She turns her head, and this time, I kiss her lips. Jade gazes up at me, but her eyes still look troubled. "What happens now?" she asks.
"We get to the Star and use the Jabberwock to haul it to my friend Jerrok's. He's the one I told you about that lives on an asteroid. He's the one we left Sophie with. We'll pick her up, too. She's probably more than ready to leave. And there's the carinoux, though I'm not sure what we're going to do with that thing. Find a buyer, I guess."
"What about you and me?" Jade asks softly. "And what about my friends? And your brothers?"
"We'll hunt for them, too. They're bound to show up somewhere." I can't resist nipping her ear again, because it usually leads towards sex, and my mind is absolutely focused on sex right now. I've solved Jade's worries, and now my cock can get some attention, hopefully. "And then you and I go gallivanting around the universe."
She looks up at me. "Is that what we're going to do?"
"Did…you have a better idea?"
"I don't know," she admits. She presses her mouth to my bicep. "Do pirates need a bleeding heart human with them?"
"This one does," I reassure her, and flick my tail over the apex of her thighs, testing the waters. And when Jade turns over and slides her arms around my neck, I kiss her fully on the mouth, dragging her leg up around my hips. It's been hours since we've mated, and I need her just as much as she needs me.
76
JADE
I wake up the next morning with Adiron wrapped around me and a view of the Buoyant Star in the window. I sit up and stare out at it. Sometime while I slept and fooled around with Adiron in bed, we returned to the Star, hitched it up, and are now tugging it behind the Jabberwock. I can see delicate metal cords tying the ships together, though that seems dangerous to me. These people know how to operate their ships better than I do, though, so I try not to worry too much. I vaguely remember something about my space teachings back in school, about how an object in motion will remain in motion until something else acts against it, so I suppose it's less “hauling” and more “leading.”
Just seeing the Star there makes me feel a little better, though. There's no danger of an ice field. There's no worry about being a sitting duck, all alone in unfamiliar space.
Now if we can just find Adiron's brothers and Alice, Helen and Ruth, I'll be thrilled. I'll be able to finally relax a little. Hopefully.
I glance down at Adiron in the bed. He's got all the blankets wrapped around him, because of course he does, and his big body takes up most of the bed. He slept for most of the night with me clutched against his chest, though, so I don't mind if he's a bit of a bed hog. After yesterday, I'm just thrilled to have him in my bed at all.
I shiver, thinking about how it felt to go into stasis. How painful it was as the cold crept through my body. It was like being forced to watch your body slowly turning to ice, and just thinking about it makes me cold. I lie down in bed again, and Adiron immediately reaches for me, dragging me against his big body.
Next to him in bed might be my favorite place in the universe, I muse. He—
My stomach lurches, and my mouth fills with saliva. This time, my body isn't waiting for a bowl-full of noodles to get sick.
I bolt from the bed and slam into the lavatory, then puke my guts up.
"Jade?" Adiron's sleepy voice drifts through the cabin. "Love?"
"Just…just a minute." I manage between retching. "I'm…fine."
"You don't sound fine." Footsteps echo in the room and then the lavatory door opens. In the next moment, a hand is on the small of my back. "You don't look fine, either. What did you eat?"
"Nothing," I manage, gasping. I feel a little better now that my stomach is empty, and I wipe my mouth and manage a wan smile as I look over at my mate. "It's okay, really."
The look on Adiron's face is one of worry. "You have been sick repeatedly. Is this a human thing? Zoey was never sick like this unless she ate something bad." He rubs my back, eyes wide. "Is this the sickness that Alice had, do you think? Shaalyn said that they wouldn't let Alice and Kaspar on their ship because Alice was sick."
I shake my head. "I don't think so. It's fine. I just need to eat something." And tell him about the baby. That's the obvious solution—tell him that I'm sick because I'm pregnant. But I can't make the words come out of my mouth. I'm afraid he won't be excited. That whatever tenuous happiness we have right now will disappear into thin air the moment there's a baby in the mix.