Page 45 of Alien Burn

Her smile lingered. Dhomhes found himself watching it, relieved beyond reason to have put it there after his clumsy approach.

“What?” she asked.

“Nothing.”

She gave him a patient look.

He deserved that one too.

“I like your smile,” he said.

Sereya went very still. Then her fingers tightened around the cup.

“You could have said that.”

“I just did.”

“Before staring.”

“Would that have been better?”

She glanced down. “I would have known what you were looking at.”

He leaned toward her before he caught himself. Barely a movement, but she saw it; her eyes dropped to the space he had narrowed.

“Now you do.”

She looked at him again, and this time neither of them hurried to look away.

Warmth stirred along his spine. His armor lifted beneath the jacket, the same response he had felt when she stood at the top of the ramp.

He had told Khalzin they could control this. Standing on the platform, certain of himself, before he'd even seen her.

Two days of trying to explain it away had changed nothing. His body had recognized her. All he had managed was to keep the knowledge to himself.

“Is the stone uncomfortable?” Sereya asked.

“No.”

Her gaze flicked to his shoulder, then back to his face. A little color rose in her cheeks.

She had noticed. He owed her more than a joke about his jacket.

Sereya set down her cup. It rocked on the rounded edge, and they both reached to steady it.

His fingers closed over hers.

The cup stopped moving. Neither did anything about their hands.

Her skin was warm. He could feel the fine bones beneath his fingers, the slight pressure as she held the vessel in place. He had touched strangers, friends, wounded people, more bodies than he wished to count in the past few days.

This small contact made him hesitate.

The ridges pressed harder against his clothes. His hand began to close around hers, and he checked the pressure before it could trap her fingers against the cup. She was near enough for him to breathe her in. Leaving his hand still took effort.

“I think we've saved it,” she said.

He looked at the cup.