Page 104 of Commander’s Mate

I answered by pulling him down to me.

This kiss was not careful.

It was not safe either, but not all danger was harm. Some danger was standing at the edge of a life you had not expected and deciding to step forward because standing still would not bring the old life back.

Zared’s arms came around me. Strong. Tight. Still restrained enough that I could breathe, move, choose. I slid my hands up to his neck and into the short, bright hair at the back of his head.

He tasted unfamiliar and perfect.

When he lifted me, he did it slowly enough that I could object.

I did not.

He sat on the edge of his desk with me standing between his knees, bringing us closer to the same height. I laughed against his mouth because the maneuver was so practical and so hot that I couldn’t decide whether to tease him or climb him.

“What?” he murmured.

“You’re very efficient.”

“I am trying very hard not to be efficient.”

That made me laugh for real.

The laughter softened something between us. He kissed the corner of my mouth, then my cheek, then the damp place under my eye where tears had dried.

“I do not want your grief to become desire because you have nowhere else to put it,” he said.

I swallowed. “It might be part of it.”

“I know.”

“But it isn’t all of it.”

His hands flexed at my waist.

“I want you,” I said. “I don’t know everything that means yet. I’m not ready to promise forever in a language I learned five minutes ago. But I want you. I want to know you. I want to touch you. I want to not be alone tonight.”

His eyes searched mine.

“That is enough,” he said.

“For you?”

“For now.”

The honesty made me smile.

“For now,” I repeated.

Then I kissed him again, and let myself feel what my body had known from the first moment: whatever had been stolen from me, this was not theft.

This was mine to give.

Chapter Eighteen

Harper

I woke because a door opened.