The exit loomed and Dash rocketed down the off ramp, pushing the Cloud Chaser to its limits. Turbulence and excessive speed shook the vehicle’s chassis. “Don’t you conk out on me, you piece of shit.” Apparently heeding the threat, the Cloud Chaser found a smooth air pocket and accelerated a few martronetics faster. Behind him, the Air Racer’s headlights dimmed.
Pine trees formed dense clusters of shadows that hugged the roadway. Dash barely registered them as he remained focused on the dark landscape stretching beyond the windshield. Up ahead, someone darted across the street. He stomped on the brake and the Cloud Chaser bucked, screaming in protest. At the last minute, he remembered Jerrick and veered to the right to avoid getting creamed from behind.
Dash eased off the throttle, steering the vehicle into a downward slide that took him dangerously close to the line of trees. Finally the Cloud Chaser groaned and stuttered to a stop. He shoved open his door just as Jerrick coasted up next to him.
“Are you out of your mind?” Jerrick roared, jumping out of the Air Racer. “You nearly got us all killed.”
“There’s someone out here.” Dash slammed his door shut and jogged down the road. “I saw a flash of gold. Might have been shoes.”
“Mara?”
“Not certain. But I’m damn well checking it out.” Dash didn’t slow down, just kept loping towards the trees. He heard Jerrick huffing behind him. As they neared the pines where he’d seen the darting figure, he caught another sparkle of gold. There was no doubt in his mind now that the person rustling around in the trees was Mara. He’d recognize those shoes from anywhere. “Mara, honey, are you okay?” He listened, heart in his throat. When no answer came, he scrambled down the crumbling slope.
“Stay back, you sons of bitches. I’m armed.”
Dash skittered to a halt, almost wiping out at the base of a tree. The gruff baritone shooting from the foliage most definitely didn’t belong to Mara.
Jerrick’s hand gripped Dash’s elbow. “It’s Baggins.”
The red haze returned to Dash’s head and he jerked from his brother’s grasp. Ignoring Jerrick’s shouted warning, he hurtled towards the lone flash of gold within the green plumage. If Baggins did have a weapon, he wouldn’t have time to use it. The bounty hunter would be dead before his finger wrapped around the trigger. He tackled the man from the side, the propulsion of his body sending them both tumbling to the ground.
An ooff popped from Baggins’ mouth, right before Dash plowed his fist into it. He straddled the man’s chest and pulled his arm back, prepared to deliver another vicious blow.
“Uh, bro…”
Dash grabbed a fistful of Baggins’ greasy hair, yanking his head back. “I’m busy right now,” he growled.
“Too busy to notice you’re sitting on a naked guy?”
Jerrick’s droll inquiry breached the wall of fury surrounding Dash. Blinking, he shifted his knee and glanced down. Sure enough, Baggins didn’t have a stitch on. He noticed the appendage hanging limply between the bounty hunter’s legs and grimaced. There was something he never wanted to have inches away from his ass again. He jerked his gaze back to Baggins’ face. Leaning down, he bared his teeth. “Where the hell is Mara?”
“The bitch took off in my Range Hover after tasering me.”
Dash slammed his fist into the bounty hunter’s nose, slanting it further off kilter. A howl erupted from Baggins.
“I’m not lying.” Flecks of blood flew from Baggins’ mouth while he sputtered. “That’s what happened.”
“I believe you.”
“Then why’d you break my nose?”
“You called her a bitch. That really ticked me off.”
Jerrick’s boot came into view and settled hard against Baggins’ chest. Dash looked up and noticed his brother’s amusement.
“Why don’t you go after Mara? I’ll take care of cleaning up the trash.”
Part of Dash wanted to stick around and take care of Baggins himself, but he wanted to find Mara and ensure she was okay a whole lot more. Giving the bounty hunter a final disgusted glare, he shoved up from his knees. His attention fell on the sparkly high heels. For a chubby guy, Baggins sure had some tiny feet. “Why the hell are you wearing Mara’s shoes?”
“How am I supposed to know? I woke up with them on.”
Grunting, Dash leaned down and unstrapped the shoes from Baggins before heading back up the slope. With a shake of his head, he tossed the shoes into the Cloud Chaser’s backseat. Mara had apparently escaped, but he wouldn’t allow the relief to fully bloom inside his chest. Not yet. Not until she was safe and secure within his arms.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
“What gave me the idea I could drive this thing? Jeez, I’ve never even driven before.” Mara clutched the wheel, giving it a frantic twist when the bulky vehicle drifted into the opposing lane. Thankfully she was the only one occupying the road.
She kept one hand on the steering wheel and reached blindly for her coin purse. Good thing Dash had insisted on drawing a detailed map for her, in the event something went awry. And she definitely considered being tasered, kidnapped and surviving a close brush with death as things going way left of normal.
“There you are.” Tugging the map out, she unrolled the paper and chanced a quick glance at its detailed instructions. According to Dash’s coordinates, it should be less than five martroneters to the hideout.
And it couldn’t be a martoneter closer, to her way of thinking. Her hand shook slightly, making the paper clutched between her fingers flutter. “Okay, get a grip. All that’s over with. The hideout’s just around the corner, and so is Dash.” She couldn’t wait to see him. Touch him. Bask in the knowledge that Baggins hadn’t ensnared him in his slimy trap.
Tucking the map into her lap, she returned her attention to the business of driving. The last thing she needed to do was run off the side of the road and wreck the vehicle.
A gazillion bug splats gunked the windshield. Grimacing, she fiddled with the controls on the steering wheel, trying to locate the one that operated the shield cleaner. The interior and exterior lights clicked off, plunging her in darkness.
“Oh shit. What did I do?” She scrambled to reset the controls. The lights popped back on and she sagged against the seat, exhaling in relief. “Screw it. I can live with a messy windshield.”
She white-knuckled the steering wheel for another three and a half martroneters when suddenly the terrain outside grew lush with forest. Up ahead, she spied the dirt road leading to the hideout. “Thankyouthankyouthankyou,” she chanted as she motored around its sharp bend.
Moonlight revealed the secured gate. Stomping on the brake, she swung the door open. The vehicle kept rolling. “Oh for crying out loud.” Returning her hands to the controls, she shifted into park. This driving stuff was hard work.
The footboard hovered a couple feet above the ground. Sure, she could waste precious seconds trying to figure out how to lower the vehicle with its engine still running. Or she could jump it. Not a hard choice. Anchoring her hands against the doorframe, she sprang from the cabin. She landed with a thud but miraculously kept her feet beneath her. Her decision to switch shoes with Baggins was really paying off. The gorgeous high heels might have been stunning to look at, but the bounty hunter’s sturdy boots were far more practical for driving and jumping purposes.
Lurching to the gate, she grasped the lock and entered the code Dash had given her. Metal whined as the gate yawned open. She darted back to the vehicle and gave the hovering doorframe a determined look before grasping its sides. With a heave and several unladylike curse words, she wiggled onto the footboard and tumbled into the seat. Shoving a stray curl from her eyes, she maneuvered past the opened gate. Rather than hassle with getting in and out of the vehicle again, she decided to park it for the night before locking things up.
She pulled in front of the line of trees and frowned. “Where’s the Cloud Chaser?” A twinge of panic started to set in but she beat it back with some com
mon sense. “Duh, Dash probably hid it somewhere.”
Shifting into park, she pulled the key from the ignition. The vehicle plummeted to the ground with a jolting thunk. “Um, hopefully it’s supposed to do that.” Grasping her coin purse and the rune box, she swung the door open and stumbled outside.
Other than the wind’s occasional tuneless whistle, a deep silence shrouded the woods. She plunged beyond the tree line, using the moon’s luminescence to guide the way. The fake orgeel altar glowed like a marker in the distance and she tripped her way towards it. From there she found the path leading to the rocky precipice overhanging the hideout cave.
She shuffled down the slope. Loose earth and stones tumbled beneath her feet. When she approached the cave’s entrance the recorded orgeel roar blasted, making her jump.
“Son of a—” Slamming her hand over her racing heart, Mara glared at the cave’s rock face. “He could have at least turned the damn thing off.” Steeling herself, she tripped inside the opening. The menacing growl reverberated inside her head and she resisted the urge to clamp both hands over her ears. Grinding her teeth, she waited until the recording stopped before pounding on the rock doors. Not that it was necessary. If the orgeel roar hadn’t already alerted Dash, he must be deaf.
Seconds slid into minutes as she waited for the doors to crack open. “What is he doing, taking a nap?” Infuriated by the possibility, she pried the cover back from the lockpad. Thankfully the buttons were illuminated. Now if she could just remember the code he’d given her.
“I’m going to kill him, that’s all there is to it.” Tucking the rune box and her coin purse beneath one arm, she entered the first sequence that popped into her head. The lockpad flashed red. “Damn it.” She tried another. And another. On the next try, as she imagined every single way she’d make Dash suffer, the lockpad glowed green and the doors swished open. She rushed inside and was met by another pitch-black room.
Unease resettled inside her chest. “Hello?” When no response came, she stumbled around in the dark, trying to find a light source. Her knee banged into something hard. Table edge. Wincing, she patted her way upward until she brushed against the base of a lamp. She found the pull chain and tugged. A soft circle of light spilled from the bulb and she turned around, surveying the room. It looked no different from the way they’d left it a few days ago. If Dash had been here, he’d left no trace of it.
Heart beating a little faster, Mara raced down the short hallway and into the bedroom. After turning on the lamps scattered about the room, she set down the rune and coin purse and stared at the empty bed. So much for the idea of him taking a nap. A quick glance around revealed the same untouched quality of things. No bags littering the floor. No dents in the chaise’s plump silk cushions.
“Dash left almost two hours ago. Why isn’t he here yet?” Panic fluttering in her stomach, she returned to the main room. She rubbed her arms briskly and parked her butt on the edge of a chair. “Okay, calm down. No reason to start having heart palpitations.”
Her jittery nerves relaxed slightly when she spied the metallic glint of the cooler unit just beyond the kitchen’s archway. “He probably just stopped off to pick up some food.” She fooled herself with that scenario for approximately thirty-five minutes.
Then reality set in.
“Something’s happened. I know it.” The vine-patterned rug became intimately acquainted with the soles of Baggins’ boots as she paced its length. “Maybe the Cloud Chaser broke down and he’s stranded on the side of the road somewhere.” The possibility was a huge stretch. What were the odds she wouldn’t have spotted him on the way here? Still it was better than the alternative—him being wounded or dead.
She shook her head, refusing to let the disturbing idea take root. “Baggins couldn’t have gotten Dash. There would have been no reason for tasering me if he had.” Except Baggins was one sadistic son of a bitch and probably enjoyed tasering people for the hell of it. And the bounty hunter hadn’t exactly said he was using her to lure Dash out into the open. She’d just assumed.
Stomach heaving, Mara whirled towards the rock doorway. Slamming a fist against the opener, she plunged into the dark cavern and hurtled through the cave’s mouth. She didn’t even flinch when the orgeel growl roared behind her, so focused was she on clambering up the hillside. She’d nearly reached the top when she slipped on a boulder and came down hard on one knee. Oblivious to the pain, she clawed over the precipice and regained her footing on the other side. Nearly sobbing from exertion and fear, she limped along the pathway.
The moon lit the way, spilling a milky glow through the dense foliage and haloing over the offering altar and…
Dash?
Certain he was a hallucination, Mara rubbed her eyes.
“Sher ’tian.” Dash’s choked cry brought him into sharp focus, shattering any notion of him being a wistful illusion.
She stumbled forward, straight into his arms. He felt real. Alive. Her throat thick with tears, she pressed her face into his chest and breathed in his musky scent. “I thought you were dead. That Baggins…” A shudder overtook her.
Dash’s arms wrapped her tight, almost squeezing the air from her lungs. The suffocation didn’t bother her a bit. Not if it meant staying in his arms, soaking him in.
“Did that bastard hurt you? So help me, if he touched a hair on your head, I’m going back there and finishing him off.” Raw emotion shook Dash’s voice.
When his words sank in, she jerked her head up and stared at him. “Finish? Are you saying you saw him? That you—”
“Beat the snot out of him.” Dash’s warm hands cupped her face, tilting it. “I wanted to kill him. Jerrick wasn’t too fond of that idea.”
“Are you crazy? Baggins could have hurt you. Or killed you.” She clutched Dash around the ribs and a grimace of pain twisted his face. “What is it?”
“Nothing. Just a leftover reminder of my earlier ass beating.”
She reached for the neck of the jumpsuit and fumbled the zipper down. Gripping the slick material, she tugged the jumpsuit free of his torso and ran a gentle hand over his rib cage. “He did hurt you.”
“No, someone else. Or I should say a bunch of someone elses.”
“What?”
A faint grin shadowed his mouth. “It’s quite an interesting story. Remind me to tell it sometime.”
“Why not tell me now?” The golden curvature of Dash’s abdomen regained her attention and she leaned down to press a light kiss above his ribs. His stomach rippled beneath her touch and she stroked her fingers over its velvety tautness.
“I have a better idea.” His palms curled beneath her arms and lifted her. The moonlight reflected in his irises, a brief flash before his head lowered and he stole her breath in a deep kiss that clearly staked his claim on her.
Her knees buckled and she gripped Dash’s shoulders. The silky shift of muscle beneath his skin fascinated her and she stroked along the delicious contours, moving ever southward. She scraped over a hardened male nipple and his groan rasped into her mouth before his tongue curled around hers in a slick, coaxing glide. Lightheaded, she barely registered the progression of his hands along the center of her back. It wasn’t until he grasped the neckline of the dress that she suspected his intentions.
She pulled back. “I don’t think it’ll—”
Dash gave a wrenching tug and the dress unraveled in an explosion of sprite dust. Before she blinked the violet sparkles from her eyelashes, he lowered his head and suckled her nipple into the warm, wet cavern of his mouth. She gasped, wobbling. Dash’s hands gripped her hips, steadying her, before they roved to her buttocks in a massaging caress. His mouth left one breast and traveled to the other, treating that nipple to an equally luscious draw from his mouth.
Teeth tugged, lips plucked and tongue soothed. And all the while, her head spun. He released her nipple and dropped to his knees. His fingers tucked around the band of her panties, dragging it over her hips. When the satin caught on her t
high, he reached between her legs, his knuckles brushing over her slick wetness. She moaned and his smoky gaze lifted to her face. He peeled her panties the rest of the way down her leg. Stepping out of the garment, she listened to the blood rushing in her ears as Dash slid his mouth down her quivering stomach.
There would be no stopping him beyond this point, no stopping herself. But that was no surprise. Like he’d challenged not so long ago, this was meant to happen. Despite fighting it, she’d known it all along. Perhaps from the moment he’d stepped through Gallery Sabine’s doorway.
His tongue dipped inside her bellybutton before he skimmed his lips to the sensitive crook where her thigh and hip met.
He coaxed her legs farther apart and ducked his head. His tongue licked over her and the oxygen left her brain, almost making her pass out.
“Oh gods.” She grabbed the back of Dash’s scalp, inadvertently pressing him closer. A growl rumbled against her flesh and he gripped her waist, supporting her weight as he edged her backwards. Something solid nudged the backs of her thighs. The offering altar. He lifted her onto its smooth surface, giving her just enough time to accustom to the marble’s chill before he spread her legs wide and closed his lips over her.
The heat of Dash’s mouth was a shocking contrast to the icy slab beneath her. And things just kept getting hotter and hotter as he ate her like a person on the brink of starvation. Scrabbling for purchase on the altar, she leaned back, giving herself up for the offering.
Dash’s hands slid to the backs of her knees, held her open and suspended for his devouring. Everything coalesced into a tight, pulsing throb beneath his tongue. He drew on her clitoris with devastating suction and her back arched off the slab. The orgasm crashed over her, ripping a scream from her throat.
And Dash’s mouth kept right on working. Unable to believe it, she felt it start all over again as the sensations gathered into a tight, hot ball. She broke on a wail and still his tongue played her.
Lover Enslaved: Thieves of Aurion, Book 1 Page 25
