Underneath Mrs. Pafford’s perfume, which seemed to coat Dravka’s skin, she smelled sex and sweat and the musky scent that came from a Keriv’i’steela, which was what all the human women came to the brothel for.
Because a Keriv’i’steelacould trigger orgasm after orgasm within a variety of species, humans included. Anendlessstream of orgasms until their semen was neutralized or cleaned away.
And women on Everton paid 900 credits for a single visit with the ‘Krave.’
Valerie craned her head back to meet Dravka’s eyes. There was a rigid tightness in his features that only seemed to intensify the longer he looked down at her. There were only a couple feet of space between them but lately, ever since Khiva had left, it had begun to feel like miles upon miles of distance.
Dravka had purposefully been putting a wall up between them. For five years, he’d been her friend. Her best friend. Valerie had never felt what she felt for Dravka before. Not with anyone else. He made her feel centered. He made her feel whole in those little moments when they both forgot who and where they were. He made her feel desire. He made her laugh. Sometimes, when they were with each other—at least before Khiva left—all they would need to do was look at one another andknow.
They knew that their friendship, their relationship, theirwhatever-the-hell-this-was…was rare. It was special.
And Dravka was purposefully letting it tarnish and crumble away.
And Valerie was letting him.
She loved him. She’d always known that. At one point, she’d believed Dravka had returned her feelings.
Now, she wasn’t so sure. Something had shifted between them.
Last night, she’d finally decided to ask him what had changed.
Only, standing in front of him now, her treacherous tongue felt glued to the roof of her mouth as a heavy stretch of silence slammed between them.
It wasn’t news to her that she was a coward. Growing up, she’d always thought she was brave. She’d always thought she could do whatever she wanted, could conquer all the Earth colonies and beyond if she desired. Partly because her mother made her feel like she could, partly becauseValeriebelieved that she could.
Since her mother’s death, however, since leaving Genesis and coming to live on Everton, that brave girl she’d once been was nothing but a whisper of a memory. A whimsical fairy tale, a falsehood that she couldn’t believe now that she’d grown up and seen the universe for what it truly was. An ugly, greedy, unfair place.
Dravka had made that place a little more wonderful. With nervous butterflies in her stomach, she remembered that he’d once told her she was all he wanted to look at, for the rest of his life.
So why did those butterflies feel like knives in her belly now?
“Dravka,” she murmured, taking in his swirling eyes, the sharp bridge of his nose, the high slope of his cheekbones. His features resembled a human man’s…yet they didn’t. “Are—are we okay?”
His lips parted and Val’s gaze went to them. Soft and full. Lips hundreds and hundreds of women had kissed, no doubt. Yet, she’d never felt them on her own, though she’d watched them carefully with tears in her eyes as Dravka had told her of his family, his sister and his father, and his home planet of Kerivu, grief threaded through his tone.
“What do you mean?” he questioned, but the gruffness in his tone told Valerie he knew exactly what she was speaking of.
Her gaze went to the two closed doors across the Cluster. Behind them, Tavak and Ravu were likely asleep. She didn’t think they’d care to eavesdrop on their conversation anyways.
When she turned back to regard him, he was looking away. His gaze was out the small window and her breath hitched at the fuckingdespairshe saw etched across his features. Fine little lines of anger and grief, drawn out like ink across a page. There was a restlessness inside him.
She’d always been able to read him well. He’d always been able to read her too. He knew she saw it.
“Dravka,” Val breathed, stepping forward, reaching her hand across the space between them, raising it higher so she could cup the side of his face. He stilled when she touched him. She very rarely did, fearing that it would unleash something untamed between them. “Tell me what’s wrong. What can I do?”
The husky laugh that barked out of him made her recoil and her hand withdrew, though she remained frozen in place.
His eyes turned to her, his pupils flickering back and forth between her own.
The silence that stretched between their faces was charged and it made her shiver. That prickling of desire bit at her belly but she snuffed it out quickly.
They were both miserable. They’d found solace within one another…but even that seemed to be fading away.
His words were tight and hardened.
“I’m tired, Valerie,” he said. “My client kept me up all night.”
Bright heat, stemming from anger and disgust, stabbed through her chest. That, too, she snuffed out quickly as Mrs. Pafford’s perfume once again bloomed off his skin.
