Page 5 of Starfighter’s Salvation

“If you don’t stop mooning over Corvan,” Alisha said, “you’re not gonna make it. Focus, woman!”

“Busy.” She was right. I doubled my pace.

“You’re blushing.”

“Shh. People are dying.”

“Fake people. Your fake alien boyfriend said his line, and you got all dreamy-eyed.”

“He is not my boyfriend.”

“Not yet.”

Not yet. Alisha and I were ninety-nine percent convinced that Vesh had come for Priya, and that our dear friend was out there in outer space somewhere, flying exciting missions and having crazy hot sex with her alien boyfriend. I so wanted that to be me and Corvan.

I knelt, jammed meds and space jelly into a leg wound on the last injured soldier and tagged him for immediate drone retrieval. I sprinted back to the ship and jumped onboard with nine seconds left on the mission clock. All fifteen wounded had been assessed and retrieved, dead or alive. Mission accomplished.

The hatch closed behind me and the mission counter flashed green.

“GINA!” Alisha shouted. “You did it. Holy shit, you actually did it.”

The screen went white. Corvan filled it. Not the usual cut scene. This one was new. He was close enough that I could see the gray in his eyes and the scar through his eyebrow. The corner of his mouth lifted. My pulse raced as I stared at those fucking kissable lips. I’d never seen him smile before. Not once.

God damn, he was sexy when he smiled.

I was in so much trouble. No real man could compete with the perfect, imaginary warrior I’d created. Sad, but true.

“Congratulations, Starfighter,” he said. “You have completed your training.”

The image widened, and he removed the crest from his uniform and held it toward me. A series of words appeared at the bottom of the screen.

Starfighter Bonding Ceremony.

“Oh,” Alisha said. All the humor left her voice. “That’s what Priya saw. Gina, don’t touch anything.”

Corvan kept speaking.

“We have been paired through the rescue program. We have flown into the fire together. Do you accept my crest as a sign of our permanent bond? Will you remain at my side and fight with me to the end of our days?”

I looked at the crest and felt like a complete fool. A digital, make-believe, computer generated alien was offering me a digital marriage proposal after a fake rescue mission, and my eyes burned with tears. Fever. Obviously. I was out of my freaking mind.

Still… I swallowed. The words ‘permanent bond’ probably should have scared me more than they did. Instead, I wanted him. Wanted this to be real. Badly.

“Gina,” Alisha warned. “That’s exactly what Priya saw before she disappeared.”

“Priya pressed accept. The only way I’m going to find out what happened to her is to say yes.”

Emergency lights flashed across the floor behind him, as if I was running out of time.

“I know we said we’d follow her, but this is crazy. It’s far more likely a serial killer got to her than sexy alien boyfriends.” Alisha bit her lower lip. She wasn’t joking.

“Maybe.” Maybe not. “I need to know.” I had spent three weeks waiting for a phone call from a friend who had never broken her word. If the answer was on the other side of the button Corvan was waiting for me to push, I was going to find it.

I wanted the crest, and I wanted the broad-shouldered alien holding it. I wanted someone to look at me and want me without adding a list of services he expected me to provide. I wanted him in my life and in my bed. I wanted to know what those hands felt like when they were touching me instead of the damn ship’s controls.

“It’s just a game,” I said. “Right?”

“Gina.”