Page 90 of Dark Horizon New Dawn

"Thank you for the offer, Margo. It's very kind of you."

"It's the least I can do for the man who leaped to catch me when I fainted and then carried me across the boat like a princess."

He heard her push her chair back, and then her hand clasped his, and his throat went dry.

What the hell was that reaction?

He'd held her in his arms for long moments, and she had put her head on his chest. Their breath intermingled. Why was the touch of her hand making him lose his composure?

"Come on, big guy." She tugged on his hand. "I’ve had my share of torment with contact lenses, and eventually, I gave up on them. I just use glasses for reading. You should do the same. You are so incredibly good-looking that glasses aren't going to take away from your attractiveness."

A smile tugged on the corner of his lips. "You think that I'm good-looking?"

She snorted. "I might be nearsighted, but I'm not blind." She leaned closer to him, her cheek grazing his forearm. "Did you and Kevin have plastic surgery?"

Gabi had asked Aru the same thing, so maybe he should just say that he had? But he didn't want to lie to Margo more than he already had. "No. I'm just fortunate to have been made with very good genes."

In his home world, they were nothing special, average genes that most commoners were given, but on Earth, they were superior.

"There is no shame in admitting that you had work done. Many men do that these days." She stopped next to the bathroom. "It's a competitive world, and everyone is trying to get a leg up." She opened the door. "Do you need me to help you in there?"

He looked at her from under lowered lashes, admiring the way the light from the windows made her hair look golden. "No, thank you. I'll be fine. I'll just take them out."

"Throw them away." She patted his arm. "I'll be outside the door if you need me."

"Thank you." Negal walked into the bathroom and gently closed the door behind him.

When he looked in the mirror, his eyes were still glowing, but not so intensely that the glow couldn't be explained away as a reflection from misty eyes.

He had sunglasses in his pocket but wearing them inside would be weird. Then again, he could say that the contact lenses irritated his eyes, and that's why he needed to shield them.

Splashing his face with cold water for the second time in less than an hour, he took a few deep breaths, dried his face with a towel, and pulled his sunglasses out.

When he exited the bathroom, he found Margo leaning against the wall right next to the door, just as she had promised.

"Sunglasses?" she asked.

"I know it looks strange, but my eyes are so irritated that even a little bit of direct light is painful."

"My poor hero." She took his hand again. "What did you do with the contact lenses?"

"I threw them away as you suggested."

"Good. Do you have more on the ship?"

He didn't know how to answer that. Did people usually have more than one pair?

"I'll have to check," he hedged. "I might have forgotten to pack the spare pair."

She regarded him with a frown and then shook her head. "Let's get back to the table. The chef is probably serving coffee and dessert."

"Hold on." He tugged on her hand to keep her from walking away. "I hate to do this, but I have to know whether anyone did anything inappropriate to you or to Jasmine."

"You mean other than slip us roofies and then inject us with God knows what?"

Nodding, he let go of her hand. "You know what I mean. Please, don't feel embarrassed about telling me. I just need to know."

Margo let out a breath. "The only one who interacted with us was Alberto, and as far as I know, he didn't touch me that way. But I was out of it for hours, so I don't know that for sure, but I don't think so. He might have taken a peek at my assets, and he jabbed me with a needle, but not with anything else if you know what I mean. I believe that I would have known if he, you know, did that."

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