“Go to sleep,” she said, and pushed against his arm until he loosened his grip. She required body heat, not comfort. “I’ll take first watch.”
“Okay.” He didn’t seem to notice the shift in her mood. After slinging his arm loosely over her hip, he settled in and exhaled, long and slow. A few minutes passed in silence, and just when she thought he’d drifted off, he said, “One more thing.”
“What?”
“Since we’re stuck together for a while longer, I think we should reevaluate our ground rules.”
She hadn’t been expecting that. Intrigued, she cocked an ear toward him. “Does this mean I get my stunner back?”
“As long as you promise not to use it on me.”
“Agreed.”
“And second,” he said, “nobody sleeps on the bedroom floor. That’s nonnegotiable. I won’t camp down there again, and I’m tired of feeling guilty because I’m comfortable and you’re not. There’s plenty of room on the mattress, and I won’t try anything, if that’s what you’re worried about.”
Solara scoffed. But on the inside, she fought to push down the annoyingly persistent tingles that reappeared behind her belly button. “I know where to put my knee if you get too close.”
From behind her, his hips withdrew an inch. “So we don’t have a problem?”
“If anyone will have a problem sharing the bed, it won’t be me,” she told him. “You’ll stay on your side, and I’ll stay on mine.” It sounded so simple, yet even as she spoke the words, she caught herself nestling against his body.
Solara forced her eyes shut, hoping she hadn’t made herself a liar.
They returned to the Banshee early the next evening and told the crew everything that had happened. Solara brushed off their encounter with the Enforcers as a freak coincidence, all the while seething in rage every time her gaze landed on Kane. Recounting the story made her realize even more clearly the danger he’d put them in, and she couldn’t wait to expose him for the traitor he was.
At the dinner table, she sat facing him, smiling sweetly while she tightened one fist on her lap. “The chili’s amazing,” she said. “Did you do something different?”
“Actually, yes.” He perked up and launched into some spiel about replacing one spice with another, but Solara wasn’t listening. Instead, she studied him for signs of guilt: inconsistent eye contact, fidgeting, widened pupils, flaring nostrils. He betrayed nothing, which made him either a natural-born actor or a sociopath. Probably the latter. “Thanks for noticing,” he added.
“My pleasure.”
A sudden rustling noise shifted their attention to the cabinet, and Kane pulled it open to discover Acorn’s head buried in a bag of lentils she’d torn wide open. Some of the tiny dried beans spilled out, clinking to the floor. Acorn seemed to know she was busted. Her furry body disappeared completely into the bag.
“Damn it,” Kane swore, gently scooping her out. “There goes tomorrow’s supper.”
The captain reached across the table and took Acorn in his palm. “It’s your own fault,” he told Kane while stroking Acorn’s head with his thumb. “Food belongs in bins, not bags. It’s in her nature to forage.”
Unaware of the trouble she’d caused, Acorn closed both eyes and purred contentedly. In Solara’s next life, she wanted to come back as a sugar bear. Must be nice to have no worries.
“It’s your turn,” the captain said to her. “Ask us a question.”
“Make it good,” Renny added.
Solara pursed her lips, tapping them with an index finger to feign deep thought when, truthfully, she’d chosen her question hours ago. “Okay, how about this? Would you rather confess your darkest secret to the whole galaxy, or tell your best friend’s darkest secret to their worst enemy?” The question was designed to test Kane, so she looked at him first. “What’s your answer?”
“That’s easy,” he said. “The first one.”
She raised a challenging brow. “Your secrets must not be that dark.”
“You’d be surprised,” he told her, and stared at the scattering of lentils on the floor. “But I’d do anything to protect my best friend.” He flicked a glance at her and stressed, “Anything.”
Solara frowned at his response. It wasn’t what she’d expected.
One by one, the rest of the crew gave the same answer until the meal ended, and then empty bowls were piled into the sink, and tin mugs were gathered in preparation for customary after-dinner drinks around the fireplace.
Doran caught her eye and gave a slight nod—a signal that he would keep the crew occupied in the lounge while she rifled through Kane’s bunk.