Page 14 of Claim
But he’d looked so alone on his throne.
She didn’t know anything about alien starfish, but on Earth, sea stars cracked open shelled creatures and sucked their guts out.Orcs in general and Mag in particular were tough skinned, tough all over, but that ring of needle teeth had looked too monstrous.
With a shudder, she reached one hand toward him.“We’ll figure this out together.”
But instead of reaching back to her—with any of his hands—he took another step away.“No.”
Cheeks flushing, she peered at him.“I don’t mean…the ‘burn for you’ thing.”Which, how very, very sweet was that anyway?“The Illgattoa thing.”
“No.There is no together.”
The rejection stung, but she refused to let him see it.“TheDeepWanderis my home too—”
“I will not let the i’lva ignite between us.”
She jerked back, her spine flattening on the way-too-big-for-her throne.Oh.So theyweretalking about the burning thing.
Adeline and to a lesser extent Kinsley had talked about the i’lva.“A mystical guide that connects through the darkness,” Adeline said with a romantic sigh.Kinsley added, “Because they evolved in caves and had to find each other somehow.”Which was maybe less romantic but still made sense.
Both of them had said the i’lva was an essential part of orc dating and mating.
And Mag just said no.
She kept her tone neutral, as she did when a client requested double bleaching.“Then why did you kiss me?”
“Because I have the sense and restraint of a slymusk.”
Considering that slymusks just oozed slowly and randomly around theDeepWander, leaving their glow behind, that was saying…not a lot.
“I suppose a slymusk kiss is no worse than one from an Ajellomenes,” she snarked.And then immediately said, “Wait, I’m sorry.That wasn’t nice.”
He didn’t move.“Will nice save the ship?”
She was not going to apologize for wanting to be nice.Sometimes being nice had been the only way to get through her days.
Avoiding him, she pivoted off the dais seat.Gah, she’d been lolling on his throne like a stripper in a music video.Except her lady bits were doing all the singing.Kinda like the slymusk’s wandering paths around the corridors, all shiny and glowing.
See?She could be not nice when she wanted to be!
Not that she could say it aloud.And she’d never, ever let Magseeit now.
The king said he didn’t want to choose her as mate despite the i’lva?Well, just one kiss didn’t mean she’d chosen him either.
She would just run away… Her averted gaze fell on the datpad that had slipped from her hand at some point during that kiss that didn’t mean anything anyway.
She couldn’t run away.She had a craft project due.
Fumbling for the shield of technology, she cleared her throat.“Soactually, I was going to show you the sketches for the Luster.”She held out the tablet.
For a moment, his big body canted away from her, as ifhewanted to run away.But then he reached out one lower hand to pluck the tablet from her.He angled the screen upward.
She held her breath like she’d done during the kiss, letting it go on and on.
“We look like ourselves,” he said finally.“But…more.”
The response was a gratifying balm on her hurt.“That was the idea.I wanted everyone to feel the best about themselves.”
She’d never taken any drawing classes, but her inspiration was right in front of her, and the faceless figures she reproduced looked strong and bold, ready to wrestle boulders out of space and bash the rubble into galactic credits with their bare hands.Or something like that, since she wasn’t entirely sure how interstellar salvage and asteroid mining worked.But at least they’d look good doing it.
