Entropy

by Jess Anastasi

  She broke the kiss and leaned back, adjusting the angle of her hips so she was sinking even deeper onto him. The sight of her, eyes closed, hair cascading over her shoulders, shirt gaping open, but still wearing enough that he was only getting a teasing glimpse of her body, unceremoniously shoved him right over the edge with his next halting breath.

  Cami clutched him closer, moaning his name as she followed him into euphoria a second later, leaving him sagging in relief that he hadn’t been so crass as to come and leave her unsatisfied. He’d always prided himself on making sure his lovers were beyond satisfied, and Cami was special. He would have been pissed with himself for such a rookie mistake. Of course, considering how wound up she managed to get him and the fact he still had his hands cuffed and stretched above his head—restrained by his own force of will, since he could have lowered his arms at any point—he hadn’t fully been in control of the situation.

  She sighed and relaxed to lean against his shoulder, warm body pressed to his. Despite the no-touching rule, he dropped his arms and settled them over her upper back, holding her closer.

  “Touching,” she murmured, lips brushing his skin, the warm swirl of her breath sending a pleasant shiver through him.

  “Nah, you’re just imagining it.”

  “Oh good,” she replied over a yawn, sounding like she was ready to drop off to sleep.

  He could agree. A lassitude had settled into his body and he didn’t want to do anything except crawl into bed and slip into the sated sleep he always had after epic sex.

  Lowering his hands, he cupped her ass the way he’d been dying to do earlier. She actually squeaked and straightened, but by then he’d stood, and she automatically wrapped her legs around his waist.

  “Now that’s serious touching.” It seemed she was trying to scold him, but was having trouble keeping a straight face.

  “Nope, you’re still imagining things.” He crossed the room then paused to toe off his boots.

  “Yes? And what am I imagining is going to happen next?” She pressed closer to him and gently nipped at the line of his jaw.

  “Bed,” he managed to get out. And even that one coherent word was a miracle of speech with the way his brain was malfunctioning.

  “Hmm. Bed sounds like a good idea,” she said with a thoughtful tone as he lowered them both to the mattress. “But I think we better leave those cuffs on, just to make sure you keep your hands to yourself.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  The soft chime of an alarm brought Cami out of a pleasant sleep. She stretched, becoming aware of the warm weight of an arm draped across her and a solid chest pressed against her back.

  The alarm kept chiming, so she rolled over and reached across Qae to where he’d left his comm on the nightstand to silence it.

  “Time to get up, Captain,” she told him, smiling as he frowned, but didn’t open his eyes.

  “I’m already up.” He shifted against her, leaving her laughing as she caught his meaning.

  She quickly cut herself off, though. He didn’t need the encouragement. “Not even going there.”

  Lifting his arm off her, she slid out of bed and headed toward the privy.

  “Need some help in the shower? I can get those hard to reach places for you,” Qae called after her.

  “Good lord, there’s no hope for the man,” she muttered to herself. Somehow, he managed to make even the most clichéd innuendo sound tempting.

  “That would count as touching, which you’re not allowed to do,” she said back to him. Before he could answer, she swiped her hand over the door controls, closing herself in the bathroom.

  Truthfully, she would have loved nothing more than a repeat performance from last night, but even that had been pushing the boundaries. The idea of sharing a shower with him made a shudder ripple through her at the idea of what they could get up to. Except for the slight problem that she would never, ever let him see the top half of her naked. If he saw her—

  The thought effectively killed all of the warm and fuzzy feelings she’d been having. If he saw her, he’d be repulsed. He wouldn’t want to touch her again. He might regret touching her in the first place.

  Putting it all out of her mind, she stripped off and avoided looking at herself in the mirror as she got the shower running. There were things they needed to do today, anyway. Within hours, they’d be enacting the first part of their plan to take down Baden Niels and his company, as well as hopefully get the creds her father had demanded.

  By the time she emerged from the bathroom, she was feeling more like herself. The night before with Qae had been amazing. They’d both needed it, even if Qae would deny it until the stars burned out. Except now it was time to shift into business mode.

  Qae, apparently, wasn’t onboard with that plan. While she’d been in the privy, he’d rolled onto his stomach and gone back to sleep. She whipped the blankets back, and then, unable to help herself, smacked his naked butt.

  “Hey!” He half rolled and glared up at her. “We haven’t agreed on a safe word, so no spanking, thank you very much.”

  She crossed her arms, grinning unrepentantly at him. “Your safe word can be candy-floss.”

  “Because that’s so sexy.” He rolled over and sat up, stretching his arms above his head, leaving his muscles flexing in a way that was almost too tempting to resist. He stood and leaned in, lips brushing her ear. “Your safe word can be pussums.”

  “Pussums?” she repeated, watching him pad across the room, gathering up clothes as he went.

  “It’s also going to double as my new nickname for you. I might just shorten it to puss when I’m in a hurry.”

  “Like hell!”

  Unfortunately, he just grinned at her and disappeared into the privy. She shook her head at him, though he couldn’t see it, then left his room, able to smell breakfast wafting down from the galley as soon as she stepped out. Jase had a magical touch with even the simplest foods. She didn’t think she’d ever been fed so well.

  She’d just sat down with a full plate and coffee when Qae appeared, hair still damp from the shower. Rian, Ella, and Lianna were already up and around, and the others appeared soon after as everyone sat down for breakfast together. This obviously wasn’t the first meal she’d shared with the crew since she’d been on the ship for a while already, but it struck her how this wasn’t like the dynamics she was used to experiencing onboard a ship. They were more like a family than a crew. They were completely comfortable and familiar with one another. There was an underlying affection in the way they dealt with each other. She’d never seen anything like it. And it left a weird pang in her stomach.

  Her father loved her. He’d done his best after her mother had been killed when she was only twelve years old. Except he’d been much more proficient at building his empire than caring for a teenage girl. Before her mom had died, she’d never had any family to speak of, either. Not like this.

  Did Qae realize how lucky he was?

  She toyed with the idea of asking him if she could permanently join his crew after this mess with her father was sorted out. Except now they’d slept together, would that make things weird? Would he read it the wrong way?

  She didn’t know what she was going to do, just that she didn’t want to go back to raids and runs for her father with whichever of his men he sent to accompany her. It’d been grating for a long while now; she hadn’t been able to see a way out of it.

  Maybe Qae wasn’t her way out. But this little adventure had made her see that she couldn’t continue on as she had been.

  “Something wrong with your breakfast?” Qae asked, pulling her out of the dour thoughts.

  “No, why?” She looked up to find him eyeing her closely.

  “With the way you’re glaring at it, anyone would think Jase was trying to poison you.”

  She gave a quick laugh, though it came out sounding strained. “Oh no. Just thinking about things.”

  “Serious things, I’m assuming,” Qae replied between b
ites of food.

  “My father.” It was close enough and she felt like she should give him some kind of explanation… She just wasn’t sure why.

  “Ah,” he replied as if he completely understood. “I know we’re already a week into his two-week deadline. But don’t worry, we’ll get it done one way or another.”

  “I know we will.” She didn’t want Qae worrying over her when they were about to embark on a dangerous mission.

  The rest of breakfast passed quickly, Qae and Varean getting into a friendly disagreement that had everyone laughing. Even Rian almost cracked a smile, which she guessed was the closest he ever got to actually laughing.

  However, once the dishes were cleared, Tannin went over and lowered the view screen. It was time to talk game.

  Tannin went through the research he’d been doing and confirmed he was confident in pulling off his part in the scheme—not all of which she understood. Something to do with freezing all bank accounts connected to Baden Niels and his companies and making it look like the entire cooperation was being investigated for tax-related crimes, just long enough to destroy the value of their shares on the stock market. He was then going to tell employees they wouldn’t be getting paid, which would mean mass walkouts in countless numbers of businesses connected to Baden Niels’s holdings. It would cause complete chaos and hopefully, they’d meet little resistance when they broke into the head office where Niels worked. Rian was hoping there were clues on his servers about the Reidar and their inner workings.

  Meanwhile, Rian, Ella, Varean, and Kira were planning on hitting a gala where Baden Niels was presenting a donation to some kind of research something-or-other, with Rian going to confront the man—or alien—himself. Risky, but it was the best way to play out their endgame of taking Niels down.

  The first part of the plan involved stealing a ship for Rian and the others to travel to Khan Mau, the planet where the gala was taking place.

  “There’s one last element we haven’t discussed yet,” Rian said just when she’d thought they were done.

  “Qae, the Ebony Winter might not be on the IPC most-wanted lists anymore, but there’s no denying your ship is easily recognizable,” Tannin said, his expression taking on a cautious edge.

  “So?” Qae asked, sounding bored, but Cami got the feeling his tone had been carefully crafted to come out that way.

  “So,” Rian repeated like it should have been obvious. “If you’re flying into the central systems, to the Dieter Industries head offices on Ballard, the Reidar are going to see you coming before you get anywhere near dirtside.”

  “No.” Qae shoved to his feet and started to stalk away, even though she’d completely missed whatever had just happened. However, Varean caught his arm and stopped him from leaving.

  “Be reasonable, Qae.” Varean gently thrust him back a step and then let him go. “This isn’t going to work unless we all play our part.”

  Qae’s face had become an unreadable mask. “Reasonable?”

  “It’s not like we want you to do major body work,” Tannin continued, like this conversation had already happened and they’d all rehearsed their parts. “There’s enough Sylph Class ships that one more won’t attract any attention. Just paint over the hull.”

  Qae’s expression turned icy. “I said no.”

  He avoided everyone’s gaze, brushing angrily by Varean and disappearing down the steps. She wanted to ask what the hell had just happened, but didn’t think it was her place.

  “Well, that went better than I hoped,” Zahli said into the heavy silence with a too-cheerful note in her voice.

  “You think?” Tannin muttered.

  “He didn’t shoot anyone, so I figure that’s a plus.” Zahli walked over and took Tannin’s hand. “Don’t worry. He’ll come around.”

  “And if he doesn’t?” Tannin asked, sounding weary. He probably was; he’d been up most of the night researching for their crazy plan.

  “Then, we take the decision out of his hands,” Rian said in a hard, emotionless voice.

  “You can’t do that,” Ella said gently. “This is his ship. None of us has the right to touch it.”

  “Yeah?” Rian cut her a look that wasn’t in the least apologetic. “Just watch me.”

  …

  Several hours later, the Ebony Winter docked inside one of the largest stations in the universe. It was positioned on the border of where the central systems gave way to the outer systems. The size of a small moon, Kypros station had everything anyone could ever want on either side of the law.

  No one had tried to talk to Qae and despite the ship being small, he’d done an amazing job at avoiding them all. Cami had debated endlessly with herself about whether or not to corner him and get him to talk. She still didn’t understand what had happened, only that the others wanted him to paint over the very identifiable image of the ghostly woman in white on the hull of his ship to make it less recognizable, which had pissed him off to no end. There was obviously a story there, but no one seemed willing to tell it, and she didn’t feel right asking.

  As soon as they’d docked on Kypros, Qae had left the ship without bothering to tell anyone where he was going. The others hadn’t seemed concerned and set about identifying a ship they could steal. The day wore on, and while she wasn’t too worried, she did pretty much spend the hours wondering where he’d gone and if he was okay.

  Finally, as Jase started serving up dinner, she couldn’t stand it anymore and decided to find him one way or another.

  She stepped off the edge of the ramp, planting her hands on her hips as she tried to decided how she was meant to find him in the huge space station. If he didn’t answer his comm, she might be able to get Tannin to hack and track it.

  Pulling out her own comm, she brought up his contact details and hit connect. A second later, she heard a distant trilling and followed the sound around the outside of the ship.

  Qae was sitting in an old-fashioned fold-up deck chair facing his ship, beer in one hand, comm in the other, staring at the screen as if debating whether or not to answer it. He looked tired. Something definitely had him down. Finally, he tapped a finger on the screen to answer.

  “If you had rejected my call, this would have gotten awkward real fast.” She didn’t bother talking into her own comm, and he turned his head toward the sound of her voice.

  “Hey.” He put his comm away in his pocket. “What’s up?”

  “Dinner’s ready.”

  He shook his head, returning his attention to the hull of his ship. “I’m not hungry. Eat without me.”

  “Mind if I ask what you’re doing?”

  “Asking for forgiveness.” He gestured with his beer at the ghostly image of the woman on the hull. “Trying to sear this into my memory.”

  “This might be a dumb suggestion, but why don’t you take a picture?”

  He smiled, though the expression was hollow. “I did. But it’s not the same. It doesn’t have the same physical tie in the paint and the brush strokes.”

  “Someone painted this by hand?” she asked in surprise, looking more closely. “I assumed it was computer generated and lasered on.”

  “Nope. She’s definitely one of a kind.” There was no mistaking the shadows in his gaze.

  Cami debated whether she should leave him be, but she was curious about the story behind the image. From what she’d gleaned the past few hours, no one knew why the picture was so important to him.

  Well, the worst he could do was tell her it was none of her business.

  “Can I ask you something?” She crouched down next to his chair, putting her at eye level with him.

  “Why am I so attached to the very recognizable picture on the side of my ship?”

  He glanced at her, and for a weighted moment he simply stared at her, as if working out what to tell her. Finally, he sighed and turned his attention back to the image, hand tightening on his beer.

  “I didn’t see much action during the war, not like Zander and
Rian did. I’d barely started before Rian finished it once and for all. But the action I did see, it changed me. Like it changed a lot of people, I guess.”

  She reached up and took his hand, the dark note in his voice something she’d never heard before.

  “My unit was stationed on this outer planet called Siraj. It had been under IPC control for a few years by the time I got there. Pockets of rebellion were increasingly flaring up, and since the planet was considered a key asset against the Independent Forces, the IPC wanted the rebels taken care of quickly. But toward the end of the war, the IPC were running thin on funds, so while they were happy to take a unit of soldiers and drop them at the ass end of the galaxy with orders, they weren’t all that happy about providing equipment, or supplies, or back up of any kind.

  “Not long after we hit the ground, we tracked a group of rebels into these mountains, based off intel that was complete bullshite. We didn’t know anything about the terrain or conditions. This mother of a storm blew in and the temperature dropped. We were prepared to confront an enemy, not battle the elements.”

  Though he was obviously sitting here whole and well in front of her, his story had sent a low wash of apprehension through her.

  “What happened?” she asked in a quiet voice.

  “We would have died, but the rebels we were meant to attack saved us. They took us into some caves until the storm passed and then down into a nearby town the next day. In those hours, we got an eye-opening account of how the outer worlds were really faring under IPC law, and the short answer was much worse off.”

  “And where does the woman in white fit in?” She glanced up at the ship, a new appreciation for the beauty of the image, now that she knew someone had taken the time to paint it by hand.

  “There was a woman in the village. When the IPC had first fought to take the planet, she used to go out on the battlefield between skirmishes to help the wounded—on both sides. She wore these flowing white robes in the hope no one would shoot her, kind of like people waved white flags in the old days of Earth.