Total pages in book: 109
Estimated words: 103211 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 516(@200wpm)___ 413(@250wpm)___ 344(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 103211 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 516(@200wpm)___ 413(@250wpm)___ 344(@300wpm)
If Nox had behaved badly, she would have been obliged to make him suck the nipple with the fire powder which would burn his mouth. Only after he had “learned his lesson” would she have then allowed him to suck the nipple with ice powder on it in order to cool the intense burning.
Nox raised an eyebrow at her.
“Would you prefer that I had behaved badly so that you could punish me? I thought you just said you were averse to giving pain.”
“No, no!” Seline said quickly. “Though…I wouldn’t have made you deal with the fire powder very long,” she added, looking up at him from under her lashes. “I would have let you have the ice powder right away—so you wouldn’t have been hurt.”
“Duly noted.” Nox nodded. “Next time, you wish me to misbehave so that I will be obliged to suck your nipples.”
“Oh, I didn’t say that!” Seline protested, feeling her face get red. She liked to flirt with her Protector but they were getting past flirting here!
“Then…you do not wish me to suck your ripe nipples?” Nox asked, frowning.
“I…I didn’t say that either! I said…I mean…I don’t know what I mean!” Seline stammered, very aware of his silver eyes scanning her body.
Her blouse was the button-down kind and she had deliberately left an extra button unbuttoned, specifically for Nox’s benefit, since the big Kindred seemed to like looking at her breasts and Seline liked him looking. Now, however, she had the feeling that he was looking and imagining sucking her nipples!
Was he finally feeling something for her after the ‘kink’ conversation they had just had? And was that something lust? What if he suddenly snapped and started kissing her? Her whole body felt flushed at the idea.
“What are you thinking?” she blurted.
But Nox’s answer was disappointing.
“I was calculating the star positions and the relative velocity and route we’ll be taking as we make our way to Beselex Station,” he remarked coolly.
“What? But we were just talking about you…you…”
“About me sucking your nipples?” He raised an eyebrow at her again. “Which is fascinating, since you do not seem to know if you wish to have me suck them or not the next time we are on Yonnie Six. However, I can think of more than one thing at once. Are you unable to do complex equations with one side of your mind while considering social matters with the other?”
“What? No. Of course I can’t do that!” Seline exclaimed, feeling deflated.
So much for her huge, muscular Protector snapping and pinning her to the wall for a fierce, passionate kiss. He was doing math in his head the same time they were talking about him sucking her nipples into his mouth! Which didn’t seem like a good sign for any kind of spicy sex in her future.
“Hmm, a limitation of the human mind, I suppose,” Nox remarked coolly and went back to prepping the ship for launch.
Seline sighed—her body was throbbing from the frank discussion of kinky sex but it didn’t look like she was ever going to get any. She reached into the carry-all cube, looking for something to distract herself from her disappointment.
What she found was the metal case the Far Box came in. Since Commander Sylvan had said it wasn’t fragile, she took the metal case out and opened it, revealing the half-cube made of black and white stone.
This time, however, she saw something she hadn’t noticed before—there were words carved on the inside of the lid of the metal box.
Without the Translations Bacteria the Kindred had given her to help her speak and understand alien languages, she never could have read it. But now all she had to do was squint at the strange-looking squiggles and in a moment they resolved themselves into words she could read. In fact, they seemed to form a kind of verse.
“Hey—there’s something written here,” she said to Nox, who turned to look at her once more. “Listen to this:
Half to do
Whole to undo
Whatever was wished
To make it untrue
Whole it must be
Through and through.”
She looked up at Nox.
“What do you suppose it means?”
“I do not know.” He frowned and shook his head. “It appears to be written in the most ancient Kindred tongue however. Perhaps some kind of instructions for using the Far Box?”
“I guess so…” Seline fiddled with the half-cube, rearranging the configuration of the smaller black and white cubes as she twisted it idly back and forth.
“We are cleared for take off now,” Nox told her. “Are you securely strapped in?”
“You know I am—you checked my harness the way you always do,” Seline pointed out. Indeed, she’d thought that maybe his big hands had lingered a little long on the buckles and straps holding her in place, but now she wondered if it hadn’t just been her overactive imagination.
“True. Then we will begin our journey.” Nox nodded and the long-range shuttle rose into the air.