“Yeah, no.” She made a cutting motion with her hand. “Just because we had sex doesn’t mean I’m your wife.”
He frowned. She had given him the greatest gift of his life, and she didn’t want to accept his in return?
“I don’t understand.”
She pulled her knees to her chest, dragging the sheet around herself. “Clearly.”
“Aletta—” The buzzing of the comm sounded loudly. He ignored it. “Aletta—” The comm buzzed again, insistently. She waved a hand, not meeting his eyes.
“You need to get that.”
He looked from her to where he’d laid the comm in its usual place on the small shelf beside the bed. It buzzed again, and he cursed, sliding off the bed and scooping it up in one large hand.
“This had better be an emergency!”
Vox’s amused voice came through the small speaker. “If you call an emergency finding the ship Aletta’s kin could be on?—”
Gark’s eyes met Aletta’s.
“—then yes, it’s an emergency. You had better get up here.” There was a pause. “Aletta, you should come, too.”
CHAPTER 16
ALETTA
She dragged on the first clothes she could find, which happened to be a pair of Gark’s training shorts and a sweater that she had to roll the sleeves up four times so they wouldn’t hang over her fingers.
He thought she was his wife. Some kind of fated mate. Aletta shook her head. No way. She was perfectly fine the way she was. She had Dylan, and that was enough for her.
Everyone else always left her, anyway. What’s to say he wouldn’t, too?
Aletta felt Gark’s eyes on her back as she stepped into the hallway, and she lifted her chin and squared her shoulders. She’d had fun, but that was all there was to it. It was a pity, really. She’d had a really great time, until he’d ruined it with all those declarations.
She turned her thoughts toward Dylan. She’d be seeing her soon, and that was what she needed to focus on. She pressed her lips together, barely restraining a frustrated growl. If only the pleasant ache between her legs didn’t remind her of every caress, every touch, every soft word.
Was he really like every other guy?
Vox looked up as they entered the bridge. Gark took a moment to gesture her into a spare seat before sliding into the captain’s chair.
“Report,” he barked, all signs of the vulnerability she’d seen in his cabin now gone.
Aletta’s chest squeezed, and she rubbed her sternum.
“Are you ok?”
Aletta started, then relaxed as Lara slid an arm around her shoulders and squeezed. Aletta slid over, the seat big enough for the two of them to just fit. The presence of the other woman helped settle her tumbling thoughts.
Vox and Gark’s conversation faded into the background. What had she done? She should have been focused on finding Dylan, not boinking some hot guy.
A hot guy who thought she was his wifey.
Would that be so bad?
She cringed, flushing. Yes. No. Ugh.
Oh god.
Her chest hurt, eyes prickling. She blinked rapidly.
