Then he looked down and all that fell away.
She was… right there.
The cupboard was small. Barely big enough for one person, let alone two. Her back was against the wall, shelving digging into her shoulder blades. His body blocked her from the door, one hand braced above her head against a rack of cleaning supplies. There was nowhere to put his other hand that wasn’t on her.
He felt the heat of her through the thin fabric of her shirt. Could smell her… a floral, sweet scent that made his hindbrain sit up and pay attention.
She tilted her face up to say something, his gaze tracking her movements easily in the dark. He could see clearly, but he knew she couldn’t. Humans didn’t have the same kind of genetic adaptations to different conditions that the Lathar did, and his clan—former clan—had lived on a planet that spent over six months in darkness every year.
Her mouth was right there.
Two inches. Maybe less. He could just lean down and…
The guard’s footsteps were audible through the door now. Slow and methodical. The unhurried pace of someone checking boxes on a patrol route, not someone who’d seen anything suspicious.
Guard is passing, Fred said in his ear. Hold position. Ten seconds.
Ten seconds.
That was an absolute eternity.
Her breath was warm against his jaw. Her hand had come up at some point, he didn’t remember when and her fingers were resting against the bare skin of his chest, not pushing, just… there. He felt his own pulse under her palm.
Five seconds.
The footsteps were directly outside the door now. He held his breath as the creak of leather, the soft exhale of a male who was bored and tired and counting the minutes until his shift ended, reached his ears.
Cait’s fingers curled slightly, brushing just over his heart.
Clear, Fred said. He’s past you. Continuing down the corridor. You can move in thirty seconds.
Thirty seconds.
Cait looked up, and the silence stretched between them, thick and heavy. Her eyes were dark in the dim light, pupils blown wide. He could see the pulse jumping in her throat.
“Raaze,” she murmured.
He closed the distance.
One kiss, that’s what he told himself. Just one kiss. But then her mouth opened under his, and she kissed him back, her hand flat against his chest.
And he was lost.
The guard’s footsteps faded down the corridor, the rhythmic thud of boots replaced by the silence in the closet. The world shrank to the space between Cait and Raaze, the air between them electric.
Her fingers were still clamped around the edges of Raaze’s jacket. Shit.
Clear, Fred said. But you need to move. Now. The window’s shrinking.
Releasing him, she stepped back quickly. Too quickly. Her shoulders hit the shelving behind her, and there was a soft ‘clank’. They both froze, wide-eyed. If whatever that was fell, there was no way she could twist and catch it, not without causing a cascade of the rest of the contents of the shelves…
But nothing happened. No armed guards yanked the door open and hauled them out. The corridor outside stayed silent.
Raaze’s hand found the panel in the dark, and it slid open. He didn’t look at her. Didn’t say anything about what had just happened. Neither did she. There wasn’t time. And she was absolutely not going to be the one who brought it up.
Checking the corridor, he put a hand on her elbow and urged her out of the closet. He followed, his presence a heavy weight at her back.
Turn left at the next junction. Forty meters to the archive access point.
