Sessela looked up at him when he stood from his duties and the look in her eyes was soft as she took his hand.
“Come on,” she said.“Let’s go to bed.”
And he followed her as she guided them over to the sleeping platform, piled high with soft, warm furs and cushions.She let go of his hand to climb inside and his breath hitched when he saw her there.Never in all of his imaginings did he think he would see hisluxiva, lying back against his furs.
Normally, he slept nude, but he didn’t want to frighten her, so he sank down to his knees, fully clothed.Sessela helped him slide underneath the furs, next to her.
She squirmed closer until she was nestled just beneath his chin, her face buried into his chest.His arm came around her and nudged her even closer.
“Goodnight,” she whispered against him.
The human term translated through his language implant and his belly warmed.
“Goodnight,luxiva.”
Then he fell into the most restful sleep of his entire life span.
FIFTEEN
Cecelia woke before Rixavox did.
She guessed it was still early.She craned her neck slightly so she could look out the window and saw the beginnings of the suns rising.She knew the one on the left rose first and ten minutes later, the other began its ascent.
Cecelia looked back over at her Luxirian.He was sleeping on his stomach, his face turned to her, one broad, heavy arm slung low over her hip.Under the warm furs, she felt his legs intertwined with her own and she wondered how they’d gotten into this intimate position without waking.
Her blood felt warm, slow.She’d had no night sweats and only felt a slight stickiness between their bodies.Perhaps theRilliraxwas truly working.
Her eyes fanned over his features.She had such little opportunity to study him, even though she was with him most of her waking hours.She always felt like a creeper if she flat out stared, not to mention self-conscious since he was always so…intense.
So, Cecelia took the time to study him, to memorize his proud, angular face.His skin was darker near the furs, but the very top of his forehead had already begun to shift and change colors, reacting to the peachy light of the suns.His horns lay flat against his skull, but she’d seen them standing straight up before.She wondered what that meant, whether it was emotion that made them move or not.They were beautiful, smooth like a black ivory, with a single thread of silver running from the very base to the very tip.
His eyes were tilted and wide and even though his brows were sparse, she knew that they could still be expressive.His nose was sharp and straight, the bone underneath impossibly smooth.Male models on Earth would kill for such a nose, she thought, smiling a little.
And his lips…they looked soft for someone so hard.Too soft.She wondered if they would feel like velvet against her own, if she’d ever have the guts to kiss him, or if he would ever make the move to kiss her.She wondered if Luxirians kissed.It could be strictly a human gesture of affection.She had absolutely no idea and she didn’t know of a way to ask without sounding like she was propositioning him.
Which is exactly what I want to do, she couldn’t help but think.
When she was around Rixavox, he made her feel like a woman.Like a desirable, sexy, red-blooded woman.
No one had ever made her feel that way before.None of her past boyfriends, which was probably why she’d had such a lackluster sex life up until this point in her life.The cancer certainly hadn’t helped…
But I’m here now, she thought, something like relief, happiness, hope taking over her body instead of her disease.She was lying in bed with a strange alien male that she was intensely attracted to.Every night, she got naked with him only a few feet away and he watched her soak in a sacred pool of his people.
Would she be brave enough to make the first move? Perhaps, that very night?
Cecelia swallowed, a few nervous butterflies revving up in her stomach.Then she couldn’t help but sober.If this treatment didn’t work…how long would it be until she would feel this way again, thisyoungagain?From her past experience with lymphoma, it started out slowly but then began progressing rapidly.It started with the night sweats at first, with the unexplainable weight loss.She hadn’t thought anything of them, hadn’t even seen a doctor, until it started becoming harder and harder to breathe.Her lymph nodes began to swell, she started having racking, ugly coughs, coughing so hard sometime she thought she might pass out from them because she couldn’t get enoughair.
It was only then that she’d gone in to be diagnosed.Now, she recognized the signs.She knew what her body was trying to tell her: prepare.
A few tears swelled into her eyes and she blinked them away.Even if this treatment didn’t work, she thought, she didn’t want to waste the very short period of time where she still felt somewhat healthy.
Rixavox’s breathing was slow and steady and quiet, which helped calm her worries.She inhaled a deep breath and felt relieved when she didn’t feel her throat constrict.
Don’t waste this, she repeated to herself silently.Don’t waste this.
A loud shrill from the direction of the central hub made her jump slightly and Rixavox jerked awake, his eyes automatically flashing to hers.His gaze was clear, no hint of fatigue, like the previous night when she’d awakened him and he’d reached for his dagger.
“Luxiva,” he rasped.His voice sent a shiver racing through her body.It sounded like pure sin, all dark velvet and deliciously husky.
