Slate’s ‘living quarters’ on the transport pod turned out to be almost as sparse as the ‘parking garage’.

Aside from two egg-shaped console chairs with a small side table between them, there was nothing else. The chairs faced a huge expanse of glass that, at the moment, showed nothing but a grey swirling mist that was the lenticular cloud cover it was parked within.

“Have a seat.” He pointed to the chair on the right.

Candi clambered onto the seat and within seconds, the automatic safety harness slowly lowered, locking her in place.

He took the seat to her left and began tapping on a side panel. She looked down at her armrests. It had the same type of side panel with strange markings that lit up with the cadence of his tapping.

Candi quickly pulled her arms back not wanting to touch anything that she didn’t understand.

“Don’t worry about touching your panels, Candace. I’ve locked them so you don’t inadvertently tell the system to kill us while we’re inflight.”

He settled back onto the seat as his own safety harness lowered over his large body.

“Jezebel. take us home.”

From within the bowels of the transport pod, there was a barely audible hiss. The transport pod shot up straight into the sky, all pretense of cloaking completely obliterated.

The glass panel in front of them went from a murky greyish cloudy fog to one of clear blue skies.

As they continued to climb out of the atmosphere, the blue thinned into a dark violet. Then the dark violet turned in darkness, but it was hardly pure darkness.

There was too much light in the sky for it to be a black void.

There were billions of tiny pinprick lights twinkling and pulsing all around them, as well as a bright blue orb below.

“Wow.” Candi breathed. “This is gorgeous!”

“You think so?” He turned to gaze out at the darkness of the Void. “It’s not as beautiful as the blue and green world we just left, but it has its own beauty.”

“I’ve never seen space like this before.” Candi covered her mouth with shocked fingers.

“Your people are a land-locked race. You need to explore your back yard a bit more. There are twelve other planets for you to visit, not to mention a couple of rogue eccentric orbital ones.”

“I can’t wait.” she turned to him with excitement only to find him looming above her.

His deep raven black hair had escaped the tie that normally kept his long hair neatly back and was now tumbling down his shoulders in a dark shiny cloud.

He leaned closer, drowning her with the intensity of his dazzling blue eyes. She could smell verbena and the musky scent of his skin. The combination was heady and made her slightly dizzy.

For a moment, Candi could barely think. She leaned back trying to put a little distance between them but her back was already up against the chair. There was nowhere else to go.

“You’re—aren’t you supposed to be strapped in for the ride?”

“For the entire 24 hours? Hardly. We just needed to be strapped in for the lift off.”

He reached out and touched a tab on the side of her chair. Instantly, the safety harness retracted.

As he leaned back, Candi breathed a sigh of relief. He was just releasing her from the chair.

And here, she thought he was…

“Come. It’s more comfortable here.” He swiveled her chair around so that it faced the center of the ship.

The center had risen up, revealing a perfectly round bed with cushions scattered about.

“It’s—that’s a bed.”

“Very perceptive. Come.”

He led her over to the bed.

“Have a seat.”

She sat down, feeling like a lamb being led to slaughter.

He began reaching for her feet.

“Wait. What are you doing?”

“You are wearing shoes. I don’t want shoes on my bed.”

Her lips trembled.

“I can take them off myself.”

“Just sit.” His tone broke no arguments.

As Slate’s fingers began undoing her laces, Candi pressed her lips together. He had very strong fingers, but they were so very gentle.

With slow gentle motions, he slid her shoes off her feet and then he began massaging them, one toe at a time.

“Umm. Haha.” Candi gave a nervous laugh. “No need to do that. My feet aren’t cramped or anything.”

“Your feet are cold.” He responded with gentle patience.

His fingers moved towards the arch of her feet. With a gentle motion, he shot a small warm electrical current into her foot.

“Haaah!” She gasped.

Her feet were tingling with the energy he sent into her arches, but it did its job. Her toes had warmed up considerably.

“You are so tense, it’s amazing you can stand.” He whispered. “Relax, Candace.”

Candi grimaced. I’m tense because you’re rubbing my feet, you big lug! She wanted to say that to him, but she couldn’t because she could barely breathe.

He was already reaching up to gently rub her calves.

“Oooooh. That’s not—not my feet, Slate.” She breathed.

“No, it’s not, but your calves are also very tense.”

He placed his palms on the calves and applied an even amount of heat energy throughout his palms as he continued to rub her legs.

“Aaaaah.” She exhaled. “I—I think I’m good. You, you can stop now.” She reached out her hands to push him away.

That was a bad move.

Her hands hit up against those rock hard pectoral muscles and suddenly, she remembered them pressing up against her body the first night he took her up into the sky.

She quickly withdrew her hands, feeling her face turning hot with embarrassment.

Slate’s dazzling blue eyes crinkled up in amusement as he saw her blush to the roots of her hair.

That first night she met Slate, she was sure he was going to kill her. He was so large and dark and dangerous, and she had nearly died of fright and asphyxiation.

But now that same man was kneeling in front of her. His large hands were kneading her legs in that warm gentle motion and his bright blue eyes were gazing at her as if he wanted to consume her.

And then his hands slipped up into her white summer dress, wandering up towards her thighs.

“Hold on! No need to massage there. Haha!” She gave a nervous laugh and pushed his hands away.

“I’m really loose and not tensed up there at all!”

“Your whole body is tense, Candace. Every part of you need massaging.”

He leaned forward, one hand easing her body back onto the bed, the other hand sliding under her back.

In one quick smooth movement, he had levitated her up and moved her towards the center of the bed.

Candi blinked. How in hell did he manage that???

Oh duh…he’s a demon!