Tilting her head, she paused to catch her breath. Her skin tingled as she inhaled his warm, leathery scent. Though she hadn’t expected the night to take a turn quite like this, she couldn’t say the thought had never crossed her mind. But he’d been gone for so many years now, she’d grown used to a life only occasionally punctuated by Griffith. She’d never considered he might someday return to stay. The thought alone stirred a sharp ache deep in her stomach.
“I don’t want that either,” she said. His chest deflated, worry creasing his forehead. She shook her head and tightened her arms around his waist. “To grow old without you, I mean.”
Relief smoothed his brow, and he leaned closer again. “I don’t want to leave again,” he said quietly. “I should file my formal withdrawal now.”
She shook her head. “I don’t want you to quit the Tempus because of me. We can make the time difference work.”
“No, we can’t. Look how long it took us to get this far.”
“You forget what life is like here, Griff. It’s hard, and boring, and very uneventful.”
“So’s the Tempus. We just happen to be flying while everything is hard, boring, and uneventful.”
Adequin let out a long sigh. “You really need to think this through. I want you to do this for the right reasons.”
“You are the right reasons, Mo’acair. The only reason worth doing anything.” He patiently awaited her response, his warm eyes steady. Earnest. He wasn’t going to change his mind.
“All right,” she said finally. “But you’ll need to train your replacement.”
“We can delay a day, and I can do that while we’re docked.”
“That’s definitely not protocol.”
His arm tightened around her back and he pulled her closer. “To the void with protocol. Even two weeks is far too long to be away from you.”
“Since when?”
He chuckled. “Since right-the-fuck now. Eura’s ready, has been for weeks.”
“That’s great, but you can’t just throw command of a ship at her with no warning. You still have to do a check-ride.”
“Fine. One more trip.” He pressed his forehead to hers, and their eyelashes grazed each other’s as she blinked at him.
She cleared her throat. “You mean, ‘Yes, sir’？”
He pinned her hip to the floor with one hand, then tucked the other into her armpit and tickled her. Briefly overcome with giggling, she then got distracted trying to remember the last time she’d giggled.
He relented and kissed her forehead. Soothing, tingling waves flowed along her frayed nerves.
“This is fraternization,” she said. “I’m going to have to report you to my CO.”
His deep laugh rumbled in her chest. He gripped her waist and laid her back onto the ground, then braced on one arm to hover over her, his warmth enveloping her like a heavy blanket. His dog tags clinked together as they fell out from under his shirt, the cold metal and glass grazing the side of her neck.
“You’re the EX,” he said, his voice low and serious despite his grin. “You don’t have a CO.”
“Not aboard this vessel, maybe—”
He cut her off with another kiss, fiercer this time, sending her heart racing. His tongue found hers and their lips closed in on each other as three years/three months of pent-up desire let loose.
* * *
Adequin drifted slowly out of a deep, restful sleep. It took her a few long, wandering moments to realize what’d woken her—her wrist vibrating as her nexus hummed with a silent notification.