Page 155 of Alien Burn

His hand closed around hers.

“Thank you.”

She looked at him for a long time.

Then he said, “Before you trust me with anything else, there's something I should have told you.”

Her stomach tightened.

“A protected-identity notice came through before the landing. It told me your public records had been replaced after the deaths of a political family. It did not give me your birth name, their names, or who killed them.”

“You could have asked for more.”

“Yes.”

“Did you?”

“No.” He let her examine his face. “I restricted the notice. I kept it out of the ordinary reports. But I still began by knowing something about you that you hadn't chosen to tell me.”

She remembered the early conversations. His careful questions. Her certainty that every pause concealed an assessment.

“Were you investigating me when you sat with me?”

“At first I was trying to understand whether you were in danger, and whether you knew more about the people around you than you were saying.”

She took her hand out of his.

For once she wanted him to fill the silence, to offer an explanation she could reject. He sat with his empty hand on the blanket.

“You asked me to be your mate, and still let me worry about what you might find. Every time I came here.”

“Yes.”

“You could have told me what you already knew.”

“I should have.”

“And then?”

“I was already burning for you. I used the questions to avoid admitting why I'd stopped. I told you about my body's response that afternoon. I should have told you about the notice too.”

Her eyes stung.

“I should have told you about the notice sooner,” he said. “I don't want keeping your name unread to become an excuse for what I did keep from you.”

She pulled the blanket closer around her shoulders. She still wanted him beside her. That made the anger harder to speak, not less important.

“I want to see the notice.”

“I'll bring it up for you.”

“Tomorrow. And if you need another record about me, you ask before you request it.”

“I will.”

“No more tests,” she said.

“No more tests.”