Page 70 of Collision!
“A little extra for your trouble,” Nehivar said.
“A delight doing business with you, Captain Ellix Nehivar, of the Love Boat I.”
“The pleasure has been all mine.”Nehivar waited until the Ajellomenes repo man/invertebrate had signed off before rounding on Evens once more.“Get off my bridge.”
Wisely, Evens did as ordered.
Delphine glanced over her shoulder, one webbed hand hovering over the helm in anticipation.“Where to, Captain?”
“There’s one sunset we missed on our three-sunset tour.”Nehivar settled back in his chair.He held out a clawed paw to Felicity, who stalked over to him with narrowed eyes, and Mariah imagined there would be discussion later.“Max speed is fine.”
“Aye, Captain,” Suvan said, shunting power to the helm.“How convenient you saved all those long-haul freighter run credits.But what are you going to do with an alien speed-dating cruiser?”
Nehivar glanced back at his chief engineer, whiskers rippling.“Since intergalactic dating has been a win for me, maybe we’ll just keep going.”He held Felicity’s hand to his lips, and his gold eye glinted up at her.“In space, sunsets can be forever.”
+ + +
Mariah held Suvan’s hand as they walked down the night-lit corridor to her stateroom, Lub prancing ahead with lure aglow.
Suvan had the smiling moon tote over his shoulder, the goblhob’s blanket and bone sticking out the top.Both his datpads were tucked deep inside as he’d declared the engines nominal and himself off-shift.
A keen anticipation shivered through her, and he must’ve felt the tremor in her hand, because he glanced down, his pale quartz eyes glimmering.
“Are you remembering too?”His gravelly voice was especially rough, and her knees went shaky.
“Not looking back,” she said.“Max speed ahead.”
And after what seemed like only a few steps more, she was falling backward onto the bed, laughing, her lips hot and swollen from his kisses.
“Let me settle Lub out of the way,” he said with another kiss.
She rolled to the other side of the bed to grab the controls for adjusting the lighting.Not too bright, with all the rainbows plus-plus.
He returned with a shimmering ball in hand.
She sat up.“You saved the lumi-lace.I was sure Lub had chewed through it.”
“Only a few fang marks.I wanted to knit something for you, but…I almost put a knitting needle through my finger.It’s harder than it looks.”
She gazed at him seriously.“Your finger or knitting?”When he grumbled under his breath, she smiled.“I could show you, if you want.”
“I want.”He knelt beside her.“I want you to show me everything.”
With gentle, inexorable hands, he stripped her naked.But when he reached for the ribbon on her braid, she stopped him.
“Your turn.”
The quill-scales on his shoulders bristled with uncertainty as she slowly unsealed his uniform down his chest.She trailed her fingers over the bone mender scar on his pec, then down toward his belly.The scales here were flat and smooth, like warm satin that rippled at her touch.
“Farther?”she whispered.
With a rasping breath, he affirmed, “All the way.”
The Intergalactic Dating Agency had promised her a match, and here he was: scaled armor wrapping a brilliant mind and a vulnerable heart.When she eased his uniform past his hips, he was magnificently compatible—and all hers.
She took care with him as she did with her most precious yarns, conscious of the tensile strength and the delicacy.He endured her first contact ET exploration with barely leashed control, quill-scales flexing, scoring shallow marks in the bedding.
His quartz-bright eyes shattered when she found where the tiny jeweled scales were most sensitive—and when the lone, long lance of his erection jutted between her hands into her mouth, she found out exactly what it took to make him snap.
