Page 70 of When the Universe Sings

Asher looked from the dissolving hologram back to her. “Will he hurt you?”

Lunastra shook her head, sniffing before flipping back her hair and flashing him a practiced smile. “You can’t save us all, Captain Ruciyah.”

“I can try,” he murmured, so quiet I could barely hear it.

My chest tightened and I dropped my attention to my feet. This was Asher…wasn’t it? The male who, despite his mission from his people, tried desperately to save others when he could. I didn’t need to see his face to know he would be frowning, his eyes hard as he weighed each word before he spoke it.

“You should leave his ship the moment you deliver the package,” he instructed.

Lunastra pursed her lips. “I will do my best.”

…

We were quiet on the transport back to theKuxatanaand Asher did not look my way when we landed. I sat in my seat for longer than necessary, watching Greabes do his final landing checks.

“You going to sit here and watch an old man shut down a ship or go after him?” he muttered with annoyance.

Shooting to my feet, I made my way down the ramp, barely catching Greabes’ grumbled “right choice” as I went to the one place I thought he might be. The door to the observation deck hissed open and there he was, seated at one of the couches facing the window, his helmet beside him on the cushion and head in his hands. Dark hair spilled out around him like the cowl he so often wore.

I took my time approaching, weighing each word as he so often did, before I dropped to my knees in front of him, tugging his hands from his face. Heat radiated from his palms and the raised ridges of his scars. I couldn’t help but trace them slowly with my thumb.

“I’m not…a people person,” I said. He huffed a laugh at my words, one hand flipping over to grab my wrist. I leaned forward, pressing my brow to his knuckles. “I’ve spent most ofmy life alone… Others are unpredictable. The only thing I could ever trust was myself.”

Asher hummed, fingertips tracing the line of my cheek, but I didn’t lift my head. I took a deep breath, exhaling in a gust.

“You say I need to trust you and what I’m saying is: give me time.”

Slowly, he tilted my face up, stroking my hair away from where it tangled in my lashes. There was so much warmth there in his gaze, the silver of his eyes molten, that it felt like basking in the midday suns of a long-forgotten place that had once had my heart. And I thought I understood just a bit what he’d meant when I’d first woken up: when he’d said I was his home.

“I will give you everything. If time is what you want, then it’s time you’ll get. Just…” He swallowed, sliding his knees apart and drawing me closer. “Just let me kiss you,j’ska mahsi. I think I might die if I don’t.”

CHAPTER

FORTY-EIGHT

For cyclesI hadn’t laid eyes on my planet. I’d forgotten the meaning of the wordhome, of what it meant to belong, to feel a kinship to the universe around me.

But I found it here, with Juniper in my arms.

Her mouth was soft against mine, pliant in a way she hadn’t been the night I’d barreled into her room, unable to bear her screams from the other side of the door I’d camped in front of. Energy crackled across my skin, arcing onto hers and forcing a shiver down both our spines. I tightened my grip in her hair, tilting her head to the side so I could press her lips apart, dipping my tongue into her mouth to taste her.

Juniper’s moan was sweeter than anything I’d ever known. When her hands curled into my shirt, pulling it up so they could dive beneath it, one of my own moans answered hers. My mouth moved from her cheek to her temple, placing kisses across her lids, the space between her brows—each one an apology and a thank you, a promise and a plea. She traced my sides with her fingertips, sliding up my pecs to press her palms against the beating of our hearts beneath my skin.

She didn’t understand what the feeling meant, but she would before the night was over.

I grazed my teeth along her throat, gently biting the junction of her shoulder and neck where I would one day make her mine. She whimpered, squeezing her thighs together as her head tilted to the side, giving me better access. A rumble of approval vibrated through my chest and, though I’d only asked for a kiss,I couldn’t stop myself from gripping her around the waist and drawing her up to straddle my lap.

She went willingly, wrapping her fingers around the hem of my shirt and pulling it over my head. Her attention danced across my face, down my throat, over the markings on my chest that mingled with the cycles’ worth of scars littering my skin. Each pass of her fingers across my flesh sent another ripple of power down my spine until my cock ached and pressed against her center. A flush danced across her face, sliding down her neck, andgods,I needed to know how far it went.

I wrapped my hand around her throat, tugging her face closer. “Tell me what you want,j’ska mahsi.” Pressing my other against her hip, I rocked against her, pulling the most beautiful groan from her lips. “Because if you don’t, I’m going to take until there’s nothing left. Until you’re spread out beneath me, begging for what only I can give you. And June…I said I would take, but I’m also going to give and give andfucking giveuntil there’s nothing left of me either.”

Juniper nodded frantically, gripping my shoulders to push herself down against my rocking cock as I thrust up against her. “Yes, Maker, yes. I want it, Asher. I need it.”

I slid my hand up higher, thumb pulling down her bottom lip until I could see her teeth. “I won’t bite…not yet.” The words were for me, not her.“Not yet.”

Her tongue flicked out, tasting my skin before she closed her lips around my thumb, sucking. Her hands curled into the hem of her shirt, tugging it up so I was forced to pull my thumb from her lips. Her chest heaved with her breaths and I traced the curve of her nose, down to the point of her chin, the hollow of her throat, to the swell of her breasts beneath her band.

The only thing I could do was watch as she pulled at the wrap. My fingers flexed where they’d dropped to her thighs, forcing myself to stay in place as inch after inch of pale skinlittered with faint scars peeked through. After an eternity, it fell and she tossed it to the side. I groaned, leaning forward to lick a stripe between her breasts, palms sliding up her torso to cup them. They fit perfectly, because my hands were made for her body alone.