Biting like he hadn’t.
Her whole body shivered with need. The need for his paws to keep roaming… No, the need to flee at lightspeed with her face on fire. But she was standing on the grotto stone bench with his big body blocking escape.
She took a small, steadying breath, which just emphasized the lingering taste of him, more potent than any of the synthequer cocktails. Her fingers still tingled with the lush texture of his fur. God, if she rubbed herself against all of him, naked…
“What’s happening…” She gulped another breath, desperate to clear her head. “We were excited to get underway. And the vibe is very…fun. As it’s supposed to be! And we just… It was nothing. Just a moment.”
The way he stared down at her, that golden eye narrowed and judgmental—as if he hadn’t been kissing her right back—straightened her spine. And sharpened her elbows, which nudged him away as she jumped off the bench.
But he kept ahold of her waist, and just as well, since her knees wobbled.
“It was just a bit of a scary moment,” she continued firmly.
“Kissing?”
She glared at him. “The power outage.”
“The power didn’t go out. It was a harmonic distortion.”
Flapping one hand in dismissal, she fumbled for her abandoned datpad with the other. When had she put it down? Bracing it in front of her was the shield she needed, and she rolled back her shoulders decisively. “Whatever it was, it happened. But nothinghappened-happened.”
“Happened-happened.” His eye narrowed to a mere golden slit. “The fluctuation?”
“The kissing!” She almost hissed the word. “It’s fine. We only have one more sunset, and then when we’re back in port you can do whatever to chase down the issue before the next tour.”
“That is a lot of whatever.”
She wanted to wrap her hands around his neck again—to strangle him. “Excuse me for not knowing all the terminology for spaceship fluctuations.”
“You had a lot to say about kissing.”
“You said yes,” she blurted.
That made his lip curl. Was he snarling silently? Mirroring an Earther smile? She wasn’t sure.
“There will be no second tour for me,” he said. “Evens contracted me only for this first trip.”
A chill twisted through her body in place of the silly heat lingering from his touch. “Just one?” She almost kicked herself for the plaintive note in the question. So she gathered herself up. “Oh. Then just one kiss isn’t a problem.”
He looked at her. “Would it have been a problem if there were more?”
Why was she letting this conversation continue when it could only become more humiliating?
“You shouldn’t stay aboard either.” His fingers clenched and unclenched. “There is something strange happening here. It seems the fluctuations aren’t confined to the electrical system.”
She scoffed out a breath. “What? Just because you kissed me?”
“Which you know was untoward. And not something either of us should indulge.”
She did know that. And yet… “It’s just a romantic old ship, and we were a little caught up in the ambiance and got carried away.”
“By definition in any language, a captain is supposed to be in charge, not getting carried away.”
“You might be captain, but you’re on the same ship as the rest of us.” She was probably insulting his rank and honor. “It’s fine. No one else needs to know. We don’t have to freak out about it.”
She couldn’t believe she was being so blasé. She wasn’t the sort to risk a workplace relationship—never mind the password-protected page in her datpad—not with all the ways something like that could go wrong. The way it was going wrong right now. Maybe he was right and there was something happening with the ship, but it would soon be over. And then, apparently, he’d be gone.
So why was she tempted to lick her lips like she couldn’t wait to taste him again?
