Page 37 of Signed, Sealed, Seduced
“I know it is impossible,” I continue, needing to say it all before courage fails me. “I know I have no right to ask you to abandon your life, your freedom, for an uncertain future with a warlord who may never be able to give you what you deserve.”
“What do you think I deserve?” she asks, stepping closer still, until there’s barely a breath of space between us.
I look down at her, this remarkable woman who has turned my ordered existence into chaos and somehow made it better for the disruption. “Everything,” I tell her honestly. “You deserve everything the galaxy can offer. Peace, adventure, freedom tochoose your own path. Not the constraints of life with someone like me.”
Her free hand comes up to rest against my chest, over the place where my heart beats with increasing urgency. “What if what I want is you?”
The question stops my breath. “Suki...”
“What if I want the warlord who shows me ion storms and trusts me with ancient droids? What if I want the man who sees me as more than just a courier, who makes me feel like I matter?” Her voice grows stronger, more certain. “What if I want the life we could build together, even if it’s complicated and uncertain and completely different from anything I’ve ever known?”
I cover her hand with my free one, holding it against my chest where she can feel the rapid beating of my heart. “Then I would spend every day of my existence ensuring you never regret that choice.”
“I wouldn’t,” she says with such certainty that I almost believe her. “Regret it, I mean. I’ve spent my whole life playing it safe, taking the easy jobs, avoiding complications. But you... you make me want to be brave.”
“You are already brave,” I tell her, lifting our joined hands to my lips. “You were brave enough to crash into my life and change everything.”
The kiss I press to her knuckles is soft, reverent, but it sends electricity shooting through both of us. I can see it in the way her breath catches, in the darkening of her eyes, in the slight lean of her body toward mine.
“So,” she says, her voice slightly unsteady, “I’m staying. For real this time. Not just until my ship is fixed or the crisis is resolved. I’m staying.”
“Are you certain?” I ask, though everything in me hopes she will not change her mind.
“I’m terrified,” she admits with that honesty I’ve come to treasure. “But I’m certain. You’ve become necessary to me too, Henrok. More than necessary. You’ve become... home.”
The word hits me like a physical blow, so unexpected and perfect that I cannot speak for a moment. Home. I had forgotten what that word meant, had convinced myself that duty and command were sufficient substitutes for belonging.
“Home,” I repeat, testing the word on my tongue.
“Yes.” She smiles, that transformative expression that makes everything else fade away. “Home.”
Unable to resist any longer, I release her hand and cup her face gently in my palms, marveling at the softness of her skin, the warmth of her cheek against my palm.
“You realize,” I tell her, my voice rough with emotion, “that I will never let you go now. That you have bound yourself to a being who does not know how to love with anything less than his entire existence.”
“Promise?” she asks, her eyes sparkling with something that might be tears or might be joy.
“Promise,” I confirm, lowering my head until our foreheads touch.
The contact is electric, intimate in a way that transcends the physical. I can feel her breath against my skin, can sense the rapid flutter of her pulse, can detect the subtle change in her scent that speaks to her arousal.
“Henrok,” she whispers, and the sound of my name combined with her proximity makes every carefully constructed wall I’ve built around my desire crumble.
“Yes?”
“I think,” she says, her voice barely audible, “that we should probably continue this conversation somewhere more private.”
The suggestion sends heat racing through me, desire and anticipation combining into something almost overwhelming.“Are you certain?” I ask, though I’m not sure I could stop now even if she said no.
“I’m certain,” she confirms, her hands sliding up my chest to rest at my shoulders. “I want you, Henrok. All of you. The warlord, the man, the impossible, complicated future we’re going to build together.”
“Then come,” I say, stepping back reluctantly and offering her my hand. “Come home with me, Suki Vega.”
She takes my hand without hesitation, her fingers intertwining with mine with a rightness that feels like destiny.
“Home,” she repeats, and the word sounds like a promise.
As we leave the launch bay together, her ship abandoned in favor of a future neither of us could have imagined, I realize that sometimes the best things do come in unexpected packages.
