I was still staring, unseeing, at the shelves of books in front of me, quietly trying to figure out what I was going to do. Admittedly, it was pretty rude of me to barge into someone's room just because the door was open in the first place. Getting caught made it that much worse. Especially when I was supposed to be avoiding Talys.

"I thought this was the library," I blurted out.

"Did you really? Look at me, Vera." Talys rolled my name over his tongue so silkily it sent shivers down my spine. "Unless you can't, that is."

With a faint flush building in my cheeks, I slowly turned around, trying to keep my expression neutral. Talys was still shirtless—because of course he was—and lounging his perfectly sculpted form on a large, plush pillow.

It was like he hoarded enough sex appeal for twenty men all to himself, and it was starting to become irritating. Mostly because I'd never blushed this much in my life and he seemed to enjoy it far too much.

When he said nothing as our eyes met, I fidgeted, cleared my throat, then splayed out my hands. "Well, there you have it, I turned around. Sorry for intruding. I'll just . . . be leaving now."

He bit down on his lower lip and cocked his head to the side, those glowing eyes transfixed on mine, following them even as I tried to avoid his stare.

"Why did you come in here, Vera?"

As the blush in my cheeks deepened and his smirk grew in response, I narrowed my eyes. My name was like a weapon when it came from his mouth and he definitely knew it.

"I told you, I thought this was the—"

"Spare me the lie. I can see right through you, remember?"

I sniffed. "Sorry, but you've got it wrong this time."

"I'm never wrong when it comes to women."

Talys rose to his feet, muscles rippling beneath his skin in a way that left a groan in my throat. I clamped down on it, refusing to give him the satisfaction. As he approached, the cloth around his waist came dangerously close to revealing what was underneath with each step. I quickly looked away, trying to scrub the image of his muscled thighs from my mind. And failing. Especially when his intoxicating scent settled around me.

I studied the wall to my left with an intensity that one would normally reserve for, say, disarming a bomb—but that was how it felt to be so close to him at this very moment. Like the smallest mistake would make everything explode. Worst of all, I didn't know what that explosion would mean. Would it be me taking a tumble in that luxurious bed of his?

"Just admit you're curious about me," he coaxed, taking a step closer.

"Yeah, sure." I smiled wide. "I'm curious as to how your ego got so big."

"How could it not be?"

I arched a brow, asking him to explain with a look. A crooked smile curved his lips in response. Alarm bells rang shrill in my mind, my expression blanking as he leaned forward, lips hovering close to mine.

I swallowed a curse as my breathing began to quicken. Pull away, I told myself. But I stayed, my eyelids urging me to let them fall shut. To lean forward and press my lips to his. Just as my eyes began to drift closed, Talys chuckled softly.

"Do you understand now?" he whispered. "Why wouldn't I be confident when I can make a woman like you tremble with merely the thought of a kiss?"

Incensed at being manipulated, yet again, I jerked my head away and took a few steps back, reaching out to steady myself against the bookshelf behind me. He moved forward in an instant, pinning me back against the books. I stared up at him in shock but he did nothing for several heartbeats. I swallowed, my throat strangely dry.

Then he touched a hand to my lower back. A jolt traveled down my spine, my back jerking in response. His smile grew and his hand began to slide, following the curves of my body until he reached the pocket of my jeans.

Coming to my senses, I suddenly pushed against his chest with a scowl. "Don't get handsy with me, Ambassador. Is this how you build relations with other planets? Seems like someone of your position would know better."

Talys pulled away, that infuriating smile still in place. "On the contrary, Vera, I've found the right touch is a most effective way of building relations."

"W-well, not with me," I countered with a huff, trying to avoid his gaze. I didn't want him to see the fierce blush that had extended down my neck and to my chest, which seemed to be permanently stained red when he was around.

"I didn't mean to offend," he replied with a layer of silk in his voice, "I only wanted to retrieve this."

I frowned. Retrieve what?

That was when it hit me. Far too late. I quickly whipped my head up to look at him. Talys was holding his sash. The sash I'd been carrying around with me ever since he gave it to me earlier. Judging by the knowing look in his expression, he had all sorts of ideas to explain why I'd kept it. I wanted to crawl into a hole. Why hadn't I just left it in my room?

"Would you rather keep it?" He held the sash out, a faint smile toying at his lips.

"N-no! I forgot I even had it," I nearly shouted, desperate to have my own explanation out there. In truth, I hadn't really forgotten. But I couldn't explain why I'd kept it either. All I knew was I'd rather not think about it, or have Talys thinking about it either.

"Of course you did," Talys murmured as he dropped the sash on his bed, the shiny cream fabric standing out against the smooth, maroon-colored blanket. I tore my eyes away as fast as I could. I couldn't look anywhere when he was around without getting hot under the collar, could I? How unfair was it that even his bed was attractive?

"I have to go." The words came out in a rush. I couldn't look Talys in the eyes. Not right now. My body felt as if it was on fire and his very presence was only fanning the flames. I needed out of here, and now.

"Where, exactly?" he asked with a chuckle.

"Somewhere else." I stepped around the source of my torment and his hand shot out to gently encircle my wrist. His fingers were soft and cool—another reminder of just how flushed my body was.

Talys leaned to my side, bringing his lips close to my ear. "You would feel so much better if you stopped denying yourself."

"I feel perfectly fine," I ground out, trying to mask the tremble in my voice with anger. "Whatever I'm feeling has nothing to do with you."

"Fair enough." In a flash, his hand was gone and his presence was noticeably absent. I didn't bother to look at where he'd gone, I was simply thankful that he'd moved, because I didn't know how much longer I could keep my guard up. I fled the room without looking back.

It felt like I'd been hiding in my room for an eternity, with nothing but my mortified thoughts to keep me company, when a knock sounded at my door. I had a feeling that meant it wasn't Talys. Something told me he wasn't the type to knock on his own ship.

The screen beside my door flickered and Artos appeared on it, waving. "I just came to make sure you aren't bored out of your skull, or that you haven't hatched any devious plans."

I snorted out a laugh and pulled myself up from the bed. I walked over to the door and fiddled with the screen until it opened.

"There you are." Artos beamed at me in greeting, his silver eyes bright and cheerful. "Would you like to join me in the lounge? I figure you must be tired of staring at the walls by now."

I let out a long breath as I stepped into the hallway. "It was some much-needed wall-staring."

"How so?" he asked with a laugh.

I paused, remembering his earlier warnings. The ones about not wandering, and not letting Talys get in my head. I'd failed on both fronts. So, I shook my head and said, "Oh, no real reason. It's just been an overwhelming day."

"I would imagine so." Artos and I walked down the hallway together, side by side, in silence for a moment before he turned to me. "For what it's worth, I'm sorry things didn't work out with Ambassador Elyos."

"But you're not that sorry," I replied with a wry laugh.

He stopped in his tracks, frowning. "No, I truly am. I don't think it's right that you've been stripped of your free will. If it wouldn't endanger my livelihood and Talys's, I would be happy to help you, but that's not a risk either of us can take."

"You keep on saying that."

"Saying what, exactly?"

"That you can't take the risk."

"Because we can't."

"Elyos was going to, and he's in the same position as Talys, right?"

"But he didn't follow through, did he?"

I swallowed thickly and nodded. "I guess not."

Maybe I really was screwed. I hadn't given Elyos missing our meetup much thought in the time I'd been there. What would happen if I even managed to get to him once we landed on Nexion 6? Would he still help me, or was I better off just running for it and hoping for the best? Being a street urchin on Nexion 6 did sound a whole lot better than living under the thumb of the Korysti.

"You're doing that thing again," Artos said as we made our way inside the lounge. "It concerns me."

"What thing?"

"You get this look on your face like you're hatching something in your mind. A plan, perhaps."

"I don't know what you're talking about." I wanted to roll my eyes at myself but I resisted the urge, instead shrugging and taking a seat at the bar. "How about you treat a girl to a drink? It only seems fair when you consider the whole stripping my free will thing."

"I'm not the one who did that."

"Oh," I replied breezily, "so you'll let me walk off the ship when we land?"

"Of course not."

"That sounds like imprisonment."

"Consider yourself more like . . ." Artos looked up, frowned, then looked back at me. "A guest who's strongly encouraged to stay."

"So a prisoner?"

"If you want to be negative about it."

I sighed and shook my head. "How about that drink? I would get my own, but considering I can't read any of the labels, that seems risky."

Artos slid behind the bar with a cautious smile. "You're right to be cautious. Talys's collection is not only impressive, but oftentimes dangerous."

I took a seat on one of the raised stools. Although, took a seat doesn't really cover it. It was more like I kicked a leg up and straddled the thing like it was a bucking bronco. Short people and stools would never get along in any part of the universe.

"So, is he a boozehound or something?" I asked.

"A . . . what?"

"An alcoholic?"

"Oh, no." Artos chuckled as he looked through the bottles, carefully inspecting each label. "He's just a collector of oddities. There's many a mind-altering substance in these bottles, some more . . . extreme . . . than others."

"How extreme are we talking?"

"Far more than you could handle," Talys suddenly chimed in from the doorway.

Feeling his eyes on my back, I stiffened and hazarded a glance over my shoulder. Some part of me had been hoping I'd be able to avoid him for the rest of the trip. It was a foolish hope considering it was just the three of us on this ship.

At the same time, some ridiculous part of me was a little irked by his assumption that I couldn't handle his alien booze. I'd had some pretty intense hooch in my days on the ship. There wasn't a lot to do while meandering through space, so we drank. A lot.

By the time I was old enough that they were willing to let me drink (yeah, they made me wait), all the good alcohol had been long gone. Four years was all it took for them to clear out those stores. All the alcohol I'd ever had was made on the ship with scraps. And it did some funny things to your head. And stomach. It was all-around a pretty unpleasant experience but it was better than boredom.

I eyed each of the Korysti. There was caution in Artos's eyes, and a challenge in Talys's. There was only one clear path forward for me.

"You think you can handle your drink better than me, Ambassador?"

"Absolutely."

I spun in my seat to face him. "Prove it."

Talys folded his arms and observed me for a quiet moment, then nodded. "Artos, would you do the honors of preparing shots from everything on the top row?"

There was something in the way he said those words that gave me pause. What, exactly, did he keep on that shelf? I looked back at Artos for his reaction and saw his light purple skin growing even paler.

"Talys, I'm not sure—"

"Let the woman prove herself, would you?"

Artos mumbled something beneath his breath but said nothing more. One by one, he pulled bottles from the top row of bottles and began to pour carefully measured shots of each. Talys sat down on the stool beside mine.

The mirth already sparkling in his eyes was mildly alarming but I'd learned in my days in the lower levels of the ship that backing down from a challenge was worse than whatever was in those bottles. Except for the last one. A skull and crossbones would've been more subtle than the toxic-waste green glow of the liquid inside the translucent black bottle.

"What's that?" I asked, feigning calm.

Talys leaned over in his seat. "Novusian Reserve. We'll save that one for last."

I swiveled my head to the side, looking him in the eye. He was much closer than anticipated but I managed to keep my cool, even as his eyes dropped to my lips. Until, of course, my own eyes drifted to his and my mind began to entertain how easy it would be to just . . . close that distance. No big deal. Just a little kiss from a man so painfully beautiful that I wanted to scream.

As a knowing smile worked its way across his lips, my eyes widened and I pulled back a fraction of an inch. I flicked my eyes toward the bottle of Novusian Reserve. Artos was shaking his head as he poured the green liquid into the final shot glass. It looked even worse outside of the bottle. Nothing should ever be a neon green that vivid—at least nothing that was meant to be ingested.

"Looks like it'll be fun," I lied.

"I could think of something much more fun," Talys replied. "And it won't end up with you being filled with regret."

"I wouldn't be so sure about that." I pursed my lips, shooting him a look that told him I was picking up what he was putting down, and I wasn't impressed. "I can handle it."

"If you insist."

Five shots into our ten glass long sampler of his top shelf, I was already starting to have some of those regrets Talys spoke of. The first shot had been alright at first. I was just starting to tip back the second when it hit me like a truck, nearly knocking me off the stool.

Luckily, or not so luckily, Talys was there to catch me, his strong hands settling around my waist to keep me steady. I wasn't sure if it was the mysterious substance I'd ingested, or just my dumb brain, but a faint heat flared to life in the pit of my stomach. Stupid sexy Korysti.

I wormed my way out of his grasp and gave him a pointed look. "How nice of you to catch me this time."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"When I was in the pantry."

"You were in the pantry? As in . . . inside it?" Artos asked from his place behind the bar, where he'd been watching us toss back shots with an increasingly disapproving frown. "Why was she in the pantry?"

I downed my sixth and seventh shots, inhaling sharply as they burned their way down my throat. "Don't worry about it, Artos. That's in the past."

Talys laughed. "It happened a few hours ago."

The eighth shot went down with a fight. Fighting the urge to gag, I countered with, "Is that not the past?"

"I suppose you're right."

I squinted at him. "Did you just admit I was right?"

"You probably won't remember it anyway." He shrugged a shoulder and my magpie-eyes caught on the faint glimmer of his skin.

"Why don't you ever wear clothes?" I found myself asking with a frown. I'd been intending to distract myself from how desirable he was—on the outside, that is—but I'd already failed. So, I gave up and continued. "It's like . . . I know why you do it on Korystus, right? It's some sort of weird political mating ritual or whatever, but it's not like you need to do it when there's just the three of us here."

Talys laughed again, only this time it was so much more open. Less calculated. It was kind of nice. To my drunken ears, at least. And they couldn't be trusted.

"Mating ritual? I've read about your politicians and the things they did. It doesn't seem any less weird than what we do."

I blinked as my brain sluggishly processed what he'd said. "You have? Why? Better yet, how?"

"It's my business to know things."

"I thought it was your business to go around touting how wonderful your planet is."

"That too."

"So, then can we get back to why're you so naked all the time?"

"Does it bother you?"

"Yep."

"Because it makes you think of all the terrible things you'd like to do to me?"

"Yep—Nope." I slunk down, cursing quietly as I brought the next shot to my lips. It was the last one before the Novusian Reserve. I was starting to look forward to it. I hoped it would knock me out and save me from my own loose lips.

"What was that, Vera?" Talys purred from beside me, seemingly unaffected by all the liquor we'd downed. I should've known I couldn't compete. Not only was he much taller and roughly a billion times more muscle-bound than I was, this was all just as potent as he'd implied. Our terrible ship-hooch might've packed a punch, but this alien stuff was something else.

"You should have some too, Artos." Needing a distraction, I grabbed the bottle of Novusian Reserve, still sitting on the counter, and grasped at one of the shot glasses I'd already used—it was clean enough, I figured.

"No, no—none for me," Artos soothed as he tried to take the bottle from me.

I clutched it to my chest and blinked him into focus. "But why? You haven't had anything yet."

"Someone has to pilot the ship, remember?"

"Isn't it on autopilot? I mean, you're here and we're still moving."

"Yes, but you'll want someone sober at the helm in case of emergency."

"You're so 'sponsible," I murmured, giving him a lazy smile. "I like you so much, Artos. Never change, okay?"

He chuckled. "I like you, too, Vera."

"Aren't you two sweet?" Talys interjected with a scowl.

"Why're you so grumpy? Is it so bad to see two people getting along?"

"Yes."

"You're just mad because I like him more than you."

He tipped back a shot, slammed it down, then leveled a flat look at me. "So what if I am?"

"Try being nice and maybe I won't think you're such a jerk."

"I am nice."

"No, you're not. You're like . . . not always completely awful, y'know, but you're not nice."

"I didn't jettison you out of the airlock, did I?"

"That's what I'm talking about. You're not awful, but like . . . who thinks not murdering someone is an achievement? I mean, c'mon."

"You did sneak onto my ship."

"On accident."

A triumphant look suddenly overtook his expression as he thought of something else. "How about the fact I didn't make you sleep on my bedroom floor? I thought about it, but I didn't. That was nice of me."

I narrowed my eyes, then looked at Artos. The way he stared up at the ceiling told me all I needed to know. "I'll have you know that Artos told me he had to convince you to let me stay in the servant's quarters or whatever. Was that the idea he had to talk you out of?"

He sat back in his seat with a sigh, a hand extended toward Artos. "Alright, he's a better person than me. Congratulations, Artos. She's all yours."

"I really don't think either of us wants that," Artos replied with a confused look.

Talys grimaced and shrugged. "Could've fooled me."

I tilted my head to the side, studying him for a moment, then let out a boisterous laugh. "You act all cool and unaffected and stuff, but you have a serious crush on me, don't you?"

"I don't know what that means," Talys replied in a bland voice.

"You like me," I sang out.

"Wrong."

"Then why're you so jealous of Artos?"

"I've never had a human before. I figured this would be my chance. But you're being exceptionally difficult."

"Because I won't fall at your feet and beg you to ravish me?"

"Yes."

"You're unbelievable."

"Beyond your wildest dreams, darling."

"Another reference to your sexual prowess?" I squinted the world around me into focus and reached for the glass with the radioactive green stuff in it, then tossed it back. "You're really hammerin' that one hard. Are you, like, compensating or something?"

"Why don't you stop resisting me and find out?"

I pressed a hand to my chest as the Novusian Reserve screamed its way down my throat. It wasn't going down without a fight. "What is this stuff?!"

"I warned you."

Head suddenly heavy, it took a concerted effort to swivel it to look at Talys. Through my rapidly blurring vision, I could see the wobbly glow of his shot of Novusian Reserve.

"Hey, you haven't had yours yet."

"And I'm not going to."

"Th-that's cheating."

"It's smart."

"A-are you saying I'm stupid?"

"I'm saying maybe you should listen when I say you can't handle something." He leaned forward then, flashing me a grin. "Even I don't drink the Novusian Reserve. I just like the way it looks."

Oh, damn it all. I'd like to think I'd given him a piece of my mind in response, but that was right when everything went black.