The Pleasure Principle

“Is that such a surprise?”

“You didn’t say that. Before. When you told me to stay here, to not return to our galaxy.” Her confusion had to be in her eyes, she was sure, because she couldn’t contain it. “D.T., you never said you wanted me here for my protection.”

His jaw tightened for a moment before he said, “Would it have mattered? Would it have persuaded you anymore than me telling you I wanted you to stay here with me? In my bed?”

“Damn it,” she whispered. “You were so demanding when you said it was either you or blockade running.”

“I meant it,” he said.

Gizelle shook her head. “You can’t make me choose. You can’t ask me to, D.T. It’s not fair.”

His jaw clenched. “I know how dangerous it is to make supply runs, Gizelle. Every time you make a run, you put your life at risk.”

“You think I don’t know that?”

How many Gyllian fighters had she evaded?

Countless.

How many had tracked her and tried to shoot the shit out of her small cargo ship?

Just as many.

“Look.” He lifted a hand and raked it through his unruly hair. “I admire what you do. But I don’t like it. And I also know there’s such a thing as pushing your luck.”

“I don’t want to argue about this again,” she said.

“We’re not going to.” One of D.T.’s long fingers slid down her cheek. “Because we’re going to work together. From now on.”

Gizelle’s eyes grew wide. “Meaning?”

“We’re a team now. Maybe we always have been. In a way.”

Gizelle took a moment to process his words. His promise.

Then she smiled. “Yeah, I guess you’re right.” And as she looked around the small, empty room, she realized that Trey had known it, too.

“D.T.,” she said as she turned back to him. “I love you.”

He grinned at her. And Gizelle knew that being a “team” was only the beginning of what they shared.

Epilogue

As Trey dragged on his clothes and slipped from the Pleasure Club, he ignored the familiar tingling of the tattoo that circled his thick arm. He hadn’t needed to stay behind to know that Gizelle and D.T.’s partnership had been solidified tonight. D.T. would fight harder for The Cause, because of Gizelle. Because he’d want her out of danger, and he’d find a way to help end the war in order to ensure her safety. The future of the Milky Way Galaxy would not be so bleak now. Humanity would endure.

And Trey knew—as he knew so many other things because of his peculiar existence—that Gizelle and D.T.’s children would do their duty to maintain peace in the galaxy, once it was restored.

Trey was that much closer to fulfilling his own destiny.

He disappeared into the shadow created by the tall foliage, knowing that now he was needed elsewhere. But it wouldn’t be where he wanted to go, with the people he yearned to see. Not yet. He glanced again at the now-smaller tattoo on his arm. Soon, maybe. But not yet.