“I convinced him to go after the leviathan’s head with me. I had every intention of using that excuse to destroy him. I would have never left you and your family alone in such a situation otherwise,” he said angrily.
“What stopped you?”
“Netto’s in love with Rylie,” Zeph said, still keeping his eyes on the tablet. “Somewhere in the chaos I realized that and my diagnostics deemed him a threat no more. Will you leave me now? Your presence is taking up too much of my attention, and when my attention is elsewhere, fuckers like the EPED come out of the shadows.”
“You’re an ass, you know that? But guess what? I’m a stubborn bitch.” Janet moved around the gleaming console and stood directly before him, willing him to look at her. “It’s not my fault you nearly got caught and almost got us killed! I’m going to be the death of you, Zeph,” she threatened. “I’ll use everything in my power to be a consequence of your actions until the day you lie down and die.”
Zeph slowly, devastatingly, threateningly lifted his eyes to meet hers. Warning bells roared at her from every direction but she was frozen to the spot. Pure, predatory intent filled the space between them. An emptiness coursed through her veins, and that same hollowness was felt between her legs. This man was as much cursing her as she was cursing him.
“I’m sick,” he said through clenched teeth.
“So am I.”
“You can cure me.”
“Right. How?”
“Stay with me,” he pleaded, suddenly, almost disarming her. “Willingly.”
Janet gnashed her teeth and fisted her hands. “What would my life be like if I did?”
If curing him meant getting Lily home safely, then she’d do whatever it took. Even if it meant taking a couple bites right from the Croc’s heart.
Zeph leaned back and some of the darkness left his eyes. “You’d be my right hand, my partner. We’d travel the galaxies and disappear somewhere far away, where no one would know who we are. You would cure me with your presence. You’d be my distraction. That is what life would be like with me.”
Her brow came together, and disappointment filled her heart. She broke her gaze from his and looked around the quiet, cold bridge.I’ll never see my family again if I stay.She’d save Lily but if she chose Zeph, then she’d never be able to protect her again. Her family loved her, really loved her. They all disliked her way of life so much, yet forgave her again and again. Only real love was like that. And her payment in return for that love and forgiveness was to insert herself into every situation and weasel her way into competitors’ lives, to learn those secrets, and change things from the background. Her looks gave her that power.
I’d never have to do it again.
One final sacrifice to help out the only way she could. Tears filled her eyes and she blinked them back, turning her head away from Zeph so he couldn’t see. The gravity of her situation hit home.Home. Could I really live on a ship, with a brooding Cyborg for the rest of my life?
Zeph wasn’t asking her to be a submissive housewife like every eligible bachelor on Kepler. She was a homebody, she hated leaving her parents’ settlement for any reason. She hated all of them for trying to make her leave, and now here she was—billions of miles away from it—and she hadn’t thought about its comfort once.
“And in exchange?” she asked, forcing her tears back and keeping her tone neutral.
“Anything you want.” His fingertips bit into the armrests.
“Except what I really actually want,” she said.
“Except that.”
“Are we actually making a deal?”Can I actually do it?
His eyes roamed over her face several times and she fought the urge to hide it from him.
“I have no need to make a deal with you,” he said, “but if it helps convince you of what you actually want but won’t admit, then sure, it’s a fucking deal.”
Despite the indignation, his words caused deep within her, she kept the retort locked in her throat.
“Well?” He leaned back. “Do you accept, or are you one of those humans who have to give themselves time to think over every unimportant possibility and outcome even though you already know you’ll say yes?”
“Screw you,” Janet snapped, trying and almost failing to compose herself. “You promise you’ll take Lily home? That you won’t give her over to that—that guy with the cruel eyes and gun tattoos? That you’ll protect and be good to her until she is safely back on Montihan grounds? Safety. I need to know she has it.”
He sighed. “Of course. I want no harm to come to your sister and I would never give her to Gunner. If that asshole was on fire I wouldn’t even piss on him to put it out.”
“It’s a promise?”
“It’s a promise.” His eyes gleamed. “I never wanted Lily here. I only ever wanted you.”
