Page 3 of Last Chance to Save the World

I cross the cargo bay toward him, slamming my hand on the ramp riser button before I do. Rian doesn’t even look asGlory’s onboard ramp lifts and seals shut into the wall.

I stalk closer to him, and he fumbles backward, eyes wide, like a prey caught in a predator’s path. I don’t stop until his lean shoulders hit the solid metal wall paneling of my ship. When my toes are centimeters from his, I shift my body forward, my hands flat against the wall on either side of his face.

I’m so close to him that I can only take in a piece of him at a time. His warm hazel eyes, open wide and practically vibrating with anticipation. His tongue flicking out, licking his bottom lip. The faint flush creeping up his cheeks. His Adam’s apple bobbing as he swallows.

I tip forward. An unsteady position, but he’s seen me in worse. He’s put me in worse.

I can feel his breath, sweet from blue puff cubes.

“Close your eyes,” I say.

He does. Instantly. His breath catches.

I dip my lips to his ear, licking the delicate shell of it before nibbling on the lobe. He groans, the sound guttural, and I wonder if—finally—I’ve taken the gravity out from under him.

“Don’t you realize?” I whisper, watching as the little hairs on the back of his neck prickle. “We had a whole week in the portal pathway to get to Earth. Don’t you know how much we could have done with a whole week?”

“Ada,” he says, more moan than word.

Then his eyes clear.

“Ada,” he says again, sharper now. “I’m not going to sleep with someone whokidnaps me.”

“Oh my god, are you still on that? It was one time.”

“It was literally this week! I am currently still in the process ofbeing kidnapped!”

I roll my eyes. “You take the fun out of everything.”

I head toward the bridge. I know he’ll follow. “There’s one bed on this spaceship, Rian,one bed.Plus, I can turn gravity off whenever I want. Have you ever had sex without gravity, because let me tell you, fuckingamazing.”

“I—er—” His words trip more than his feet as he tries to keep up with the quick pace I set. “I didn’t know that was an option!”

I roll my eyes. “I thought you were smart.”

“Ada, we’re trying to save the world; we don’t have time to—”

“Well, notnow,” I snap back, spinning on my heel to glare at him. “You have had every chance to sleep with me, and you didn’t, and now you don’t get to.”

He looks aghast, and that does wonders for my confidence. “You mean...” I can see the chaos in his eyes, the confusion that I had just been all sexy-ear-nibbling and now am telling him he lost his chance for someveryexciting times. I can almost see the words he doesn’t say:Because you don’t want me anymore?

I let him linger with that for a second. He deserves to have a little angst.

“Because,” I finally say, “we’ve got our landing sequence, dumbass. I like sex to be adventurous, but not burning-through-the-atmosphere-of-Earth-during-reentry adventurous.”

I pause. “Huh. I guess I do have some limits.”

I pause again. “Or...” My eyes trail over Rian’s body.

“No,”he says emphatically.

“Oh, come on. Aren’t you curious? It could be fun.”

“It could be deadly. I am absolutelynotgoing to have sex whileGloryis rocketing toward aplanet.”

I jut my bottom lip out, mostly to watch the way Rian tries not to look at it. “I keep telling you not to be boring, and you never listen.”

Turning back around, I step into the bridge and head straight to my pilot seat. “We had literally nothing else to do the entire time in the portal,” I grumble.

---