Bela
When the door shuts behind Treto, what little light there was is completely snuffed out, and I can’t see a damn thing. I’m frozen in place, off-balance in the sudden darkness and half expecting something to come at me in my disadvantaged state.
“Treto?” I whisper, bringing my arms out in front of me. My breathing sounds like thunder in the silence surrounding us.
A puff of warm air caresses the side of my face. “I’ve got you,Sorsa,”he whispers in my ear, sending shivers skittering down my neck.
Treto’s hand is warm in mine, and my breath catches when his fingers slide between mine before locking our palms together. Something about the simple slide of his skin against mine sends heat rushing to my core and the butterflies in my stomach aflutter.
“Skylar?” My voice cracks on a loud whisper.
“Here,” she replies immediately from behind me. “He’s got me.”
Oh, thank god.
“This way. Hurry,” Treto says, and then I’m being pulled along through the dark with no other option other than to trust he can see his way in the dark better than I can while I try to keep up with his long strides.
We don’t go far before Treto turns a corner, and suddenly there is light ahead. Able to see again, Skylar and I both pick up our pace, and Treto is no longer pulling us along, although his hand never lets go of mine.
At the end of the hall is a doorway. It’s nothing fancy; in fact, it reminds me of an ordinary Earth door. With my hand still gripped in his, Treto leans his face against the flat surface and listens. When he’s satisfied with whatever he hears—or doesn’t hear—he slowly eases it open and peeks out.
The hallway on the other side is empty, and at the very end is a lift. It’s huge, at least twice the size of the biggest elevator I’ve seen before, and made of metal. After a short sprint down the empty hallway, Treto hits a button beside the shiny metal doors, and something inside begins to whirr. We collectively hold our breaths when the doors slide open.
It’s empty.
Yet another crisis averted.
“Stay close to me,” Treto says as the doors close us inside. “Act like… like we are…”
“Like we are besotted over you?” I offer, catching on to what he’s saying. “Like you’ve paid for us, so we belong to you?”
“Yes, like that,” he says, his voice low and his eyes locked on mine.
Skylar looks about as uncomfortable as a person can look, but she nods.
Our luck holds, and we make it to the ground floor without having to stop for anyone. Then we go through a maze of winding corridors until the final door opens up into the main level of the bustling station.
“Are you ready?” Treto asks, looking down at me and then over at Skylar.
“Ready.” I tuck myself against his side and slide one arm around his back and the other up his chest. On his other side, Skylar wraps herself around his other arm and nods.
Taking a collective breath, we step out into the open.
* * *
The lights are bright after traveling through the literal bowels of the station, but I try my best not to squint as I look up at Treto with, what I hope, are doe eyes. The hand on his chest teases at his collar, and I watch his throat bob when he swallows, and the arm that’s draped over my shoulder pulls me closer to him.
Before long, I’m blocking out the station’s noises. It’s not hard to focus all my attention on the tall male I’m pressed up against. I can feel every ripple of lean muscle beneath my hands. His lips are curled up into a smirk, and I catch my fingers stretching, reaching, caressing his sharp jaw, smooth cheek and then flicking a finger against his full bottom lip.
So quick it startles me, he captures my fingertip lightly between his teeth, and I gasp as heat bursts between my legs. His reptilian eyes drop to mine, and I feel the warm flick of his tongue against the pad of my captured digit.
My mouth goes dry, and a separate throbbing pulse starts up deep in my core.
“Lucky bastard,” a deep voice grunts. “How did you get yourself a pair of hybrids?”
Treto closes his lips around my finger when I pull it back, and my moan isn’t entirely an act as I draw it from his wet mouth. Dragging his eyes from mine, he focuses on the male.
“Sex droids,” he says with a wink. “Expensiveones.”
