Hysterian’s grip as he turned to face her.
Alexa held her hand to her chest so he wouldn’t grab it again. “You didn’t have to drag me,” she quipped. “If you weren’t such an asshole, I would have just followed you.”
She hoped it was a lie.
“Right,” he said.
She pursed her lips.
His eyes hardened. “Where have you been?”
“On Libra, shopping, of course.” She held up her bag.
He snatched it from her before she could pull it back. He tugged it open and looked inside.
She grabbed it back and fled with it toward the lab. She heard him follow.
“You have no right,” she hissed, storming to her quarters and tossing the bag in her sleeping bunk. She shut the privacy screen and turned to face him where he stood at the threshold of her quarters. “You’re not my keeper, my husband, or even my friend. What I do with my free time is my choice, same with who I spend it with, and what I do during it.”
“The night shift is half over,” he said, leaning his shoulder on the frame.
“So? I was with Pigeon and Raul at Termite, having a drink. You and I have no plans.”
Hysterian cocked his head. “Raul?”
“I was looking for him when I found you.”
“You mean when I found you. Alone, where you could have easily been abducted, or worse.”
She threw up her hands. “I can take care of myself!” Her face was flushed, and frustration weeded through her. Why did she want this man? This Cyborg? He was insane. “I don’t need you or a gun. I don’t need you checking up on me or giving me gifts. I need nothing from you!” Alexa exhaled. The sexy things in the bag behind her? She was never going to wear them for Hysterian. “Get out.”
He stepped into her room. “You forget, Dear, you’re on my ship. This is my room I’m letting you stay in. If you want to continue being on this ship, you have to follow the rules.”
She guffawed. “Have I ever stopped following your rules? Tell me. I don’t see you dragging Pigeon or Horace to the ship—and in public!”
He stalked forward, trapping her against the bed screens. “Address me as captain,” he ordered.
Alexa ducked under his arm, but he lowered it, stopping her. “I think we’re past that.”
“Until you hand me your resignation and walk off this ship, I am your captain. I’m in charge of you. As for Pigeon and Horace, they don’t fight me tooth and nail.”
She stopped trying to escape and faced him again. “That’s not how things work.”
He leaned in. Her heart shot into overdrive as his presence closed in on every side.
His hands settled on the screen behind her, and his face slid close to hers.
She licked her lips. If his mouth was free from his suit, only a hairsbreadth of space would be between them. Every fiber of her body paid attention now, waiting for the moment when Hysterian touched her again.
“Get out of my room,” she whispered. Please.
“Not without you,” he whispered right back.
Her lips flattened, and she threw herself against him, pushing him away, hitting him with her fists.
Hysterian straightened as Alexa attacked him with everything she had.
“Why do I want you?” she screamed, beating her fists against him, trying to make him back up. “Why do I want you? You’re a monster. A fucking monster!” Alexa pushed him as hard as she could, shoving her body against him, but he didn’t budge, not an inch. She let out a cry as she pushed and shoved and railed against the wall of his chest, trying her hardest to move him.
She needed to hurt him like he had hurt her.
She needed something.
“I hate you,” she cried. “I hate you!” Everything she’d been feeling exploded out from her, all the thoughts, emotions, the confusion.
She fought until she tired. Still, he didn’t stop her. He just stood there, letting her try and hurt him, letting her use him as a punching bag. Alexa sobbed, shaking, falling into his chest. She was never going to be able to hurt him how she wanted.
Because she loved him.
She fucking loved Hysterian in a twisted, dependent way. She’d been consumed by him her whole life, and at some point, it stopped being all about vengeance. It became an obsession. A dangerous one. One she couldn’t shake, no matter how hard she tried. An obsession she loved.
She wanted to deny it. For years she had.
Alexa coiled her fingers into his suit and cried. “I