Starfall (Starflight #2)(43)

Maybe that was what prompted her to climb onto his lap.

Ducking beneath the top bunk, she straddled his thighs and scooted forward until their hips sat flush. His breath locked in anticipation of what might happen next. He knew from prior experience that things could end here, or they could go much further. A surge of blood rushed through his veins, and suddenly he didn’t feel so numb anymore.

She watched him as she cupped his face and explored the length of stubble along his jaw. He looked back at her in silence, afraid to say or do anything to ruin the moment. The floral scent of her skin was more familiar to him than his own heartbeat, and he didn’t think he could stand it if she pulled away now.

When she slid her arms over his shoulders and drew an inch nearer, he took a chance and settled both hands on her lower back. Still holding her gaze, he slipped his thumbs beneath her shirt and brushed the slope of her spine—just a feather graze to test her mood, to see if she’d missed his touch as much as he’d missed hers. She rewarded him with a shiver, and soon her eyelids grew heavy. Though it nearly killed him, he stayed still and used nothing but his thumbs as he let her make the next move.

She strained the limits of his control by kissing a trail from his temple, down the side of his cheek, ending at the corner of his mouth. Chills rose along the back of his neck, and when her lips finally brushed his, all the empty spaces inside him filled with heat. He tried to hold himself in check, but then the tip of her tongue curled inside his mouth, and he was lost.

He tightened both arms around her, crushing their bodies so close there wasn’t space to draw more than a gasp. He didn’t care. Air didn’t matter, only Cassia. It’d been so long since she’d let him hold her like this, and he would willingly suffocate if that was what it took to keep her in his arms. He tasted her mouth while squeezing her in a furious compulsion to pull her inside him. He wondered if he could ever feel close enough to her, even if they went all the way for once. Somehow he doubted it, but he desperately wanted to find out.

He kissed her hard, maybe too hard, because she broke away and panted against his lips. For a moment, he worried she might change her mind, but then she arched her hips and made a noise that said she didn’t want this to end any more than he did.

She licked her lips and whispered, “Last time, okay?”

Kane nodded eagerly. Anything she said was fine with him. He repeated what he’d told her on a dozen breathless afternoons just like this, and what he hoped to keep telling her again and again for years to come.

“One more time.”



The next morning was business as usual in every way that mattered.

Cassia wasn’t cold to him. She didn’t deliver the silent treatment. In fact, she’d woken up an hour early to take over his breakfast duty, which was a nice gesture for her. But when they sat down to eat and he finally caught her eye, there was nothing in her expression to reflect what they’d done the day before.

She simply smiled at him and asked, “Did you sleep all right?”

He blinked at her. How could she be so flippant about this? Okay, so maybe they hadn’t gone all the way—she’d said no to that—but they’d done…other things. Things they hadn’t tried before. “Like a stone,” he said. But tonight’s sleep wouldn’t come as easily unless he could get certain things off his mind. “Thanks for making the porridge.”

“No problem.”

The conversation lulled after that, allowing dread to settle over him as he forced down his breakfast and wondered what was happening at home. Minutes later, Renny called his name through the overhead speaker.

“Report to the bridge for a video transmission,” Renny said. “And hurry. You’re going to want to see this.”

Kane didn’t have to ask Cassia to come with him. They both scrambled from the table and ran up the stairs to the pilothouse level. He paused at the threshold to brace himself for the worst. Only when he felt the warmth of Cassia’s hand did he take a step inside the bridge.

He stopped short.

There at the com center, grinning at him in full holographic definition, was his mother, very much alive and sitting beside her farmer friend as though nothing had happened. Kane stared at her in confusion. Her eyes shone with happiness, no longer shrouded by dark circles. She didn’t seem to be in pain. She wasn’t even sweating or trembling.

“It’s okay, Doodlebug,” she told him, and for the first time since Kane turned eleven, he wasn’t embarrassed by his nickname. “I feel better.”

His tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth. It took a few tries to unglue it. “But how?”

“A miracle,” the farmer said. “Last night she asked me to carry her outside so she could see the stars. We spent the night in the pasture, and when I woke up this morning, I thought she would be—” Emotion choked him, and he stopped to plant a kiss on her temple. He couldn’t seem to stop touching her. He gripped her shoulders, stroked her hair, cupped the back of her neck.

Then Kane understood. The man was in love.

His mother pressed a hand to her heart. “The spirits heard my prayers and healed me. I can eat again, anything I want.”

“It’s true,” the farmer said. “She’s a bottomless pit today. Six eggs so far.”

Kane shared a sideways glance with Cassia, who touched the Eturian prayer necklace tucked beneath her shirt. As grateful as he was for his mother’s recovery, he didn’t believe in miracles. There had to be a connection between the night air and her sudden revival.