Page 49 of Cosmic Captain

I nodded, but the tension remained. Working through the panic, I grabbed his arms and placed them on my waist. “Hug me.”

He surrounded me and lowered his head to my shoulder. The longer he breathed, the more his cock relaxed until it didn’t nudge me any longer.

Well, I now knew he was attracted to me.

Don chuckled. “Was that ever in doubt?”

“I’m human and scrawny. It wouldn’t be weird if you weren’t into me.”

Don pulled back to see my face. “I didn’t understand that word.”

Most of the time the ship’s NAID translated what I said well or Don got the context from my mind. I was pretty sure he understood English fairly well because that’s what I thought in. But apparently one had squeaked through.

“What word?”

He made some guttural noise that NAID didn’t offer any translation for.

I thought through my sentence, then asked, “Scrawny?” When he nodded, I explained. “Small. I’m short and thin. Most drakcol I’ve seen are huge.”

“I understand.” Don guided me back to his shoulder, and I settled against him with a groan. How was he this comfortable? He held me loosely in his grasp, but it was safe. “I found you attractive from the beginning.”

I smiled against his scales. So I was vain, sue me. I was cute enough to be vain. Feeling brave, I kissed his neck. Don stilled, and I immediately tensed.

“I liked that,” he whispered as his arms tightened around my waist.

“Me too,” I replied. The scrape of his scales on my sensitive lips was nicer than I had predicted. Needing a distraction, I said, “Talk to me.”

“About?”

“Your interests. Work. Anything. I want to know you.”

He relaxed beneath me, holding me as close as possible. “I’m rather boring, or so I’m told. I work. A lot. I like music and science. My closest friends are my brothers and my only cousin. I enjoy experiences much like Kalvoxrencol does, but I don’t like war simulations. I prefer stories.”

“That’s not boring,” I said, giving him another kiss. Fuck whoever told him he was boring. People could like whatever they liked. He didn’t have to be into high-energy activities to be interesting.

Don nuzzled the top of my head. “My work is interesting. I oversee some of our most important and secret science projects.”

“Like what?” I asked, then added, “If you can tell me.”

“I don’t imagine you will tell anyone, but there is only so much I can relate. The most fascinating thing I oversee is the Immortal Planet.”

“What?” I slid my arms around him, stroking his back. I felt his wings curl in tighter. I’d wondered if they disappeared into his body like magic, but apparently not. His wings escaped the confines of his shirt, and I brushed my fingers over the supple, leathery membrane.

“Five hundred and twenty-two years ago, we found a trace of something similar to the Crystal. We followed it. Not me personally,” he clarified, which was nice because I had no idea how old he was. “I’m forty cycles by your planet’s rotation. Drakcol live about the same length as humans.”

“I’m thirty-one.”

He paused for a second before continuing. “The Immortal Planet has people on the surface who resonate with the same energy as the Crystal.”

“Why do you call it the Immortal Planet?”

“We have sent probes close enough to scan the planet. We have to be careful because they are an underdeveloped planet. But the same people are there now as were there five hundred years ago. They haven’t aged much. We don’t know how long they live or how the Crystal is so similar to them. Some theorize this is where the Crystal originated from.”

People that were over five hundred years old. That was unbelievable. “Why don’t you take a sample? Seth said we would either be citizens or samples, so why don’t you beam someone up here, then wipe their memory? Presto. Mystery solved.”

Don gently stroked my back, and I moaned, loving the sensation. He took a shuddering breath before continuing, “We don’t like to take people. We can, but we rarely do. Seth was an extraordinary circumstance. Additionally, the Immortal Planet isn’t in phase with us.”

“What?” This was someStar Trekshit.

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