Page 166 of Tempting Fate

“And I wasn’t on it.” He traced my arm with gentle claws. “I’m here. With my mate.”

So he was.

Airida kissed me, hard, over and over until I was grinding against him, desperate for more. He put me down with a groan. “I can’t feel you through this damn suit.”

“Take it off.” I needed him, needed to see him strong and healthy, to feel his hot muscles under my hands, to feel him everywhere, to know this was real and he’d never leave again.

As he stripped off, a cough sounded from behind me.

“I’m going to assume you two are just fine,” Kira said.

Even though she had her back to us, I knew she was smiling. “Never better. We’ll see you back home,” I said, and shut the airlock door.

CHAPTER SIXTY-FIVE

Coming of age

Imani

KIRA WINKED AS we entered the galley. “Nice of you to come and join us.”

Urula snickered into her mug.

“I guess you could do with a drink after all of that.” Kira pursed her lips, considering. “And after all of that.”

I sank into one of the chairs. “Are you telling me you wouldn’t bang Reskavi in the airlock if it had been you?”

“Show me a piece of the ship they haven’t claimed, and I’ll tell you you’re on the wrong ship,” Urula deadpanned.

Kira cuffed her crewmate upside her head. “Chrya?”

“Arl-krei tea please, for both of us.” I took Airida’s hand under the table. “So are we safe now?”

Urula swiped something on her comm, and a huge holoprojection appeared on the galley wall. “Here. The Hunters’ Guild listing for Shohari and Airida mai Tasra.”

I couldn’t read it, but the large blue word slapped diagonally across the whole entry told me all I needed to know.

Airida let out a long, laboured sigh. “Cancelled. Thank the fates.”

“The fates? Not the gods?” I asked.

He grinned. “It doesn’t hurt to get into their good graces, even if we don’t need them.”

True. We had our own soul bond, one of our own making, but I knew how much he wanted to bond in the kri’ith way, as if it would help him feel whole.

Urula placed our drinks in front of us, and I grasped my mug with grateful hands.

As I took the first sip, flavour burst over my taste buds. “This is the best fucking tea I have ever tasted.”

“Ooh!” Kira stood, her chair scraping over the floor. “Speaking of taste…” She dashed over to the counter and opened a cabinet. “What have you missed? I couldn’t get much brought over, but there’s a bit of all sorts here. Curry noodles. Shortbread. Spaghetti bolognaise MRE.”

I nearly spat out my drink. “You didn’t. That stuff’s awful.” Dehydrated ready-to-eat meals, or MREs, were common on the asteroid belt space stations, but spaghetti bolognaise was a standing joke as one of the worst.

Kira threw something at me. “Of course I didn’t. Strawberry ice cream.” The only good flavour.

I fumbled it, but Airida’s hand shot out, catching it with ease, and he placed the nondescript grey packet on the table between us. The most surreal feeling washed through me. I’d never imagined seeing anything from New Earth again. “What else have you got there?”

Kira sauntered towards me with something behind her back and sat down, a satisfied smirk playing at the corners of her mouth. “Guess?”