Rorie Nebula (a Warrior Adventure Scifi Romance)

by Calista Skye

  "Sit. I'll be right back."

  My shoes clanging the gleaming, metal lining the courtyard of the stack units I rented, I folded my arms over my chest, mostly watching my feet as I made my way to him. By the time I drew to a stop before him, and braved his gaze, I was resolved to whatever might be necessary in the moment, but I didn't want anymore bullshit. No more confusing on-switches that might do unnecessary damage to my heart.

  And I'd really love the assurance that Drek's bullshit was going to be put to a stop. Debtor or no, it wasn't right, and the riders had the force to put it to a stop – if sufficiently motivated.

  “He found out where she lived.”

  “She didn't say that.”

  I followed Arc's eyes to her where she leaned curiously against the entry door watching us like a ghost, a wisp of her former self. I really didn't want to know what happened to her. Couldn't bear the thought really.

  “He found her out and had his way, any way. Might even be back for her.”

  “Can she... go back with you, for protection?”

  Arc loosed a light scoff.

  “Ravi would just love that.”

  “Please. I don't-”

  “We're not babysitters, Rorie.”

  Not babysitters... right.

  “I don't look at you like that. Obviously. I just thought... maybe you could help keep her safe.”

  “The sentries can help keep her safe.”

  “Nia hates sentries, and... they don't much like her these days, either.”

  Arc averted his eyes.

  “I'll mention it to him. I'm only a general in this army.”

  His tone was cool, had been since I'd introduced the cold shoulder to our interactions earlier that morning.

  “Guess that'll have to do. Thanks.”

  “Sure thing.”

  ~

  Nia didn't talk much about what had happened to her after the pack had dropped her home, but there was no question that that drug-dealer scum bastard had come back for her. Maybe even shot one of his sick videoapps at her apartment. I shuddered thinking of it, caressing her hair until she finally drifted off into a sleep that stole most of the day.

  It wasn't until the holo sun was almost setting that the rumble of a few, approaching hover bikes made it clear we had company. Nia exchanged a glance with me, her fingers clutching the tube of black tea and lemon she'd been nursing since she'd woken up. She held it with the intensity of a plushie, milking it of all the comfort it might afford her now.

  “It's fine. Whoever's here is here to help... or offer information, at least.”

  Pressing her mouth tight, Nia averted her eyes.

  She'd been ghostly quiet for the entirety of the day, never wanting to leave my side, jumping at every sound. This was not the lively friend I'd known all of these years, and it tugged at my heart knowing there might not be much I could do to get her back.

  That was probably up to her and a good counselor, if what I was thinking happened, had actually happened to her.

  When she did finally calm enough, I found Arc and another Rider, Boa, in the parking ramps of my complex, and reactively folding my arms over my chest, I realized there was still an unspoken tension between Arc and I.

  I was able to tuck it back, though, for Nia's sake. And miraculously, Nia agreed to ride back to the lower stack units with us at Ione's summoning. She didn't know Ione, and really, neither did I, but Ione apparently knew something about what she was going through and had had a fit when she heard Ione might have received another visit from the lowly, drug-dealing scum spinning the web the pack was struggling to get out of.

  That woman babied the shit out of Nia when we arrived, and I admit, I felt a little lost at sea as to why I was even there in the first place. Maybe it was a kind of minor, best friend jealousy, or maybe, it was that I truly didn't have a place in all of it, anymore.

  Jumping at the feel of velvet fingers on my shoulder, I turned to see Arc, and my heart chugged a little more intensely in my chest.

  “Bored, yet?”

  “Hmm? Uh, no. No. Just...”

  “Nia's a mother hen. Your friend's in good hands now. I can take you back if you want.”

  “Up-deck?”

  “Where else?” He cracked a smile.

  “Right. Well, if I can just talk to her before we leave...”

  “Sure thing. I'll bring you to the back.”

  Nia was asleep on Ione's sofa-couch, but she gave me a dismissive grunt of approval when I told her I was going to head back for the night. When I saw all of the half-drunk tubes of tea spread across the side panel, I realized she really was being tended well.

  That made it a hell of a lot easier to turn my attention back to tending myself. I left with Arc shortly after that, enjoying a quiet glide, that I noticed went a little off-course to give us extra time to talk. I guess that was his way of apologizing for his behavior the other night, but I still wasn't sure how I felt about it.

  “Wanna stop at Fisher's Point?”

  I grinned. What the hell. Why not?

  “I love the holo-sea at night.”

  Seven

  Parked on the ramps just off from the first Pier, Arc helped me down from his hover bike with a fairly intense look in his eyes that sent a shiver of heat over my skin, but I averted my gaze shyly, this time. Maybe, I was afraid to react to it, not knowing whether or not this was the wisest course for either of us. Not knowing if he would change his mind mid-kiss.

  As if assuring me, his fingers slipped into mine, soft and warm against my own, and we headed out to the walkways leading past the piers. It made me self-conscious in a way that could only be born of intense interest, but I wasn't ready to admit that to myself.

  We walked in silence mostly, but it was the charged sort of quiet that was hard to get away from. The kind that made it clear our minds were consumed with thoughts that we weren't entirely ready to share.

  “You scare me a little, Rorie.”

  We were just by the first pier when he said it, and my heart thumped heartily in my chest. I really didn't want to play games if I was even going to consider dealing with Arc on a level deeper than what we'd already flirted with.

  Clearing my throat, I tried to gather my words, but he drew us to a stop and cradled my chin with his index finger, making me look at him.

  “Why can't I get you off of my mind when it's so easy to dismiss everyone else?”

  I swallowed my nerves, suddenly breathless as his warm eyes bore into mine. Arc was looking at me with all of the seriousness of someone who wanted an answer to his question.

  It called for courage on my part, but I decided to give it to him.

  “Probably the same reason, I can't stop thinking about you.”

  A grin ticked his mouth, just slightly, and I felt his fingers flirt the full length of my own.

  “Almost perfect if not for the fact that you wouldn't want this life. I know you wouldn't.”

  I broke gaze with him, not wanting him to see me confirm his suspicions with my eyes. He was right actually; that was the entire crux of the issue. We were from two entirely different worlds, and his dust pack was one of the ones that was involved in criminal activities, thanks to Drek.

  I didn't need his problems biting me in the ass; I was working hard toward building a future for myself.

  “Yeah... Pretty much what I thought, then.”

  He gave me an indulgent smile, one that told me how much our differences pained him while also assuring me that he had no desire to insist I enter such a perilous world if I wasn't fully ready.

  Our eyes locked for sometime standing there at the head of the pier, until our hormones got the best of us, and he lowered the lush swell of his lips to mine, his thumb brushing my cheek as my mouth opened to him.

  Heat flushed every nerve ending in my entire body as that kiss deepened, and I wondered if this was his way of leaving me with an impression of what I would be missing walking away from him. It was a potent “a
dvertisement.” I felt like I'd never want to move from that spot, even if some small part of me wanted to run.

  Arc's effect on me was overwhelming, and my mind was starting to wander into the realm of “what-ifs,” asking questions like: what if this is meant to be? Could all of that trouble have possibly been fate's way of bringing us together?

  A breathy whimper escaped me when he pressed himself against me, and I felt my nipples tighten beneath my shirt pressed against him, heat coiling in my gut and traveling, lower, and lower...

  My fingers found the nape of his neck, and I pressed myself closer, twisting the dark hairs jutting out there, breathing in the scent of his engine-oil musk mixed with salt and sea.

  We felt good together, our bodies pressed close like this. We'd all but mastered communication on unspoken levels, and we barely knew one another.

  Arc's kiss deepened before he pulled back and nipped my lip, and heat flared in my core reactively. Drawing a deep breath that made it sound like he was summoning every last bit of his strength, he pulled back from me inchingly, until locking gaze with me again.

  Those fucking eyes of his.

  “I should get you to your unit before we...”

  I cleared my throat, blinking myself back to reality.

  “Um, yeah. Yeah, that sounds good.”

  I'd wanted to see more of the simulated sea at low-tide, but I knew things would go much much further if we stayed, so I didn't drag my heels when he led me back to his hover bike, and when he stopped a moment, locking gaze with me again, I wisely averted my eyes.

  It would be too easy to fall into this.

  Far too easy.

  I slid my arms around him and adjusted my thighs around the rumbling seat of the bike, startling at the sound of more hover bikes pulling into the holo lot. A jag of fear told me to take a cautious look.

  And I was right to.

  This wasn't Arc's pack. And they didn't look like friends.

  Tightening my arms around Arc, I felt him tense as the bikes rode in circles around us, and I knew he was already worrying about protecting me. I'd made it pretty clear I didn't want into this life, but here was the sure prospect of trouble driving around us in menacing circles.

  I caught the self-impressed smile of what looked like the head rider of the enemy pack, just as he turned his gaze to his mates and gave them a signal of some sort. Their circle moved on past us then, defying the holo beach rules and taking the bikes down the promenade by the piers.

  I could tell by Arc's hesitation that he didn't want to take the insult they'd just issued, but he reined back his beast and revved his engine a moment later, obviously deciding to err on the side of caution.

  It was a short tense glide back to my stack unit, after that, and once safely in the parking ramp, I slid off of Arc's bike when I realized he wasn't getting off. Then I turned to him, inspecting him. I didn't know what the hell those roving bikes were communicating, but it couldn't have been good.

  Fury etched Arc's features.

  “You're not... You're not planning on getting into unnecessary trouble over that; are you?”I almost jumped when he turned dark eyes burning black onto me, but he was a moment before answering.

  “That's pack business.”

  Something protective in me flinched. Shit, I was already going into mama bear mode with him. Not a good sign for someone who'd decided already earlier to stay away.

  “Will you, uh, come in? Just... to gather your thoughts? You're right. Pack business is pack business. I just want to make sure you take a minute to-”

  My heart thumped furiously the way his eyes bore into me, and my breath stuttered when he pulled me to him, his mouth claiming mine hungrily, with a passion that contrasted his usually simmering flames. I kissed back with equal hunger, the sort my mind was utterly failing to talk down now.

  “Come,” I managed to ask between kisses as our tongues danced, and our teeth nipped one another's lips playfully. “Inside. Come Inside.”

  The rumble of his engine died to a purr until silence engulfed the lot. And then his fingers were twining with mine, and we were half-walking, half running to my stack unit, choosing with our passion and our bodies where we belonged in one another's world.

  Choosing our own ramp.

  Fumbling with my door code, my lips disconnected from his intermittently, returning in bursts to bask in the warm haze falling down around us, soft but electric, as if we'd become a circuit, he and I.

  His arms tightened around me as we backed into the opening door, pushing it all the way wide with our bodies until he lifted me up, wrapping my thighs around him as the door slid closed.

  We crashed into each another as twin storms when he delivered us to my bed, our bodies writhing against one another's as our tongues danced wildly, desperately. The heady masculine scent of him infused me, eating away at whatever semblance of control still remaining in my disposal.

  I nipped his lips as he tugged down my slide pants, my fingers quickly acting to relieve him of his own. Moaning, I kissed him more feverishly as I sprung him free, the thick, wanton length of him pulsing in my hands as my fingers closed around him.

  Something more animalistic took him over then, his kiss deepening. Anticipation coiled in my gut as he lifted my top, my under shirt quickly raised high, exposing the flushing, ruby points it was hiding to the warm claim of his mouth.

  Shivering, my hips circled beneath him, hungrily, suggestively, and his hands found my waist. Pulling me against him, his gaze bore into mine, communicating his claim without any need for verbal confirmation.

  I understood, and oh how I accepted.

  Claiming his lips again hungrily, I felt the hard heat of him brush against my core, and a wild fire flooded my sex in response. Kissing him with equal hunger, I moaned in his mouth wantonly as he spread me wide and thrust himself inside of me, his strokes fevered and insistent, dripping with our union.

  I'd never felt a oneness like it before, an assured sense of completion that my body instantly understood as true connectedness with the other side of me, the yang that fueled my yin, the wild half to match my restrained half.

  We moved together with the rhythm of fulfillment, knowing that everything would change after this. Everything would be different now. No turning back. No denying his pack or the life he led. It was now mine to live, too, as we writhed and moaned, panting and dripping in our consumption of one another.

  It was a claim that seemed neverending, and when the electric sugar that surged through our limbs rose to the heights of the pleasure we shared, and his release came streaming out of him, I didn't worry that something binding might come of it.

  It felt right in a way that nothing else before this had, and bucking against him, heat and fire flooded me, causing my core to tighten around him. My hips rolled again and again and again until every drop of passion had poured from us, and we fell into one another's arms, sticky, skin-dewed, and bound now.

  Completely.

  His mouth took mine again, more gently now as our limbs tangled, and my head nestled in the nook of his arms.

  I didn't fall asleep right away, but Arc succumbed to his slumber almost instantly. I watched his chest rise and fall with a deepened sense of admiration and wonder as the first wave of sleep tempted me to fall out of consciousness. How quickly we'd fallen into it all, how unexpected his appearance in my life had truly been.

  I fought past any lingering feelings of reserve in that moment, and found it a much easier battle this time around. I wasn't ready for the life I knew I was entering now, but I was already well past its threshold.

  Watching his eyes squeeze against whatever dream was playing in the dark of his slumber, I drew protectively closer to him. Knowing right then that I was in. All in for this ride.

  Whatever we might run into along the ramps and orbiting space dust.

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