Page 43 of Tempting Fate

Even his hand was pretty, that lovely violet shade, with blunt spines on his knuckles and pointed, deep orange claws. Long fingers curled over his length, the casual possession of it sending a shudder of arousal through my pussy.

No. Bad Imani.

Veins stood out on his forearms, where the purple gave way to the same orange as his torso.

I nodded at his dick. “You’ll have to give me that.”

Airida regarded me with the tiniest upturn of his lips. They were full in the middle, a pinkish purple, distinct from the regular purple of his face. The thinner lines of his lips extended well past those of a human, but they didn’t meet his ear ridges as they did on kri’ith. The combined effect meant he didn’t have the full kri’ith skeletal smile, just a slightly intimidating grin that sent all kinds of wrong feelings skittering through my stomach.

He dropped his hand. “It’s all yours.”

His cock strained, hard and angry, bucking upwards with such force, it was no wonder he had no energy anywhere else. God, it was a monster—in all the best ways.

I was a terrible person. Who had these thoughts in a situation like this?

One hundred percent of us. Because I had to be the only person in the fucking galaxy in this position, didn’t I?

I couldn’t miss the way his muscles shook, the way it was a massive effort even to move a hand from his dick to the bed. Poor guy was weak as a kitten. “Let me help.”

I placed a towel on his chest. Though touching him became more familiar, it didn’t get easier. I wanted to explore him, to get to know every ridge, bead, and vein in intimate detail. To heft the weight of his balls in my hand, see if he enjoyed me playing with them. Or if he’d like a finger circling his tight hole.

Stop it.

I trailed my eyes over the towel, remembering the hard contours beneath it, and up, to where the tips of his ear ridges twitched by his collar bones. Up, over his strong, angular jaw, his parted lips, his—

Our eyes met, and I glanced away. So what if he was looking at me?

Focus on the task at hand. The task in my hand.

But when I watched him shoot that creamy, opalescent cum, when my chest squeezed at the innocent wonder on his face—and when I removed the towel, only to think how much of a crime it was to cover that entirely kissable chest—a squirmy, twisting feeling wrung deep in my stomach.

“Thank you, Imani,” he said, his voice a low, tonal rumble. “And now we can hug?” His mouth split in a full smile, sharp teeth on display, the tip of his thick, purple-grey tongue slicking out to wet his lower lip before it vanished into his maw.

How could I be attracted to someone who had a maw, for goodness’ sake? It was a very nice one. I’d not stared at any other shaa’ith or kri’ith mouths, so his must be nice.

Oh god, I was staring at his mouth. Oh god, I’m attracted to him. Like, seriously.

I hadn’t been properly attracted to anyone in years, but when I did, I had to pick the beautiful, traumatised alien?

If I hugged him, I’d stop staring. Yes, that would work.

He clung to me like he never wanted to let me go, and… Yeah, a girl could get used to this—as well as the hard planes of his chest and the strength in his arms, always so obvious except when it vanished during kalidi. And that smoky, rosemary scent of his.

Fine. So I liked getting physical with the big, sexy alien. Who wouldn’t? But I needed to draw a boundary. I could enjoy this until Orukem was back.

When I pulled away, Airida’s smile was so wide, his ear ridges twitched. “Thank you, Imani. You are… a good friend.”

A friend. Yes.

That.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Orbit

Airida

I PUSHED OUT of bed, feeling the texture of the rug under my feet, waiting for my head to stop swimming before I stood.