Page 102 of Commander’s Mate

It should have made me angry.

Part of me was angry.

Another part understood too well. Had someone told me I could keep one piece of home by staying silent, would I have been noble immediately? Or would I have clutched it in both hands and called it survival?

“You would truly tell me?” I asked.

“Even if I chose to go?”

His eyes looked almost black now. “Yes.”

“What if you could stop me?”

“I would not.”

“What if stopping me would save your life?”

He flinched.

I saw the answer before he said it.

“I would try to persuade you,” he said. “I would offer everything I had. I would beg if honor allowed it.”

“Does it?”

“For solmatu? Yes.”

“But I would not cage you,” he said. “If I did, the Sargans would have won something inside me.”

That was the moment.

Not the kiss in his office before the attack. Not the violet eyes or the dangerous body or the ridiculous way my pulse kept tripping over itself whenever he looked at me.

That was the moment I began to trust him.

I walked toward him slowly.

Scarlet straightened in the doorway.

Zared did not move.

His mouth curved, but his voice was strained. “Define behave.”

“No grabbing.”

“No grabbing.”

“No assuming.”

“No assuming.”

“No deciding I’m yours just because your alien instincts say so.”

His smile faded. “My instincts say you are mine. My honor says you must choose.”

I nodded once.

Then I put my hands on his chest.