Page 22 of Avery

"It's not as scary as it seems," Jovi says, coming to stand next to me where I'm still staring wide-eyed at all the controls.

"Oh, I don't need to learn what all these buttons do?" I ask, gesturing wildly at what I'm sure are thousands of buttons and lights and switches.

"Nope," Jovi says. He leans close to the controls and starts fiddling with one of the switches. He flicks it up, flicks it down, flicks it up—

"What are you doing?" Phial asks when he comes walking into the navigation pit.

He's carrying some water and what I'm pretty sure is that tasty dessert Essa makes for Sloane and me sometimes. It's the least appetizing food to look at, but it tastes like ice cream and cookies. I had to get over the god-awful texture, and then it was my favorite food on the ship. I'd kill for a slice of pizza, though.

"Is this still the switch for the airlock light?" Jovi asks, wiggling the switch back and forth like crazy, watching Phial's feathers rise off his head just enough to show he's getting under his scales.

Phial hands me the food and sets the water canisters down before body blocking Jovi from being near any of the controls. Jovi, of course, thinks this is hilarious because Phial's easily half a foot shorter than him and can't actually move Jovi.

"Get out." Phial swats at Jovi's hands as all four start messing around with various buttons and switches. Phial's tail is the most active I've ever seen as it swishes back and forth just above the ground, hitting me in the ankle with a soft thud before Phial whips around. "Did I hurt you?"

"Did you hurt me?" I look down at my ankle, like maybe his tail grew spikes or something and poked me, but no. The question does get Jovi to stop playing around, though. He turns around, too, his eyes assessing where Phial and I are staring at my ankle. He barely even tapped it. "No, I'm fine."

"Good, good." Phial nods a few times before his eyes snap up to Jovi. "Get out. It's her first lesson, and you've been demoted back down to whatever it is you do."

Jovi gives us a crooked smile but doesn't argue with Phial. "If either of you needs anything—"

"We will not be asking you, don't worry." Phial keeps ushering him out of the room, and when the navigation door closes on him, Phial taps away at his comm. He shoots me a questioning look before rubbing the back of his neck. "Do you care if I lock us in here? I don't want Jovi interrupting by trying to be funny."

My stomach does a little flip at the thought of being trapped in here with Phial. Not a bad flip, nope. A flip that has all the butterflies waking up and dancing around in my belly.

My face is pink when I remember to answer his question instead of letting my body decide if we're going to try to seduce him right now. If my body had its way, which it's trying its hardest to do, I'd be touching Phial, maybe seeing if he wanted to try out kissing again.

"That's fine." I turn around quickly, trying to hide my blush.

My underwear is already starting to dampen, which isn't going to be conducive to a good learning environment for me. Phial's claws tap at the metal flooring as he moves back toward the navigation pit. He stands beside me for a moment, his hands working through his feathers to smooth them.

A smile pulls at my lips while I watch him fuss over them. When he catches me looking, they stiffen again, and he frowns.

"Well, let's just get started." He motions for me to sit near the dashboard in one of the chairs. "I don't know what Jovi told you about all of this, but it's not as daunting as it looks."

"That's about what he said," I murmur, nodding along as Phial makes quick work of fixing everything Jovi messed with.

He doesn't even need to take a second to look around and see what's messed up. His fingers work over all the controlseffortlessly. It shows me how well he knows this ship and how seriously he takes his role on the crew. I don't know why he asked me to be his copilot, but I'm grateful he trusts me enough to do this with him.

"Okay, first thing to learn."

He leans back against the dashboard right in front of me and crosses his arms over his chest. From where I'm sitting, I have to look up at him, a view I'm not opposed to. I wonder what he'd look like if I slipped from my chair and got on my knees.

More slick dampens my underwear, and I have to close my eyes, taking deep breaths to try to calm the wave of arousal that's decided to plow into me right this second. I will be a functioning adult woman. That means no thinking with my pussy twenty-four-seven.

When I open my eyes again, Phial's still standing above me. His head is tilted to the side, and a flicker of amusement dances in his eyes. "Does that make sense?"

My mind goes from horny to horny and horrified. I don't know how long Phial was explaining something to me, but I didn't hear any of it. I should tell him I missed it, right? He won't know that I'm thinking about what it would be like to taste him on my tongue, feel him in my mouth, hear the sounds he makes when he's about to come.

Phial's eyes narrow into tiny slits, and then he's pushing himself off the dashboard to his full height right in front of me. He's so close, and I can't drag my eyes away as they fall down his body. I'm so fucking turned on, and it's not working out in my favor right now.

"Avery?" Phial's voice turns serious, even though I'm full on ogling his groin right now.

I've stopped myself from looking up his species and their anatomy. I've wanted to, but I felt like that would be an invasion of his privacy, considering what I want to know is how manypenises he has. I silently beg it or them to harden so I can see just how many I'm working with, but Phial grabs my chin and tilts my face up toward his.

"Are you okay?" he asks, completely unaware of what I'm thinking.

I don't know how that's possible, considering my thoughts are screaming at me to suck his dicks. No, his face is full of concern, his voice soft and worried. He has no idea that I've soaked through my underwear already and am leaving a mess on this chair.

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