This comment seemed to meet with a better reception. At least the boy appeared to consider Rast’s words, then nodded without speaking and picked up the tackle box in a silence that was uncharacteristic for him. They made their way back through the woods, moving more quickly than on their journey out. Rast wouldn’t say the rain was exactly unpleasant — the novel sensation of water cascading from the sky was enough to make it interesting, if nothing else — but he could feel his clothing getting soaked and knew he would have to change once he dropped off the fish at the Thorn homestead.
As expected, Miala was nowhere in sight, but Thorn accepted the string of fish with his normal taciturnity, said, “Get upstairs and change, Jerem,” then turned back to the knives he was sharpening.
Rast didn’t know much about fish, but he guessed those particular blades were intended for something a little more sinister than gutting a trout. Still, he knew better than to inquire, and only said, as he always did, “Need any help?”, to which Thorn only shook his head, as he always did.
Ritual satisfied, Rast headed back out to the Chinook, thus completing the soaking that had begun on his return trip to the Thorn homestead. Once inside the ship, he paused, gave the sodden masses of hair down his back a couple of squeezes in an attempt to avoid dripping water all the way back to his cabin, then pushed grimly on. While novel, rain definitely had its drawbacks.
He’d only taken a few steps when he saw Lira emerge from the bathroom, a towel wrapped around her midsection. Her own hair was damp as well, although not dripping. She stopped, staring at him, as he gazed back at her, taking in the long slim legs and the graceful curve of her throat, the dark valley between her breasts. Yes, he had seen her naked, but something about her current half-nude state was almost more enticing, and heat spread through him at once, banishing the chill of his rain-soaked clothing. This time, he knew he had no chance of forcing back the arousal that stiffened him, made him want to reach out and push her down to the thin synthetic carpet of the corridor, plunge inside her, share some of her warmth.
Say something, you fool! his mind shouted at him, but he found he could say nothing, but only remain there as if he had somehow been glued to that spot. So much of his energy the past few days had been taken up in trying desperately to conceal his desire for her, to make sure matters remained friendly and neutral between the two of them, that for once he found himself completely at a loss.
Then, unbelievably, she smiled at him and looked over her shoulder at the door to his cabin, then said, “I think your bed is bigger than mine.”
* * *
She hadn’t planned it this way. But the way he had looked at her as she stood there in the Chinook’s narrow little corridor sent a wave of desire through her so strong that she knew she couldn’t fight it anymore. What had Miala said? A chance for a little warmth?
This was more like raging supernova heat, but she could live with that.
His damp garments fell one by one to the cabin floor, and her towel followed. Naked, they dropped onto the bed, Rast pulling Lira on top of him, his hands — almost shockingly cold against her warm flesh — moving over her breasts. A moan bubbled its way up her throat, and she arched her back, pushing against him, needing his touch, needing to feel that spark within her again. To feel alive.
Yes, she realized she’d never felt so alive as she did within his embrace.
He slid one hand down her body, reaching between her legs, stroking her, no doubt feeling how ready she already was. And then, with a strength that still shocked her, he lifted her up, moved her forward, lowering her onto his face so he could taste her again, make love to her with his tongue.
Her moans turned into outright cries, but that was all right — no one could possibly hear her through the Chinook’s walls, built to withstand both the vacuum of space and the infinite pressures of subspace. Thank God that this pretentious cabin’s bed had a headboard she could hang onto, to give her something to prevent her from collapsing altogether as the orgasm flared through her. And, being Rast, he wasn’t done there, wouldn’t be satisfied until she climaxed again, and again…and then she had no choice but to loose her grip on the headboard, to fall down on the silk sheets next to him, mouths finding one another, body pressed to body as he slipped inside her, filling her with his heat and his need as she clung to him, knowing she was lost, and knowing there wasn’t a damn thing she could do about it.
A long time later…or possibly only five standard minutes…she opened her eyes and announced to the ceiling, “I think I’m going to need another shower.”
Rast chuckled. Even that slight movement was enough to send the fever-heat racing across her flesh, but she knew she didn’t dare reach out for him again. It had to be close to dinnertime, and they both needed to get cleaned up. It was going to be difficult enough to face Miala and Eryk Thorn as it was. She knew she couldn’t possibly walk into that house in her current condition, stinking of sex.
“I don’t suppose we’d both fit in there…?”
“You know very well we won’t. I don’t know how you fit in there on your own, frankly. Do you bend space to do it?” She propped herself up on one elbow, gazing down into his face, taking in the high cheekbones and the gleaming copper eyes with their frame of sooty lashes.
“Mmm…possibly. Should I keep the door open so you can watch?”
“Very funny.” She shook her head, then added, “If you really want a tandem shower sometime, then we should try the Eridani Majesty on Callia. The bathrooms there are bigger than my entire cabin was on the Valiant.”
Strange how she could mention the Valiant with hardly an inner pang, as if it had inhabited a part of her life long gone. She supposed it was, even though only a few standard months had passed since her dismissal from the GDF. Being a ship’s captain had been her sole desire for so long that she’d subjugated everything else to that ambition — and now she was beginning to realize it had been a hollow one. Stars on her collar hadn’t kept her warm at night, but she had a feeling Rast would do an excellent job of it.
“We will,” he said firmly. “Once we get all this straightened out, and bring the perpetrators to justice, I think we will have earned a long vacation.” His gaze sharpened, and he sat up then, all glorious muscle and gleaming golden skin. “That is, if you wish to take one with me.”
She didn’t hesitate. “I think that sounds like a wonderful idea. And since Callia’s an Eridani colony, no one’s going to look twice at a Gaian and a Stacian together.” Rast lifted an eyebrow, and she amended, “Okay, they’ll look twice. But they won’t do anything about it.”
“Probably not. So do you want to shower first, or should I?”
“You go ahead. I just need a quick rinse-off, since I already took a real shower.”
“Done.”
He rose from the bed, and she was rewarded with a good, long look at his well-muscled backside and thighs before he went out the door and into the hallway. A few seconds later, she heard the water come on.
Maybe it was stupid of her to feel so contented, so relaxed. By coming to him willingly this time, she’d taken a huge leap of faith. True, sex wasn’t necessarily any kind of commitment. Billions of casual liaisons were enough testament to that notion. Somehow, though, she knew from the way Rast looked at her that he wasn’t interested in a quick lay, a scratching of the biological itch, as it were. No, it seemed pretty obvious to her that he wanted a lot more than that.
That in itself should have been more than a little terrifying. To her knowledge, no Gaian had ever willingly entered a relationship with a Stacian…or vice versa. She guessed that in the Iradian brothels there were Gaian women who would lie with Stacians, if enough coin changed hands, but that sort of transaction bore no resemblance to what she shared with Rast sen Drenthan.
Miala had said, He’s a good man, and within her Lira knew that to be true. She’d fought against the realization, not wanting to acknowledge that someone who was an enemy of her people could be, in his ow
n way, far more trustworthy and honorable than most of the Gaians she’d met. No way of knowing what the future held for them…but it was a big galaxy. Once they got this puzzle sorted out, maybe they could simply disappear. She had very little holding her back. Family? It was a big deal for Stacians, but her own mother had made it abundantly clear that Lira was a disgrace. And she hadn’t seen her brother Liam or her sister Janna for more than five years. If she left for good, she wondered if they would even miss her.
Getting a little ahead of yourself, aren’t you? she thought, and grinned. Next thing she knew, she’d have herself married off to Rast and settled down on some colony somewhere, with a couple of kids just to round things out. Never mind that she’d never even considered having children, knowing it wasn’t an option for a career captain in the GDF. It would have been up to Janna to carry on the family name, since Liam certainly didn’t have any inclinations in that area.
“You’re a million miles away,” said Rast as he came back into the room, one towel around his waist, another one in his hand as he blotted the dreadlocked masses of hair falling over his shoulder. “Let me guess — the penthouse of the Eridani Major?”
“Yes, that.” She had no intention of confessing what she’d really been thinking about. Children? It was crazy.
Besides, she had no idea whether Stacians and Gaians could even crossbreed.
“I’m looking forward to it.” He came over to the bed and bent down and kissed her gently, but on the forehead, a soft touch of lips to flesh far more tender than she could have ever imagined coming from such a fierce-looking being. “But in the meantime, we should probably eat something. I’m hoping those trout I caught will look a little more appetizing once they’re cooked.”
“I would imagine,” she replied, taking care to keep her tone light. Despite everything they had just shared, she still wasn’t sure how much of herself she could reveal to him. “Not that I would know firsthand, since it will be my first time tasting trout as well.”
“I look forward to sharing a new experience with you,” he said, and from the gleam in his eyes she guessed he was thinking about a lot more than fish.
She knew she was.
Somehow she managed to repress the flush of heat that went through her as he gazed down at her, forced herself to climb out from beneath the sheets and move past him so she could take her own shower.
It was more than a little frightening to contemplate the effect he seemed to have on her.
* * *
Thorn guessed at once, Rast knew. Not that the Gaian did anything except raise one eyebrow the barest fraction of a centimeter before handing over their packets of food, but somehow that was enough. What he made of the situation, Rast couldn’t quite decipher. Not that it was any of Thorn’s business whether Rast and Lira were sleeping together, of course. But he supposed a man who was as successful a mercenary and assassin as Thorn had been — before he went into semi-retirement — would have some pretty good instincts about behavior, whether human, Stacian, or otherwise.
Of Miala there was no sign; she must be still toiling away upstairs at her computers. Rast felt a little pang at that image, because he thought a woman with a baby that young should be spending more time with her child. Or maybe she was. He hadn’t been in her office. For all he knew, it was next door to the nursery, or perhaps she actually kept the baby in the room with her as she worked.
He said nothing, though, except the usual “thank you” as Thorn gave him the food, a phrase Lira echoed as Jerem handed her several additional packets, probably bread and vegetables. It bothered Rast a little to be taking so much from them — even if he had assisted in catching the fish — with no mention of payment. Possibly Lira had worked something out with Miala, but if such an arrangement had been made, she hadn’t mentioned it.
They hurried back out to the ship — “dodging raindrops,” Lira had called it — and went inside, then shut the door behind them. He resisted the urge to shake the water from his hair, guessing that it would only spray everywhere, and instead set the food down on the table before going to the bathroom to fetch one of the towels he’d used earlier. While in there he also collected one for Lira, who was looking more than a little damp.
She took it from him without comment when he returned to the main cabin, squeezing the wet out of her long hair, then setting the towel aside so she could attend to their food. The aroma that drifted up from the open food packets was unlike anything he had ever smelled before, but he decided he liked it. His stomach growled, and Lira grinned.
“Fishing’s hungry work, I guess.” She pushed a plate toward him and sat down.
He took his seat next to her, falling into a pattern that felt as if he had been doing it all his days, instead of for less than a standard week. They ate in silence for a few minutes, a silence that could have been awkward but somehow wasn’t. Once again he thought of how much he desired her. No, it was more than that. True, her flesh was delectable, but he enjoyed just as much these quiet times with her, these moments when they could simply be together.
And perhaps it was wishful thinking on his part, but he thought with their lovemaking this evening they had somehow turned a corner, that Lira had finally acknowledged the connection between the two of them. What it meant for their future, he didn’t know yet. At least now, however, he thought they might actually have a future.
“So did Jerem teach you all the ins and outs of fishing?” Lira asked, pausing to take a drink of water. The ship’s wine cooler only held about ten bottles, so they had decided to pace themselves.
“I’m sure he thought so,” Rast replied. The boy had a great deal more enthusiasm than skill, and probably had scared off far more fish than they actually caught. “It mostly involves a good deal of patience, which, as we both know, is not one of the boy’s best qualities.”
“True.” She shook her head slightly. “He certainly seems to have glommed on to you.”
“He’s a good boy. I can see how he’d get bored out here, with only his family and no one else his age to run and play with. I suspect the only reason he doesn’t get into more trouble is that his father would not tolerate it.”
Not that she’d really thought about it that way, but she guessed Rast was right. He seemed to instinctively know the best way to approach the boy…or maybe it was simply because he had spent so much time around children, given all those numerous nieces and nephews.
She opened her mouth to reply, but was stopped by a smart rapping on the door to the ship. Normally they weren’t disturbed out here, which meant —
Rast got up at once, and went to the door and cycled the lock. Eryk Thorn himself stood out there, rain sluicing through his short-cropped hair and running down his neck. “She wants you to come inside. She thinks she’s gotten it.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
There was barely enough room in Miala’s cramped office for both Lira and Rast to squeeze in. The hacker sat in front of the bank of screens, fingers tapping away so quickly they were a pale blur against the dark gray keyboard, and she did not look up when they entered.
“Don’t you even try it, you little bastard,” she muttered, and once again her fingers danced over the keyboard.
Lira cleared her throat. “Um…Thorn said you had something?”
“Yep. I have to keep working at it, though — it’s like a wormhole that keeps wanting to collapse while you’re in it. Anyway, I got in far enough that I was able to see what your Admiral sen Trannick was so keen on keeping hidden. Looks like he’s had huge amounts of cash funneled into a bunch of different accounts, some shell corporations, anything to keep too much of it from showing up in one place. No huge surprise, since that’s pretty much SOP for anyone who’s trying to hide large amounts of money.” She pounded in a few more commands on the keyboard.
Figuring she might as well take advantage of the break in the other woman’s speech, Lira said, “That’s not all that surprising, though, is it? I mean, we all sort of figured he was ge
tting a payout somehow.”
“Oh, I know.” This time Miala took the briefest of pauses to sip from a glass of water on the side table within arm’s reach before continuing, “It’s not the money that’s the kicker. It’s where it’s coming from.”
“And where is that?” Rast inquired, speaking for the first time. Since there wasn’t much available space in the chamber, he had positioned himself within the doorway, half in and half out of Miala’s office.
“Eridani,” she replied simply.
At that Lira looked back over her shoulder at Rast, whose own expression showed something of the shock that had rippled through her at Miala’s revelation. Eridani? What in the galaxy were the Eridanis up to? They were all about peace and cooperation and mutual beneficial coexistence. She couldn’t begin to understand why they would be funding sen Trannick, apparently to destroy the brittle détente that currently existed between the Gaian and the Stacian governments.
“You’re sure?” Lira asked at last, after she realized Rast was waiting for her to speak.
“Positive. Oh, yes, it’s coming from accounts that have been triple and quadruple masked, but once I got past the hydra it was simple enough to unlock the algorithms that were concealing those accounts. Still haven’t gotten it tracked down to a specific individual or organization, but that’s only a matter of time. Even so, it’s pretty obvious — if you know what you’re looking for — where the money is coming from.”
“Well, shit,” Lira said, and Rast nodded grimly.
“This could…this could be a great blow to galactic peace, were it to be made public,” he said. “We absolutely cannot do or say anything until we know for sure.”
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