I nodded. “I felt you beginning to hypnotize me, but you were right. I don’t think you can.” I searched his eyes still, unable to look away. “They’re so lovely. What does the galaxy look like to you?” I mused aloud, and then realized how rude that must have sounded and added, “I mean—there are plenty of different fields of vision and color ranges that different species—”
“I understand what you meant,” he interrupted,not unkindly, and wrapped a piece of my wavy auburn hair around his finger. It had come loose from its braid sometime in the night, and I hadn’t noticed. “What color does this look like?”
“Muddy. Not copper, not brown. Kind of…not sure what it wants to be.”
“Hmm.” He played with my hair, unraveling it. “It isn’t muddy to me. It’s bright. It shines copper.” Then he let go of the curl, hand lingering as he studied my face, my mouth. He whispered, “The color suits you.” Then he pushed the lock behind my ear. “I call you Starlight because the first time I saw you laugh, after we almost died on Coruscant, you were impossible to tear my eyes away from. Like a flare of light in a sea of darkness. And it was beautiful.”
We were so close that I couldn’t ignore how intimate this was even if I wanted to. My skin felt electrified, waiting for the moment he would touch me again and spark me to life. Joy trembled in my chest, feeling like firecrackers. Then he took gentle hold of my chin. The tips of his fingers were rough with callouses. What kind of life did he lead to earn hands like that?
Is he going to kiss me?I wondered, my heart beating frantic in my chest, but he seemed patient, measured. So much so that all I could think of was pushing him back into his chair and straddling his thighs so he couldn’tescape, then kissing him right here with the glow of Naboo in that lovely silver hair—
Without thinking, I reached up and ran my fingers through the front of his hair, pushing it out of his face. Itwassoft—like how I imagined starlight would feel.
His eyes widened in surprise, and I realized a little too late what, exactly, I’d done.
I quickly retracted my hand and schooled my face. “You should probably go. Veebee is bringing me caf in half an hour—”
“Veebee has brought you caf already, actually,” came the voice of VB-35 from the doorway.
Mortified, I whirled around in my chair to find the droid standing there with a cup of steaming-hot caf. Her glowing eyes settled on me, and even though she didn’t have an expression, I knew exactly what it would have been: amusement.
“I hope I haven’t interrupted anything,” Veebee went on casually, letting herself onto the flight deck and bending between us to set down the cup of caf on the control panel. “If I knew you had company, I would have brought two.”
I wasnevergoing to live this down, I could already tell. I blushed and quickly turned to check the navigational console, even though nothing had changed since I last looked. “No, no. He was just leaving.”
“I was,” he agreed, and pushed himself to his feet. “Good night, Starlight.”
I waved my hand in reply and didn’t turn back around until I heard him leave.
With VB-35, on the other hand, I wasn’t so lucky. If the droid had eyebrows, she would have raised one of them to mock me, but her smugly curious voice had to suffice. “You two lookedawfullycozy….”
“Please don’t,” I groaned, and buried my head in my hands. My cheeks were somehow even hotter than they had been a second ago. I wasn’t sure what was more embarrassing, the fact that Veebee had caught us so close or that I had wanted to getcloser.
And that was an awful thing to want in my profession.
Because if I knew anything about star tours, it was that in a job as transient as this, guests came and went like comets. Our tour was just a blip, a passing moment in their lives. We weren’t anchors.Iwasn’t an anchor.
Everyone I loved left—even my dad would, eventually. Why would a stowaway who planned to get off when we reached Tatooine be any different?
CHAPTER NINETEEN
The Bad Guys
On our travel day to Tatooine, I feared that Sian was evading me. So much so that I began to think I’d done something wrong. Whenever I popped into the galley, he would slip out to the refresher. When I caught him in the corridor, he’d feign looking for Noola. It got to the point where Veebee even asked if I’d said anything to him.
“No!” I cried, stalking to the lift to help Kotti with a holochess tournament in the main chamber. “Nothing!”
I didn’t think so, at least. Maybe I had asked too many questions on the flight deck and pried too deeply. I frowned, puzzled. Why did I care so much?
“You’re being silly,” I mumbled to myself as I made my final rounds in the common areas that night. “He’s not evading you.”
Itwasa big ship, and it was easy to avoid people, but all day? Never mind he was confined to the pantry andhe wasn’t in the pantry. Maybe I’d find him now, creepingaround again while most everyone was asleep, and finally pin him down.
There were some late-night wanderers—a family in the mess hall playing sabacc and a few guests taking showers in the ’freshers, a few in the lounge on the main deck, gossiping about their sleeping friend. There was music in the main chamber and laughter at the tables, but Sian was nowhere to be found.
Well, it couldn’t be helped.
With a yawn, I found my way back to my room and opened the door—
