AllFreeNovel
Share Us
"Relax." His voice was coaxing as his words tickled my ear. "I like dancing with you."
Was he being serious? We both confirmed my dance skills were not there. But something else happened. I got hot with humiliation as a small ache began to bloom between my legs.
This was no act. I think I was attracted to Klinn.
"W-what did you and Quixar talk about?" While I came to this realization, my voice was about as halting and stilted as my movements.
"Riven’s got competition. He doesn’t come around these parts like he used to so I'm going to have to keep looking in other places."
As we danced, my fingertips brushed against the contours of his athletic frame, and a jolt of awareness coursed through me. His body was sculpted with strength and grace. "At least you can rule this place out."
"It depends on the information you gathered. Did you hit the bullseye?"
"I didn’t hear anything from those traders about Riven." I pretended to be tipsy as I swayed again, although being drunk likely would not help my plight. "They did mention an opera they were going to in three days. Then they left like they were embarrassed to tell me about their taste in music."
"It doesn’t make sense for all of them to leave so quickly. Did you say something to make them want to get out of here?"
"I asked where I could go to hear an opera. Now who’s playing detective?"
He smiled down at me. "I thought I was pretending to be a dancer." Klinn slid his hand up and down my back in a leisurely caress.
“You’re good at playing pretend.” I almost closed my eyes in pleasure. Was this the price I paid for living alone and working hard on the job for so many years? I missed intimate touch. But his touch sparked something new in me.
“You like my hand on your back.”
My eyes got wide at his observation. I tried to think of a casual brushoff. “Don’t be silly. I’m just noticing how cats feel.”
Oh, yeah. I was doing great.
He kept dancing while deep in thought. "There’s an opera house in Kajal. A couple of my clients never stop talking about it. It’s their playground to be seen."
"It doesn’t seem like rich clientele and Malecor traders would socialize together."
"They don’t."
A lightbulb switched on in my head. "Do you think you-know-who could be connected?"
"Only one way to find out. Will you be my date to the opera?"
I couldn’t tell if he was flirting with me or just being cheeky. Was it the same thing? I didn’t devote a whole lot of time to my dating life back home. This was far from my area of expertise. "We should get moving."
Klinn teased me. "We are moving, and you’re doing great."
I realized we were moving in sync. Bonus points for me not stepping on his feet. "Since when did we become an interstellar dance duo?"
"Since you stopped overthinking it."
I glanced at my untouched shot glass of rum. "Quixar won’t like that I didn’t finish my drink." I grabbed the glass and knocked it back. It burned going all the way down. "Whew. I need to get dinner and then pick up a few other necessities before I have to crawl to the ship."
“Lightweight.”
We slipped past the other tipsy patrons to return outside. I ventured towards the ship with Klinn and my little dose of liquid courage to brave the wild streets of Malecor again. It did nothing to dull one thought in my brain.
I kissed a con artist...and I liked it.
***
An hour later, afterfinding food that I could digest and picking up a few personal items from another mercantile, Klinn and I entered the ship. My arms were full of the new purchases, including more clothes I could wear outside of Malecor and comfortable socks made from a spongy cotton-like material that was better than any fleece I ever touched. Ever since I started in the force and had to be on my feet most of the time, I had to have clean, comfy socks.
