He stepped back, separating us and I held back a groan. I didn’t want this to be over. Not yet.
A gentle hand lifted my ankle and he frowned. “I should have taken care of you first.”
“What?”
“The blood, mate. I do not like the sight of it on your perfect skin.”
Before I could protest he disappeared. He came back a few moments later with a warm cloth and held my ankle as he wiped away the dried blood with soft strokes. He produced a second and stroked his seed from my thighs. I was grateful for his thoughtfulness. I didn’t have clothes here and I had no idea where the bathroom was.
Wait.
“Where is the bathroom?”
“If you would like to cleanse yourself, I have a cleansing pod.”
“Pods. What is it with all the pods?”
“There is not a lot of room on a spaceship.” His dark eyes were full of humor and suddenly I desperately wanted to see him laughing. Head thrown back, from the belly, pure joyous laughter.
I really didn’t want to have to state the obvious, but there was no help for it. “No, I mean, where is the toilet?”
“One is not required. We eliminated the need for such a mess centuries ago.”
“What?”
His smile was pure sin as one hand slid up my thigh. “If you need release, mate, I am happy to provide.”
Oh my god, he was terrible. And I loved it. “I usually go to the toilet after…you know.”
He grew serious. “Do you feel the need? That should not be happening.” He helped me from the table and wrapped me in his arms. I settled against his chest like he’d hugged me this way a thousand times. “I will take you back to my medical station and run scans at once.”
“What?” Confused, I held myself still for a moment and took stock of my body. I didn’t feel…anything.
“Coalition transport technology automatically empties and recycles all of our biological waste. I programmed the ReGen pod to make sure you had the proper micro-implants for space travel.”
“What?”
“If you feel the need to empty your body of waste, the implants are not working properly.”
“What!” My confused voice was half-muddled by his hard, hot, wide chest.
Stark loosened his hold and placed his hands on each of my shoulders so he could look directly into my eyes. “You say that word a lot, mate. I’m not sure you know what it means.”
I placed a hand flat on his chest, ground my teeth to prevent myself from stroking him, and spoke through my clenched jaw. “Stark?”
“Yes, love?”
Deep breathe. This was insane. All of it. “Are you telling me I have some kind of microscopic alien technology inside my body that magically zaps all of my body’s natural waste and sends it to some kind of alien recycling plant?” That just sounded…gross. Who wanted recycled poo?
Then again, as a woman who needed to empty my bladder far too many times a day, the idea of not having to pee was a bittooappealing.
“Exactly. Are you hungry?”
“You can’t magically zap food into my stomach?”
He smiled. “The technology is available, but most prefer to indulge in tasting their food and drink.”
“That was supposed to be a joke.”
