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His hands tightened just a touch before his voice lowered. “I want that, too.” His voice grew rougher. “I love you, Lucca. You have to know that.”
She bent her head, overwhelmed with too many emotions. She wished they could leave their responsibilities behind and have that. But they might never see the happy day where things were so simple. Everything was murky, messy. Caligher and Lucca had both fucked the important stuff up rather spectacularly.
He tilted her face and kissed her deeply. An ember ignited in her stomach. Chills skated outward. As the air sharpened, she felt his intentions taking a turn for the strange. The force behind his hold increased, and she felt possessed, owned. She pressed into the rush, growing drunk on the powerful relief that she hadn’t lost him.
Caligher pulled back, brushing tears off her eyelashes as she blinked up at him. “Get your spacesuit on,” he said.
“What…? Why?”
“We’re moving to my ship.”
He backed away, releasing her. When they locked eyes again, a chill chased down her skin.
She may have won the portal fight, but they remained on uneven footing. They had one hell of a screwed-up relationship to repair.
She crossed her arms in defiance. “You’re not getting on the warship without a plan.” His eyes narrowed on her mouth. “It’s a death trap.”
“I’ll do what I need to do,” he said levelly. “Youneed to get your spacesuit on.”
She stood obstinately in place, watching him blankly, until he smiled, devastating and handsome and just a little deranged. Without another word, he strode around the chair and started fucking with the console.
Whatever he was up to, it didn’t even phase her at this point. Faint lines of energy flowed from him into all the fine little crevices in the chassis. Numbers appeared on-screen and he shot her a knowing, probing look.
Those numbers represented cabin pressure. Air levels. Important things like that.
And they were dropping.
She snapped her eyes to his. “You’re psychotic.”
His shoulder lifted, smug and casual. “You wanted to stay with me. Now you get to live with me.” His stare traversed her body in a sexual caress and she was honestly calculating the odds that she could punch him without getting hurt. “But youreallyshould put your suit on before this number gets too low.”
Red-faced, she stormed out of the cockpit to find her stupid suit.
Had she made the right choice in forcing him to stay with her?
Her heart had chosen for her. She was along for the ride. The alternative—going through that portal and traversing the Milky Way without him—was out of the question. And now, it would never happen.
CHAPTER24
LUCCA
They landed on his ship and he set his navigation on course for the dark mass up ahead. With a click, he activated the beacon module. Those geared to join the fight could now triangulate the warship’s position.
The Selkie was collected by Wingless, attached to the underbelly for the foreseeable future. Then they were off.
She studied his profile, trying to get a read on his mood as he stared at the tiny dots on the dark horizon. To the untrained eye, he would have appeared calm. From the intermittent flicker and pulse of light, he was anything but.
His body was spasming, and it looked painful.
After a few minutes of stiff silence, his eyes slid to hers.
“Come here.”
Each step felt like she was walking into a spring-loaded trap. Her stomach knotted until her toes met his.
An arm slipped around her waist and he swept her up in a heart-fluttering motion, turning from the cockpit. His lips crushed to hers in a searing, devouring kiss, the passion a reminder of why she put up with him.
But she wasn’t putting up with him—not truly.
