In the bed, on the floor, bent over the table, standing under hot water streaming from the shower… We didn’t leave each other alone for hours. After racking up seven orgasm badges fromSquee—shattering my previous record of four in one night—I fought to keep my eyes open while I watched Joshua sleep.
Whisper soft, I traced my fingers over his eyebrows, down the crooked line of his nose, across his full lips, charting the course of his face, memorizing each curve and contour, not wanting to forget. Because I’d probably never see him again, and I knew more than anyone how easy it was to forget. But even though I tried, even though I fought it, eventually I lost, and sleep claimed me.
Standingat my door an hour later, his dress shirt buttoned but his tie loose, he furrowed his brow. “I don’t know what to say to you.”
“Thank you should suffice,” I said with an airiness I didn’t feel.
Giving me a small laugh, he said, “Fair enough.” Then he grasped my hand, bringing my knuckles to his lips. “Thank you. I will never forget this night, Phoeb—” He stalled out, meeting my gaze. “Tell me your real name.”
I smiled at him, then shook my head. “No.”
He clicked his tongue. “Worth a shot. Mine is?—”
Flipping my hand over so it covered his mouth, I said, “No. No real names.” I might have gotten carried away last night, and this morning, and even right now as I considered making him miss his shuttle. But I had my boundaries. Excellent boundaries. Firm. Solid. I just needed to find them.They’re definitely around here somewhere…
He kissed my palm, holding my hand in both of his, making it warm. Then he let me go.
Resting my head against the door frame, I reached back up to stroke his cheek. “I think I’ll miss you.”
Without another word, he slid his arm around my waist and pulled me into what was quite possibly the most passionate kiss of my entire life. With his arm holding me flush against him and his other hand gripping the back of my neck, he pressed us together so tightly I could hardly breathe. But breathing, I realized while my body decided all it needed to live was this kiss, was highly overrated.
When we pulled apart, he stared down at me and sighed. “I have the strangest feeling that I’ll regret leaving this hotel room for the rest of my life.”
While my heart gave another weirdwhump, I slowly loosened his tie and slid it from his neck. Then I wrapped it around my hand. “I would like to keep this.” It was silly, and probably a bad idea, but I wanted something of his, something to remind me that this night had actually happened. That it wasn’t just a chocolate-cherry-hairball-induced fever dream.
Kissing me one last time, he said, “It’s yours,” against my lips. And then he smiled, a devastating little thing, and walked away. About halfway to the elevator, he stooped down to swipe something off the floor. When he turnedback, he held the shoe I’d lost last night by its heel. The look he gave me was a question, and after swallowing the lump rising up my throat, I nodded an answer.
“And this is mine” were the last words Joshua said to me as he walked away with my shoe dangling from his fingers.
4
THREE MONTHS LATER
The Argosian took up most of the bed, his massive arm slung over my waist, pinning me in place like a nova beetle on its back. And I thought, while staring at his gargantuan and extremely naked body, that there was no way in hells I’d had sex with him last night. None. Physically impossible.
This was a mistake. I had made aterriblemistake. But when a being spent the last several months chasing after the high of the best one-night stand of her life, mistakes were bound to be made. And while this was, admittedly, the biggest mistake I’d made so far, it didn’t change anything. I wouldn’t stop. I couldn’t. Because no matter what I did, or who I did it with, nothing erased the feel of his hands on my body, the taste of cherries on his lips, the way he looked at me like I was the only?—
Elanie barked through my VC.
I groaned, froze as the Argosian stirred, then commed,
Elanie, per usual, was in nomood.
Gingerly, I scooted back toward the headboard and tried to sit up. The room spun. My temples throbbed. I guess I was still drunk. Argosian ripple took no prisoners. I asked, peering down at the arm now slung across my thighs.
Elanie’s sigh was deep, long-suffering, and entirely too dramatic for a bionic. Which filled me with pride. I was training her well, like my half-robot little sister.
she commed.
I replied, relenting. Because, enormous Argosian mistakes or not, I did have a very busy day ahead of me. Pinching the purple arm squishing my thighs, I cleared my throat. “Ahem, darling? Wakey, wakey.”
A deep and resonant grumble was his only response.
“Hellooo,” I said a little louder. “Although last night was”—I stalled out, having no idea what last night was—“memorable, I’m sure, if you wouldn’t mind, would you please move your arm? I’m running late.” I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little worried I might not be able to walk out of this room if we’d somehow made the impossible possible, but first things first.
