Page 113 of Star-Born Anomaly
“I don’t know.” Her brow furrowed. “Thick. Wet. And some sort of flavor I can’t describe.”
He could not give her a simple answer to her question, so he said, “Perhaps because we have many lifeforms living together.”
She paused in her steps. “What do you mean by lifeforms?”
“Calypson adaptations, extensions, outgrowth.” He gestured to where the thick band of black came out of one section of bulkhead, and disappeared into another. “We have many forms.”
“Many forms,” she repeated, her frown deepening on her forehead. “Are you part of that wall?” She shook her head immediately after asking the question.
“In some manner, yes.” He knew it was not a sufficient response, but could not give her another at the moment.
If he could link their minds, he could explain their entire existence in a brief span of time. But being limited as they were, he felt his frustration mount at not having better words to give her.
“Sorry.” She huffed out a breath. “I think I’m asking too many questions.”
He squeezed her hand. “I do not believe there is such a thing as too many questions.”
“Oh, I know there is. I was definitely told to keep quiet when I was an annoying little kid.”
He tugged her forward. The insistent urging of The Four scratched at his mind the harder he tried to block it. But Wynn was more important than their impatience.
“I would like to see that,” he stated.
She lifted her chin to focus on him instead of the bulkheads. “What?”
“Your curiosity as a child.” He nodded for emphasis when her eyes widened. “I can imagine it being as captivating as your curiosity now.”
She pulled him to a stop, her cheeks brightening with color. “That’s a beautiful thing to say.”
Mesmerized by the emotions fluttering across her face, he said, “If it is beautiful, then it suits the person I’m speaking about.”
Her lips parted, and he could not stop himself from leaning down to steal a kiss from her lips. She sighed and curved into the action, her body aligning with his in a way that felt right. Her hands gripped the front of his shirt to pull him closer, and her softness pressed into him.
A moan emerged from the back of his throat. He deepened the kiss. They had spent many hours together, sharing their bodies, but it never seemed enough. He wantedmore. His desire surged, and so did his need to bury himself in her body.
One step, then another, he urged her toward the bulkhead until he could lift her onto one of the dark arms of outgrowth. Her legs wrapped around his hips, and her fingers dug into the back of his scalp. He could not get close enough. Could not devour her enough to suit his rising urgency.
Wrapped up in their intimacy as he was, it took a moment for the shock to register. Not his shock, but others’. It was not the act itself that manifested this emotion in his fellow Calypsons, but the emotions inside him, his intense affection for Wynn, that he could not mask.
Reluctantly, Iax broke the kiss to press his forehead against hers. A deep breath calmed him, then he acknowledged the insistent presence of The Four.
They had been attempting to probe further into his mind since the cruiser had come into range. He had answered their surface inquiries, but had closed a larger part of himself away from their prying—a task The Four seemed to accomplish without effort, but that strained the edges of his own mental abilities. Even though he and Wynn were physically alone, he could not hide his actions from the rest of the Calypsons, nor mute his potent emotions.
And their horror reflected their inability to relate or understand his current state of being. Before he left, that would have been cause for change, to fix himself, to adapt, to adhere to the norm.
Right now, he found he did not care what they thought. Being with Wynn was more important than all of them put together.
And that might be the most shocking thing of all.
Her eyes searched his face, a new frown growing there.
“Come,” he said, lowering her to the deck with his hands on her hips. “We are almost there.” Their fingers entwined, he tugged her gently down the corridor.
He felt her eyes on him as they walked the rest of the way to the lift, felt her concern for him swell. He had not thought he outwardly revealed his growing sense of uncertainty as they traveled toward The Four, but she must have seen something for her nervousness to turn into worry for him.
Unable to resist, he tucked her under his arm and kissed the top of her head. She sighed, but her concern for him remained.Selfless. He did not think he had met another as empathetic as her, and it was doubly surprising when considering how and where her childhood started.
She had asked her questions, and they were warranted, but Wynn should have known these things all along. She should have grown up here as he had, despite being different. Or maybe even because of it.
