Page 109 of Stardusted

He appeared to be fluent in horny Raven because, with a muffled curse, he dropped the arm braced above my head and bent, gripping beneath my thigh. The world lurched as he lifted me, and my back hit the wall with a soft thump.

It shocked me enough, I gasped into his mouth.

He’d just…hoisted me like I weighed nothing. All without breaking the kiss. Somehow, I didn’t combust, but I did moan, because he settled my legs around him…and he’d just answered a few verypressingquestions.

It sure felt like his physiology was compatible.Verycompatible, if that friction told me anything. And it was telling me all sorts of things. Mainly that we were wearing way too much clothing.

I clamped my knees tighter around him. Combustion was now a very real possibility.

Sky’s hand flexed on my thigh, and he broke the kiss, just long enough I caught the faint gleam of his heavy-lidded eyes, felt the rush of his breath on my cheek, and then he claimed my mouth again. His hips gave the tiniest roll, pressing me harder into the wall, and my thighs trembled around him at the answering burst of sensation.

Perfect. He felt perfect, tasted perfect, and this was so incredibly reckless. Such a terrible idea. Such a wonderful, terrible idea.

I didn’t want it to end.

My fingers found his hair—just as silky as I’d thought it’d be—and my marked palm skated across his bare torso. His skin pebbled beneath my hand.

Speaking of hands, his were wandering. The one on my thigh had found my hip, and the other drifted down my side, toying with my shirt’s hem. I gave him an enthusiastic wiggle, rubbing against the hardness trapped between us.

“Raven,”he choked out against my lips. That sent a pulse straight through me, and it settled between my legs.

I knew then I wasn’t going to stop this. I couldn’t. I was all in. Alien or not, I didn’t care. It was still Sky.

And I was on fire. He was on fire, too.Wewere burning.

I could feel it in my blood.

I could feel it buzzing?—

Wait,buzzing?—?

My breath hitched, and I jerked back. My hand rested on his stomach, and my palm…

Holy shit—my hand was glowingagain. White light, brilliant and unmistakable, spilled from me and shimmered across his skin.

His silver,alienskin.

My lips parted in shock. Under my fingertips, the disguise had slipped. Vanished. His abs glittered like diamond-studded metal.

It’d happenedagain.

Sky inhaled sharply, breathing it out as an oath that sounded just as stunned as I felt. But I couldn’t look up yet to see his expression. I could only gape at the sight in front of me.

His stomach was as warm and hard as ever beneath my hand—but it felt different now, subtly textured. Up close, his Pladian skin was even more intricately detailed, beautiful in a frightening, impossible way. Like layers of stardust painted over all that muscle.

I was touching alien skin.

Like I was in a dream, I finally lifted my spinning head.

Most of him still looked like human Sky…except for his eyes. The whites had darkened to black, just like they had behind Oasis. Incandescent cerulean swirled in place of his irises, and his lips—still kiss-swollen—parted in what looked like wonder.

That was enough to snap me out of it.

Realizing he still had me pinned, I squirmed. He got the message and let go. I slid back down to my feet and collapsed against the wall behind me, gawking between my still-glowing hand and Sky’s alien parts.

“What…?” I whispered, throat drying out. I fisted my hand around the fierce glow.

Sky lurched back a step, widening the gap between us. “I don’t understand.” He looked at me, then down at himself. “How does this keep happening?”