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“It’s not turned up,” Dark said shortly.
“So you are having emotions?” Light asked, frowning.
“None of your fucking business,” Dark growled, shooting him another look. “Is Lili almost done in the shower? I contacted the Mother Ship and they’re about to fold space for us.”
“Oh…I’ll go check on her.” Light sounded taken aback. He gave Dark an uncertain look and then left to go to the back of the ship.
When he came back, he had Lili with him. Her hair was damp and wavy around her face and she was wearing a new set of clothing, but Dark barely noticed. What he saw was the dark circles around her lovely eyes and the way she looked so tired. He longed to put an arm around her and draw her close to him, but he didn’t feel that he deserved to touch her. Also, he wasn’t sure if Lili would want him to touch her now.
“Whew…I feel better,” she remarked, settling herself in the small “bride seat” that fit between the pilot and passenger seat. She was nibbling some kind of snack and drinking orange liquid from a squeeze bulb.
“Are the crackers and orange juice helping you feel stronger?” Light asked anxiously. “I can make you a whole meal with the rehydrator if you want. We have plenty of meal cubes to choose from.”
“No, it’s all right. I know Dark is waiting for us so he can take off.” Lili shot him an oblique look, which Dark didn’t return.
“It’s fine—you can eat a meal if you need to get your strength back,” he growled.
“No, no—I’m okay,” Lili protested quickly. “I’ll probably have dinner with Rachel when we get back to the Mother Ship. Unless you two want to go out somewhere?” she asked.
“We could certainly—“ Light began.
“No,” Dark growled.
“Oh…okay.” Lili nodded. “That’s fine then. Maybe later.”
“Maybe tomorrow—” Light began.
“We won’t be available then either,” Dark cut him off.
“Dark,” his brother protested. “You can’t just?—”
“Get ready for lift-off,” Dark said. Then he pulled back on the steering yoke, shooting the ship into the sky with such force that all three of them were pushed back against their seats and nobody could talk.
Which was just the way he fucking wanted it.
24
LIGHT
Light was worried about his brother. Dark was definitely going through something. Light was pretty sure he was having what the humans called “guilt” over the way he had treated Lilibet when he had been fucking her.
Well, he had been rough—Light would admit to that. But he hadn’t done Lilibet any lasting harm and she didn’t seem upset or mad about it. Of course, she might be mad and not showing it outwardly. They had met several human females that hid their emotions inside, so that was always a possibility. But Light didn’t think so.
To him, Lilibet just seemed tired and worn out. Which was understandable. They’d had a very long day with extremely intense sex at the end of it. That would tire anyone out. Hell—Light was tired himself, but he was also worried. It seemed like Dark was withdrawing from both him and Lilibet, which wasn’t a good sign. Even though Light hadn’t had emotions long, he recognized that negative ones could have a deep and lasting impact—especially if you kept them to yourself, as Dark seemed to be doing.
The three of them were silent all the way back to the Mother Ship, which appeared before them as soon as they flew through the gash in space it had created for them. Light thought that Lilibet was going to say something when the ship finally landed. And indeed, she turned to Dark and looked at him anxiously.
“Dark,” she began. “I want you to know?—”
“There is no information you can give me that I need to know,” Dark cut her off.
“Dark!” Light frowned at his brother, who was still staring straight ahead. “There’s no need to talk that way to Lilibet!”
“No, no—it’s all right.” Lilibet shrugged, though Light thought she looked hurt. “I understand if he doesn’t want to talk. I just wanted to say that I really appreciate you taking me to F’rith Three and maybe…maybe the three of us can, uh, get together again.”
“Maybe so,” Light said, because it was clear Dark wasn’t going to respond. “We enjoyed our time with you as well, Lilibet,” he told her. “We—I—hate to see you go,” he added, speaking only for himself since he wasn’t sure he could speak for Dark too.
“And I hate going.” She put a hand on Dark’s shoulder again. “Dark please, won’t you just try to talk to me? I know you’re upset about what happened, but it doesn’t have to be a big deal. I mean, we can get past it—maybe the three of us could even be together. Even if we can’t Bond, we could still?—”
