Page 34 of Starlight, Starbright
“These,” I trace one with my finger, “do they feel different? When they're lit?”
“More sensitive.” His breath catches as I follow the pattern. “Everything feels more intense when I stop controlling them.”
“Then stop controlling them.” I kiss the marking on his collarbone. “I want to see you. All of you. Not the controlled version.”
Something breaks in his expression. He pulls me down onto the sleeping platform, his weight a welcome pressure. His hands map my body through fabric, then beneath it, and every touch leaves trails of fire.
My shirt joins his on the floor. Then more barriers disappear until there is nothing between us except skin and heat and the light that turned everything surreal.
“Paige.” My name like a prayer. “I need...”
“Yes.” I pull him closer. “Whatever it is, yes.”
He enters me slowly, giving me time to adjust to the heat, the size, the overwhelming sensation of him. I gasp at the intensity of it. At the feeling of being filled and held and wanted.
We move together and it is desperate, overwhelming, life-affirming. All the fear and adrenaline and weeks of tension channeling into this. Into connection. Into choosing each other despite every reason not to.
“I love you.” The words tear out of me as pleasure built to impossible heights. “Zoric, I love you.”
His rhythm falters. His hands tighten on my hips. Then he says something in his own language, harsh and beautiful, before switching to mine. “And I you. Thanei. My balance. My Paige.”
I shatter. Come apart in his arms while the glow from distant corridor lights visible through the viewport, creating patterns of red and green and gold across both our bodies. He follows seconds later, my name on his lips, his whole body going rigid before collapsing against me.
We lie tangled together, hearts racing, breathing ragged. I trace patterns on his chest, following the lines of light, feeling the heat pulse beneath my fingers.
“That is,” he starts, then stops. “I don't have words.”
“Yeah.” I kiss his shoulder. “Me neither.”
We stay like that until our breathing normalizes. Until the immediate desperate need eases into something gentler. He rolls to his side, pulling me with him so we face each other in the dim light.
“Again?” he asks softly. “Slower this time?”
“Please.”
The second time is different. Slower. He takes his time learning my body, finding the places that make me gasp, the touches that make me arch into him. I explore him the same way, discovering that his markings are more sensitive at the temples and throat, that the small of his back makes him shudder, that he likes it when I say his name.
We make love with the glow from distant corridor lights visible through the viewport, creating patterns of red and greenand gold across our joined bodies. No desperation now. Just tenderness. Discovery. Celebrating survival and each other and the impossible fact that we'd found this despite every obstacle.
When we finish the second time, I lie with my head on his chest, listening to his heart beat its faster-than-human rhythm.
“Thanei,” I say, testing the word. “What does it mean exactly?”
“Perfect balance.” His fingers trace patterns on my back. “The moment when all forces equalize. When opposing elements create something stronger than either alone.” He pauses. “My people have a festival celebrating it. The winter solstice, when light and dark reach perfect equilibrium before the light returns.”
“Like Christmas,” I realize. “Light returning in the darkness.”
“Yes.” He pulls me closer. “Like Christmas. Like us.”
I smile against his chest. “The Christmas stars. That's what my grandmother would call this. Finding light when you need it most.”
“Then that's what we are.” He presses a kiss to my hair. “Your Christmas star and my perfect balance.”
Inside, we lie wrapped in each other, safe and alive and impossibly, wonderfully together.
Tomorrow will bring questions. Crew reactions. Mission reports. The reality of being a human chief engineer in love with her Zephyrian captain.
But tonight is ours. Christmas Eve. The darkest night before the light returns.
