Before I even knew I was doing it, I smiled back. The heat in his honey-brown eyes made my belly flip.
I shivered when his fingertips skated over my collarbone. “How’s your leg?” I asked.
“Hurts like a bitch,” he answered. “And you pulling on it didn’t help.”
My eyebrows shot up. “Should I have dropped you?”
“Maybe,” he said a little wryly. “I’m not sure I’d have blamed you.”
The warmth I’d been feeling turned into something hot and unpleasant. “Why didn’t you tell me the truth?”
Shade took a moment to answer. “Because my head really wanted two hundred million in universal currency, even if the rest of me didn’t agree.”
Something twisted in my chest. Painfully. “When did you decide?” Or even…had he?
He leaned forward and very slowly, very carefully, gently kissed my lips. “I would never have slept with you and then turned you in.”
I didn’t kiss him back. I couldn’t yet. “I’m not ready to forgive you.”
“I know.” His eyes were steady on mine, his expression open. “Just give me a chance to earn back your trust. Please.”
Bringing Bonk to me was certainly a start.
“You were protecting me on the dock, weren’t you? On the Squirrel Tree? You were keeping that bounty hunter from shooting me.” I hadn’t been able to see it then, hadn’t wanted to. The scene looked different to me now.
His open expression hardened into something angry and dark. “He got you, though. I’m sorry I didn’t do better.”
“He didn’t get me until I ran.”
“He shouldn’t have gotten you at all.”
“And I shouldn’t have left you there.” Not when I’d seen Shade reeling from the tranquilizer that woman had fired off.
He shrugged. “You didn’t do anything wrong.”
Not sure I agreed with that, I turned and led the way toward the shipping docks. “We’ve rested long enough. Come on,” I said over my shoulder. “Before you bleed to death.”
“It’s not as bad as all that.” Shade still groaned when he got up onto all fours and started moving. He’d already been going more slowly before falling over the Rose Drop, and his lips had seemed cool when they’d touched mine a moment ago. I hoped the pause had done him good, but we needed to keep moving.
“You want me to take Bonk?” I asked, glancing back at him.
He shook his head. “I’m fine.”
Right. That was why he’d just flinched.
Instead of continuing all the way down to the docks in the ventilation shafts, I got us out at the next possible exit and helped Shade limp toward the cargo lifts. We had no reason to hide anymore. Bridgebane was gone—assuming he was sticking to our deal, which I believed he would. He was an asshole, but he was an asshole who kept his word.
“Hard to believe, but crawling was easier,” Shade muttered under his breath.
“Almost there.” I gave his abdomen a reassuring pat, keeping my other arm around his waist. “If you want, you can still crawl.”
He gave me a look that spoke volumes—volumes ofno thanks.
Even though there was a railing inside the elevator, Shade kept me against his side and his arm across my shoulders in the lift. We exited at the cargo docks.
Across the platform, theEndeavorwaited with her door open for us. The Dark beckoned beyond, a transparent plasma shield keeping the area pressurized.
“Is Jax going to beat me up?” Shade asked.
