Page 70 of Trove’s Purpose

And Chee admitted, it did sound like fun.

Tanin took the twins aside to give them some orders just for their ears. And while he did that, Trove took Chee back to her room.

When the door opened, however, she didn’t immediately go inside. She hesitated at the threshold before turning.

Trove was, of course, standing there. Calm smile on his face. Like he was just content to be there and he needed nothing else. He never pushed for more from her. And she was, again, struggling to remember why being with him was a bad idea.

“A beach party sounds fun,” she said by way of an opener. It wasn’t her smoothest line, and she almost winced at how wooden it sounded.

But Trove just nodded once. “It does. I think it will be a good way to say goodbye to Heava Yu. At least, for now. I’m sure we can come back sometime. Maybe we’ll actually take a proper vacation. We’ve never done that before.”

“No?”

“No,” he shook his head. “Usually, we just enjoy whatever amenities happen to exist in whatever place we end up. We didn’t really have the luxury of taking dedicated time off before. But we have a fully functioning ship and a fully charged suite of subspace crystals. There’s really not much holding us back anymore.

Chee smiled softly. “Yeah. Right. That’s true. So, maybe we’ll, er… Or you and the crew will…” Her voice trailed off as she lost her words.

It felt wrong to say ‘we’ when she was still so completely and fully an outsider. She wasn’t one of them, and she didn’t feel like one either. To assume herself among their number wasn’t right. But it didn’t feel right to separate herself either.

After all, she and Trove were still…

Trove reached out. Slowly. Cautiously. Giving her plenty of time to pull away or stop him if she wished.

And she debated it. Considered it. Went back and forth on whether or not she wanted him to touch her at all. Made a decision, changed her mind, then changed it back again. A dozen times over in the few seconds it took for him to raise his hand.

In the end, she didn’t move. She wasn’t sure if that was a choice she made, or the result of her just not making the choice.

But then his fingers were warm on her cheeks. A soft stroke turned into him cupping her face in the palm of his hand. She leaned into it. Not much. A gentle pressure. A cautious test of her own. But she liked it.

“We can come back,” he said. “If you want.”

Because it was her decision. He was letting her choose what happened between them. He was letting her be the one to set boundaries.

And she knew this wasn’t going to work but…

“Will you dance with me at the beach party?”

“Yes.”

He didn’t hesitate. He didn’t ask if she was sure. He just agreed. And the two statements hung in the air between them.

Trove let his hand linger on her cheek for a long moment before sliding it down. He didn’t touch her body. But she imagined he did. If he stroked her neck, down her chest, her belly, her waist, her hips…

He had to be good at sex.

That was a stupid thought. But if he was the stuff of legends that literal sex professionals gossiped about beyond their place of work, he had to be good. He had to know how to use those hands, his tongue, his dick…

Chee bit her lip. Hesitating.

“Trove?”

“Hm?”

“Are we… What are we?”

He hesitated this time.

“I don’t know,” he admitted.