It'd been a day since Artos went running out of my apartment for reasons unknown when he inexplicably showed back up again, pounding on my door. I opened it, and the sight I saw left me in disbelief.

His clothes were rumpled and there were black smudges on his collar, neck, earlobes, and the corners of his lips. I squinted. Not just any black smudges. Lipstick, judging by the faint sheen.

"What happened to you?" I asked.

"It's a long story. Short version? I went to find Talys but he was gone. Far enough that the signal of my tablet couldn't reach him for a video link, and he never checks his messages—I have to do that—so I couldn't contact him. So, I found someone who had the technology to do so."

"That's the short version?"

"It's the least embarrassing version. By far."

I pointed at the various black marks on him. "Should I even ask?"

"That would be the embarrassing part, so . . . no."

"So, um, what's going on now?"

"I'll tell you on the way."

"The way where?"

"Let's just get going already," Artos said before rushing down the hallway.

Even though this all seemed a little harebrained, I darted back inside to grab my badge, then hurried after him. When we reached the main floor and went outside, there was a sleek, black vehicle awaiting us, hovering quietly above the glowing white line. It looked much, much different from the white spheres I saw darting around the city all the time.

"What's that about?"

"Get inside and find out," Artos said with a hint of nervousness in his voice. "Just don't get too angry."

As if on cue, the door opened on its own, the dark interior beckoning me inside.

"I don't like this." I narrowed my eyes at Artos. "Seems fishy. Very fishy."

"Oh, it is, trust me, but it's the best we've got. Get in."

He gave me a gentle push. I stumbled forward and climbed into the vehicle, taking a seat on one of the dark, plush surfaces inside. It took me exactly half a second to figure out why Artos was being so dodgy.

Stretched out and crossed at the ankle—ankles adorned with gold chains and black jewels—were a pair of long, red legs with some very distinct camel-esque feet. I followed them up to the face of Roxa, whose black lips were curled up in a smirk.

As the Korysti settled into the seat beside her, looking anywhere but at me, I let out a startled gasp. "Oh my stars, you didn't."

I was almost impressed that her lipstick was so neat and tidy, considering how much of it was on Artos.

"Oh, he did," Roxa replied with a delighted laugh. "We nearly didn't make it here in time."

I recoiled at the thought of Artos using his body to help me, or whatever it was he thought he was doing. But then I noticed him shyly edging toward Roxa, and I had the sudden realization that maybe his little thing with her was more of a bonus.

"So," Roxa suddenly said, drawing my attention back to her, "you're the one that Talys finally chose. A thousand hearts just broke across the galaxy."

"I wouldn't say he chose me. That's Artos's weird interpretation of his actions." I scrunched up my nose. "Besides, I mean, it's probably not that many hearts . . ."

"Sure, probably not." Her brows slid up her forehead, her smile growing. "Anyway, consider me helping you now as an apology for getting you detained. I was a little upset."

"A little?" I asked, smiling tightly. "You had me imprisoned. I was going to be sent back to captivity."

"Of course not." She waived a manicured hand through the air and sputtered. "I would've let you out soon enough. I just wanted to punish you a little."

I looked at Artos, eyes wide and flicking between him and Roxa.

He gave me one of those boyish smiles. "I have a thing for strong, mean women."

"Well, congratulations." I blew out a puff of air. "You've found your dream girl."

Roxa brushed her fingers under his chin and winked. "It's nice to have someone who appreciates me."

"I'm . . . very happy for you."

"How kind," she replied, studying me quietly for a moment. "You're cute enough. I'm starting to see why Talys was so angry when I locked you away."

"And yet he still ended up spending the night with you."

"I'm not sure where you got that idea from, but all he did was yell at me. Apparently it was very important you went undetected or something." She rolled her eyes, and I again looked at Artos, who was too busy staring at her to care. Honestly. "So I asked him why he wanted me to document your arrival if that was so important, but then he said something about how I was supposed to have forged the documents." She shrugged. "Honestly, it's probably better that I detained you. If you'd been caught trying to immigrate with forged documents, you definitely would've been sent back."

Once I got past her rudeness, I realized there was a nugget of important information in what she said. Talys had really been trying to get me in. I knew that. But I was starting to think he didn't want his name erased from the records to avoid Roxa's father, but maybe so . . . he wouldn't have been connected to me. So the government of Korystus would never know I'd arrived.

Why would he do that? My eyes were steadily growing wider with each thought. I stared at Artos, then Roxa, as realization dawned over me. "He really does like me."

"Not like," Roxa said with a sigh. "Love. Trust me, it was written all over his face."

"What do you mean? When?"

"When I told him you were gravely injured and he needed to fly right back to Nexion 6."

"Why would you tell him that?! Why lie?!"

"Because it'll force him to face the truth. He wants you, and now that he's running the risk of losing you for real, he'll come to his senses."

"Wait, where are we going?" I looked out the darkened window, slowly realizing I recognized the area we were in. We were about to enter the spaceport.

Artos flashed me another grin. "We're going to meet Talys."

My stomach was in knots as a sphere carried me through the spaceport. Roxa and Artos had shoved me inside, told it where to go, then sent me on my way. And now, it was starting to slow, meaning I would have to face Talys soon.

I wasn't sure what I was going to do or say. Him leaving in the middle of the night cut deep. Yet, I couldn't help but think that it hurt so bad because I'd come to really enjoy his company. That I'd started to have feelings for him beyond that frustrating sexual attraction. And I'd been excited to explore what that meant, however foolish of me that was.

My stomach flipped and flopped like a fish out of water. What if Roxa was wrong, and coming back to be with me in my time of need didn't cause some great realization? I couldn't turn back now—mostly because using the spheres still kind of made me nervous and I still needed a little guidance to get to the right place.

As the sphere slowed to a stop, I stared at the control embedded in the wall, quietly considering just getting lost. That might be a viable solution to my sickening worry. Before I could start pressing buttons like a madwoman, I forced myself to get out of the sphere and face the music.

I took a deep breath as I stood in front of Talys's ship, which I suddenly realized was parked diagonally in its spot, encroaching upon the space of the two ships parked in the spots beside him. As I was looking at the terrible parking, and the disgruntled look of one of the aliens beside him, who was also looking at his parking job, Talys flew off the ship, his clothes askew and hair mussed. He ran straight for the sphere I'd just gotten out of.

"Talys," I called out.

"I'm not interested," he snapped as he started to climb inside.

"Talys," I repeated, this time more loudly.

He froze mid-climb and looked over his shoulder in disbelief. "Vera? Vera!" He scrambled back down and ran for me, throwing his arms around me. "What're you doing here? Shouldn't you be resting? You need to go lie down. Now."

Confusion clouded my mind as Talys suddenly swept me up into his arms and carried me to the ship. What had Roxa told him, exactly?

"Move your ship," shouted the alien.

"Move yours," he shouted back. "This is an emergency."

"Doesn't look like one!"

Talys sneered at the alien before walking up the ramp to his ship.

"Unbelievable," he grumbled under his breath. "There's a woman dying in front of him and all he cares about is having his precious space."

"Uhh, what? Dying?"

He looked down at me. "Roxa said you contracted a deadly virus. One that only affects humans, and they don't yet have the medical technology to—" He paused, looked me over, then sighed. "She lied to me, didn't she?"

"Does that really surprise you?"

Talys set me on my feet in the hallway. "Yes, it does. Why would she want me to come back to you? Roxa would never do something that selfless."

"She's, um, sorta moved on."

He looked around, opened his mouth, closed it, then nodded. "Artos. Good to know he finally worked up the nerve."

I arched a brow. "You're not upset about that?"

"Why would I be? I've been fighting her off for years, just hoping Artos would make a move."

"Wait, so you've never . . .?"

"No, and it's made my life miserable. Her father is the head of customs, and she'd always find some way to send him after me when she was mad." He clicked his tongue. "She once tried to get him to confiscate all my collections."

"She's got a real problem with abusing her power."

"It makes me worry for the future of Nexion. But maybe Artos can convince her to be a little less vindictive."

I nodded, slowly, as silence drifted between us. I wasn't sure what our next move was. I wasn't even sure what I wanted it to be. Even if he came back when I "needed" him, there was still the fact that he left in the first place. I couldn't just let that go.

"Why?" I asked, looking up at him through my lashes. Judging by the way his expression crumpled, he knew what I meant without any further explanation.

He brought a hand to my cheek, cupping it in his cool hand. "Do you want the truth, even if it makes me sound pathetic?"

"Whatever it is, I doubt it makes you pathetic."

"I wanted to leave before you got the chance to see I wasn't worth it."

"What? I told you—I told you that I wanted to get to know you more."

"I let someone get to know me once, and they left me for someone vastly more interesting." He swallowed hard. "According to her, at least. In explicit detail."

"You're a hot, sexy, purple alien ambassador who travels the universe and owns Sera and the Space Pirates. What about you isn't interesting?"

"Those are the important things, are they?" Talys chuckled softly, brushing his thumb over my skin. "You certainly make me feel like I might be interesting."

I placed my hand on top of his. "Good, then that means you can stay."

Something pained flickered across his expression. "But I can't. Not forever, that is. I might not agree with how my people have behaved, but I feel like it's my responsibility to help them fix what they've done wrong."

I smiled and rolled my eyes. "Duh, I had a feeling you wouldn't abandon your entire planet. It was just a figure of speech. I meant stay with me. As in, if you're willing to try something very, very long distance, I'm up for it. Besides, I figure I can help out here. Maybe work out something with the embassy. I'm sure they could use the help of a human about now."

My own words took me by surprise. Had I really said that? What could I even offer an embassy? I had a middle school education, some mad cleaning skills, an extensive knowledge of graphic novels, and a pretty okay singing voice, but that was about it. I was human, though, and I could definitely give the government of Korystus some recommendations of where to shove their treatment of my people.

Talys shook his head. "But you want to sing. You should pursue that now that you can."

"Fourteen-year-old Vera wanted to sing. Twenty-six-year-old Vera's priorities have shifted." I made a face at myself. "As of about ten seconds ago. Officially, at least."

He chuckled. "You don't have to do that. You can still pursue fourteen-year-old Vera's dreams."

"It's not like I'm going to stop doing the things I love, but my caseworker here on Nexion actually told me that she'd heard about Naomi's video. It's spread that far. That's pretty cool, isn't it?"

"Yes, that created a lot of trouble for us." His eyes narrowed but he was still smiling. "It was smart of them to play it in the spaceport. Many visitors got to see that embarrassment live."

"Maybe this makes me sound kind of bad, but before I left, Ulyr offered me a chance to stay and help, or go to Nexion." I winced slightly at the memory, only realizing now that I'd barely even processed those words. I'd only been thinking of myself back then. I let out a long breath before continuing. "I chose Nexion for selfish reasons. But I think I could probably help here. I don't really know how, but . . ."

"I'm sure we could find something."

I couldn't hide my surprise. "You would help?"

"Of course I would." He bent down to place a soft kiss on my lips. "But first we have some other things to discuss."

"Like what?"

"Us, and the bed I tried so hard to get you in while we were traveling here."

I raised a brow. "Oh? What about it?"

I let out a laugh as I was suddenly swept up into his arms again. "I believe I promised to lavish attention on every inch of your body."

"Didn't you already do that once?"

"That was only a taste, Vera. Besides, if you think once is enough for me . . ."

He grinned down at me—the particularly sexy grin that had given me grief during our travels—and I felt a blush starting to warm my neck and cheeks. I touched my hands to his cheeks, and pulled him down for a searing kiss. He was right. We could finish talking about the complicated stuff later, this was a discussion I'd much rather have now.