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I try the shutters again; he taps at the door to gauge its thickness We share a few ideas, each more improbable than the last Tentatively we think about so ram, but even if we use the rusted tools to chop down a tree, there’s no way the two of us could lift and swing a log big enough to break a steel door Whatever supplies or equipht be inside stay fire of rass toward ency in the voices thatfrom the station itself--we’re not the only ones who desperately want to find a way to get the station open The whispers have been leading us here all along, and now they’re beseeching us to coive up and return to our cave to rekindle the fire and reasseot scattered about the place As I’ blankets, Tarver’s crouched by the fire Tonight he’s building it up high Easier to be naked, he says, when you’re not freezing
"Slu onto oure to let it slide under the circu? Act like you’re beneath , dismissive "The whole universe knows I’m beneath you, Miss LaRoux It doesn’t bother ive or take" I choose my words carefully "Three thousand of them soldiers At least a dozen decorated war heroes I looked at you"
He starts to speak, but I run h toin his throat at
"Do you think I like you just because you saved my life? Because you knohat to do and I don’t, because youmy mind? Because you’re the only man on the planet?"
He protests, but I see it in his face I’
"It is," I whisper "It’s because of all those things It’s because of your strength, but it’s because of your goodness too, and your softness You act like you inherited nothing from your mother, but that’s not true There’s--there’s poetry in you"
He inhales sharply, the ar intome close I can’t breathe--I don’t want to When he speaks his voice shakes a little, the way it did right before he kissed me for the first time
"Sometimes you take all my words away from me" He leans back onto his elbow, then pullswith the press of his lips When he breaks the kiss I end up blinking down at hiht, Miss LaRoux," he murmurs "I am beneath you"
It takes me a few seconds to see the spark of ahing, in his way, not at my expense but because he’s happy too So I blurt one of the words I learned fro that serves as our pillow to swing it at his head
He catcheswith such speed that I’ as he pulls hter with hisdownin my belly
Tarver tilts his head to kissI lift my chin and he makes his way down my throat, the softness of his hness of the stubble on his face
Sparks, I think, so The seed of an idea, the one I’ve been trying to ignore, leaps into a fully fledged plan
"We should blow the doors off the station"
Tarver stopsabsolutely baffled "We should what now?"
"The doors! They’re too thick to break open with any battering ram we could lift, but an explosion? That would do it, wouldn’t it?"
He’s blinking atinterrupted "You’re being evenup to run h his hair "The hovercraft, in the shed? There are fuel tanks in the back Stack a few of those up against the door, ot ourselves a party"
His expression is shifting from cranky to cautiously impressed, and I can’t help but feel a thrill of excitement that he’s impressed with me Genuinely, without sympathy or surprise Like equals
"Who are you," he says eventually, "and what have you done with my Lilac?"
My Lilac I want to stop and revel in that, but I’m too excited by my idea "Anna has older brothers, and when I was little we’d blow things up all the time on our tennis court My father had to have it resurfaced soa little For the loss of s e were children--for the loss ofmy face "We’ll have to be careful Clear the trees froer of a fire afterward"