"There is one option you haven't mentioned. Lorian told me the IGC has quietly offered memory erasure and repatriation to Earth."
"No." The word comes out hard enough to echo in my office andto make her step back. "Absolutely not."
"It would solve?—"
"It would solve nothing!” I begin to lose my composure. “You think I'd let the Imperials who guard Earth hollow out your mind? Send you back to waste away in poverty? Or worse, seeing you working at Terra Sanctum and you not know me? No, I will not. You belong here with us, living to your full potential with your memory intact, and your personality unchanged. I will not discuss this again."
Something softens in her expression. "Alright."
"Alright?"
"I didn't want it either," she admits. "I just needed to hear you say it."
I pull her close, this woman who is going to be the death of me and my brother. "You're never going back to Earth. When this sentence ends, you'll sign whatever contracts I put in front of you. Employment, partnership, or whatever I need to get you to sign to stay. But you're not leaving ever.”
"That's not your choice to make."
"Watch me make it, anyway. You’re mine. But I don’t want you like a pet. I want you to choose to be mine."
She looks up at me and smiles. “You’re such a hypocrite. You want me to be yours no matter what, but at the same time you want me to choose to be with you. You can’t have it both ways, Rafe.”
“I think your human language is missing some important semantics, but it doesn’t matter; you know what I mean.”
“I know what you mean,” she says as her hands move to my shirt, unbuttoning it with careful precision. When she pushes it off my shoulders, she makes a small sound of distress. "You and Lorian have to stop with the sparring?—”
"It’s the only thing that really takes the edge off. For both of us."
"You're destroying yourselves." Her fingers find the tension knots in my shoulders, pressing gently. "Sit. Let me..."
I sink onto the chair, and she stands behind me, working on my rigid shoulder muscles. "My Eve, always trying to save everyone, even me, your captor."
"Someone has to.”
After a few minutes, I realize I don’t want to spend my last day with Eve in my office. "Come on," I say, taking her leash. "Not here."
I lead her through the Spire's executive passages to the Thermal Nebula Chamber, a restricted amenity reserved for the highest tier of management. The door recognizes my biometric signature and slides open to reveal a space that looks like a piece of captured cosmos.
The chamber mimics the conditions inside stellar nurseries, but the toxic gases have been replaced by aphrodisiacs. Clouds of heated vapor swirl in multiple colors, infused with minerals from a dozen worlds that make guests’ skin tingle and heightening sensations. And gravity is reduced to one-third standard, making every movement feel like floating.
"What is this place?" Eve asks.
"It’s a replica of where stars are born," I say, disconnecting her leash. "And where I want to spend our last night."
I slowly take off what little clothing she has on. Her body hair catches the light, making her look wild and primitive. And perfect. The piercings through her nipples gleam like captured stars and serve as proof of ownership.
I hate that a primal part of me loves seeing her body this way.
"You're staring."
"I'm memorizing." I trace the dip of her waist. "Three weeks is a long time."
"For you or for me?"
"Both. All of us. I don’t trust you and Lorian together. But I have to. Because there’s no one else I trust in the galaxy.”
I lay her on the moss like she's something precious, following her down. When I kiss her, it's with none of the desperate hunger of recent weeks. This is slower and deeper.It’s for our memories.
“Don’t worry about us. We will be fine,” she reassures me. “We’re surrounded by people here.”
