Page 51 of Obsessed

I lean down and take her lips in a deep, consuming kiss. My fingers trace the curve of her jaw as our lips part. The moment stretches between us, heavy with everything unsaid. Her eyes flutter open, questioning. My heart pounds against my ribs.

"Alice, there's something I need to tell you." The words catch in my throat. "Remember when we first touched? When you dropped your instrument?"

She nods, her hand finding mine. "You acted so strange after that."

"Among my people, we have... a connection. A biological imperative that tells us when we've found our perfect match." I swallow hard. "It's called the Jalshagar bond, or fated mates. The moment our hands touched, I knew."

Her eyes widen. "What exactly does that mean?"

"It means you're it for me. Somehow, some way, we were fated to be together - we're perfect for each other.Emotionally..." I run my thumb across her knuckles. "It's like finding a piece of yourself you never knew was missing."

"That's why you started following me on my research trips." She pulls back slightly, processing. "Why you were so protective."

"It happens to less than one percent of my people. Most go their whole lives without finding their mate." I cup her face in my hands. "I crashed on the most remote planet in the sector and found mine."

"This is... a lot." She presses her palm against my chest. "But it explains so much about how intense everything has felt. How drawn I've been to you from the start."

"I should have told you sooner. I was worries-"

She cuts me off with a kiss. "Worried I'd think you were crazy? That I wouldn't believe in alien soulmates?" Her lips curve against mine. "I'm a xenobotanist on a barely-charted planet. My threshold for believing in the impossible is pretty high."

"So you're not running away screaming?"

"No." She wraps her arms around my neck. "I'm staying right here."

I hold Alice close, breathing in her scent - a mix of lab sanitizer and the sweet flowering vines she'd been cataloging earlier. My heart settles into an easy rhythm now that she knows about the bond, accepts it. Accepts me.

She squirms in my arms. "As lovely as this is, we have work to do."

"Just another minute." I nuzzle into her hair.

"The transport arrives at dawn." She pushes against my chest. "And I still need to label and catalog half these samples."

"I could help with that."

"The last time you tried to help with labeling, you mixed up my taxonomy codes." She extracts herself from my embrace. "It took me three hours to fix."

"In my defense, your naming system makes no sense." I reach for a stack of specimen containers. "Who puts numbers before letters?"

"Everyone in xenobotany." She snatches the containers away. "Here, pack these into that crate. And use the blue foam, not the white. The blue is rated for temperature changes."

"Yes, boss." I salute with the foam block.

"Don't sass me." She points her marker at me threateningly. "This is important work."

"I know." I carefully nestle each container into the foam. "Your discovery could help a lot of people."

"Exactly. So less flirting, more packing."

"What if I pack really fast?" I waggle my eyebrows at her. "Then we'd have time for other activities."

"Pack carefully." She emphasizes each word. "Or you'll be sleeping on the couch."

"That's cruel." I pout, but return to methodically padding each specimen. "Using sex as motivation."

"Is it working?"

I look up to find her grinning. "Maybe."

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