“Great,” she says. “Because I am very competitive.”
I close my eyes.
I am in so much trouble.
7
Ready or Not
Lorri
Theadrenalineisnotleaving.
It has been over an hour since Jazil killed the Vrennak and my hands are still shaking, and my heartbeat is still doing something that a medical professional would describe as “concerning” and I cannot sit down because sitting down means sitting still and sitting still means thinking about the fact that a Skiveth male just slayed a Vrennak with his bare hands to stop it from eating me and then touched my face like I was something that needed to be handled carefully, and I CANNOT think about that right now.
I am pacing the galley. He is in the cockpit. We arrived at this arrangement by mutual, unspoken agreement after the third time wemade eye contact across the table and the air between us did a thing that air should not be capable of doing. Air is supposed to be neutral. Air is a medium for breathing, not a delivery system for whatever is happening between me and the shirtless alien in the next room.
Not alien. Male. Not man.Male.The distinction matters in a way I haven’t had to think about before because before today I had not spent an extended period in a sealed ship with a member of a species whose chest looks like that and whose voice does that and whose hands —
STOP IT.
“Ms. Vance.” HORATIO, from the ceiling. Chipper. Unforgivably chipper. “I am sensing elevated heart rates from both occupants. May I suggest a calming activity? I have a list.”
“No, thank you, HORATIO.”
“The list is alphabetized.”
“I appreciate that.”
“Item one: Ambient Sound Meditation. Item two: Breathing Exercises, guided. Item three —”
“HORATIO.” Jazil’s voice, from the cockpit. Flat.
“Withdrawing, Captain. The list will be available upon request. It has forty-seven entries. I am particularly proud of entry thirty-one.”
The galley hums. I pace. My hip aches where the tail caught me, and my temple throbs under the gauze, but I am alive and he is alive and the Vrennak is dead and we have twenty-one hours left and I cannot stop thinking about his hands.
His hands catching the Vrennak’s jaw. His hands on the rod. His hands at my temple, my hip, the two-fingered touch on my bruise that he did with the focused precision of someone who wanted to use his whole hand and was choosing not to and the choosing was the thing. The choosing is always the thing with him. The way he asks. The wayhe waits. The way he saysmay Ibefore he touches me, like permission, is not a formality but something he needs.
My stomach growls.
Not discreetly. Not a polite suggestion. A dock announcement. A stomach that has broadcast its requirements to the entire ship, including the cockpit where a Skiveth male with airborne scent detection can probably taste my hunger in the recycled air.
I want to die. I want the deck plate to open beneath me and swallow me into the engineering bay.
“Ms. Vance.” HORATIO. Delighted. “I believe your digestive system has submitted a formal request. I have been waiting for this moment. May I?”
HORATIO can cook. Not in the way a vending unit can heat a protein packet. HORATIO has a galley prep system that he seems to have been customizing with the dedication of a butler whose employer eats out of containers and whose greatest sorrow is the waste of a good kitchen. The prep unit whirs to life with what I can only describe as enthusiasm. Panels open. A steam vent activates. Something that smells like actual food — warm, slightly spiced, with an undertone of something herbal — fills the galley.
“Captain!” HORATIO’s voice shifts to ship-wide. The tone is that of a maître d’ seating his most important table. “Dinner is being served. Your attendance is requested.”
“HORATIO, I’m working on the —”
“Captain.Dinner is being served.”
A pause. Footsteps in the corridor.
Jazil appears in the hatchway. He leans on the frame. Arms folded. The posture is casual. The body is not casual. The body is a six-foot-three situation with dark ridges and no shirt and a bandagedforearm and a jaw that does things in the galley light jaws should not do, regardless of species.
