Free There Once Were Stars by Melanie McFarlane

smell is gone, replaced by the scent of cologne I’ve never smelled before. I close my eyes, and savor it as he reaches behind me. With a click , Tassie’s music pod turns on, blaring some funky pop music. My eyes jump open.
    “Eww.” Evan shakes his head at the bouncing beats.
    “What are you doing in here?” I can barely hear my voice.
    “Elevators are about as private as the dorms around here.” He gestures toward the ceiling.
    I notice the cameras and instantly feel my skin crawl from under my scrubs. I undressed in here. Who the hell was watching?
    “How are we supposed to hear each other over the music?” I shout.
    Evan grabs my wrists, and pulls me close to his chest, and whispers in my ear. “Trust me, and speak slowly, like this.” His breath tickles my neck, and his firm chest presses against mine, through the thin fabric of our lab clothes. He’s stronger than I thought. His muscles tense as we sway together to the same rhythm.
    I wrap my pale arms around Evan’s neck, a stark contrast against his tanned skin which is weather-worn from the outside, touched by a sun I’ve never been allowed to feel. The pulse in his neck beats through his skin, vibrating close to the bend in my elbow. I want to run my finger over it, to feel the vibration against my own skin. I don’t. I bite my lip and look away.
    “They want us to help them find areas to examine outside,” he whispers. A shudder runs down my back from the sensation of his breath against my bare neck. He pauses and clears his throat. Does he feel it too? “They figure my experience, combined with your mother’s notebook, will lead them to where the last team left off.”
    “I don’t have my mother’s notes any longer.”
    He hesitates a moment. What does he know of my mother’s notes?
    “Maybe that’s why you didn’t end up on B2. They must think you’re hiding it all up here.” He removes a hand from the small of my back and runs it down my hair. Another shiver runs through me.
    “I think they took my grandfather there.”
    “That, my dear, is not something I’m privy to.”
    “How did you get out?”
    “They tried getting information out of me the old-fashioned way.” His body tenses. “But when answers didn’t come fast enough, I guess they felt killing me with love would work better.” His humor is comforting.
    “It looks like they gave you a haircut since I saw you last.” I take a deep breath of his cologne again. “And possibly a bath?”
    “Though company would have been nice, I did manage the bath on my own.”
    A nervous laughs sputters out, and I keep my face down, glad we are not face-to-face. Visions of Evan undressing to take a bath flood my head, and my skin heats. I need to change the subject.
    “Where did you get that picture?”
    “I needed to make sure you knew I was a friend.”
    “That doesn’t explain why you had it.” I bite my lip. It’s now or never. “So, you didn’t kill my parents?”
    Evan grabs my shoulders and pulls me away from him, his steel gray eyes narrowing as his face reddens. “Is that what you think?”
    “What am I supposed to think? You show up here with a photo of me, one that only my parents would have. They were killed on the outside, and that’s where you come from. Then you just expect me to trust you? I don’t even know you.”
    He raises his voice and starts to shake me, anger flashing in his eyes. “Do you know what I did to get here? The crap I put up with? I can’t believe you think I had anything to do with your parent’s death. It’s ridiculous. What was that, nine years ago? I was eleven.”
    I shrug his hands from my shoulders and shrink away from him, the moment spoiled. Turning around, I shut off Tassie’s music. The heat in my face is making me sweat. It was stupid, but Evan just showed me a quick-temper I’m not interested in putting up with.
    “Please leave.”
    “Fine,” Evan grumbles from behind me.
    I don’t turn around until the door