Page 327 of Every Almost

"You have no idea," Reyna answered.

Charlie laughed, and then leaned over and kissed her again.

REYNA

They left the galley together. A day ago, she would have felt different walking out of a crowded room at Charlie's side, letting the whole crew draw the obvious conclusion. But tonight? She'd spent the entire day being looked at because of the rose color and her incessant need to be near Charlie wherever they were together, and had discovered, surprisingly, that she liked it. Who'd have thought?

The corridors had gone to their evening settings, lights down warm, the ship settling into the low hum.

They walked without talking for a while. Charlie's hand found hers somewhere around the habitat junction and wouldn't let go.

When they reached the branch between the crew quarters and the officers' wing, Charlie's fingers began to slip from Reyna's, and her steps began to angle left toward her own quarters. Out of pure habit, Reyna could see it, the months of muscle memory steering her toward the small room that had been hers since the week she arrived.

Reyna stopped walking.

Charlie got half a step further before the tug of their joined hands brought her up short. She turned, blinking, already halfway into the automatic goodnight.

"Where are you going?" Reyna asked.

Charlie looked down the corridor at her own door, down the left branch. Then her eyes returned to Reyna.

"Oh," she said. "Right. Uh, force of habit. I was going to—" She gestured vaguely toward her quarters. "You know, just, go to my?—"

"Like hell you are."

It came out of Reyna before she could stop it. She watched Charlie hear it and then the corner of her mouth start to go.

"Did you just—" Charlie's grin broke all the way open, crossing her arms and slouching into one hip. "Captain Solas. Did you just use yourmission voiceon me? To get me to come to bed with you?"

"I absolutely did and I have no shame for it."

"Clearly."

Reyna walked close to Charlie, arriving just in front of her.

"Do you notwantto come to bed with me, Charlie Wickett?" Reyna asked, her voice just above a whisper.

She watched Charlie physically swallow.

"I never said that," Charlie whispered back.

"You ended up in my quarters last night," Reyna continued. "I'm simply removing the intervening disaster this time."

"Efficient."

"I'm the Captain of this ship. I have a reputation for it."

Charlie was so close now, her lips merely an inch away from Reyna's.

"So this is a thing now," Charlie said quietly. "We're deciding this."

"There's nothing to decide." Reyna said it simply and meant it, and felt the rose answer it warm along her skin before she could think about whether to let it. "Yours has a bed I've never slept in and a viewport I don't like as much. Mine has you in it. And frankly, I've already grown too attached to the arrangement for it to be taken away."

Something moved across Charlie's face at Reyna's words, the small astonishment of a woman who had spent a long time not expecting to be wanted out loud.

"Yeah," Charlie said. "Okay. Yours."

Reyna leaned forward and kissed Charlie, gently at first, turning heated until Reyna pulled back gently. "Mine."