Chapter 25
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Little Spoon
Garrison
SHOHARI SLIPPED in the dark corridor, and we stumbled, crashing to the floor.
“I’ve got mystery sauce on me,” she giggled, the light of my wrist-comm revealing someone’s discarded food smeared across the floor and her clothes.
We made it back to the ship without further incident, and I stayed with her right to her berth, where she opened the door and attempted to lean sexily on the door frame. I should not have been finding this as endearing as I was.
“Let’s fuck again, Garrison.”
“Sweetheart, much as I love that idea, we’re drunk. It’s a bad idea.”
She pouted, crossing her arms. “Mitsha, sex is a good idea.”
“Yes. But not when we’re drunk. What does that word mean, anyway?”
“Mitsha? It doesn’t translate?”
“No.”
Her cheeks bloomed a dark magenta. “Skyk. It is a kri’ith term of endearment.
” As my heart warmed and my smile spread, she muttered in a rush, “But by direct translation, it is a sweet syrup made by insect larva that is a delicacy.” Her scowl was adorable, and her voice went gruff.
“It really loses something when you have to explain it.”
I grinned, my chest filling with warmth. “Honey. You just called me honey. It translates just fine.” I dropped a quick kiss on her lips. “Anyway, we both fell in that puddle of I don’t know what. We should probably wash.”
Her upper nostrils wrinkled. “True. Let’s shower.”
“Come on, in you go.”
“We could shower together, mitsha.”
“I’m not sure that’s a good idea either.”
If someone had told me kri’ith could transform from stark scariness to innocent puppy, I’d have laughed, but somehow Shohari managed it, from the curve of her smile, to the tilt of her head and her wide-eyed gaze.
“But I might fall down in the shower. Because I’m drunk.
Remember?” Her bright amethyst crystals blinked out, as if she batted her non-existent eyelashes.
Give me strength.
I dragged a hand down my face. “You, Shohari, are a bit of a brat when you’re drunk. Fine, but we’re just showering.”
I wriggled out of my clothes until I was in my underwear.
Shohari had already stripped naked—nearly. She jumped around, trying to pull the last bit of her leggings over her foot, almost falling in the process.
I caught her. Her skin was hot under my hands, and I groaned. Such a bad idea.
“Are you sure you don’t want to fuck again, Garrison?” She stroked my stiffening dick through the thin fabric. “This tells me you do.”
Oh, I did. All I wanted was to hold her close, bury my aching length in her tight cunt, and stay locked together all night. “Not when we’re drunk, sweetheart, remember?”
“But we only have two more nights.”
I swallowed. “Then maybe we shouldn’t have drunk so much on one of them.”
She stepped back, shielding her body with her arms, tugging on her headspines. “Skyk.”
“No regrets. I’ve really enjoyed tonight.” Almost like we were a regular couple out on a date. “Anyway, would you have told me about your family otherwise?”
“Probably not.”
“I’m glad you told me. I mean it, you know. I want to help if I can.”
“You can’t.” Her eyes shuttered. “In the shower. Now.”
It was a strange blessing that we didn’t both fit into the small cubicle.
Instead of the sonic shower I was expecting, the captain’s quarters had real running water.
We could have stood still, not touching, as ultrasonic waves cleaned our bodies, but under the water?
All that moving, touching, cleaning? The tension would have been too much; the slightest thing would have broken the dam.
I set her on the bed before I took a turn myself, making it quick. Showers made it too easy to think. Whatever we had between us was so potent yet fragile. I knew, logically, we only had two days, but I couldn’t believe it was all we’d get. It had to be more than this.
“Pleeeaaase can we have sex?” Shohari stood naked in the centre of the room, and my dick immediately tented the small towel wrapped round my hips.
It was killing me to keep saying no, but I didn’t want her to stop asking. I loved hearing how much she wanted me. “No.”
“Remind me why we can’t?”
I took a long, deep breath. “Because we’re drunk and horny, likely to get stuck again, and I don’t want you to accidentally pull my balls off.”
“I would never.” She crossed the distance and draped herself around me. “They feel so good in my curl.”
The memory flooded back in, my dick buried deep, her body consuming all of me. How was I supposed to resist her when she was right here?
I twisted away, aching. “You can feel that?”
“Of course. And I can squeeze them nice and tight. I was gentle with you earlier.”
Damn.
“Okay, so we’re definitely not taking the risk. My balls are precious.” I moved away to put my boxers on and jerked my head at the clothes on her unmade bed, assuming they were nightwear.
“They are. Skyk.” Her chest rumbled in the beginnings of a growl. “I hate it when you’re the sensible one.”
She put her sleepwear on, a bright pink tank top that stretched obscenely over her breasts and a matching pair of shorts as small as the wrestling ones I’d borrowed.
“Hush. You love it when I look after you.” I enfolded her in my arms, and the comforting weight of her head rested on my shoulder.
“Garrison. If I can’t skyk you, can I snuggle you?”
Holy shit, low inhibitions Shohari is a snuggler. “Did you just say what I think you said?”
“Yes. Don’t you dare tell Paiata. He’ll never let me live it down.” She glared at me, and I just wanted to kiss her.
“Stop being adorable, Sho. It’s very bad for my heart.”
“I am not adorable. I am fearsome. And grumpy.”
“Okay. But this proves we definitely can’t fuck right now. Daytime Sho would be horrified at talk of snuggling.”
Her voice softened into something quiet and raw. “No she wouldn’t. She likes it. She just can’t say it.”
Please stop making me love you already. The thought rose up, unbidden, and I shoved it away.
“Please, Garrison. I mean it. Stay with me tonight. If we only have a short amount of time, I want to spend as much of it as I can with you.”
She kissed me, and it was lazy, like we had all the time in the world. None of the teeth clashing desperation of this afternoon, just soft lips and tongues and heat—that is, until she got too handsy, and I separated us with a groan.
“Fine,” I said. “We can snuggle.”
Even across light years, it meant the same. Shohari pushed me onto the bed so hard I bounced, rolled me over, then cosied up to me, her breasts settling at my back, her legs interleaved with mine. One hand played idly with my chest hair, and I rocked my hips gently, barely realising I was doing it.
“This is another way we can fuck,” I said, looking at the wall, but every nerve focused on the searing press of her body behind me. I was supposed to be the sensible one, but how could I help it?
“Silly human. This can’t work. Your cock’s pointing away from me.”
My laugh echoed too loud in the small room, and her hand crept over my hip. “Not exactly like this. I would be behind you.” I gripped her wrist. “Roll over.”
She did. Hmm, drunk Sho is obedient Sho.
I fitted my body to hers, mindful of the spines on her shoulders. She muttered something about having to be the sensible one, so I shut her up by grinding against her beautifully curved arse.
My cock was like a steel bar between her cheeks. “I’ll slide my dick in between your legs here.” My breath caressed her neck, and I slipped my fingers between the tops of her thighs. “Get you nice and wet so I can use these beautiful legs. And then, when you’re begging for it, I’ll fuck you.”
She groaned, arching into me. “I want that.”
When she started rolling her hips with too much enthusiasm, I remembered why this was a bad idea. “Me too, but we have to stop.”
“Skyk.” She went still, but clenched my arms tight around her, as if by stopping I’d also be letting her go.
I barely heard her next words, coming out as not a whisper, scarcely even a breath. “Stay with me, Garrison. Don’t leave.”
I couldn’t breathe. I needed her to mean them.
I needed more time, needed more of her. If I stayed, I could help her defeat her awful parents and save her brother.
Not that I was any kind of hero—and even if I was, Shohari wasn’t a maiden who needed saving.
No, she was kick-ass, and I wanted to be there when she realised it and support her through it.
“I want to,” I murmured. “I will, but you have to ask me in the morning, Shohari. I need to hear it from daytime Sho, too.”
She answered with a sigh, bringing my hand to her lips, kissing each fingertip in turn. “I want you so much.”
I swallowed and kept my voice light. “Tough.”
I couldn’t admit the same, or I’d break. I was a hairsbreadth away from pinning her beneath me and showing her just how hard I could fuck her.
My uneven, heavy breathing was my only tell as I forced more levity into my tone. “Roll back over. I want to be the little spoon.”
“The what?” she said, incredulous, muttering again about language.
I rolled back towards the wall. “You heard me.”
Shohari’s muscular arms settled around me, her wide, wet lips pressing a kiss where my neck and shoulder met.
My eyes drifted closed, and I rested one hand over hers. This had to be enough.