Cecily awoke feeling rested and content.

She opened her eyes to find herself in the motel cottage. The soft pink light of dawn filtered through the curtains.

Solo was heading into the bathroom, his towel over his shoulder, a change of clothes in his hand.

Cecily held her breath, hoping he wouldn’t notice she was awake as she checked out his bare assets.

Holy crap.

He really was an amazing specimen of a man.

Her thoughts went back to last night, and the feel of his hands and mouth all over her body.

Solo closed the bathroom door quietly behind him as Cecily rolled over and buried her face in her pillow to hide her enormous smile.

This was happening. And she wasn’t scared. She was actually pretty jazzed.

She hopped up and retrieved her pajamas, grinning to herself as she thought of how he’d slipped her clothes off of her like a magician.

For a guy who had never slept with a woman before, Solo had some slick moves. She wondered just how much pornography they had shown him back at the lab.

Thinking about the lab made her think about clicking. She wondered if it was true that sex with her would automatically make him click permanently into his human form and bond them together forever.

While she was nowhere near ready to think about that kind of commitment, she felt pretty crummy about leaving him high and dry last night.

She wondered if there might be a way to give him satisfaction without risking it.

The door to the bathroom swung open unexpectedly snapping her out of her pleasant thoughts. She hadn’t even heard the water turn off.

Solo came out, resplendent in a white t-shirt and a pair of jeans.

“Good morning,” she said.

He stared at her from across the room, his eyes smoldering just like last night.

Cecily felt her body respond instantly.

If they weren’t careful, they could get stuck in this loop endlessly.

A knock at the door broke the spell.

“You guys up?” Kate’s voice came through the door. “We’re going to try and hit the road early.”

“Yes, we’re up,” Cecily called back. “Give us ten minutes.”

“Ten minutes and counting,” Kate called back.

“I have to get dressed,” Cecily said.

“You have to get dressed,” Solo agreed sadly.

He stepped out of the way for her to use the bathroom.

She powered through the world’s quickest shower, pulled on her clothes and dashed out.

“We still have one minute,” Solo said, giving her a half-smile that made her toes curl.

She went to him, going up on her toes and twining her arms around his neck.

He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her like he was going to war.

There was another knock on the door.

“Kate sent me,” Kirk called to them.

“Here we come,” Cecily said.

Solo let her go and opened the door as Cecily scooped the last of her belongings into her bag.

“Good morning, brother,” Kirk said politely. “Did you sleep well?”

Cecily turned around just in time to see Kirk’s expression when he noticed there was only one bed.

“I slept very well,” Cecily said, sweeping past the two men and out into the parking area, allowing Solo a minute to catch up with his brother.

Just ahead of her, Buck was carrying his things and Bea’s in one arm, and supporting his mate around the waist with the other.

Bea wasn’t a morning person. She leaned against Buck, her usually beautiful face pinched against the soft light of dawn.

“Good morning, Cecily,” Buck said, grinning.

“Good morning,” she replied.

They arrived at the RV at the same time. Kate was stacking water bottles into the cooler.

“Hey sleepyhead,” she called to Bea.

“Mmrmmph,” Bea replied, climbing into one of the double seats in the back.

Buck climbed in after her.

“You and Solo are on first shift,” Kate said, handing Cecily the keys.

“Great,” Cecily said. “Did you guys eat already?”

“Already on top of that,” Kate said, reaching into her backpack and fishing out a box of granola bars. “We’ll eat these on the road and then stop for a good lunch. Sound good?”

“Perfect,” Cecily said.

She was kind of dying to tell Kate what was going on with Solo, but he and Kirk were already approaching.

“Here are your rations,” Kate said, handing over two granola bars and climbing into the RV.

Kirk climbed in after her.

Cecily turned to Solo and held out her hand with the granola bars in it.

“Your breakfast,” she said.

He grabbed the keys from her other hand instead.

“You eat, I’ll drive,” he said.

“You don’t know how to drive,” she said, wondering if he was joking.

“You’re kidding right?” He raised an eyebrow.

“Of course I’m not kidding,” she said. “Driving is hard. I’ll teach you sometime. But not today.”

“I’ve designed, built and flown spacecraft that could travel light-years across the universe while sustaining human life. You really think I can’t operate a combustion engine with a wheel?”

“I hadn’t thought of it that way,” Kate admitted. “But there are rules to driving.”

“This thing?” He held out a dog-eared driver’s manual. “I memorized it.”

“Time to go, guys,” Kate yelled from the back.

“Don’t you want to eat your breakfast?” Solo asked.

Cecily’s stomach grumbled right on cue.

“Fine,” she said. “But only for half an hour. When we get closer to the city I’m taking over.”

“Sure,” he said, climbing into the driver’s seat.