“Pax,” he told her, watching her sink back onto the bed, opening the satchel. Inside was a kind of fruit—at least what he thought was fruit—along with a wrapped skewer of meat—at least what he thought was meat. He watched her inspect it before nibbling a piece, her face lighting up in delight. “Good?”
“Yes, very good,” she said. “Wanna try?”
She held it out for him and he leaned forward, chewing off a small piece…only because she made it so appetizing.
Keriv’i preferred their meats spicier, but he could see why his little human enjoyed it.
“Good?” she asked.
“Very good,” he murmured, smiling, not wanting to disappoint her. “Now eat, little mate, so you can recover your energy. Because Tavak told me the flight to Nzonito is two days long. Which means…”
“Oh god,” she whispered, eyeing him with the same realization he’d had. “How are we going to…”
Keep their hands off each other?
“I have no idea,” he admitted, rubbing the pad of his thumb over her smooth ankle.
In the next moment, Valerie had shoved her food back inside the satchel and plopped it to the ground.
Then she pushed him forward and he toppled off the bed in surprise, landing on his back on the floor. When she climbed down onto him, straddling his hips, the startled laugh died in his throat.
“No time for eating then,” she told him, determination sketched into every line of her face. She kissed him, her tongue lapping at his lips, and he groaned, his hands gripping the flesh of her ass possessively.
The problem was…
Dravka didn’t think this desperate need for her wouldeverpass. Not tomorrow, or in the next week, the next year, the next couple decades.
For the rest of their lives together.
Dravka grinned.
It was a good problem to have, he decided, especially when he had such a tempting mate.
“How did we ever go so long without doing this?” she breathed against his lips.
Dravka remembered the last five years. The whispered conversations in his room, the lingering glances, the touches that felt like electricity over his skin.
Again, he rasped, “I have novaukingidea,mellkia.”
Chapter Thirty-Three
Valerie was standing at the window in their little heaven-filled room. Yesterday drifted in and out of her mind, eliciting a ridiculous grin across her face, as she looked out at Nimida.
Her body felt different. She’d had sex before when she was younger, but she’d never had sex like what she’d shared with Dravka. Life-changing, consuming, magnificent sex. Lovemaking, though, she corrected silently…because wasn’t that what it was?
She shivered, though she was already dressed in her clothes. A simple shirt and pants from her closet, which she’d discovered that Dravka had packed for her when she’d asked him to retrieve her mother’s perfume…when she still believed that she could let him go.
He’d packed a week’s worth of her clothes, along with his, in that small satchel he’d taken from the brothel. Enough clothes to see them through to Dumera.
But her skin felt different in these clothes. She felt sensitive, the fabric caressing her in a way she’d never been aware of. There was a sensual awareness now, at the forefront of her mind, that hadn’t been there before. And she knew it was from Dravka, from his touches, his kisses, the way his body stroked expertly and perfectly inside her.
She shivered again, her heartbeat picking up. She could hear him in the shower tube, washing. She’d already been bathed and dressed by the time he woke. Valerie knew that they needed to catch the ship to Nzonito on time and showering with him would…be a distraction. It would make them very, very late.
Dravka had mentioned something about six rings and that was when the ship would depart. She hadn’t noticed before, so wrapped up with him in bed, but now that she listened, she could hear them. Loud bells that rang over Nimida at certain intervals of time. The loudest and longest of the bells started at the top of every hour, whereas quieter bells rang every half hour.
Well, she’d already heard the fifth bell, chiming as the artificial sunlight began to spread over Nimida. It was what had prompted her to wake Dravka.
Despite the early hour, it was bustling down below on the street corridor. Beings of all species—some she recognized, others she did not—strode along, all heading around the corner to the main depot, the beginnings of which she couldjustmake out. Most had luggage and bags and satchels. All travelers.
