Burning Love [Flights of Fancy 1] (Siren Publishing Menage Amour) by Melodee Aaron

robe. She almost laughed out loud when his mouth opened and closed rapidly like a fish on the riverbank.
    But now, he stared into her eyes, his face only half a meter from hers, and his expression was one she'd never seen before. Oddly slack, the skin of his face hung loose, like all the muscles simply stopped working and left him unable to move. His mouth was open slightly, and she heard the rush of air from his quick, shallow breaths as it whistled softly between his lips. Spence's eyes flickered rapidly, his gaze moving across her face as he looked from one of her eyes to the other, and then back again.
    His hand still rested on his knee, but as soon as she placed her hand on top of his, his restless movements stopped. Now, Star felt a warmth flowing up her arm from the contact with him, one that rivaled the heat from the Hendri. As the warmth enclosed her, she suddenly felt safe and protected, though her mind could find no reason for her emotions to be triggered so. Somehow, Star knew Spence's protective streak went much deeper than just his job or even his duty.
    Suddenly, Spence's face went hard, and a forced grimace came to his visage. He stood up so quickly that she nearly fell from the couch, and he moved to step away from her.
    Star grabbed at his wrist and stood up next to him. "What are you doing?"
    His gaze continued to flit over her face as before, but she saw a trident of lines form between his brows, and perspiration ran slowly down his temples despite the coolness of the room. His body tensed again, and his jaw seemed tight when he spoke. "I need to go for a walk."
    "Where?"
    Spence froze for a moment, his expression blank. "I need to check something at the landing craft."
    "What?"
    As suddenly as he had moved from the sofa, he seemed to sag in on himself. "It doesn't matter. I'll be back soon." He tried to turn to the door, but Star held his wrist.
    "Just a damned minute. We need to talk, and this is important. You're not just going to walk out on me with no explanation to avoid the conversation and then pull us out of here." She caught her breath, realizing what was making her so angry. "I will not give you the comfort of yanking this mission and feeling good about it because you don't know my position."
    She didn't know if it was what she said or the shrill anger creeping into her voice that made him turn back to face her, but a smile touched his lips. The smile had a sadness to it, though, almost like Spence reached some decision and resigned himself to follow that direction. In some ways, the resignation didn't surprise her because she'd come to expect that of military people; right or wrong, they would follow the path their sometimes distorted sense of duty and honor painted before them, and everything else be damned.
    "Oh, I know very well what your position is, Star. You'd stay here until they come to kill us all in our sleep." He shrugged a little. "You probably don't know it, but I'm very much inclined to do that, too, just to give you the chance you so badly want to prove yourself." The smile never left his face, but some of the sadness faded, if not the resolve behind it. "You don't need to prove yourself to me, though."
    His comments left her off balance, and she didn't know what to do with the anger she still harbored. "I don't understand."
    "No, I guess you don't. I don't need to go for a walk to avoid what you have to say. I don't need to do anything at the ship, either."
    "Then why do you need to go for a walk?"
    "The short answer is that I need to get away from you for a while."
    What the hell was he talking about? Star's anger hadn't subsided, and it only served to confuse her more in the face of his saying he didn't want to leave. "OK, you've really thrown me a curve here. What's this all about?"
    "Yeah, it's a little confusing, even for me." He paused, but his eyes stayed locked to her face. "One of the few things I care about right now is keeping you safe."
    He reached up and touched her