Page 8 of 3 Secrets to Love
Suddenly he clutched one of my hands with his and wrapped his other around my waist, guiding me toward the dance floor.
I winced as his fingers grazed over my wound. Definitely not healed. “What are you doing?” I had no time to live it up at a club. I thought he was here for the children, too, but maybe I’d guessed wrong.
“Dancing,” he shouted over the music then moved his hands down my body and leaned into me. “We need to look like we fit in, otherwise they’ll see us and run.”
I didn’t think we’d fit in with flight suits on. Not when most racers were on Eurebly to relax for the weekend. But in the crowd, one might not pay to close of attention to what we wore.
Phalon swayed to the music, his hands on my hips guiding me along with him. He glanced down at me and smiled. For a moment, everyone else in the room disappeared. My heart fluttered in a way I had never felt. Then reality came crashing back.
“Where could they be?”
Phalon glanced around. With his height, he could see over most of the beings around us. “This way.” He guided us through the dancing crowd toward the back of the club.
He wrapped his hands around the back of my thighs and picked me up. I instinctively wrapped my legs around his waist like a small child being held by their parent. Yet, the rapid pace of my heart and the blood rushing to my nether regions were very much adult reactions.
“Kiss me,” he said before I had the chance to make him put me back down.
“What?” I had to have heard him wrong.
“Kiss me,” Phalon repeated. “One of the guards is right over there. We want to follow him, not make him run. So, kiss me like all the others around us are doing.”
Stars, I had no idea how to kiss, had been told as much when I had tried dating a few star cycles back. It never appealed to me. But I didn’t have the strength to run. So, I leaned forward and pressed my lips to his. He responded with strength, guiding and molding my mouth through the exchange until I had to pull away to catch my breath. I quickly dove right back in for another, enjoying the connection for the first time in my life. Phalon intensified the kiss with the sweep of his tongue across my own. With anyone else, I likely would have gagged, but instead, I imagined everywhere else I would like to feel his tongue on my body. My heart raced and fire coursed through my veins. I needed more of him.
Phalon ended the kiss, and his eyes sparkled as he set me back on my feet. “Come on. They’ve left, so we’ll follow them.”
How he even noticed the guard had left was beyond me. During the kiss, I had had my eyes closed, and everyone but Phalon and I had temporary left my mind.
Taking his hand, I followed him through the bodies and back outside, trying to regain my focus on our purpose for being on the planet the entire time.
“This way,” Phalon whispered, no longer having to shout to be heard over the music.
We took many side streets and sandy paths near the beach but ended up back at the spaceport. The ship the guards had used to flee from Eurebly was already running, and the guard we trailed headed straight for it.
“Coddleswap.” Phalon raced toward the guard, leaving me behind. But when the guard heard footsteps from behind, they started to run.
I thought Phalon stood a chance to catch the guard. Until plazer fire erupted from the cargo hold of the ship. The guard fell in front of Phalon, hit by a blast. Phalon tumbled over the body as the ship taxied away from us, taking the children away again.
“Where are they going?” Phalon gripped the collar of the guard’s suit, pulling the guard off the ground. “Where are they taking the Kalpierene children?”
But the guard’s head lolled back. No sign of life in their eyes.
I reached down for their P-comm. Using their face to get access, I searched through the messages for any hint the ship’s destination.
A notification popped up to confirm a flight path. One to a very cold planet on the other side of the quadrants. A planet that didn’t even belong to any of the systems in the quadrants but simply orbited through Quadrant Three for ten of its days every star cycle.
Resting my palm on Phalon’s shoulder, I held the P-comm in front of him. “Leave them. They are taking the children to Arodin.”
Chapter Six
Phalon
“We need to go to Yatak first.” As much as I dreaded returning to my home planet, a place I never once felt like I belonged, I knew I couldn’t take Xacalla to Arodin without properly outfitting her first. And the best place to do that was on a semi-cold planet where Yatakians spent half a star cycle bundled in extra layers, even with the extra hair on our bodies. Plus, we needed to charge the fuel cells somewhere along the flight path to make it all the way to the distant planet.
Xacalla didn’t argue, simply nodded as she tried to put her harness back on. But somehow, she’d gotten twisted in the straps. I didn’t know how they ended up around her arms, but I couldn’t let her in the jet until the harness was on properly. And we didn’t have any time to delay. The cargo ship couldn’t travel as fast or as far on a full charge. So, our best bet was to arrive first and intercept them. But I had to fix Xacalla’s issue first.
“I don’t know what I did wrong.” She pouted, trying to get the harness off, but somehow ended up even more tangled.
“Stop.” I held her shoulders, resisting the urge to kiss her pouty lips once again. Stars, she really was irresistible, but we didn’t have time for any of that in our hurry to leave. Plus, I didn’t know if she’d even want to be with me. The kiss was for show, but I was open to real ones and so much more with her. Something I yearned to explore another time. “Stay still and I’ll help.”
