Page 145 of Tethered

“Okay, listen—”

“Vee and I have to go home. I just—”

Tanisira takes my hands and places them on her shoulders, so I’m forced to twist in her lap and straddle her. She holds my gaze fiercely.

“Listen, please.”

I nod, caught in her eyes.

“I bought theHomeboundas a last-minute escape route, but it wouldn’t have been my first choice. I’m glad I did because who knows how much longer I’d have continued to put it off? I plan to get us set up in legitimate transport, upgrade the ship and build from there. But that’s not my dream.”

I frown. “But you said you always wanted a ship of your own.”

“I did. I do. TheHomeboundisn’t it. As soon as I can, I’ll buy the ship I always wanted and give it the name it deserves.”

TheKyena. She’d whispered it to me one night as I was curled up in her arms and practically made me swear a vow of silence.

“I’ll promote someone else to captain theHomebound—Beau, if they’re interested in training—and I’ll be free to make my own schedule.”

I gasp. “Wait.”

I trace her blossoming smile with my thumb, and she speaks around it. “If you take a chance on us, we’ll make it work. It’snot going to be easy, especially at first; I’ll be away for long stretches, and we could lose comms periodically. But if you give me time, I’ll make my way back to you, bit by bit.”

“You can’t mean that,” I say, stunned. “This is what youdo.”

“And I’ll continue to do it, on my own time, in my own way.” She shrugs. “When Vee’s no longer in school, maybe he can learn to captain theKyena.”

A heart shouldn’t feel as fragile as mine, swollen and tender as pride. I’mnotgoing to cry.

“You know that’s eight years away, right?”

She quirks a brow. “According to you, eight years is nothing.”

That pulls a laugh out of me, even though my pulse is stuttering and my hands are threatening to sweat.

“What if you get tired of going weeks, months without—”

“What if you do?” she shoots back.

I’m grown enough to know life is unpredictable, and there are no guarantees except death and taxes. But I can’t see myself wanting anyone else.

I chew on my lip. “Are you really signing on for my kid?”

“I adore your kid. I love your kid. I think I’ve proven I’d do anything for your kid.”

I think Tanisira is the only person, second to Vee, who has ever made me smile so much. If you asked her, I don’t think she’d agree, but she constantly makes me laugh without even trying; she’s just so earnest where other people often aren’t. Smiling now, I slide my hands up from her shoulders and cup her neck on either side. I look, look hard, for any trace of hesitation in her expression, in the curve of her mouth and the gleam of her eyes.

She’s serious.

“What I’m hearing is that we have less than two weeks to have as much sex as possible, eat as many pastries as we canand take as many walks as we can stand before those things become fewer and farther in between.”

She chuckles, fingers curling around my waist so I don’t go flying off her lap.

“Coming home to you is going to be the highlight of my trips.”

Butterflies take flight in my stomach. “Did you just invite yourself into my humble abode?”

“Technically, I live on my ship,” she says slyly. “But by now, I’ve accepted wherever you are is where home will be.”