“Didn’t know your mate was a walking pharmacy,” Rykarn states from where he casually leans in the doorway.
I cringe, hoping Rykarn’s assumption doesn’t upset her. “She’s not my mate. She’sBrynna.”
“Well, if you don’t want her, I’ll take her.” Rykarn grins, not in the way that he’s serious, only that he’s pestering me.
“Touch her in a way she doesn’t like, and I’ll rip your wing talons out …”
Sidius cuts me off. “Rykarn! Jorusk!”
I stop and look over at Sidius and Vryskas, who pack away medical supplies at the bed next to mine.
Vryskas throws a roll of heat-resistant bandage tape at Rykarn’s head. “Shut up, you festering blister. You go for anything on two legs.”
Sidius hides his exasperated expression behind a hand.
Rykarn takes the hit and chuckles. “Teasing Jorusk, you lump of coal.”
Brynna steps out of the room to avoid the brewing bandage battle between Rykarn and Vryskas.
Rykarn throws the bandage back at Vryskas, who picks up another. Then Rykarn stops me. “Seriously, though, I’ve been watching the feed with Osiris. There are a lot of males asking about Brynna and what you want with her. Keep her close.”
I nod. “Watch out for cloaks.”
“And nosy cameradrones,” Brynna adds. “I have half a mind to punch the next one that asks me a stupid question.”
Rykarn clicks his tongue and whispers, “Feisty. She’s a good choice, brother.”
Osiris appears in the hallway, holding an ABR race suit and the spark arrestor. “I hate to do this, Jorusk. But ABR is requiring these items.”
I take them from him and walk into the crew quarters to change, when Brynna slides in my way. She draws me into her arms and holds me for a moment. I savor the feeling of her against the skin of my chest, the sensations the arrestor plate will hide.
When she steps back, she looks up at me and runs her hands down my chest. “I’m glad you’re okay. I wish you didn’t have to put more stuff on. I like seeing you…natural.”
A primal need soars to life in me, lighting up my chest with fissures of flickering orange light. It makes her smile when she sees it.
“We could forgo the race and just…leave.” I’m really thinking about it, getting her onto my ship, and seeing where things go between us.
“DIA wants you on the intergalactic stage. She says it will help show others who your kind really are.” The hesitant way Brynna says it tells me she doesn’t want to go back to the races either, but she understands that she’s involved in something much bigger…the future of my people.
But I still want her. I need just a taste to hold me over, to get me through today, and the life-draining feeling of the spark arrestor. So I lean in and inhale a deep breath of her scent. I try desperately to hold back, to just take one kiss, to not lose myself in her supple skin, her plush mouth, or the softness of her hair, but we are not known for our impulse control. And that first unhindered sense of her…free of my arrestor, has me wild with need.
I drop the uniform and the plate to slide a hand behind her neck and the other around her waist. I don’t care that the others are watching. Clutching her tightly, I steal a kiss, full of my hunger and desperation.
Her supple mouth is hot like her breath. It isn’t just me this time. I can taste her desire, feel it in the way she falls into me. When a flame licks up from my chest, I realize I’m getting out of control.
Brynna gasps for air when I ease back to ensure I have not hurt her. “Is…thathow you feel?”
“When I am not wearing my stupid arrestor.”
She makes a frustrated noise that sounds a bit like a growl, and it turns me on. I grab her, kiss her again, deeper this time, to let her know what it feels like to be close to me when my Inferno is hot.
Brynna hums a soft note when I break the kiss this time. Her eyes open lazily, exposing dilated irises, a sure sign she wants what she sees.
Osiris clears his throat and hands me the items I’ve dropped. He tilts his head toward the room. “I’m not sure we can handle much more of watching you two make out. If you’re going to fuck, please don’t do it on this ship, or you’ll unleash four more Infernos that have been lonely a long time.”
Brynna bares her teeth and sheepishly grins. “Sorry, Osiris.”
“That’s alright.” He takes a deep breath and squirms away from a rising vein of light from his own Inferno. “Just hard to watch you two.”
