Page 19 of The Dreamer and the Deep Space Warrior (Xaal Alien Romance #1)

Isobel

Ved waited for her at the forest’s edge.

Since he’d come to her bedroom four nights ago, this had become their routine. No matter when she was able to get away, he was there waiting for her, as though he sensed her the moment she stepped outside. As though there was an invisible thread connecting them.

“You brought the same book?” Ved asked once they boarded his ship.

“Of course I did.”

Beyond handing off tools to him as he needed, the tasks she could help him with dwindled. Their time together was running out, and the knowledge of that weighed heavy on her.

Which was why, when he asked her to read to him while he worked, she couldn’t refuse. At first, she offered to read him some of the great adventure novels tucked away in their library, but he was adamant that it needed to be one of SV’s books.

Despite her arguments, that was exactly how she found herself reading one of the author’s older novels to him .

Nolan dismissed his captain with a wave of his hand. Charlotte had been through enough; she didn’t need Reginald’s overbearing presence on top of it. As soon as the door shut and they were alone, he wrapped his arms around her.

Charlotte’s body melted against his, a perfect fit. She sighed with relief. “Oh, Nolan, I couldn’t bear to be away from you.”

“I’m here now, my love. I vow to never leave you again, my sweet Charlotte. I want everything with you. I want to be your protector, your confidant, and your support,” Nolan professed before capturing her mouth in a passionate kiss. His hands wrapped around her waist to—

Isobel cut herself off with a surprised gasp. She’d gone through the night before and marked the passages in the book that held anything risqué, but she was so caught up in the story she’d overlooked her notations.

“To what?” Ved asked after too long a silence. He was laid out on a wheeled flat board, the control table hiding his upper body from view.

When she didn’t answer, he rolled out to look at her. His abs and pectorals tensed with the movement, showing her so much of his form he may as well have been topless. “You would leave me without the knowledge of what Nolan did?”

“I can’t finish,” she rasped.

His eye shields flashed, and she wondered if he was looking at her heart. Would it betray how she felt? She surreptitiously brought the novel up to shield her chest.

“In this book and in the one you used as a weapon, they mention this kissing many times. I do not understand it fully.”

She imagined he was looking at her expectantly.

Did Xaal not kiss? She supposed if they indulged in casual encounters, they would have to keep their helmets on even during intimate moments, since they only showed their faces to their mates and closest friends.

But was he purposely torturing her? Or did he not realize what he was asking?

“You are tense, Isobel Nott, and your heart is beating rapidly,” he purred.

“You’re teasing me for your own enjoyment,” she said with narrowed eyes.

He placed a fist over one heart. “I would never do that. I am an honorable Xaal, but I must know what Nolan did, and what this kissing is.”

“It’s improper,” she managed. “To discuss. With you.”

He sat up. “I do not understand all these rules. You can’t be touched or talk about intimacy, but you have to bind yourself to a male, and your males can’t even hunt well,” he grumbled.

“Have you not been with anyone in such ways? What keeps you from doing so? Is it a matter of honor? Are you being monitored?”

Isobel frowned even as her face burned hot.

It wasn’t that she cared about the rules, she broke plenty of them, but speaking about intimate things with a man—of this planet or any other—was beyond anything she’d ever done.

It certainly didn’t help that, every time she read an SV book now, she was reminded that in three months she would be doing some of these activities with Richard. Though with far less passion.

“No one is watching us.” She swallowed hard and swore she saw Ved’s eye shields glow orange.

“And I have not been with anyone intimately,” she responded, only because he deserved to have answers to his questions given the amount she asked.

“There are no laws, exactly, it is more left to society to weigh and judge. If it was found that a gentlewoman had relations with a man she wasn’t wed to, she would be ostracized.

It would ruin her reputation and her family’s.

And not only is it taboo for a woman of my station, but I have never met a man that I would want to… ”

“Kiss? Let them grab your waist and…” He prompted, gesturing to the novel.

Her gaze flicked to the book, then back up to him. A defeated sigh passed her lips. “Must I?”

“Vay. It would please me to know what Nolan does next.”

She cleared her throat and found where she’d left off . Ved’s gaze was intense, and she felt it on her like an invisible touch.

His hands wrapped around her waist to lift her up. Charlotte twined her arms around his neck and her legs around his torso.

His time away from her had only intensified his need for her.

“Take me,” she pleaded.

Isobel paused again, unable to go any further.

“And does he?” Ved asked in a low voice that had something fluttering deep in her core.

She nodded curtly. “And they lived happily ever after,” she rasped, closing the book with a snap.

He tilted his head slightly, and she was suddenly aware of her body—the stays that seemed tighter, her pebbled nipples, her shortened breaths, something hot coiling low in her stomach. Could he see all of that? Somehow sense it?

The sound that came from him was a growly, hungry thing—the depth of which sank straight to her core.

Something told her he could.

She squeezed her thighs together, willing her body to behave.

To not betray her. But she was no longer in control of it.

The charged silence between them was a catalyst of its own.

She wanted to leave and move closer to him at the same time.

Her gaze drifted down his dark mask, his thick throat.

Down his defined body. Her lips parted with her shallow breaths before she realized what she was doing.

Blazes. Her eyes snapped to his mask again. For once, she was thankful she couldn’t see what expression he made beneath it.

“You surprise me every day, Isobel Nott,” he finally said, breaking whatever shared spell they’d been under. “Did you like this book?”

The intensity was still a living thing between them. “Yes,” she mustered. “This one used to be my favorite before the pirate novel.”

“I prefer the pirate. He was more capable than Nolan, stronger, but … I didn’t like that his bruvya betrayed him. I could never imagine Kravis becoming a traitor. Such an act is unthinkable and dishonorable.”

Isobel exhaled a sigh of relief. This was safer territory, but the feeling of impending combustion was still there beneath her skin.

“It was shocking when SV revealed who had set Wesley up. I liked Thomas, too. The author has a way of making you fall in love with all the characters, and so it hurts that much more when one of them dies or does something awful.”

“How do you know the author is a female?” “Because no man can write men the way she does, of course, nor women so fierce and free.” Isobel had known from the moment she met her first book suitor and heroine, that SV was a woman.

Ved made a thoughtful sound before pushing himself back under the panel to continue his work. “There are many books, or something like them, in the galaxy, too. I wonder if I could find more stories like these.”

“I can only imagine all the great love stories out there, waiting to be devoured,” she said wistfully.

The mere thought made her heart ache. She wanted to read all of them.

“You have to promise you’ll look when you leave.

I bet they’re filled with daring space lords, epic star battles, and grand balls set on the sun. ”

Ved didn’t respond, and she let her imagination take her away.

If only she were up there, among the stars, what kinds of flower fields could she get lost in with a good book in hand?

She would find a planet where she could read her favorite books without fear of being caught.

And maybe she’d own her own bookstore, boasting the largest book collection in the galaxy.

“The halo wrench?” Ved asked, pulling her from her daydream.

When she handed him the large tool, his fingers closed over hers, his touch lingering. The softest of whimpers slipped from her lips before she pulled her hand away quickly.

Ved stiffened, his abdominals bunching into solid blocks. But he mercifully stayed beneath the table.

“I meant to tell you,” she said quickly over her discomfort, “I won’t be able to visit tomorrow.”

“Why?”

Isobel swung her legs from her spot on the control table. “Careful. That almost sounds like you’ll miss me.”

“Miss you?” he scoffed. “I never miss.”

“‘Miss me’ meaning you’ll be unhappy about my absence and wish I were here.” Though saying it aloud made her feel presumptuous. “Tell Exxo to keep up.”

“I will miss you,” he agreed and something swooped in her stomach. “And Exxo says that it isn’t his fault the Queen’s language is anything but royal. It’s more like the ass-end of a black hole.”

She smiled. Though she had no idea what a black hole was, the meaning was clear enough.

“Well, I’ll only be gone for a day. Unless you plan on having the ship powered by then and departing?

” It was something she thought about every day.

The repairs were coming along quickly. Every time she visited, he had new areas functional.

Soon, he would be finished working on the ship, and then he’d be back to the stars.

Gone forever.

“It won’t be ready by tomorrow, but where will you be?”

Relief flooded through her. “Good. I’ll be at a dance tomorrow night.”

Silence.