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‘Guilty as charged.’ He said it offhand and casually, but she caught the flash of pride on his face.
‘So where do you sit in the grand scale of things?’
He shrugged, eyes flicking past her shoulder and then back to her face. ‘I’m just a soldier, doing as commanded.’
‘Bull spit!’ she called out. ‘You’re more than that. Selene wouldn’t trust me to just anyone. Plus, your suit tech. That’s high-end and proprietary. I haven’t seen it on anyone else. Neither have I read or caught wind of it. So it won’t surprise me if it’s DCM. And if it is, and you’re walking around in it, and Selene is working with you, it means you’re not just some super soldier grunt. You’re right at the top.’
‘Maybe, maybe not.’
‘You won’t say?’
He smiled at her, but the expression around his silver eyes was tight.
‘Fine,’ she said with a cold smile. ‘Stay smug. Keep your secrets to yourself. I’ll find out anyway. I have my ways and means.’
‘Do your worst,’ he taunted back. ‘Meanwhile, I’ve got a corvette waiting for you and whatever you need to cart off Axuma. Can we move this discussion to your apartment? So you can get your shit, and we can push off this city?’
‘Don’t order me around!’ she shot out, irked by the strange debate and his insistence.
‘Now, now, temper, Harlow,’ he said softly. ‘Get upstairs or wherever your apartment is, pack your stuff and let’s roll.’
‘Not so fast, cowboy,’ she warned irately.
Harlow was about to launch into another self-righteous diatribe when she paused and forced herself to look at him. He seemed exhausted. She spotted a white edge to his full lips. His nose flared, and he yawned. Like he was fighting off an intense urge to nap. Then, she remembered his reference to being starved, which all came together in her head.
‘You’re hangry.’
‘What the everlovin’ fokk?’ Kage flung back.
‘Yup. Come with me. Now.’
For a split second, she analysed her life decisions. She’d never invited a strange man into her home before. She also wasn’t the type to want to rescue men from themselves. This was a first.What was wrong with her?
The pinched look on his face won the day. She felt an unlikely wave of compassion overwhelm her.
She waved her wrist comm over the apartment building’s glass-panelled door, which slid open.
She marched in, and he jogged to catch up to her, barely slipping his large frame past the sliding doorway as it shut.
‘Harlow, you’d better be heading upstairs to pack. We don’t have time for anything else.’
Kage’s low voice echoed in the empty lobby.
Still, Harlow’s low heels clicked on towards the lifts. ‘And I don’t have time to debate with your salty, starved and low-glucose ass for much longer. I’m not leaving this city until I feed you.’
She marched through the open lift doors. ‘You coming?’
He stalked inside, ducking under the high jamb while muttering in annoyance.
The doors shut, and she glanced at his hulking, sulking form.
‘Here, have a curl on me,’ she offered, pushing the box of garlic butter-soaked potato goodness into his nose.
She swore that he almost swayed with need. His helmet fell to the floor.
He flicked a silver glance at her, then nabbed the box and proceeded to tear into it and chow down with no aplomb whatsoever. His eyes momentarily fluttered with pleasure as his powerful jaws worked.
‘Told you, you were hangry. And those are the best damn potato curls in all of Dunia. Incidentally, the most amazing hangry curse breakers.’
‘Now, who’s smug?’ he taunted between breathing in the food.
Harlow shot him a sweet, self-satisfied grin and chortled.
Their eyes met, his glinting with intense emotion. Like he had the potential to devour and devastate her more than she could ever imagine.
Damn.
