Page 14 of Topping Off the Alien

Before he can answer, the door slides open, and I dive, dragging the covers over both of us and pressing my face into his chest. His heartbeat thumps against my cheek, steady and maddeningly calm, and above me, he chuckles. His hand settles on my back under the blanket, and he pulls the covers even higher, tucking them around me.

“Your Highness, we wanted to—” The voice cuts off. “Apologies, Your Highness. We didn’t know the human was still—”

“He is, as you can see,” Sol says dryly. “What do you need?”

Two sets of footsteps cross the room and stop at a respectful distance from the platform. I keep my face buried against Sol’s sternum and silently curse him. The marks on his chest glow in the dark under the blanket, warm points of light against my mouth, and somehow I know he’s enjoying this.

“Ship’s readings, Your Highness,” the first voice continues. “We registered an energy surge recently. A significant one. Engineering flagged it and asked us to confirm it was… expected.”

“It was,” Sol says.

“The readings are still climbing.”

“They will continue to climb.”

A pause. I picture the guy doing the math on exactly where that energy is coming from, and my ears go hot.

“Very well, Your Highness. Navigation also asked me to relay that the window for the return course holds for another twelve hours. After that, the drift will pull us out of alignment, and we’ll need to recalculate.”

“I see. Is there anything else?”

I’m getting bored down here, and Sol deserves some payback for letting these guys in. So I press my mouth to the center of his chest, right next to the glowing marks, and kiss him there. His skin is hot and faintly salty. Sol’s breath catches, a hitch I feel through his whole rib cage.

“…No, Your Highness,” the second crew member says. “That’s all we—”

I drag my tongue lower, following the line of muscle I was working on before they interrupted us. His abs tighten under my mouth. I take my time tracing the ridge, then close my teeth gently over a patch of skin and tug.

“The navigation estimate,” Sol says, his voice dropping half a register, “assumes full power. Does it account for—” I suck on his skin, hard, and his hand clamps down on my shoulder. “—for a margin of error?”

“Standard margin, Your Highness. Five percent.”

“Increase it to ten and revise the course window.” His composure holds, but only just, and the effort I can hear in his voice fills me with giddy, evil joy. I move lower, my tongue dipping toward his navel, and his stomach muscles jump against my lips. The current crackles everywhere we touch, and I can feel it building under his skin, feeding him. The fact that he has to just lie there and take it in front of his crew makes my dick throb.

“Of course. Is everything… all right, Your Highness?”

“Everything is perfect.” Sol’s fingers slide into my hair under the covers, and for one second I think he’s going to drag me up. Instead, his grip holds firm, his thumb pressing once against my skull in a warning I have every intention of ignoring. “You’re dismissed, and I am not to be disturbed anymore unless the ship is on fire.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

The footsteps retreat, faster than they came, and the door slides shut with a soft chime.

Sol rips the blanket back and glares down at me, except the corners of his mouth are turned up, and that ruins the whole effect.

“What were you doing?”

“Me?” I prop my chin on his chest. “What were you doing? You let them in while we’re both naked!”

“We were covered.”

“It doesn’t matter. They knew exactly what was going on in here.”

“It is not a concern.” He shrugs one shoulder. “On Prasinus, staff attend the royal family in all circumstances. Being found in bed with a partner is unremarkable. It would be like being found at breakfast.”

“So if we’d been going at it when they walked in, they’d just… deliver the report anyway?”

“They would wait politely until we reached a natural pause.”

I stare at him and realize he’s being completely serious. “Your planet is insane.”