Page 73 of By the Pint

So as much as I wanted Dima between my thighs, I couldn’t bring myself to let that happen again. Even if he did sulk about it.

“What should we do then if we’re not boinking?” he said approximately three evenings after the epic BJ. He floated twenty centimetres above the cushions on my couch, quilt in hand again.

“We could watch the wingball semis?” I flicked on my TV. Dima had agreed to go with me to the final in a few days at the Remy Paragon Stadium not far from the Constellations hotel. The Rockets had already won their semi-finals, so they’d play whoever won the last game. And even though Dima seemed enthusiastic about spectating the live match, whenever I mentioned watching it in my suite, his demeanour would change. He’d cross his arms and hunch his shoulders and drag his feet like a toddler who’d been denied a sugary treat.

“Suppose,” he said, sucking imaginary food from between his teeth.

“Or we could get to know one another,” I said. “Like normal people do. Without reading each other’s minds first.”

Which is what we did, because neither of us wanted to practise mind blocking. Because the quicker I learned to fully protect my thoughts, the sooner our time together would be over.

So, we found ourselves once again on the sofa in my suite’s living room area with wingball on the enormous wall-mounted TV. Bordalis Barracudas, my old team, vs. Pannor Pitbulls, an all-human team.

Sure, Killian would turn me. Sure, I would get everything I’d ever dreamed of since I was a boy. But that could wait. Just a little longer. Just to give me a few more days, or weeks, with Dima.

No, not weeks, though. That would be far too dangerous. For both of us.

“What do you want to know, then?” I asked, before the icky sensation in my stomach settled too deeply.

Without missing a beat, Dima said, “What’s your favourite dinosaur?”

I blinked at him. “I’m thirty-nine, not seven.”

He shrugged. “It’s kind of a deal breaker if you don’t know.”

“What’s yours?”

“Kosmoceratops. Obviously.”

Gods, this man. He was so infuriatingly adorable. “Why obviously?” I’d never even heard of them.

“They’re just like me. Ancient, horny, dead.”

I snort laughed.

“So, what’s yours? And don’t say T-Rex.”

“Um,” I pulled the first dinosaur name from my memories. “Stegosaurus.”

“Boring. But I’ll allow it.”

“Boring?” I scoffed. “Says the man wearing pink bunny rabbit slippers repetitively driving a needle in and out of anorange piece of cloth, while ignoring the real action.” I lifted a hand towards the screen just as Bordalis scored a goal. I still liked to see them winning.

“Savage,” he said, with a raise of his brow.

Damn, damn, damn, I wanted to kiss him.Stop it feelings. Stop it right now!

“Now it’s your turn to ask me a question,” he said.

I thought for a moment, inside my mind-bag. “Okay, what’s your biggest regret in life—or un-life?”

“No. No, no, no.” He wagged his finger at me. “None of this pathetic, trivial stuff. Ask me something deep and meaningful.”

I rolled my eyes. “Fine then. Your favourite movie?”

“Uh …” He paused. “Uh …”

Ha! Only my first question, and I’d already won. “It’s kind of a deal breaker if you don’t know,” I teased. His blood-red eyes went wide. “You don’t watch movies?”

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