Alico strolled through the checkpoint of her hangar at Port Nowhere and chuckled. It still tickled her that both the Elsewhere and the Nostalgia for Elsewhere were docked at a place called Port Nowhere. Perhaps that was why her father had wanted to meet there. It was ironic. Isn't it? she thought. Feels like I want to use that word…
It had been six months since the Long Shadow and, as promised, she had kept her father in the loop. They had met twice since Nar Shaddaa and spoken a dozen times over holo. And with Bowdaar on a private security job with an old affiliate, Risha on vacation, and Corso visiting his cousin Rona, it had been the perfect time to meet up again and have dinner. It had been good to see him…
Alico smiled to herself as she rounded the side of her ship to board then froze as a figure appeared at the top of the ramp.
"Hello, gorgeous," Skavak murmured, eyes raking her from head to toe, and she was blasted back to their first meeting on Ord Mantell, only their positions were now reversed.
"Skavak?" Shock rolled over her in waves and her heart began hammering in her chest. Alive. He was alive. He was here! He was—he was on her ship… She took a step onto the boarding ramp, trapped somewhere between disbelief, relief, and reevaluation of her choices in life. "What are you doing here?"
He grinned and a shiver raked her spine in a way that almost made her bite her lip. "Well, I thought a lot about that last thing you said to me," he began, reaching out to punch the lift operator. "So, I figured," the ramp began rising as she walked toward him, "I would steal your ship again."
She fought the smile trying to work its way onto her face. "With me on it?" She stopped in front of him as the ramp clicked into place. At this angle, she was right at eye level.
"Yeah, I thought it would save us both a lot of time and effort if we skip the part where we chase each other around the galaxy for months on end."
"Mm," she hummed as her eyes skimmed over his face, desire and adoration warring with her smug sense of superiority. She saw the same war waged in him and couldn't help but smirk. She stepped around him to open her ship. "There a reason you're in such a hurry?"
"As a matter of fact, there is." He followed her inside. "I realized something back at the black hole." Suddenly he grabbed her arm and spun her around. "I hate you, too," he said, arrogance and confidence flying out of him as he bore down on her, his grip on her arm nearly painful. "I hate everything about you. And that's probably why I can't get you out of my head." His fingers loosened, tone dropping a couple decibels. "I'm going to need you to take responsibility for that, sweetheart."
She felt herself gravitating toward him, heart thundering inside her chest, and it was difficult to breathe. It was all she could do not to clear the inches between them and kiss him.
"Make me an offer," she said as casually as she could, "and we'll see."
"I want our deal," he said. He was thinking of Tatooine and their half-assed fantasy. "We split winnings 50-50, and I share you with no one."
"I have a crew now, you know," she informed him but he didn't seem phased by the news. He's been keeping tabs on me, she realized. This was just another game they were playing, but the stakes were real this time. Alico took a deep breath. They were going to have to trust each other at some point, and it started one step at a time. "Ten percent of every take goes into the ship," she said seriously. "The rest is split evenly among contributors." She shrugged. "Not that you need the credits."
The corners of his mouth twitched upward as his eyes dropped down to look at her lips. "When you sent me that money, did you know I was alive?"
She swallowed. Answering honestly felt like losing the game, but she still said, "No…"
He kissed her hard and deep, pushing her into the wall. She sucked in a sharp breath, euphoria crashing over her. Her fingers curled into his sleeves, clinging to him as his hands roamed along her curves, holding her flush against him. Then they were bumbling through the ship toward her bedroom, undressing.
"After Tatooine, I didn't want to kill you," he murmured against her lips. He kissed her then added, "I just wanted to do it again." Another kiss. "All of it."
"So did I," she whispered before he kissed her again. All of it. Not just the sex, but the time they spent together honestly. She groaned into his mouth, taking fistfuls of his hair as she drew him against her. He hooked his arms under her thighs and picked her up, and she wrapped her legs around his waist. Her back hit the wall.
"And the rest of it?" he rasped, breathless. Her brows furrowed. The rest of it? "Or have you been hooking up power couplings with Corso?"
Oh. The rest of it—and I share you with no one. Was he still thinking about her comment on Alderaan? "Don't you know a bluff when you hear one?"
He smirked, kissed her, then said, "Then we have a deal?"
"That depends," she replied, trying to catch her breath. "Am I sharing you with anyone? You know I don't like sharing."
He nodded, bracing one hand against the wall. "I'm only gonna say this once, sweetheart," he told her, looking her in the eyes. "You ruined other women for me."
"Skavak," Alico grinned, "we have a deal."