Total pages in book: 175
Estimated words: 166095 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 830(@200wpm)___ 664(@250wpm)___ 554(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 166095 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 830(@200wpm)___ 664(@250wpm)___ 554(@300wpm)
The moment Jamef and I appear in the doorway to the weapons room, Bethiah gets a wary look on her face.
“Bethiah’s rule number one,” I remind her before she can make a comment. “You always take what you want, and I want all three of us to sleep together tonight, so don’t even try to argue with me.”
Her lips twitch with amusement and the wariness disappears from her face. “You’re turning into a bossy one, fluffit. I like it.”
“I thought you might. Come on.” I hold my other hand out to her.
“You’re really excited to sleep squeezed between a male full of metal and my tail, huh? In that tiny bed?” She shrugs and takes my hand. “Weird creature.”
Oh, do I get to sleep in the middle? I hadn’t dared to hope, but a warm flush of pleasure races through me at the realization. “Back home we called a tight fit like that ‘sleeping like sardines.’ They’re tiny fish in a canister that are lined up in rows.”
“Why?” Bethiah asks.
“Why what?”
“Why are the fish in rows in a canister?”
Oh. I chuckle. It seems obvious to me but maybe not to an alien. “You eat them. You pull one out and eat it whole.”
“Disgusting. If you want to tell me bedtime stories, maybe not gross ones, fluffit?” Bethiah makes a revolted sound. “Tell me sexy stories instead.”
“I don’t have any sexy stories,” I say with a chuckle.
“Not yet,” Jamef agrees, and that sends a thrill through me. It’s a bold statement, and yet I like it. I like it as much as his hand in mine.
“Not yet,” I agree, and for the first time in a few days, I’m excited for what the future holds.
Thirty-Four
JAMEF
The bed looks smaller than I remember. I should point out to the females that I don’t truly need to sleep. That I can power down some of my cybernetics and part of my brain—almost like hibernation—and it works well enough. But us sleeping together in the same bed is part of the deal, and I can tell this means a lot to Dora.
So I don’t say anything at all.
While Bethiah pretends to be busy fixing the latch on an overhead compartment, Dora fusses with the bedding. She lays out fresh blankets and the thin sheets, making and remaking the bed and smoothing out wrinkles. She’s nervous, I can tell. I pull off one of my boots as I stand in the doorway, watching Bethiah’s nonsense as much as Dora’s, and both of them jump when my boot hits the floor.
All right, it’s not just Dora that’s nervous.
Strange that I’m not, I suppose. But Bethiah’s twitchiness coupled with Dora’s anxious responses brings out the protective side of me. The side that knows one of us needs to remain calm and in control before things spiral. “I can’t stay all night,” I comment as I pull off my other boot and then cross the small room to set them into their place. “I’ll have to get up and check on the bridge, but that can wait a few hours.”
“Coward,” Bethiah teases.
I snort at that. No male in his right mind would abandon a bed with two attractive females in it, and she knows it. She’s just being her usual spitfire self. “Just making sure we steer clear of trouble, that’s all.”
“Should we make a rule about what we wear in bed?” Dora asks. “Just so no one feels uncomfortable?”
“You mean you don’t want us sleeping naked, fluffit?” Bethiah teases. She gives the latch a pat and then puts away her tool, and I wonder if the damned thing was even broken. Probably not. She just needed something to occupy herself.
“I’m not opposed to naked,” Dora says, gazing at her and then at me. “But we all want to be on the same page.”
Bethiah looks over at me, a challenge in her eyes.
Before she can volunteer for us to all wear something scandalous, I shake my head. “Let’s keep all important parts covered while we go slow.”
Dora beams at me. “That sounds good.”
“In that case, have you seen my sleep tunic, fluffit?” Bethiah moves to the closet and shoves a few hanging tunics aside. “I don’t see it anywhere.”
The human hums, her expression thoughtful. “The laundry bots might have it. Let me go check.” She brushes past me in the narrow room with a little smile, and my pulse speeds up as I watch her go.
The moment Dora is out of the room, Bethiah moves over to stand in front of me. She grabs my jaw in a pincer hold, forcing me to look into her eyes. “You’re loving this, aren’t you?”
“Having two gorgeous females in my bed? Yes, I am.” I give her a challenging look. “Don’t pretend like it doesn’t excite you.”
“She’s going to get her feelings hurt,” Bethiah hisses.