I blew out a long breath. Lorne watched me as I realized what was going to happen, and he gave me a small smile. My skin went from a dull glow to painfully bright.

I swallowed, not wanting to think too hard about why a simple smile from Lorne was making my skin glow so intensely. Or how when he said my name it made me feel like I was falling. Or how basically anything he did set me off in a way that I could only call uncomfortable. I didn’t have the capacity to handle someone like him. Not right now. Maybe not ever.

I glanced at Declan. He didn’t make my skin glow, and it didn’t give me a rush when he said my name, but he made me feel safe. He was what I needed.

This was so iced. Roan was going to make so much fun of me when I told him about how I was freaking out over some guy when I was about to risk my life. Again. “I guess it’s time to start a war.”

“I guess so.” Lorne’s words hummed through me, setting my glowing skin on fire.

No. This was so not fair. He didn’t glow when I talked.

Lorne’s grin widened, and my glow brightened even more, making it so much worse.

I closed my eyes.

He was doing it on purpose. Damn him.

Chapter Forty-One

It took almost no time for us to get to Declan’s ship. Instead of moving from point A to point B as quickly as possible, the Aunare ships did a series of jumps through space. That’s how Lorne had moved through the galaxy in a few days, while it’d taken us weeks to go from Earth to Abaddon on a SpaceTech ship.

One jump and we were to Declan’s ship. Easy-peasy.

Lorne was running his hands along the desk in front of him as he set up his ship to tow Declan’s. He was standing, eyes darting from the screen to the desk and back again. I couldn’t quite figure out what he was doing exactly. I couldn’t even see what was on the desk. No specific buttons. No keyboard. I had to be missing something, but he was busy. I filed my questions away to ask later.

“Coupled,” Lorne said. “We’ll be there in ten minutes or so. Jumping while towing is a little more complicated. Takes a bit for the ship to enter in all the variables. I set it to drop us just a little outside of SpaceTech’s detection. We’ll swing around to the moon while you land and wait for your signal.”

“Sounds good,” Declan said. His image only took up a small corner of the vidscreen now. He was busy getting stuff ready in his ship.