“I thought I was doing the right thing. For both of us.”
“Well,” I murmur, “you were half right.”
He huffs a soft laugh. “You always this sharp when we’re about to walk into certain death?”
“Only when I like someone.”
He blinks. “You… like me?”
I groan. “Don’t make it weird.”
“Too late.”
We both laugh.
It’s soft. Real. And for a moment, the weight of everything else slips off my shoulders like a too-heavy coat.
That night, we don’t sleep.
We lie in the crew quarters, back to back at first, both pretending we’re comfortable. We’re not. The room is too small. The cot is worse than the one in the bunker. But neither of us moves.
“You ever think about Earth?” I ask, voice a whisper.
He shifts, turning just enough that I feel the heat of his body behind me. “Sometimes. When I want to imagine what peace smells like.”
I close my eyes. “I miss thunderstorms.”
“Never seen one,” he says.
“They’re messy. Loud. Frightening. But… cleansing.”
“Like you.”
I turn over.
Now we’re face to face.
Breath to breath.
“I’m not some cosmic spa treatment,” I murmur.
“No,” he says. “You’re lightning.”
I stare at him. “That a Vakutan thing or just your overgrown ego talking?”
“It’s truth.”
Our eyes meet for a long moment. Then he leans in, lips brushing my own. I gasp, arching my body into him, tasting his breath, his heat. A tingle becomes a throb between my legs.
His hands are fire. Not burning—just impossibly warm, big enough to span my entire back. When he kisses me again, it isn’t tentative. It’s possession. Heat floods me. My thighs press together instinctively, chasing pressure. His cock presses against my hip—thick, hard, alien and familiar all at once.
“You’re sure?” he asks, voice raw, golden eyes boring into mine.
“If you stop, I’ll kill you.”
He growls, low in his chest, and rolls over me. I feel the weight of him—massive, powerful, heavy with need. His scales rasp against my skin where my tank top rides up. His tongue—forked, god help me—slides over my neck. I arch, moaning.
“You smell like thunder,” he mutters, voice deep with hunger. “You taste like war.”
