Empire Reborn (Taran Empire Saga Book 1): A Cadicle Space Opera by A.K. DuBoff (brene brown rising strong .txt) 📗

first year. He’d eventually accepted, figuring there was no harm in a one-time thing, but they kept coming back to each other.

Over the years, as the intimacy in their relationship grew, Tiff had become his closest friend. Now, they spent at least one evening a week together; sometimes a whole night. Jason had long since stopped caring if anyone found out. Tiff was a smart, attractive Primus Elite Agent. Anyone who judged him for being with her rather than a dynastic heiress deserved a punch in the face—a sentence he’d been known to deal out, when necessary.

The strange thing was, despite their closeness, they rarely spent time together when it wasn’t one-on-one. He was sure his other friends must suspect they had a ‘thing’. In particular, though Gil had never explicitly asked about Tiff, his friend always got a knowing look on his face whenever her name was mentioned. Jason was glad that part of his life remained private. It had zero bearing on his performance as an Agent, so it wasn’t anyone else’s business.

Jason headed to his quarters to shower and get in a short nap before Tiff arrived. They’d occasionally meet up in her quarters, but his was the norm—in large part because he was far tidier. In fact, he was fairly sure that half the time she invited him over was to motivate herself to pick up laundry. Word had it she’d been a decent roommate during training, but she had taken the liberty of having her own space as an Agent to do whatever she pleased. However, that was the beauty of their type of relationship: not his problem.

After showering, he managed to get just under two hours of sleep before his alarm woke him, leaving just enough time to grab a quick meal from the mess hall and brush his teeth before her arrival.

He’d just settled on the couch to wait for her when the door beeped softly and slid open in response to her biometric check; as a matter of ease, they’d coded each other as authorized visitors to their respective quarters.

He stood to greet her.

“Hey,” she said, removing the elastic tie from her dark-brown hair so it fell loose to just above her shoulders. The door slid closed behind her.

She wasn’t stunningly beautiful in the way he had found many of the highborn women he’d met, who had a refined bearing of sophistication that always managed to mesmerize him. Instead, Tiff had downright sex appeal, with a great ass and breasts she knew how to work to her advantage. However, that was never why he was most attracted to her. Her innate confidence and adventurous attitude gave her a frank way of speaking that was a refreshing contrast compared to the deference others paid Jason. He could talk with her for hours, about anything, and be one-hundred-percent confident that what they discussed would never be repeated to another soul.

He moved to Tiff and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her gently to his chest. In an instant, his stress and worries began to fade away. “You’re the only person I wanted to see after this disaster of a day.”

She hugged him back. “I’ve been anxious to hear what happened at Prisaris.”

He let his arms drop to his sides. “Suffice to say, we have confirmation of alien contact.”

“Shite.”

“Yeah, so that’s going to be a thing.”

“What kind of timeline?”

Jason shook his head. “Too soon to tell. There are some aspects of the situation that require more follow-up.”

“I take it you’re going to be busy?”

“More than likely. But tonight, you’re my focus.”

He led her to the bedroom and did his best to forget about everything related to the Rift and alien threat.

After years together, they could anticipate each other’s wants, even without the added benefits of telepathy. Since their first time, it had been a natural fit—far more satisfying than any of his high school flings on Earth. As their connection grew, they’d reached a level of familiarity and comfort where they instinctively knew what the other needed, beyond the expression of conscious desire. And, for a while, he was able to shed his responsibilities and burdens, relishing every moment with one of the people he cared about most in the world.

He was left feeling significantly better than he had earlier that evening. Still breathing heavily, he reached up to brush the hair out of Tiff’s face.

She beamed down at him, hands on his bare chest. “That was worth the wait.”

“When isn’t it?” He grinned.

“Such modesty.” She playfully rolled her eyes and slid off of him.

He pivoted his head to the side to face her. “I’m sorry for canceling the other night. You know how seriously Gil takes those dumb tournaments.”

“Like you don’t get into it yourself.”

“Competition is healthy,” he said in his own mock defense.

She patted his arm. “Don’t worry about it. I know there’s a lot of shite going on right now.”

“Things could escalate quickly,” Jason admitted, hoping to transition to a much-needed therapeutic discussion about his experience with Darin. “I’m not sure what that will mean for our usual schedule.”

Without responding, Tiff got up and began dressing.

“Going already?” One-and-done was a rarity for their get-togethers, except for the occasional daytime quickie. Not to mention their usual pillow-talk.

“I can’t stay.”

Though miffed she was bailing on him so early in the night, he couldn’t help admiring her figure from where he still lay in bed. When she caught him watching her, she raised her eyebrows. He took the hint to stop staring and get dressed himself.

“Thanks for coming over. I really needed this after the shit from the last couple of days,” he said while pulling on his own pants.

She shook her head and sighed. “You’re never going to learn how to swear properly are you?”

He smirked. “Some things never