I glanced at myself in the mirror and when I saw my reflection, I smiled.
This felt right.
I left the room then and fetched my boots, pulling them on before I walked into the kitchen. Bane turned toward me and did a double take when he saw me.
“I told you that you could wear whatever you wished,” he murmured, his brow furrowing with confusion.
“I know. I want to wear this,” I answered and the resulting grin on his face made me even more sure of myself.
I liked being dressed in a way that pleased him. I liked how it made me feel.
“You look beautiful, little pet,” he murmured with appreciation as he placed a generous plate on pancakes on the table in front of me.
“Thank you, sir,” I replied softly, smiling as I took a bite of the buttery, syrup-laden deliciousness.
We took our time finishing breakfast and when the time came to leave, he took me by the hand and led me out of the house. A shuttle was waiting for us out front and we climbed inside. About fifteen minutes later, we landed just outside the main landing fields, where a massive ship was waiting.
There was a group of purple aliens waiting outside that looked vaguely familiar. Bane and I walked up to meet them, and the leader strode forward and offered his hand.
“It’s good to be on Dryac once again,” he said. “Good to see you, Bane. Cara,” he added and nodded respectfully in my direction.
It felt good. Word must have spread that I was Bane’s partner and that the two of us led the Syndicate together now.
“Do you have the goods I requested?” Bane asked expectantly. I surveyed the area, looking for signs of anything amiss, but finding none. Everything seemed to be going according to plan.
“Yes. The cargo is on the ship at the moment, but I can deliver now if you’d prefer,” the smuggler suggested, and Bane nodded.
“Please. I’d like that,” he answered.
I cocked an eyebrow, wondering just what he was having smuggled here. The purple alien gestured to one of his men close by and whispered something in his ear. The man nodded and rushed off.
Bane grabbed my hand and pulled me into a sultry kiss, and I moaned, curling my body close to his. When he pulled away, he smiled down at me and I bit my lip.
What was he up to?
“Cara, I want you to know that I’m proud of you. That you’re more woman than I’ll ever need,” he began, and I felt myself blushing as he spoke.
“Bane, what is this?” I asked, becoming increasingly suspicious of what was going on.
“I love you, Cara,” he professed, his voice loud and true.
“I love you too,” I answered, feeling a fullness in my heart at his public declaration of his feelings for me.
“Look,” he murmured softly then, pointing back to the ship.
I turned my head and gasped with surprise.
He’d brought my family back to me. My mother and father. My sisters. He’d sent his men to get them and bring them back to me.
“Bane, thank you,” I whispered in disbelief.
“Anything for you, my little human pet.”
EPILOGUE
It was a Thursday when I finally stopped pretending I didn’t know what I wanted.
Or maybe it was a Wednesday. Time moved differently on Dryac. The suns set in the wrong order and the moons rose late and everything was slightly off kilter from the life I’d grown up in, but I’d stopped noticing that weeks ago. What I noticed now was Bane, from the sounds of him moving through the house, the way the air changed when he entered a room, the particular quality of his silence when he was watching me.
