Synnr's Hope - Kate Rudolph Page 0,56

why not try to be happy?” It was ludicrously simple. Inane. But what was stopping them?

Her fingers curled around the edge of the blanket, like she was about to pull it up. “This is a sudden change.”

He knew why she thought that. He’d made their situation far too complicated with his own issues. “It’s not. I’ve been thinking of little but this since we bonded.” She was in his thoughts day and night. He’d tortured himself by denying this thing between them, by imagining her getting fed up and walking away. He’d never thought of someone more.

But Lena gave a little huff of laughter. “Maybe you should start paying more attention to the challenges.” She leaned in and kissed him, a sweet peck that turned hot when her fingers dug into his shoulder and she swung her leg over his to straddle him. His cock thickened between them, and he was ready to go again when she broke the kiss and met his eyes.

“I know the stakes are high if this fails,” he said. His family had already been torn apart by a successful Match, so to be bound and a failure? It would be disastrous.

“I don’t want to cost you your job,” she said, as if that reply made sense.

Was that what she was worried about? It hadn’t crossed his mind. A job was fleeting, even one as important as defending his people from the Apsyn threat. “Not my job. Our connection. If we fail...” He didn’t have the words to finish the sentence.

She kissed him quickly. “Then let’s not fail.”

“As simple as that?” More than half a lifetime of worry, and she distilled the solution down into a sentence. He wanted to trust in her, to trust in them, but he didn’t know if he could.

“Simple,” she said. “Not easy, there’s a difference.”

Was there? He was ready to find out.

HE WAS WORRIED ABOUT her more than his job. Lena didn’t know what to think, and she was scared to be happy. Sleeping in Solan’s arms had been a dream come true, but she hadn’t wanted to wake, worried how he’d react. This, though, was more than she could have anticipated.

“You really want to see where this goes?” She saw surety in his eyes. He believed what he was saying. But he’d shifted his view so quickly that she was afraid.

“I do,” he said.

“With me?” She had to make sure, even though she couldn’t stop smiling or touching him.

He was smiling right back. “Is there anyone else in the room?”

She gave an exaggerated look around, as if a third person was waiting out of view. Luckily there wasn’t. Of course, if there had been another person in the room, they’d probably be undergoing a challenge, something she didn’t want to try naked.

He cupped her chin and peered deep into her eyes, holding her trapped in his gaze. “You’re my Match. Perhaps it’s time to give in.”

She winced. Give in? Yeah, not so great. “I get that fate has a part to play in this, but I’m more than just some... some... I can’t even think of the right word.” She didn’t want to be the person he was forced to choose. That wasn’t any kind of choice, and the thing between them was bound to fail before it began.

He didn’t let go, and Lena couldn’t make herself pull away. She was weak for this man. “You want me to say I’d choose you if there was no Match?”

“It sounds stupid when you say it like that, of course you wouldn’t.” He wasn’t human. This wasn’t Earth. Why did she keep forgetting that? The rules and expectations were different here, and she was going to run headlong into heartbreak if she couldn’t keep that in mind.

But Solan wasn’t giving up. “I can’t say what I would have done,” he admitted. “But I appreciated your spirit when we met, your dedication. You stood up from a medbay bed and rushed right into battle to save your friends. I thought of you after you left the ship. Would I have acted on it? Probably no.”

Right. This didn’t sound good, and she didn’t want to hear anymore. She wasn’t going to let the memory of spectacular sex get ruined by this mortifying conversation. She started to pull back.

Solan’s arm stopped her, not gripping tight enough to hurt. She could have pulled away if she needed, but she wanted to hear what he was going to say. “You’re adjusting to a new world, literally.