Callista’s lips parted, the fight in her chest stalling for a breath.

“And because,” he added, softer now, “you’ve been through enough already. I’m not leaving you here alone in some drifting hunk of metal, starving and scared.”

“But you would leave yourself?”

“If that’s what it takes,” he said.

She searched his face for some sign he was bluffing. He wasn’t.

“You’re impossible,” she whispered.

“Maybe,” he said. “But I’m not stupid.”

She crossed her arms ...