Page 67 of Smuggler's Beauty

The smellof freshly brewed coffee stirred Evelyn’s senses.Yum.She drew her arms up and gave a languid stretch, immediately met with the awareness of a satisfying soreness between her legs. Her lips twitched, and she cracked an eye open.

Aiden was placing a cup of coffee on the bedside table nearest her.Double yum.She let out an appreciative noise, and he smiled down at her then sat gingerly at the side of the bed.

“Sleep well, dollface?”

“Like a brick. A well fucked brick.” She scooted up on her elbows. He’d managed to get her into one of his T-shirts before she had passed out. She was pleasantly swamped in fabric that smelled like him. She settled back against the headboard.

“I didn’t realize bricks had such fulfilling personal lives.” He handed her the coffee, which she took greedily.

“The secret lives of sentient stationary objects are always far more majestic than they appear to us mere mortals. Ask L.I.N.D.A.”

“I don’t think I want to know what the ship’s computer gets up to in its personal time. I am not open-minded enough to parse that.”

Evelyn shrugged. “Didn’t think you’d be a kink-shamer. You disappoint me.”

He tweaked her nose. “We all have limits.”

She sipped her coffee and studied him over the rim of the cup. He was in another long-sleeved shirt and sweatpants. His brown hair was disheveled from sleep, but his beard was still perfectly groomed. His lips looked slightly kiss swollen. Evelyn flicked her eyes away before her thoughts went too far down that path. She was entirely too sore to entertain another round of bedroom activities so soon.

She clocked a flannel bathrobe draped over the chair she’d sat in last night and color rose in her chest as memories of the night before flooded her mind.

This whole damn room is going to make me blush.

Evelyn refocused on her coffee. Coffee had never given her a screaming orgasm. Coffee was a blush-free thing to focus on. It had been doctored just right. She tried to think if she’d ever told him how she took her coffee.

She didn’t think she had.

“How are you feeling?” Aiden gently rubbed her foot through the blanket. “How’s the energy level? Do you feel . . . purged?”

She snorted into the coffee cup. “There has to be a better word for that but I can’t think of it right now. I don’t feel all strung out on potential energy anymore. I feel pretty normal. Well rested.”

“Excellent.” He gave a smug smile.

“How do you feel?”

The smile widened, and smug sexual satisfaction radiated off of him. Evelyn could hear the incoming dick joke a mileoff. She rolled her eyes, and he laughed at her feigned show of exasperation, both aware of the flush in her cheeks.

“I never asked when you rescued me how the Amplifying made you feel,” she asked.

“To be fair, we were busy.”

“A bit.”

“I feel fine. It’s . . . I’m used to being able to do very fine telekinetic manipulation. I can play with tumblers in locks. I can juggle small objects. I can play with buttons.” He wiggled his eyebrows at her, and she laughed. The perpetual smile lines around his eyes crinkled and made her stomach flip.

“It’s a thrill to be able to move bigger objects around. It makes me want to practice my skills unaided to see if I can progress beyond small objects with help. But more than anything, it’s just fun to get to share myself with you. No one else on the ship really gets it.”

Evelyn nodded. She knew all too well how it felt to be lonely around your own loved ones. She went for another sip of coffee and realized the cup was empty, so she put it on the side table with a small sigh of regret.

“It’s got to be isolating. Even with so many people who love you around.”

“A bit. I mean, we’ve all got some sort of isolating factor. I think it’s why we get along so well.”

“They get it just enough to understand.”

“Up here,” he said, gesturing to his head. “Not so much here.” He waved his hand around his chest. “And they can appreciate the practical application.”

Evelyn grabbed the flitting hand and gave it a squeeze. “It always feels nice to be appreciated.”