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Heriot grabbed her hand in his and rested them both on his enormous thigh. “The first time’s always the worst,” he remarked.
She clutched his fingers with a death grip, her other hand white-knuckled on the arm rest, imagining a day in the future where she’d be as blasé about being pummeled with gravity and jumping off treacherous seaside cliffs as Heriot was. And suddenly as it began, it was over. She let out a huge sigh of relief when the pressure lifted from her chest, like ropes being loosened.
Heriot unclicked, stood up, and yelled out, “Jadzion. Status?”
“We’re out the other side and back in our system. Looks good. Course is set for R’Etor.”
Hannah looked around, her eyes searching for the location of the video or intercom or whatever the brothers were talking through, but she couldn’t find it. Damn, this ship was fancy!
“I’m taking my mate to use the cleansing unit,” Heriot said. He leaned down and unclicked her belt with blinding efficiency, helping her to stand on her suddenly shaky legs. “And then we are staying in my room, alone, for the rest of the trip,” he announced.
“Of course, you are,” his brother laughed. “Gotta wash that filthy planet out of your hair. We’ll meet up again later and introduce our mates prior to arrival in R’Etor. I transferred the flight path and ETA to you. And Heriot…Mom is going to love this.”
Hannah noticed a rare smile hover at the edges of Heriot’s mouth as he thought about his mother.
“Yes,” he answered. He met her gaze with sparkling silver eyes. “Sheisgoing to love this.”
“Don’t touch anything,”Heriot ordered as the door to his room slid shut behind them. He started pulling off weapons strapped to him and hidden in his jacket. Her eyes widened at the pile that was growing on the shelves he had built into the wall, she assumed, for this purpose. One thing after another, heavily clanging as he put them away. It took him a while to take all his weapons off.
“I cannot believe you were walking around with all that.”
He grinned. “I come prepared.” Then he began stripping out of his clothes. He glanced over at her. “Take your clothing off, too.”
Both of them naked? This sounded like a terrific idea. She took off her jacket and dropped it to the floor.
Heriot sucked in a sharp breath. “Our clothing is not being washed, it’s going into the incinerator.”
“Oh, sorry.”
“Continue, I will fix this.”
Heriot barely gave her growing nakedness a second glance, he was so intent on his task. He shook out a shiny foil-looking bag, scooped her jacket off the floor and stuffed his clothes and hers into it. Then he tied it up and slid the door to his room open, threw the bag out into the hallway and closed the door again.
“Nuking those Earth germs from orbit, just to be sure, aren’t you?” she laughed.
He crooked an eyebrow at her.
She shrugged.
Then he pulled her into his “cleansing unit” and began scrubbing her everywhere, his big body sagging with relief. Her new husband was obviously a germaphobe.
But none of this bothered her because all she could think of were those three words he’d said just before she’d jumped off the cliff.I love you.The words she hadn’t said back in reply but were stuck right there in her throat.
She loved him, so much it hurt.
She bit her lip. “Heriot,” she whispered, wanting to make sure this spectacular male knew what he was getting himself into. If he was a clean freak, he needed to know she was the opposite.
“Hmm?” he answered, a determined look on his face as he washed her stomach.
“Baby, I’m just trying to warn you I’m a bit of a slob. I’m well known for dropping my dirty clothes on the floor, not bothering to fold the clean ones and put them away, just leaving them in a crumpled pile I dig out of later. And, um, I allow clutter to pile up. I never dust. And I rarely do any dishes and instead eat take-out on disposable plates…”
A shiver of disgust shook his frame. “Stop. Stop,” he said, looking pained. His giant hands reached up to cup her face. “I’ll teach you my routines.”
She laughed and pulled his huge, wet body in for a tight hug. “And I’ll teach you to loosen up a bit. Sometimes germs are good for you. You gain an immunity to them when you let them in.”
A muscle ticked in his jaw. “You sound like my brother.”
She smiled. “Good.”
