“No. It was not.” I turn to study her face, memorizing the way sympathy and understanding soften her features. “Until I saw you. Until I understood what I had been missing, what I had been searching for without knowing it.”
“Me?”
“You. Your competence, your independence, your refusal to be anything less than exactly who you are.” I risk reaching up to touch her face, fingertips barely grazing her cheek. “Your ability to see beauty in broken things and find solutions where others see only problems.”
She doesn’t pull away from my touch. If anything, she leans into it slightly, her eyes falling half-closed as my thumb traces the line of her cheekbone.
“That’s a lot of pressure to put on someone,” she whispers.
“I know. Which is why I never approached you, never tried to force contact or connection. I hoped that someday, perhaps, our paths might cross naturally.”
“Instead, you got shot and crashed on my doorstep.”
“Yes. And discovered that reality is infinitely better than three years of distant observation.”
Her eyes open fully, meeting mine with an intensity that makes my breath catch. “Better how?”
“Better because you are even more magnificent up close. Because your voice when you speak to me is warmer than I imagined. Because your scent, your presence, your competence with my technology—all of it exceeds every fantasy I constructed during years of watching from shadows.”
I’m leaning closer as I speak, drawn by the way her lips part slightly as she listens, by the way her breathing has changed to match mine. The space between us shrinks to nothing, and I can feel the warmth radiating from her skin.
“Ja’war,” she breathes, and there’s something in her voice that sounds like invitation.
“Yes?”
Instead of answering with words, she closes the remaining distance between us, her lips brushing against mine in a kiss that’s tentative, testing, and absolutely devastating to my remaining control.
The contact sends fire racing through my nervous system, amplified by the ship’s interface she’s still touching, translated into sensation that makes my entire body burn with need. I can taste her curiosity, her desire, the way she’s testing her own response to this connection between us.
I’m about to deepen the kiss, to show her exactly how much three years of longing can be compressed into a single moment of contact, when the ship’s communication system erupts with urgent alerts.
We break apart instantly, both breathing hard, as emergency signals fill the cramped space with harsh light and discordant sound.
“What is it?” Fiona asks, her voice rough with interrupted desire.
I access the ship’s sensors, my mind struggling to shift from the haze of arousal to professional alertness. What I find makes my blood freeze.
“The search teams,” I say grimly. “They have found our trail from this morning. They are moving in this direction.”
“How long do we have?”
“Minutes. Perhaps less.” I’m already moving, sealing access panels and initiating emergency protocols. “We need to reach your garage immediately.”
“But the repairs—”
“Will have to happen there, under pressure, with limited time and resources.” I turn to face her, taking in her flushed cheeks and kiss-swollen lips, the way her eyes still hold traces of desire despite the crisis. “Are you prepared for what this means?”
“What does it mean?”
“It means we will be trapped in your garage, possibly surrounded, with no choice but to complete impossible repairs or watch hundreds die.” I move closer, cupping her face in my hands. “It means choosing me over the safety of distance, over the comfort of uninvolvement.”
“I already made that choice,” she says, covering my hands with hers. “When I decided to help you, when I let you kiss me, when I kissed you back. I’m in this, Ja’war. Whatever comes next.”
The declaration makes something fierce and possessive roar to life in my chest. She is choosing me. Choosing us.
“Then we go,” I say, moving quickly to seal access panels. “But we cannot take Frost Walker—she is too large for your garage, and moving her would expose us completely to the search teams.”
“So how dowe—”
