“But I’vebehavedtoday?”
“So far.”
His hand hadn’t moved. His rough fingers laid over my skin that remembered him all too well, the touch of him from last night, and how much more I wanted. But he proved what I said before — that he always ruined the mood.
“Have you talked to her?”
I knew who he meant but replied anyway, “Lilea? Yeah, we’re fine. She gave me a hug and everything. Makes me sick thinking about it.”
“Not her. Have you talked to your sister?”
He was supposed to take the bait. Of course he wouldn’t. He pushed, and I didn’t understand why. What was the point other than to mess with me?
I shoved his hand off. “That isn’t any of your business.”
“Says the man who loves listening in on people’s late-night conversations,” he half grumbled.
I shoved the water canteen against his chest. “Maybe you’re too fucking loud. It’s not my fault I heard you last night, too.”
“Why do you immediately get defensive?”
“Why did you come over here to piss me off?”
“I came over to have a conversation with you.”
I pretended to gag, causing Roys to take a vexed breath. There was nothing to discuss, certainly not with him. He was trying to counsel me, playing the good captain to his little soldier. I hated the feeling of being his duty, another responsibility he played the part for. I wasn’t fucking interested.
“If you haven’t realized it yet, I like your mouth during adult playtime only; otherwise, let’s keep theconversationsto a minimum,” I growled.
“Would it kill you not to be a prick for five minutes?”
“It might. I’ve never actually tried.” And to prove it, I tugged on the arm guards he wore. “Why don’t you take those off, Captain? Got something to hide?”
He looked genuinely taken aback when he should have expected this. “Every time I dare to think you might not be insufferable, you go around and prove otherwise.”
“I told you, you think too highly of me.”
“I guess so.”
Bile rose in my throat. I stepped away from him, barely resisting the urge to hug myself, to create a shield between me and his disappointment. Roys opened his mouth to say more, but didn’t. He left, a hand running through his hair before fisting against his hips. He went into the habitat; the place meant to be a shelter that became my cell.
Roys was in there. Maddy was in there. I didn’t want to see either of them, to hear them or face them, and all the turmoil they wrought, so I walked out of the energy shield to stand beneath the flora. My commlink buzzed. An order from Roys to get inside, simple and to the point, as a captain’s orders should be.
That’s what we were — captain and subordinate. Fuck buddies. He didn’t care. I didn’t… want his care. He shouldn’t be sending another message threatening to give me chore duty for a week if I didn’t get inside immediately. The message conjured an image of him pacing in the habitat, worrying over me. A stupid thought, pointless and untrue.
I didn’t want to follow his orders, didn’t want to be there, around them, around anyone, so I took off the commlink, left it there, and kept walking.
022
ThePlanethadanindescribable comfort. Being within the flora, deadly or not, felt more like home than any home had. A bug as long as my hand and as thin as my finger landed on a petal. Four wings shaped like curved blades protruded from its back. When two tentacles from within the flora snapped at it, those wings unfurled into a glorious bloom. A type of pollen burst forth, confusing the flora enough to retract.
“Smart little guy, aren’t you,” I whispered, and the bug released a long tongue into the flora to drink the nectar and then flew off.
Must have been nice to disguise oneself and escape.
Lying back, I admired the sky through the break in the canopy. My eyes weighed heavily from an exhaustion that seeped into my mind rather than my bones. I must have fallen asleep because the next thing I knew, I woke up on my aching side. As much as I loved being outside, I wouldn’t recommend sleeping in the dirt.
I stretched, then stiffened at a rustling noise. That must have been what woke me because there was more and more, getting closer. I stood and went for the blaster in my holster, the one weapon I had that wouldn’t do any damn good against flora. My fault for wandering offwithout a flamethrower, the same as Lilea had, and I yelled at her for it. She’d get a laugh out of this.
