“That’s all?” she asked suspiciously. “After all, I know I’m not very pretty now. And there’s lots of Lani on Flora—”
“Oh, for Ochsner’s sake! Do you think that I’m—” He paused, speechless. “Just what do you think I am?”
“You’re a man. And that’s the trouble.”
Kennon chuckled. “So that’s it! You don’t trust me.”
“I love you,” Copper said.
“Sometimes I wonder why men ever finalize their status with women,” Kennon murmured. “It does no good. It doesn’t convince the woman. She’s still fearful, jealous, and suspicious—always belittling her ability to hold what she has, always alert for competition, clinging, holding, absorbing—when she should be working as part of a team.”
“That’s not true!”
“Then prove it.”
“How—by staying here while you go to the end of the galaxy and play noble?”
“I’m only doing what I have to do.”