Gaze by Viola Grace Read Free Book Online Page B

remember being naked. She remembered crawling into the ship and then nothing else.
    Rubbing her face, she swung her legs out of bed and walked to the lav. There was a strange mist coiling along the floor, and the fog reached to her knees. It felt cool and refreshing, but she had to ask, “Baby, did you blow an environmental system?”
    The coils of mist wrapped around her legs and moved up her body. Recognition clicked in. “Ah, Shiver. Good morning.”
    The mist thickened and formed a column, leaving her in a room with a naked Kozue. “Good morning, Gaze. You have issues.”
    She snorted at the understatement. “Yes, I do. Please excuse me for a moment.”
    She walked into the lav, used the facilities and took a sonic shower. She was clean and a little more alert when she returned to her bedroom where Shiver was in earnest conversation with Blue .
    Gwyn blinked at the portrait that was leaning against the wall. It was her perfect-match portrait. “What are you doing with that?”
    “Admiring the artist’s handiwork. She managed to capture me with great detail. Nishans usually are not so favourably depicted in modern art.”
    “Are you sure? I can’t read its aura in the image.”
    She shivered a little, and he reacted immediately, wrapping her in a column of body-temperature comfort. Her skin felt normal and relaxed. She looked down and the mist started to move against her.
    “Um, what are you doing?”
    “The healers I consulted informed me that your skin needs to be gently abraded to trick it into regenerating itself. You have not done it yourself, because it was already an improvement over what you had previously.”
    She shivered as the columns of air slid over her breasts, and she jumped as it parted her thighs. “What are you doing?”
    He put an innocent look on his features. “I am testing the tensile strength of your skin.”
    “I am not burned down there.”
    “Really? The tissue feels very sensitive.”
    She moved to slap him, but the step she took opened her up, and he took advantage of that. “What are you doing?”
    She felt something slip inside her and move slightly.
    “I am pressing my advantage. While you are excellent at hospitality, you have ignored all my attempts at gentle seduction. I am taking matters into my own hands, so to speak.”
    She blinked as her knees quivered. The mist was stroking her sex, parting her, slipping inside and rubbing at her clit. She stayed locked in place while her body rioted from within.
    Tension tightened inside her, and she stared into his eyes as she gasped when it reached critical and the tension eased with a sensory snap.
    He remained looking at her while she went through the slow internal clasps that didn’t connect with anything. When the pleasure faded, an ache remained.
    Shiver stepped toward her. “Thank goodness. I was afraid that your nervous system had major damage.”
    He placed his hands carefully on her elbows and stroked upward to her shoulders. The compressed air was between them, but it didn’t reduce the effect of his touch.
    “Why does it matter?” she could feel the bar of his erection against her lower belly.
    “Because I was given a more detailed portrait months ago. You have no idea how hard it is to arrange pickup when I could and do fly myself. I had to beg your dispatcher for a chance, so she set a time limit on my courtship.” He stroked his hands down her spine.
    “Courtship?”
    “Well, yes. We are in a strange situation, Gaze. You can fly into danger at any moment, and I strut around on strange worlds in politically tense situations. Sure, I am only vulnerable to fire, but you would be surprised at how many folk are willing to try anything to get their way.”
    She let his hands ease her completely against him. “So, you are saying that we should grab any opportunity for happiness?”
    “I am saying that we have finally found each other, and I have thirty-two hours to confirm it with dispatch before they part us