by Mina Carter
Her luck held, and the corridors between her and the shuttle bay remained empty. Relief hit her as she reached it, the door sliding shut behind her.
Then her eyes widened as she looked at the shuttles in front of her. Only they weren’t shuttles. Some were nearly as big as the Defiant itself, definitely too big to qualify as shuttles. How the hell did they get them to take off from in here?
Confident she was alone now, she ran past them, and past huge, blocky troop transporters, until she found a section nearer the back with smaller vessels. A smile curved her lips as she spotted a sleek flyer.
“Come to momma,” she whispered, ducking under the wing and slapping her stolen tag against the plate at the side of the door. It opened with a whoosh and she clambered inside, almost tripping over her own feet in her rush to get to the pilot’s seat.
She fell into it, waving a hand over the panel to activate the pilot’s console. Freedom was just a short flight away. Now how did she start the engines on this thing, and then she’d need to open the doors—
The sound of a deep, familiar voice made her freeze, hands motionless in mid-air.
“Hello, darling wife,” Sardaan said silkily. “Going somewhere?”
Dani turned slowly to find the Latharian warrior watching her. Her heart leaped into her throat at the sight of him sitting in one of the crew seats behind the cockpit. Every line and muscle in his body was tense, his expression hard as he captured her gaze with his.
Oh shit, he was pissed.
“Okay, just how much trouble am I in?” she asked with a smile, trying to make a joke of it as she flicked a glance at the door behind him. Perhaps she could get away and find a different shuttle.
“You’ll never make it,” he warned her in a low voice. “But please, try it anyway.”
Her hand strayed toward the console behind her and he smiled. “Controls are all locked out, sweetheart. Did you really think, with all the trouble we went to getting you here, we’d let you go quite so easily?”
Checkmate. She had no moves left—none she could see anyway. She lifted her chin, meeting him look for look. “No. I didn’t expect you to. But surely you can understand why I had to try?”
He didn’t speak, the silence stretching out between them. She kept herself still through the force of will, iron control over her body. Tension mounted in the air between them, white hot and electric.
“You asked for time,” he rasped finally, his expression still as hard as steel. “And I was stupid enough to agree. I thought a little leeway… a little understanding on my part would ease the way for us as a mated pair… would set us up for a happy life together.”
He levered himself up to stand, the movement graceful and lethal. He stalked toward her. Expression controlled and dangerous. Her heart slammed against the inside of her ribcage as he crowded her against the pilot’s console. Fighting the instinct to run, she held her ground.
“But I was a draanthing idiot. Wasn’t I, sweetheart?” he demanded, his tone soft.
He hadn’t snarled or shown anger, and that scared her on a level she hadn’t believed possible. Not that he’d hurt her… she didn’t think he would and besides, the threat of physical violence, even death, didn’t faze her. She’d faced it too often on a battlefield. That was a fear she knew how to deal with.
This cold fury though... the awareness between them. His hand as he hooked it around her waist and dragged her forward against him… they all scared the very breath out of her lungs.
His eyes glittered as he looked down at her. “Because you were planning to leave me all along. Weren’t you?”
“No,” she breathed, hands spread over his broad chest to try and keep some distance between them. “Well… yes, but not because—” She shook her head. “It wasn’t like that. You’re sweet—”
“Sweet?” His low snarl cut her off, the fury ramping up in his eyes again. “And look where that got me. A female who decided to use that against me and run. Well, wife, sweet just disappeared.”
His gaze latched on to her mouth and she gasped a second before his mouth crashed down over hers. He took advantage of her surprise, prying her lips apart with a hard sweep of his tongue and then thrusting inside.
Fighting him off wasn’t an option. His free hand gripped the back of her neck, holding her still as he plundered her lips while the hard arm around her waist kept her captive against his larger body.
She tried to hold herself still against his onslaught. Tried not to respond in any way. She’d survived torture. She could survive this. No problem. Even though he was angry, even though every sensible instinct she had told her to remain rigid, her body started to weaken against his.
She whimpered, as much in frustration with herself as in surrender as she slid her hands up his chest. Not holding him close, but not pushing him away either. He rumbled in the back of his throat, pulling her even closer. His tongue swept against hers and she caught her breath, fighting the urge to respond to him.
He pulled away, his lips hovering just against hers. When her breath caught in a small sound of disappointment, she felt his lips curve against hers. “Seems you’re fighting yourself as much as me, kelarris.”
9
His lips covered hers again and Dani was lost. Her body relaxed against his as the world around them fell away, leaving just the two of them locked in a close embrace.
His lips stroked hers, gentler this time, and she moaned, following them as they moved over hers. She forgot why this was such a bad idea. Why fight what felt so good? Why argue when she could be kissing him instead?
With a soft moan, she did just that, parting her lips to kiss him back. He groaned in the back of his throat, his arms tightening around her. Lifting her as they kissed, he boosted her up to sit on the console, the chatter of the computer systems behind them ignored. He nudged her legs apart with a hard thigh, settling between them as he eased her lips apart again.
This time he didn’t have to use force. She opened for him immediately, desperate for more of his kisses. This… she’d known this was coming from the first moment they’d met. She’d sensed the tension, the spark, between them and wanted more.
Lifting her hands, she drove them into the hair that fell to cover his shoulders, pressing herself flush against him. He nipped her lower lip in reply, teasing her with hot, open-mouthed kisses that ramped the tension between them to inferno level.
His hand, large and warm, covered the back of her hips, and he yanked her forward until he pressed against her… right where she needed him most. A gasp escaped her, lost in his mouth, as the thick length of his cock pressed into her.
Fuck, he was huge. A shiver of nerves swept through her, but his next kiss, deep and passionate, stole her ability to think. Instead, driven by instinct she just reacted, hands smoothing over his shoulders to hold him to her. She wanted this. Needed this. Needed to feel his bigger, harder body moving against hers.
He seemed affected by the same madness, pulling at the hem of her top. She lifted her arms so he could yank it up over her head. He looked down at her for a moment, eyes glittering in the semi-darkness, the wash of the console lights illuminating the tightness of his features.
She bit her lip, watching his expression. Her plain bra wasn’t the sexiest thing out there and her figure was sparse due to years of training…
He whispered something in Latharian she didn’t understand, but his expression and the sudden heat in his eyes meant she didn’t need to. Cupping her cheeks, he swept his hands down her neck and then down her arms.
She shivered as his hands encircled her wrists for a second, the movement highlighting how much bigger and stronger they were compared to hers. Then they were back, sweeping up the sides of her waist and ribcage, arching her backward as he bent over her.
Her breathing caught as his hair brushed the soft skin of her cleavage, her entire body tight with anticipation. His lips brushed her skin in feather light caresses, like butterflies brushing against her. But but
terflies that left a trail of fire in their wake.
She clung to him, her hands driving into his hair as he worked his way down the center of her cleavage and then out, kissing along the line of satin. Her nipples beaded, hard peaks that scratched against the inside of the formerly soft cups, desperate for his attention.
He moved, and her bra was gone, sliding down her arms and discarded as he looked down at her.
“Beautiful,” he murmured and bent his head again.
She bit back her moan as he captured a nipple between his lips, pulling it into the hot cavern of his mouth. He didn’t kiss. He tormented. Sucked and licked at the stiff bud until heat rolled through her body and her pussy clenched. Dizzy with arousal, she couldn’t help the rock of her hips against him. The movement pressed her aching clit against the stiff bar of his cock and he growled. Then he sucked harder.
She cried out, the soft, feminine sound loud in the quiet confines of the shuttle. They were alone, but she wouldn’t have cared anyway, locked in the spell he’d woven around her.
“Mine,” he growled against her skin, nipping her nipple gently. She gasped, a bolt of pleasure arrowing from the stiff bud straight down to her clit. “And I will have you.”
She didn’t put up a fight as he pushed her back down against the cool surface of the console and reached for her belt. Her limbs were weak, heat consuming her as he unsnapped her combats, yanking them down over her hips and lower. He discarded them with her boots on the floor behind him.
Then he was back, shedding his own shirt as he looked down at her clad only in the tiniest of panties. The same heat that rolled through her was reflected in his eyes. She arched her back, hands in her hair, an instinctive move to display her body better for him.
He smiled in approval, the expression tight, and slid a big hand up one of her thighs. Strong fingers tangled in her panties and, before she realized what he was doing, he yanked them clean off her.
Her gasp was soft and filled with arousal. She’d never had a guy who wanted her so much that he literally ripped the clothes from her body. But the small sound was drowned out by his growl as he looked at her in all her naked glory.
“I want…” he didn’t seem able to put the rest of the thought into words and reached for her instead.
One hand slammed into the console by her head, his lips covering hers at the same moment strong fingers slid through her pussy lips. A strangled cry escaped her as pure pleasure shot through her system.
If she’d been able to think before, she certainly couldn’t now, as her handsome warrior played her responses like a master musician with his favorite instrument. She whimpered, gasped and shuddered as he drove her higher and higher to the peak of pleasure. Each stroke, flick or circle was seemingly designed for maximum effect.
She kissed him back, clinging to his strong arms to urge him on, and then… in a blinding moment of clarity, ecstasy exploded through her. Her cry was more a scream as her body became a battlefield of heat, need and pleasure. It shattered her, broke her bone from bone, cell from cell, and made her anew.
Strong arms closed around her as he dragged her upright, holding her against him. He stroked her through her release. Dragged it out until she lay pliant and shuddering in his arms, her body racked by aftershocks.
“You are…” he murmured, his voice a deep rasp. “Ut—”
“Sardaan? You in there?” a voice called from outside.
Dani started, drawing closer to Sardaan’s bigger form as a figure appeared in the shuttle hatch for a moment.
“Oh draanth, sorry. Sardaan, we need you. Aariin is hurt. Bad.”
* * *
Oh my god, that had really just happened.
Heat hit Dani’s cheeks, burning the skin like she’d spent too long out in the sun as she hastily pulled her clothes on. Her panties were ruined so she shoved them in her pants pocket. Sardaan’s deep voice outside the shuttle reached her ears. He was asking questions about Aariin, his tone rising with tension.
She shoved a shaking hand through her hair and then bent over to pull her boots on. How the hell had she gone from escaping to… shit, she’d practically given it up to him right there in the damn cockpit. What had happened to cool and collected?
“Dani. Either you’re done now, or you’re walking to the medbay half-naked,” Sardaan called from outside the shuttle. She took a second to smooth her clothes down before stepping through the hatch.
“I’m good,” she murmured, not quite meeting his eyes as his hand latched around her wrist. She was his prisoner now, even more so than she had been before.
He flicked her a glance, nodding curtly. “Come on.”
By the time they reached the medbay, the healers were already there and working on Aariin. Dani recognized him instantly as one of the teenagers she’d helped train that morning. Where he’d been lively and chatty earlier, though, now he was pale as he lay on the bed, his skin gray and his eyes unfocused as he stared up at the ceiling. He blinked slowly, still alive, but she’d seen enough injured soldiers to know it wasn’t good.
Staying to the side, she wrapped her arms around herself and stayed out of the way as the healers worked. Now they’d stopped moving, and she was surplus to requirements, emotion hit her hard and fast as her brain tried to process what had happened.
She’d given in to him. She ran her hand through her hair, her cheeks heating. After all her pretty words to herself about not falling for the handsome alien warrior, she recognized her headlong flight to escape for what it was. Running scared. She’d known if she stayed around she wouldn’t be able to resist. And guess what? She hadn’t.
All he’d had to do was touch her… kiss her… and her defenses had folded quicker than a damn chocolate teapot. Shivering, she forced the thoughts down and concentrated on what was going on around her.
The medbay was filled to bursting with the group of teenagers and other, older warriors, one of whom was covered in blood. Aariin’s blood.
“How’s he doing?” Sardaan asked, storming up to the edge of the treatment bay.
From what she could work out, the faint blue shimmer around the bed was some kind of sterile force field, allowing them to turn each bay into an impromptu operating theatre.
“Touch and go. Shut up,” Isan grunted, not looking up.
The healer was almost elbow deep in the boy’s chest cavity, some kind of gloves over his hands as he worked. Strain showed on his features, but his eyes were sharp and focused.
“What happened?” Sardaan demanded, looking at the shorter warrior next to them. Riis. She’d gleaned his name from Kenna. The boy who had come to find them had only been able to tell them Aariin had been hurt while on duty, his voice tight when Sardaan questioned him outside the shuttle as she’d dressed.
“He slipped while fitting a secondary relay, fell from a ladder and knocked Warrior Ter over. Ter took offense and demanded challenge. Aariin—”
“What?” Sardaan’s voice sliced through the air like a whip as he turned to look at the blood-covered warrior. “You demanded challenge? From a Quesen?”
The other warrior’s expression set, eyes hard. “How was I to know he was one of the lowest?”
“Look at them! How could you miss they were Quesen?” Sardaan bellowed, sweeping an arm at the group of teenagers gathered to one side of the medbay. Next to the group of adult warriors, it was easy to see that their clothing was secondhand or inferior quality, the same as their weapons. They didn’t hold themselves the same as the older warriors either. While they all stood straight, their shoulders back, they didn’t quite meet anyone’s eyes, their expressions set.
Downtrodden, she realized. No one cared for them and they didn’t expect anyone to. Her heart ached, a deep pang near the center of her chest.
Ter shrugged. “He was rude. Honor had to be satisfied. How was I to know he couldn’t block a simple Trexian hammer-slice?”
Sardaan stiffened, his expression incredulous. “There’s nothing simple about an
y of the Trexian moves, let alone the hammer combinations. Quesen aren’t trained to that level. Everyone knows that!”
“ENOUGH!” Isan shouted from within the bay. “If you’re going to fight, take it outside. I have enough to deal with here.”
He hadn’t moved from his position by the bed as he fought to save the boy’s life. From the amount of blood, Dani knew the healer had already lost the battle. Lathar were a bigger version of humanity, or humans were a smaller version of Lathar. She didn’t know which way around it was, and she didn’t care. What she did know was that no one could end up with that much blood outside their body and survive.
“We’re losing him” the healer murmured, looking around at the healers around him who were monitoring the equipment crammed into the bay. They shook their heads, expressions taut, and her heart sank.
“Sardaan,” she murmured to get his attention.
He whirled around, spearing her with a hard look. For a moment she was back in the shuttle, his rage and fury freezing her into place. She swallowed and motioned toward the healer and his patient.
His focus shifted and he was there in an instant. Isan swore, stepping back and tearing the gloves from his hands to shove his hands through his hair.
“He’s gone. I can’t bring him back.”
The words dropped into the sudden silence of the medbay. Sardaan’s growl was low and terrible as he spun on his heel, fixing Ter with a gaze so terrible it made even Dani shake down to her soul. It was the kind of look that promised retribution and pain. The sort of look that said no matter what the cost, he would make Ter pay for what he’d done.
“Nonono,” Riis got in front of Sardaan before he could take a step forward, a hand slammed into the center of the bigger warrior’s chest. “Bad move, don’t do this.” His gaze was intent as he looked at his friend, words low and urgent.
Sardaan looked at him, his eyes empty of everything but fury and retribution for a moment. “He killed Aariin. Slaughtered him. Tell me how that doesn’t need an answer. Tell me how I can let that slide?”