It was the first time in what felt like weeks since I’d woken in a real bed. I’d managed a shower last night and had something simple to eat, and I remembered Hugo trying stoically not to breakdown when the death toll in Habitat Three had finally been tallied. One hundred and thirty-three. Not the four hundred we’d all feared, thank God. But enough for there to be almost too much grief. Aquila had only managed to affect those in the central hub, and not those in their beds. It was a small victory couched in too many deaths.

But I might as well have been asleep straight afterward because I couldn’t remember getting into the t-shirt I was wearing or getting into the bed I now found myself in.

It was a large bed. Larger than mine had been in our former quarters. It was covered in a masculine coloured duvet, and it looked like someone had slept on the side I wasn’t currently occupying. But they’d slept on top of the covers because the duvet was crushed where they’d laid down on it.

I licked my lips and stared around the room, noting the lack of decoration and the plain gel walls. They were no longer red, which was a relief. But their stillness only amplified the feelings of loss I was having.

My datapad lay on the bedside table; powered down. Someone had brought it here for me. I guessed I could fire it up now that Aquila was gone.

A lump formed in my throat and I blinked my eyes to get rid of the tears. Too many losses to count. Too many to cry for.

I sat up slowly, feeling aches in my body from days of climbing through tunnels and avoiding plasma fire. Ratbag made a yipping sound drawing my eyes to the room that came off this one. The double-wide door was open, and in the attached salon I could see a desk. My puppy came bounding in and jumped up on the bed, whole body wagging.

“There you are,” I said, pulling him close for a cuddle and face licking. My face licked, not his. “What have you been up to?” I asked.

Hugo appeared in the doorway, dressed in full Anderson Universal uniform. Four bars on his collar. Captain of the ship.

“Hey,” he whispered. “Coffee?”

I looked around the room and spotted the kitchenette, then looked back through the doors to the salon.

“Captain’s ready room,” he said.

Had my father been in here?

“It’s been undisturbed since Captain Moore.” With just one look, Hugo could read me. “Andrea helped me clean it out.” Commander López had been in here? I must have missed that. Hugo looked around at the cabinets and gel walls. “It’s a little unusual stepping into someone else’s shoes,” he said, “but I needed to be here to organise things, and you needed a bed to sleep in.”

I didn’t have a home anymore. This was his. Handed down by a dead captain, but Hugo’s just the same.

He’d earned it.

“How about that coffee?” he asked.

I let go of Ratbag, who shot off the bed and ran into the ready room, clearly making himself at home in here. And then I stood up from the bed. The t-shirt reached my knees. It had Anderson Universal Incorporated written on it.

I wasn’t sure what I was meant to be feeling about everything, so much had happened, so much had changed, but one thing I was sure of was Hugo. I was sure of Hugo, and all the rest could wait.

I walked across the room to where he was still standing; almost afraid to enter the bedroom for fear of scaring me, I think. I wasn’t scared anymore. What was there to be scared of? I walked up to him and took hold of his hands, entwining my fingers with his.

He stared down at me with a soft smile on his face, his eyes taking note of every feature. He looked older. Strangely stronger for the hardships he’d faced. I smiled up at him and then moved up to the tip of my toes, bringing my lips close to his.

“No coffee,” I said against them.

“What would you like instead?” he asked.

“You.”

His smile slowly broadened, until nothing in the universe could compare. “Are you sure?”

I nodded my head. “We’re alone together for the first time since the tunnel; I’m very sure.”

Hugo stepped forward and wrapped his arms around my body. With my hands now free, I was able to run my fingers through his hair. He’d shaved, I noticed. I trailed a fingertip across his jaw, noting the smoothness. I’d liked the beard, but this wouldn’t leave any marks when he kissed me.

My feet left the ground as he lifted me up his body and then his lips found mine and his tongue delved inside. I let out a happy sigh as I felt him walk us toward the bed. My legs came up and wrapped around his hips as if I was born for this.

“Adi,” he said, lowering us to the bed I’d just vacated.

“Is the door locked?” I asked breathlessly.

“Yes,” he said and lay down beside me.

He kissed me then; slow and deep. Taking his time and holding me dearly. His hands were gentle, and his lips were soft. He was treating me like a fragile princess, but I wasn’t going to complain. Gentle was good.

My hands explored his uniform first, and then as my courage grew bolder, I undid the buttons on his shirt and pressed my palms against his skin. So hot. So hard. His nipples were pointed, and he groaned when my fingers found them. He had a small smattering of hair over his chest, leading down to his trousers. I followed it, and Hugo made a choking sound in the back of his throat.

He kissed me harder, his own hands having not strayed from where they held me to him; one up in the back of my hair, one on my hip, pulling me close to him.

“I won’t break,” I said into his mouth.

“Adi,” he moaned and kept kissing me.

Deep, slow, long, soft, wet. It lasted minutes or hours, I lost track of time, and all I could do was kiss him back, but I wanted more. My body felt hot; my legs wouldn’t stop scissoring, I was rubbing up against him like a cat in heat. He was rocking against me steadily.

“Hugo,” I said. “Please.”

My t-shirt came off in the next breath, and he stared down at me. He looked stunned. He looked a little in awe. His eyes shone, and his cheeks were flushed, and he licked his lips hungrily.

“Didn’t you see me when you helped me get undressed?” I asked.

“I closed my eyes,” he admitted. “Damn, I should have peeked, then I wouldn’t have spent the entire night dreaming about it and getting it so damn wrong. You are more beautiful than I could ever have imagined, Adi,” he said, looking up into my eyes again. “Stunning.”

I reached up and kissed him then. A thank you for making me feel special. His hand moved from my hip and tentatively swept up my waist, over my ribcage, until he wrapped it around one breast.

“Oh, God,” he said against my lips. “I have to…”

And then his head dipped down, and his tongue licked out, catching my nipple. I arched my back, offering myself up to him. He moaned and sucked, taking my nipple into his mouth while his hand plumped up my breast for him to savour.

I thought I might come from that alone, but Hugo had found his courage too it seemed, because his free hand slipped down over my stomach and found my curls. And then a lone digit stroked through the moist folds, and I let out a sound of pure ecstasy.

He didn’t stop until I was writhing and moaning beneath him, and then with one swirl of his thumb over my clit, I came apart beneath him.

“Stunning,” he whispered, staring down at me as I blinked my eyes open.

“Mmm,” I managed and then reached for his trousers. “Your turn.”

His eyes were pure molten liquid; searingly hot and extraordinary. He held onto my breast while I fumbled with his trousers, a thumb gently rubbing over the nipple. It was as if he couldn’t get enough of simply touching me.

His trousers came off and then we were both bare. Nothing between us but a slim strip of air. My breasts rubbed up against his chest, the hair making my nipples tingle. His hands roamed over my body from my neck down my back, over my butt and thighs, and then back up again. Occasionally he’d venture around the front and squeeze a breast or tease my clit or stroke down my throat and over my clavicles.

Our bodies became slick with sweat as we kissed and rubbed and heated up everything we touched until I was sure the room would burst into flames all around us. In what felt like an entirely natural progression, I found myself beneath his larger form, my legs wrapped around his hips, his upper body resting on his elbows, his hard length thrusting between my thighs; so close; so wanted. Just there.

I couldn’t get enough of his touch or his heat or his taste. I arched up and greedily took everything he offered. And then he rolled his hips, placed the head of his cock in exactly the right position, and thrust forward slowly, until he breached my body, sinking himself inside in ever increased amounts.

He took his time, while he kissed me into a dizzying sense of oblivion. And then he was there, all the way in, and I couldn’t stop the low moan that escaped and the plea for more.

He started rocking. I met each thrust. The pace grew. Our kisses became frantic. The world outside of just this ceased to exist, and all that mattered was reaching that pinnacle with Hugo. At my side. On top of me. All around me. Inside me. Everywhere.

“Hugo!” I cried as I came, my body shuddering.

He groaned and pumped into me harder, faster, but still so carefully, still so aware of just how much I could take. The kiss became difficult to maintain, with the way our bodies were banging into each other. And then he threw back his head, the veins on his neck standing out on either side and let out a shout of joy.

I could feel him climaxing, and I had never been so turned on before.

I stared up at this man who had taken on an army, who had only ever shown me respect and love and appreciation. Who had stepped into the dream role I had created of a superhero who would come and save me from the horrors of my world. And who had far surpassed the fantasy.

The world shone brighter because Hugo Tremblay was in it. And he was mine.

“Adi,” he said, lowering his forehead to mine and breathing deeply. He kept most of his weight off my body, but we still remained connected. I could feel his cock jerking inside as he came down from that spectacular high we’d just shared so intimately. “Damn,” he said, smiling, eyes shining. “That was some homecoming.”

“Homecoming?” I said, smiling wide. I couldn’t stop grinning. I was sure I’d never be able to stop.

Hugo pulled back and looked down at me, his smirk so endearing, the look of a man well satisfied entirely too ego boosting. I could get addicted to this, I thought.

“Home,” he said. “Until we reach New Earth, this is our home. I’ve fallen for you, too, Adi Price. And I’m not letting you go.”

There was nowhere I’d rather have been.

He lowered his forehead to mine and whispered, “I can’t look back. There’s nothing but darkness and loss and heartache behind me. But when I look to the future, when I see you there beside me, it’s sunshine and warmth and nothing but the sparkle of bright stars for as far as the eye can see.”

I tipped my face up and kissed him soundly.

“Adi,” he said against me. “You mean everything to me. You saved me.”

“I thought you saved me,” I said. Or saved the entire Sector Fleet.

He pulled back and shook his head, his eyes earnest and so compelling.

“No, baby,” he said. “You saved me.”

I didn’t argue with him. I knew he was the hero of my dreams. The knight in shining armour I’d prayed for. Despite all the odds, Hugo Tremblay had rescued me.

But maybe that’s what two people in love do for each other, I thought. They save their loved one from the darkness that threatens daily and they shine a light for them to see.

Hugo had shined a light for me.

And I had shined a light for him.

“OK,” I said, smiling. “Maybe we saved each other.”

“I can live with that,” he said and kissed me.