Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 71082 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 355(@200wpm)___ 284(@250wpm)___ 237(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71082 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 355(@200wpm)___ 284(@250wpm)___ 237(@300wpm)
Kazex loves a party. He isn’t the type to get sloppy drunk, but he is the type to stay until all hours of the morning, laughing and gambling and just having a good time. We’ve had several small parties on the ship for various reasons—birthdays, the end of a particularly annoying job, the arrival of Salvotor a few months ago—but he’s never abandoned them early.
Yet tonight he’s here with me, alone, and he’s quiet.
“Is something wrong?” I ask him as we get back on the ship and the quiet of the Scarlet Gaze sinks in around us. Normally there’s always someone coming down a hall, or playing music, or working out. Maintenance. Yelling. There’s always background noise. Tonight it’s silent.
Tonight it feels like just us.
“Nothing’s wrong.” He glances around the ship and then turns to me. “Where are Lady Ruth and Lord Straik? They weren’t at the celebration, were they?”
I gesture back down the main hall, toward Straik’s living quarters that he shares with my sister. “Ruth wasn’t feeling well earlier. They’re probably just cuddled up on a couch.”
He brightens. “That sounds like an excellent idea. I am going to cuddle on a couch. Would you like to join me?”
His wording makes me smile. “If I say no, you’re going to cuddle alone?”
Kaz runs his thumb over the back of my hand. “I would prefer not to be alone.”
A hot thread of need rushes through me, and my sensitive nipple pricks again. “I’ll cuddle with you, sure.” With any other guy, it would sound like a line. But with Kazex, I know it’s not. He’s never been so forward. That’s not who he is…is it?
Shyness takes over me as we head into the common area rec room. Normally there’s someone in here, too, but this afternoon it’s quiet as could be. Kaz immediately heads for the couches, sits in his favorite spot, and then tugs me down beside him.
I laugh, because it’s unlike him to be so bold. “What’s gotten into you?”
“I have a coin,” he says smugly, and then pulls my legs across his lap.
“I…have no idea what that means.”
“Shall I show you?” The look he gives me is utterly seductive.
I nod. Of course I want to know what’s going on in his mind.
He puts his arm over my legs and tugs me a little closer, until my butt is snugged up against his thigh and our shoulders are touching. “We do not have an official word, my Ruthie, but we have a coin.”
Are we back to this? I feel guilty that I couldn’t think of a word for him. “We can use ‘noodle,’ really. I don’t mind.”
“We have a coin,” he repeats firmly, his expression determined. “If we cannot decide how to proceed, we flip the coin.”
“How to proceed with what, exactly?”
Kazex studies my face, quiet and thoughtful, until I can feel my face heating. Is he looking for something? Is he looking at my nostril that’s smaller than the other? “I have decided I’m going to kiss you,” he says finally. “Heads, it is on your mouth. Tails, it is on your hand.”
I’m utterly flummoxed at his words. We’ve gone from dancing around how we’re going to proceed and now he’s just announcing that he’s going to kiss me? “You know you could just ask me?”
“I could,” he agrees. “But we both have trouble saying what it is we want. If I came up to you and asked you if you would like to be kissed, you would fret over it. You would stress over what it would mean for us and if it would be a good kiss. I am telling you now that it does not matter what it means, and it does not matter if the kiss is good or not. I have decided, and now the only question is to answer whether you wish it on your hand or your mouth.” He pauses and then adds, “Or if you want to yell ‘noodle.’”
For some reason, I mentally picture me throwing my head back and screaming “noodle” at the top of my lungs and it strikes me as hilarious. “You don’t think this is strange?”
“If it works for us, what makes it strange? If you find my requests appalling, say your word.” He shrugs. “We will go as fast or as slow as you like.”
“But you want to kiss me?” I’m no longer laughing. I’m intrigued. We haven’t kissed yet, him and I, and I wonder what it’d be like. Is it going to be sweet and hesitant and patient like he is with me? Or does he kiss much fiercer?
“I can just kiss your hand. Or you can flip a coin.”
“Or I can noodle.”
“Or you can noodle, yes.”
“What happens if I say noodle?”
“Absolutely nothing. We go on as we are.” He smiles at me, his gaze easy and patient. “And at some point, I will ask again.”