“Nothing special. A couple of overdue services on Helios. I want to spend a bit of the bonus. Sleep a lot. Eat a lot. Things like that.”
“Sounds good. I’m joining you for all of it.”
Lily slipped out of her own jacket and grimaced at the damp streak on it.
“You know what, Khar? Let’s shower together.”
“If you insist.”
* * *
The next few chrono-cycles were the best of Lily’s life, extraordinary in their very ordinariness.
Ordinary, because they did nothing remarkable. They simply lived alongside each other. They had a lot of sex, and when they were not having sex, they ate, slept, rested, and talked.
Extraordinary, because even running out to pick up calorie spheres with Khar felt like an adventure. In his presence, Lily felt vivid, wanted, alive.
The sex was otherworldly.
With her previous partners, things always seemed to end just as she was truly warming up. Sometimes she managed one or two orgasms. Sometimes not even that. She had never reached that boneless, jelly-like state where pleasure rolled through her again and again until she forgot how to hold herself together.
With Khar, everything changed.
The Divani was relentless. He could have gone day and night without pause, yet he always kept her needs in mind. Well, almost. He usually waited until Lily was reduced to breathless pleading, begging him to stop. Then he continued just a little longer.
Lily explained the concept of a safeword to him.
He loved it.
“How clever humans are to invent something like this,” he said. “That way I can listen to you beg in that sweet voice of yours, and I only stop when you throw ‘solar collector’ at my head.”
“It’s not going to be solar collector.”
“Why not?”
“It has to be something I would never say by accident.”
He nodded thoughtfully. “Yes. With you, there is a real risk you would bring up your ship during sex. I have accepted this.”
“Hey! I was joking!”
The safeword did not end up being solar collector.
And Khar made enthusiastic use of it.
* * *
Of course, there were moments when Lily ran headlong into the fact that Khar did not always think the way she did. Most of the time they fit together so seamlessly it was easy to forget they came from different species. But every now and then, he surprised her.
Once, Khar had gone back to his quarters to change while Lily lounged aboard Helios, listening to old music from Earth. When he returned, it never even occurred to her to turn it off.
Khar stepped inside, dropped the large bag he was carrying, and froze.
“Lily. What is this music? Do you have more of it?” He paused, then added with sudden intensity, “I want to fuck you while this is playing.”
She burst out laughing. “It kind of feels like you always want to.”
“That is correct,” he said seriously. “But to this? Especially.”
