His smile widened, his thumb pausing to pull slightly at her full lower lip. “You’ve been researching human mating customs?”
“Well… yes. I wanted to…”
She couldn’t complete the sentence. Heat hit her cheeks again and she looked down.
“Wanted to what?” He hooked strong fingers under her chin to make her look up, pinning her with his darkened gaze. “You wanted to find out about how humans have sex?”
She nodded, unable to look away.
“Why?”
The small whimper escaped her before she could stop it. He was going to make her say it. She just knew he was.
“Keris?”
“I wanted to know what it would be like! Okay?” she managed on a hiss. Her face was so hot now, it felt like she’d face planted on a star’s surface.
“With a human?” he demanded, still holding her jaw.
She glared at him. Humans were so draanthing stubborn at times. Get them stuck on a theme and they just did not stop.
“Yes, with a human. With you, you thick Terran!” she hissed back. “Do you see any other human males here?”
Triumph rolled through him at her words and he slid his hand further into her hair to cup the nape of her neck.
“No,” he murmured, drinking in the beauty of her face as it was upturned to him. “There’s just me.”
She was still annoyed, and it was adorable the way she wrinkled her nose at him. “Then why did you ask?”
“Because I wanted to hear you say it.”
The admission was dragged from him, leaving him open and raw to her. He’d always had trouble with acceptance and belonging. He wasn’t an idiot. He knew it was because of his childhood. You didn’t need a couple of degrees to realize that.
She studied his expression and he let her, ignoring the need to make a joke or kiss her again to distract her. For some reason it seemed important to let her look, to let her see him, even though he’d resisted it his entire adult life.
“I wanted to know what it would be like… with you,” she said softly, reaching up on her tiptoes to brush her lips against his. He knew she hadn’t been in a physical body for long, and he knew he was the more experienced of the two of them, but he still felt like a green youth kissing his first girl. That sense of wonder and anticipation… he was so fucking hard he was surprised he hadn’t burst through his damn fly already.
“Bed. Candles. Soft music.” His voice was rough when she pulled away and he wasn’t sure if he was trying to persuade her or himself.
She smiled, the sweet expression more erotic than any practiced seductive look from another woman. “Okay.”
He blinked. “Did you just agree to sleep with me?”
Her look was long and considering. “I’m beginning to reconsider my assessment of the intelligence of human males.”
“Bear with me. I’ll catch up.” He chuckled and pulled her close for a second, kissing her again. Then he nuzzled her nose. “You do realize we’re alone. Don’t you?”
His little AI-turned-seductress started and looked over her shoulder. The B’Kaar who had been watching them from the exit had gotten bored at some point during their short clinch and wandered off somewhere. He’d heard the door go, but she obviously hadn’t.
She looked back at him. “The console.”
His smile broadened as she grabbed his hand and all but dragged him to the back of the hangar. The Lathar were so linear, which he’d always found frustrating before. But on her, it was downright adorable.
They reached the back in a rush of soft giggles and he stole another kiss before turning her around.
“Okay, sweetheart,” he urged. “Do your thing.”
She stopped dead in front of the console and as he watched, her face fell.
“Jay,” she whispered. “I’m not sure I can do this.”
“Sure you can, doll,” he murmured, sliding his hands around her waist so his chest was against her back.
“Look at how far you’ve come already. You’re telling me you’re going to let a little keyboard stand in your way?”
His voice was low and unconcerned, but inside, he held his breath. “All” she had to do was hack into the system and hide their activity from the B’Kaar. He might not know what those asshole cyberwarriors were capable of, but there were lots of them.
Every time he’d walked through the command suite, most of the twenty had been jacked into the system, standing as motionless as statues with cables trailing from their wrists. How could she beat so many of them? But she could… she had to. They needed the advantage.
“This is so primitive,” she grumbled, activating the console. “I have to type? Barbaric.”
He hid his smile as her hands flew over the keyboard. He had never been a computer geek so there was no way he could match her speed. But… she was an AI, and one of those superior Miisan-level AIs. He knew she had this and he was right as the screen in front of them scrolled through different systems.
Then he blinked. “Hey, I recognize some of the words.”
“Yeah?” she asked, looking over her shoulder at him with a smile. Her fingers didn’t stop moving. Figured his girl would turn out to be badass with a keyboard. “Sounds like the new implant is settling in.”
He smiled at her, trying to pick up more, but then huffed. It was only a word or so, and they were few and far between. He wouldn’t be reading the Latharian version of War and Peace any time soon.
“O…kay,” she murmured, rapidly adding another set of commands on screen before hitting what he assumed was the enter button with a flourish. “That should be that. I’ve set an algorithm to disable internal sensors in grid three-four-seven, with intermittent glitches in three-four-five and three-four-six.”
“Let me guess?” he grinned. “Three-four-seven is ours?”
She nodded. “It’s the residential sector on the VIP level and two decks below. I’ve also disabled the sensors in here and triggered a wave of randomly fluctuating glitches across the station. Hopefully they’ll think they’re all connected rather than deliberate to take out the sensors in our rooms.”
He grinned and scooped her up. “You, sweetheart, are a genius.”
10
She’d been summoned.
Keris stood in the base CO’s office doorway, a room now taken over by the leader of the B’Kaar, Risyn. The male lounged in the chair behind the desk, scowling at the empty air in front of him. Since he had one elegant forearm extended and an uplink cable jacked into the port there, she knew he was logged into the system looking at something she couldn’t see. By the rapid movement of his eyes, he was flicking through screens. Perhaps searching for something? Whatever it was, he wasn’t finding it, the frustration written on his patrician features.
“You wanted to see me?” she asked, keeping her voice low to avoid startling him too much even though she knew that it wasn’t necessary. All the B’Kaar were linked so he’d have received notification from the guard that brought her here that they were on their way. He was just making her wait in the doorway.