Page 26 of Starfighter’s Salvation

“Agreed.” The word hung between us as I devoured the extra bread.

When we stood, he took my empty bowl. His fingers brushed mine, and the mark flared bright and warm, want chasing up my spine before I could even try to fight it. Neither of us pretended not to feel it.

He walked me as far as my quarters, which should have been our quarters. But since we weren't official, I had been assigned my own rooms. Which was lonely and totally sucked. Now I could spend the entire night before my first life-or-death mission in outer space alone, staring at the ceiling, freaking out about dying instead of having wild sex for hours and then collapsing into exhaustion.

The second option sounded so much better than the first.

At my door, he waited until I stepped inside.

“Goodnight, Gina.”

“Goodnight, Corvan.”

He didn't kiss me. He didn't ask for anything. He made sure I was safe and walked away like I was cargo that needed securing. I stood inside the closed door for a long time with one hand pressed to the mark on my neck. Wanting him. Hating that a man I’d built from a menu could make me feel like the one thing in this universe nobody wanted to keep.

Fine.

I'd survived worse than not being wanted by a man.

We could literally die tomorrow, but no. Don't kiss me. Don't touch me. Don't admit you have feelings for me or want me.

Just fucking fine.

7

Gina, Moon Base Arturri

* * *

Priya pounded on my door until I crawled out of bed after almost zero sleep, then kidnapped me for early breakfast with the other ladies from Earth. I was so excited to meet everyone I was practically skipping down the corridor. The air in the mess hall hit me with the smell of hot bread, unfamiliar spice, lively room full of voices, and the scrape of a hundred chair legs across the deck.

“Come with me.”

“I haven’t had coffee.” I simply did not function without coffee.

“Velerion doesn’t have coffee. Not real coffee, anyway.”

“Oh, my god, I'm doomed.” I stopped walking. “Take me back to Earth.”

She laughed and steered me toward a corner table in the mess hall. Three women sat there waiting for me, an extra tray piled high with food in front of them. I knew their faces from the message boards. Jamie. Mia. Lily. The missing players. The first Starfighters from Earth. Alive. Eating alien waffles with my best friend.

“Sit,” Jamie said as she shoved enough food at me to feed three grown men. “Priya told us you’re a nurse, which means you haven’t eaten.”

“I eat.”

Four women looked at me.

“Sometimes,” I added.

Lily pushed the tray even closer. “We heard about the granola bars, darling. Your pilot has already filed a complaint with the kitchen.”

“He what?”

“Last night I heard him ask how often humans require food,” Mia said. “When the cook told him, he became unpleasant.”

“Corvan is usually unpleasant,” Priya laughed. “The change was difficult to detect.”

Heat crept up my neck at his name, quick and traitorous. I’d known the man for a day, and my body had already decided he was worth blushing over. Annoying. Predictable. He asked how often humans require food? As in all humans? Or just me? I turned the fact over, combined with his comments on how much water I was or was not drinking, and hated how much I liked his attention. Not entirely unpleasant, this idea that he cared.