by Alison Aimes
Heat flared in his gaze, along with pain.
She understood. Their shared confessions changed everything—and nothing at all.
Turning his chin, he brushed his lips against her palm, inhaling deep. “What are you doing to me?”
“The same thing you’re doing to me,” she whispered.
The warmth of his full lips seared her palm, sparking an answering flame low in her belly.
“I don’t want to lose you.”
She slid closer. “Then don’t push me away.”
“I let emotion rule me in the mines and got Carvter killed. The ore lost. I failed us all.”
“Your teammate’s death is on Hollisworth, no one else.” She felt like a shrew for taking out her grief over losing the ore on Valdus, the one man who deserved only her praise. “And the rest of us are still standing. Ready to fight.” He’d stood strong when she’d wavered and needed him. Now, it was her turn. “We’ll figure something out. Seemingly fragile things survive down here. You told me that yourself. We will, too.”
“Such grit.” He pulled her close. Nuzzled her temple. “If you knew what was in my mind. If you knew what I wanted to do to you. Throw you over my shoulder. Steal you away. Keep you for myself alone. Fuck the mission. Fuck escape. Fuck our deal. Fuck everything, but the way you feel in my arms.”
Need arrowed through her. Not because of the heat, but because of the man himself. It was another new, extraordinary experience.
“But you won’t,” she said at last, her voice strengthened by absolute certainty. “Because your team needs you, too. Because they’re everything to you.”
“Not everything.” His eyes had darkened to near black. “Not anymore.”
Her heart skipped. “Touch me, Valdus. Wipe everything except you from my skin.”
A low groan issued from him, but his mouth stilled before it reached her own.
“You make me forget everything but you.” He shook his head, amusement flaring in his gaze. “But not this time. There’s something I want to show you.”
Wrapping his hand around her wrist, he ducked through a small low triangular space between two large rocks.
Looking up, she gasped
Liquid poured from a large crack near the ceiling and splashed its way down the rocky wall. A waterfall. She’d read of them, but water was so scarce on New Earth that those that had once existed were gone. Bella had sworn she’d seen one on Dragath25. Ava hadn’t been so lucky.
Until now.
“It…it’s amazing.” Hovering near the outskirts of the falls, soothing spray danced across her face. Wet. Almost too hot. But delicious nonetheless. Tilting her chin upward, she let it coat her hair, eyelashes, and skin. Roll across her cheeks. Down her chin. Each droplet pure bliss.
“I wanted to show you something special.” He pulled her close. “To prove it isn’t all ugliness and death down here.”
“How could it be,” she kept her gaze locked with his as she brushed her lips against his neck, “when you’re here?”
“I think…” he swallowed hard, “I think you’re going to break me.”
Blood from his temple mingled with the water, tracking down his neck and chest.
If only it could wipe away the storm in his eyes as easily.
“Or put you back together again.” She traced a fingertip along his jaw. “We’ll figure something out,” she insisted. “Together.”
His nostrils flared. “He will never have you.”
Their lips met in a fierce clash. Tongues. Teeth. Wild. Frantic.
They hadn’t resolved the tension brewing between them, hadn’t determined if what was growing between them was a troubling weakness or a miraculous strength, but right then and there she couldn’t seem to care either way.
Large hands slid to her ass, lifted her up, pressing her core against his thick erection and, holding her close, waded more fully beneath the forceful spray. The pounding water against her shoulders only amplified the arousal thundering through her veins.
“Sometimes I can’t believe you’re real.” His eyes were an even more brilliant blue against spiky lashes darkened by water. “Real and in my arms.”
“Real and aching.” The heavy weight of her soaked uniform clung to her skin, outlining the hard jut of her nipples even as it proved a frustrating barrier, restricting sensation, magnifying her desire to be skin to skin. To peel back every layer between them. To come together with no limits. Cleansed inside and out. Reborn. Untainted.
She’d never imagined craving something like that with Hollisworth’s technology still lodged inside her and yet, in this moment, she felt almost free.
“I need you to touch me.” She tugged at her sleeve. Bared her shoulders.
With a groan, his mouth skimmed the hollows of her collarbone, sipping at her skin while his hands glided over her arms and hips, the erotic shock of his bare, wet flesh against hers, swelling her clit.
Her hands mirrored his, touching him everywhere she could. Everywhere she’d dreamed of doing for so long. Bold in a way she’d never been before.
He gripped the front of her uniform enclosure, pulling it wide.
The slap of water against her naked breasts made her gasp. Blood rushed to the surface, intensifying her sensitivity a hundredfold.
One droplet clung to her puckered nipple. He flicked it with his tongue before his lips closed over it, the warm suction of his mouth an erotic contrast that sent her soaring.
“Yes. Just like that.” She seized hold of slick handfuls of hair, her back bowing. “Come inside me, please. I need you.”
He’d taken much while they’d been together, yes. But he’d given her even more. Shown her so many things about herself she’d never known.
“I can’t wait anymore.” Her feet hit the ground. Together, they yanked and tugged until the sopping wet uniform was at her feet. The smack of water against her breasts, her belly, her thighs, an exquisite assault, like the caress of a thousand rough fingers.
Desperate, fevered, she wrapped one leg around him and balanced on her tiptoes. Brought her pussy in line with his thick, hard cock. The roar of the pounding water nothing compared to the thunder in her blood.
He plunged deep inside.
She keened.
He groaned.
Her eyes fluttered shut. Slick skin fusing as they moved as one, their hips rolling as she gripped his perfect ass tight, lifting her hips to meet every ferocious thrust.
The violence of the surging water across her skin and the force of his claiming swirling together, heightening her pleasure, drawing her closer to the knife-edge of pleasure.
“Even if this is all we ever have,” she whispered. “It’s enough.”
“No,” he growled, thrusting harder, familiar determination flaring in his gaze. “It will never be enough. Not until you and my men are safe. Not until I’ve turned Hollisworth to Dragath dirt and freed you from him forever. Not until I see those emerald eyes lit by the suns and shining as bright as our stars.”
Our stars. She pressed her lips to his. Let the ferocity of the pounding surge carry her over the edge. Let herself come apart—and felt him join her, warm liquid coating her insides as he groaned her name and shuddered, holding her tighter as he pressed kisses to her temple and her jaw and the curve of her throat. Pleasure winding through them as they soared as one.
But even as she keened and shook and shattered, she knew.
Something was changing. Something growing between them. A connection as wonderous as it was dangerous.
Because caring for a man like Valdus, a man as fierce and wild and irresistible as the churning waterfall, might destroy her a hundred times faster than Hollisworth ever could.
Especially when their plan for escape was as far out of reach as it had ever been.
28
“It’s the only shot we have.”
“It’s too dangerous.”
“We need that ore. Without it, no serum. No serum, no way to stop the tracker fro
m self-destructing.”
Crouched low against the rocky corridor just outside the opening to the waterfall, Ava listened to Valdus, Ryker, and the rest of the crew argue in hushed tones, her own frustration rising.
His men had tracked them down a short while ago—thankfully, after she was already back in uniform and drying off—and the “discussion” had commenced almost at once.
Frustrations were high. The grief over the death of one of their own palpable. And the growing sense that time was running out thickened the air.
“The moment we walk back into the mines, Hollisworth will know something is up. No one returns to work unless summoned.”
“Maybe we don’t need the ore? Maybe we can figure out a way to take all the drones at once?”
“Don’t be idiots.” It was easy to pick out Ryker from the crowd. “We need the ore. But going back to the mines will only get us as dead as Carvter. We’re screwed.”
“Enough.” Valdus pulled them back in line, his expression hard. “The best plan is for me to draw the droids out. Once I get them to give chase, you slip into the mines. Gather what you can. If we’re fast, we can still make this work.”
“It didn’t work before. Why should it now?” Ryker’s succinct evaluation wasn’t wrong.
“Because we have no other choice.” Valdus started forward.
“Wait.” She caught his arm. “You can’t go alone. That’s a suicide mission.” She understood his need to save his men, but she couldn’t allow him to make a foolish choice. “Hollisworth will have his droids take you out the moment they see I’m not nearby.” She stepped closer. She didn’t want to return to the mine, but she wasn’t letting him do this alone. “You need to do this? Fine. But if you insist on this plan, I go with you.”
The warmth in his gaze sent renewed need humming through her veins.
“There is another option.”
All eyes turned toward Griffin. Propped against the wall, his skin ashen from loss of blood, the green-eyed teammate wasn’t as enthusiastic as usual, but his voice still carried loud and clear.
“There is one other place where I’ve seen the ore in abundance,” he continued. “No droids, either.”
Her spine snapped straight, hope surging once more. “Perfect. Let’s go.” She wasn’t about to ask too many questions. Anything was better than the mines and the drones.
Valdus held up a hand, his expression still grim. “Where exactly is this place, Grif?”
“The west side.”
A collective groan went through the group.
“What?” she swiveled toward Valdus. “What’s wrong with this place?”
“It’s dangerous.”
She scoffed, gesturing toward the mines. “More dangerous than what we’ve already faced?”
“A different kind of danger.”
“Doesn’t matter.” She pushed up to standing. “We have to go. We have no choice.” Their gazes locked. “Hollisworth is coming. We have to neutralize the trackers.”
“You stay,” he said. “I’ll bring it back.”
“Are you one hundred percent certain you can identify the ore we need in this new environment?”
“She has you there,” chuckled Ryker.
Valdus’s scowl deepened.
She stared right back. She knew he was struggling with his feelings, just as she was. That it was on the tip of his tongue to simply order her to stay.
But she wouldn’t be shut out or sequestered away as Hollisworth had done with her.
Her days of being led were over.
“I need to be a part of the fight, Valdus,” she told him. “And I’m not your captive anymore. Nor am I one of your men. If this is where I need to go to get the ore, then that’s where I’m headed.” She seized her ax. “I hope you’ll join me.”
“There’s more up here.” It was hard to contain her excitement as she bounded over one large boulder toward the far rocky wall, relief leaving her almost dizzy.
Griffin had been right. The ore they needed was even more abundant here than in the mines.
She’d found several deposits in smaller caves and, after showing the other men exactly what it was they needed to excavate, she and Valdus had pushed on to locate more.
With what she’d just discovered, they’d have more than enough.
“Slow down.” A heavy hand landed on her shoulder. “What did I say about staying close?”
Valdus had been none too pleased with her since her show of independence.
But he had come. And for that she was grateful.
“Right.” She shot him a guilty smile. “I’m sorry. I got overexcited. I’ve been searching for this ore for so long, wondering if it was real and would prove to be my salvation or if I was on a fool’s mission. And now, to find so much of it, here and in the mines…it makes it all so real. It proves I was right to take the risk.”
His expression softened. “So many would have broken when faced with what you’ve gone through, but not you. You come back stronger every time.”
“Thank you for saying that. Thank you, too, for not staying mad at me.” She rose on her tiptoes, intent on pressing her lips to his.
He stepped back with a groan. “Not here. Not now. This isn’t an area of the mines we can linger.” He gestured toward the wall. “Point me to it. You were right. Without the excavation underway, I have no idea where to start mining.”
Shock thundered through her.
The man at her side ensnared her so completely she’d momentarily forgotten about retrieving her precious ore.
Shaking off her disbelief, she turned toward the far wall. “There it is. Follow the vein toward the thickest part in the middle. That’s where we’ll start the excavation.”
“Got it.” He started toward it, then swiveled around, his expression giving nothing away. “Oh, and I’m still mad, but I figure you can apologize to me later. When the serum is made and we’re both naked and breathing surface air.”
He winked. Actually winked, before turning back around.
She blinked. Once. Twice.
The hard clash of his ax against the stone silenced anything she might have said in reply. But her steps were light as she took her place beside him and raised her own ax, the realization that there could be lighthearted teasing between them even during tense times making her heart beat fast. Was there anything about this man she didn’t like?
They’d been working in silence, taking turns striking the rock, the pile at their feet growing, when he spoke. “How did you manage to elude everyone for so long?” His gorgeous eyes crinkled at the corners as his lips quirked upward. “It’s not as if someone like you is easy to overlook.”
She was so distracted by his smile—and the slow slide of a drop of sweat from his neck down the hard planes of his chest and flat stomach—it took her a moment to register what he’d said. Even longer to answer. “I used his toys against him. Stole facial camouflage. Dyed my hair.”
“Smart.”
“And lucky. I was aided by my husband’s arrogance and the fact that he didn’t know me at all.”
“How so?”
“He assumed I was too stupid or too afraid to escape on my own and never questioned the fake abduction trail I had left to throw him off my scent.” She was warming to the topic. For so long she’d had no one to tell. “Once he realized I really had run, I was already deep undercover.”
Valdus’s ax hit the wall with a vicious strike. “Thank Janus for his arrogance.”
“Exactly. He had no idea a sympathetic scientist had shown me a way to appease the heat cycle without actual sperm. Or that I was using the time freed from my ‘duties’ to become someone else. Someone with a skill who could pass the Academy entrance exam and enter the school as a student.”
“Clever.”
“Thank you. I never even left the planet. Just slipped right into my new identity. Hiding in plain sight. It was shockingly easy.” She paused. “And horrifically hard. For a while, I missed the oth
er brides in Hollisworth’s collection, but the truth was we’d never been close. His delight in playing us off one another had made friendship impossible. Still, there were times when I was in hiding, when the pressure and loneliness would get to me, that I thought it might be better to be discovered.” She shook her head. “Until I grew sick of my own whining and waiting and decided to scurry out of my hole. To go after more.” She gestured toward the ore. “And here I am. Not the way I expected, but closer to my goal than I’ve ever been.”
“I’m glad I’m here to see it.”
“Me, too.” Her heart beat faster and faster. Now that they’d started talking, she never wanted to stop. She wanted to know everything about him. “What about you?”
He raised an eyebrow.
“Why did you join the Resistance?” Her hand itched to reach out and stroke the hard planes of his chest. If someone had told her only a few rotations ago she’d be so bold and yearning, she would have laughed in their face. Now…now she couldn’t stop wishing to touch him everywhere.
“There was an incident years ago.” Another vicious strike to the wall. “Unrest in the Southern non-Council quarters. I was just a grunt on the team back then, a young Council conscript who cared more for clocking my time and partying with friends than anything else.”
“Really?” It was hard for her to imagine him like that.
“Yup. Our unit was called in to reinstate order.” His voice shifted, the whiff of nostalgia in his tone shifting to something edged with pain. “There were kids…old people…” He shook his head. “We were told to take out any and all. The head of my unit refused. Hell, we all refused, but he took his refusal to the Council.” A hard breath shuddered through him. “We never saw him again. The Council came the next rotation and swept up the other leaders as well. They were executed that night. I joined the Resistance the next morning.”
“And the rest of your team?”
“They followed me.” The weight of their choice was heavy in his voice. His guilt easy to hear.
He still blamed himself. For Carvter. For the other teammates who’d died. For whatever darkness raged within Ryker.
