“Don’t be,” she says, her voice low and warm. On a cold night, a girl could snuggle up in that voice.
I exhale slowly and decide to answer her. “You were right.”
All I get is a slight nod, but I don’t worry about that because she still hasn’t looked away. Out here in the airy passageway, the scent of lavender and vanilla on her skin is so much stronger, so much more compelling. The bite of red wine. Something else, something darker. Her pulse beats fast at the side of her neck, and I wonder—suddenly, bizarrely—if she applies fragrance there like I do. I want to dip my nose into the crease of her neck, drag it up to her nape and inhale deeply. Maybe she shudders—
“It’s nice that you have someone waiting for you in Suryavana,” I blurt out.
Heavy handed perhaps, but it put a stop to my daydreaming. Tanisira tilts her head, wets her bottom lip with the tip of her tongue. I watch the action with a hypnotic kind of focus, the flash of pink against copper.
“What about you?” she says.
I have to try twice to get my words out. “What about me?”
“Who’s waiting for you?”
Are we closer? Did I move closer to her? Her breath coasts across my skin, leaving goosebumps in its wake. She smells so unbearably good.
“Marlowe.”
My name rolls off Tanisira’s tongue likemadushira, a Suryavan honey with a kick; just a hint of spice, but it lingers long after you’ve had a mouthful. It’s stupid expensive and hardto get hold of. I feel suspended in her regard, pinned in place by all that honey.
“Who’s waiting for you?” she repeats. Maybe I’m crazy, but it almost sounds like a plea.
“No one,” I breathe. And it’s been no one for such a long time that I’d forgotten what it felt like to have this desperate kind of want racing beneath my skin, scorching my veins.
Something tears through Tanisira’s expression. She hesitates. I watch as her hand comes up to cup my face, the pad of her thumb swiping across my jaw. The heat of her palm sends a shiver rolling down my spine, and it takes all my energy not to close my eyes and melt into her touch.
It’s been so long.
“Sundara,” she murmurs.Beautiful. I’d find that hard to swallow considering the bruises that still colour my face, but her tone is downright reverent, and it flays me open. It scares me how much I want to experience her mouthing that word against my skin, feel her bottom lip scrape over me. I bet she kisses like she does everything else: with single-focused determination, expertise and care.
Tanisira steps into my personal space, closes any remaining distance between us. “May I kiss you?”
In her want, the words are coated in her accent. I want to taste them.
“What about your mystery woman?”
I could kick myself for even asking. She’d already said that it isn’t serious, had been adamant that they only see each other out of convenience. Except I already have an ex dogging my life, I don’t want another one.
Tanisira shakes her head. “Samiran doesn’t factor into this. It’s just us here, and you didn’t answer my question, Marlowe.”
Fuck it.
She’s perfect; her face, her competency, her demeanour. It’s been a hard two days and I’m practically putty in her hands. I want her to kiss me. I nod and watch those amber eyes heat. Right now, Tanisira’s looking at me like something she wants to possess. I’ve never been attracted to that, but when her hands slide up over my hips and around my waist, the weight of her against me like the most delicious surprise, an embarrassing sound slips from my throat. Desire curls low in my stomach. I have to balance myself with a hand on her chest, and I can feel her heart beating against my palm with urgency.
It can’t be me doing this to her, can it?
Tanisira lowers her head, and the warmth of her breath ghosts over my lips. I can’t tear my gaze away, and my heart does a slow flip in my chest.
“Sorry to interrupt, Captain Sekmith, but there’s something you will want to know.”
I yelp and leap back, barely avoiding the further embarrassment of smacking my head into the metal bulkhead. Tanisira manages to snatch me back in time. She looks at me, but I can tell she isn’t seeing me, making the switch to professional within seconds. I’d be impressed if I weren’t so shaken.
“An ISA cruiser approaches.”
The Interplanetary Space Authority.
Stowaway
