Page 80 of Saved By the Alien Hybrid
“Come with us. I’ll show you the dormitory, and you can choose a room.”
She offered no acknowledgment of Lyra’s words, but she followed as the other two women left the room. Xeth left shortly after without a word.
When they were alone in the room, Cordelia turned to him and offered a wan smile.
“So… I guess I have some time to kill until Eunha’s up for a flying lesson.” She licked her lips, clasping her hands together behind her back. “You have any ideas?”
The sun was low over the horizon beyond. The light pouring through the window was golden and deep; it hit her eyes at an angle that made them seem to glow from within. His gaze trailed down, over the tall arch of her nose and the pink bow of her lips. He knew how they tasted.Like salvation.
Did he have any ideas for how to pass the time? He had too many, all of them sordid. He didn’t smell that musky scent rolling off her, which meant she wasn’t in the same state of mind. Of course, she wouldn’t be. Her people were still in danger, and a reckless mission lay ahead of them. She would be feeling the pressure of all the lives at risk, and would need her focus. She wouldn’t appreciate it if he?—
“Rentir?”
He blinked, shaking himself.
“Ah, I apologize.” He smothered the burning desire to touch and taste her, opting for professionalism. “Would you like a tour? You’ve seen precious little of the facility.”
“Actually, yeah. That would be nice.”
He held out a hand to her, heart stalling as he waited to see if she would take it. She seemed to process it for a long moment, but at length she slipped her small, five-fingered hand into his own. He curled his longer fingers around hers, an involuntary purr of pleasure escaping him. Her face flushed with color.
“This way, then,” he said thickly.
He led her through the winding halls of the base facility, retracing familiar territory first. They popped their heads into the medical ward, where Sophia stood outside the medpod as Eunha’s injuries were tended to. Thalen had apparently left the moment he was ambulatory.
Rentir showed her the rooms that had become abandoned after the overseers fled—droll offices and their supply storages, the kitchens where hybrid chefs had once toiled for their masters. He showed her the testing facilities, where auretian scientists tested the quality and properties of teserium before it was packaged up for shipment. He even showed her the warehouse sector off of the hangar, where a room that stretched on forever was half-filled with crates of processed teserium.
Cordelia asked questions at every stop, and he wasn’t sure if it was a polite interest or if she was genuinely so curious about the inner workings of the outpost, but it delighted him to have cause to speak with her at such length.
She stopped in front of a sealed blast door at the end of the hall, leaning forward with her hands on her hips as she scrutinized the Tualithan text. Her sleeve had rucked up, revealing the very edge of the bite she’d yet to heal. “Where does this lead?”
He blinked, shaking himself. What had she just asked? His eyes darted up, finally registering the significance of the door before her.
“To the miner’s facilities,” he explained, leaning against the wall. “Their dormitories, their common area, the tram down into the mines themselves.” He stepped forward as she reached for the door control, catching her hand.
“What’s wrong?”
“I am not… popular down there.”
“Because you worked up here with the overseers?”
He released her hand, feeling suddenly as if he might taint her with his touch. “Something like that,” he said, too ashamed to admit the depth of it.
“It’s not like you got to pick your jobs.” She said, incensed on his behalf. Misguided as it was, it warmed his heart. “It’s you guys against the Aurillon now, right? They’ll have to get over it.”
“It’s not that simple.”
“It should be.”
She glared at the door, but she dropped her hand away from the control. “Well, where next?”
He led her away from the conversation he wasn’t brave enough to have, back through the winding halls and upward, to the upper dormitories. Cordelia looked like she was only narrowly resisting the urge to touch every button in the elevator as they ascended.
They came to a gentle stop, and the door hushed open, sliding into the wall and revealing the gleaming white architecture of the overseer’s dormitories. Cordelia sucked in a surprised breath, her eyes going wide enough that he could see the whites all around her irises.
“This is…”
He followed her gaze, trying to see it with new eyes, as she did. The floors were polished marble imported from Auretia, the auretian homeworld and seat of the Aurillon Empire. The walls were covered in tiny tiles, mosaics in shades of white and jewel tones that depicted the flora of Auretia. The lighting was softer than the rest of the base, a dim warmth that suggested candles rather than electric bulbs. The molding was hand-carved from stone in the shape of mind-bendingly elaborate vines and flowers.
