Chapter 16
Zelup was enjoying the comfort of his own shower, although he was finding it hard to concentrate on cleaning up. His throbbing erection had kept him awake for hours, and even after he’d taken himself in hand, it had refused to go down.
So here he was in the shower, once again stroking himself to completion to thoughts of the pretty little doctor’s naked body beneath him. He leaned back against the tile wall and grunted out his climax, imagining her wet heat enfolding him in its tight embrace.
When he was able to catch his breath, Zelup stumbled out of the shower and dressed quickly. He didn’t bother to style his hair, just ran his fingers through the wet waves. Then he headed to the kitchen, loading up an empty box he’d brought from the lab with supplies. At least his ship held enough fresh supplies for a week of meals. After that, he would put in his own order with the lab’s delivery service.
He considered calling home to fill them in on events, but there was little to report, other than his advances being rebuffed once again. For obvious reasons, he didn’t want his failure in the sexual arena to be broadcast to all of his brothers. The box tucked under his arm, he strapped on the breathing apparatus and hurried back to the lab. He punched in the code he’d seen the little doctor enter the day before and the lab’s door whooshed open.
Dawn was kneeling beside her robot at his miniature workstation, and he thought he caught a guilty look on her face before her expression defaulted to neutral. For a moment, he wondered if she would threaten to change the door code. Instead, she ignored him, turning back to the robot and patting it on the shoulder.
“Thanks for the hard work, Ladee,” she said before rising. “Now, let’s get down to business.”
At her workstation, she began to tinker with the ball of flashing light she’d told him about last night at dinner. “Don’t mind me,” he said when he passed. “I’m just going to stock the kitchen with a few more fresh supplies.”
He expected some kind of reaction, some smart remark about his obsession with food or some such. All that greeted him was silence. She didn’t even look his way as he walked across the lab and toward the door to her living quarters.
Zelup frowned as he made his way to the kitchen. It seemed like the cold shoulder was her newest tactic. Perhaps it would work to his advantage. If they pretended to ignore each other, he might have a little freedom to search the lab. He’d poked around the storage room last night when he’d been unable to sleep, but without being able to make much noise, he’d only been able to open random containers and rifle through their contents. So far, no crystal.
The supplies tucked away, he took a moment to toast some bread and slather it with honey and butter. Filling up a couple of glasses with rich bimble milk and slicing off a few pieces of the cheese he’d used last night, he found a tray tucked away in one of the cabinets and filled it with these breakfast offerings.
Carrying it carefully back into the lab, he found an empty space on one of the workbenches. “Hungry?” he asked, picking up a slice of toast and biting into it.
Dawn continued to ignore him, until she heard the telltale rumble of her stomach.
“Here,” he said, setting down a plate of toast with a slice of cheese and a glass of milk next to her. He then wandered away, draining his own glass while scanning the work areas for any sign of the crystal artifact he was searching for.
“Thank you,” he heard from behind him. Turning around, he saw the doctor had come up behind him. She gave him a tight nod.
“My pleasure,” he said, taking the empty glass and plate from her hands. “It’s the least I can do to help you further your research.”
“Actually, there may be a few more ways that you can help,” she said. A flash of insecurity appeared in her eyes, but it disappeared so quickly, Zelup wasn’t sure if he’d really seen it.
“Name it,” he said, his face solemn.
“Well, I have one task that will take quite some time but isn’t very thrilling.” She led him to a waist-high container that was one of several tucked against the wall. Lifting the lid, she motioned to its contents. “I’m testing new interfaces, and I’ll need several of these cords to hook into various power sources. It would help me tremendously if you could organize these for me.”
Zelup looked at the mass of twisted-up cords and frowned. Although her lab wasn’t squeaky clean, it seemed more organized than not. So why would she have thrown her cords into a container without spooling them up first?
He turned to her and caught her gaze. A blush lit up her face, and for a moment, his heart skipped a beat. She was trying to give him the benefit of the doubt, which had to be difficult for her, considering the way they’d left things last night. If she wanted to him to untangle some cords, maybe he should stop second guessing things and get down to business.
“All right,” he said with a smile, reaching in and grabbing the first tangle. “Where can I work?”
“Any of the empty stations,” she said, gesturing toward a few workbenches across the room which seemed neglected. “I really appreciate your help.”
Her shy smile went right to his insides, lighting him up and making his chest feel tight. Zelup would have to be careful of his reactions to her. Right now, they were treading on fresh ground. He had to be sure not to fuck anything up. That meant keeping his head down and his hands to himself.
For now.
It was hours before he’d made any progress. There were cords as thick as his thumb interspersed with thin ones that weighed almost nothing. Meanwhile, the doctor and her robot plugged away at their own workstations. Neither did anything that was meaningful to Zelup.
He was beginning to wonder if he was hopelessly out of his depth here. Perhaps they should have sent Nojan, or even Pennzinn, one of his younger brothers who was a trained engineer. At least they had a chance of understanding some of the tech the doctor was working on.
The thought of allowing another male close to the sexy scientist, even one of his own brothers, brought such a rage that he quickly suppressed the idea. Dr. Dawn Illya was his mission, and he’d be damned if he’d share a minute of their short time together with another male.
He whipped up a light soup for lunch and again brought it in the lab as the little doctor hadn’t seemed to hear him when he suggested she take a break for lunch. The good doctor used the bowl as a cup and sipped her soup while she tinkered. At the end of the day, he’d finally managed to get all the wires separated into their own coils.
When he wandered back into the kitchen, the female was still hard at work at her bench. The robot watched him make his way through the lab before returning to his console, his little fingers feverishly fast against the keys.
