Page 32 of Touch the Stars
It was a grudging compromise, with a pleasant outcome.And with her this close, he did not need to struggle to keep his gaze from being drawn to her breasts.Yet, as nice as it was to have her soft, warm curves pressed against him, they still had to prepare.
“You are welcome.”He gently touched her arms, and she released him.“Now, come with me.We must find an environmental suit that fits you.”
Chapter 11
Kaitlyn.
“White,again?”Sheheldher arms out from her sides to give the thin canvas jumper—correction,environmental suit—she now wore a critical eye.
Baatar’s chuckle was warm.“Not completely white.”
Well, yeah.It did have orange piping over all the seams, supposedly the uniform colors of the imperial attendants.Butoneof them didn’t resemble a marshmallow while wearing it.
“Fine.”She bent to close up the ankle fasteners.“Still not sure how something so thin will protect us from exposure to anything over there, but I’ll take your word for it.”
Click.Click.
The ankle fasteners sealed under the pressure of her fingers, then she straightened.“Ready for inspection, Captain.”
Baatar stood a few feet away, pulling his dark hair partway through a wide, woven navy-blue band, twice.The strands of the black loops fanned against the back of his thick neck like a loose double bun.Then he reached out and gave each of her suit fasteners a tug, working his way down her body.
When he grasped the fasteners at her waist, a warm flush spread across her chest.Ugh.She was about to go on her first space mission, but all of a sudden all she could think of was getting out of her suit just to feel his hands on her body?
Focus.Focus.Focus.
He ran his hands down her left leg, and she cleared her throat.“Uh, so, why did you do that with your hair?”
“My warrior’s knot?”He fiddled at her left ankle fastener then moved to her right leg.“I bind my hair to keep it from becoming tangled under the environmental suit’s hood.”
“Oh.”Jesus, had her voice really cracked there?“That’s…a good idea.”
She raised her hand to finger a length of her own hair.Too bad she hadn’t brought a scrunchie.
“You are secure.Well done.”Baatar rose to stand, then extended his hand.A second blue band dangled from his fingers.“I have an extra, if you would like it.”
She gave him a grin.“That’d be great, thanks.”
She reached to take it from him, but he drew his hand back.
“It would be an honor to bind your hair in the warrior’s knot for the first time.”
Hadn’t he noticed her all but drooling over him tugging at her fasteners?It’d be fifty shades of crazy to let him touch her hair now, but…
“Okay.”She turned her back to him as she ran her tongue over her lips.
He gently lifted her hair, and the cool air of the prep room caressed the back of her neck.Then strands fluttered back down as he combed his fingers through it until they glided through unimpeded by tangles.She forced a swallow around her heart, which apparently had decided her throat was a good place to hang out.
Gurl, stop dreaming and focus on priorities.
They were here, dressed in these ugly suits, for Kris.Nothing,nothing, was more important than finding her sister.Not even her crazy attraction to this alien.Her heart eased back down to its normal place in her chest.She inhaled a deep breath and released it slowly.
That’s better.
Baatar gathered all her hair together at the nape of her neck, then did whatever it was he had to do to weave it through the band and into a warrior’s knot.
“There,” he said a moment later.“You are ready for your first mission, young warrior.”
A different pleasure coursed through her at his words.Did he really think of her as a warrior?What a silly thing to be happy about.She was just a woman from Earth who hadn’t had so much as a karate lesson, but right now she could take on an army of Rockys.
