Page 111 (1/2)

But he had been The fact that the wo him in turn didn’t make him feel better about it

Because Nao up on Earth had created, he had just not seen her as a potential sexual partner when they’d first rown to know her as a person without any of the sexual baggage he usually carried When his feelings for her grew beyond friendship, he was surprised

And soht all be the same, but the desire to coed what everything ether, he’d lain in bed for hours feeling like he’d been doing it wrong for years and only just realized it

He was doing that again now

Naomi slept on her side next to hih across his, her belly against his hip and her breast against his ribs It had never been like this with anyone before her, and this hat it was supposed to be like This sense of coine a future in which he hadn’t been able to prove he’d changed, and in which she never came back to him He could see years and decades of sexual partners, always trying to recapture this feeling and never being able to because, of course, it wasn’t really about the sex

Thinking about it made his stomach hurt

Nao mysterious into his neck, and the sudden tickle woke higed her head to his chest and kissed the top of it, then rolled over onto his side and let himself fade

The wall monitor over the bed buzzed

“Who is it?” he said, suddenly as tired as he could re been He’d just closed his eyes a second earlier, and he knew he’d never be able to open them now

“Me, Cap,” Alex said Holden wanted to shout at hiy

“Okay”