Chapter 9 #2
“I’m not. I am not good with any jokes. Unlike most Szauralithyn.
” He sighed. “We even have a religious holiday devoted to puns, although that is not as popular on the tourism routes. The sociability was probably an adaptation to the long months stuck underground. But as you might imagine, I was often…on the outside.”
When she gasped in outrage, he clarified, “Not literally. They were not so cruel as to banish me to the sandstorms. Just to the outside of their merriment.”
The vulnerability in those words, the confession of unvoiced pain beneath them, made her eyes sting. This fierce, guarded engineer who lived alone with his engines and his goblhob, who bristled with literal and figurative defenses…
He was choosing to be soft, in his own way, with her.
Forgetting to be careful of his quill-scales, she put her hand over his, still holding the end of her braid like a lifeline. She pressed his clenched knuckles to her heart, ignoring the warning prick.
“I’m sorry, Suvan,” she said. “That must’ve been hard for you.
And I’m sorry for them that they didn’t appreciate how droll you are, or see how you’re clever and caring.
How devoted you are to this ship, keeping every soul aboard it alive, as if you are holding it in your hands like the most fragile, intricate lace. ”
She leaned toward him, not quite close enough for another kiss, but so she could stare into those shattering quartz eyes. “I’ve seen it. And I think it’s wonderful.”
“Even when it was too dark for Earther eyes, you saw me.”
The moment hung between them, and she felt the possibilities spiraling out around them, as incomprehensible as the resonark’s quantum edges. And she didn’t care about any of that. She wanted this, here, now, with him.
“And what if I touched you?” she whispered. “What if I tasted you?”
“You already have.” Though his gravelly voice shook like a mountain about to break, his hand on her breastbone didn’t move.
“What if I wanted more?”
“I would give it to you.”
She wondered if he could feel her heart pounding against his knuckles. “But would you want it too?”
“Like the air we both breathe.”
And finally his big hand unfurled against her, fingers spanning the valley between her breasts.
When his mouth descended on hers this time, she met him with lips already parted, ready to feast at this alien party of two.
He tugged at her hair again, releasing the tie holding the braid. The ribbon glided down to tangle in the quill-scales on the outer edge of his biceps.
This could get tricky…
With brutal restraint, barely leashed, he raked his hands up into her hair. “I have wanted to do this,” he growled as the strands sprang loose around her face, twining through his thorny fingers.
She tilted her head back, half closing her eyes at the yearning in the rough caress and his rasping voice. “I thought you craved order.”
“Apparently not with you.”
That he’d lose control for her…
With a needy sound, she reached for him, her fingertips a breath from his chest.
“Stop.”
She froze. “Suvan?”
“I don’t want to impale you by mistake.”
By mistake. She shuddered.
With the memory of piercing pleasure.
“I trust you,” she objected, and she didn’t even care that she sounded pleading.
“That’s good.” Fists still in her hair, he eased her down to half reclining on the couch cushions. “Now put your hands behind your head. No wandering, so I don’t have to wonder where you are.”
So much for losing control. Heart skittering, she did exactly as ordered, replacing his hands with her own. The effect was…strange. As if she could feel what he’d felt.
As he sat back, her loosened locks, still snagged on his knuckles, trailed forward, following him, not letting go until she arched away to free him from the twists.
He gazed down at her, his pale gaze unblinking.
“No spines on my lips, as you said. What if…” He leaned down to kiss the wild throb of the pulse in her throat.
“…I keep it soft…” A breath tickled her ear.
“…just like you?” His teeth—maybe the pointed fang she’d noticed earlier—nipped her lobe. “Or mostly soft.”
She sucked in a breath as the tiny ache zinged through her. “Yes, Suvan. That. All of that.”
“Your nightgown may not survive,” he warned. “It’s too delicate.”
She might not, she thought fervently. “I’m not,” was all she could gasp.
He held up one hand in front of her, rotating his fist and flexing so that the quill-scales bristled along his biceps, up to his shoulder, bared by his sleeveless uniform. “Szauralithyn are protected against each other’s touch.”
Oh no. Was this about to segue like an IDA handbook assignment? Except Szauralithyn-specific.
Or maybe more like Szauralithyn engineer-specific.
With an inward smile, she nestled down for the show. “Then how do these epic festivities of yours end? Just goodnight kisses?”
He gave her a stern look. “Protected, but not impervious. The venom in some of our quill-scales that deterred our predators is also an aphrodisiac to us. Evolutionary reparation for any unpredictable pricks.”
Her amusement flash-burned in a wave of craving. An alien aphrodisiac… “But as an Earther, I felt it too.”
“The IDA selects for compatible species. It seems my chemistry aligns with yours.”
“Fascinating.” She gazed up at him. Instead of flexing, she let her thighs fall open enough to feel the cooler air waft over her. “Shall we see if our mechanics align as well?”