Epilogue
We’re coming up to Mars, and the planet glows red in the distance. It still makes me feel uneasy, but that’s why I have a therapy session scheduled after we dock. Besides, staying with my family for a few weeks is the least of my worries right now.
Vee chooses that moment to come stomping onto the bridge, his huge feet ringing off the deck.
He hit puberty like a freight train, and his limbs, though lanky, bear the tightness of a teen beginning to gain definition.
He joins me in the gym most days and competes with my deadlift numbers well for a kid who sits on his ass all day.
In five years, he’s managed to shoot up so much that he towers over me, and I’ve been told his scowl now rivals mine.
“Tani, tell her!” he shouts, gesturing behind him.
His green eyes snap, all the brighter for the glasses he now wears. Staring at screens has taken a toll on his eyesight. His long curls fly over his shoulders when he tosses his head in irritation. It’s like watching a puppy bark, but I learned the hard way not to say that.
Marlowe appears, looking equally as pissed. I suppress a sigh. It’s been nonstop arguments ever since they boarded the Kyena. Vee’s still quite sweet but since breaking up with his boyfriend, he’s been short tempered and snarky.
“I don’t care how old you are, you’re not coming back alone.”
“What’s the problem?” I ask.
“James is allowed to stay for four weeks, not two. His parents trust him enough to come back without them.”
I look to Marlowe, who stares pointedly back at me, as she jumps in. “James’ father didn’t abduct him.”
“Cursed stars!” Vee throws his hands up. “You’re the one who said if we went to see the baby, it meant we were moving past that.”
“That was before I knew you wanted me to leave you alone with Dominik for two weeks!”
After maintaining no contact with Dominik, Marlowe had finally allowed him to reach out with news.
He’d had a baby with his partner, Jaq, and they wanted to know if reconciliation was possible.
Vee was over the moon about having a sibling and they’d agreed, all those years ago, that if he ever wanted to speak to Dominik again, it was his choice.
So, when he said he wanted to visit his half-sister, Marlowe couldn’t refuse.
“Can you get the extra time off?” I ask, taking hold of her hand.
“No. Not this last minute.”
“I don’t need you to babysit me. Dad’s not going to try and kidnap me again.” Vee rolls his eyes. “He has a new family, and James will be there!”
Marlowe goes to answer, and she’s furious, and I know it’ll only make things worse. Ever since she found out about the baby, she’s been more irritable when Dominik comes up. I pull her away before she can speak, knowing she’ll only regret shouting at Vee later.
“Tee!” She protests.
“We’ll finish this discussion later,” I say over my shoulder, continuing to tow Marlowe behind me.
Vee makes a noise of disgust and flings himself into my captain’s chair, pulling his console out. That’ll keep him occupied for a while, and hopefully the air will be settled enough that we can have a conversation like people who actually love each other.
“You undermined me in there,” Marlowe cries when I shut our cabin door behind us.
I turn to her, cup her heated face, and wait. Her jaw relaxes first, then her forehead, followed by her body. She closes her eyes and presses her hands over mine. “Fuck. I messed up,” she whispers.
“No, you got overwhelmed. What’s this about? You’re really worried that Vee’s not safe with Dominik?”
Marlowe throws herself into me, resting her forehead against my chest. She smells like pomegranates, and her wild curls ambush me, but I hold her tight and press my face into them.
Though Dominik made an effort to do better, I know she still carries trauma from everything that happened.
She feels he only had this child as a way to lure his family back.
If so, it worked; his brother talks to him now and will also be staying at the compound over the summer.
Vee’s dying to meet the baby, and though we’ll be staying with my family, Marlowe will have to show her face.
She suspects he’s up to something, and I know she still thinks about how easily Dominik dropped everything that day.
“What if Vee wants to stay for good?” she mumbles.
That surprises me, and there’s a beat while I gather my thoughts. “He won’t. He’s excited to have a little sister and spend time with his cousin in a city he barely got to see last time.”
“What if he does?”
“Remember when you had that conversation with him, and you told him that you weren’t going to—”
She interrupts me. “Don’t bring that up!”
“And you told him that you weren’t going to make decisions about his life without consulting him anymore?”
Marlowe pulls away just enough so I can see her glaring at me. “That has nothing to do with this.”
“Remember?”
“He’s 15! I’m not going to let him—”
“Valeja, that’s not what I’m saying. You agreed to consult him going forward, but you also agreed to hear him out when he came to you wanting something. You agreed to be fair.”
“I don’t have to be fair, I’m his mother,” she grumbles.
But Marlowe casts me a look that tells me she’s joking—parroting something her parents used to say, I imagine. I wait her out, having learned how to accommodate Marlowe’s process, even when she’s spitting mad.
“What am I supposed to do? We can’t take more time off work. Dominik wouldn’t keep an eye on them even if he didn’t have a baby to think about. What if Vee does something stupid and we’re on completely different planets?”
Though Marlowe’s technically my partner at Sekmith Rose Cargo, it’s only in name.
After finally doing her tattoo apprenticeship, she now works in a parlour near the spaceport, honing her craft every day, nearby for when I dock.
She doesn’t always have up-to-date information on the business, and I’d been counting on that.
I sigh. I was hoping to keep this a surprise for a little longer, hoping to give her the good news in a more romantic setting. I’d made plans. But I should have known that with Marlowe, nothing ever goes to plan.
“I can stay behind and bring him home.”
She dismisses me with a wave of her hand, already falling back into her rapid thoughts. “I can’t ask you to do that. You’ve told me how stretched you are lately. I’ll just have to—”
“Valeja.”
“What?” she says distractedly.
“I can stay behind,” I repeat with emphasis.
She meets my gaze, eyes narrowed. Against my body, I can feel her heart pounding from all the excitement. She looks beautiful, skin flushed and full lips parted. Even after all this time, I can’t believe I’m hers.
“Are… what?”
“I stepped down.”
Marlowe freezes, only her gaze flitting around the room as she processes my words. “Wait...” Her grip on my arms tightens almost painfully. “You’re coming home for good?”
She’s already crying, so I don’t think she needs the confirmation.
But I nod anyway, and deal with the consequent screaming as she leaps into my arms, wrapping her legs around my waist. She drags my head down and kisses me, pressing her warmth and her scent into me.
She smells like home and tastes like sugar.
I slip my hands into her curls, knowing later she’ll tell me off for tangling the strands she takes such pains to separate, but I want to twine myself around every cell of this woman.
I drink her in, the saltiness of her tears binding us.
Business has been good. The hangar we lease for an extortionate price currently stands empty—with my two other ships already in flight—but by the end of the week, there will be two new additions waiting for me to return.
Once I do, Beau will graduate from Captain of the Homebound to Captain of the Kyena, and if Liz wants to take over from Beau, we’ll hire someone for her ship, the Retribution.
Khrys will probably stay behind; Max uses the Retribution for his acquisition trips and they never get enough time together.
Marlowe pulls away and swipes at her damp cheeks. “What about school? Vee’s going to miss the start of the new year.”
This doesn’t even require a response; Vee’s always been ahead in school, and the only reason he’s not in private education is because he doesn’t want to use Dominik’s allowance to pay for it.
He has a game in the works, and that money’s allocated to developing it.
Marlowe knows we don’t have to worry about him missing two weeks, especially when the first one is always introductory.
She follows up quickly. “Are you going to be okay staying with your family when I’m gone? Vee’s not going to be around much.”
My stomach drops a little, but I ignore it. “I’ll be fine. If it gets to be too much, I can always visit Dev and Jules for a distraction. But I’m hoping it won’t come to that; my therapist thinks I can handle it.”
Marlowe bites on her bottom lip, and I try not to focus on how glossy it looks between her teeth. She quirks an eyebrow. “You know I love it when you talk therapy.”
That makes me laugh and I carry her to the bed, pulling her into my lap as I sit.
“Yeah?” I whisper, then lick a hot stripe up her neck, sinking my teeth into her earlobe.
She digs her nails into my shoulders, arching her back and pressing her curves against me. “You’re such a cheater,” she gasps. “You get me mad and then do this shit, knowing I can’t—”
She trails off into a moan when I yank her t-shirt up and catch a nipple between my teeth.
She’s right, and it’s only a matter of time before she wrests control back, so I plan to take advantage of this moment.
With Marlowe clutching at my head, I roll her other nipple between my fingers, sucking hard, until she’s lifting her hips against me desperately.
When she’s panting, I trail my tongue down the constellation tattoo that now graces the space between her breasts and undo the button on her jeans.
“Tee.” She shakes her head. “We should talk to Vee first. I don’t want him out there getting more and more wound up.”
“We will,” I promise, slipping a hand between her thighs. “I’m just taking the edge off. You’re pretty wound up, yourself, valeja.”
She groans when I sink two fingers into her, gathering wetness to stroke across her clit.
“Oh, fuck.” Her head falls forward onto my shoulder, and with shaking hands she loosens my bun to let my hair fall down my back—it’s like clockwork with her.
I wait until she sifts her hands through the roots before I surge into her, holding her in place with an arm around her waist. Marlowe’s moan drips down my spine, and it sends heat roaring through my body, licking at my veins like the most disastrous bonfire.
“Baby,” she murmurs, right as she starts to ride my fingers.
“Yes?”
“I hope you packed the strap.”
I grin, though she can’t see it. “I thought you didn’t want to get caught up?”
“Oh,” she gasps, open mouthed against the sensitive skin of my neck. “Not for me. You’re mine tonight.”
Even knowing what I’m in for, I make Marlowe come for me twice, tugging her head back by her hair and staring right into her eyes as she does. I’ve never known a femme who scares me as much as she does, and the things she does to me in bed should be illegal, but I enjoy riling her up.
She flops against me, sweaty and breathless, and I kiss her damp temple, wrapping her up in my arms. “I suppose I have to go and compromise,” she grumbles into my neck.
“Unfortunately, so.”
“You’d better not let our son get abducted again, Captain.”
She gazes up at me with so much love that I lose the ability to breathe for a moment. My heart slowly turns over on itself. Every time Marlowe refers to Vee as ours, it feels like I’m dreaming—except I know I’m not, because I could never have imagined anything as perfect as this.
They’re mine, just as I’m theirs. I still don’t know if I’m worthy of happiness, but I’ve got it, whether I deserve it or not.
I smile against her lips. “I’d rather die.”
“Well, don’t do that.”
We fall back onto the bed, laughing, and take a few moments together before we go out and wrangle a pissed off teenager.