Tail, Dark and Handsome: Celestial Mates

Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Crash! Rebel Cayne stumbles away from vehicle accident. First responders on the scene claims the fading pop star was lucky to walk away with her life…

-Corra News Network

MarigoldTurns out four weeks in a mid-size personal ship is a long, long time. Don’t get her wrong, the ship was well equipped, but even the most luxurious ships started to feel cramped. She had her own cabin that was marginally larger than a closet with walls just thick enough to give the illusion of privacy.

Keeping her distance from Winter, though, proved an impossible task. They were packed in together, and no matter where she went, he was only a few steps away.

She had asked him for time, to be sure before complicating their relationship. Attraction was undeniable, and Winter seemed to derive some satisfaction by catching her ogling when he stretched. Or left the communal cleansing room wearing only a towel around his waist.

Mari couldn't even explain why she was hesitant. She liked Winter. She didn’t do casual, and while his lackluster proposal—she was attractive enough and tolerable, be still her heart—left plenty of room for improvement, she couldn’t say he was only looking for a hookup. Mr. Growly Claws was all about commitment, which was hot, if she was being honest.

So why did she have this artificial clock in her head, ticking down the days she had to wait to remain a good girl before she could move on? Sweet suffering nebulas. It wasn’t even that, not really. She didn’t think her heart could take it if she made another mistake by rushing in.

Mari slipped into the tiny kitchenette tucked in next to the common area. Really, the kitchen was a marvel of design and a ruthlessly efficient use of space. It had barely enough room for a single adult to move about and participate in an activity that resembled cooking, so of course everyone packed in at the same time.

Mari would like to say it was only Zero who had no patience and thought he could slip in behind her and grab a packet out of a cabinet, but it was mostly Winter. They just pushed in like she wasn’t there, bumping her into the counter.

“Sugar,” she yelped.

Hot water splashed down Winter’s chest. Grumbling, he reached around her for a towel, pressing their chests together. It was wet and warm and horribly inappropriate to find it so much fun.

“Get off me,” she said, pushing him away and in no way letting her hands linger on his chest, because that would be sending the wrong signal. “And now you’re taking your shirt off. Why?”

“You scalded me. Do you wish for my skin to be injured?” Maybe he flexed a little. Maybe she couldn’t take her eyes off the way his striations made everything about his chest so much yummier. She was only human, and Winter had a way of making a bad idea seem so, so good.

“Ha. Tal skin is tougher than human skin. You’re fine,” she said, definitely not staring.

With a finger under her chin, Winter raised her eyes to his. Okay, she was staring.

“I assure you,” he purred, “this was necessary and not vanity.”

She did find herself feeling rather favorable toward his ability to find many necessary reasons for removing his shirt, but she kept that nugget to herself.

She grabbed the towel and shoved it at him.

“Sugar?” he asked, a grin lifting his normally stern mouth.

For a moment, her heart seemed to beat louder as she mistook him calling her sugar, not asking about her swearing. “Oh, umm, I try not to use curse words on the job. Customer service, you know. No one wants a potty mouth pilot. Now it's second nature to me,” she explained.

“It is cute.”

“It’s really not.”

“And you are…” His gaze swept over her, eating her up.

“Tolerable?” she prompted.

“Mmm.” He reached behind her again, pinning her to the counter. He leaned in, body pressed against her and lips brushing past her face. She shivered from the hot breath on the shell of her ear.

Mari turned, their lips so close. She needed him to kiss her. Right. Now.

Winter grabbed the box of crunchy fruit bars and tore into his snack. “What?” His tail danced behind him. “See something you like?”

“You’re cheating,” she managed to say, quite proud she kept herself from drooling all over him despite being all needy-greedy.

“I craved a snack. Is that against the rules?” That grin again, then he sauntered away, tail still dancing.

Fuuuck.

Mari banged her head against a cabinet.

She would call herself doomed, but she had a feeling that Winter’s sort of doom would be pretty amazing.

WinterThe ship had been his refuge from the eyes of the universe. The female arrived and his refuge changed. The space felt confining and too large at the same time. His bed was definitely too large. He tried his best to sleep, but all he could think was that Marigold slept on a narrow bunk when he had a plush bed with the finest linens. It was incorrect for her to sleep on a thin mattress with a scratchy blanket.

She belonged in his bed.

The ship had changed in other ways as well. Before, it had merely been functional. It served a purpose but little else. Now he heard his kit’s laughter and the general noise of family life. When he searched for the change, he found that the physical remained as it had always been. The change was Marigold’s presence. She made the ship lighter, warmer—like a home.

Marigold remained skittish, but Winter felt convinced that he could convince her to accept his offer of mating. He was hard pressed to explain what it was about her—her gentle smile? A softness that let him feel truly at rest for the first time?—that attracted him. Tension crackled and sparked between them, but it was more than physical attraction. He could hear it in her laughter and see the way her eyes warmed with affection when she spoke with Zero. While he and Zero were a family—no matter what his kit said—and they got along well enough on their own, they were missing something.

Someone.

Marigold fit them, and the more time they spent together, the more she became a part of their small family unit. The only time he had ever felt so certain that someone belonged in his life was when the medic handed him a red-faced kit, squawking and otherwise complaining about his arrival in the world. It was the first time he knew complete love, and he wondered if he could be fortunate enough for it to happen a second time.

Winter found the kitchen to be in disarray, a sure sign that Zero had been there. He wiped down the counters and washed discarded dishes while water boiled for his morning cup of tea. He mused about Marigold’s laughter. She gave the light, lilting sound freely and with ease, sharing it with the wider world. It was so unlike Rebel’s own hard-edged laugh, honed by bitter experience.

His heart tugged in sympathy for his lost mate. He could never give her what she wanted or be who she wanted. But Marigold…

Perhaps it was the newness of her and the connection between them. The two females were similar in their strength of will and opinions—Chase would snidely comment that Winter had a type—but different in fundamental ways. When Marigold turned her warm eyes to him, she gave him all of her. In that moment, he was the center of her universe, and it was a blessed place to be. He never wanted to leave that place.

Never wanted her to leave. She asked for time, and he would allow her time to arrive at the correct conclusion, but he would not passively wait. He seized every opportunity for touch, always allowing her the ability to reject him, and thoroughly enjoyed the way she melted when their hands touched or their bodies brushed alongside each other. He didn’t understand this feeling of giddiness, anticipation coiled tightly around warmth. It burned inside him.

Kitchen tidied, he sat down at the table with his mug and tablet. He scrolled through messages, most from Chase, none pleased. No change there. The computer generated alerts every time the media mentioned him or Rebel. The time spent at the resort had generated a few articles, mostly speculation on the identity of the human female seen in his company. Those stories fell into the harmless category. Mostly, he wanted to keep Zero out of the media’s focus.

He opened the most recent alert, and his blood turned to ice.

His home. Photos of his f*****g home were splashed all over the news site. The camera seemed to particularly love lingering on the untidy bits, like Zero’s unmade bed and messy cabin.

Indignation roared through him, burning away all the soft and fuzzy feelings. He knew who did this.

“Marigold!”

Zero appeared, munching on a crunchy fruit bar. “She’s in her cabin.” His ears pressed forward in concern. “What’s wrong?”

Nothing he had not been capable of anticipating. Everything he feared.

Winter burst into the female’s cabin, fury making the fine hairs on his ears and tail stand on end.

Marigold lay sprawled on the bed, wearing nothing but a tank top and shorts. Her bare legs were there, still tan from their time in the sun.

Refusing to be distracted by the exposed flesh, he averted his eyes. Zero crowded behind him. With a warning growl, Zero backed away.

“What?” she asked, rising to a seated position. Her legs crisscrossed neatly over each other in a folded position. She smiled at him.

Temptress.

Snarling, he threw the tablet down onto the mattress. “Explain.”

She picked up the device and read. “Oh, it’s about you.”

“Specifically,” he growled. The female was intelligent—he knew that—but why did she act clueless?

“Take a peek inside Winter Cayne’s luxury ship with exclusive photos. Oh. Look at that. It’s the common area. It photographs well. Very pretty.” She handed the tablet back to him and paused at the last moment, searching his face. “Was there something else?”

“You leaked those photos to the media.” His fingers dug into the tablet’s casing, claws scratching the glass surface. He had been wrong to have her sign a non-disclosure agreement and wrong to trust her. Remarkably, his voice remained even and cool. “Do not deny it.”

Her lips pressed together and her eyes went wide, then narrowed. “I did not, but there’s no point in arguing. You’ve already made up your mind.”

“When we reach Corra, you are dismissed.” He turned on his heel, colliding with Zero.

“Dad, no,” his kit said.

He had been wrong to trust the female, to invite her into his home. He trusted her with his kit, the most precious person in the universe. Sending Marigold away would hurt for a time, but it would fade. Thank all seven virtues that he had not done anything so foolish as to mate the female.

“It is done. This is for the best,” Winter said.