that matter, should always ask permission.”
“Wouldn’t that kill the mood of the moment? Stopping to say, hey, I wanna ravish you with my mouth?”
“Ravish?” Her lips tilted. “I didn’t think men used that word. And that’s not the correct word.”
“What should it be then, oh expert one on kisses?”
“You could say plunder my lips. Steal a kiss.” She kept talking, her voice slightly breathy.
Was it him or did her pupils dilate and her breathing quicken? She appeared to actually be flirting back.
What did it mean? He’d surely imagined any desire on her part. She wouldn’t want to kiss him. Not now at any rate.
Yet for all that his mind argued, he kept staring at her. She stared right back. Their lips got closer. Close enough to almost touch, yet neither made that final move.
“All joking aside, what would you do if I kissed you?” he asked. Shove at him in disgust? Avoid it entirely?
“Let’s find out.” The words were a hot flutter over his lips before she pressed her mouth to his.
She kissed him, softly, sweetly. The plush feel of her mouth slanting over his was intoxicating. She explored slowly, bringing all his focus on the connection of their flesh. The tingle that spread from it.
His blood pounded through his body. Need pulsed inside. Pulsed elsewhere, too.
In that moment, he felt very much alive—and very hard. It was good to know that part of him still worked. What he found more astonishing was, despite his injuries, she didn’t turn away. She kissed him with a passion that had him groaning into her mouth. His hands skimmed her frame, rousing a need in him that burned hotly.
That left him disappointed when she moved away.
“Where are you going?” he asked, hoping he didn’t sound like a wolgar whining for a scratch.
“To bed. We have a big day tomorrow.”
Not his bed apparently. His tense body trembled, and he wanted to yell at her. Demand she return and finish the kiss. Keep making him believe that everything would turn out just fine.
Instead, she shut the door behind her, and for a moment, despair and loneliness grabbed at him and tried to tug him over to their side. He chose to give in to arousal instead, hoped she was watching when he masturbated. Turned out his right hand could still do the job.
Four
Leaving Titan, Riella went directly to her room and paced. Everything inside her pounded—blood, desire, disbelief. She’d kissed him on an impulse. She couldn’t have said why. And once she did, her senses exploded.
Which she didn’t understand. She’d kissed men before. When she left the citadel on business, she often had her flings. To her, it was just like exercising, a different way of blowing off steam. She could go months without even thinking of sex. Months more with just masturbation as her solution.
When she did decide to act on her urges, it was a quick thing—in, out, and done. Never in the citadel. Never out of desire.
Until now.
Something about Titan fired her blood and shortened her breath. She looked at him and heat curled between her legs. She touched him and that spark turned into a quiver.
She lay on her bed and cupped herself over her underpants. The fabric couldn’t hide the moist heat. She did nothing else. Just lay there, holding herself and staring at the ceiling. Not a very interesting ceiling.
It managed to do the trick. She cooled down. She moved her hand away. Wondered what she should do with Titan.
Tomorrow they’d fit him with limbs, and she wasn’t feeling too hopeful. Every test they ran showed he did not have the Deviant gene. Without it, he was pre-evolution, meaning the bionics wouldn’t bond properly. Not might not. Would not. The flesh would adhere, but the bionics would never truly act as limbs. She should prepare to deal with his disappointment.
Perhaps give him a kiss or more…
The next day, Alfred chastised her the moment she appeared. “There is still time to put him outside and deliver the arm and leg to a paying client.”
“Alfred! We are not throwing him out.” But she might have to find a way to send him back to be with his people. Or in the worst case, leave him in the citadel and relocate. It was time. She’d lingered too long here already. Time to find a new place to live with a new vein of ore to play with.
“You are being emotional about this. You know what the correct thing to do is.”
She did,