He automatically put his arms around her. For a moment, he simply stood there holding her while something tight inside his chest loosened. He bent his head, breathing in the familiar scent of her hair.
“I missed you,” she murmured into his fur.
His arms tightened around her before he could stop them. Only slightly, but enough that she noticed.
She tilted her face up. “What?”
“Nothing.”
“That wasn’t nothing.”
He looked down into her eyes. She had spent an entire day without him. She hadn’t been frightened or helpless. She had worked with Tess and pursued something that mattered to her, surrounded by people she trusted, and had apparently managed perfectly well without his presence.
But she’d missed him.
The old fear he’d carried since the day he first realized that Polly’s healing might someday take her away from him shifted inside his chest. Not gone, but lighter.
“I missed you too, little one,” he said.
Her expression softened. “Good.”
Then she rose onto her toes and kissed him, and there was nothing tentative about it.
He made a sound low in his throat and pulled her closer, one hand spreading across the small of her back. Her mouth opened beneath his, warm and eager, and heat swept through him so quickly that he almost forgot every sensible intention he’d had on the walk home.
He’d thought about her mouth far too often today.
He kissed her slowly at first, but her hands climbed into the fur at his shoulders and tugged, demanding more. He obeyed.
When they finally separated, her cheeks were flushed and her lips were swollen, and he wanted nothing more than to kiss her again.
Instead, because he genuinely wanted to know, he asked, “Did you find anything else?”
She stared at him.
“In the records,” he clarified.
“The records?”
“Didn’t you spend the day working with Tess on the ship records?”
“Oh.” She blinked, then laughed. “Yes. We did.”
He listened while she told him about two additional ships they had identified, neither conclusive, and a response from Baralt concerning Nareth Station. Her words came quickly, tumbling over one another as they often did when she was excited, and he found himself smiling.
“What?” she demanded.
“You enjoyed yourself.”
“I spent most of the day staring at shipping records.”
“You enjoyed yourself.”
She considered that, then smiled. “Yes. I suppose I did.”
“Good.”
Her eyes narrowed slightly. “You’re doing that thing again.”
