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Nisha reached out, feeling the empty spot on the bed where Kien had occupied. She rubbed her hand across his pillow, feeling the dip where his head had been and smiled to herself. The emotion spreading across her heart was...happy...good. Before doubt and pain could work its way and like a vine, strangle all that goodness inside her, she cinched down on it. He was leaving, going back into outer space, but for right now, she could be content.
She’d had the best night of her life, and not just because the sex had been amazing, but because of the connection they’d shared. A “wow” she’d never experienced before.
Kien wasn’t hers or...maybe he was?
She closed her eyes and shook her head. No. he wasn’t. He was an alien on a mission and his rescue ship was coming, then he would be gone. And, to top it off, he wasn’t even hers for the short month of his stay. What she felt right now? A dozen women in Point Breeze had probably felt the same these last weeks. Stupid, yet satisfied.
Nisha groaned, rolled to her back and covered her eyes with an arm.
What was she thinking? Kien was for the streets. No, worse. He was for the galaxy.
There was a plethora of women in Minnesota pining for him and he’d already admitted to having bedmates littered across the galaxy. Of course, sex with him would be amazing. He’d had teachers near and far. There were probably females out there with two vaginas and two throats for all she knew.
She opened her eyes to stare at the stark white ceiling and took a deep breath. Time to face reality.
It’s only sex. That’s all. Nothing more. No reason to act like a Victorian virgin freshly deflowered.
Nisha eased from Kien’s bed, being gentle on her sore and aching body. Although every muscle hurt, she was happy thinking about why it hurt. Kien had stretched her in all types of direction. That man could give a master class on how to please a woman.
She went to the bathroom and stared at what she thought was the shower. She could’ve sworn she’d heard a whirring sound coming from here earlier this morning and made a mental note to take a shower as she assumed Kien was doing. But standing in front of it now, she didn’t recognize any of the controls. She was at a loss on how to get started. She couldn’t even tell where the water was supposed to come out of.
“You’re up.”
Nisha startled at Kien’s deep voice coming from behind her. She hadn’t heard him enter the room. He was dressed in a gray bodysuit that hugged his muscular frame. Although it was non-descript it was sexy on him.
She waved toward the glass compartment. “I wanted a shower but don’t know where to start.”
Kien reached over her shoulder, his arm brushed against the side of her head. She didn’t move away from the touch.
“This is a sonic shower. Much different from what you’re used to. You use these buttons to select which level you want.” He pointed to one of the buttons. “If you want to shower with your clothes on, select this one. The system will clean you as well as any garments you’re wearing. This one is for a cleaning as well as deep tissue massage. There are other selections, but I think you’ll want this one.”
She was extremely aware of his body so close to hers and how every nerve tingled with excitement. Her chest hurt from the pounding of her heart. “What does it do?”
“It’s the standard shower.” He pressed a button. The inside of the compartment lit up but nothing else happened.
Nisha raised her eyebrow. “Where’s the water?”
Kien chuckled. “No water. It uses light rays to clean and sanitize.”
“Oh.” She rubbed her arms. “Wait. Will this give me some type of freaky cancer? I feel like this is how I’ll get cancer.”
“There’s a million ways for you to get cancer here on Earth. Humans don’t wear adequate skin protection, you add unnecessary—but delicious—ingredients to your food, you’ll literally put anything on and in your body, and beside all of that, your screening techniques for it are antiquated. But no, you won’t get cancer from this.”
She took a deep breath. “This is your idea of a shower, huh?”
“It’s safe, I promise.”
She crossed her arms and grabbed the bottom of her t-shirt to lift it over her head but paused. “A little privacy?”
“Why?”
She glanced at him over her shoulder, finding his gaze roaming up and down her body with a hungry look in them. “Because I’m getting naked.”
There was no denying the heat that passed behind his eyes. “I’ve seen you naked.”
If they weren’t on a tight schedule and she wasn’t sore, she would’ve led him back to the bed. She shooed at him. “That was then, this is now. Go do something productive like getting what you need for Solgre.”
Kien laughed and backed out. “I’ll be in the infirmary if you need me.”
“Wait!” she called out before he could leave the room. “Wait out there for me. I’ll go with you. I want a tour of your ship. The odds of me seeing another spaceship in this lifetime are zero to none.”
* * *
WHILE KIEN WAITED FOR Nisha to finish her shower, he made his bed and grabbed a few items he’d left behind before their initial escape from the ship. They were comfort items, nothing of importance. As he made his way around his room, his gaze kept going back to his bed. The time he’d spent with Nisha there invaded his thoughts.
She was unlike anyone else he’d ever encountered. Their love making hadn’t been awkward. It had been the complete opposite. It was as though they’d known each other over lifetimes. He’d known exactly where to touch her, and she knew where to touch him. There wasn’t any fumbling or groping. What they’d done was intentional.
But it wasn’t just about the sex—which was great. It was deeper than that, something else he’d never experienced before. They were connected, intertwined. And he didn’t understand that feeling either.
He let out a deep sigh and scrubbed his hand down his face. He was in trouble. Big. Big. Trouble.
Nisha stepped from the bathroom wearing fresh clothes, her dirty clothes bundled in her arms. “I’m ready for the tour.”
He went to the door, and it automatically opened. “You can leave your clothes on the bed. Shall we get started?”
She stopped by the bed to drop her clothes. “Am I allowed to take pictures or videos?”
He hoped to give her a look that portrayed how crazy that question was. Solgre would murder him if he allowed pictures and video evidence of their existence.
Nisha grinned sheepishly then dropped her phone on the bed. “You can’t blame me for asking. For the record, the only two people I would’ve showed the footage to are my mom and Tasha.”
He motioned for her, and she joined him at the door. “Halo One has three floors; top deck, main and lower deck. We’re on the main deck. Here, we have the living spaces such as our personal quarters, guest quarters, kitchen, dining and exercise room.”
She glanced into the hallway and indicated her head toward the closed doors. “Is that where Phate and Solgre live?”
“No, we each have our own living spaces. The ship is built for long-term space exploration.” He stepped from his room, and she followed. Once they were in the hallway the door automatically closed behind them. “Because of that, it was outfitted for us to potentially have mates, families.”
“So, they’re empty rooms?”
He nodded and started down the hall toward the connection point of the four main hallways. He pointed left then right. “Phate’s and Solgre’s living quarters.” Then he kept forward. “We don’t spend a lot of time in our personal living spaces, usually only to sleep. Most of our time is spent in our labs, working on various projects, the bridge, exercise room or the kitchen.”
He continued on as she followed. “If you roam the ship by yourself, you only have to voice loudly where you wish to go. The ship’s onboard computer system will guide you.”
“Is it safe for me to wander by myself?”
“The computer won’t allow any of us to enter into any dangerous spaces without an override. You’ll be safe.”
His second official stop was the bridge. He needed to check the progress of the repairs and system updates. Kien went to his station and flicked on the controls. From the corner of his eyes, he tracked Nisha’s every movement. She walked the perimeter of the room, eyes on the various monitors on the wall. There wasn’t anything she could touch that would disrupt the ship’s functions, so he let her explore.
He pulled his gaze from her and focused on the holograph in front of him. The solar flare had done so much damage. There was still radiation in certain parts of the ship that made those rooms uninhabitable.
Kien scanned the ship’s specs. There were areas dotted in green, red and yellow. Green meant the area was working and clear. Those were few, with the labs being the first to come back online. Yellow meant the area was in process of coming back online and red meant the area had not yet come back online.
Life systems were in the yellow, most likely the mechanical bots had been dispatched to fix those areas when he’d entered the hatch. The engine room was completely red, including the jump drive. He checked the status. The mechanical bots actively worked there, but it would take time to fix. The outer hull was green, good.
At sensing no lifeforms were onboard, the working bots would’ve concentrated first on getting the other bots back online by either fixing them or removing the damaged bots for spare parts. Once that task was completed, they would, as a unit, fix to contain the hull, stopping any further damage to the confines of the ship. After that, the bots would’ve divided and conquered the less vital areas of the ship.
Communications weren’t back online, but Kien figured another day or two and that too would be repaired. Life-support was at twenty-five percent. The outer hull was at eighty-five percent, which was better than he would’ve imagined.
When they returned in a few weeks, Halo One should be in much better shape than they’d left it.
After leaving the bridge, he took her to the safe areas, including the main engineering room where she was afraid to touch anything for fear of “blowing up the ship” and to the shuttle bay where she couldn’t keep her hands off their personal on-planet vehicles.
They ended up in his lab with Nisha sitting on a counter watching him re-configure the portable replicator. She snacked on the closest food item to potato chips they had.
She raised one in the air, inspecting it. “I can’t believe I’m eating food from a different planet.” She popped it into her mouth. “And it tastes pretty good!”
She closed her eyes and hummed and shimmied her shoulders as she ate it.
Kien glanced up from his seat at his work bench to watch her.
I could get used to this.
Phate and Solgre never hung out in his lab, unless they were there to provide a second analysis for him. He’d thought he liked the solitary nature of his work. If he got lonely, he would turn on music or listen to commentaries about new discoveries that were happening in the galaxy. He’d never once thought during his times of loneliness, to get a mate to help fill that void. Now, here he was looking at someone and wanting her for that role.
“That technically isn’t from another planet. The design is, but not that in itself.”
“Right. It’s replicated.” She popped another into her mouth. “It sure tastes real though.”
He smiled and chuckled. He’d explained how food replication worked. All he needed was a sample to feed into the main console and the replicator would be able to store it and recreate it. “It is real, just made from a machine.”
“So, the same replicator that makes food, made Solgre’s medicine too?”
“Solgre’s medicine, our clothes, parts for the ship, furniture, everything.”
She glanced off with a dreamy look in her eyes. “Oh, imagine how rich I would be if I had one of those. I would even settle for the portable one.”
He shook his head and went back to fixing the portable replicator. “When we go, so does our replicator. I can’t have you wreaking havoc on Earth because you’re replicating everything in sight.”
He laughed to himself and expected her laughter as well but was met with silence. When he glanced back at her it was to find all the happiness and joy drained from her face.
“Is it something I said? You do know why we can’t leave alien technology behind, right?”
She pulled her bottom lip between her teeth and nodded.
His heart jumped. She looked on the verge of tears. “Nisha, what’s wrong?”
She shook her head. “I know you’re leaving. I just...forgot about it for a second.”
He dropped the replicator and stood, crossing to her in long strides. At the counter, he grabbed her by the waist and pulled her flush against his body with her legs bracketing his hips. He wanted to tell her leaving was the only thing he could think about too and that his heart was in pain constantly because of it. Instead, he crushed his mouth over hers.