“I am an extraordinary drone operator,” T interrupted smugly.
Janwar ignored him. “If Kova gets into trouble, the drones will attack the ship and hopefully create enough of a diversion for him to get his ass—and that of anyone he finds—out of there safely.”
The big bay door began to close, blocking out the stars.
Some of the tension melted from Srok’a’s form as he thrust out a hand. “Thank you.”
Janwar clasped his forearm and drew him in for a rough hug. “No thanks necessary, brother. We look out for our own.” Smiling, he stepped back. “And if we can’t handle whatever we find at the Gathendien facility with Simone the Dotharian Conqueror, ten androids, and the rest of the drones at our backs, then I doubt the backup I sent with Kova would’ve made a difference.”
“Ooh, I like that,” Simone said with a grin. “Not the whole we’d die even if we did have the missing backup thing, but the Simone the Dotharian Conqueror.” She said the latter in a dramatic, artificially deep voice, then returned to her own. “I’m going to have to see if the clothing replicator can make me a T-shirt with that printed on it.”
The others laughed as they headed for the door.
Janwar did, too. Vuan, he loved her.
His eyes widened. Wait. He loved her?
“What’s wrong?” Simone asked.
He didn’t realize until then that he’d stopped walking.
The others filed out and left them alone, their minds already on tomorrow’s mission.
Janwar considered it.
He had never been in love before. He hadn’t had the time, really, or the opportunity. The life he’d led wasn’t exactly conducive to courting women and forming long-term relationships. He didn’t even have a favorite pleasure worker he liked to visit again and again when they docked at ports and stations.
The last time he’d had anything close to a relationship was back when his parents were still alive and he couldn’t grow much of a beard. He’d been physically attracted to the Akseli female more than anything else. Neska had been breathtakingly beautiful, and he’d been young enough to like that she’d chosen him over all the other boys. She’d been his first and only lover before life had started kicking his ass. And she’d turned her back on him as soon as the smear campaign designed to cover up the government’s role in his parents’ murders had begun, even though she knew it was all lies.
“Janwar?” Simone asked softly. Her pretty features full of concern, she rested a hand on his chest and peered up at him.
He covered her hand with his, holding it close to his racing heart.
For years, he’d thought what he felt for Neska was typical of most relationships. Maybe even typical of lifemates. But the time he’d spent with Taelon and Lisa, watching their interactions, had made him question that and remember the close bond his parents had shared.
He stared down at the fascinating Earth woman who had come into his life.
How wrong he had been. There was so much more to what he felt for Simone than mere lust and physical attraction. She was his friend. As much his friend as Krigara, and his cousin knew him better than anyone.
Yet Janwar craved her company more. Simone made him laugh, challenged him, and was so vuan fun to be with, even during the quiet moments. The pensive moments when she worried about survivors of the Kandovar. The moments of sadness she sometimes slipped into when she thought of the friends and the family she’d left behind on Earth. The everyday moments when the two of them shared a meal, jogged, and sparred together. Or when she combed his hair after a shower and rebraided it, carefully adding the beads in the exact pattern he always did.
Every moment with her felt different.
She brought him happiness, comfort, and contentment.
She brought him peace.
And he hadn’t felt that in many years.
Janwar could never seem to get enough time with her. And her touch…
He craved that, too, and found more pleasure in her arms than he’d ever believed possible. He’d had no idea how great a difference having a close emotional bond with a female would make, how much that would magnify the ecstasy they found in each other’s arms, and was still dazed by the discovery.
He even loved the tranquil moments afterward. The cuddling, as she called it. He’d never desired that before, always eager to leave once his need had been sated. But with Simone…
With Simone, he wanted it all. Everything he’d thought he could never have.
Her eyes began to glow as the silence stretched.
“Do you feel that?” Janwar asked, his voice barely above a whisper. She was an empath, after all. And he didn’t attempt to hide his feelings from her.
“Yes,” she whispered back, her luminous gaze mesmerizing.
“I’m falling in love with you.” His heart still pounded over the admission as he awaited her response.
Her lips parted. Her pupils dilated as the amber glow of her irises brightened. The hand on his chest fisted around the fabric of his shirt. “I’ve already fallen in love with you,” she confessed.
Janwar caught his breath.
It felt almost as if those softly spoken words shattered him into a thousand pieces, then swiftly reassembled him, putting him back together in a way that made him stronger than he had been before. That made him more than he’d been before. That—for the first time since his parents’ murders—made him feel whole. And changed him forever.
Bending, he wrapped his arms around her waist and lifted her so high that he had to tilt his head back to look up at her. Simone loved him. Janwar’s pulse pounded in his ears as he crushed her against him and rested the side of his face against her chest above her lovely breasts, his ear close enough to her heart to detect its rapid beat.
Simone slid her arms around him and tunneled her fingers through his hair. Her feet dangling somewhere in the vicinity of his knees, she rested her cheek atop his head and held him close.
“Are you afraid?” he asked softly.
A moment passed before she responded. “I’m afraid you or the others will be wounded tomorrow,” she said quietly. “I’m afraid we won’t find any of my friends on that base and that it will all be for naught. I’m afraid some of my friends may never be located—that they’re either dead or lost to us in a place we’ll never discover. I’m afraid the Lasarans will be pissed when I tell them I no longer want to live on Lasara. But loving you? The way you make me feel?” Her cheek moved against his braids as she shook her head. “I don’t fear that at all.”
He squeezed her tighter.
“Are you afraid?” she asked.
He snorted. “I’m scared shitless.”
She laughed. “Another Earth phrase I see you’ve learned.”
Tilting his head back, he smiled up at her. “I’ve never felt like this before, Simone. And I’m afraid one day it will end, that you’ll leave for Lasara, and I’ll never see you again. But fear has never stopped me from pursuing what I want. And I want you. I want every minute I can have with you, even if we’re just sitting next to each other on the bridge, holding hands.”
Her eyes flashed brighter. Then she fisted his hair, dipped her chin, and took his lips a scorching kiss. Parting her lips, she invited him inside.