Thoughts of Kaelion between my legs, of his golden eyes looking over my abdomen, of his tongue…of histongue, oh god.
Fantasies of riding him and grinding on him until I come.
Thoughts of his thumb in my mouth, his deep voice ordering me to hang onto the headboard, of those tendrils around my nipples…
Non-stop sex dreams.Non-stop.
And now I’m here, indulging myself with the company I’ve been dying for, that I absolutely should not be keeping.
The noodle shop is a little spot in Mythara Village, a Nyeri’i hole in the wall I’ve never been to before. There aren’t a ton of Nyeri’i on M’mir, and I don’t have any friends among them…andthis feels very niche. It smells amazing, though, almost like food from home, and I take a deep breath as we walk in.
The hostess smiles at us, unperturbed by the presence of a human.
“Three of you?” she asks.
Solvi beams. “Yup!”
The hostess laughs—which, fair, Solvi is adorable—and then gestures over her shoulder for us to follow. We’re seated at a ring-shaped table with about thirty seats around it, most occupied, a rotating buffet at its center. The buffet is packed with what I would describe as purple rice noodles with lots of vegetables, steaming a little, glossy with oil and herbs.
My mouth waters.
Totally because of the food.
Not the company.
Kaelion sits down first, then gestures for Solvi to sit. Solvi, despite where he points toward, sits between him and somebody else—leaving the only open seat next to Kaelion.
She’s up to something.
The kid is devious as hell.
I slide into the seat beside Kaelion, careful not to touch him. I nearly came when we bumped into each other in the street, and I don’t intend on this becoming aWhen Harry Met Sallysituation. That’s harder to prevent than I hoped, though; we’re close enough that I can feel his body heat, my skin tingling at the notion of his tendrils brushing out and touching me. I keep my hands folded in my lap and stare at the rotating buffet like it’s the most fascinating thing in the world, not a slow-moving test of my self-control.
“So,” I say, “do we just…take whatever we want?”
Kaelion side-eyes me. “That is typically how it works.”
I look past him to see that Solvi is already shoveling noodles onto her plate, plus some little dumplings with five points. She’seating with a two-pronged fork, and I look down to find the same thing in front of me.
“It smells delicious,” I say.
“It’s great,” Solvi offers, a purple noodle hanging out of her mouth. “What do you eat on Earth?”
I grab some noodles on the next rotation, smiling over at Solvi. “Lots of stuff. We have something like this called a sushi train.”
“What’s sushi?”
“Usually raw fish and vegetables, all rolled into rice and seaweed.”
Solvi wrinkles her brow. “You eat seaweed on Earth?”
“Some people do. Not everyone. We also eat noodles, but they aren’t this color…and my family likes to make spicy food. Have you ever had human barbecue?”
Solvi’s eyes widen and she nods vigorously. “Wulfric got us barbecue one time!”
I look from Solvi to Kaelion. “Wulfric?”
“Shahar’s future mate,” he offers.
