If Caeryssa had known what awaited her in the lobby of Cerulean Beach Resort and Spa, she would have stepped right back onto the shuttle and taken the next boost out of Oenone's star system. Instead, she kicked off her sandals and strolled down the tidily clipped verge of pale blue grass to wiggle her toes in the warm, powdery white sand.

"Beautiful, isn't it? This is my third time here. I can't get enough of it."

Caeryssa nodded to the woman who'd been seated beside her on the ride down from the orbital station but kept her eyes fixed on the sparkling waves lapping at the shoreline and the gemstone blue swells that gave the resort its name. This place was everything she'd hoped for when she'd booked it. On the flight down, her gaze had devoured the interconnected web of land and small seas with its diverse, predominately blue-green vegetation. Shades as dark as navy to reds and oranges had her xenobotanist heart beating with excitement to explore.

But that was for later.

She sucked in another moisture-laden breath as the light breeze caressed her pale skin, raising fine white-blond hairs. As she exhaled, her shoulders lowered and the tension she'd held onto for far too long seeped away. She could hardly believe she was finally here. 

It had taken a lot of sneaky maneuvering to escape her well-meaning but overprotective parents and her job at Aura Industries. The company hadn't given her a vacation in three damn star cycles. The pressure to catalogue potentially medicinal or edible plants on new planets and exploit them was big business. Taking a holiday on an established planet like Oenone? Her boss would consider that a waste of Caeryssa's time and expertise.

But not Caeryssa. She exchanged a grin with the woman beside her—Tora? Tara? Roots, she was so damn bad with people's names—and stretched her arms over her head. She was going to get pampered and recapture her joy of discovery without having to worry about fending off unexpected predators. Oenone was a tourist's haven, full of well-catalogued but safe natural wonders.

And for the first time in her memory, she was free to do what she wanted, when she wanted. Caeryssa spun in a circle, arms wide. She'd ditched not just the company protection detail, but also the personal bodyguard her father saddled her with whenever she wasn't away on Aura Industries business. Her boss thought she was with her family, while they thought she was away on a new expedition. She had two full weeks to enjoy herself.

Tara... no, Tora hiked up her flowing pink skirt and ran into the waves, giggling. "Join me?"

"Maybe later," Caeryssa said, laughing at her seatmate's antics. Damn it, why could she remember thousands of plants and their characteristics across the numerous parsecs she'd travelled, but couldn't remember one woman's name? She scrunched her toes for a few seconds, then shook off the sand. "I've got a spa appointment this afternoon I've been eagerly waiting for."

"Ooooh! I'm jealous! I couldn't get into the spa until tomorrow. Have fun!" Tora—yes, surely it was Tora—sent a playful splash of water up the beach.

Still chuckling, Caeryssa brushed her feet through the soft grass and slid back into her sandals. With a tap of her wrist implant, the local planetary time and her schedule appeared in the air, visible only to her ocular implant—an added feature her father had insisted on when she'd reached the age to be allowed the personal communicator. Almost mid-day, she had time to check in, take a nap, and then head to the spa for her massage and herbal body wrap. After dismissing the display with a finger flick over the spiral tattoo, she hoisted her daypack and grasped her suitcase handle.

As she strode the smooth white stone path towards the elegant resort towers, she took in the arching trees with their pale bark, long navy fronds and delicate pink flowers. Small yellow birds flitted from flower to flower, their wings buzzing as they sipped nectar. Fragrant manicured gardens bloomed in an array of white, purple, and red interspersed with deep turquoise leaves and surrounded her walk from the public shuttle pad as she approached the entrance.

Yet another sound, some kind of murmuring, grew louder than the birds, than the wind stirring the trees, the waves on the nearby beach, or the rumble of her suitcase wheels. Her steps slowed. It almost sounded like—

Caeryssa stopped and stared as the path turned.

The area under the billowy silver canopy covering the front entrance and its VIP hovercraft was crowded with people. Absolutely packed shoulder to shoulder, with no one seeming to care if they made skin contact.

The fine hairs rose on Caeryssa's nape.

Thank the stars she'd worn a shipsuit that covered her from neck to ankles. Still, she dug in her daypack for the light jacket she'd removed when she'd left the shuttle for the warm, humid air of the planet. After covering her bare arms, she tugged at the thin synthate gloves covering her hands, making sure the material rose under her jacket cuffs to her forearms. Like a second skin, they didn't impede her senses but protected her from accidental skin-to-skin contact.

She was on vacation, damn it, and while the soulmate bond could make for incredible intimacy—look at her parents and the way they couldn't keep their hands off each other even after three decades—it was also fucking unbreakable. She'd already had to lie to everyone she knew just to get the freedom of these next two weeks. A soulmate would be one more chain around her neck, weighing her down.

Worse—she swallowed, shivering despite the heat—she'd heard stories of predatory soulmates deliberately inflicting excruciating suffering on their unwilling partners or stealing their life energy to live longer, even if it meant experiencing constant bond agony. Her stomach twisted, and she put a palm to still the churning sensation. Who knew if those stories were true or some sort of space flotsam? Either way, she wasn't ready to have her life energies meshed in a quantum entanglement with another's, especially when conscious choice didn't factor into the permanent connection.

No way. Not for her.

Refocusing on the crowd between her and the lobby entrance, she frowned as she slowly approached. Cameras, lights, shouts, and a bare muscled arm shot up to wave. What in all the stems and leaves was going on? And how the everblooming fuck was she supposed to get by them to check in? Being short had never been so damned annoying.

The crowd surged as the resort doors slid open.

Following them in, she admired the white granite floor, sapphire vines covering the tall expanse of wall above the reception desks, and waterfall cascading three stories beside the silver staircase leading to two open floors above. Signs indicated the spa was on the second level while the restaurant and bar were on the third. Gleaming glass curved to form the front two-thirds of the entrance.

Yet the crowd still blocking her access to check-in marred her appreciation of the posh surroundings. Worse, the noise had risen to a cacophony inside the enclosed space. She clapped her hands over her ears. What were those girls screaming at? You'd think—

A gap in the shifting bodies revealed a muscular male smiling with gleaming white teeth on display. He winked while waving at his admirers, and even from here, those eyes appeared far too golden for the typical base humanoid. Every waggle of his dark eyebrow and flex of his bare, chiselled arms elicited more screams.

Heat built in Caeryssa's chest, climbing her throat and flushing her cheeks as she snarled and gritted her teeth.

A man.

Some root-shrived damn man caused all this commotion?

With dark hair pulled back at his nape, high cheekbones, and a strong jaw covered with a sexy black scruff, she couldn't deny he was handsome. Probably a useless pretty boy celebrity with the way he was playing to his adoring crowd.

Pushing at the edge of the mob, Caeryssa tried to work her way around. Everyone seemed to have luggage that smacked her shin if they didn't elbow her in the face first. A full thirty minutes later, she finally stood in front of a check-in kiosk with a harried middle-aged man who gruffly asked for her confirmation.

Caeryssa had to repeat the numbers twice in the chaos. Why hadn't that blasted celebrity gone up to his room yet? Did his ego really need that much adoration?

"I have you in Room 405. Here is your key."

She blinked, her chest squeezing and headache pounding in her temples. Are you fucking kidding me? Nope. No way. Still, she exhaled slowly before politely saying, "There must be some mistake. I booked an upper floor." After waiting so long for this vacation, she hadn't been about to skimp on the view. Worse, if this noise level was the norm, being right above the restaurant and bar would be horrible.

He pushed his glasses up his nose and squinted at her. "As specified in your confirmation, room priority isn't guaranteed. The large booking by our platinum reward members means that only the fourth to sixth floors have any availability."

Platinum reward members. That fucking obnoxious pretty boy bumped her from her twentieth-floor room? Caeryssa's fists tightened as she struggled to keep her voice calm. "Then please move me to the sixth floor. I'm concerned that the fourth floor will be noisy, being so close to the restaurant and bar." She held out the room key.

The hotel clerk narrowed his eyes, then huffed and took it from her. "Very well." A few keystrokes later and he'd updated the room card chip. "Room 696 in the Polaris tower."

"Thank you," she murmured, taking the key from him and sliding it into her pocket. The noise level was slowly dissipating as the crowd thinned, and when she approached the gravity lifts, only five rows of people waited.

But that cursed male still hadn't gone up to his room. Instead, he chatted with a brown-haired man only slightly shorter than his own two metres. Why was everyone the height of trees and she was only a shrub? She sighed and took in the leather boots, pants, and sleeveless, loosely laced tunics that left rippled chests on display. Blackened metallic cuffs on their wrists covered synthate gloves, their presence only detectable by the slight shine to the material.

So neither male was soulmated. Huh. Surprising they weren't more cautious around the crowd. Although, now that she had the space to move without getting an elbow to the head, she spotted menacing black-garbed guards keeping anyone from approaching. One guard waved another group onto the four lifts, clearing more away.

Caeryssa's ears rejoiced when the last of the giggling, shrieking girls disappeared behind the reflective gravlift doors. If she never had to listen to that again, it would be fine with her. But then, Alcyones had keen eyesight and sharp hearing—normally something she appreciated, just not today with her ears still aching.

Her eyes met that of the golden-eyed male, and she held his gaze. No way would she be intimidated by some celebrity playboy. She crossed her arms as his lips quirked and a dark eyebrow rose. His friend drew his attention, and a shiver brushed her spine when he looked away.

Yeah, he was definitely hot, and she let her eyes coast over the curve of exposed muscles. She'd always had a weakness for powerful, lickable chests and well-developed shoulders. The view almost soothed the delay and loss of her upper-floor room. Almost. Black tattoos crept over his olive skin, from his chest to his upper arms. No vines, not that she expected any with the synthate gloves covering his hands. Those distinctive marks only appeared within the first few hours when soulmates touched. But were those feathers... wings?

Oh, thorny fuck. Was he Sigma Draconis?

No wonder his eyes were such an intense gold. She should have known, damn it, but she'd only seen them with silver eyes, never gold. With a nervous squirm in her belly, she stepped back, hiding behind the person in front of her before the man could look her way again. 

Mouthwatering he might be, but no way in stardust was she drawing the attention of the Ascendancy's ruling elite. Bad enough she had to interact with the pompous asses occasionally through her company's contracts. She was not playing politics on her vacation, too. Sigma Draconis had a bad habit of demanding whomever and whatever they wanted, and judging by the crowd when she'd arrived, there were more than enough fan girls in their entourage to sate their desires.

Three sets of lift doors opened and the cars filled. There went her buffer. Only twenty people remained, half of them being the two men and their guards. Still, she didn't close the distance and kept her gaze elsewhere. Heat grew, crawling up her body, and lingering on her breasts. That miserable thistle was staring at her. She felt it. But despite the colour rising in her cheeks and her rapid pulse betraying her awareness, she refused to meet his eyes. Instead, she studied the vines and waterfall, trying not to fidget.

For fuck's sake. Would he never look away?

The gravlift chimed, and she released a shaky breath. Surely they'd go up and she could take a different lift. But only two lifts had returned to the lobby. The male, his friend, and a single guard entered one, while the remaining guards herded everyone else people into the other lift.

As the doors closed on the packed gravlift, the damned elite held his hand on the second lift's door, keeping it open. Unable to help herself, she met his gaze and his lips twisted into a charming, lopsided grin.

"Why don't you join us?"

(2310 words)