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29
With no opponents stepping up to challenge Zeek—Aidan was far too comfortable with Onnika cuddled sweetly in his lap—he switched the screen to watch race highlights. Priya and Vin had left to go “rest up,” as they put it, but the glances they’d been shooting each other suggested something else was on their minds.
Once again, Onnika’s image was plastered all over the screen. Apparently, her flight with the dragon was the talking point of the evening. She seemed to have enchanted the fans with her fiery spirit and daring stunts…just as she had enchanted him and his crew.
After a bit of commentary from the announcers, they replayed the moment when Onnika walked right up to him in dragon form, not a pinch of trepidation in her step, and seated herself upon his back as though it was her rightful place.
A more fearless creature he’d never encountered.
Watching the two of them in action from the camera’s angle was surreal. Either those flying cameras had great zoom capabilities, or they’d been hovering closer than he’d realized. Every time they caught a glimpse of Onnika up in the air with him, she’d had a huge smile on her face and her eyes were bright with excitement, her irises flashing silver in the sunlight.
“Your eyes do that a lot,” Zeek observed. “Is that normal for…whatever you are?”
Curiously, Onnika’s cheeks flushed. “Is what normal? My eyes aren’t doing anything weird. That’s just the light or a lens flare or something.”
“Oh.” Zeek dropped it, but Aidan wondered about the sudden rigidness in her body. He noticed she hadn’t corrected thewhatever you arepart of Zeek’s statement, so she was no longer clinging to the ruse that she was Pakovian, but she still wore those holo-cuffs on her ears, hiding something of her identity. He wondered what it would take for her to reveal herself to him completely. The mystery was a acidy mix in his mind.
She yawned and shifted on his lap, drawing her body closer to his. Her scent was intoxicating, like spring air in the evening, just before night blossoms bloomed. “You should turn this off, Zeek. Unless you want my head to get even bigger than it already is.”
“Could the universe even survive that?” Zeek retorted.
“Only if it pleases me,” she haughtily replied.
Zeek laughed and ended the feed. “Can’t have your ego going supernova. Not unless I can harness the power of it.”
“Go harness yourself, why don’t you,” Aidan interjected. He wanted her all to himself. He was barely resisting claiming those supple lips of hers.
“Maybe later,” Zeek replied cheekily. “Smells like dinner’s ready.” He was right. The scent of something delicious wafted in from the mess hall.
When Zeek’s stomach carried him away, Onnika moved to follow, but Aidan grabbed her hand and pulled her back into his lap. “Finally I have you alone.”
That sly grin of hers slid into place as her eyes lit with playful excitement. “And just what is it you plan to do with me?”
“Everything,” he muttered, running his lips over the soft skin of her bare shoulder.
She shivered at the caress. “That’s going to take some time.”
“Only if we do it right.”
She shifted so that she was facing him, her knees planted on either side of his hips. Her palms came up to gently frame his face as she pressed their lips together.
Her boldness and passion flooded him with satisfaction. It all seemed so effortless with her, as if all he had to do was think of what he wanted and she would give it to him. She’d practically stepped straight out of his deepest fantasies, haunting him with her beauty and fire.
She pulled back slightly to tease his lips with a light brushing of hers before setting in again. He groaned and pulled her closer, deepening the kiss, their tongues twisting and coiling in an ancient seductive dance derived of carnal hunger. Before breaking the kiss, she nipped him lightly, sending a jolt of lust down his spine. They were both breathless. His skin prickled with acute awareness, and wherever she touched him, he burned.
He gazed at her in wonder. Her eyes were bright with desire and her lips were slightly swollen. “Where did you come from?” he breathed.
She only gave him a mysterious smile, one that warned him he might never find out. Worse, she could disappear from his life as quickly as she’d appeared. She’d spoken of leaving before, of parting ways, but her earlier questions made him wonder if she was considering taking up with them in a long-term sense. If that was the case, he’d find a way to keep them all together, if only for that reason. Oh, how he wanted to ask her to stay with him. But he needed complete honesty from her. There could be no secrets between them.
He gazed at her ear-cuffs. The holo-glam technology was superb. He couldn’t tell where her real flesh ended and the holo-glam began. How much of her appearance did it conceal? Perhaps her eyes weren’t truly that sparkling shade of blue, or her hair as white as the softest snow. He wished she would reveal her true self to him…trust him with her secrets. His longing was unbearable.
Without thinking, he reached up to tap her ear-cuff. “How about we take these off?”
She jumped off him so fast he experienced an unsettling moment of disorientation. Cold air flooded over him, made frostier by her look of betrayal. She now stood several feet away from him, covering her ears and affecting a stance that suggested she feared he might advance on her.
An infuriating mixture of shame and disappointment ground its way through his blood; shame that he’d alarmed her and put her on the defensive; disappointment because by now she should realize she needn’t fear him.
“You don’t have to hide yourself from me,” he snapped, his displeasure tumbling out in the guise of anger.
