Page 110 of Alien Burn
“Have the commander follow up on who supplied that form. She says she didn't write it. Vessik has apparently been helpful.”
“I'll pass that on.”
“And make sure the staff take any further approach to Sereya seriously. She may be the person Roemary chooses to punish for this conversation.”
“Does Sereya know?”
“I'm going to tell her.”
Sereya had chosen a table near the dining-room windows, away from the busiest aisle.
There was food in front of her. There was also a covered plate at the place opposite.
Dhomhes stopped beside the chair.
“You started without me.”
“You told me to.”
“How refreshing to be obeyed.”
“Don't become accustomed to it.”
He sat, smiling despite the meeting he had just left.
She had pinned her hair back loosely. One short strand had escaped beside her cheek. He noticed it, the blue at her cuffs, the faint pressure mark on a finger where she had been holding her cup.
Yesterday she had kissed him.
The taste of her still lingered on his lips.
His skin remembered. Heat gathered beneath his collar as she looked up at him. He wanted to lean across the table and kiss her again. Preferably without knocking breakfast into her lap.
“The server said they might clear the hot food before you came,” she said. “I didn't know what you liked.”
He lifted the cover. She had given him a portion of nearly everything.
“This is a comprehensive approach.”
“I thought so.”
“How hungry do you think I am?”
“I have no way to estimate. You could have been living on cold food and disapproval for days.”
“An excellent diet. Very traditional.”
She laughed into her cup.
He wanted a hundred mornings like this. The thought arrived without the least concern for all the reasons that made it unreasonable.
Then Sereya put down the cup.
“How was Roemary?”
“Angry by the time we finished.”
Her face changed.
