Page 12 of 3 Secrets to Love (Romance Tales from the Quadrants #2)

Xacalla

Standing on the balcony of my hotel room, I took in the sweet nighttime air of Isador, the capital city of Gaunb.

We didn’t make it to Eurebly, instead getting a message from Minister Taleron to meet her on yet another planet in Quadrant Three after new developments about the Kalpierene children had emerged.

Both Phalon and I had confirmed the authenticity of the message using separate sources before he changed course.

Yet, when we arrived on Gaunb, the minister arrived on the runway to greet our jet and take over care for the triplets.

We weren’t given any other details, but the council put us up in a hotel, each with our own room, for the night, and promised us transportation back to Eurebly once we had been debriefed.

After having an ultrasonic shower, I ordered a proper meal from room service and read all my messages on my P-comm—though not allowed to respond to any of them.

I ate and read, but even with all that had happened since I had last slept in the cave on Arodin, I couldn’t settle.

Glancing out into the city, I enjoyed the darkness, the night not marred by the neon lights of multiple levels of hover traffic like on Eurebly.

Up in the sky, I could actually see the stars beyond the planet.

Not the same as flying through space, but it held a different appeal, twinkling dots seeming magical rather than the ball of fire they were.

While the view seemed beautiful, it also felt very lonely.

Back on Eurebly, I didn’t have many friends, but when I wasn’t off on a wish mission, there was always someone around and something to do.

People were everywhere.

In the hotel on Gaunb, I was confined to my room, not allowed any form of communication until my debriefing the next day.

I sighed and considered going back inside to lie down and try to sleep, but I heard the balcony door open to the suite next to mine.

Phalon walked out, wearing only a pair of night shorts, and his muscular and bare chest exposed.

I’d spent a lot of time around the former racer, but not once did I see him with so little clothing.

My heart raced in a way I didn’t understand.

Part of me wanted to run back inside and pretend I hadn’t seen him, while another part urged me to hop over onto his balcony and see if I could get another kiss and a whole lot more of his attention.

“Xacalla?”

My cheeks warmed when I realized he must have seen me staring at him. “Um, hi.”

I wanted to melt into the balcony or just disappear into the air.

“Couldn’t sleep, either?”

I swallowed down my embarrassment, trying not to act weird around him after we’d already spent so much time together.

“No. It’s, ah, too quiet here. I’m not used to it.”

“Yeah.”

He stepped closer and held onto the edge of the railing.

“Me, too. Wanna come over?”

“I…uh…”

As much as I tried to answer, my brain short-circuited and couldn’t come up with anything else to say.

“Sorry.”

He pushed off the railing and turned away.

“I guess I just got used to having you by my side, and it feels weird with you over there. But I’ll be fine. I’ll get over it.”

“No.”

I leaned over the railing toward him.

“I mean, I feel the same way. But I don’t think we’re allowed to leave our rooms. Aren’t there guards in the hallway?”

He shrugged.

“Yeah, I guess, but I could help you over here. Or I could climb over there.”

I paused, considering whether I wanted to get caught in his room or get caught with him in my room.

“Or maybe I’m being too presumptuous.”

“No.”

I reached toward him.

“Help me over.”

My sister was going to chastise me when she found out, but I didn’t care. I wanted to be with Phalon, only I didn’t know in what definition.

When I climbed to the edge of the railing, he grabbed my hands and helped me leap over to his balcony. And when he held me against his chest, I nuzzled against him while my body hummed with both excitement and nervousness.

He let go but reached for my hand and guided me into his suite. It wasn’t any different from mine, just the opposite layout.

“Have you eaten?” he asked.

“Yeah.”

When he dropped my hand, I worried I’d made a mistake in going over to his room where he had one bed, a bed with ruffled sheets where he looked like he’d already been sleeping. Or tried to.

“Wanna watch a movie?”

He picked up the controller for the large comm screen on the wall.

“Sure, I guess.”

I didn’t understand why I couldn’t act normal around him when we’d just spent so much time together, including being confined to a shack where I’d slept on his lap for an entire night.

He climbed onto the bed and on the side closest to the door, positioned a pillow between his back and the headboard. Then he patted the space beside him.

“Come here. You know I don’t bite.”

For some reason, my heart fluttered at his words even though I think he said it to get me to stop being so uptight.

Then I worried about what I was doing to make it so obvious I was nervous and how that would make him feel, considering I’ve known him for many star cycles and never had a reason to be jittery around him.

Stars, I needed to stop thinking all together and just get on the bed.

When I sat on the mattress, I sunk in more than I expected and ended up falling back onto his lap.

After glancing up at him in horror, I quickly sat up and tried to get comfortable on the other side without making myself out to be more of a fool.

Though I still heard the brief chuckle from Phalon.

“I guess I use a softer mattress setting than you do.”

“Yeah, I guess.”

Fixing on the best smile I could muster, I tried not to think about how close my head had been to his penis. And how he didn’t seem troubled at all by that fact.

After turning on the comm screen, Phalon set the controller between us.

“So, what do you want to watch? Any particular genre you prefer?”

A loaded question, considering anything with romance in it might lead to feelings I really didn’t want to think about, and scary movies could cause me to tuck into Phalon to feel safe next to him.

“I…I don’t know. You pick?”

“Hmm.”

He flicked through the choices and stopped on a space thriller that I hadn’t seen yet, but I had met the lead actor, Halen Filupay, for one of my wish fulfilments.

“This one okay?”

he asked after the trailer had finished.

I nodded. “Sure.”

Though that was when my eyes started to get heavy and I felt myself drifting off.

When I woke up, I was warm, but realized I wasn’t in the same position.

Instead, I’d moved closer to Phalon, to the point I rested my head on his chest, and he had his arm around me.

I didn’t know if it would be more awkward to pull away or to snuggle closer.

I chose not to move at all, but he must have known I’d woken.

He reached up and brushed the hair off my forehead.

“Did you sleep well?”

“Yeah.”

Glancing up at him, I paused when my gaze landed on his lips.

The memory of his kisses, of having my legs wrapped around him ignited a fire in my belly that traveled quickly out to the tip of each limb.

It made my brain think of only one thing: how to get Phalon to kiss me again.

In a surprise move, Phalon rolled me onto my back and lay beside me as he stroked his knuckles along the side of my face.

Then, as if he’d read my mind, he leaned closer until his lips were on mine, touching, prodding, and tasting.

The flames within me intensified as I breathed him in.

Hovering over me, he brushed his fingers down my side but paused just under the hem of my shirt. “Can I?”

Struggling to catch my breath after the kiss, I couldn’t respond other than to nod.

Though I’d never done anything more than kiss anyone, no part of me wanted Phalon to stop.

Biting the edge of my shirt with his teeth, he pulled it up to expose my breasts.

He’d probably seen so many since becoming a racer, but he caressed mine as if they were only pair that mattered.

With his eyes staring into mine, he circled his thumbs around my pert nipples before leaning down to lick then suck them.

I bucked my hips, the sensation foreign but I didn’t want him to stop.

He worked his hands up and down my body, prying out desires I’d never felt before.

One second, he kissed my lips, then his mouth was low on my stomach.

I could barely breathe, barely think.

He paused again as he fingered the waist of my sleep shorts.

“Do you want to keep going?”

That’s when the voices of all my siblings invaded my mind to warn me against sleeping with a space racer. As much as my body craved more from him, I couldn’t get their words out of my head.

Phalon didn’t wait for me to respond but moved off me and back to my side.

“I won’t push you or make you do anything you’re not comfortable with.”

With that, my heart felt like it would burst, and tears streamed down my cheeks. I wanted more but was relieved he’d stopped. Desire still coursed through my veins, yet I felt something more. Something very unfamiliar and strange.

“Coddleswap.”

With furrowed brows and wide eyes, Phalon wiped a tissue along the sides of my face to catch my tears.

“I didn’t mean to make you cry. I thought… I didn’t want to push you. You mean too much to me.”

Stars, had he really just said that? Did he mean because I was Zander’s youngest sister, or did he feel something more? Regardless of what he meant, I grabbed him and pulled him against me as more tears fell.

He’d made me feel things that I’d never experienced with anyone else.

What was it about him? I wanted to trust him, to experience things with him I had never even considered before meeting him, things that honestly repulsed me before.

He’d already ignited a spark I didn’t know was even possible.

But I wanted more with Phalon.

More time, especially.

Time to go on more adventures.

Ones where we weren’t trying to rescue three children and being shot at.

And time to explore the new and growing attraction I had for him.

One that seemed strange but natural, as if meant to be.

Yet, I knew we didn’t have any chance together that was guaranteed beyond that hotel room.

Holding me all through the night, he didn’t let go of me until the guards knocked on the door the next morning, looking for me.

It was time for my debriefing, and time to say goodbye to Phalon until the next time I ran into him.