“Look,” he said, putting a hand on her shoulder. “I get that you’re scared. I am too. This thing between us is intense. But I’m not going to let you go, now that I’ve found you.”
“You don’t have a choice,” she said, pushing his hand off of her. “The mission is over. And this…thing…as you call it, it’s over too.”
She pushed past him, striding up the corridor, leaving him feeling as if she’d ripped his heart out of his chest and taken it with her.
Go ahead.I have no use for a heart now.
The landing on Zanthar went smoothly, even if it did take an hour for the protocols to be followed. He was subjected to yet another test of his humanity and he barely stopped himself from stumbling to the ground under the force of the bioelectric blast.
He made his way off the ship and to the briefing room, not bothering to notice if she was near him or not.
Jeffrey was in a daze, going through the motions, unable to make the world feel like anything more than a gray haze of hopelessness. She had rejected him. And now she sat across the table in the briefing room, talking as if nothing had happened between them. As if she hadn’t stolen his heart then thrown it in the trash.
The regent commended them for their valiant capture of yet another Hareema, and then allowed his brother, the Minister of Defense, to detail his plan for determining the extent of the Hareema forces on Earth. The plan hinged on his returning with the human crew to Earth aboard their vessel.
“Well the engine is shot,” Jeffrey stated. “TheEarhartwon’t make it back to Earth without major repairs.”
“Then get to it,” the minister replied.
The next day, after a night of tossing and turning at the memory of a pair of seductive dark eyes, Jeffrey found himself back in the engine room of theEarhart.
He forced himself not to replay the scene in his mind again, but he can’t help picturing Kat’s unconscious body at the mercy of the Hareema. He was standing there, staring down at the empty catwalk, when Captain Brooklyn walked up behind him.
“Not sure where to start, huh?” she said, giving him a smile. “How about a level one diagnostic?”
They worked over the panels, trying to isolate the problem. Jeffrey worked in silence, making the repairs while his captain called out the malfunctioning areas.
“Well, I must say, this is the first time I’ve seen you not live up to your name, Lieutenant Cheerful,” Captain Brooklyn said after a couple hours of work. “Want to tell me what’s eating you?”
Jeffrey sighed. “I just want to get home, Captain.”
“That’s not what I would have expected from you,” she replied. “You’ve never been homesick before. Are you sure this doesn’t have something to do with that attractive lieutenant you were paired with on your mission?”
He looked at her and realized that she already knew. “How could you tell?”
“Well, I knew something was up when I first made it to Zanthar. The way you two were looking at each other, I figured it had to be love or hate. And I don’t think hate would make you look like a broke-dick dog, pardon the expression.”
Jeffrey gave a small laugh that faded away fairly quickly. “You’re right. It’s definitely not hatred. At least on my end.”
“What happened?”
He launched into his tale, not bothering to hide their intimacy. “I just don’t understand it. We have a chemistry like you wouldn’t believe. But it’s like she’s a different person afterwards.”
“Maybe she’s not sure how to handle all of this. It seems like she’s the type who keeps a tight rein on her emotions. You could be rattling her, too much, too fast, you know?”
“Maybe. Or maybe she was just trying an alien on for size. She pretty much said she was slumming it with a barbaric human.”
Brook frowned. “Hmm. I think I have to give her more credit than that. I don’t think Major Ontarii would have a brutal bitch as his second in command. My guess is, you’ve gotten too close and she’s scared. She probably said that to hurt you, to drive you away so she can build back up her defenses.”
Jeffrey let out a heavy breath. “I wish you were right. But at the moment, I don’t think she’s afraid of me. In fact, I bet she isn’t even thinking about me at all.”
