Page 44 of Alien Devil’s Crown

“One by one,” he said, “I watched every one of my brothers find what you saw in that corridor. And I told myself the leader doesn’t get what his men have. That wanting anything for myself meant taking something away from them. If I let myself want you, I thought I’d fail them. Someone would die because I’d been looking at you when I should have been looking out for them. It would be my fault twice.”

“I was wrong about what loving someone would take from me,” he said.

“What I did in that room was dangerous. I won’t call it good planning to make it easier for you to forgive. But I want a life with you in it. I want to learn how to have that life beside you. The white space, Lika. You asked what’s in it.”

He took my hand and kissed my palm, as he had the night before the Spire. Then he kept my hand in his.

“I love you,” he said. “That is what’s in it.”

I had wanted to say it since the colonnade. Now he had given me everything I needed to hear. “I love you, too.” Then I leaned down and kissed him before I could think myself out of it.

He made one startled sound and then his good hand was in my hair, pulling me closer with none of the restraint he’d shown in the corridor. I climbed onto the edge of the bed, one knee beside his hip, careful of the dressing until his hand caught my waist and brought me fully over him.

“Tamsin said full use in a few days,” I said against his mouth.

“She didn’t forbid kissing.”

“You’ve pulled me into your lap.”

“I was hoping you’d stay.”

I kissed down his jaw and found the line where gray skin met the edge of the dressing. His body went rigid under mine. The slow heart that had stayed calm through combat lost its count when I put my mouth to the violet sigil below his collarbone.

“Still alive?” I asked.

“Barely.”

“Good.”

His hand slid under my shirt, hot and broad over my back. Mine went to the fastening at his waist. He caught my wrist a breath before I reached it, holding it gently while he spoke.

“I want more than this,” he said.

“Permanent more. But I will not ask while you’re coming off a battle and I’m under medication, and I will not make your answer share space with pain or gratitude. When Tamsin clears me, I will explain everything. Then you choose.”

The care in that choice mattered more to me than any possessive declaration could have. He released my wrist and slid his good hand back beneath my shirt, settling it at my waist.

I kissed him again, slow enough to make the promise hurt. Then I moved my hips once over the hard length under me and watched the Architect’s eyes close.

“Remember that,” I whispered.

The med-bay hatch opened.

“Absolutely not,” Tamsin said.

Rylos opened his eyes. I did not move off him. “How much trouble am I in?”

“No intercourse. No claiming. No strenuous use of the left shoulder. And don’t tell me how fast you heal.” She crossed her arms. “You can kiss. Carefully. For five minutes. Then he sleeps.”

“Five?” I said.

“Three are already gone.”

Rylos looked at the ceiling. “The ship is over-instrumented.”

“Tomorrow, if the scan stays clean, limited activity. The day after, full clearance.” Tamsin pointed at me. “You are the responsible one.”

“I wouldn’t count on that.”