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"All right," he said after we did some warmups, to which he let me take the lead. "I'm going to?—"

He stepped toward me, his hand up in the air, about to grab my throat. Muscle memory is a funny thing. One moment, he was coming at me. The next, he found himself flat on the ground, staring at me with surprised, wide eyes. "What in the seven suns just happened?"

"I think I just sent you flying on your ass." I laughed. His expression was just too much.

I held out my hand to pull Thrax up, and to my surprise, he allowed it.

"You didn't tell me you were already trained in hand-to-hand combat." He accused with a small hurt expression on his face.

"Not exactly trained," I elaborated. "I helped a self-defense instructor teach other women. I might have picked up a thing or two."

"Well, let's see if you can do this again," he challenged.

I couldn't.

The only reason I had been able to do it in the first place had been because I had taken him by surprise. So what followed were a couple of grueling hours where I found myself more oftendeadthan I liked.

"Dead again," he said accusingly as his hand pressed into my stomach with an invisible knife.

Panting, I lay there, ready for him to filet me. I was done. Dead. Deader than dead.

"Mercy," I pleaded. "I need a shower, food, and some chill time."

"Chill time?" He rose, helping me up.

My legs were spaghetti. Overcooked, buttered, soft spaghetti. Great, now my mouth was watering.

"Yeah, you know, like watching a movie, playing a game or something. A time where you don't think. You're just there, recharge, chill." I shrugged.

"Chill." A small grin spread over his lips, creating a dimple on his right side I must have missed so far and making him look incredibly sexy.

"Chill." I nodded, grinning. "Come on, I'll teach you."

We showered separately—he used one of the other quarters—and then we ate in the break room.

"So you guys don't have any movies?" I asked, playing with the comm he had handed to me. "What do you do for entertainment?"

"We have bars," he said, "and pleasure houses."

I shuddered, thinking it was one of thosepleasure houseswhere he had rescued me from. "Okay, let's say you have kids, a wife, a girlfriend, whatever. Where would you take them for fun?" I elaborated.

He stared at me as if I had spoken a different language. Well, I suppose I had, but that was what we had the translators for.

"I never had a family," he reminded me.

Right. I wanted to slap my head. Memory block, loss, whatever.

"Okay, so let's say you're out in space all by yourself," I hastened to add, not wanting to dwell on this short, uncomfortable moment. "You had a rough day. What would you do?"

He lit up a little. "Watch a holovid."

Okay. I had no idea what a holovid was, but I felt we were getting somewhere. I handed him the comm. "Pretend I'm a human from Earth and have no idea what you're talking about."

He looked at me funny before he quietly chuckled. "I like it when you make jokes."

I stiffened. For a moment there, I had felt like my old self again. At least partly. It was a good feeling.

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