Page 9 of Hijack! (Cosmic Connections Cruise #1)

All the air of the atmo-hall, sweet as it was, left Ellix in a rush—replaced by something much more intoxicating.

The scent of her.

It swirled through his head, threatening to disrupt his discipline like a reckless finger on a power toggle. “There’s no need for you to know Kufzasin mating rituals. There are no Kufzasin passengers here.”

“But there’s you. And I’m supposed to make everybody happy. That’s my duty.”

So she had not studied him specifically. That was no reason for his whiskers to wither like plasma-scorched petals.

And yet the idea that she’d studied others ignited some unjustifiable wrath in him. “Earther curiosity exceeding capacity for understanding is why your world is still closed.”

“Yet here I am.” When she smiled this time, the expression looked daring.

“And I just so happen to know, lots of other species do kiss. It’s not uncommon since the sensitive nerve endings in mouth-like appendages are fun and pleasurable to rub together.

” She let out a little scoffing noise. “But of course, you weren’t going to kiss me, even though your mouth was very close to mine—”

“To bite you,” he growled.

Curse the infinite stars, that silenced her.

“Didn’t the IDA handbooks mention it?” He closed the last bit of distance between them, all that she’d left when she pursued him into the bower. “Kufzasin hunt their mate by scent, and one bite reveals the devotion.”

Despite the implied peril, she didn’t retreat. She tilted her head all the way back to stare up at him. Her throat, bared, fluttered when she swallowed. “What does it mean? The…devotion?”

“You won’t find it in any book. There is no spoken word that encompasses it, not in any language, not from any translator. Once triggered, it binds mates, wholly and permanently, like cold welding in the vacuum of space.”

“Cold weld…” Felicity narrowed her eyes. “That’s when certain kinds of metals get frozen together.”

“Not frozen. Inextricably fused when the pure surfaces touch and the atoms align themselves as a greater whole.” He stopped himself before he got any more poetical. “That is why Kufzasin don’t date.”

“Oh.” The soft breath left her. “That is…a bit much to promise on a three-sunset speed dating tour.”

He was too close to her. He knew that. The scent of her filled his mouth, and his whiskers vibrated with her proximity. He would always be able to find her in the darkest void between the farthest stars.

But he’d done his reading too, because they both knew their duty. He was her captain; more than that, he’d been a captain too long to steer so far off course. Besides, Earthers did not choose mates with a bite.

And there could be no taste without a bite.

“What if I demanded it?” Those breathless words from her pierced him when he realized he’d spoken aloud. Before he could retreat, she amended, “No, not demand. What if I showed you instead? Just lips, maybe tongue. No teeth.”

The soft air was so heavy in his body, sultry with her scent, he felt unable to escape.

Which was a lie, of course. Because his legs worked. The artificial gravity was functional. He just didn’t want to leave.

Instead, he settled a paw at her waist, as he’d done when they danced. “What exactly is promised aboard the Love Boat I?”

“A connection and a chance, according to the brochure,” she said. “Also, I suppose, hope.”

Hope . He had come to hide, to escape the message cube still in his pocket. “And I thought I was just making sure we didn’t run into any moons.”

“That’s important too. You’re still the captain, after all.”

He wondered if he had bigger worries now.

Or maybe just one small, delicate one.

Though she boosted herself up to her tiptoes, she was too short to reach him, so he obligingly lifted her to the bench. She let out a startled little laugh, clutching at his shoulders, though he didn’t—wouldn’t—let her falter.

Despite the added height of the bench, she still had to look up at him, just a bit. And she didn’t let go of his shoulders, even when she steadied. “So, the Earther kiss is simple. Are you ready?”

Why was his heart beating so fast? He outweighed her. He outranked her, even though she wasn’t command crew and thus not a direct report. If worse came to worse, he could outrun her. “Does it need so many words?”

This time her smile was wicked. “Just your yes.”

“Yea.”

She stroked her hands up his shoulders to his neck, then higher, into his mane. “Mm. I’ve been wondering…”

“Wondering what?” His voice was rough from the pleasure of her touch.

“What you would feel like. So thick but silky.” She was an Earther, so why did that judgement sound like a purr? “Are your whiskers sensitive?”

“Very.”

Her fingers spread through his mane the same way she’d mirrored the silent explosion of the second moon’s light. “I’ll be gentle.”

Like she didn’t want to frighten him so she would take only the utmost care. As if he didn’t outweigh and outrank her. As if he were many delicate pieces, scattered across lonely lightyears, that she would gather up in her hands.

With tender traction, she brought his mouth down to hers.

When her soft lips yielded beneath his, the moment of first contact seemed to go on forever, and he reveled in the eternity.

She tilted her head, just a tiny degree, and yet that sent the kiss tumbling on a whole new course, unfamiliar sensations zinging through him.

And the taste of her… Just as he’d imagined, but richer. His whiskers ached with shimmering need, almost electrified at the infinitesimal friction as they merely breathed each other in, their mouths molding, tempering, shaping to each other.

Helplessly, his fingers tightened on her hips… And after this intoxicating eternity, if he kissed her another zeptosecond, his claws would go right through the sturdy fabric of her uniform, and he would bare all her fragile skin to his ravenous mouth.

He did not, after all, have the strength to run.

It took everything he had merely to lift his head enough to break the kiss.

And even that tiny distance seemed too much; he had to pause with his forehead bent to hers.

His mane, curling from the atmo-hall’s humid warmth, curtained their faces, but the little lights gleamed through the strands, leaving shadows across her face, as if he’d marked her even though there’d been no biting.

She flattened her palms on his chest, half in the open neckline where his ruff was too voluminous to cram under clothing.

When she flexed her hands, her fingertips sank into his fur, revealing the lines of scars where he had been marked by cold fire.

He shuddered, not at the old wounds, but she let out a little sound of dismay.

“Sorry,” she whispered. “Was that too much? I know sometimes I’m too much. Sometimes—”

He clamped his hands over hers and swooped down to kiss her again.

Her mouth was partly open, and the oof of her breath as he hauled her against his chest flooded into him, exhilarating as Alferian ale—and more dangerous. He rumbled low in his throat when her arms went around his neck, holding him even tighter.

And she growled back. But when her tongue flickered out to touch his lips, he knew he had to stop. “Felicity… Azeeli, wait.”

She jerked back, so fast and hard she almost threw herself into the arch of flowers. He grabbed her, and she grasped his forearms, both of them holding on too tight even as they pushed apart.

Her eyes were wide, the innocent blue ringed in startled white, more lovely than the blossoms around them. “Ellix… Captain. I’m so…”

He wanted her to keep going, but the reminder of his position evoked an essential distance.

And yet he did not release her. “We need to talk about what’s happening on this ship.”

+ + +

Felicity held back a horrified laugh. Yeah, some thing had happened. Her lips were hot and swollen when she curled them inward, biting down to stop the hysterical sound.

Biting like he hadn’t.

Her whole body shivered with need. The need for his paws to keep roaming… No, the need to flee at lightspeed with her face on fire. But she was standing on the grotto stone bench with his big body blocking escape.

She took a small, steadying breath, which just emphasized the lingering taste of him, more potent than any of the synthequer cocktails. Her fingers still tingled with the lush texture of his fur. God, if she rubbed herself against all of him, naked…

“What’s happening…” She gulped another breath, desperate to clear her head. “We were excited to get underway. And the vibe is very…fun. As it’s supposed to be! And we just… It was nothing. Just a moment.”

The way he stared down at her, that golden eye narrowed and judgmental—as if he hadn’t been kissing her right back—straightened her spine. And sharpened her elbows, which nudged him away as she jumped off the bench.

But he kept ahold of her waist, and just as well, since her knees wobbled.

“It was just a bit of a scary moment,” she continued firmly.

“Kissing?”

She glared at him. “The power outage.”

“The power didn’t go out. It was a harmonic distortion.”

Flapping one hand in dismissal, she fumbled for her abandoned datpad with the other. When had she put it down? Bracing it in front of her was the shield she needed, and she rolled back her shoulders decisively. “Whatever it was, it happened. But nothing happened -happened.”

“Happened-happened.” His eye narrowed to a mere golden slit. “The fluctuation?”

“The kissing!” She almost hissed the word. “It’s fine. We only have one more sunset, and then when we’re back in port you can do whatever to chase down the issue before the next tour.”

“That is a lot of whatever.”

She wanted to wrap her hands around his neck again—to strangle him. “Excuse me for not knowing all the terminology for spaceship fluctuations.”

“You had a lot to say about kissing.”

“You said yes,” she blurted.

That made his lip curl. Was he snarling silently? Mirroring an Earther smile? She wasn’t sure.