Backing away from him felt like losing a limb, but the second step was easier. “Not while you’re bound,” I repeated. I glanced up at him from under my lashes. “But if you’d like to renounce your debt . . .”

“Clever,” he murmured, “but you’ll have to try harder than that to get rid of me.”

I couldn’t hide my grin. “It was worth a shot.”

I shook my arms as if I could shake off the desire simmering in my blood. I gathered up our dishes and headed for the sanitizer. I hadn’t found it the first day because it looked nothing like I’d expected, but it cleaned the dishes and that’s what mattered.

Torran followed me.

“What are you doing?” I asked once I was done with the dishes. When he didn’t answer, I asked, “Is this part of the debt?”

“I’m ensuring your safety,” he said. The tone was light, but his expression was deadly serious.

“Is there some reason you think I’m not safe in your house?” He shook his head, so I waved my hands at him. “Shoo. Go bother someone else.”

He didn’t move, but one side of his mouth curled up into a delicious grin.

“I order you to go away,” I tried.

Instead of leaving, he stalked closer. “I’ll remind you once again,” he murmured, “that I don’t have to follow your orders.”

“You may not have to,” I said, secretly relieved that orders didn’t actually work, “but you’d better consider doing it anyway or you are not going to appreciate where I put my boot in relation to your posterior.”

He chuckled as the threat bounced off him without making the slightest impact.

I sighed. “If you’re going to tail me anyway, we might as well go see what my team thinks about leaving tonight.”

I had a pretty good idea how they would vote, but I wanted to discuss the decision. And the comm had been unusually silent since Torran’s little stunt, so I needed to head off any rumors before they got started.

“After you,” Torran said, sweeping his hand toward the war room.

I rolled my eyes, but I led him out of the kitchen.

After an hour of discussing it, my team decided to stay. Lexi and Eli voted to leave today while Anja, Kee, and I voted to stay for another week to try to find Cien.

Lexi and Eli were the most pragmatic members of the group. It wasn’t that they hated kids, it was more that they had weighed the risks and decided to protect the ones they loved. But once they were outvoted, they threw themselves back into the search without a single grumble of complaint.

Much to my relief, Torran did eventually leave me on my own. But as soon as he’d cleared the door, Kee spun her chair around to face me. “Spill.”