Page 19 of Alien Mine

Or he could wait until she’d finished so he could savor her hands on his skin, willingly placed there under her own aegis. “Do you enjoy touching me?”

She coughed out a strangled laugh. “What brought up that question?”

“Curiosity. Did you like our kiss?”

“Can we talk about something else?”

He peered over his shoulder. As he’d suspected, her cheeks were bright red. “This must be where Kelly gets her penchant for procrastination.”

“I do not procrastinate.” Rachel smacked her palm onto hisback and rubbed briskly. “I never procrastinate. Why would you even say such a thing?”

Because she’d been hesitant to touch him. He turned back around and fixed his gaze on the rolling hills surrounding the pasture, gentle hills cloaked in deciduous green, so unlike the jagged, snow-covered mountains on Abyw. “I enjoyed kissing you.”

She snorted and muttered something under her breath that sounded a lot likehorny toad.

An image of a leather-skinned amphibian popped into his head, accompanied by pain stabbing through his temples. He closed his eyes until it dimmed. Kraden autolearner. The program must’ve malfunctioned prior to implantation into his mind. It hadn’t matched the right image with the correct terminology, unless Rachel was comparing him to a warty frog.

Which made no sense at all. Then again, English wasn’t exactly a logical language, and she often used local idioms.

Her hand slid to another section of his back, along his right ribcage. Her touch was lighter now, not as firm as it had been when she’d started, and it tickled a little. She drifted lower and brushed her hands over his hip above the waistband of his shorts, and he hissed in a sharp breath as her touch shot tingling heat through his skin.

Her hand retreated immediately. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to hurt you.”

“You didn’t.”

“I’m almost done.”

“Take your time.”

He wanted her to take all the time she needed, especially when her innocent touch was arousing him. He shifted into a wide-legged stance and focused on the work he wanted to get done that day. Studying the solar system with Kelly, coaxing Tiny into speaking English, scraping paint and helping with supper, and maybe sitting under the stars with Fate and Rachel and her girls at the end of the long day.

It didn’t help. She refilled her hand and shifted her touch tothe opposite side of his back. His skin tingled under the ever-gentling sweep of her fingers, spreading heat through him, and his manhood stirred behind the fly of his shorts. She’d looked her fill two days ago while helping him choose swimming gear, right before she’d caught herself and slammed the door on his nudity. But she’d looked, and she’d kissed him, and now, she was touching him of her own free will.

If she kept looking and kissing and touching, he’d never be able to hold on to his discipline long enough to protect her and her girls from the threats posed by this world.

And still, he couldn’t quite bring himself to ask her to stop.

Her hands fell away from his back. “All done. Oh.”

“What?”

“Your tattoo. It’s changing.” She stepped around beside him and traced a fingertip along part of the design. “It did this yesterday, too, when we were, uh.”

He grinned down at her. “It’s called kissing.”

Her eyebrows snapped into a scowl. “I know what it’s called, Dyuvad.”

“Then call it what it is.”

“I’m gonna call you something in a minute.” She rubbed a thumb across his tattoo, shooting lightning through his nerves, and gasped. “It just got brighter.”

“The ink is keyed to my emotions.”

“I’ve never heard of that.”

“It’s a custom of my mother’s people, particularly among mated pairs. They tattoo matching designs here and here.” He flicked a finger over two spots at the top of her neck, along the pulses beating steadily on either side of her throat. “The first one when they’re courting, the second when they mate. The markings change color according to the strength of the couple’s emotions.”

“That’s…unusual.”

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