Page 51 of Stars in Umbra
Most times, her mind ran at ten thousand miles a minute, calculations, contingencies, negotiations waiting in each corner.
Yet when around him, all the noise fell away.
He calmed her chaos without even trying.
He didn’t listen to her with distracted nods like the majority of people did. He was attentive to every word, breath, and shift in her voice.
She liked it.
Mo wasn’t some slick-talking charmer who smiled with his mouth and lied between his teeth.
He didn’t need to be.
He was the kind of genuine article you couldn’t fake if you tried.
Her heart lurched.
‘Santeagain,’ she murmured, looking over at him. ‘For the meds, the food, the ice cream, and for staying with me.’
He gave her another of his lopsided smiles, which curled at the edges of his lips but somehow warmed the whole room.
‘De nada,’ he rasped, the sound reverberating in his torso. ‘I was happy to please.’
She placed her head on the backrest of the couch as the knot in her chest eased and sleep pulled at her into its embrace.
MOLAN
Her bowl slipped from her lap, forgotten as her head tipped back against the cushion, her breathing slowing into a deep and unguarded cadence.
Mo reached for the discarded dish and carefully placed it on the coffee table in front of her.
He sat back in his seat, the last of the prosecco cradled in his hands.
His eyes lingered on her as the final frames of the movie flickered in the background.
Skies above Eden, she was beautiful.
Rina Mendi, Colonel of the Peace Corps, Chief Defense Head of the Dunian Forces, and lead strategist of the Pegasi peacekeeping missions.
Right now, she was just a woman burned out by the political maneuvering of a galaxy that never gave her a break.
She was alluring to say the least, he thought.
A warrior who fought like hell all day for ceasefires, then curled up on her sofa and passed out with a bowl of ice cream half-eaten.
Too tired from carrying the burden of a fractious solar system.
Hell, if it didn’t tighten his chest, with a scorching, intense heat, not of pity, butcare. A fierce, protective, bone-deep tenderness, for her.
Also respect. Gods, so much esteem for the way she carried the weight of a galaxy on her shoulders without letting it crush her spirit.
But beneath all his regard for her lurked a more savage desire; the rising need to shield her from every damn thing that wore her down.
To put himself between her and the storms life hurled her way.
To be the safe harbor, she finally set her burdens down.
Fokk, the thought of needing to protect her shook him more than any battle he’d ever charged into.
