by Tamsin Ley
“The nanites will change your brain structure and chemistry, making you a viable mate for Denaidans, but the culmination of the sex act itself will destroy the nanites,” Mek said. “This offer isn’t completely altruistic—you’ll be a host to grow the nanites and provide us additional inoculations, and for that, we need time.”
“Oh.” This was getting confusing. She needed Twerp more than ever. “When can I have my AI back? She interprets this kind of stuff for me.”
“Tovik’s almost finished with his check and then we’ll return it,” Mek said. “We want to be completely transparent about what you can expect. Rest assured that I’ll monitor you closely for any adverse reactions.”
“Adverse reactions? You mean side effects?” This was starting to sound less and less like a sure thing.
“You could call them that. The nanites were developed as an experiment in cyber-sensitivity. You’ll likely become hyper-aware of the computer systems around you and may experience blackouts, but I believe with proper monitoring I can minimize those events.”
Now Marlis was getting really confused. “I thought you said these nanites had something to do with Denaidan mating. Now you’re saying they were developed for something else. Where did this technology come from in the first place?”
The two men exchanged an uncomfortable glance and Noatak answered, “We got it from a secret Syndicorp lab experiment.”
That didn’t surprise her. Marlis rubbed her temples. The temptation to just say fuck it and agree was strong within her. She wanted to be healed. To be normal. But with this much information, she didn’t trust herself to make a sound decision.
“You don’t need to give us your answer now,” Noatak said, shooting the doctor a glance.
Mek nodded slowly. “Correct, although sooner is better. My remaining inoculation is degrading quickly and will soon be useless unless we can find a new host.” He pulled the med bay scanner from the wall toward the exam table. “Marlis, if you don’t mind, I’d like to begin non-invasive baseline scans right away. That way, if you decide to proceed, we can inoculate you without delay.”
“Isn’t there one more thing you need to tell her?” Noatak asked in a monotone.
“Oh, right.” A greenish flush crept over the doctor’s face. “I get ahead of myself. We need to walk a fine line between allowing the nanites to finish the job without letting them take over your system entirely. They will need to be terminated before they reach critical saturation.”
“Critical saturation? That sounds… bad.” She swallowed, casting a glance toward Noatak once more. It felt as if heat waves radiated off of him, his gaze once more pulling at her like a tractor beam.
Although he was focused on her, Noatak’s words were for Mek. “Could you be more obscure, doctor?”
“I’m trying not to be crude, Noatak.” Mek crossed his arms.
This time, Noatak did speak directly to her. “The only way we currently have to terminate the nanite replication is with sex.”
To her surprise, relief flooded her. “Oh, is that all?”
Chapter Eight
Noatak rolled over in his bunk, unable to force sleep to come. She was going to accept the nanites. He knew it, could sense it in her eyes and confirmed it with an ionic pulse, despite Mek’s knowing glare. Noatak couldn’t help it. The instinct was just too strong. What he’d discovered was that Marlis wasn’t afraid, not even of the idea of mating. She was the perfect candidate. When the Kinship returned, the crew would be falling over themselves to court her, and he didn’t think he could bear watching her accept the advances of another man.
A knock pulled him from his half-doze and his heart leapt. Marlis? “Come in.”
Mek stepped inside, closing the door behind him. “Just what do you think you’re doing?”
“Trying to sleep,” Noatak grumbled, pushing down disappointment. “How’s Marlis?”
“I’m not here to talk about her.” Mek pointed a finger at Noatak. “I felt you ping her in there.”
Throwing back the blanket, Noatak rose to grab his pants. “Asking a Denaidan not to use his powers is like asking a qilzri bird not to fly. Spreading my wings is a reflex.”
“You can’t be with her.” Mek crossed his arms. “I’m sorry. I know you like her, but you can’t.”
Noatak fastened his pants and leveled his gaze on the doctor. “It’s possible I could survive mating, you know.”
Mek sighed. “Or you could leave her a heartbroken widow. I know you don’t want to hear it, but it’s my job to remind you of the consequences.”
He glared at the doctor. “Ellam Cua, I know the consequences. Now go back to your lab and find a way to fix me.” Half a heartbeat later, he added, “Please.”
“You’re one stubborn terpak.” Mek threw up his hands and turned to the door. “I’ll see what I can do.”
Alone in his cabin once more, Noatak knew sleep was impossible. He’d spent many sleepless night cycles wearing himself out on the punching bag in the cargo bay, trying to forget his craving for stims. Maybe it’d get his mind off Marlis, too.
Not bothering with a shirt, he entered the dimly lit corridor, the ship nearly silent during the sleep cycle. Even the hum of the engines was barely audible. He reached the intersection between the galley and the women’s crew quarters, pausing momentarily as he imagined Marlis curled up on her bunk, her hip forming a luscious curve under the blanket. She probably slept with that E-11 in hand, long lashes fanned against her cheeks and a slight smile on her lips. What would it be like to slip in and kiss her awake?
Uminaq. He shook his head and pivoted toward the cargo bay. That woman had gotten into his blood.
He didn’t bother to brighten the bay lights. He knew every square centimeter of this ship and had boxed in the muted light before. More often than not, one of his iluq sensed his unrest and came to join him, lending unspoken support.
A small ring of empty containers in one corner of the bay cordoned off a section of the bay for training. Several handholds had been secured high on the wall and ceiling for use during anti-grav training, and a weapons rack held a few knives and small hand-to-hand weapons. In the corner, a punching bag had been set up, its worn padding repaired too many times to count. He rolled his shoulders and performed a few dummy punches before slamming his bare knuckles into the thing. He’d been working for about fifteen minutes when a woman’s voice jarred his focus. “Mind if I join you?”
Turning, he only barely prevented his mouth from dropping open and drooling. Marlis stood there in nothing but a tank top stretched across her breasts and a loose pair of pants that hung just below her knees. He sucked in a deep breath, telling his cock to calm down.
“Trouble sleeping?” he asked.
She rubbed her wrist. “Yeah, I miss Twerp.”
“Sorry Tovik’s taking so long. I’ll get it back for you first thing in the morning.”
“Thank you. She’s a pain in the ass, but you kind of get accustomed to her reporting to you all the time.”
He watched her fingers encircle her slender wrist. “She?”
Marlis smiled wryly. “I know Syndicorp says computer programs don’t have rights, but AIs are sentient, and Twerp’s been my most steady friend.”
There it was again; that loyalty he admired. He nodded in understanding.
She moved to the weapons rack and pulled out one of the knives, testing the blunted edge with a thumb. “You guys have a PT routine on the ship?”
“Not formally.”
She tossed him the knife and picked up a second one. “How about you show me what you got?”
He grinned, widening his stance. Every cell in his body yearned to fill with power, to really show what his ionic strength could do. He tamped the urge down. Not only would he harm himself, using his abilities against a human would be unfair during training. “Think you can take me?”
She raised a brow, then spun the knife expertly between her fingers before solidifying her grip. “What do
we count for points? Back on the carrier, we had electric vests that registered strikes during training.”
“You’re not wearing a vest.” He couldn’t help glancing at her chest.
She pushed her shoulders back, and by the look in her eye, he was certain she knew exactly what effect that had on him. “So what do you suggest?”
“Practice disarming. First one to drop the weapon scrubs the galley tomorrow.”
“I have a better idea.” She twirled the knife. “If I win, you let me call my sister.”
Between the glinting blade and the twinkle in her eyes, he was mesmerized enough to agree to almost anything. Almost. “I told you we need to wait until the captain returns.”
“It doesn’t have to be a two-way conversation. She has a new position and is likely to be busy, anyway. I only need to leave a message that I’m safe. I’ll tell her I have an exciting new job with a cargo ship and she’ll just figure I forgot to mention details.”
He sighed. That was reasonable. “So, if you win, you get to call your sister. What if I win?”
She pursed her pink lips seductively and shrugged, making her breasts jiggle. “What do you want?”
He narrowed his eyes, a fire burning in his belly. He liked how direct she was about her goals; to get this job, to call her sister… to have him. Ellam Cua, he was staring at his perfect mate, and by the way she met his gaze, he was sure she wanted him, too. The urge to ping her again surged in his chest, but he tamped it down, growling, “Mek wouldn’t approve of what I want.”
“I know we’re not compatible… yet. But it could be fun finding out how compatible we might be.”
His cock surged against his fly. He made a slightly strangled sound in his throat, but he was somewhat aware of nodding like an idiot.
With a naughty grin, she lunged at him.
He regained his senses with barely enough time to twist out of the way, swinging around to spank her ass with the flat of his blade. His swipe only caught air. Facing her again, he grinned. “Feisty little tunrak!”
She laughed and thrust out her chin, eyes sparking. “Yes, I am.”
He feinted a grab for her knife. She ducked and swept out a leg, trying to take him down. He seized her ankle, but she managed to twist free, facing him once more. They dodged and lunged for another few minutes, working up a sweat. He had to admit, she was good. She’d give anyone in Galactic Ops a run for their money.
Crouching, he coiled himself and launched forward, thinking brute force might tackle her. She brought up a knee, making contact squarely against his jaw. He saw stars, but didn’t slow, carrying her to the decking.
They hit the floor hard, but she rolled out of his grasp, regaining her feet almost immediately.
“Assirpaa!” He gripped his knife and leapt upright to face her once again. “You must really want to call your sister.”
“I do.” The playfulness in her expression hardened. She lowered her guard as if about to say more.
Before she could speak, he lunged.
She must’ve been bluffing, because she leapt at the same moment, rolling herself across his back and locking onto his weapon hand. Hammering her knee against his arm, she tried to dislodge his knife. His hand went numb as his elbow bent the wrong way. The woman was strong and knew just where to apply pressure. But he was stronger. Flexing his biceps, he wrenched free. Before she could dodge away, he clamped both arms around her. He yanked her backward against his chest, keeping the blade of his knife pointing outward.
She elbowed him in the ribs, forcing him to exhale with a grunt. He was going to have bruises tomorrow, but he held tight. Keeping one arm locked around her waist, he used his other hand to pull her knife arm toward him. If he’d been using his powers, he’d’ve sent a little jolt into her arm to make her release the weapon. As it was, he had to rely on his fingers applying pressure against her tendon.
She was breathing hard, writhing against his grip, and the thin film of sweat on her skin smelled deliciously of fresh linen and musk. He breathed deeply, mesmerized by the slope of creamy skin exposed by the neck of her tank top. The way her soft hair tangled against his beard. She arched her back, panting as she attempted to wrestle free.
Her ass wiggling against him drew a different reaction than the urge to fight, however. Every flex of her muscles forced him to steady her tighter against him and made his cock grow harder. She arched again, rolling her hips downward in a way that had nothing to do with escape.
She wasn’t fighting fair.
Anaq. If she was going to fight dirty, so was he. Lowering his mouth, he ran his tongue along the shell of her ear and pressed a possessive, wide-mouthed kiss against her throat, tasting the soft salty tang of her skin. She gasped and shuddered, her rolling hips freezing in place. “That’s cheating!”
He wrapped his other arm around her hips, grinding his hard-on against her ass. “Is it?”
She struggled against his hold, and the scent of her arousal reached him, drowning him in pheromones and heat. Instinct rose inside him, the need to open his senses and verify she was a viable mate. Instead, he flicked his tongue against her ear once more and spread his palm flat over her ribcage just below the weight of a breast.
“We’re supposed to disarm each other,” she panted. She arched her back again, centering the crack of her ass over his erection. “That’s our deal.”
“So, disarm me.” He pressed the rounded knob of his knife’s hilt into the juncture between her thighs.
She gasped and bucked, releasing a shaky breath that nearly had him undone.
Anaq, Mek was going to murder him. But Marlis was the sexiest woman this side of the galaxy, and every atom of his being urged him to make her his any way he could.
“Do you always fight this dirty?” Her voice was a husky whisper.
In answer, he flexed his hips, pressing his cock against her while sliding the smooth hilt in and out between her legs, massaging her clit through the fabric there.
She shuddered and clamped her thighs over the knob. “I’ll take that as a yes.”
With her free hand, she reached behind her, flattening her palm against the side of his buttock and urging him closer. Then she began a sinuous, rolling motion, pressing and releasing, pressing and releasing. He wasn’t sure if she was doing it to feel his erection on her backside or to rub the knife hilt over her clit. Either reason was enough to drive him insane. Her musk filled his senses again, and he groaned.
Sliding the hand on her ribcage upward, he cupped her breast, finding the nipple hard through the material of her tank top. He rolled the bud between forefinger and thumb until it drew to exquisite tightness. She let her head loll back against his collarbone, exposing her throat, and he used his teeth to pull the strap of her tank top off her shoulder, rubbing his beard along the exposed skin.
She turned her face toward him over her shoulder, lips slightly parted, tawny eyes hooded. An invitation. He captured her lips. The need to feel her, to caress her, to taste every inch of her overwhelmed him. Flinging aside his knife, he drove his fingertips between her thighs to cup the damp heat pooling there. Assirpaa! How long since he’d touched a woman? And Marlis wasn’t just any woman; she was perfect in every way.
In a sudden twist, she spun to face him, their lips still locked, her tongue flicking against his teeth. His blood turned to magma, his very essence on fire with need. His secondary heart slammed out a frantic counterpart to his main heart’s beat. Claim her. Claim her. Claim her.
Resisting his ionic instinct, he focused on her needs, gripping her ass with both hands. Her body was a play of contrasts, muscles beneath soft feminine curves, strength underlying an utter submission to his ravaging tongue. He plunged into her mouth, tasting her again and again, clenching her against his chest as he devoured her.
Her fingers slid up the bare skin of his back, leaving a wake of tingling heat behind. Ellam Cua, he wanted her laid out naked before him. He wanted to taste every inch of her body. Leave no spot
unmarked by his touch.
Sudden light filled the cargo bay and a feminine voice echoed from the catwalk. “—perhaps we could investigate improving the torque modulator on the—”
“Noatak!” Tovik’s voice drowned out the rest of the sentence. “You and Mek told me to cool it, now you’re down here alone with her! That’s not fair!”
Noatak released his hold on Marlis and she slipped away, a sly grin on her face. She brandished her knife toward the one he’d thrown to the deck. “I think I won our bet.”
He couldn’t help the smile curling his lips. “Feisty little tunrak.”
Chapter Nine
Marlis tried to act cool, but her legs were still wobbly from the intensity of Noatak’s kiss. She’d intended to enjoy a little banter, perhaps some suggestive touching, but in no way had she expected him to take the lead as he did. She was usually the driving force in a relationship, and she felt off-balance, not to mention ready to strip naked and let Noatak have his way with her, nanites or no nanites.
She lifted her gaze from Noatak’s broad, naked chest to the catwalk. Tovik was probably in shock after seeing what they’d been doing. She cleared her throat. “Hey, Tovik.”
Tovik’s eyes were filled with a disappointment that reminded her of an abandoned puppy. He raised his hand, the wristband with her AI dangling from his fingertips. “I checked out your AI. She’s clean.” Shooting Noatak a disgusted look he jumped to the lower deck next to them and handed Marlis the band. “There you go, Twerp, back where you belong.”
Twerp replied, “Thank you, Tovik.”
“You’re welcome.” Tovik shifted his attention from the band to Marlis. “I disabled her wireless sensor. You no longer have spatial data or a locator, but the ship’s small, so Twerp thinks you should be okay.”
“I provided Tovik all my assistance parameters,” Twerp said.
Marlis swallowed. That meant he knew everything that was wrong with her. It had been bound to come to light, anyway. “That’s fine, Twerp.”