Branden's secret is that he has a big crush on her, but is shy and hasn't known how to have an actual conversation with her all these years. Solution - assign her to his ship! XD

I feel like maybe I read this one, or possibly another one by this author which also had the blurb for this one. (They had these mono-colored-but-different-shades-of-it covers? Although that may have been just the UK/US ones.)