Part 22 (1/2)
”Well, your mission was a success,” said Greays. ”JuJuren is pretending he doesn't know what we're talking about, but we don't need a confession. We have more than enough evidence to see him court-martialed. I'm glad you got him. He was an ugly bruise on the good name of this militia.”
”Thank you, sir,” Bronse replied absently, pausing in his frenetic pacing to try to see past the hazed-over gla.s.s of Rave's treatment room. They wouldn't let him in there. They wouldn't come out to talk to him until they knew for certain whether or not her brain was permanently damaged. They'd told him she could have collapsed from a stroke. Or a lot of strokes. They wouldn't know until the scans were done.
He felt like he was going to drown. Every minute was clawing the breath out of his body. He didn't care what he had to do, he was going to see that they made her better. He would force them to fix her. Or he would do it himself.
”You're not as smart as you think you are, you know,” Greays said to him.
Bronse stopped short and stared at the admiral as Greays folded his arms over his chest and leaned back against the wall. ”Sir?” was all Bronse could think to say. Had they found out? Did they know what Ravenna could do? Vivienne had scrambled all the security footage with just the touch of a hand, and there had been no other witnesses. Had the erasure not been enough? Had JuJuren said something?
”Oh, you're very careful not to show it,” Greays mused, ”but there are times when you can't hide it no matter how hard you try.” The admiral c.o.c.ked half a smile at Bronse's blank stare. ”The girl and you, Commander. You've got that kind of energy where you can touch each other without touching each other. The closer you get, the stronger the attraction. Why do you think I put you and Ravenna in housing together? It's less of a distraction to have you close to each other than to have you separated.”
”And ... you don't object?” Bronse asked with surprise. ”The way you treat her, I thought I'd end up in the brig for even thinking about touching her.”
”Not that that stopped you.”
”No, sir. Nothing would have stopped me,” Bronse agreed.
”I don't approve of couples going out on-mission together.”
”I understand, sir.”
”But in this case I don't see how I have much choice. Only your team knows about the Chosen Ones, and that's the way it's going to stay. I don't need this becoming the worst-kept secret on the station.”
”No, sir. We don't want that, either.”
”Good. And if she makes it through this, I'll need to see some real dedication and professionalism from both of you or I will split you up.”
”Admiral Greays,” Bronse said, ”if she makes it out of this, I'll give everyone anything they want.”
As if on cue, the door behind Bronse opened and a senior-level medic came out of the room. He saw the drawn tension in the face of the man before him and quickly took pity on him.
”She's awake. Speech is normal and-” But he was already talking to an empty doorway. The doctor chuckled and turned to the admiral. ”Motor function is a little sluggish but otherwise normal. She has a h.e.l.l of a headache, and she's lucky she's not a vegetable. I don't know what went on in the field, but I've never seen a brain scan like that in my life. It was like she had hundreds of tiny strokes all at once all over her brain. How does that happen to a person?”
The admiral shrugged. ”You're the doctor, you tell me.”
Bronse walked into the room and saw two technicians fussing over Ravenna and the equipment they had monitoring her. She looked up to see him, her pretty eyes bloodshot and tired. The minute she saw him, tears welled up. He was by her side instantly, gathering her up in his arms and holding her against his chest as if he would never let her go.
”I love you too,” she rasped out, her voice thick and so weary that it broke his heart to hear it. ”Thank you. Thank you so much for stopping me.”
”You stopped yourself, although I wasn't going to let you do anything you'd regret. You know I don't work that way. And I do love you. It's the d.a.m.ndest thing, something so alien to me in so many ways, and yet it came so naturally with you. Only with you.” He pressed gentle kisses to her upturned face, then kissed her lips so gently that her numbed body could barely feel it. ”You almost killed yourself, you know. I don't think I need to tell you to never do that again. I don't care how much you think you're helping. The price you pay is not worth it. You got me?”
”Okay,” she sighed softly, burrowing her cheek into his chest. ”Believe me, it's the last thing I ever want to do again.”
”Can you give us the room?” he asked the technicians standing over her head. They seemed to hesitate. ”I promise if she so much as blinks the wrong way, I'll call you back in.”
”Just watch her speech. If she slurs, there's trouble.”
The medics exited the room.
”Okay, we're alone now,” he told her softly. ”Which is good because I'm about to do the one thing I swore to myself I would never, ever do again in the whole of my life. I want you to know that, so you know just how important this is, okay? And I think I'm asking because you're a little out of it and I'm not above using dirty tricks.”
”What is it?” she asked with a giggle.
”Will you join with me? Become my wife? I promise not to change a d.a.m.n thing about myself and be exactly the same person you see sitting here today.”
She laughed at him. ”Good. Because I wouldn't want you any other way. Even if things change and we end up on separate missions all the time. I won't care as long as we come home to each other and my family.”
”Our family is going to be huge,” he promised her. ”I have a lot of uncles and cousins. You have a boatload of Chosen Ones. Holidays are going to be enormous.”
”I would really, really like that. But aren't you afraid of what the top bra.s.s will say about it?”
Bronse kissed her softly, then gave her a sheepish grin. ”We weren't as clandestine as we thought we were. Greays knows. And he's fine with it as long as it doesn't interfere with our work.”
”I think it will just make it better.” She hugged him as tightly as she could. ”I'm so glad I waited for you. Every moment of pain was well worth it. This was so worth it.”
He smiled into her hair, but then he sighed. ”Your brother hates me.”
”My brother isn't the one you have to worry about. You just worry about making me happy. I'll take care of Kith.”
”How can I make you happy?” he asked, his smile almost wolfish as he kissed her cheek, her jaw, and then the side of her neck.
”You really want to know?”
”Always.”
”Get the medic. I have a b.i.t.c.h of headache.”
”d.a.m.n. Not even joined yet and you're already using the headache excuse.” He chuckled.
She slowly wrapped one hand around his neck and then laid the other over his heart.
”You better do it or I'm going to tell you your fortune and it won't be good.”
”None of that,” he said, grasping her hands and pulling them down to a safe place against his chest. ”I don't need my fortune told. I already know exactly how lucky I am and how happy I'm going to be.”
Read on for an excerpt from
SEDUCE ME IN FLAMES.