There is still plenty of work to be found.

“Yes, Carter,” I say. “Thank you, Carter.” I roll my eyes, Lena’s steps matching mine as we walk through the now very familiar streets of Daru. Hang up, she mouths. These days, I probably could with no actual consequences, as our small documentary series has rocketed into the top three earners for the station. What was supposed to be a brief excursion to Veloria has turned into an entire season’s worth of material gleaned from visiting the surrounding planets, using Veloria as a base of operations. It has kept me close to Takkan, for the most part. Just as I am about to continue the conversation, Lena snatches my wrist and brings the comm closer to her lips. “I’m so sorry sir. We’re headed through an asteroid field. Need all the eyes we can get.”

Mr Carter apologizes profusely before hanging up.

“I’d already told him we were planetside, Lena.”

She shrugs. “So, he’ll fire you. And then his higher ups will fire him for firing you, and so on and so forth. Are you starving? I’m starving?”

“You know I don’t have time to eat,” I say. “I’m meeting Takkan and then we’re off again.”

Lena smirks. “If you’re meeting Takkan, then I have days to eat. I think I’ll head to that shop in the village. Comm me when you’re ready to head out.” She does not mention that her journey to the small restaurant has everything to do with the Velorian woman who cooks the food and nothing to do with the food itself.

She is gone before I can blink, headed to the air-train. This is only a short stopover on our way to our next planet, and neither of us has gotten to spend the time exactly as we would like. Takkan and I spent the past two nights together, but today, he is busy with meetings and council business all morning. This rendezvous at the ship will be our last chance to touch each other for another few days, and I plan to take full advantage of it.

The palace guards know me now, and I have no trouble slipping inside the hangar. I still smile each time I see my ship, a near replica of Takkan’s, usually piloted by whichever of his guards he can spare. My fingers are crossed that it is Etto, as he is still the most familiar of them, and therefore, my favorite. I didprotest at first, but Takkan explained that it would be an insult to the palace to refuse, and they would have done the same for the mate of anyone of substance. I’m good with a blaster, but so not good that I will deny him the peace of mind of knowing that I am safe. The risk is higher than it used to be, what with my face plastered on tabloid sites, and I don’t have the heart to refuse a gesture given in kindness.

When I climb up the ramp, I find him already waiting. He stands in the cockpit, facing away from me, but I recognize him by the shape of his back the slope of his shoulders beneath the cloak that he wears. I entwine my arms around his neck and rest my mouth against it, just to the right of one of the spines that forms a line along his spine. I feel him relax at the attention, before he turns to meet me, lips claiming mine in a near-bruising kiss that I return with twice as much enthusiasm. When we break apart, and I get the chance to look at him, I see that the cloak is the same one he’d worn to our first meeting.

“I didn’t know I was meeting a stranger,” I say.

“Not quite a stranger,” he answers. “An old acquaintance.”

“I hope this doesn’t mean we have to use a tent again,” I say. “I was growing rather fond of lying on mattresses.”

His laugh is steadily becoming my favorite sound. Impressive, when you consider I’ve still known him a bit less than six months. Earth months, I mean. The passage of time on Veloria’s stationary planet still continues to elude me. “Only if you’d prefer to,” he says. “We could make the trek through the palace to my quarters if you like.”

“Suppose I can’t wait that long?”

“Then your room here on the ship will have to suffice.”

It is a suggestion I agree with. I grip him by the arm and pull him there, winding through the narrow hallways until we reach my quarters, which doubles as Takkan’s room on certain occasions, though not quite as often as I would like.

We waste no time in beginning to undress each other, movements as familiar now as undressing ourselves. I no longer fumble with the oddly placed clasps of his clothes, and his fingers no longer hesitate before finding the quickest way to divest me of my shirt and bra.

“How was the meeting?” I ask. I know that it has to do with the planet’s security and bringing it back up to snuff in the wake of Wylt’s plot. Two of the council had been removed on charges of treason, exiled from the surrounding planets. There is a third that no one is sure of, but there is not enough evidence to remove him. Wylt herself is imprisoned far from here, in a rather notorious prison on the fire-side of the planet.

“Good,” he says. “Jari is making headway on our ‘cult problem’ as Lena calls it. They’re calling themselves the Conquerors now, though what they think they’ve conquered is anyone’s guess. He and his squad arrested several more on their last mission, and we think their hold on the tundra is loosening. What about you?”he asks as he is draping my pants over the end of the bed, wrapping his arms around me from behind, and kissing the back of my neck in the same way I just greeted him. “Any news?”

I gasp as he moves forward, licking just below my ear, giving the lobe a light nip before moving on to other regions and paying them the attention he feels is due. “Yes,” I say, already somewhat breathless. “Carter has just cleared us for an entire season of content on Velorian culture. And we still have the whole fire-side to explore. Which means…” I trail off with a smile, waiting for him to complete the thought.

“That you will need to travel less.”

“Exactly,” I answer. Our positions have switched now. I push Takkan onto his back and crawl down his body, putting my lips to every few inches of flesh. “And in a few seasons, when we run out, I’m sure Lena will help me come up with a few reasons to stay and keep shooting. When we run out of things to explore in Velorian culture, we can always teach our viewers about Velorian biology.” Here, I give the tip of him a quick kiss, and begin to move down, before his hand catches in my hair and tugs, tilting my face back up. The sensation makes me moan, and his pupils grow wide in answer. I know without him saying so that we will be exploring my reaction to this later, and I grin at the promise.

“You better have a good reason for interrupting me,” I say playfully.

“I wouldn’t dream of doing so otherwise. Reason one,” he begins: “I would like to be inside you. I’ve been thinking of it all day. And two,” he says. “To tell you this: I have clearance from the council to come with you. They want to move forward with our plan to join the Federation and think that me visiting other planets in a diplomatic fashion will further our chances.”

My heart soars. I know being apart periodically has been more difficult on Takkan’s end. Velorians will always feel the pull of a soul-bond more strongly than a mate of another species. But it has been hard for me as well, a constant longing in my chest, an unraveling of something carefully woven. I thought it was what a pilot must feel when separated from the sky and the black of space for too many weeks.

“Lena will be thrilled,” I say. “And of course, you’ll bring Etto and Sovren.”

“Of course, I will,” he echoes, his facing lighting up at the sight of the look on mine. “And what do you think?”

I shrug. “Completely indifferent,” I say. “In fact. Let me show you just how indifferent.”

And so, I do. I tease him to full hardness with my lips and my tongue, though he is already halfway there when I begin. We stop before he finishes, because I ache to feel him spill within me. Takkan is now an undisputed expert at making me hopelessly wet before he so much as nudges at my entrance. It does not take much—the words and filthy praise he utters while I swallow him down are enough to have me dripping. He enters first with one finger, then with two, curling them just so, and in this way, I climax while he is still unbelievably hard and waiting. His name spills from my lips, and I am so happy to know it, to know him, to have a word to form during moments such as this.

“I thought you were showing me something, Wren,” he teases.

“Working up to it.”

“How about I show you something?” he suggests with a hint of ego to his tone that only makes me want him more. He grips my waste and turns me to face away, positioning me before him on my hands and knees.

Even though the world is currently blurred with lingering pleasure, I push back against him, marveling at the ssnug fit as I clench around him, still shuddering with the aftershock of my own orgasm. I have experienced all manner of beautiful things these past months, but this is one of my absolute favorites. Each collision of our sweat-dampened bodies draws a moan from each of us. His hands grab at my hips, driving himself deeper and faster into me with each powerful stroke, guiding me in a chaotic, wanton rhythm. I want nothing more than this. I feel my own pleasure building again, increasing tenfold, when Takkan presses his pelvis firmly against my flesh and unleashes a torrent of passion within me. When he finishes, I come with him. When the violent pleasure fades into soft-edged bliss, I half-collapse and roll over, and he follows beside me. I whisper breathless endearments into his broad chest.

He mutters something that I do not catch, and I have to ask him to repeat it. “I said,” he reiterates, “that I have no idea how we’ll refrain from doing this while you work.”

“We’ll have to be discreet,” I say. “Lena never puts that camera away.”

We doze for a long while instead of sleeping. We talk of many things—of the places we will go and the things we see, and how lucky we are to do such things together. He falls into a peaceful sleep in the midst of talking of children, debating possible names. For a while, I simply watch him instead of sleeping myself, the barely perceptible flutter of his lashes, the occasional twitch of his fingers. I have never needed a permanent residence, but I feel impossibly lucky to have found someone to travel with—and to return to after.

Perhaps that is what a home is.