How had he become so ensnared? When had it happened? And why could he not sense her deception all along? Had she bewitched him so that he couldn’t sense the truth behind her motives?
He fought back a howl of frustration. He had raped her! Perhaps not in the base sense of the word, but their coupling had begun with forced seduction. That was not the way he did things. He’d treated her as if he’d been more machine than man.
And yet…there had been no fear.
Fear smelled unlike anything else. It had a fetid odor he could barely tolerate. If there had been one hint of such a thing between them, he would’ve stopped. But she hadn’t smelled of fear. She’d smelled of sweet arousal and warm woman. His woman.
She flung her barbed words like a weapon. But nothing else about her confirmed what she said. And if there was one thing he had learned over time, it was to trust eyes and nose long before his ears.
“Hey, I found something.”
No doubt because she had actually looked.
He reached out and took the scrap of paper without meeting her green gaze. Their fingers brushed lightly. She flinched away and turned to cover the telltale reaction.
If words became a weapon, what battle was she fighting?
“What’s the Quick & Easy?” she asked, frowning. “Sounds like another strip club or brothel.”
“Look at this number. D-745. That’s a docking bay.”
“Then the Quick & Easy is a ship?”
“Seems that way.”
“So he was supposed to meet a ship in the Delta sector.” She glanced at the chrono on the nightstand. “In about four hours.”
He nodded. He couldn’t put his finger on it, but something about the name Quick & Easy rang a bell. Reaching up, he pressed the comm link in his ear.
Warrick wasted no time. “Still alive, Kovuchenko?”
Xave grimaced. Notifying Warrick that he’d bagged and tagged Mendez should’ve been priority one. But his mind had been otherwise occupied. “Both of us still breathing and Mendez in custody.”
“Is he breathing?”
“Unfortunately.”
“I would appreciate it if he could stay that way, Xavier.”
Xave grunted. “I need you to run the name of a ship.”
“Ready.”
“The Quick & Easy.”
Warrick’s low laugh sent chills racing up Xave’s spine.
“It’s a pirate vessel.”
“Pirates?”
“Their captain is a man named Nathan Macleod. A very interesting man.”
“Interesting as in his bond might wind up for sale, or interesting as in you might hire him in the future?”
“That’s the most fascinating part. It could be either. He has a habit of playing for both sides.”
“Not too unusual in this day and age.”
“At the same time.”
Xave considered this new information. “Mendez had scheduled a meeting with him.”
There was a pause.
“You want me to find the pirate captain, don’t you?” Xave guessed with a sigh.
“I think you need to make certain Mendez keeps his appointment.”
Xave ended the link, still grumbling beneath his breath.
“How is Mendez supposed to go to this meeting when he’s unconscious in the closet?” Tavish asked, one eyebrow cocked in amusement.
Sliding open the closet door, Xave reached in and hauled Mendez’s chunky body from the shallow space. His bald head thudded against the wall on the way out. Xave didn’t care. The nasty piece of work had to be breathing, not beautiful.
Reaching into his pack, Xave withdrew another hypo. Not bothering to swab Mendez’s sweaty skin, he stabbed it into the man’s neck. Seconds later the piggy eyes blinked experimentally.
“What are we supposed to do with him now that he’s awake?” Tavish asked.
“He’s going to take us to his little meeting with Captain Macleod.”
“The hell I am,” Mendez wheezed.
Xave pulled his railgun from his pack and pushed it against Mendez’s forehead. “You want to rethink that?”
“All right! Okay, I’ll do it. Just put that thing away.”
Xave slid the railgun back into place and secured the electrocuffs on Mendez’s hands.
“I have to get my stuff.”
Tavish looked dubiously around the cluttered room. “It would take weeks to pack all this up. You’re one hell of a slob.”
“And you’re pretty cheeky for a trumped-up whore.”
The back of Xave’s hand connected so hard that Mendez’s head rocked back on his spine, his neck popping in protest. “Don’t ever call her that.”
Mendez opened his mouth to respond and then reconsidered, choosing to remain silent.
“If you didn’t treat women like shit, you wouldn’t have to pay them to fuck your sorry ass,” Xave said.
From the corner of his eye, Xave could see emotions chasing across Tavish’s face. Mendez’s words had hurt, no matter what she claimed. If she chose to use those same words as a weapon, he had to find out why.
Shoving Mendez toward the desk, Xave pointed to a knapsack. “You’ve got five minutes to get your shit together and say good-bye to your little hideout. I suggest you get moving.”
Turning her back on Mendez, Tavish propped her hands on her hips. “How are we supposed to get out of here without bringing half of Aiello’s men along for the ride?”
Xave pulled his IID from his hand and tossed it in her direction. She snatched it from the air, closing her fist around its bulky weight.
“Giving a girl your ring is an outdated way to ask her out, Xave.”
Something in her tone forced him to look at her facial expression. She stared solemnly at the ring. As sassy as those words had been, there was something lacking in the way she said them. A wistful expression touched her face.
“It doesn’t bite,” he said.
A delicate shudder washed over her. Pretending indifference, she slid the ring onto her left thumb. But he didn’t miss the careful way she touched the opaque crystal, wiping an invisible smudge from its smooth surface.
“So how does this work?”
“You and I are going to be regular bodyguards walking our charge to the transport bay.”
“Then I hope this thing can whip up some butch clothes and muscles, because I’ve never met a short, dress-wearing bodyguard with boobs.”
“Form a picture in your mind of what you think a typical bodyguard looks like.”
She closed her eyes, two tiny wrinkles appearing between her winged eyebrows as she focused. She was probably picturing a man. Xave couldn’t help but wonder what the man of her imagination would look like, and if he’d be more attractive than him. It was ridiculous, but he couldn’t stop the shot of jealous rage that followed such a possibility.
“Now hang on to that picture in your mind. Imagine it walking and talking and breathing like any normal person and then rotate the crystal on the ring until it clicks.”
“Okay, is something supposed to happen?”
She shimmered and faded into the image of a beefy oaf with no neck and huge forearms, dressed in clothes identical to Xave’s. Her avatar came complete with a pack on its back and a comm link in his ear.
Xave chuckled. Only a woman would remember to accessorize her hologram.
“Why are you laughing? I look okay, right?”
Out of habit she propped her hands on her hips, tilted her head to one side, and tossed nonexistent hair over her shoulder. Xave’s chuckle erupted into a full belly laugh.
“You look perfect. You just have to remember not to act like a woman.”
“Oh, sorry.”
“S’okay.” Xave frowned. “Have I seen this guy before? He’s starting to look vaguely familiar.”
The man’s features arranged themselves into an apologetic expression. “His name is Roque. Or I guess it was. He worked as an enforcer at Louie’s. You took care of him that
first night.”
Xave grunted, acknowledging her choice of a model. But in his head, he kept replaying the first time he’d laid eyes on her over and over again. Had his extrasensory talents picked up on her immediately? Had he known even then that she would be his perfect match?
Even beneath the shimmering facade of Roque, the enforcer-turned-bodyguard, Xave could sense her clearly. Holo-disguises were never entirely foolproof with him. It was like looking at a 3-D holographic image hidden in a picture. From the corner of his eye he could always see the true form behind the hologram. And scents never matched. Roque wouldn’t have smelled that good if he’d wallowed in women’s cologne. “How far away is the Delta sector?” she asked in Roque’s gravelly baritone.
Ignoring her question, Xave snatched Mendez’s knapsack and rifled through the contents. When he was satisfied the scheming weasel hadn’t hidden anything dangerous, he slung it over his shoulder.
“Xave?”
It wasn’t far, though it surprised Xave that she didn’t know the exact location of the spaceport’s Delta sector. But then again, she’d probably not been back since the slaver unloaded her as a seven-year-old bound for the trade.
Roque stomped his foot petulantly, drawing a smile from Xave. Tavish didn’t have much talent for gender bending. Her image shifted, showing him just a hint of the luscious curves he already knew by heart. “Delta isn’t far at all. But we’ve got to grab the Daggertail first. I want the ship close in case we have to make a quick exit.”
“That still doesn’t tell me where it is.”
Xave gripped Mendez’s forearm and started walking, waiting for Tavish to get the message and catch up. But Mendez scrunched his piggy face into an evil smile that he pointed right at Tavish.
“What’re you looking at?” she demanded, using Roque’s superior height and weight to jostle Mendez.
“Why don’t you tell her, bondsman?” Mendez needled. “Tell her where the Delta sector is.”
Xave remained silent, but he could feel Tavish’s eyes glaring holes through him.
“Quick trying to start shit,” Tavish said. “He’ll tell me when I need to know.”
Xave was humbled by her faith in him, though it also made him feel lower than low. He cleared his throat. “The Delta sector of the spaceport is about four blocks from Louie’s.”
“Oh.”
He’d never respected her courage more than at that moment. Despite the uneasiness that rolled away from her in waves only he could sense, her holographic disguise showed not one iota of her discomfort. Roque’s brawny body kept swinging along, one hand clamping down on Mendez’s arm until she left marks in his skin.
How had he been lucky enough to find such an incredible woman? She’d acknowledged his past and then gone beyond it to accept the man it had made him.
Icy realization sank its deep claws into Xave. Had he ever shown a willingness to do that for Tavish? Had he once acknowledged that everything she’d been through at Louie’s had molded her into the woman he loved more than life?
Right then he knew he had to tell her. She had to know that he didn’t care about her past or her hang-ups about labels and professions. He loved her. And she belonged with him.
Chapter Seventeen
The Daggertail was a shadowy outline behind them on the tarmac. The air reeked of a spaceport’s mechanical smells. Somewhere nearby, a cargo of overripe fruit waited for pickup. Farther away, Tavish could see the outline of a massive stack of metal crates. Behind that, though she couldn’t seem them, the neon colors of the red-light district and Louie’s lit the sky with unholy light.
She shivered. It was so close. A part of her remained on edge for any hint of activity from that direction. Would something in her bar code alert them? And if things went wrong and she had to return to Louie’s, what would happen to her? She had come too far to go without a fight. But a small woman could only do so much against a man like Louie with an entire security force at his beck and call.
“They don’t know you’re here, if that’s what you’re wondering,” Xave said.
She smiled, grateful for his assurance. “That place has always seemed to have its own gravitational pull on us girls. I keep waiting for it to reel me in.”
He shifted position so that her back pressed against his warm chest. A tingle rippled through her extremities. She knew he had placed himself between her and Louie’s imagined gravity. The meaning of his action wasn’t lost to her.
It was a macabre sort of dance. She wondered when one of them would decide to get off the ride and how much it would hurt when they finally did.
“I’m cold,” Mendez whined.
“But you’re alive,” Xave reminded him.
“Warrick says you have to take me alive.”
“Warrick isn’t here.”
Done with Roque’s borrowed physique and dressed in a spare set of Xave’s too-big clothes, Tavish observed Mendez with rising interest. He’d started to sweat. Fat drops rolled down his bald head and dripped onto his dirty collar. He’d also begun chewing his nails. What made him so nervous?
The obvious answer would’ve been that they would take him back to base and Warrick as soon as this meet was over, a distasteful possibility for any wanted man. But Warrick wanted him alive. And considering Mendez’s reputation as a technical whiz, he wouldn’t have too much trouble finding a way out of his predicament.
So why did he look like a virgin trying to buy his first piece of ass?
Xave showed no sign as to whether or not he’d picked up on Mendez’s unreasonable case of nerves. Tavish knew he could see, hear, and smell better than anyone else. But he didn’t seem to be concerned. And yet she couldn’t shake the feeling that something bad was about to happen.
“There she is,” Xave murmured.
Air from the Quick & Easy’s sharp descent buffeted their protected spot behind a haphazard stack of empty crates. It was a vessel of enormous proportions. The sleek pirate ship docked, and the thrusters roared as they powered down.
Xave poked Mendez. “You ready?”
Sweat pooled on Mendez’s upper lip. He did nothing more than grunt and grip his knapsack close to his beefy body.
“Go,” Xave ordered. “And remember that I can rip your throat out from three times this distance.”
“Warrick said alive.”
Xave shrugged. “Better dead than escaped.”
Mendez stumbled through the inky night toward the Quick & Easy.
“Something doesn’t feel right,” Tavish whispered once he was out of earshot.
“I know.”
Surprised, she lifted her eyes to his face. His handsome features were drawn tight with tension. She reached up and traced the line of stubble on his jaw. Though he didn’t look at her, his hand caught hers and pulled it to his lips. The kiss he placed on her palm sent a ricocheting shot of nerves throughout her body and ended, throbbing, at her clitoris.
She wanted nothing more than to pull him down on top of her right there on the tarmac and demand he spread her legs and sink his cock into her pussy. It shouldn’t have been possible, considering the tension of their circumstances. Yet it was all she could think about.
“You’re getting wet, Tav.”
His husky murmur unleashed another wave of cream from her pussy. “I wish we were safe on the Daggertail,” she said.
That gained his full attention. “Oh yeah?”
“I’d open your pants and put your cock in my mouth.”
He groaned, ice blue eyes sliding closed and hands clenching into tight fists.
“I want to cup your balls and run my tongue all over your shaft before I suck you dry.”
He hunkered down on his kneed and hauled her onto his lap. “C’mere.”
She settled herself astride him. With one of his knees between her legs, she could get some friction against her engorged pussy as she rubbed her crotch along his thigh.
“Don’t you want to fuck me?” She hated the insecurity in her
voice, but she craved his affirmation.
His blue eyes snapped open. Bending her backward over his arm, he took her mouth in a bruising kiss. Catching her hand, he placed it over the rock-hard bulge in his pants.
“Can’t you feel how much I want to sink my cock inside your sweet pussy, Tav?”
“Yes…”
“If I didn’t think it’d get us both killed, I’d rip your clothes off right here and fuck you mindless.”
His words sent a shot of lust careening through her body. She moaned softly, rubbing harder against his leg.
“Do you need to come, Tav?”
“Please. I’m so hot.”
He yanked at the waistband of her pants, stabbing his hand inside. “Holy hell, you’re wet!”
“For you,” she whispered, meeting his blue gaze. “Only for you.”
The ball of his hand resting against her pelvic bone, Xave slid his fingers through her silky heat. She came as soon as his fingers rubbed across her clit. Clenching her teeth tight against the scream that threatened to erupt into the dark night, she bucked her hips against his hand as he continued to rub her clit through the undulating waves of her climax.
Her head fell against his shoulder. Dragging in a deep breath of his familiar scent, she pressed a kiss to his neck.
“But what about you?” She rested her hand on the thick ridge of his cock. “What about this?”
He hissed, covering her hand with his. “Tav, as soon as this fiasco is over and done with, I plan to spend the next few millennia taking you whenever and however you want.”
Her belly did an exhilarating flip-flop at the certainty in his tone. The idea of having Xave and the freedom to make her own choices was life altering.
He pegged her with his uncanny gaze. “You understand what that means?”
All that self-protection would come to nothing if she agreed. “Yes,” she said in spite of her doubt.
An air lock hissed behind them as the Quick & Easy lowered her ramp for Mendez. The ship’s lights cast a dim glow on the tarmac. Tavish could just make out the profile of a large man lounging against the ship’s interior.
The man took a few steps down the ramp. “I have to say I’m surprised you actually showed, Mendez.”
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