Page 13 of My Alien Bughead
No, not a kiss. My hand on her throat. Her strong, yet fragile throat.
I want to strangle Lucía. And kiss her. Perhaps I could do both at once? My cock twitches, demanding attention, but I ignore the treacherous organ. It’s not supposed to be twitching for anyone, not since Mzr is gone.
The memory of Mzr barrels through my mind. What the fuck am I doing? Why am I needling Lucía to see if I can get a rise out of her? Why am I enjoying myself? Having fun, even? I’mnot supposed to have fun! More importantly, why am I thinking about kissing Lucía?
I only ever wanted to kiss Mzr and now I feel like a filthy traitor. She’s only been gone for two months and I’m already lusting after someone else? A primitive creature at that?
Disgusted with myself, I turn away from Lucía. I need to focus on work. Nothing else matters. I’ll just ignore her from now on. Yes, I can absolutely do that.
Chapter 9
Lucía
¡Carajo!(Fuck!) That Krestilian is really getting on my nerves! Calling me a pest? I’ll show him a fucking pest.
Ugh.
Huffing out in frustration, I spend a few seconds trying to calm down. I’m supposed to be professional but how do I stay professional when all I want to do is crack open D’Aakh’s head with one of my heavy wrenches? Or kiss him. Somehow, that’s on the list of options as well.
When we were arguing, the few inches of space between us felt charged with static electricity. My body still tingles all over andthank god for the thick fabric of my coveralls, since it conceals how hard my nipples are.
I hate that pretentious prick but apparently, my body didn’t get the memo.
“Well, that was entertaining,” Astra giggles behind me, reminding me that not only did I completely fail to stay calm and professional but that I also had an audience for it.
Perfect. Just perfect.
“Indeed it was,” Zarkan agrees, grinning from ear to ear. Given the size of his mouth and the number of his sharp teeth, it’s a rather disturbing sight. “I was ready to rush in and rescue you but it seems my poor technician is the one who will need the rescuing.”
Blood rushes to my cheeks but I force myself to act nonchalant. “I’m used to dealing with jerks. He’s no worse than others.” Except he is. Especially the fact that I’m somehow attracted to him. Dammit. I need to focus. “We should probably follow him,” I say, pointing down the corridor to where D’Aakh’s flashlight is just disappearing down a vertical shaft. He appears to have a tendency to storm off dramatically, like a prissy teenager.
Zarkan motions for me to lead the way. Climbing down a long shaft, we then continue through an even narrower and darker corridor toward the aft of the ship. As I walk, I shine light on the walls, finding more and more damaged segments. Cables are missing, crudely cut and dragged off to god knows where. Some of the control panels are gaped open.
Curious, I lean in close to the nearest one. “They figured out how to trip the fuses,” I note. “I guess they got tired of cutting live wires.”
“Told you they were smart,” Astra says.
“Yeah. Smart enough to carefully choose what to take and what to leave alone. Look.” I point to two almost identical cables. One is cut, most of it missing, but the other one doesn’t have ascratch. “The damaged one gives power to the garbage disposal system. The other one to the electromagnets that maintain the field around the reactor core. Had the Serramorphs cut that one, the core would have become unstable. With enough damage, the fail-safes wouldn’t kick in, and instead of shutting down, the reactor would overload.”
Astra frowns. “Let me guess. The ship would explode.”
“Exactly.”
“Why did we lose power then, if the Serramorphs were so careful with what they took?” Zarkan asks.
“Hmm,” I hum to myself as I think about it.
The hair on the back of my neck prickles with awareness and I know D’Aakh is listening in, waiting for me to embarrass myself by admitting I don’t have the answer. Which is ridiculous, because the answer is obvious.
“They knew not to mess with the reactor,” I say. “Either they know enough about cold fusion to know how unstable it is, or they had no idea what it was and preferred not to mess with it out of fear. Either way, they left the reactor systems alone. However, they didn’t spare the secondary systems. Let’s see.”
I walk a couple dozen steps forward, looking for a specific control panel. D’Aakh moves forward in sync with me, keeping his distance while remaining in hearing range. He’s clearly itching to rush in and correct me the second I say something wrong. I ignore him. If he wants to act like a child, I’ll treat him like a child. A very sexy child.Mierda, that’s just wrong.
Focus, Lucía. Focus.
I point at the panel. “Behind this wall, there’s a power converter.” Three pairs of eyes watch me with rapt attention. The fourth pair ostensibly pretends to be busy elsewhere. “Umm, how much do you know about how this ship actually works?”
“Zilch,” Astra snorts. “My technical skills back on Earth spanned changing a lightbulb and supporting a wobbly table with a piece of cardboard. Here in space, I can use the shower and the food synthesizer. I’ll need a dumbed down version, please.”
