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  He left the fresher and settled in the sleeping platform beside her. She was obviously asleep but she gave a soft sigh and rolled over toward him. Pressing her face to his chest, she curled up against him like a sleepy kitten.

  Boone stroked her long black hair and felt his heart swell. Yes, he could definitely teach her to love. He was sure of it.

  Chapter Eighteen

  K woke up with a delicious sensation of warmth from her fingertips all the way down to her toes. When she opened her eyes, she realized why—her body was pressed full length against Boone’s. They were touching from chest to thigh, completely entangled with each other.

  One short solar month ago, waking up in such a situation would have horrified her. Now she felt comforted and content—well rested for the first time in days.

  She snuggled closer to the sleeping Boone and took a blissfully deep breath, breathing in his warm, masculine scent. It wasn’t quite time to get up yet. Maybe they could sleep a little while longer cocooned in each other’s warmth. Her eyes were just about to slip closed when they fell on her skinsuit lying discarded on the floor.

  Purity! She sat up, untangling herself hurriedly. The suit didn’t even twitch—it had no ability to move on its own—but it still seemed to stare at her accusingly. It couldn’t speak either but K knew what it would say if it could.

  What’s the matter with you, lying on the sleeping platform with the enemy, reveling in filth? Actually enjoying contamination. Are the years of teaching and training you went through to become a fourth level Paladin so easily lost and forgotten? Didn’t you swear to kill him the moment you could? To kill him and purge yourself?

  Yes. Yes, she had promised all that. Hardly knowing what she was doing, K got out of the sleeping platform and went to crouch naked over the discarded suit. Hesitantly, she picked it up off the floor. It seemed to writhe in her hand and she almost dropped it again but something made her hold on.

  The suit wasn’t just a shed skin—it represented her entire past. Years of training and hard work which she was throwing away and for what? The pleasure of Boone’s touch? Was she really so far gone that she would do anything, give up everything, just to be close to him? An Impure male she hadn’t even known a month ago—a male who had killed her entire purge crew?

  And what would happen once they recovered Boone’s sister? Would he decide he had no more use for her and leave her? Maybe he would tell her again to go join the Tainted—those Paladins who had left Purity but refused to purge themselves. And what would K be left with? Nothing but bittersweet memories and regret.

  The skinsuit had mostly external weapons—like the plasma gauntlets that she’d worn to kill Sweetie. But it did have a few other emergency armaments that weren’t visible to the naked eye. K suddenly found one of these in her hands now—a short, sharp curving blade made of tempered Pembla steel. It was kept in the sleeve of the suit, a safeguard in case the Paladin wearing it had to purge him or herself suddenly and without warning. One swift slice of the super sharp blade could sever the jugular, insuring almost instant death.

  K held the blade up, studying it by the dim glow coming from the ceiling. There was no morning or night in space but the lights had been configured to a standard twenty-four hour day and so they brightened gradually in the morning and dimmed just as gradually at night. The growing light caught the curved blade and reflected a beam of radiance into her eyes, blinding K for a moment.

  “K?” Boone’s deep voice made her look up. “K?” he asked again. “Are you all right?”

  K looked up and realized what she must look like to him. She was crouched naked on the floor, holding her skinsuit in one hand and a lethal weapon in another. The look on Boone’s face was uncertain and worried.

  “I’m fine.” She made herself put the blade back in the suit and then folded it neatly and put it on a nearby chair. “Just…thinking.”

  “About what?” He patted the spot beside him on the sleeping platform. “Come back to bed and tell me.”

  K came back and sat beside him, being careful to keep some space between them. She pulled the sheet around herself, creating a barrier, making sure he couldn’t touch her.

  Clearly her actions weren’t lost on Boone.

  “Come on, darlin’—don’t be like that,” he murmured, sitting up beside her. “Look at me.” When she wouldn’t, he tried to cup her chin.

  K jerked away from his touch. “Don’t.”

  “What’s wrong?” he asked softly. “Are you regretting last night? Letting me touch you? Letting me make you come?”

  “Yes…no…” K shook her head. “I don’t know. I just feel like…”

  “Like what?” he prodded gently when she didn’t go on.

  “Like it shouldn’t be so easy,” K burst out. “To give up years of hard work and training. To abandon all my beliefs. All because it feels good when you touch me.”

  “I’ve been touching you for weeks now, K,” he pointed out in a low voice.

  “Yes, but not like this. Not like…” K shook her head. “I know I asked you to and I wanted you to. But I shouldn’t have wanted it. Shouldn’t have taken…so much pleasure from it.”

  “You had to have pleasure,” Boone said. “It was the only thing that could stop your pain. Are you telling me you’d rather still be in agony?”

  “I should prefer pain to pleasure. Nothingness to emotion.” K looked down at her hands. “But…you’ve changed me, Boone. Being with you, touching you…I have all these feelings inside and they’re all about you.”

  “I have feelings for you too, K,” he said and his deep voice was warm and gentle. “Deep feelings. I’m sorry I had to touch you last night. Your cycle…I think it pushed us into doing something we should have waited on. Would have waited on if we could have. But just because you needed to be touched and I had to touch you doesn’t mean I didn’t want to do it.”

  “You did?” She gave him a quick glance from the corner of her eye.

  “Of course I did. Holding you in my arms, touching you, making you come…it was perfect. Didn’t it feel good to you too?”

  “Too good,” K muttered. “I can’t remember ever feeling so relaxed, so…”

  “Go on,” he urged.

  “So safe,” K whispered. “So protected.”

  “So loved,” Boone murmured. He tilted her chin up again and this time K let him. When his lips brushed lightly over hers, she kissed him back—kissed him despite the accusing black stare of the skinsuit lying folded on the chair to her left. Purity, she knew she shouldn’t give in to emotion but it felt so good—too good to stop.

  “Boone,” she murmured between kisses. “I don’t know about that…about love.”

  “It’s okay, darlin’. I’ll teach you.”

  K was beginning to feel the urges growing in her again, possibly brought on by the intimate contact. It reminded her of what was happening today—they were finally going to get to Eros and then her cycle would be in full swing. What was going to happen to her? Would she really be attracted to some other male—someone who wasn’t Boone? The thought still gave her a crawling sensation all over her body.

  No, it can’t be, she told herself uneasily. Boone is the only one I want—the only one I can stand to have touch me. Nothing can change that. I won’t let it.

  Her eyes fluttered open, she looked up at him and realized that the lights in their room were fully on. The artificial dawn of the ship was over—it was day and time to get up.

  “Boone,” she whispered.

  “Mmm-hmm?” His eyes were still closed but he opened them to look at her. “K, I—” He frowned and his eyes widened.

  “What is it?” K asked, suddenly worried at his expression. Purity but she hated having so many emotions all the time!

  “Your eyes…” He cupped her chin and studied her carefully.

  K sighed, a dull resignation overcoming her.

  “Have I lost the last blackness of Purity? Is it all gone?”

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