Chapter 31
I’d woken up with Lark curled up next to me before, but everything felt different the morning after.
Practically overnight, it felt as though everything had shifted between us. It was simultaneously exhilarating and terrifying. I had everything I could ever want lying in my arms, but that also meant that if she changed her mind, it could be gone in an instant.
I looked down at Lark to find her big blue eyes staring back up at me, her brow furrowed, clearly sensing my discord.
“What’s wrong?” She reached her hand up to run her thumb over my bottom lip, her voice husky from sleep. I willed my dick to soften. How was it that everything this woman did was a turn-on?
“Just overthinking things, like usual.” I gave a mirthless chuckle.
“I can fix that.” Lark’s smile was nothing short of beguiling as she threw a leg over mine and leaned up to kiss me.
Her distraction worked like a charm as I became lost in her almost immediately, loving the way her skin felt against mine, so soft and warm.
I’d confessed my feelings for her the night before without expectation, but when she returned the sentiments, my heart had never soared higher.
She didn’t know that I’d never been in love before, or said those words to anyone that I could remember. I’d tell her someday, but for now, it was a secret piece of us that I carried with me, knowing she was the only woman to ever hold my heart.
“What have you done to me, Trouble?” I murmured against her lips, caressing my hand along her bare hip, tugging her closer to me. I couldn’t ever get close enough.
“Nothing you haven’t done to me,” she laughed, teasing me with a few nips before settling on her back.
A comfortable silence enveloped us as we lay together for a moment.
Lark turned to me, her gaze fixed on mine. “I see you, you know?”
I turned on my side to face her, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. “What’s that supposed to mean?” Curiosity got the better of me.
She turned on her side, scooting closer so there was no longer room between us. Lark splayed her palm flat in the middle of my chest, her eyes flicking up to mine. “You know what it means.”
Her gaze was so intense, it was difficult to keep eye contact with her, but I found I couldn’t have looked away even if I tried. “Tell me,” I whispered, tugging her closer.
“I see you,” she repeated. “I see who you are, who you were, who you’ll become.” A smile began to form on her lips, her eyes still boring into mine. “I see it, and I still want you. All of you. I want you because of it.”
I found myself at a loss for words.
In a few short weeks, this infuriating but brilliant woman had turned my life upside down.
But in that time, she had managed to see past every barrier I had erected around myself…
every bit of protection I used to keep others at arm’s length—to keep them from seeing how truly vulnerable I was, how desperate I was to feel something—to fit in and belong.
And this woman saw through all of it and wanted me anyway.
My chest tightened at the thought of how seen I felt in that moment.
I crushed her to me, unable to form words to express the impact of her sentiment.
“I love you too.” She laughed against me, understanding without words. “You know this means you’re stuck with me.”
“I wouldn’t have it any other way.” I placed a gentle kiss on her forehead, earning a soft sigh from her lips.
It took us a while and another couple exploratory sessions before we were able to leave our cozy little bubble inside the impromptu bed fort we’d constructed.
I made a mental note to inquire about the cost of expanding the shower in the captain’s quarters to be large enough to fit two people.
My fingers itched, watching Lark shower, after being invited to do so again.
I wanted to keep touching her, I wanted to help her wash her hair, and maybe fuck her against the shower paneling, warmed by the water overhead.
“How long do you think it’ll take them to find Simon?” she asked, her fingers applying a cleanser to her face.
“They already did.” I turned my comm to show her. I wasn’t sure if she could see the headline, declaring the Phoenix to have been caught, through the steam, but I was surprised to see her expression fall at the news.
“Simon? The Phoenix?” She scrunched her face. “It feels too easy.” She shook her head in disbelief. “We’re missing something.”
“He was definitely involved in your abduction.” I folded my arms, trying to covertly adjust my hard-on, knowing we needed to get back to the real world, which meant more sex would have to wait.
“Sure.” She flicked her hand in agreement. “But I know Simon. He’s not smart enough to be the Phoenix. He had too much on the line and is a narcissist. There’s no way he would be able to stand running such a vast underground criminal network from the shadows. He’d need to take credit.”
I scrolled through the article on my comm. “He’s definitely claiming complete innocence and diplomatic immunity on any potential charges,” I told her.
“Exactly. Not to mention, when would he have had the chance to do all of this while he was busy kissing ass to get a leg up in his career and running around and cheating on me with dozens of women for the entirety of our relationship?”
I glanced up at her, an eyebrow raised.
Lark shrugged. “I was lonely and bored, okay?”
I stifled a laugh.
“He’s not a mastermind, Vaughn. Plain and simple. They’ve got the wrong guy, which means we’re back at square one.”
“If he’s found guilty, we’ll still get the bounty.” I leaned back against the counter. “We could try to find the real culprit and not have to worry about Starlane protocol while we do it.”
“Is the encrypted code still running through the ship?”
I opened the program I was using to pull the code, and frowned. “Yeah, it is.” Lark was right. “Whoever’s sending out the encrypted communications has to be on the ship. I’ve got too many fail-safes built in for them to be able to do it remotely.”
Lark shook her head, annoyed that we were so close, yet so far.
“What do you want to do, Trouble?”
“The code is the best clue we have. I’ll keep going through it, looking for patterns and seeing if I can figure out the cipher.
” She turned off the water, and I held up the towel for her to step into, wrapping my arms and the towel around her simultaneously.
“I have access to the files from my brother’s last comm.
I might be able to find an old version of one of his decryption programs, which could help. ”
“If anyone can crack it, it’s you.” I kissed her shoulder.
She relaxed in my hold, nodding her head in hopeful agreement.