Cai grumbled, but he knew better than to delay with the master of his Guild waiting for him. He slipped back into the conference room and strode over to the table with as much nonchalance as he could manage.

Ashad waited until he was seated before he asked, “Why?”

“Why?” Cai shook his head. “I don’t understand.”

“Why risk that man’s mind for a little pleasure? Why risk your reputation, your career, for something so banal? Have you no shame? No self-respect? You’re an Astrogator, and yet, you’d rather rub your bits together and for what? Orgasm? Pah!” Ashad spat his disgust, but the spittle never landed on the table. “Orgasm is nothing compared to being one with a spaceship or to surfing a wormhole, and you bloody well know it. So, why?”

“It’s not the sex,” Cai said after a moment. “I love him. I’ve loved him since the day I first saw him, a cadet come to tour the Guild Halls and learn how Astrogators are trained. I dreamed about him often, almost nightly. I think it was fate itself that we were reunited here on Laughing Owl.”

“What if I said that the only way you could keep him was to relinquish your position as an Astrogator and accept duties as a trainer or administrator?”

Cai looked at the viewscreen and saw the stars. They called to him, they always called to him and he wished he were out there, sailing the void once more. He had to give that up to keep Nick? The very thought of it broke his heart, but he nodded his acceptance. “If I must, then so be it.”

Ashad was clearly surprised. “You would give up all of this to stay with that man?”

“I would.” Cai wrested his gaze from the viewscreen and focused on the guildmaster once more. “What would the point be without him? He more than makes me happy; he fulfills me.”