"I know we have to make plans and stuff, but give me a few minutes," she muttered, face smooshed against fine fabric.
Zane took a chair across from her, indulging in the simple pleasure of watching her exist. Even exhausted, even bruised and burned, she commanded the space around her.
She pushed herself into something that was almost a sitting position. "Do you think I can stay the night before I leave?"
The words hit him like cold water. "What?"
Leave? She wanted to leave? They’d just gotten there.
"Is there something wrong here?"
"We're safe. You have to get to Ofros or whatever. I have to …" She seemed to shrink into herself, shoulders curling inward as reality crashed back. Her ship was gone. Her livelihood destroyed. Everything she'd built torn away in a matter of days.
"I'm not going to Ofros." The words came out too sharp, too revealing. He forced himself to relax, to play the careless lord who changed plans on a whim.
She was shaking her head. "You can get transport here; it'll be fine. If I can access my accounts, I can get … somewhere. Probably I'll need to work on someone's crew and …" She blew out a breath. "Never mind. You don't care."
Each word was a knife between his ribs. After everything they'd survived together? After she'd risked her life to free him from those cuffs, she thought he didn’t care?
Remaining calm was getting harder by the second. "We just got here. You don't need to run away so soon."
She gestured at their surroundings. "I can't exactly afford to pay for this room."
"I can."
Her spine straightened, pride flaring in those green eyes. "I took your money for a job I couldn't deliver on, and I can't even give that back. I can't be more in your debt."
"It's not about debt." He leaned forward, willing her to understand. "We both survived. That's what matters."
But he could see her walls solidifying, turning their shared experience into a business transaction gone wrong. His dragon raged against the chains of propriety. He wanted to pull her into his arms and explain exactly who she was to him. Wanted to kiss her until she stopped talking about leaving.
He had a feeling that would make her run away faster.
Instead, he stayed in his chair and scrambled for the right words. "I didn't ever actually want to go to Ofros."
"What?" She turned to face him fully, curiosity momentarily overriding her defensive posture.
"My family wanted me to meet some lady the Royal Matchmaker set me up with." The irony of it nearly choked him. Shade had worked so hard to find him suitable matches, never knowing his mate was flying cargo runs in the outer systems. "I was planning to arrive as my most disreputable self in the hopes that she'd take one look at me and run away."
Mercy stared at him for several beats. Then, unexpectedly, she burst out laughing. The sound filled the suite, bright and genuine and everything he'd been missing since their kiss.
Her eyes tracked over him, slow and considering. "I don't think that would work."
"Why not? It was a brilliant plan!"
The sweep of her gaze felt almost physical, raising heat wherever it lingered. She took in his rumpled clothes, his smoke-darkened hair, the way he filled the delicate chair with barely restrained power. Heat followed in the wake of that gaze, and he had to grip the chair arms to keep from reaching for her.
"I don't think it would be enough to scare away a determined lady."
The moment stretched between them, charged with possibility. He could see her wavering, walls trembling just slightly. Then her expression shuttered, and she looked away. He felt the distance reassert itself like a slap.
Mercy stood abruptly. "I'm going to go wash all this stink off. We can figure out … whatever … later."
He watched her disappear into the bathing chamber, heard the door lock engage with quiet finality. His carefully laid plans, such as they were, crumbled to ash.
He'd thought once they were safe, once they had time, he could find the right way to explain. Could ease her into the truth about … everything.
But she was already planning her escape. Already rebuilding her life without him in it.
