“I’ve got to say, Zander, I’m glad to see you’re both okay.” Rian’s stoic expression didn’t change much, but a slight tenor in his voice underlay his words. “When I commed the Swift Brion a few days ago to talk to Mae, I was told she’d been reassigned. And then when I asked to speak with you… Well, it was pretty obvious what had happened, and knowing how the Reidar operate, I expected the worst. We were actually just on our way to intercept your ship.”
Zander laughed. One thing that had never changed about Rian—he always went charging off into a fight without really thinking about things first.
“Oh, yeah? And what were you going to do when you caught up with them?”
Rian shrugged one shoulder, not looking too concerned about his lack of plans. “I hadn’t worked that part out yet. Thought I’d just make some crap up as I went along. You know how I operate.”
Forster shook his head. “You always were a crazy son of a bitch, Rizza.”
“Rizza?” Zander glanced down at Forster.
Rian’s brow lowered into an unimpressed expression. “It’s what my friends used to call me when I was a kid. And I thought last time I saw you, Qae, I gave you a hundred credits to never call me that again.”
“Inflation.” Forster’s grin was smart-ass all the way. “It’ll cost you at least another hundred.”
“Hang on. You two knew each other as kids?” Zander interjected before Rian could reply.
Rian sighed and crossed his arms. “Qae is my cousin, on my mother’s side.”
Hot damn, he hadn’t seen that one coming. Zander glanced between the two men. In terms of build and mannerisms, they did have some similarities.
“I see being a cocky bastard runs in the family, then,” Mae muttered.
“Considering your choice in boyfriends, I think you like cocky bastards.” Forster shot her a quick frown over his shoulder.
Mae rolled her eyes. “Enough with the family reunion. In case you all have forgotten, we’ve got a small problem with an alien impersonating an IPC captain admiral armed with an entire fleet and flagship. Not to mention, Zander is currently number one on their hit list.”
Well, that sobered things right up. Although that was one of the great things about Mae—he could always count on her to be straightforward and get to the point.
“We’re hoping to rendezvous with you, Rian. We figured teaming up with you would be the smartest thing to do. As helpful as Captain Forster has been, you’ve got more experience when it comes to this sort of thing,” Mae continued, making Zander want to scoff at her diplomatic words. He had several descriptions for Forster, and none of them were anywhere near as polite as helpful.
Rian glanced off to his left. “Lianna, break course and wait for further instructions. We won’t be heading off the Swift Brion after all.”
There was a murmured reply onscreen before Rian turned his attention back to them. “Where are you now, Qae? We could meet halfway.”
“No can do.” Forster kicked a leg over his opposite knee. “I’ve got a delivery to make. Being the upstanding trader we all know you are, Rian, I’m sure you can appreciate that.”
“All right. Then where are you headed?”
“Sarolta.”
Now Rian looked even more unimpressed. “What in god’s name could possibly interest you on Sarolta? That planet would be lucky to have two credits to rub together. I can’t imagine anyone there could afford anything you’re selling.”
Forster linked his hands behind his head. “That’s my business. And it’s where your friends here will be disembarking. Makes no mind to me how long it takes you to get there.”
Zander glared at the back of Forster’s head. So the captain of the Ebony Winter would simply boot them off the ship and hit ether whether Rian had arrived to meet them or not? Well, what had he expected of a wanted marauder?
Rian had another short onscreen conversation before looking at Forster again.
“We’re actually not that far out from Sarolta. Two days, maybe three.”
“Then you’re closer than us.” Forster leaned forward in his chair. “We’re probably three or four.”
“I know you don’t like to be dirtbound for too long, but it’d be good to catch up with you.”
A small flash of emotion flashed over Forster’s face, softening his usual cynical expression. “Yeah, we can share a bottle of Violaine, and you can tell me how it was, exactly, you ended up being an IPC poster boy.”
“Only if you tell me why you decided to drop your pants and wave your lily-white ass at the IPC.” Rian’s expression darkened a touch. “An illegal salvager? Seriously, Qae, even I’m not that much of an idiot.”
Now it was Forster’s turn to look pissed, and Zander had to admit, he enjoyed seeing Rian take his cousin to task.
“It’s not what it looks like. We’ll talk about it when we’re on Sarolta.”
Rian nodded. “Until then, safe journey.”
They exchanged quick farewells, and Forster cut the transmission before swiveling his chair.
“Okay, people, the show is over. Clearly there’s been more than enough excitement for one day. I’m going to catch a few hours’ sleep before I’m back on deck. I assume there won’t be any drama until then?”
Zander nodded. Well, at least they could agree on that. Adrenaline had well and truly left him for dead, and exhaustion was rising like quicksand sucking at his legs.
“I think we could all use some down time.” He glanced at Mae, who nodded, thank god. Since he’d missed the tour of the ship earlier, he had no idea where their bunks were situated.
“Right, then,” Forster said as he pushed up from the chair. “See you in a few hours.”
The captain brushed by Mae and walked off the small bridge, leaving Lucie at the helm. Zander trailed Mae as she led him down through the ship until they reached a narrow room with four pull-down bunks decorating the bulkheads and not much else.
“There’s privy facilities back down the passage on the right.” Mae walked farther into the room and tapped at the clamp holding the bunk up. The cot lowered into position, and she opened the compartment in the wall behind where the bunk had been to pull out some bedding.
He moved to the opposite bulkhead. He’d lived in worse accommodations than this, back when he’d first joined the IPC and been shipped between postings. Then, a new recruit would think himself lucky if he even got a seat to sit on, let alone a whole cot to catch some sleep.
Zander draped a blanket over the thin padding and lowered himself to sit on the edge of his bed. “So, we’ve got four days to spend on this scuttle can, putting up with Forster.”
“Looks like it,” she murmured distractedly as she yanked the elastic out of her hair. Sleek black strands slipped free of the plait she usually wore it in, and Zander swallowed as he watched the slide of hair over her shoulder.
His fingers tingled as he recalled fisting his hand in the cool length while she’d ridden him right into orbit when they’d been holed up in that cave. His blood flash heated, and he clamped his fingers around the edge of the bunk to keep from reaching for her.
How many times did he have to remind himself that things with her were probably more complicated than they were worth? Except the more time he spent with her, even knowing she kept more from him than she revealed, the more he was beginning to think to hell with his logic. Maybe she was worth whatever trouble came with her. Certain appendages that had no sense whatsoever certainly believed that.
Secrets aside, she was beginning to look like everything he hadn’t known he wanted in a woman.
“So, what do you think?” Having finished making her bed, she moved to sit opposite him.
He focused on her smoky-gray eyes. Had she been talking to him about something? Because he hadn’t caught a word she’d said. No use pretending. “About what?”
She frowned at him, a definite edge of dismay in her expression. “About the weapon Chase is working on for us.”
“I don’t know,” he replied distractedly, not really in the mood to be discussing tactics right now. “I want to hope it’ll work on every Reidar, but until we’ve got more test subjects, we can’t be sure.”
She sighed and lowered her head. “It’d be nice to have some sort of security, to know we’ve got an easy and effective way to identify the Reidar. As it stands now, I can’t see how we’ll fight this incursion no one even knows about. The thought of what will happen if whatever plans they have for us eventuate…
“Not much has ever scared me, but this does. What does a bunch of shape-shifting aliens even want with us? And where the hell did they come from? Space was colonized hundreds of years ago. People spent decades searching, but no trace of any other intelligent life was ever found.”
“It’s the stuff of nightmares, but we’re doing everything we can.” Zander reached across the small space between them and caught her hand, giving her fingers a gentle squeeze. “Chase is calibrating those other guns for us, and we’re on our way to meet Rian on Sarolta. Right now, the best thing we can do for ourselves is try to get some sleep.”
She raised her eyes to meet his, a small, impertinent smile kicking up the edges of her lips. “Sir, yes, sir, Captain Admiral.”
A pulse of dismay echoed through him. “That wasn’t meant to be an order.”
“Really? I didn’t realize you knew how to do anything but give orders.” The widening grin and spark in her gaze told him she was teasing him and enjoying every second of it.
“Fine, you want me to order you about? Get your ass on this side of the cabin, Petros.”
Her gaze darkened a touch. “Oh, yeah, and why would I want to do that?”
“Didn’t we just establish that you’re meant to be following my orders?” he asked, leaning a little closer.
She shortened the space between them by gradual degrees. “Technically, you’re AWOL, which doesn’t give you the right to order anyone to do anything.”
He slid a hand beneath the fall of her dark silky hair, wrapping his fingers around the back of her neck. “Which makes you AWOL as well. So, whatever happens between us—”
“Doesn’t count,” she murmured.
“Then I’m glad we understand each other.” Zander pulled her toward him, though she didn’t take much coercing. Even as their mouths came together, Mae slid into his lap, her hands catching in his short hair.
Oh, yeah. He needed this, needed her and the sweet torture of her weight on top of him, her body pressed against him, everything about her tormenting him toward utter mindlessness. In the chaos of everything that had happened in the past days, somehow this was the only thing that made sense.
Mae’s hands slipped down his neck, sending a shudder rippling through him. But then her fingers were tugging at his shirt, and he was only too happy to help her get the thing off. While her hands dropped to his belt buckle, he started on the fastenings of her shirt, kissing his way down her neck and then across her upper chest as the garment parted under his hasty fingers, revealing a plain black bra. The underwear was probably meant to be serviceable or functional, but with her breasts swelling at the top of the cups, he’d never seen anything sexier, and his hunger for her surged like a tidal wave.
He pushed the shirt off and clamped his hands around her waist, pulling her harder against him as he got his mouth on the curves of her chest. Mae reached behind her, and the bra dropped away to reveal peaked pink nipples.
Zander couldn’t hold back a groan as he slid his mouth down until he had the nub of her left breast against his tongue.
Mae arched against him with a breathless noise, and then she was working on his pants again, freeing him from the constraints of his cargos. She wrapped a firm hand around the base of his erection, and he nearly bucked them both right off the cot. Mae laughed, grabbing onto his shoulder with her free hand.
“Yeah, you’re laughing now,” he grated out as she stroked him slow and steady. “But just you wait until I get my revenge.”
She abruptly let him go and pushed off his lap, leaving him dazed.
“Go ahead and give it your best shot, Graydon.” She unfastened her pants, one catch at a time, then pushed both her cargos and underwear down her trim legs, leaving her in all the mind-numbing glory of nakedness.
He swallowed hard as his gaze traveled down her body and back up again. Yeah, he’d seen her naked before, but the curves she had going on still had the power to knock him sideways.
Before he could quite get his brain back to any kind of functioning level, she stepped forward and pushed both hands against his shoulders. He reclined, half rotating to put his legs up and lie back in the narrow bunk. Hell, he was still wearing his goddamn boots, his pants shoved down around his hips. Classy, Zander. But before he could do anything about getting the rest of his gear off, Mae climbed on top of him.
Right, priorities. Did he really care about his boots when he had a damn sexy naked woman sitting on top of him? Hell no.
Zander reached up for her, even as she came down toward him. Though desperation burned through his limbs like acid, when their lips touched the kiss was almost gentle, and reverent—not some heedless, meaningless plunge into reckless passion like they’d experienced before. Their mouths moved with measured intensity, winding him up in a way he had no reference for. The kiss slowed, and Mae took a breath, her gaze meeting his as she shifted against him.
His heart pounded like a drum heralding a cavalcade. As her heated, wet core came up against him, air caught in his lungs. Even as Mae tilted her hips, he pushed upward, joining them with a white-hot surge of mind-numbing pleasure.
Mae took up the pace, because right then, he couldn’t do much more than lie there as soul-searing emotion flooded him—along with a jagged wash of ecstasy—cleansing him with each new wave of rapture.
He wanted to tell her how gorgeous she was, how much he needed her, how she could have him; he would give himself to her however she wanted. But he had no words, because nothing made any sense except for the shattering thought that he’d gone and let himself slip, let her get under his skin, and hadn’t even realized it.
The heart-stopping realization, combined with the rising burn of pleasure through his body, meant there was no hope for him. Like the inevitability of their shuttle crashing to ground, he couldn’t stop the wave cresting within him. But then maybe it didn’t matter, because Mae arched in his arms, moaning his name as her inner muscles contracted subtly around him.
Zander let himself go, a harsh groan ripped from his chest as he exploded deep inside her, a feeling of utter rightness spreading through him. Mae dropped against his chest, her breath puffing in warm swirls over his skin. He wrapped his arms around her, contentment washing over him.
The woman had totally ruined him. Saying their relationship would be complicated was like saying lava was warm. How had he started caring so deeply for her despite knowing little about her, apart from the fact she was a kick-ass operator who could handle herself and probably had enough secrets to fill the cargo hold of this ship?
Yep, Graydon, that is a level of idiotic you’ve never aspired to. And he was right back to this whole thing being too damned complicated.
He sighed, long and low, and Mae raised her head to look at him. “I thought we weren’t going to think about any of that again tonight.”
“How do you know what I’m thinking about?” He reached up to smooth a strand of dark hair from the side of her face.
“From the way you’re frowning and the way your shoulders tensed up.” She traced a light finger along his jaw. “Whatever it is must be important.”
Zander forced a smile that he just didn’t feel. “Yeah, actually, it kind of is.”
Mae slipped onto her side next to him, laying her head on his shoulder and draping her arm across his middle. “Well, whatever it is, leave it until tomorrow. And if you want, once we’ve had a few hours’ sleep, I’ll help you work it out.”
“I really hope you can.” H
e pressed his lips against her forehead as she settled against him with a contented sigh. The only way she could help him figure it out was if she told him everything.
But a fear had taken root deep within him, slowly creeping out and choking everything in its path like a noxious gas, the burning trepidation that he wouldn’t like what she’d been keeping from him. That with her revelations, she would become a totally different person.
And then he’d be faced with the truth that he’d never really known her in the first place.
Chapter Twenty-One
Sarolta, four days later
Mae watched as Forster’s crew used a hover pallet to maneuver the crate they’d stolen from the Isis Delta shuttle not quite a week ago. Less than an hour after they’d landed, a ragged-looking group of Sarolta’s officials had approached the Ebony Winter. At first, she’d assumed the men wearing worn IPC uniforms were there to question Forster. Maybe even attempt to arrest him, since his ship and name were plastered all over the known worlds along with the temptation of an undisclosed credit reward tagged on.
Except Forster hadn’t batted an eyelid when Lucie had announced the visitors, and the way Sarolta’s IPC representatives had greeted the captain—with all the enthusiasm of a returning hero—meant Mae definitely didn’t have the full picture of what was going on here.
Footsteps off to her left broke her focus from Sarolta’s leaders profusely thanking Forster, and Lucie stopped beside her.
“So when Forster said he had someone waiting here on Sarolta for whatever you guys stole off the Isis Delta shuttle, I never imagined it would be—”
“The planet’s official leaders?” Lucie finished for her. “If I tell you the full story, don’t let Qae know. He tends to be very private about his business dealings, especially the transactions where he doesn’t necessarily take credits for payment.”
Intrigued, Mae looked directly at Lucie. “If he’s not being paid in credits, what does he get out of this? Brazenly stealing that crate from the Isis Delta shuttle just adds one more felony to his already long list of crimes.”
Quantum Page 24
