“Damn it, Darius. Stop trying to protect me.” I was down to less than twenty minutes.
“Ten minutes. Maybe fifteen.”
“Tor, link your air supply to Tycho’s.”
“Lily, no!”
“Don’t argue! If you die, we both die. Got it? We are either in this thing together or we’re not. You can’t treat me like a child. I am a Starfighter, Darius. Just like you.”
“No. You are not like me, my Lily. You are far superior and always will be.”
“Good. Then stop arguing. Tor?”
“Already done, Lily.”
“Thank you.” I tried to remain calm, preserve the air supply. Panicking wouldn’t help. I’d taken SCUBA training and knew the worst thing I could do was panic. “Come on, Mia. Come. On!”
“I love you, Lily.”
“Shut up. Just shut up. We are not going to die out here.”
Darius laughed and the sound had me smiling back at him. “I love you, too. And you are not dying on me. I want that chocolate and cheesecake.”
“There was another. A male named Dare. Very similar to my name, although he and his mate wore a strange collar. He restrained his mate so he could enjoy tasting her core for an extended period of time without interference.”
If I didn’t suffocate from lack of oxygen, I might burn alive from Darius’s new knowledge from the contents of my romance novels.
Perhaps I wouldn't hunt down the author if I ever returned to Earth. Maybe, I’d thank her instead. Hot, sexy aliens really did exist. And this one was mine.
“Mia! Where are you?”
Tor’s calm tone made me jump. I’d forgotten about him. Again.
“I have reactivated our communications and scanners. A Velerion shuttle is closing in on our location now. Estimated arrival in fifteen minutes.”
“That’s not fast enough.”
Darius was right. We wouldn’t last that long.
“Tor, we still have some juice in the boosters?”
“Yes. Very little. Less than five percent.”
“Get us five percent closer to that shuttle.”
“Of course.”