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And it covered Gen from head to toe.

I froze, fearing she would wake coughing and sneezing and demanding to know what the hells I’d done. Instead, she made a contented sound and snuggled deeper into the bed. I had not thought it possible for her to look any more lovely to me, but covered with the strange, sparkling dust from my wings, she appeared closer to a goddess than a human woman.

I did not want to wake her, but I didn’t know what effect my dust might have. “Captain,” I murmured and touched her shoulder. “Captain Drae.”

She opened her eyes and blinked at her shimmering, dusted arm. My heartbeats thundered in my ears.

Her brow furrowed, Gen raised her hand to study the dust more closely, turning it in the dim light provided by the comms panel above the bed and the starlight streaking by outside the window.

“Good morning, or whatever time of day it is,” she said, flicking her gaze up to my face. “Is this from you? Did you have a good dream?”

I started to protest, but her tone was light. Her lips had turned up at their corners too. She was teasing me.

Utterly at a loss, I said, “I am sorry.”

“No, you’re not.” She stretched with a groan, then rolled over to face me and prop her head on her hand. As she moved, the dust caught the light and shimmered like a galaxy of stars. “No more sorry than I was when I stared at you earlier, wondering how you look under that uniform.” She gestured at the dust. “So, what is this?”

“I don’t know,” I admitted. “My wings…this has never happened before.”

She marveled at her hand, turning it to see the dust shimmer. “This is so beautiful, and it smells like you—like a rain forest.” Her gaze swept over my wings and entire body before returning to my face. “You’ve painted me to look like you. Did you want to do that?”

“No,” I said, and then reconsidered. With her, I thought honesty would serve me better than evasiveness. “But I am very glad it happened.”

“Why?”

I decided to risk speaking the words I’d been thinking since the moment I’d lain on top of her in the cargo hold with my cock between her thighs and her scent calling me home. “Before this, you were the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen. Now you are the most beautiful woman in the galaxy.”

Her smile grew. “That’s a good line, Kerian Nos. But I’m immune to lines. Do better.”

I dared to lean close and run my keen nose and one of my antennae along her shoulder and up the graceful curve of her neck. “It’s only a line if it’s not true,” I murmured into her ear. She shivered. “I wish you could see yourself through my eyes, Captain Drae. Then you would know I’m speaking the truth.”

She chuckled low in her throat. “Call me Gen, Kerian. I’m covered in your stardust. I think we’re on a first-name basis now.” She turned her head so her mouth was near mine. Even her lips shimmered. I longed to kiss them. “If you’ve never made this stardust before, what’s going on here?” she asked.

“How can I tell you?” I caressed her shoulder and neck again, this time with both my antennae so I could drink in her taste, her scent, the silky smoothness of her skin. “I cannot explain it to myself.”

“Then I’ll explain it.” She slipped her free hand around the back of my neck. My hearts raced at her cool touch. “We survived a disaster in space. Nearly dying has a way of making us want to enjoy the best things about being alive.”

I did not imagine it; she wanted me. Her desire shone in her eyes. The smell of her arousal made my antennae twitch and my cock harden.

“Yes, it does,” I said, my lips on her jaw. “What did you have in mind?”

“I think you know.” She shivered again. “If you’d like me to spell it out for you, I will. I was disappointed when I saw you’d put clothes on.”

Gods above, if I’d thought she would want to see my naked body in her bed, I would have left these uncomfortable coveralls in the medical bay.

“I want to know what you look like, from your antennae to your feet,” she continued. She ran her fingertip along one of my antennae, her touch as light as a feather, and the scent and taste of her felt like a bolt of lightning down my spine. “You saw me naked,” she said, her smile a playful pout. “But I don’t remember how you looked in the stasis pod because of the damn concussion. It’s not fair.”

“I only saw you as a medic who treated a patient,” I countered, but my voice shook because she’d begun stroking my scalp and running her fingers through my hair. Her flesh was at least ten or fifteen degrees cooler than mine, and the sensation of her touching me made it difficult to think clearly.

“Fair enough. But I’m no longer your patient. I’m healed and rested and feeling very good about being alive.” She slid her hand from my head to my chest and rested her shimmering palm above my primary heart. “I’d like you to look at me in a very different way now.”

What would she think if I admitted I had looked at her in the way she described when she’d tried to stab me in the very place her hand rested now? As strange as those words might sound to someone else, I thought she might understand.

But does she want my touch because I saved her life, or for some other, deeper reason?I wondered. Perhaps the answer should not matter to me, but it did.

Gen pressed her lips to my chest, then met my gaze. “I can guess what you’re thinking because I’d be thinking the same thing. I’ll tell you plainly so there’s no misunderstanding. You saved my life even after I tried to kill you. In return, I’m letting you stay on my ship and share my limited emergency resources all the way to Ymar II.” She rolled to her knees so she was closer to eye level with me. “What we do on this bed is not a reward for services rendered.”

“I’m relieved to hear it,” I said. “For the record, I would not have turned you down, but it makes a difference.”