“I’m ready,” Strol declares, and I just stare at him as I slowly put down the radio.
What would happen if I stopped being afraid? What would the future be like if I gave in and gave him a chance?
Does he even want that? I know he wants me physically, and I’ve never had better sex in my life, and that’s saying something because I’ve had a lot of sexual partners over the years.
What makes a relationship last? And why do I think I might want to give that a chance now when I was fine being single?
He's a Kurian. He'll outlive me, so I wouldn't have to mourn him.
Fuck, can I be any more morbid?
“About damn time,” I tell him, but my heart is pounding.
I’m afraid.
Afraid I’m going to lose him before I’ve even had him and then I’ll learn what it truly means to be alone.
11
Strol
The way Isabella stares at me tells me that she’s been thinking about something deep. She looks shaken up, but then she just says, “About damn time.”
She’s still keeping me at arm’s length, and I don’t know how much longer I can handle that. I don’t like this game we’re playing anymore. Well, I do, and I don’t. The daredevil stuff is great fun, and I appreciate that. I love her zest for life, but I want to know everything about her, and if she doesn’t start opening up to me and talking to me and letting me in, then I’m going to have to leave.
I don’t want just sex anymore. That’s not enough for me.
For now, though, we’re just worrying about the daredevil bit, so I motion for her to climb down from her perch on a tall mountain of stuff.
Once she’s most of the way down, I hold out my hand. She grabs it, and I lead the way for her to reach my spot.
She gasps as she takes in the small Novan ship that I repaired as best as I can.
“Now, I haven’t tested to see if it can fly, but I think it should, and it does power on,” I inform her.
“Strol, why didn’t you tell me!” she accuses me. “I was so bored out of my mind, and I could’ve been excited!”
“I don’t know for certain it’ll fly, and I didn’t want to get your hopes up and then dash them.”
“You must know a fair amount about machines to be able to repair all of this,” she says.
“You did that radio,” I say.
“You were spying on me,” she says.
“No. I’m just observant.” I grin and throw her a wink. “I might’ve glanced over and watched as you would bend down. Your ass… My eyes just love to stare at it. What can I say?”
She laughs and shakes her head. “But an entire ship…”
“It’s banged up and beaten. It clearly had to have crashed during the war. I banged out most of the dents.”
“The war,” she murmurs, and she looks away.
I’m torn, so very torn. I’ve been working for so long to get this ship to work, and I’m eager to see if it can fly, but I also want to push Isabella and try to get her to open up to me.
“Do you want to talk about it?” I ask.
“The war? It didn’t affect me directly,” she says.
“I know, but it must’ve indirectly.”
I feel stupid as soon as I say that, but the nature of her reality has been affected by the war no matter what she claims.
"Let's see if this baby will fly, okay? I assume you do know your way around a cock… pit," she says, trailing her fingers across my chest before climbing up the ramp onto the ship.
Damn. That woman is going to be the death of me. One of my nuts is going to explode, and I’ll die from the pain.
I trail behind her and don’t bother to give her a tour, just march around her to the cockpit. She has to follow me there, and I instruct her to sit. This ship is much smaller than the one I flew in to reach Earth. It’s meant to be a fighter, smaller so less of a target, faster, with a great deal more maneuverability.
The last is what I’m after.
“Buckle up,” I tell her, and I do the same. “Ready?”
“Born ready,” she says cheerfully.
“You better hold on,” I warn her, “because if this can fly, we’re going to really fly.”
“I’m waiting,” she says. If she’s trying to sound bored, she’s failing miserably.
With a grin, I flick levers, pull out knobs, and push buttons. I have to slap the dashboard a few times, but finally, we’re hovering, and then the accelorators kick in, and we’re flying.
With a whoop, I have us climb higher and higher, testing out what the ship can handle. I don’t want to risk going too high, though, just in case anything happens, but the ship is handling things well. Most of the damage had been cosmetic, but I did have to take a few parts from centuricmobiles and adapt them for the ship.
“Ask me how I knew how to repair this baby,” I tell Isabella.
“All right, I’ll bite. Tell me.”
I glance over at her. Her dark eyes are lit up, and her smile is huge. She’s staring at me instead of straight ahead at her beautiful planet.
"I borrowed a ship back on Kuria. I crashed it. Father found out about it. He was furious, but I had managed to repair the ship entirely, so he didn't ever learn that I crashed it."
“You’re terrible.”
“I’m not terrible. I just know how to protect myself.”
“And cover your tracks,” she says lightly.
“Yep, that too.”
“Wait. You said protect yourself. Your father—”
Before she can finish that sentence, I turn us hard to the side and flip us around. Immediately, I start to do all kinds of crazy loops,
