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It was only partially bullshit. It wasn’t uncommon at all for commander’s families to sprawl across separate cabins when visiting another colony. They could afford it. But this was also the first time Kaia was introduced to the world as Orion’s future wife. Not even the inhabitants ofColossalhad gotten an official announcement yet. Mare Halena kept putting it off, and it was beginning to get on his nerves. After tonight, there would be no doubt of it in anyone’s mind—including his mother’s.
The suite was lavish, as was everything onZenith.
“It’s too bright,” Kaia grumbled, loitering in the entrance after the liaison left them alone.
“It is.” Orion nodded, flopping into the bright cyan bean bag in the middle of the floor. He stretched his arms over his head and arched his back, spine cracking with satisfying intensity. “I suggest you get some coffee. It’s gonna be a long night.” He motioned to the hydra station.
“What’s going on?”
“Well, first you’re going to get some caffeine in you. Then you’re going to drink a shit-ton of H2O. Then, we’re going to pre-buzz on some proper high-class whiskey, which I know for a fact theZenithhas a nice stockpile of. And then we go party with the masses. In some clothes that don’t smell like we just flew across two colony ships in them.”
God, she looked miserable. When she picked at the edge of her singlet to give it a sniff, he failed to suppress a cackle.
“Go look at the closet and pick something out. They usually stock them pretty well.”
* * *
They did stock the closet well.
Orion had sent for two glasses of whiskey while she was picking through the garments in the bedroom. They preferred less structured, silkier styles on theZenith. Each colony was a cultural microcosm. They didn’t meet often enough to cross-pollinate like this, so each ship had its own quirks.
Colossal’s personality was size… strength… utility.
The personality ofZenithwas sex, in one word. In a few more words, Orion might call it a hedonistic bohemian vibe. He couldn’t even blame them for dragging their feet with their expeditions—they had everything they needed right there and weren’t afraid to enjoy it.
When he shoved the whiskey into Kaia’s hand, she wrinkled that cute little nose at the smell.
“It’s the most expensive alcohol in the known universe.” Orion cocked an eyebrow. “At least try it.”
After a few grimacing sips, she’d loosened up. Orion reclined on the plush round bed, admiring her ass, which had filled out with noticeably rounded muscle, as her fingers picked through the hangers. She’d taken a few of the flowy garments and placed them gingerly onto the bed as if they’d break with one careless move.
“Okay,” she stood with a hand on her hip, another bringing the glass to her whiskey-wet lips. “Maybe one of these.”
“Put it on.”
Orion had already changed into a pair of brown leather trousers and a synthsilk white button-up. The clothes felt too light for his liking—he preferred the rough structure of synthleather, or rigid carbon fiber.
“Umm…” Kaia was looking around. “Where?”
He took a slow sip of his own whiskey, wanting to say one thing but forcing himself to say another. He’d get his chance. No use making her shut down before the night had even begun. “Here. I’ll wait in the lounge.”
He retreated to the main room, smiling at the sound of ice clinking in her glass as she took another sip.
CHAPTER34
KAIA
Kaia’s cheeks were still on fire, and she blamed it on the whiskey and the kerogel that followed it. It was definitely not from the way Orion had stared or his appreciative grunt when she came out of the bedroom in the outfit she’d begrudgingly chosen.
The strapless green dress hugged her body like a second skin. The material was so light as to feel like it wasn’t there at all. Its plunging neckline continued as a weaving gash down her sternum and veered to the left just above her pelvis, turning into a slit that exposed a generous sliver of her leg. The rest of the dress was a sheath around her, hugging her down to the middle of her thigh. It was the most modest thing she found in that stupid closet, yet she still felt stripped bare under the searing intensity of Orion’s gaze.
The walk to what Orion had called the theater was a blur of color and people, all vying for the recognition of a select few individuals, Orion being one of them. The other magnet of attention seemed to be a waifish young woman parting the river of bodies with nothing but a smile as she glided through the space, silky fabric shifting in the air around her.
When they finally pushed their way into a massive chamber, they were led upstairs to a glass booth overlooking a circular stage. The booth was positioned in such a way as to be a sort of stage of its own: transparent in full view of the crowds below. Foam cushions littered the space, and through her haze, Kaia registered a group of seven coming in, the waif included. She let Orion tug her to a cushion at the front alongside him, slipping her onto his lap. It was a very firm, very warm lap.
Somewhere in the back of her mind, Kaia thought she should probably be scrambling off him and making room between them. But her attention was diverted by a glass of something alcoholic being nudged into her hand. It fizzed on her tongue and in her brain, and she leaned her side into the very firm, very warm wall behind her, unable to recall quite what it was she was considering worrying about before.
Watching her wall tip a fizzy glass of his own to his full mouth, Kaia found herself fixating on the bob of his Adam’s apple as he swallowed.
