Chapter Five
Rosamund spent a couple of hours shamelessly exploring Kodran’s entire room, looking in the closet, eating snacks out of the food dispenser, and getting an explosive faceful of water when she tried to figure out the controls on the sink. She’d washed her face, changed into dry clothes, and now she was bored.
She was heading out the door just as Kodran was coming in. She ran right into him, slamming up against his rock-hard body, and stumbled backwards. He quickly reached out and caught her before she fell, his strong arm wrapped around her waist. He was bent over her, as though they’d been slow-dancing and he’d dipped her backwards at the end of the song. She could still hear the pulse of the music, though, in the rapid beating of her heart. An answering throb centered itself between her thighs.
Slowly, he pulled her upright. She was painfully aware of the press of his body against hers.
“Hello again, heart’s fire. I am equally eager to see you,” he said.
She snorted and stepped back away from him, even though her body cried out in protest at the loss of his warmth. “Are you always this conceited?”
“I prefer to think of it as self-confident. I see you selected a beautiful new dress for our first courtship tonight.”
“Actually, I just changed because I accidentally made the sink explode and I got all wet.”
He threw back his head and laughed heartily. It was a rich, deep sound. “The sink exploded! You are a clever wit. Are you ready for our meal?”
“The sink really did… Oh, fine. Yes, let’s go.”
Kodran led her through the ship down to the cargo bay, where all the ship’s shuttles were stored.
“Sharvani, is the area still clear?” he asked the Draell on duty.
Sharvani nodded. “Yes, sir – we have scanned the sector and there are no indications of hostiles.”
Kodran took Rosamund to one of the smaller shuttles, and they climbed in and settled into their seats. The webbing came out and restrained them both as they took off, sailing right out of the ship.
They hovered outside, and the shuttle suddenly seemed to turn transparent. They were surrounded by the velvety blackness of space, and millions of stars, as they kept pace with the Draell’s enormous transport vessel.
To one side, all she could see was the massive, silvery hull of the spaceship, like the curved flank of some great space whale. But when she looked to the other side, and above and below them, it seemed as if they were suspended in the vastness of space. Floating together with nothing between them and the cosmos. A thousand million tiny twinkling lights surrounded them, each one a star orbited by strange worlds.
Rosamund gasped and looked around in amazement. It was a little frightening in its enormous, unspeakable beauty, but with Kodran by her side, she wasn’t afraid. She knew the invisible hull of their little craft was solid nanite metal, but for some reason she put her faith not in the laws of physics but in him. He would catch her if she fell.
“It’s so beautiful,” she said, eyes shining.
Kodran grinned at her. “I thought you might like it.” He clapped his hands and yelled out, “Dinner!” A cabinet opened and a tray-table floated over to them.
It was loaded with food, most of which Rosamund had never seen before. Fortunately, she’d always been an adventurous eater, and since Kodran had arranged this, she could be fairly sure to avoid a repeat of the Drr’inthian hovercraft fuel incident.
Kodran selected a sliver of purple fruit from the tray. It was so juicy that a trickle of sticky syrup ran down his wrist. He held it close to her lips.
“Open…”
Obediently, she opened her mouth, and Kodran popped the fruit inside. The flavor burst on her tongue, tart-sweet, and she moaned with pleasure. Then a jolt of sensation struck her as she watched Kodran lick the juice from his fingers and his wrist with his quick pink tongue. Her own juices began to flow as she thought about him lickingherskin, and she barely stifled another moan.
Next he selected a square of what looked like spiced pastry. As he held it out to her, she caught its complex, savory aroma.
It practically melted in her mouth, flaky and as light as air. She closed her eyes to savor the taste, but they popped open again when she felt Kodran’s touch at the side of her mouth, wiping away a stray crumb with his thumb. His eyes wandered lower, and she looked down to see that three or four flakes of the delicious pastry had fallen onto her cleavage.
Their eyes met and there was a long moment of hot, magnetic silence, the only sound that of their breathing, slightly too fast. Rosamund felt an unbearable ache of arousal and desire between her thighs. She desperately wanted Kodran to kiss her.
She looked away, breaking the moment, and Kodran sat back in his seat. She thought she heard the very faintest sigh of disappointment.
But then he gave a wicked grin and dipped his finger into a bowl of what looked like dark honey, or some kind of tree sap, perhaps, withdrawing it dripping and sticky. He held his finger out to her, inviting her to suckle the sweet treat from it, and her core clenched hard. She squeezed her thighs together, desperately trying to collect herself, then opened her mouth and allowed him to slide his finger inside. She sucked on the digit and then, unable to resist, swirled her tongue around it.
Kodran groaned, slowly withdrawing his finger as she pursed her lips around it.
He blew out a flustered breath, a small muscle ticking in his stubbled jaw. Rosamund knew he wanted to tumble her onto the floor and put his hands all over her body and push inside her with his fingers and tongue and cock.
