Chapter 3

Chapter Three

M olly wasn’t sure if she expected the big guy to show up the next day, and she didn’t know how she was going to manage to look him in the eye after the dream she had about him. There was steamy, and then there was that. She didn’t think it was possible for a person to bend that way, but dream her was way more flexible than the waking version. And while her limbs weren’t sore since the sexcapades she’d dreamed about hadn’t actually happened, the rest of her body ached with a yearning that she desperately needed to fulfill. With tall, gold, and handsome.

Never had someone so quickly made an impression. Never had any man imprinted himself on her mind until she saw him every time she closed her eyes. Molly was almost afraid of Tav coming back. What if he disappointed her? There was no way the living version could stack up against her fantasy, and yet, she was holding her breath, waiting for him to cross the threshold and join her like he’d promised. Crushes didn’t hit her like this. She was able to glide through life, taking her experiences as they came and continuing on her journey when one stage ended. She’d never looked at someone and thought I want to keep that one forever. She couldn’t, not when she didn’t even know what planet or space station she’d be on come the end of the month. But Molly was getting ahead of herself. One sex dream didn’t make Tav marriage material. It just meant that she was a healthy twenty-seven year old woman who needed to get laid.

A sizzle of electricity arced down her spine and Molly turned, already knowing what she would see. Tav stood in the doorway and looked around, freezing in place when their eyes met. Awareness unlike anything she’d ever known before made it so she could feel the blood pumping in her veins, every heart beat telling her that she’d spent too long without the man before her eyes. How could that be true? They’d barely spoken. Yesterday she’d managed to shove a tablet at him and give him a task when all she’d really wanted to do was drag him to her room and have her way with him.

Who the hell was he? Detyen, he’d called himself. Molly made a mental note to look up the species. Maybe they exuded sex like she exuded breath. But if that were the case, surely someone else around them would have been affected.

Between one blink and the next Tav seemed to move until he was suddenly standing too close to her, the space in front of her warmed by his presence. “You’re back.” It wasn’t the most intelligent of greetings, but the fact that Molly wasn’t panting over him would have to be considered a win.

Tav grinned. “I said I would be. I’m a man of my word.”

His voice was dark and sensual and Molly wanted to wrap herself up in it until she was drowning. “I kind of didn’t give you a choice yesterday.” Tav reached out and tucked an errant poof of Molly’s hair behind her ear, and she couldn’t suppress the shiver.

“I don’t let anyone force me that easily,” Tav replied.

“Oh yeah? What does it usually take?” Distantly she knew they should be working, not flirting, but a girl only met so many men like this in her life, and Molly wasn’t going to miss the opportunity.

He cocked his head to the side as if lost in thought. “Blasters, las cannons, hostages, you know, the usual.”

“What is it you do exactly?” Molly had heard of everything he mentioned, but she was just a party planner from Earth making her way across the galaxy. She had no need for weapons or hostages. What kind of world did he come from?

“I’ve done a little bit of everything, I suppose,” he admitted. He was still standing close enough that their hands brushed together and a spark of awareness lit through Molly every time they touched.

She flipped her hand over so the next time he brushed against her, she laced their fingers together, holding him in place. “What kind of everything are you doing now?”

“Passenger transport, mostly. A little bit of freight. Nothing fancy, I promise. The biggest threat is pirates, but I try to stay away from where they lurk. Life is too short already, I don’t want to sacrifice a single minute of it.” A sense of melancholy seem to come over him when he said those last words, as if they held more meaning than Molly could possibly understand.

But she knew all about the importance of life, of seizing the moment, and it didn’t seem strange that he didn’t want to be captured by pirates. Who would?

“So what have you got for me today?” Tav asked.

Speaking of seizing the day… Molly glanced around, but the room was too crowded. She didn’t want questions, not from anyone but the man standing in front of her. She tugged on his hand and led him down a little side hall that would connect one half of the party to the other when everything was ready. But the decorations were already in place, which made the hallway a perfect deserted location to steal a moment with a man who hadn’t left her mind since the moment he entered it.

Tav glanced around and those dark eyes of his bled to red when he realized just how alone they were. “What are we doing here?”

Molly grinned, a sense of wicked playfulness infusing her every move. “I suppose that depends on you.” She reached up and brushed her fingers against his cheek, marveling at the unexpected texture. It was soft like normal skin, but there was some sort of ridge, almost like cartilage or something, where she would expect his cheekbones to be, giving his face an even more angular look. “I’m going to kiss you now.” She gave him time to pull away, to say no, but Tav stood there transfixed in her presence as she went up on her toes and closed the distance between them.

It was gentle at first, an introduction as intimate as they came, their lips exchanging a polite hello in a language that transcended speech. But that wasn’t enough for Molly, and Tav was right there with her. His tongue teased the seam of her lips and she opened for him until they tangled together, tasting one another and dancing together. Molly leaned in closer, pressing herself against Tav and feeling every hard ridge of muscle he was hiding under his boring black clothes. The man was made to be dreamed of, and if any small part of her had thought that tasting him, touching him, would get him out of her system, the feel of him against her lips, invading all of her senses, blew that thought out of the water. He was everywhere, surrounding her completely until his existence blotted out the rest of the ship. Anything could be going on around them and Molly couldn’t bring herself to care.

She wanted more of him, wanted to get her hands under his top and feel the hot skin of his stomach and then trail her hands down lower until she could feel every hard centimeter of him. She wanted to taste more than his lips, wanted to devour him and bind herself to him until she had no idea where he ended and she began.

The intensity of the emotions threatened to sweep her away, and it was only a distant whisper of self-preservation that had her stepping back and letting go of where she’d been clutching Tav so tightly. Her calves cramped, reminding her of just how much taller he was, but that was only a distant complaint. Tav looked a little dazed, red slowly fading from his eyes as they went back to black, his breathing just as labored as hers.

“Why do they do that?” She didn’t mean to whisper, and the ambient sounds of the ship almost swallowed her words whole, but something about this moment felt too sacred for normal speech.

“What?” Tav seemed confused and his eyes kept catching on her lips, making Molly’s insides curl and clench.

She wanted to lean in close again and see how far they could take this moment, but the distant sounds of her people working were filtering in through her consciousness and she couldn’t be gone for long until she was missed. Her tongue darted out to wet her lips and she tasted the memory of Tav. “Your eyes. They turn red.”

“Oh.” Tav nodded. “When I feel something particularly intense, they turn red. It’s a Detyen thing.”

Intense. Yeah, that was the right word to describe everything reverberating between them. And it was reassuring to know that Tav was in exactly the same place, that his eyes meant he couldn’t lie and hide that from her. “Any other Detyen things I should know about?”

Tav knew he was in trouble with Molly standing there, looking up at him like he had the galaxy in his eyes. And that playful question she asked came with so much baggage she couldn’t realize. What was he supposed to say? Most of my race was slaughtered a hundred years ago. Or if I don’t claim you I will die on my thirtieth birthday. She didn’t need all of the painful truths and memories he carried within himself. Certainly not after the kiss that had rocked him off of his axis and reformed him anew with every press of her lips.

He brushed his lips against her forehead and offered her a smile. “I can’t give up all of my secrets just yet,” he teased. “I wouldn’t want to lose my mysterious allure.”

Molly’s lips pressed together tightly until her face burst into a bright smile. “I’m not sure that you can.”

“Can what?” He couldn’t stop touching her, fingers playing with her hair and ears, other hand cupping her hip and pulling her close. She felt so good, like coming home, and he didn’t want to let her go.

“Lose your mysterious allure.” She snorted out a laugh and shook her head, face showing disbelief. “What are you doing to me, Tav?”

I’m your mate . He could have said it just yet, but something stopped his tongue. This was still too new, too fresh, and he didn’t want to frighten her before she gave him a chance. “I’m as drawn to you as you are to me,” he promised.

She opened her mouth but shut it quickly and sucked in a breath, as if pulling back whatever words she’d been about to say. After a stuttered moment, she said, “I didn’t cause you any problems yesterday, did I? I kind of kidnapped you.”

“I was where I needed to be,” he assured her. Things had been handled on his end, not perfectly, not exactly as he would have done it, but the ship was being repaired and the passengers had accommodations for the duration of their stay.

A loud crash sounded from the other room and they both startled. Molly looked around him, curling around to get a better look. “We’d better go back,” she said regretfully. “I’m sure the kids have managed to get into trouble while mommy was gone.”

“What is your role, exactly?” She was clearly planning something, but they hadn’t discussed what they did when they met. And they’d been too busy kissing this morning to say anything else.

“I’m planning the winter party,” Molly said. “I think I told you that?”

Now that she mentioned it, he recalled something like that. “But what is your role on the station?”

“Planning the party,” Molly repeated. “I’m here specifically for that, I don’t normally live on Honora Station. I travel around and plan events. I kind of fell into it by accident when I ran out of money on a space cruise a few years ago. I offered to do some work for the ship to pay off my bill, and the rest is history. I’ve been going around from stations to planets and offering my services. Some places like the human touch, it’s a bit different than what their own people can offer.”

“Interstellar party planner, I didn’t realize such a thing existed.” He often met those in interplanetary trade, diplomacy, and war, and very few of his passengers worked at bringing joy to others.

“Neither did I,” she admitted. “But it’s fun. I don’t know how else I would have afforded to stay off planet for so long.”

“Is there something wrong with your planet?” They were a long way from Earth and news could be delayed.

“I just wanted to see bigger things, you know? When the entire universe is out there, it’s hard to stay bound to a single blue dot.” She squeezed his arm before letting him go and walking across the room to find one of her helpers, leaving Tav adrift for the moment.

He wondered if his denya would feel the same if she didn’t have a true home to return to. Tav had never known the security of a planet where he truly belonged. Detya had been destroyed long before his birth and though Jaaxis had a decent Detyen population, they were still outsiders there, refugees with no chance of ever returning home. He didn’t want to wallow in tragedy, not when the future was waiting for him with a smile on her face. Molly beckoned him to come closer and Tav moved. He could think more on that later. Right now he had a mate to help.