Mae stopped in front of the screen displaying the shuttle timetable.
“Looks like we just missed a transfer into the city.” She glanced over her shoulder and found Zander dropping his packs into a nearby waste-disposal unit. “Really? I thought you were joking about tossing everything. Some of that stuff was still useful. It could have been repacked—”
He shot her an exasperated frown. “There’s plenty more where that came from. The IPC has endless resources. Besides, I don’t trust that stuff not to be bugged by whoever the hell has been after us the past couple of days. I only kept it this long in case we needed it.”
Oh. Hell, she hadn’t considered that. Surely if the Reidar did have it bugged, there would have been another attempt on them last night or at some point today? But it was better to be safe than sorry. She shrugged out of the three packs she’d lugged the last few days and hurried to drop them into the waste unit, including the display screen from the shuttle.
“I don’t want to wait around here any longer than necessary. Let’s hire one of those autocars and get back into the city.” He scanned the area. Abruptly, he was less the Zander she’d spent the morning naked with and more the unyielding captain admiral who commanded an IPC flagship.
She followed him to the line of public autocars, where he pulled out his wallet and used currency to pay for one of the aerosphere vehicles, as opposed to the slower wheeled automated cars, which stayed on the ground and were better for shorter trips.
Inside the vehicle, Zander input their destination as the Tocarra Intergalactic Hotel directly across from the spaceport.
As the aerosphere car took off, Mae sat back and focused on the scenery whizzing by. If she looked at Zander right now, the words crowding her throat would come bursting out, and that wouldn’t do either of them any good…probably just make things more awkward than they already were. Worse, the need to tell him the truth about Rian and the Reidar was like a weight sitting on her chest. But she’d made a promise she couldn’t betray for anything, no matter that her heart thumped hard enough to ache at how angry Zander would be when the truth finally came out.
Time. Time would help. The hours and days would go by, and what she’d had with Zander would become a fond memory. The best thing she could do was put it firmly behind herself. They’d been thrown together by the shuttle crash, forced to rely on one another, and faced the constant threat of death for the past days. Now that they were returning to reality, things would change. They would change, and whatever this anomaly had been between them would end up firmly in her past.
Zander’s hand touched hers, and she jolted, thinking it an accident. But when she turned to look at him, she found him staring at her, his eyes melting with intensity. “We should probably have a conversation about things.”
Her heart skipped wildly and she swallowed, trying to put a lid on the untamed sensation.
For some stupid reason, her imagination went spinning off, a fantasy springing to life of him telling her he didn’t care what she was hiding, that he wanted to get to know her outside this crazy situation where they’d been running for their lives.
Hell. Where had that come from? There was no feasible way they could ever be anything to each other. They existed in two entirely different worlds. He was a career officer, and she— Well, she’d been a UAFA agent…now she had no idea what to do with herself.
Joining Rian’s crew seemed like her only option, unless she wanted to take her life savings and go lie on a beach somewhere. But that just wasn’t her play—she couldn’t skulk off to the far reaches of the galaxy with knowledge of the things going on in the shadows. And if she joined Rian’s crew, there was a good chance she’d end up on the opposite side of the law to Zander. They were mismatched in every sense of the word. So why did being with him feel so right?
She forced herself to nod, striving to keep her expression neutral.
“But not now.” He withdrew his touch, and it was like a new wall came up between them. “Once we’ve gotten to the hotel, cleaned up, and had a decent meal.”
Another nod. Idiot, I probably look totally brainless. But her voice had deserted her. Her mind had gone blank, all except for the single desperate need to remind herself they’d be parting ways sooner rather than later. And the parting would be something akin to an asteroid impact—messy and destructive.
Her heavy thoughts had distracted her, and surprise threaded through her when the aerocar lowered and slowed as it pulled into the Tocarra International Hotel.
A uniformed employee stepped forward and held the door for them, his gaze sweeping over them both and then focusing off into nowhere.
For the first time, the thought of what a mess they both looked registered. And her self-consciousness only increased when they stepped into the plush foyer and received reproachful looks from other guests.
The staff behind the desk regarded them with carefully bland expressions, and Mae crossed her arms in growing annoyance. They’d nearly been killed. Several times. She shouldn’t care if she looked like she’d just walked off a battlefield. Nonetheless, the sooner she could get a room and clean herself up, the better.
Zander stood in front of the desk, shoulders back and expression professionally implacable, as though he hadn’t been wearing a torn, bloody dress uniform for the better part of three days. “Captain Admiral Zander Graydon. I’ll take an executive suite. Put it on my IPC account.”
“Yes, sir.” The man behind the desk started tapping at his display screen but managed to shoot her a curious glance before dropping his gaze. “Just one room, sir?”
“That’s what I asked for.” Zander’s voice lowered, she guessed with impatience. The hotel employee wasn’t an IPC officer, so he obviously didn’t realize questioning a captain admiral was never a good idea.
“If you’ll provide a handprint scan here and then type in your security code?” The man held out a palm-size pad, where Zander laid his hand. A blue light flashed, and the unit beeped. Zander lifted his hand and typed a series of letters and numbers into the keyboard that appeared onscreen.
He glanced back at her, his expression stern, but his lips quirked up for a second, his gaze becoming lighter.
“I’m sorry, sir, but those codes are incorrect. Can you try again?”
Zander turned his attention back to the hotel employee, who was holding out the pad again.
A weird sense of something she couldn’t explain rose within her when the codes were denied a second time.
“I’m sorry, Captain Admiral. I can’t let you have the room if your security codes aren’t working.”
Zander ran a hand over his hair. “There must be something wrong with your computer system. The palm scanner confirmed my identity, didn’t it? If the codes aren’t working, there’s obviously something wrong on your end. I need that room, or you’ll be hearing from Admiral General Audric.”
The hotel employee’s knuckles whitened where he held the ident-pad, but he shook his head resolutely. “It’s hotel policy, sir. I can’t allow you to have the room if your security codes aren’t—”
Zander braced both hands on the desk and leaned forward. “Then get a tech guy down here to check your system before I call the admiral general and tell him we no longer require your hotel’s services.”
The man’s mouth opened and closed a few times as his face went pale. Yep, Zander’s overbearing captain admiral act told her they were definitely back to reality.
Mae sighed. This was getting them nowhere fast. She touched Zander’s arm and moved up beside him at the desk. He shot her a frustrated look then stepped back and crossed his arms. Though he’d put some space between him and the hotel employee, his bearing promised the man was doomed.
“Why don’t we try it under my account? Lieutenant Marshal Mae Petros.”
The man ducked his head to type on the display and held the ident-pad up for her. She pressed her hand against it for the scan and then typed in her security code.
Relief flooded the man’s face as he glanced from the display back to her.
“Security codes cleared, Lieutenant Marshal.” He handed her two hotel key cards in a folder with a small screen of revolving ads about the hotel’s amenities.
“Thank you.” She turned, catching the death glare Zander leveled at the hotel employee. “Are you going to stand there doing your best captain admiral glower all day, or are you coming up to the room?”
She didn’t wait for an answer and started across the lobby toward the bank of elevators, deliberately not looking at anyone she passed. She’d had enough of that when they’d first walked in.
Zander caught up with her as she pressed the button for the elevator and a door to their right whooshed open.
“I don’t understand why my security codes didn’t work.” Zander punched the button for the twenty-second floor before she could. He cut her a sideways glance, nothing short of outright suspicion in his gaze that almost had her rolling her eyes.
Great. Were they reverting to the early stage of their relationship where he suspected she had something to do with everything that went wrong? Just when she thought they’d gotten past that.
She focused on the elevator control screen before her temper could get the better of her. “FYI, you’re totally paying me back for however much that suite cost, Captain Admiral.”
From the corner of her eye, she caught him frowning at her. “And why am I covering the cost? Fifty-fifty sounds about fair to me.”
“You wanted to go fifty-fifty, you should have asked for a standard room like a normal person. Us non–captain admiral people wouldn’t know what to do with an entire suite.”
“Duly noted,” he replied with dry humor. Zander clasped his hands behind his back, his head tilted up, presumably looking at the floor numbers as they lit up one by one.
Maybe sarcastic humor wasn’t the smartest way to deal with him, but the other option was arguing. Again. And she’d had quite enough of that yesterday. It was so much easier when they were getting along. Plus, she still had to get him to Rian. At least some of that issue had resolved itself. She had him alone, separated from any form of IPC backup. All she had to do was manipulate things so they ended up on the Imojenna, not on the Swift Brion. Sure…easy. She scrutinized his body, calculating her chances of being able to overpower him. Not great, but she might be able to do it with enough surprise.
Except as her stare ran back up his sculpted body, recent memories ambushed her—of trailing her fingers along the strong column of his throat and down his chest to more interesting places. A deep well of longing and a flash of weird emotion burned through her.
Zander glanced down at her, his gaze roaming her face, and his eyes darkened a touch.
“You shouldn’t look at me like that.” His voice came out low, husky, and intimate enough to make her insides clench. “Because apparently I’ve only got so much control where you’re concerned.”
She tore her gaze away from him and focused on the shiny, polished surface of the elevator doors. But that didn’t stop her from feeling him move closer until their shoulders brushed. A shiver rippled through her as he leaned in.
“You know, if there wasn’t a camera in this elevator…hell, even with the camera I’m tempted enough to throw caution to the wind. But I don’t suppose you’d want our intimate scene played out on tonight’s intergalactic news broadcast.” He moved away and she sucked in a long breath, warmth radiating up her chest and neck, into her cheeks.
“I can just see the headlines now.” His tone had taken on an amused edge. “Captain Admiral, or Captain Amorous? You Be the Judge.”
She braced a hand against her mouth, fighting a smile as they reached their floor and the elevator doors opened. Really, she shouldn’t find it funny. This was a serious situation, and things would get worse before they got better. Yet the irreverent, almost boyish side of Zander’s personality completely charmed her.
She followed him out of the elevator and down the hall, finding their room almost at the end of the corridor. Zander waited while she unlocked the door with one of the key cards and then let her go in ahead of him.
Over her years in the IPC and UAFA, she’d stayed in a few fancy hotels but hadn’t ever booked into an actual suite. She walked into the main sitting room, crossing her arms at the clean, shiny, light-colored surfaces. Great, now I feel even dirtier.
To the left, double doors opened onto a large bedroom with a massive bed. Ahead, wide windows looked out over the spaceport, where ships continually landed and took off in choreographed chaos. To her right, a partitioned alcove appeared to be some sort of office.
Zander brushed by her…shirtless. Her lungs failed. Damn. She might have seen the man naked just this morning, but the sight of his muscles shifting as he bent down to strip out of his pants sent her heart pounding against her ribs.
Tension streamed through her body, and she tightened her fingers around her biceps. “What are you doing?”
Urgh. That sounded so dumb. It was pretty obvious what he was doing—she should have asked why.
Zander glanced back at her as he dropped his shirt and pants in the waste chute, leaving him standing there in his boxer briefs.
“Didn’t want to wear those clothes a second longer than I had to.” He walked over to the viewer screen and brought up hotel services. “What clothes size are you? No, wait, let me guess. A size eight?”
“Did you really guess that, or was it in my file?”
He stared up at the screen as he scrolled through various options of room service but didn’t look back at her. “Can’t go revealing all my secrets, can I? Besides, I’m the captain admiral. It’s my job to know everything.”
“Even your subordinate’s dress size? That’s straying across a line, if you ask me.”
This time he did look back at her, his expression edged with a serious intensity.
“I’m not into knowing the personal details about all of my crew. But it seems there are some people I can’t help but take extra notice of, even when I know it’s not in my best interest.”
Well, at least they seemed to be on the same page about this relationship—or whatever had developed between them—being all kinds of wrong. If only he didn’t feel so damn right.
She was tempted to tell him the full truth, to try to salvage some of the budding emotion, but she shook off the thought and turned her attention to the spaceport beyond the window. The secret was bigger than just the two of them and definitely more important than whatever superficial feelings she’d developed for him because they’d slept together. It seemed melodramatic to think the fate of the universe relied on her, but it probably wasn’t very far off accurate. If the Reidar had replaced one captain admiral in Zander, who was to say they hadn’t replaced all the captain admirals and other senior IPC military officers? If that turned out to be the case, then the war would be lost before it began.
“Okay. New uniforms and civ clothes, as well as a three-course meal and a med scanner should be here within half an hour. You want to take first shower?”
He’d moved away from the viewer screen and was helping himself to a bottle of water from the amenities bar.
You want to shower with me? Because she wanted to press up against the hard length of his body one last time. To pretend for a few more minutes that she wasn’t the bad guy in this scenario.
Ergh! She could slap herself. What had happened to her fortitude? A spasm wrenched through the middle of her chest.
“Thanks. I’ll take first shower.” Her words came out blunt and sharp.
Zander shot her a curious look as he twisted the top off the bottle, making his biceps and shoulders flex.
Why in the fiery pits of Erebus couldn’t the man have waited five damned minutes to strip off until she was no longer in his presence? Was he trying to lure her into starting something with him? Or did he just have no idea what an enticing, irresistible sight he made standing there in next to nothing, even if he hadn’t
shaved or had a proper wash in three days?
She turned to flee for the shower but paused after a single step. Maybe he really didn’t know what he was doing to her. Maybe he needed a dose of his own medicine.
With slow movements, she pulled at the fastenings on her shirt. Was she really going to do this? This wasn’t her—she didn’t tease or play these sorts of games.
With a shallow breath, she shrugged out of the coat and shirt at the same time, leaving her in the utilitarian bra she always wore. She wanted to glance back at Zander as her fingers dropped to the catch on her pants, but she’d become unable to do anything other than continue with this outrageous show she’d started.
She pushed the pants down her hips, over her upper thighs, and then used her feet to push them the rest of the way off. Next, she tugged the tie out of her hair and unclipped her bra, letting it drop to the pile of clothes. She hadn’t planned on going so far, but the progression felt natural, made a powerful glow burn to life within her.
Lastly, she slowly dragged her underwear down her legs, toeing them to lie next to her pants. With a slow pivot, she turned to face Zander, her breath catching with exhilaration.
He’d frozen in place, the empty water bottle on the carpet at his feet. His fists were clenched, muscles across his chest bunching, eyes glittering as he stared at her, and the evidence of what he thought outlined against the cotton of his boxers.
“I hope you ordered me new underwear along with those new clothes.” She picked up her discarded garments and sauntered to the waste chute. “Otherwise, I’ll just have to go without until we get back to the Swift Brion.”
“You are an evil genius.” His voice came out deeper and roughened. “Because if I didn’t, every time I looked at you, I’d be picturing you like this and thinking about the fact you’re not wearing underwear.”
She flipped her hair over her shoulder as she crossed the room. “You started it. I just finished it. Now, I’m going to have that shower.”
Without looking at him, she entered the luxurious bathroom, which was the size of her old bedroom at the apartment she’d kept while working for UAFA. The shower was ridiculous—four nozzles set at various angles. A spa bath big enough for ten people sat on a platform in front of a holograph of Tocarra’s forests. The tiles were all dark, sensual colors, and a shelf held fluffy towels and every kind of lotion, wash, or product a girl could dream of.
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