Page 341 of Commander’s Mate

His mouth curved.

We stood in silence.

That should have been comfortable.

It was not.

He looked too much like the kind of man I had trained myself not to want.

Not physically.

Jake had been human. Brown hair. Brown eyes. A crooked grin. Terrible taste in music.

Pyrr was blue-gray with violet eyes and yellow hair that should have disqualified him from being attractive on principle.

It had failed.

The resemblance lived somewhere else.

Uniform.

Duty.

The way he automatically stood where he could see both ends of a corridor.

The way he listened to ship announcements without appearing to.

The way danger seemed built into his calendar.

“You became sad,” he said.

I closed my eyes.

“We talked about that.”

“I remember.”

“Then stop noticing.”

“I cannot.”

“Try harder.”

He turned toward the map.

“I can stop speaking of it.”

That was worse.

Kindness again.

I hated competent men.

“You know I was married?”

His head turned.

“No.”