situations.And they don’t like to be touched.”
The Earther female—Mariah; saying her name would be all lips and breath and a middle growl—let her hand fall.As did the liveliness of her expression.The IDA handbook on Earthers, which the crew had read as part of their onboarding, discussed various species-specific facial expressions and bodily gestures.Some were quite restrained and indirect.
Nothing about Mariah was subtle.
And he had hurt her.From the way her hand tightened, he suspected she’d been poked by the quill-scales on the back of his wrist.Considering he’d beenslightlystartled by her appearance when she grabbed him, that was…not good.
He set Lub on the tool cart.“Stay,” he ordered.
He spun back to Mariah.“Come with me.”His voice was harsher than with Lub, but he could not modulate it.Not with her scent wreathing him.
Finally, too late, she took a step back.“I shouldn’t have… I was wrong, so I’ll go.”
Wrong about what?She’d said she needed his help, but how did she even know who he was?He was at the opposite end of the ship from passenger relations.
He grabbed her wrist—with meticulous placement, so as not to snag his quill-scales in the loosely woven construction of her multi-hued pullover tunic—and started hauling her deeper into the engine room.
“What are you…?”She tried to set her feet against the deck, but the soles of her soft socks wouldn’t hold, and for all the heft of her sine wave curves, she couldn’t break free from his greater strength.
“You may have been pierced.”
“But I didn’t even touch your pet.”
“Not by Lub.I am Szauralithyn.And you touched me.”
“I’m sorry,” she said, as if that mattered.“I didn’t mean… I don’t remember seeing Szauralithyn in the handbooks.”The exotic word rolled off her tongue perfectly.
He would not be impressed.“Because my people would never sign up with an alien dating agency.”
“So you drag women off to your cave instead?”
Despite the urgency, he halted, sputtering.“I am not…”
But he rather was.
With the same care he’d maneuver an unstable core reactor cube—not to say gentle but with calculated restraint—he pivoted her clenched hand upright.When he nudged aside the wide cuff of her sleeve, the little decorative knots around the rim bounced across his fingertips.
