I kick off my boots, stand again, then take off my pants, get in bed, and lie back.
“You didn’t leave,” I say, staring up at the ceiling for a few moments. Then I turn over on my stomach, cheek flat on the mattress, and look at her.
Her eyes are open now. And even in the dim, hazy light, I can see the pink. She’s not glowing. Just staring at me. Blinking every few seconds. Like she’s thinking.
“I’m locked in, right? So I figure… fuck it. Ya know?”
“Fuck it,” I whisper back.
“You came home,” she says.
I nod, sorta. As well as one can nod with their face pressed against a mattress. “I had a pretty bad day today.”
She does her version of a nod. “Me too.”
“Yeah?” I say, wondering what that looks like. “How’d it start?”
She inhales, holds it, then lets her breath out with a sigh. “I was kidnapped from Bull Station. Frozen in a cryopod, woke up in a medical facility on Harem Station, then subjected to humiliating royal tests.”
“That it?” I ask.
“Then I was sold to a handsome jerk”—I smile. Can’t help it—“pierced three times by a deranged nanny bot, and my best-laid plans for getting my life back on track slipped away when my inhibitor failed and I had to beg said handsome jerk to fuck me back to health.”
“That all you got?”
“Not enough?” She tsks her tongue. “OK, bad boy. You want more? I’ll give you more. How about this? I had this insane plan to restart my glow inhibitor. Wanna hear it?”
“Sure,” I say, kinda smiling.
“I needed specific ingredients to mix up more inhibitor, so I was going to defile your ship to get the palladium, steal a xenon laser from the doctor’s office, and then use the passion limes to start the reaction.”
“So that’s why you needed to go to the doctor.”
“Mmmm-hmmm,” she says, kinda sleepily. “That was my grand scheme. And none of it worked.”
“Bummer,” I say. “But…” I grin. Big. “You did get a double serving of Akeelian magic for your troubles.”
She shakes her head, blushing. Then turns away.
“Well…” I say. “I think my day was worse.”
“Oh, yeah?” she says, turning back to face me.
“Yeah,” I say. “I stole something I shouldn’t have this morning. My brother got killed while we were making our escape, my favorite bot got blown to bits, and my ship is now infected with a virus that’s turned her insane.”
“Oh,” she says, frowning. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”
Which just makes me sadder. Because I should’ve said ‘I’m sorry’ first and it’s too late now. Just another fuck-up in a long line of fuck-ups today.
I stretch my hand across the huge gulf of space between us. She stares at it for a moment, then trains her eyes on me.
I wiggle my fingertips, beckoning her.
She just looks at them and closes her eyes.
“Come here,” I whisper.
“Why?”
“Because you know what?”
“What?” she asks, opening her eyes again.
“You’re the best thing that’s happened to me today.”
She attempts a smile but doesn’t quite make it. “Today’s my birthday.”
Well, shit.
I frown and say, “You win.”
She nods, eyes closing again. Then opens them and shakes her head. “No. No one won today.”
I wiggle my fingers again and this time she slides over, turning her back to me as I wrap my arm around her waist and tug her into my chest.
“Do you think tomorrow will be any better?” she whispers.
“No,” I say, thinking about my brothers coming home for Draden’s memorial service.
“Me either.”
We lie like that for a little while. Our breathing becomes matched. And I think about trying to kiss her. Or slip my fingers between her legs to see if I can get her excited.
And even though all that sounds pretty good… I don’t. I don’t move at all and neither does she.
I just replay Draden’s voice coming through Booty’s interface as I wonder where ALCOR, Crux, and Tray went. Wonder what they’re doing and why it’s a secret.
Wonder how yesterday I had no girl and tonight I do.
Wonder if she’ll be here when I wake up.
Wonder if anything will ever be the same again and decide…
It won’t.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN – LYRA
Lying next to Serpint, all pulled into his protective embrace, is kind of driving me crazy. My glow spot between my legs is throbbing and even though I’m doing my best to ignore it, he’s getting hard behind me.
“Sorry,” he says, when I move away from his growing cock. “It’s just… I can’t help it. Whenever Akeelians fall asleep we get hard.”
I open my eyes wide, thankful he can’t see me. “All night?” I ask.
“Yup. All night.”
“Doesn’t that drive you crazy?”
“I think that’s the point. We have an innate circadian breeding urge that gets a little… overwhelming at night. Especially if we sleep next to a woman. Especially a Cygnian woman. Which is why we tend to stay away from them ourselves.”