had a feeling that was the case. What they had was special, and she might never find it again with another man. Except, he wasn’t a man.
Lowering her head, she kissed him, her lips lingering. Then she pulled away and scrambled to her feet.
He was still fully dressed, his pants open, one hand resting behind his head as he watched her move around the room, picking up her clothes. He was so…sexy. A few days ago, she hadn’t even known what the word meant, now she felt it down to her bones. He made her melt; he made her burn. Just looking at him now, her sex felt swollen and hot and more than ready for more.
He was going to break her heart.
Because she already loved him, it was too late to back off now. She’d read about love at first sight and she knew it was real because it had happened to her. That moment when he had stepped out of the shuttle and he’d been so beautiful her heart had hurt.
But she also suspected that love wasn’t enough. And maybe there were more important things in the world. Like duty and honor. She didn’t want to think that, really she didn’t, but maybe Dr. Yang’s early teachings were just too deeply impregnated into her very being.
With a sigh, she pulled on her clothes, then went and sat at the comm console. She switched it on. The message picked up halfway through. She played it through a second time, as Milo came to stand beside her. When it was finished, she switched it off and swung around to face him.
His face was impassive. “Do you believe her?”
“Which bit? The part where you’re out to destroy the Trakis system, the part where I can save humanity, or the part where she loves me?”
He shrugged, leaning against the console, arms folded over his chest. “Any of it?”
She shrugged helplessly. “I don’t think she loves me, the rest I’m not sure of.”
“I don’t want to destroy the Trakis system,” he said. “But I want the chance to live in freedom in this new world, not under the thumb of some immoral despot like Kinross.”
“Are you moral?” she asked.
His expression closed off so she couldn’t tell what he was thinking. “Probably not by most people’s definition,” he said. “But I have a code I live by, and I do my best to stick to it.”
“And Rico, is he moral?”
Amusement flashed in his eyes. “Not even vaguely.”
It didn’t sound as though the idea bothered him, and she wondered again about the relationship between the two men. “Do you love him?”
The amusement vanished, and a frown formed between his eyes as he thought about the question he obviously hadn’t been expecting. “It doesn’t matter.”
It mattered to her, but she didn’t think she would get any more on the subject. She decided on a more oblique approach. “Have you ever been in love?”
He scrubbed a hand through his hair. Another question he wasn’t willing to answer? Then he started talking.
“Once. I was in love once, a long time ago.”
A burning sensation flooded her chest. Jealousy? “I presume it didn’t go well?”
He smiled then, though it wasn’t reflected in his eyes, which remained wary. “I was twenty. Maria was eighteen. She was young, innocent, and so good it shone from her. I was young and not so innocent—I’d spent fourteen years living with Rico—any innocence was long gone. But she made me feel as though I could be good as well.”
Why did she suspect this wasn’t going to have a happy ending? “What happened?”
“Rico had warned me not to reveal my true nature to any humans, but I wanted Maria to know who and what I was. I believed she loved me enough to see past my obvious…disadvantages.”
“You don’t have any disadvantages,” she said fiercely. “You’re perfect.”
He chuckled. “Of course I am. On the other hand, Maria obviously thought there was some room for improvement. She was horrified. I’m not sure she actually believed me about the half-demon thing, but rather thought I was deluded. Either way, she loved me enough to want to save my soul. She gave me up to the church. They in turn handed me to the Inquisition.”
She’d read about the Inquisition in her history books. “How could she?” Bitch.
“She was born in a time when people truly had faith. She believed my soul was damned and it was her duty to get me back in God’s graces.”