Chapter 11
Vesh
We found a barren planet to hide behind halfway home.
The ship drifted down and settled in a deep crater on the surface.
No power. No transponder. No sign anyone had ever been there.
Perfect. I guided the Wraith under a large rock outcropping and set her down.
The engine stopped with a shudder. Priya watched the core temperature fall.
“Nine percent power. One engine. No weapons. I assume this is the luxury resort portion of the trip.”
“We need to cool the core before the final run.”
“You could’ve just said yes, Priya, this is the luxurious part of the trip.”
“No one would describe this as luxurious.”
“No one is shooting at us. My standards aren't that high these days.”
Neither were mine. We were freezing. Frost coated the cargo racks and cracked beneath our boots when I opened the ship's emergency supplies.
I salvaged a heat cell and activated it, not sure how long the battery would last. The coils turned orange.
Priya held her hands over them. “I take back everything I said about this place. Five stars.”
“You are easy to please.”
She looked at me and her voice did that thing that made my heart jump and my cock get hard. “You have no idea.” The bond heated. But she was wrong. I knew exactly how responsive her body was. I remembered the wet heat of her on my fingers all too well. The sound she made when I made her fall apart.
I should have taken her to bed and buried myself inside her. Held her all night. Should have been with her every opportunity I had since the moment we met. What an idiot. I was a fucking idiot.
Deciding it was safer not to respond, I found two intact ration packs in storage and handed one to her. Priya examined it. “This is the same thing we ate on the moon.”
“Yes.”
“I survived Queen Raya’s Scythe fighters for this?”
“You need calories.”
“I need tacos.”
“We do not have tacos.” I had no idea what a taco was but filed it away for later. If we survived, I would make sure my female had all the tacos she could ever eat.
“Then I’m officially filing a complaint.” She opened the ration and ate it anyway. We sat on the deck beside the heat cell. The Wraith's power core ticked as she cooled behind us. Outside, a sea of strange stars drifted slowly across our monitors.
We were eight hours from the Gate. Eight hours from safety, assuming the engine held and no one found us.
Priya finished the ration and caught me staring at her. “What?”
“You are hurt.” She winced when she moved. Favored one side.
“Just my ribs. They're bruised. That's all. I'm fine.”
“Let me see.”
“That sounded suspiciously like an excuse to get me naked.”
Fuck, this woman knew how to tempt me. “I do not require an excuse.”
Her eyes widened. “That wasn't the song you were singing last night.”
“I do not sing. Remove your flight suit.”
She laughed. The sound filled the empty hold and made it feel less dead. Priya opened her flight suit just enough for me to inspect her left side. A dark bruise crossed three ribs, but the bones were solid. I ran my fingers over each one while the bond carried every small pulse of pain back to me.
“Nothing broken,” I said.
“I told you.”
“You are not a physician.”
“Neither are you.”
“I have combat medical training.”
“Of course you do. Is there anything irritating you can’t do?”
“No.”
She laughed again, then winced. “Do not do that. You’re going to have to stop being funny.”
“I am never funny.”
I left my palm against her side. Her skin was warm from the heat cell. The opening of her flight suit exposed the curve of one breast beneath the thin underlayer. My attention moved there. Priya noticed.
“Is your medical inspection complete?”
“Yes.” I did not remove my hand.
“Vesh? What are you doing?”
“I need to tell you something.”
Her expression changed and she sat up, tried to shove my hand away. I would not let her go. She drew the flight suit closed over my wrist but could not seal it. “You said that earlier.”
“I intended to wait to speak of such things until we were home.”
“But?”
“I have learned not to postpone important things during a war.”
She went very still. I had prepared several ways to confess my feelings. All of them sounded like mission reports or funeral declarations. The truth required fewer words. “I love you.”
Priya blinked. “What? Now? You tell me this now? Just like that?”
“Did you want a flowery speech?”
“No. Maybe. I don’t know.” She looked down at my hand on her ribs, then back at me. “Say it again.”
“I love you, Priya Anand.”
The bond flared hot between us.
“For how long?” she asked.
“I wanted you when you were just a voice in your training recordings.
I knew I was in trouble when you woke in my arms on the journey here and argued with me before you could stand.
I knew I loved when you were on my lap in the training sim.
I held on to my grief and hurt you. I'm sorry. I hope it's not too late.”
She pulled one knee up and wrapped both arms around it.
“I spent most of my life making sure nobody could leave me again.
My dad abandoned me. My mom was a mess. Gina and Alisha got through my defenses because they refused to take the hint.
Everyone else stayed at a safe distance.
My whole life I've been lonely on purpose instead of by accident.”
I understood that too well.
“Then you showed up,” she said. “You were real, and annoying, and standing in my tower like I belonged to you.”
“You do.”
“Wait your turn.”
“I have been waiting six days.”
“Tragic.” She put her hand over mine. “The point is, you scare the hell out of me. This bond between us scares me, too. Not because I think you’ll hurt me.
Because I don’t want to be alone anymore.
I don’t want the locked door, or the empty apartment, or the safe version of my life.
I want you. I want a life with you. All of it.
Even the war, and the terrible food, and Captain Asshole. ”
“Wroxxon.”
“That’s what I said.”
My mouth twitched. Priya squeezed my hand. “I love you, too.”
For one second, I could not breathe.
She studied my face. “You look surprised.”
“I am not.”
“Liar.”
“I hoped.”
“That’s not the same as knowing.”
“No.”
She moved closer to me, hip to hip. Her thigh pressed to mine. “I think I started falling for you when you were still the man in the game. Which is embarrassing, considering I chose your hair color and adjusted your ass.”
“You also adjusted my height.” A fact I would not soon forget. She'd made the simulated version of me several inches taller. "I am already much taller than you."
“I had options and it was fun to build my dream man from scratch.”
“Does the real version meet your requirements?”
Her gaze moved down my body slowly and she grinned. “Mostly.”
“Mostly?”
“There’s one part I haven’t inspected yet.”
My cock hardened. “That can be corrected. We are stranded here for several hours.”
“Now you want to get me naked?” She sounded shocked.
"Do you wish to wait until we return to base?"
"Hell, no." She wrapped her arms around my neck and pulled me closer. "Kiss me."
I caught the back of her neck and did as she asked.
There was no urgency this time. No enemy weapons firing at us.
No damaged core counting down. Only Priya opening beneath my mouth and pulling me closer.
I kissed her until her hands were inside my flight suit and my control was gone.
Then I lowered her on top of the blankets, careful of her injuries.
"Hurry up." She tugged at my flight suit.
“Your ribs,” I reminded her.
“Don't care if it hurts.” She lifted her hips off the floor in silent demand.