Page 14 of Sway's Peace


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Though he didn’t feel it, Sway fixed a smile on his face. If nothing else, Sway was good at faking his reactions to others. Years of practice with the Master meant it came out looking natural and harmless despite the ugliness churning in his gut.

“I’m sorry. I was just surprised,” he said kindly, not a trace of the dark need humming through his voice. “You’re human!”

She giggled, frown banished that easily, as she pushed her hair back over her shoulder. The sound shot straight to his cock, setting it aching and throbbing and threatening to make it emerge from his body.

Beautiful. Musical. He needed to hear it again.

“I get that a lot,” she said, unaware of what the sound of her voice was doing to him. Of the ferocious desire twisting up with a deeply burning envy. “Not many people have reason to see a human. But, to be fair, I’ve also never seen a farasie in the flesh.”

“No?”

“Uh-uh,” she shook her head, sending her hair swinging. It was hypnotising to watch the black tresses dance with each movement of her head. Was she aware of that? “Your kind doesn’t leave their planet often, and when they do, it’s part of abigger group. It’s a safety measure, I guess. Since your people are said to be really pacifistic.”

Was that true? Not the pacifist part, Sway knew that to be true very well. But did his people really try not to interact with the universe?

In a way, it made sense. His people being pacifists opened them up to danger in a way that he was only too familiar with. Banding together for safety seemed like the right move when traveling through a universe that could be cruel and dangerous.

“I guess I’m the same then,” he admitted. “Since I’m part of a bigger crew.”

“Actually, you’re still unusual,” she giggled, taking any insult out of the words. “Typically, a farasie will let someone else in the crew talk to me if there’s another species there. Your people are very protective and insular in regards to themselves. That’s probably why I haven’t met any yet.”

“Happy to be strange,” he said playfully, finding that it was true. He had no reservations about not being like the rest of his people. Though he should. He should be trying harder to uphold the pacifist ideals the farasie represented.

Which meant those dark thoughts he had for her mate were even worse for him to possess.

She laughed again. That sweet sound popped like bubbles in his veins, bright and clear and intoxicating. He didn't care if she was mocking him, he wanted to hear more. He held out his arms for her inspection. “So? How do I measure up as your first farasie encounter?”

She chuckled as she actually looked him over. Sway couldn’t stop his crest from trying to rise, nor his tail feathers from tryingto spread. He kept them controlled, but the need to display for this wonderous little female was beating at him with a frantic urgency.

Grace, sweet little Grace. She clutched her tablet as her cheeks tinted pink. He’d seen that happen to Garnet when she looked at the captain.

Was she… attracted to him?

No. That was foolish. That was…

Her head dipped as she tucked her hair back behind her ear. A pleased little smile dancing on her pink lips. She gave him such a sweet smile.

“Youarevery handsome.” Her voice trembled ever so slightly, and he could hear the layered tone of playful professionalism. Like she was trying to make sure she didn't cross over into being inappropriate by saying so, and maybe she was just indulging his own playful question.

But he meant it when he asked. He wanted to know how he appeared to her.

And he desperately wanted her to mean it when she praised him.

“A-Are those your, er, feathers? They really cover your whole body.” She asked nervously, like she was balancing her curiosity with politeness. But as she spoke, she took a single step closer, looking at his exposed arm curiously. “They look so soft.”

He took a step as well, offering the arm in question. “Most of my body. And they are soft. Feel for yourself.”

Sway was just being foolish now. She could claim he was harassing her. She would laugh away the offer and put up a veryobvious boundary that he shouldn’t cross. She was being kind and professional, and he was taking it to mean something it wasn’t.

Except, no. She took that final step, closing the gap between them, her hand up. He went still as she stroked her long, elegant fingers down his forearm. It was a slow caress. Not at all inappropriate or even intimate. It was experimental, like she really might just be taking him up on the offer to indulge her curiosity in a new species.

Out here in the black, running across a new species was pretty common. The Coalition was made up of over two hundred member species. Naturally, you were going to meet people that were very different from you. Questions about your species were not only common, they were considered polite, practically inane conversation.

Someone asking Sway about his feathers was normal.

Someone stroking them, however, was not.

But the tingles that went up his arm, sparking in his brain, searing the ghost of her touch into the underlying flesh, drove all concepts of propriety and sense from his mind.