“Do you like chocolate cake and cherry cheesecake?”
Holy shit. He really did read them. “Do you even have chocolate on Velerion? Or cherries?”
“I will find a way to acquire some. I would very much like to do as this Rezzer did and taste your favorite sweets directly from your skin. And your pussy.”
Was it hot in here? What was I supposed to say?
Say yes, stupid.
“Okay. Yes. I’d like that.”
“Excellent.”
I’d like him to tell me he loved me as well, but I could wait. I didn’t need external validation. Not anymore. I could love him and not worry about anything else.
The feeling was damn liberating.
We floated silently for what felt like hours but was only a few minutes before Tor’s voice interrupted my imaginings of Darius licking chocolate frosting off my nipples and cherry syrup from my…
“Detonation in five seconds. Four. Three. Two. One.”
The blast was small. Disappointing. More like a tiny flicker of light than an explosion.
“That was anticlimactic,” I said.
“Wait for it,” Darius said and I bit the inside of my cheek as Tor enlarged our view of the enemy ship.
At first nothing happened. There was no sound in space, but I imagined I could hear the bent beams of the ship’s rail systems squeaking and groaning with strain as the massive ship attempted to break apart in response to the explosion. They would believe they were under attack.
Nothing.
“Are you sure they will separate, Tor? That wasn’t a small bomb and a really big ship.”
“Tower separation is standard operating procedure for Battlestars under attack.”
I really, really hoped he was right.
The first sign of trouble was a small flash near the core. Then another. Another.
I squealed with glee as the ship lit up like a string of flashing christmas tree lights and the pieces, the towers, detached, spewing fire and atmosphere that propelled them in random, uncontrollable directions.
Two collided. The burst of light made me close my eyes.
The shockwave rolled over us, shooting us deeper into space faster even than the rail launcher inside the Velerion shuttles.
Darius and I clung to one another, all smiles.
“It worked,” I said.
“Of course,” Tor replied.
No doubt about it, this time he was absolutely being smug.
Now, for that rescue Mia had promised. We were moving fast, in the wrong direction in the middle of a massive field of debris from that Battlestar.
“How much air do you have left?” I asked.
“Enough.”