His fighting instincts, the ones that were still pissed as hell about being kidnapped, were telling him that before the engines even cooled on this skimmer he needed to cut out and go to ground until Rian Sherron either forgot his name or got himself killed.
However, Kira had stood up to Sherron about his treatment. He knew seasoned soldiers who’d play Russian roulette with their own gun before taking on the legend that was Major Captain Rian Sherron. Despite that, Kira had put herself on the line for him.
Would it be selfish of him to take advantage of her offer to help him get the answers when he was becoming increasingly worried that he might be a threat to her, might accidentally hurt her like he had as he’d woken up? That ran right into the concern that things were clearly becoming more dangerous for her anyway, considering they’d just been forced off the ship. He didn’t have a clue what’d gone down, but guessing the Reidar had something to do with it didn’t seem like such a stretch.
No matter the niggling misgiving that he might be the one to hurt her, the threat of whoever was after the crew of the Imojenna seemed like a bigger problem. So maybe he’d sleep only when he absolutely had to and work to keep his temper in check until Kira had run those tests, and he could see her somewhere safe before he disappeared.
Anyhow, now that Sherron and his gorilla buddy, Callan, were no longer with them, the chances of him losing his cool and either getting shot with the Reidar stunner or committing frequent acts of violence were that much lower.
Kira stared at him expectantly, as if his answer really mattered. He gave a slow nod, watching relief creep into her features.
“I need to know what’s going on with me. Whatever the answer ends up being, I’d prefer if you were the one breaking the news.” He had no doubt the results were going to make his life that much harder, but for all she’d done for him and the way he’d started getting all giddy over her, Kira could probably tell him he was terminal and it wouldn’t seem that bad. He’d be too distracted by her eyes and the way she looked at him, or those lips as she formed the words, leaving him thinking about how they’d feel on his body.
Kira blew out a short breath. “Good. That’s good.”
He glanced over his shoulder, but no one in the back had moved, still sleeping soundly. “What about the others? I doubt they’re going to be happy about leaving me alone with you.”
“Yeah, that’s going to cause an argument. But I’ll deal with it when we reach Barasa.” She settled back in her chair in a more relaxed slump. “For now, I’m just going to enjoy the quiet of dead watch and try not to think about everything I left behind on the Imojenna.”
He half turned in his seat to face her, matching her slouch. “What was that all about anyway?”
She stared out the viewport at the front of the skimmer.
“Apparently Rian went to meet an old contact to negotiate for some components we need that can’t be bought through the usual channels. My guess is that whoever it was screwed Rian over and called the authorities. Which is pretty much suicidal. If the guy isn’t already dead, then his days are numbered, because Rian is nothing if not methodical about payback.”
He sent her a short frown. “I thought Sherron was some big war hero. Why are the authorities after him?”
Kira threaded her fingers through her hair, pulling some pins free. “A few months ago, Rian got Tannin to hack into the data streams of Kasson Three, a supposedly abandoned station that should have been sucked into a nearby black hole years ago. Rian suspected it was some kind of Reidar base. Baden Niels, a multiversal corporation CEO, who’s actually an alien himself, ordered a warrant issued for our arrest. He claimed his company had turned the station into a research outpost. We’re now wanted intergalactic terrorists.”
While the charge was obviously quite serious, and he was a little shocked to find he’d been nabbed by a band of wanted criminals, the idea of Kira being an intergalactic terrorist was pretty damn amusing. The more he thought about it, the harder it was to stop the grin yanking at his lips.
Kira glanced over at him, confusion crossing her features. “What’s so funny?”
“You. Being some badass, hardened criminal on the run from the authorities.”
She crossed her arms, trying for a stern expression but totally failing, her gorgeous eyes giving away her amusement. “Hey, Mr. Big, Bad, Tough Commando, I took you down, didn’t I? I’m totally rocking the fugitive lifestyle.”
“Then I guess I don’t need to feel so bad about things if I got decked by one of the IPC’s most wanted. When I account this story later on, I’m going to tell people you were a butch, six-foot-tall, backworlds hack-medic who dosed me with an untested cocktail of synthetic drugs.”
She gave a short laugh and patted his arm. “Whatever saves your fragile ego, soldier boy.”
“Thanks,” he muttered, a little too charmed by the spark in her gaze and the way the unguarded smile made her that much more gorgeous. “How many hours until someone else takes over watch?”
She checked the time then slipped her comm away. “About two hours, maybe three if I’m feeling generous. Tannin said he’d take the next shift.”
“If you’re tired, let me take the next two hours. I promise not to fly us to the nearest IPC outpost, as tempting as it might be.”
A half grin kicked up one side of her lips. “If I was tired, I’d let you take over the helm, but I’m really not. Well, not sleepy, anyway. Truthfully, I am feeling kind of drained. I had this really difficult patient in the last week who seemed determined to get himself killed. You know I had to save his life two and a half times.”
“Two and a half?”
She gave a decisive nod. “Yeah, I’m calling it two and a half. Don’t tell anyone, but I nearly killed him myself with a sedative.”
“Sounds like the bastard deserved it.”
“Maybe.” She gave a quick shrug. “That’s still up for consideration.”
The next smile that crossed her face had just a hint of mischief to it. He’d been wrong—her earlier, unguarded smile he’d thought was beautiful had nothing on this one, and it hit him right in the middle of his chest and rippled outward.
A low billow of desperation swirled through him that she’d see him as something other than some guy she had to save or a mystery to solve for Sherron. For so long he’d been nothing but a soldier, a part of a bigger whole that kept the IPC military operating, which had been fine when he’d been looking for somewhere to fit in life. Before that he’d been a kid with no family, terrified every day that someone would work out the truth about him and send him away.
Right in that second, he didn’t want to be any of those things any longer. He wanted to forget. He wanted simple. He wanted a rush.
He wanted Kira.
Freck it all.
No doubt it was selfish as all hell, but he was going to steal one second of pure rapture from her and not be sorry about it in the least.
He twisted out of the seat, setting his knees on the floor in front of her chair and clamping a hand on either side of her on the armrests. Her eyes widened a touch, breath catching on a half inhale.
“Varean—”
He leaned in closer. “Unless you’re about to tell me this is a really good idea, I think you should put that mouth to better use.”
Indignant shock flashed across her features.
“That is the most insulting—” She reached up and grabbed a handful of his short hair, tugging in a way that told him she meant business but left nothing except a ripple of pleasure shooting down his spine. “You talk to me like that, it’s going to end badly for you.”
“Yeah?” He closed the distance, leaving not much more than a breath of space between them. “No second chances with me. I won’t be letting you get near me with the dosing gun again.”
“Who said anything about the dosing gun?” Her words were low, a little rough over her uneven breath. “I’ve got other ways of getting my own back.”
“Yo
u don’t have to tell me that. I’ve already experienced your particular brand of torture firsthand.”
An edge of confusion crept into her green eyes that were otherwise charred with desire. “What do you mean?”
“If you don’t know, then I’m not going to tell. I’ve got to retain some balance of power in this skirmish.”
“I didn’t realize we were in combat.”
He grinned, knowing there was probably too much self-satisfaction in the expression. “Then you’ve already lost.”
She shifted closer, until he could feel her next exhale brush over his lips like the kiss he was becoming more and more determined to take. But she skimmed by his mouth, using her hold on his hair to tilt his head the slightest bit. Her lips trailed like stardust over his cheek and upper jaw until she reached his ear.
“I’m not the one on my knees.”
Jezus. He’d never thought a few simple words could send burning lust—the likes of which he’d never felt—erupting through him like blazing hydrogen. There was no doubt about it. She had him on his knees both figuratively and literally. He wanted her to keep him there, if only she’d work him up and take him down until it didn’t matter that he was definitely the conquered one in this encounter.
He turned his face in to her neck, mouth on her skin like he’d been dying of thirst and had found the fountain of life. She moaned, the grip on his hair changing until her short nails grazed his scalp and sent sparks tumbling down his back. He kissed his way up over her jaw, finding her mouth and euphoria a moment later.
Goddamn. She tasted like ecstasy and felt like salvation.
She slid closer to him, and he caught her against his chest, wrapping his arms around her and smoldering everywhere her body came up against his. Somehow, she ended up on top of him, and next thing he knew, she had him down on the floor, straddling his hips, her hands on his chest the way he’d been wishing for when she’d given him the impersonal bucket bath.
He slid a hand to the back of her neck, deepening the kiss as she pressed down against him. Oh yeah. She set herself right on his hardening erection and, despite the layers of clothes between them, he pumped against her like it was a simple matter of thrusting himself to heaven. Her breath coming short between kisses, Kira rocked against him in response, the low sexy noise of approval from her only kicking his desire harder and higher.
Hell, they couldn’t take this any further, not here and now with half the Imojenna’s crew sleeping a few feet away, leaving every chance someone would wake up and catch them mid-orgasm. But she was unrestrained lightning ecstasy on top of him, the spark to the acetone in his veins, making him want to explode in the most violent way possible.
He grabbed her wrists and tugged her hands away from his body but then had no way to stop kissing her. Or prevent the unrelenting, maddening way she slid against him.
Pulling back from her and breaking the kiss, he gulped in a desperate breath. Except she wasn’t giving him any quarter, she simply slipped down his body a little, lips, tongue and—christ save him—teeth grazing his skin without mercy. An inevitable chain reaction was building within him, one that would see a short, blistering end to this unexpectedly intense moment.
“Goddamn. We have to stop,” he said.
A low seductive laugh was his only answer, and a sharp dose of incredulity rounded out the unbelievability of the moment, giving legitimacy to the parts of himself that wanted to let her take him over the edge.
He had one last rational thought that he should roll them over and climb off her, except there wasn’t enough room in the narrow floor space between rows of seats where they’d ended up. Her lips found their way back to his mouth and, though he tried to fight it, like a ship already in a planet’s atmosphere, he couldn’t do anything but streak through the burn and hold on as she undulated against him with wicked, unapologetic intent.
“Dammit, Kira.” He clenched his jaw, locking both hands on her hips to keep her still. He gulped in a breath and held it, fighting to regain control of his body that wanted to go over the edge.
She moaned low in his ear, and it only sent a second, harder surge of mercury flooding his veins until he almost lost the fight against the soul-searing pleasure simmering in every cell of his body.
When the flare died down and the burn receded, he lifted her, the unsatisfied swelling below his belt almost painful. Damn this skimmer and its lack of privacy to hell. He needed somewhere to take her and finish this properly right now.
Still perched on top of him, she let out a frustrated sigh, and he cracked his eyes open to look up at her. Her cheeks were brushed with the slightest flush, and her heated gaze held a definite note of triumph.
“Underneath that starched doctor’s coat, you’re a total degenerate. Is this my punishment for disrespecting you?”
“If you don’t know, then I’m not going to tell,” she murmured, repeating his words from earlier.
Frecking hell. If he hadn’t already been thinking the woman needed a lesson in fair play, then that sealed the deal. He slid her off him and climbed to his feet, pulling her up with him.
“What are you doing now?” She used her free hand to tug her clothes straight.
“We have unfinished business.” He towed her out of the rows of seats, toward the back of the shuttle. As they passed by the bunks, he made sure to check the others were all still sleeping.
“Varean, I’m meant to be keeping watch of the helm.”
He tabbed the controls to open the closet-sized privy. “You should have thought of that before you decided to try to get me off on the floor.”
With both hands on her shoulders, he spun them around and walked her into the tiny room, letting the door slide shut behind them, catching her mouth in a hungry kiss.
Chapter Thirteen
Oh god, that had been such a bad idea. Actually, it had been a very, very good idea, but so not the right time.
Kira let Varean hoist her up onto the edge of the sink, not pausing as he kissed her right back into a storm of heat. Not that it took much. She was aching all over with unsated lust. So maybe she hadn’t argued all that hard over him bringing her in here when she technically had other duties, especially if he was planning on doing something about the unassuaged throbbing for her. Besides, they wouldn’t be more than a few minutes, and the others would never know.
He tugged at the top fasteners of her shirt, releasing only half before he kissed a wet, hot path down her neck, pushing the cup of her bra out of the way to get his mouth on her nipple.
She sagged back against the mirror behind her, clenching her jaw over crying out, trying to keep quiet with the last fraying threads of her logic.
Varean had moved to work on unfastening her pants next, but instead of pulling them off, he slid his hand inside her underwear.
She blew out a ragged breath of relief and anticipation as he slid his fingers into her, nerves so oversensitized she bucked against the single, simple touch. He gave a low, graveled laugh as he set the knuckle of his thumb against her in the exact right spot, clearly enjoying the fact he’d turned the tables on her.
But she couldn’t care about any of that, could barely breathe as he set to stroking her with a maddening rhythm, not fast enough, but inexorably building her up in a way she couldn’t escape.
Capitulating, she gave herself over to him, sinking into the moment, relaxing in his hold, and embracing the delirious pleasure rolling through her.
He increased his tempo, maybe because he’d sensed the last shred of resistance drain right out of her.
“That’s it, Kira, I want you to melt all over me.” The low murmured words were like taking a shot of pure dopamine, making her blood rush and her skin tingle.
She anchored herself, one hand on his shoulder and the other gripping the edge of the basin as the immersive glow surged through her with a burst of molten heat. At the last second, he covered her mouth with his, taking the unguarded, unintentional cry that escaped on her next exh
ale.
He released her mouth, and she gasped in, fighting for air as the atmosphere seemed to lose all oxygen. And then she did exactly what he’d demanded and melted into the last ebbing flow of the torrent, letting it sweep her into enraptured oblivion.
As she let out a long sated breath of relief, Varean kissed her just beneath her jaw slowly, tenderly, bringing her down with gentle handling, giving the whole thing a delicious end instead of an abrupt withdrawal.
Varean was probably the last person she should have been doing this with, but in his arms, she’d never felt a rush so deep and intense or been able to instinctively let go and lose herself so completely to pleasure.
She’d slept with a total of two men in her life. Both had been long-term partners, every intimate step considered and decided well before the act. Never before had she so rashly given in to such consuming passion. But when she’d realized Varean’s intent, realized that whatever she’d started feeling for him went both ways, it was like someone else had taken over her body, making decisions and acting in ways she would have been mortified about in the past.
She wasn’t embarrassed. No, far from it. There was a heady satisfaction in what they’d done, despite the fact—or maybe because of it—that they hadn’t even taken things all the way.
Varean stepped back from her and leaned over to tab the shower on. Water shot down and cascaded over him, back-spray hitting her like a fine mist. He braced one hand against the wall and used the other to sluice water off his head.
After fastening her shirt, she slid down to stand on the floor, more than a little tempted to join him under the warm water.
“What are you going to do for clothes now?”
He hadn’t removed his pants, which were getting soaked. They were the only thing he’d been wearing when they’d come aboard the skimmer.
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