I was as nervous as a schoolboy. I’d checked my reflection on the viewscreen several times. Even Pavo had asked if there was a reason why I kept changing my shirt. He thought perhaps the laundry had failed to press it properly. The fact he’d had an opinion on the matter at all barely startled me.

I’d become surprisingly used to Pavo’s…humanity.

The afternoon had gone swiftly, which was a blessing. It was only after I’d returned to my cabin, having followed up on Chan’s security team, the mercs in the brig, Cecil’s wellbeing - short-lived as it would be - and the flight deck, that I began to fixate on the upcoming evening.

I’d handled the mayor’s blustering and threats, and the clean up after his and Archibald’s disastrous machinations, better than I did the anticipation of having Ana in my bed.

And by God, I was having her in my bed. Tonight. Every night, if I could manage it. Even as the captain in me reasserted himself and reminded me, as second-in-command, Ana would be required to work on opposing shifts to me frequently.

It didn’t matter. We were on the same vessel. We were on the same side. We’d make a brilliant team. I was sure of it.

The door chimed. Pavo announced Ana’s presence. And suddenly nothing else mattered but seeing her, holding her, making sure she was all right.

I crossed to the door and Pavo slid it open, and there she was. Fresh, dressed in a simple non-uniform dress that showed off her legs to perfection. Her eyes were smiling, but I noted the hint of redness that rimmed them. She’d been crying. She smelled like lilacs and lavender. I wanted desperately to taste her. I smiled when she smiled.

And then she stepped inside, and the door slid shut behind her, and I was stunned immobile.

“You look beautiful,” I said, my voice barely above a whisper.

She looked around the cabin and frowned. “I swear your quarters are no bigger than mine,” she commented.

“They aren’t,” I said, wanting to touch her. Hold her. Love her. I clenched my hands at my sides.

“You’re the captain!” she complained.

“Maybe I could commandeer the leaseholder’s quarters,” I offered.

She turned to look at me, a smirk gracing her features.

“He had to be good for something. I bet he’s got a fridge stocked full of beer.”

“Specialty beer,” I qualified. “Or expensive wine.”

“Whiskey.”

“No, that’s the mayor.”

“We could raid his stash, too.’

“You’re on.”

We grinned at each other.

“Come here,” I said, holding out my arms.

She walked into them willingly, even as my heart damn near beat right out of my chest.

I kissed her, and she kissed me back. It was so natural. So easy. Archibald and Cecil were forgotten. The ship and the chain of command were suspended. In here, it was just her and me; we were a couple. Not captain and commander. Not an officer-in-charge and his subordinate.

I pulled back and cupped her face, stared into her eyes. Fell into Ana completely.

“How’re you doing?” I asked.

She smiled, this time it was sad.

“She hid how sick she was,” she said. My heart ached for Ana. “Doc thinks she had cancer.”

“I’m sorry, babe,” I said, meaning it with all of my heart. We were so few. To come this far and lose anyone was a travesty. To lose the last of your family was unconscionable.

I held her close and stroked her hair; she clung to me. This was not how I had expected the evening to go, but I would not have changed it for anything.

“I’m sorry,” she said, sometime later, sniffing.

“Don’t be,” I whispered into her hair. “I like being your shoulder to cry on.”

She ran a hand over my shirt, patting it futilely above the damp spot created by her tears. “At least it’s not your uniform that I’m ruining.”

I chuckled. “I have a vision of you wearing your commander’s pips, lying back on my ready room desk as I bring you to climax.”

She blushed. A small smile edging up the corner of her lips.

“I’m sorry to disappoint,” she murmured, straightening her dress.

“You, Ana Kereama, could never disappoint me.”

She shook her head, still smiling.

“Are you hungry?” I asked. I was definitely hungry for something, and it had nothing to do with Chef’s excellently prepared meal.

Ana tipped back her head and stared me in the eyes, then looked over her shoulder at my bed. She stepped away. My heart rate sped up. Then holding out her hand to me, she offered me the best come-hither smile I had ever seen in my life.

I placed my hand in hers and let her lead me to the bed, already envisaging exactly what I would do to her. How many times I would do it. The sounds she’d make. The way she’d feel under my hands and lips and tongue.

With her back to me, she pulled her dress off over her head in one swift move, revealing a completely naked body beneath all that fabric.

“By the stars,” I whispered. “You are the most exquisite thing I have ever seen.”

“The universe is big, Jameson,” she pointed out to me.

“What universe?” I murmured, running my hands up her sides, and then down her chest; my front to her back, my palms cupping her breasts.

She tipped her head back, resting it on my shoulder. I lowered my lips to her neck and devoured her. She tasted of sunshine and beaches, New Zealand pine trees and alpine mountains. She tasted of Old Earth.

“I’m in love with you, Ana Kereama,” I whispered, turning her around, and cupping either side of her neck, tipping her face up to mine with two thumbs gently pressed under her chin. “You were completely unexpected, but I cannot envisage my life without you in it. We are going to make this work.”

She looked at me, all manner of thoughts sweeping through her beautiful eyes. And then, as I held my breath, she nodded her head.

“It’s a new world,” she said and came up on her toes to kiss me.

It was a new, beautiful, stupendously exciting world. I could not wait for what was to follow.

The next few minutes were slow and tender and filled with a frisson of sinuous anticipation. Ana undid the buttons on my shirt, her hands running all over my skin, exploring; her tongue and lips following in their path. When she removed my belt, then undid the buttons on my trousers, I almost exploded.

When she went down on her knees before me, and wrapped her gentle hands around my circumference, and then sucked me into her hot, wet mouth, I did explode.

She took everything.

I laid her down on my bed and returned the favour, making her cry out in ecstasy three times before I worked my way back up her beautiful body. She was a goddess lying before me. A dark-skinned beauty waiting for me to do terribly naughty things. I took my time showing her just how dirty I could be.

We lay in a tangle of sheets afterwards, as the ship’s systems thrummed around us, and Ana fell into a deep, sated sleep. I watched her. I wrapped a strand or two of her hair around my finger; lifted it to my nose and inhaled deeply. I devoured her with my eyes when I’d only moments before devoured her with my entire body. I knew I could never get enough of this woman.

These stolen moments might be all we’d manage, but I was determined we would manage to steal them. We had a ship to run. A crew to direct and keep focused. And a civilian population that would require a steady but firm hand. Things would have to change.

But right then, in the privacy of my cabin, with the woman I had fallen in love with wrapped around me, none of it seemed too daunting. Pavo was free. But without his ties being broken, Ana would not be here with me. I couldn’t bring myself to regret that decision, even as I knew explanations and justifications would be needed once we reached New Earth.

But reaching New Earth was the key. It was the end goal and the motivation for everything. I knew I had a certain amount of autonomy out here in space. And without the lease, I had even more. But one thing I did know, no matter what, I had a responsibility to this sector fleet. To the ten thousand souls within it. To those who’d gone before us and whose leaseholders could, even now, be doing exactly what ours had done. Killing. Mutiny. The potential for a leaseholder war on our arrival was a definite worry. But I knew my role, and I would execute my orders diligently.

I’d just execute my orders with the woman I loved at my side - and in my bed - with me. And together, we’d ensure whatever was wrong with Pavo, whatever was causing that acc…acc…acceptable glitch, wouldn’t interfere with our reaching New Earth in one piece.

“Pavo,” I said softly. “Status.”

“All systems operating within normal parameters, Captain.”

I pulled Ana closer and lay down my head. I was exhausted, actually. Not just the delicious few hours I’d spent with Ana in my bed, but the last few days leading up to Mayor Cecil’s arrest. I was exhausted, and I needed my sleep. I closed my eyes and just as I was drifting off, the warmth of Ana’s body suffusing me, the comm chimed.

“Incoming message from the Sector One Fleet.”

I was sitting upright in an instant, my heart pounding in my chest, Ana stirring beside me, sexy just-woken eyes staring up at me, blinking widely.

I leaned down and kissed her nose and then jumped from the bed.

In seconds I was dressed, not surprised to see Ana was the same. She was an extraordinary officer. I couldn’t tell if my love for her was fuelled by that or by the woman who had just done sensational things to my body.

By the time I pressed my fingers to the gel wall and activated the viewscreen, we were both presentable; if not a little ruffled, out of uniform and in my private cabin. I smirked.

Then straightened my features and answered the hail.

“Jameson,” was said in greeting over the channel.

“Captain Vaughan,” I replied, recognising Chariot’s commanding officer. I turned to Ana slightly and said, “This is my First Officer, Commander Kereama.”

Vaughan nodded his head to her, but his eyes immediately flicked back to me.

“We’ve got a problem,” he said.

“Oh?” I pressed, checking data on a separate viewscreen. “I have you on long-range scanners.”

“We’ve got you too, thank the stars. But that’s the only good thing I have to report.”

He paused, either for dramatic effect or because he didn’t quite know what to say. This wasn’t looking good.

“Out with it, Vaughan,” I urged. “We’re all friends here.”

We had to be if we had any chance of reaching New Earth in time to avoid a war between what was left of the leaseholders.

“My ship must have sustained some damage on launch,” Captain Vaughan said. “We’re only just discovering it now, and it’s…erratic.”

“Erratic?” I repeated.

Vaughan nodded. “Strangest thing. Systems that have been operating nominally are suddenly fluctuating. Then when we run a diagnostic, those same systems are functioning within acceptable parameters again. As if nothing at all were ever wrong with them. Then systems that have been put under strain by the increased thrust we’re travelling under are suddenly working optimally again. As if someone fixed them.”

“I gather your engineering crew aren’t playing a trick on you?” I asked.

“No. My engineering team is top notch. This is something unexpected.”

“I don’t know what to say,” I said. "You’re still maintaining 115% thrust?”

“Yes, but are we doing more damage? We need to shut down everything and run a full diagnostic.”

“How long would that take?”

“Four to six hours if we don’t find anything. Longer if we’ve got as much of a mess on our hands as I believe.”

“Any idea what’s causing it?” I asked, not commenting on the delay, but I wasn’t happy about it. God knows what could be happening right now in the Sector Three and Four Fleets.

“No idea,” he said. “But something’s been fried, and I can only guess the solar flare that took out Vela did some heretofore unknown damage to Chariot as well.”

Shit.

Then Chariot’s captain said, “I hate to have to ask you to wait for us again, John, but I must.”

I looked down at the gel-coated floor and then glanced at Ana.

She held my gaze for a long moment, but no words needed to be said. We’d risked everything to save Pavo, break the lease, protect the fleet, not just for us but for them.

“New Earth can wait,” Ana said, mirroring my own thoughts.

I nodded my head; a wealth of emotions storming through me right then. Even this did not feel as impossible with Ana at my side. On my team.

I turned back to the screen.

“We’re not going anywhere without you, Noah,” I promised.

Noah Vaughan ran a hand through his hair. He looked as ruffled as I was now but for entirely different reasons. I tried not to grin like a cocky teenager. And then signed off and turned towards Ana.

“Are you ready for this?” I asked.

Ready for what? I could see the questions in her eyes. Ready for war with more leaseholders? Ready for humanity’s survival? Or ready for loving me while doing what needed to be done to get us out of this mess?

“Yes,” she said simply.

I grinned like a cocky teenager.

We were ready. Ready for it all. For everything. Even, thank the stars, for the loving.