Page 61 of Starfighter’s Salvation

“You are a terrible liar.”

“I’m an excellent liar. You’re just one of the only people who can read me.” Her hand found mine against the wall and she leaned into me, her forehead pressed to my chest. Possessive heat answered under my mark, quieter now. Less demand. More home. I had spent years certain I would never feel like I had a true home again. Now my home was wherever she happened to be.

I rubbed her back gently as she looked up at me. No one else in the corridor. No launch clock. No patients. Just the tilt of her chin, the exhaustion she wore like armor, and the pulse moving at the base of her throat.

“We have ten days. Alone,” she whispered.

“Yes.”

“You made me a promise in the dark. Do you remember?”

My cock hardened immediately. “Of course.” I remembered every word. I had carried fantasies of what I would do to her through the trench, through the flight home, through every hour since.

I bent down and lifted her into my arms. She wrapped her arms around my neck without protest as I cradled her against my chest and carried her to our quarters.

16

Gina

* * *

Corvan took me back to our quarters and made dinner while I took a warm shower. When I came out wearing the biggest, and softest shirt I'd been able to find—obviously his—he'd set out what looked like a feast. Hot food. Plates. Chairs. No granola bars, plastic wrappers or vending machines involved anywhere in the process. I sat where he put me and watched him move around the small space — this huge predator of a man arranging cutlery like it mattered — and felt something dangerous and unfamiliar burn in my chest. It actually hurt.

He pulled up a chair and lifted a fork full of food to my lips. “I can feed myself.”

“Your medical instructions require complete rest.”

“If I don't have the strength to lift a spoon, I don't think the medics will approve of me getting you naked after dinner."

He dropped the spoon so fast I burst into laughter. Which, of course, hurt my ribs. But not badly enough to make me reconsider seducing him later. He was mine and I wanted to feel him around me, touching me, inside me. Everywhere. I wanted him everywhere.

Corvan set a bowl of roasted grain and meat in front of me, steam curling up smelling of char and something like cumin. Then he produced a small golden cake, and I stared at it like it might vanish. Sugar and warm spice hit my tongue on the first bite, and I nearly wept a second time in one day, which had to be some kind of record.

“Where did you get cake?”

“Jamie informed me Earth women are very fond of cake. She thought it would make you happy.”

“Jamie is a genius.”

He sat across from me and watched me eat that cake like he was watching the most interesting thing he'd ever seen. He forgot to eat. Being looked at like that — him acting as if feeding me was the most important thing he could possibly do — made me more than happy. Happy was a weak word. The intense emotions swirling inside my heart were far too complex for such a simple word.

“Stop staring.”

“Eat.”

“You’re bossy.”

“You are malnourished.”

“I am not.”

“Your Earth medical file lists three visits for exhaustion, two for dehydration, and one event described as ‘forgot lunch, passed out near vending machine.’”

I set down my fork. “How did you get my medical files? From my hospital? Those were off the record.” I called a couple of doctors friend, including Okafor.

“You are my bonded mate.”

“Not an answer.”