Page 61 of Consume
I swiped at my cheeks and sighed. “It’s like I’ve always had an imaginary friend inside my head who turned out to be real. This doesn’t change anything. Not really. I’m still me. Still a college girl who misses holding a spatula and likes to blow stuff up on occasion.”
“Wrong. This does change everything.” Mase grinned one of his heart-stopping grins as he pointed to himself. “I put a baby inside a goddess. Me.” He pointed to my belly and then back at his chest, right at his heart. “I did that.”
I snorted and shook my head, leaning in for a quick kiss.
“You were always a goddess to me,” he murmured in my ear. His breath caressed my neck and swept downward in pulsing, hot waves. “Even before I knew for sure.”
When he pulled away, I read the same naughty thoughts in his eyes that were dancing through my head. I needed to get him alone. I also needed to get away from him before I climbed on top of him, but I stayed put. Barely.
Everyone had moved on with the conversation, allowing Mase and me a moment to ourselves, but one question still burned. “How did you get out of the waste treatment plant?”
“We ran,” Franco said. “Really fast.”
“While carrying the wounded between us,” Captain Glenn added. “We stole Parker’s ship again and put the woundedViciousinside it.”
“When we saw that you had been arrested,” Franco said, “we couldn’t believe it. You were back, alive, and we were alive, too, and to be honest, none of us expected any of those things.”
“We had to get you back to us.” Mase adjusted our clasped hands so he could trace my thumb. “No question about that.”
I nodded, trying to ignore the thrill his touch gave me. “And Moon with her girly hands helped.”
“Gah!” She held up her hands and stared at them. “I didn’t even think about those. Is that how you knew?”
“Yeah, I made the same mistake when I swapped genders and came aboard this ship.”
Captain Glenn set down his wineglass on the gurney. “Those were the days when we only had ghosts and blood-crazed hybrids to worry about. I do not miss those days.”
“Thank you, Moon,” I said. “I will owe you for the rest of my life.”
“Nah.” She shrugged. “I only commit felonies for my favorite roommates, so you’re good.”
“So what now?” Mase asked. “Where are we going now that we’re all accomplices to at least one crime?”
“I have an idea about that,” I said. “It’s dangerous. It’s cold, and no, it’s not back to Mayvel. There’s a whole planet that could use my help.”
Mase’s gaze dragged away from my lips briefly. “Sorry. I got distracted, but are you saying what I think you’re saying?”
“I am. It’s crawling with Saelises and it’s haunted and it’s not a good place to be for humans.”
Poh drew one of her guns and grinned at the barrel. “But it could use a little goddess hereafter action for all of Earth’s lost souls, couldn’t it?”
Captain Glenn threw down his napkin and stood. “Anyone want off someplace, then say so. If not, Mase, set a course. We’re going back to The Black.”
