Page 169 of Alien Burn

“Everyone says it's forever.”

“That's what I am offering.”

“And one mate. But your father⁠—”

“Loved my mother. Lost her. Loves Sheira.” Dhomhes's voice grew firmer. “There are people who turn the promise into a rule for judging someone else's grief. You have seen what that costs my brother. I won't explain us by pretending my father's life didn't happen.”

She looked back at him.

“I am offering you my life as it is now, and my intention to share the rest of it with you. I can't promise we will never be frightened or angry or make mistakes. I can promise I want to stay and love you deeper than the mines.”

Her eyes began to sting.

“That sounds like something I could believe.”

He turned her hand and laid it against his chest.

“You keep your room and your protection whatever you say. The help with your identity, your family, your estate—none of that depends on whether we share a bed.”

“I know.”

He searched her face.

“Do you?”

“You showed me the notice. You stopped when I said I wasn't ready to send the request.” She moved her palm over his heart. “I'm still angry that you kept it from me. But I can tell you that, and you listen.”

He let out a breath.

She liked being able to do that for him.

“Sereya,” he said. “Are you ready?”

She caught his collar and drew him toward her.

“I chose you at this very bench. Yes, I'm ready. Do try to keep up, Gol-Vett.”

He laughed against her mouth.

Then he kissed her, and the next thing she knew she was half out of her seat, holding his shoulders while he stood and brought her with him.

“I had more prepared,” he murmured.

“Save it for tomorrow. You still have to court me.”

They reached his rooms without encountering Tivek. Sereya considered that a kindness from the universe.

The door closed behind them.

Dhomhes touched the fastening at her shoulder, then looked at her face. She nodded, and he began to undress her.

Slowly. He took care around the bruise from the wall, easing the cloth away rather than pulling. When the dress slipped to the floor, she stood before him in the filtered light and resisted the urge to fold her arms across herself.

He noticed. Of course he noticed.

“There you are,” he said softly.

He looked at her as though he had wanted this all day. All the days. She could see it in the darkening of his eyes, in the way his chest rose when she stepped out of the fallen dress.