by Alison Aimes
“Keep calm.” Rough hands guided him toward the ground while they barked at Ava. “You said this could happen. This is not the time to fall apart.”
“Fuck you, Ryker. I’ll damn well fall apart if I want to.” But her voice sounded stronger.
“Not now you won’t,” snapped his second. “He trusted you. Prove him right.”
The urge to slam his fist into the man’s jaw hit Valdus hard, but it was followed by a conflicting desire to bear-hug the grouchy asshole. He might snap and snarl, but Ryker would take care of Ava. He could hear it in his second’s voice. He’d been right to remind his friend of Saralynee. The husband and expectant father he’d once been was still inside the man.
“Stay with me. Valdus!” Ava’s terrified voice was faint in his ear.
He tried to catch her gaze. To tell her he would do it again in a heartbeat. That she didn’t need to prove anything to him. He already believed in her.
Everything went dark.
35
His throat was ash, caked in dust. His lungs singed worse than that time he’d almost left the transport hold too late and gotten caught in the incineration blast.
Holy Dragath hell, what the hell had he done this time?
The sound of a soft sigh caught his attention. He froze. Registered for the first time the small form curled up an arm’s length away.
Ava.
The memories slammed back into him, including her covering him with soaked rags.
He’d thought he was Dragath dust. That he’d never hold her again.
Slipping his hand beneath her waist, he dragged her closer, savoring the feminine scent of her, the softness of her skin against his. She fit perfectly. The warm curve of her spine curling into his front. Her slow breathing a soothing balm.
Somehow, they’d ended up in the small, private enclave he’d ordered carved out for Barrett so he could have some privacy while he struggled with his illness. But the younger soldier wasn’t here now. Instead, it was only Ava and a nest of tattered fabric beneath them. Her ass pressed up against him. Both of them alive and intact.
His cock hardened.
“Valdus?” A sleepy murmur floated upward.
“Mmmm.” His hand traced the length of her side, relishing the dip of her waist and the flare of her hip.
He was still alive. Still holding her. Touching her.
He cocked his head as his hand slid forward, across her hip bone, and he listened. Outside he could hear the low murmur of teammates’ voices and the snore of others. But if they were very quiet…
“Oh, Janus,” a shriek of relief pierced the air. “You’re awake.” No longer sleepy, she swiveled without warning, batting his hand to the side as she leapt to her knees to stare down at him. “You’re really awake.”
A flare of guilt shot through him. The tense lines at her mouth and eyes suggesting how much she’d been worrying.
“I’m fine.” He reached up to pull her to him. Intent on showing her just how fine he really was.
She seized his hand, clasped it to her cheek. “Thank the gods. I thought…I thought…” Her voice broke.
“Is he up? What’s happening?” The clatter of giant footsteps rumbled outside the entrance. Bain stuck his head in. Ryker poked his in as well. “Is he a vegetable?”
“I’m more than fine,” he told his teammates, proud of the patience he managed to muster. “No pain. All parts in working order. Now—”
“That’s a relief,” chirped Bain, even more animated than usual. “You scared the shit out of all of us. Ava most of all.”
Ryker shook his head. “You turned such an ugly shade of red. Even uglier than usual. Flopping around like you were having a seizure. I was sure you’d used up your last life.”
Beside him, Ava had gone still. The sheen in her eyes spilling over to roll down her cheeks in one big, fat droplet.
“Ryker, Bain,” he growled, “shut the hell up.” He reached up and brushed away the tear. “I’ve got plenty more lives to spare.”
Her breathing hitched.
His gaze stayed locked with hers. “I appreciate the concern, but I’m fine. You can let the others know. Let them know, too, that we’d like some privacy now.”
Ava’s emerald eyes went wide. He hadn’t bothered to hide the hunger in his rasped last command.
“But—” protested Ryker.
“Leave us the hell alone.” This time he went for blunt.
“Got it.” Both heads disappeared fast, Ryker’s chuckle impossible to miss.
“Valdus!” It was easy to hear the embarrassment and uncertainty in her tone.
But if he waited for the timing to be perfect, he’d be waiting until he was dead.
Which he wasn’t.
Buoyed by another surge of relief, he rewrapped his arms around her shoulders and dragged her to him, rolling so that she was beneath him, the majority of his weight supported by his arms.
He stifled a groan. She was softness, light, and curves beneath him. Perfection.
“Valdus!” Her palms pressed against his chest. “You need to be careful. Bain and Ryker weren’t exaggerating.” She reached for his pulse, her two fingers at the ready.
He caught them in midair. Pressed them against his lips. “I’m fine. I promise. We can go over my vital signs and check if the serum worked in a few short heartbeats, but all I want now is to hold you. To remind both of us that I’m alive and not going anywhere.”
Her breathing hitched, her teeth gnawing at her lower lip as if she could keep in the words. Her eyes glittered once more, the unshed tears making them glisten sea green.
She was so beautiful. He didn’t know how he’d gotten so lucky.
“I’m here. I’m fine,” he repeated.
A small sob escaped.
He knew well a wound needed to be lanced.
“I’m sorry I gave you a scare, but we both knew there would be a reaction to the serum. Whatever it was, it’s over now. I’m fine. You did great. Just as I knew you would.”
With a wail, she launched herself toward him, wrapping her arms around him, burying her nose into the hollow of his neck. “I…I was so scared.”
Her shakes turned to sobs, her words soon unintelligible.
He hauled her closer, his palm sliding up and down her back.
His chest tightened with every sob. She was always so tough, so full of bravado, refusing to admit weakness, hating to ask for help. It touched him to know she trusted him enough now to let him in. Plus, he was fairly certain it was the first time someone had cried for him. His men, he knew, cared for him, but this was different. More personal. Intimate. Something he hadn’t even known he’d wanted. But now that he had it, wanted never to give up.
Before her, he’d just existed.
Now, even down here, he lived.
“It’s okay, Ava.” He purposely used her name, knowing how that grounded her. “You did so well, baby. So well.”
She sobbed harder.
Shit. He knew she had to be exhausted. She’d been through more in the last few rotations than most people experienced in a lifetime. She needed sleep. She needed time to just breath and relax.
But that was time they didn’t have.
“Hey.” He tilted her chin upward. “I really am okay.”
“I…I was scared you’d died. I thought…I thought I’d killed you. I thought it was my fault.” Her words were intelligible again, her sobs slowing.
“We decided together to take the risk. We knew going in what could happen,” he reminded her.
She curled tighter against him.
He wished he could keep her like that forever.
All he wanted was to protect her. Keep her safe.
He hated knowing that down here, with what was coming, that was impossible. That he could never guarantee these would be the last tears she’d shed for him or herself. Her skills, her strength, were still to be tested.
It would be so much easier if he didn’t care. If she were still just b
ait.
But going back to that was impossible.
He inhaled deep, drawing more of her into his lungs. Somehow, somewhere along the way, she’d gone from being his captive to capturing all of him.
And he wanted inside her now. Wanted to remind them both of just what she was to him. Of the fact that they were still alive and fighting.
Still had a chance to succeed.
He pressed a kiss to her neck. “I love the way you taste. Right here.” He licked at the hollow of her collarbone. “Like sunshine and fresh air and hope.”
She stilled, her gaze darkening with need. “The things you say.” Her mouth claimed his. Her tongue tangling with this.
His cock went hard as stone.
Then, harder still as she pushed him onto his back and leaned over him. “My turn,” she whispered. “To show you the stars. To remind you what it is to want.”
Blood roared in his ears as she pressed kisses down his chest and stomach, nipping, sucking, her beautiful body undulating over him as she slid farther and farther down his body until her mouth was aligned with his cock.
Warm, wet heat surrounded him, his dick hitting the back of her throat as she took as much of him as she could fit between her lips.
He lost his mind, his back bowing as he roared with pleasure. The suction of her sweet tongue up and down his shaft and head sending pre-cum leaking from his tip.
Always in the past, he’d sensed a part of her holding back. Reluctant to surrender all. But not right now.
At this perfect moment in time, she willingly gave him everything—and so he took. Reveling in her light and softness and beauty, until he knew he couldn’t take another strong pull of that gorgeous mouth without coming then and there.
“I need to touch you, too.” Pulling her upward, he pressed her swollen mouth to his. Got lost in the glazed look in her eyes as he slid downward until her sweet center was poised over his tongue.
His hands moved over every perfect inch of her as he fucked her with his mouth. Giving back as well. Reveling in her soft, sweet moans. The trusting way she slid her legs apart, rubbed against him. Thrust her hips forward for more.
Dracken hell.
The last thing he wanted to do was risk this extraordinary woman more.
Yet, Hollisworth was coming—and his team was counting on the two of them to see his plans to fruition. And he’d promised to let her try out her serum to neutralize the heat technology. A stronger version than the one that had almost killed him.
It could be him hovering over her writhing body next. Him watching the light fade from her eyes.
“Come inside me, Valdus. I want to feel you inside me.” Her breathless words brought him back to the moment, the tight clasp of her legs wrapping around him making him groan with a different kind of agony. Especially when she slid downward, lifted her hips, fitted her wet slit against his cock, and whispered against his ear. “Show me our stars.”
Chest tight, he drove deep. “Hold on tight, baby.”
White-hot pleasure slammed through his balls and up his spine as heat surrounded him, bringing him home. Offering him everything he’d never known he wanted.
He only hoped he was strong enough to give her everything she deserved in return.
36
A loud explosion shook the walls.
“Can you see?” Ava tried to crane her neck forward, only to be shoved down by a burly hand.
“Stay down,” barked Darvish. He might be upset over his recent fight with Barrett, but his focus remained laser-sharp. “Valdus will kill me if he sees even a speck of powder on you.”
She hid an eye roll. Crammed behind the massive rock, there was no way anything was reaching her. No way she could see what was happening, either.
The nearby droids buzzed louder. The hiss of a laser strike.
Another explosion shook the room. “Oh, Janus. That sounded like a droid going down, right? Nothing else.” Terror, thick and viscous, flooded the back of her throat.
Valdus had only just recovered from the effects of her serum. Now, he was out there testing its efficacy. Putting himself directly in the way of the droids to see if they still had the capacity to trigger his tracker and light him up from the inside out. Or if—and she really hoped for this option—her serum had worked.
Please, let it have worked. Please.
“I think we should get a better view of what’s happening.” She gave it her best shot.
Her assigned protector just grunted. He and the others clearly weren’t happy with babysitting duty.
She couldn’t say she blamed them. She hadn’t been too pleased either when Valdus let her leave quarters with him only to bench her behind a massive rock overhang at the first sign of droid buzzing.
But she understood. She hadn’t spent two years practicing how to outmaneuver the droid’s laser strikes nor did she have a potential neutralized tracker inside her veins. The last thing he needed right now was a distraction.
Another explosion.
She twitched in her small space, her head lifting on instinct.
Darvish’s massive hand pressed against her scalp, shoving her down once more—until she saw a figure emerge at the end of the corridor.
Batting her babysitter’s hand aside, she popped up. “Well?”
“It worked.” Something that almost look like a smile twisted Ryker’s face, making him look almost handsome.
Dizzy relief sparked through her. Followed by pure triumph.
She searched the corridor for the only one she wanted to see.
“What the hell happened to your eyebrows?” Darvish’s words drew her attention.
Ryker cursed, his hands flying to his face.
“There were a few kinks.” Valdus strode into view, eyebrows intact, thank goodness. But there was a dark discoloration at his forearm that hadn’t been there before.
“You’re hurt.” Relief forgotten, she rushed forward. “What happened?” Seizing his hand, she turned it over, tracing along the unharmed skin at the sides of the burn. Her already overworked heart couldn’t take another scare like earlier. “Does it hurt a lot?”
“Not with you touching me like that.” His voice was low and husky.
She looked up into hungry eyes.
Another rush of relief, this one of a different sort.
Words could not describe how full her heart had been when he’d woken up and seemed no worse for wear. And then he’d touched her, made her moan and shatter, and she’d wanted to weep with the joy of having his hands on her, his cock deep inside her, his glittering artic gaze locked with hers as they came together. Something she’d been terrified she would never experience again.
“You did good.” Tiny lines at his eyes crinkled as he smiled and her heart skipped, her earlier worries melting away.
“You’re sure the tracker has been fully neutralized?”
“One hundred percent sure.” His grin widened. He was always beautiful, but when he smiled like that it left her breathless. “I watched the droid power up, lock on the tracker, and then nothing. It was working so hard to get a response it didn’t even initiate defensive maneuvers as I hurled my ax and sent it crashing into the wall. Same thing happened twice more.” He picked her up, spun her around. “It worked. You did it.”
She’d done it.
Her heart beat fast.
For the first time, it was beginning to feel real that they might actually have a chance of beating Hollisworth.
And that she’d have her shot at her own serum.
True freedom was finally within reach.
“I’m so glad you’re okay.” Flying high, indifferent to the others’ stares—they’d all heard them earlier anyway—she rose to her tiptoes and, wrapping her arms around his neck, drew him down until she could press her lips to his.
With a groan, he took over, his tongue slipping out to tangle with hers. Wild. Raw. Triumphant.
Together, they were making this work.
When he finally r
eleased her, she was dazed, and surprised to rediscover there were others around them. She didn’t even bother blushing. Her Commander could definitely kiss.
“Yeah, I’m fine, too,” grumped Ryker. “Who needs eyebrows anyway?”
She hid a smile. He did look ridiculous.
“Lucky for you, you still have your charm.” Darvish’s straight face, hidden mostly by his bushy beard, gave nothing away.
The others laughed.
Her lips curved up as well.
She wanted more such moments for them all.
The weight of responsibility hit her again.
If her plan succeeded, she’d be able to give them their best chance at freedom. If not, they’d all die.
“We need to return and start injecting the others with the serum.” Valdus was back in commander mode once more. “I’ll want to send someone to the other team as well. We can inject them while they work the mines. As long as we’re discreet, we should be able to do it right under those damn droids’ missing noses.”
“I’ll need to weaken it a bit. I don’t want anyone else experiencing what you did or worse.”
“We don’t have a lot of time to delay.” Concern laced Valdus’s voice. “Nor can we afford to weaken it so much that it doesn’t work.”
“I’ll move quickly. And do my best to ensure the main components are still strong enough to get the job done.” She wasn’t budging on this.
He drew in a long breath. She could feel him weighing the pros and cons, the risks on each side. “Fine. But we move fast.”
“Agreed.” She let out a breath she hadn’t known she’d been holding. “I’d like to collect more to make a stronger batch as well.” She lowered her voice. “One I can use on myself.”
He stiffened. “We’ll discuss this further back at quarters.”
“Are you sure that’s wise? We’ll need to have it figured out before you send more men to get the needed supplies. Time is of the essence.”
She wanted the heat nanotechnology out of her as soon as possible.
“I said we’ll discuss it later.” His harsh bark had her lips flat-lining.
Here, finally, was the chance she’d been waiting for—and he was shutting her down. “We have a deal.”