Then to her complete amazement, he picked her foot up to examine it.

“Your Majesty—”

“Don’t speak to me,” he ground out between his clenched teeth. But the tenderness in his touch as he felt her foot for broken bones belied the hostility in that sharp command.

Without meeting her gaze, he got up and went to his desk where he buzzed his staff. “I need a medic in my office immediately.”

“Ke—”

He held his hand up in a sharp gesture that instantly silenced her. He turned his head to pin her with a furious glower that was evident even with that featureless mask covering his face. “What did I tell you?”

“Not to speak.”

“Then I suggest you obey me.”

Zarya arched a brow at that imperious command.

Oh no, he didn’t…

“Obey? Obey!” she repeated as her own anger ignited. No one said that to her. Not even if he owned the galaxy! Which Darling actually did, but that didn’t matter. “I know you did not just use that word with me.”

He growled at her. “Woman, if you have an ounce of self-preservation, you will heed my orders to be silent. Right. Now.”

She glared at him. That arrogant, imperial tone destroyed every last piece of common sense she possessed. “Fine. Shove it straight where the sun doesn’t shine, buddy. You don’t talk to me like that. No one does. I’m done with this and with you!” She got up and limped for the door.

Before she could take more than four steps, he was there, sweeping her feet out from under her again. He cradled her against his chest.

It took everything she had not to punch him. “Put me down!”

Darling wanted to choke her. His breathing ragged, all he could think about was hurting her until she begged him for mercy.

That thought took him straight back to Clarion and Pip, and his days under their “tender” care.

“I’ve had to eat shit from the aristocracy my whole life. It’s time you choke on it, too, you rich prick. You and your kind gave us nothing as you ate your fine, overpriced dinners and lounged around while we worked until our hands bled. So we’re not going to give you any mercy either. For once, you can choke on our shit.”

He ground his teeth as he fought against the pain of that memory and countless others that refused to give him any peace or quarter.

But as Zarya’s scent filled his head and she glared at him with high color in her cheeks, he remembered something so much better. Nights of being held and loved. Nights when they’d been together and she’d breathed a life and warmth into him that he’d never known before.

Gods, how he missed those times. The sound of her sweet voice in his ear while he was deep inside her. Of her lips buried against his throat…

Suddenly another urge rose up inside him to quell the others as he remembered how good it felt to slide into her body.