Fort Liberty, Volume Two (22 page)

It’s a moment of quiet before the storm, something she’s seizing just for this purpose, tugging him down into the narrow bed. He’s falling, and it’s easy because he’s already been here, and he knows how good it is. No awkwardness, no need to ask permission, just mutual need, mutual exertion, binding in release the way they do, her breath ragged in his ear, her hands digging into his back.

He settles afterward, drifting to sleep with his head tucked against her, and her fingers swirling circles at the back of his neck. Nothing comes, his fire bases lost in warmth, the whisper of alien voices drowned in the steady rhythm of a human heartbeat. The end of one world and the beginning of the next.