She shook her head anyway.
“My sector? Could you look into it for me, just this once?”
Khar respected her too much to argue.
That did not stop him from considering how best to feed Horos into the engine cones and bring them to full power without consequence.
“Of course,” he said evenly. “No trouble.”
Lily smiled at him before walking away.
Leaving Khar alone with his dark, blood-soaked thoughts.
Chapter 14
Tall, Dark, and Brooding - Just My Type
Lily
“My first heart beats for a Mokra, fierce and blue;
He takes me dancing, but I’m already through.
My second heart beats for a Dak’ri knight;
We finally meet—and I’m bored by the sight.
My third heart beats for a Divani flame;
And I know I’m lost by name.”
Post-Fusion Ballad, runner-up at the IMPERIUM Interspecific Song Festival, theme for the holo-reality Galactic Love
Lily had never considered herself reckless.
She weighed decisions carefully. She ran simulations in her head before acting. She built quiet contingency plans for everything, because the universe had already proven it could yank the floor out from under her without warning.
Falling for Khar should have triggered alarms.
Instead, it felt inevitable.
She knew it made no sense. He was alien in every way that mattered, a Divani male shaped by war, hierarchy, and instincts she could barely begin to understand. Yet none of that muted the pull. If anything, it sharpened it.
She wanted him – unadorned, in daylight or in artificial dusk, uniform or nothing at all. She wanted him to touch her like he did everything else, with focus and intent and that unnerving calm that made her feel both seen and claimed. She had no idea whether their bodies would even cooperate, but she was willing to stumble through the awkwardness if Khar was.
When he had settled beside her on the light deck with only that thick, luxurious towel between them, Lily had needed everyscrap of discipline she possessed not to climb into his lap and find out firsthand why Divani males were called stallions.
What stopped her was not fear.
It was trust.
Since being torn from Earth, peace had been a rare thing. Silence did not equal safety. Calm did not mean rest. But with Khar, something inside her loosened. Her breathing slowed. The constant edge dulled.
She could not risk shattering that just because she lacked restraint.
So she thought. She evaluated. She replayed moments until they blurred together.
And eventually, she reached a conclusion.
