Ka'Cit's Haven (Riv’s Sanctuary #3)

As her heart thudded in her chest, her anxiety rising, her gaze moved across the metallic structure.

It was a satellite wasn’t it?

Like a huge, alien cell tower floating in space.

What else could it be?

It wasn’t a spaceship and it seemed to be orbiting the planet.

It had to be a satellite.

But that still didn’t tell her what he was doing.

Time seemed to slow down as she watched him, every beat of her heart sending more anxiety through her veins.

Seconds turned into minutes, and those minutes bled into one another. The longer he was out there, the shallower her breathing became until she was a nervous wreck who’d bitten down her nails so far, she was starting to bite flesh.

Finally, Ka’Cit moved from his position.

He closed the panel he’d opened and turned, outstretching his arms again as he walked back toward her.

As soon as he was at the edge of the pin once more, he floated back toward the view screen.

He came close enough to press his hand against the glass and Nia reached forward, pressing her palm against the surface to meet his.

Her gaze flicked over his face, her wide eyes trying to gather answers he could not tell her.

“What are you doing?”

He had the audacity to give her a devilish smile, one that made her heart do a curious flip-flop in her chest.

“Get in here!”

He couldn’t hear her, but it seemed he’d finished doing whatever he was doing anyway because he let go of the screen and floated toward the back of the ship.

Nia found herself pacing again for what felt like the longest five minutes of her life.

“Airlock. Closed,” the ship announced.

Her thumb was in her mouth as she bit at her finger and when the light above the door finally turned green she marched toward it.

It opened and she bumped right into him.

Standing so close, she’d forgotten how tall he was and she craned her neck as she frowned up at him.

“You!” she shouted, mildly caught off guard by the fact that she was looking directly into his face. He hadn’t put his mask back on yet.

“You scared me! I thought you’d gone crazy! What the hell were you doing out there! That was so dangerous. Don’t you ever do that again.” She let out a breath to calm herself. Her hands were trembling and she had to fold her arms to hide that fact. “What if that tether thing had broken and you’d floated away? And you didn’t even say anything before you went out there!” Her hands fisted at her sides. “What the hell was I supposed to do if you’d gotten stuck! Or worse!”

His smile returned. “So you would have…cared if something happened to me out there?”

Nia’s mouth fell open. She hadn’t expected that question. “What? Well…of course I would have cared. I’m not—” It hit her then that it seemed he’d understood her. “Wait…did you just deduce what I’m saying or did you actually understand me?” She closed her eyes for a moment and released a breath. “I don’t know anymore.”

When she opened her eyes, she glared at him.

For some reason, she felt angry at him for endangering himself. And it wasn’t the usual type of anger.

This one was fueled by something she couldn’t quite pinpoint at that moment. “You scared me.”