She nodded. “You’re from a world I never knew existed. I’ve never seen or known anyone like you.”
He moved toward where she sat. Slowly. Hesitantly. Not wanting her to fear him. “You shouldn’t judge a being by his appearance.”
Standing boldly in his personal orbit, Polly met his gaze with a fierce intensity. “And you shouldn’t only value credits. That’s a lonely existence.”
“You’re not wrong,” Erzo admitted, his words surrendering to the gravity of their closeness.
“So why are you here?” Polly asked, her voice an irresistible blend of vulnerability and strength.
He felt the walls he built around himself begin to crumble.
“I need a mate,” Erzo confessed, his eyes never leaving hers.
Her chuckle was a soft echo in the charged atmosphere. “Don’t we all?”
He leaned in, drawn to her like a comet to a star. “I like to think there’s a partner for everyone.”
Polly’s breath was a warm whisper against his skin. “We have a similar belief in my world. Soul mates.”
“Soul mates?” The concept was foreign, yet it resonated within him.
She nodded, her breath catching. “It means we were meant to be together, that our souls gravitate to one another. Some believe we know each other in past lives and found our way back in this one.”
Their eyes locked, a universe of possibilities reflected in their depths.
“Romantic idea,” Erzo whispered.
Polly moved imperceptibly closer, her presence a magnetic field pulling him in. “Do you have similar concepts?”
“Not on Charrovik,” Erzo replied, his voice barely more than a breath. “We see things in a more practical sense.”
“Like money,” Polly challenged.
He nodded, their faces so close he could count the stars reflected in her eyes.
“Cold way to live,” she whispered.
They stood close enough for their shadows to mingle, creating a dance of dark and light that seemed to freeze time. Two beings from different worlds, suspended in a moment, charged with the electricity of what could be and the restraint of what wasn’t yet.
Erzo’s hand twitched at his side, every muscle in his body urging him to bridge that last bit of space, to pull her into his arms and kiss her. But he fought it, fought against this strange, new feeling that was as foreign to him as her world. They were galaxies apart in more ways than one, and dragging her into his world of clan duties and political games would only end in disaster.
For a split second, Polly leaned in, her lips parting as if she was about to add more to the night’s revelations, but then she hesitated, pulling back like she’d hit an invisible forcefield.
“Good night,” she murmured.
Polly turned and walked away, leaving Erzo standing there, watching her go, feeling like he’d just missed his shot at something—something big.
Long after Polly went to bed, leaving a trail of ‘what ifs’ hanging in the air, Erzo sprawled on the couch. A web of what he was supposed to be versus who he wanted to become trapped him. The realization hit him with the force of a collapsing star—maybe Erzo hadn’t escaped at all. Maybe the Charro coldness was a part of him, a hardened core he couldn’t wish away.
His heart felt like a battleground, torn between the rigid expectations of his heritage and the warmth of something new, something frighteningly unfamiliar—his feelings for Polly. He wrestled with the idea of upholding the arrangement with Breal. Duty to his clan still pawed at him, no matter how he tried to avoid it. But Breal was more than an arrangement. She was his confidant, almost a sister. Could he subject her to a loveless union when she cared for another?
The room felt colder, the darkness deeper, as he grappled with the realization that Polly had inadvertently shown him a glimpse of something different, something achingly warm. But that warmth came with a price—a price paid in the currency of human emotion, not Charro credits.
Erzo turned restlessly on the couch. The decision loomed over him, a black hole threatening to swallow him whole. To choose Breal meant protecting a friend and upholding centuries of tradition. To choose what he felt for Polly was to venture into uncharted territory where duty and desire collided with the force of supernovas.
Honoring the arrangement with Breal and keeping his feelings locked away was the easiest solution. But as the quiet of the night enveloped him, a new, unsettling thought crept in. What if upholding the arrangement meant hurting Polly?
Erzo lay there, a lone figure in the cosmos of his own making, tormented by a choice that could shatter hearts and worlds. One thing was certain—the decision Erzo made would alter the course of not just his life but the lives entwined with his.
