She turned toward him. One of her breasts pressed against her arm as she shifted, pushing it so the curve swelled. Just an inch or so, and he’d probably be able to see the color of h—
Don’t look. Don’t. Look.
He looked. Smooth, creamy skin. He dragged his gaze back up to her face.
Her brow wrinkled, and she chewed that full, pouty, pink lower lip. “Can they track this ship?”
“I don’t think so. At least not yet. But I do think they can eventually turn the trackers back on, override the ship’s mainframe. I’m not great with technology, I’ll be honest.” That was an understatement, but still—he’d rather be able to tell her about something he was good at. Like producing serum.
He shook his head tightly, trying to get control of his own brain. “I’m hoping that’s where Reyback can help. He’s a weird guy, but I think he’ll know a few things about dodging the Guarda.”
“You trust him?”
He nodded.
Her tongue traced along the seam of her lips. “Ay-shocks… I want to ask you for something. You’ve done so much. I don’t have any right to ask you for more. You can say no…”
“What do you need?” He frowned.
Maybe she wanted a sedative or something so she could get some sleep? Then she’d sleep in his bed, her hair all spread out on his pillows, her body all warm and flushed with sleep. Don’t think about that.
She shifted again, and he didn’t look at her other breast and the way it probably thrust forward, all smooth and round… and warm.
And scared, asshole. Remember that.
“I… I don’t want any part of Utto to touch me. Never again.”
He blinked, wholeheartedly agreeing with the sentiment. He tried to appear supportive, but he probably just looked a little slow and maybe a little stupid. Her breasts just kept pushing forward, making his head swim.
“I can still feel him inside me.”
He grimaced.
She wrung her hands. “Through the Bond,” she said softly, and tapped her chest. “I feel his emotions. He can feel mine. I can’t change that right now. It would be a bad time to get sick enough to break the Bond, but do you know what would happen if I….” She glanced away, her face flushing as bold as her hair.
He sucked in a breath. Is she about to ask for… No. No way. But he wouldn’t have interrupted her even if a whole fleet of Guarda ships had them cornered against a fleet of Vestige, and every one of them had their blasters aimed squarely on them.
She squeezed her eyes shut, her nose wrinkled up, her lips pursed tight, and her face turned toward the floor. “WhatifIgotserumfromanotherman?”
He released a long, measured breath. It took him a minute. She’d spoken fast. And it was the thing he’d hoped most to hear but never really expected her to say.
Yep. That would work perfectly. Want some right now? I’ve got plenty.
He shifted, clearing his throat. Her gaze dropped to where his cock was caught in the left leg of his flight suit. It was clearly defined, and royally pissed at the confining quarters. It was hardly likely that she wouldn’t notice if he stood, reached into the front of his flight suit, and readjusted the thing, though. Crossing his legs was out. He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees, and touched his fingertips together, wincing as the flight suit stretched tight over his groin.
“That would probably work as an alternative.” He tried to sound like it was something that hadn’t occurred to him hundreds of thousands of times, but it came out sort of strangled. “It wouldn’t break your Bond with Utto, and I’ve never seen it done, but I’ve read of some cases.”
She sighed. Eyes wide, pale, and hopeful.
“It would be unpredictable, Feola. I don’t know how your body would react to another man’s serum.”
“But it’s an option?” She spoke fast.
When his cock pulsed happily, he sat back and nodded.
Her gaze dropped back to his lap. Oh, shit. He tried to think of the grossest procedure from his medical training. The first surgery he’d had to perform on an elderly, overweight man’s rectal polyps. It didn’t work. The image transformed to Feola, very much awake, not at all elderly and certainly not a man. On her hands and knees, legs spread wide on his exam table, pink flesh gloriously exposed. He could almost hear the slap of his examination gloves as he slipped them on.
He shook his head. Not. The. Time. Asshole.
It was his turn to be embarrassed. His cheeks heated. He hadn’t blushed since he was a teenager. Fuck, she’s just survived something traumatic. Either seen Rennie killed… or killed him herself. He rotated in his seat, hoping at least to make the bulge less obvious.
“Ay-shocks?”
He glanced back at her, seriously hoping he was correct about where she was going with this.
“Would you let me have some of your serum?” she asked. “I know that’s asking a lot, and it’s not appropriate, but…”
A weird smothered sound came out of his throat. “I could do that. Yeah.” He coughed. “I could definitely do that. No problem.”
Her lips trembled and her eyes glittered as she stood. “You don’t know what that means to me.”
She really didn’t know what it meant to him either. He lurched to his feet because it was the polite thing to do. His mother may have died when he was young, but she’d taught him manners. His flight suit stretched tighter, and it hurt, but he really didn’t give two shits.
She hesitated, then stepped in close and wrapped her arms around his waist. “Thank you, Ay-shocks.”
He patted her back awkwardly, hideously aware of the massive erection between them, jutting against her belly.
She leaned up on the tips of her toes. What is she doing? She had to feel the thing. It was solid as stone and throbbing like a pulsar.
She exhaled a soft, sad laugh. “You’re too tall. Can you bend down? Just a bit. So I can kiss your cheek?”
“Oh.” He stooped at the knees. It was awkward as hell, but at least it pulled his cock away from her. His cheeks heated all over again when she pressed her soft lips against his skin.
“You are a good man,” she whisper-sang in his ear, her breath dancing over his skin.
He swallowed. Would she still think that if she knew he’d just given her a very unprofessional, very thorough imaginary medical exam?
He frowned. Maybe he should push his luck and offer her some serum right now.
He looked at her eyes, shuttered, secretive. They gave him no clues. But it was clearly not the time for serum donations.
But soon. In the next couple of days. He turned his back to her to readjust his flight suit.
Her breath caught for a moment. “I’m so grateful you came when you did… I don’t know what I…”
She pulled away. He studied her face, shrouded with secrets.
She turned back to her seat, skirts spinning in a rush of crimson.
9
I see your fists,
But they don’t scare me.
Feola would have thought that as a healer, he’d be more comfortable discussing serum. Poor Ajax.
She kept her eyes on never-ending blackness. Not only to give him some privacy. There was too much understanding written in his turquoise gaze. He saw too much.
She could practically feel the questions perched on the tip of his tongue. But he held back, and for that she was grateful. She needed time to process. Everything had happened so fast.
Too fast.
Rennie had come into the bathroom. He’d bent her over the sink, pulled up her dress. Shoved a hand in the small of her back to hold her still while he worked her dress up over her hips until she was bare before him.
He hadn’t noticed her pillowcase. With the knife in it.
Too much.
Her body shook, and her hands clenched into claws. She forced her brain to focus on insignificant details, painless minutiae. Tiny specks glinted all around them—distant suns through the viewscreen. She counted
them until her heartbeat slowed and her hands unclasped from the armrests of her seat. Some of them probably had planets and moons and life. Numbingly big. Terrifyingly beautiful.
Like Ajax.
She glanced over at him.
His forearms flexed as he tapped on the clear screen in front of him. Pale, violet-hued light washed over the floor and ceiling. Green, red, and blue lights glinted from the controls. To her, he looked like the statues of Teemo on her planet. The ancient moon god of her people. He always had. Pale, fair, and good; sinew, muscle, and bone. Hard edges and cool eyes.
He moved like water. Fluid. Never jerky. Rarely fast. Just careful and calculated. The veins on his hands gleamed as they moved over the controls.
When he gave her his serum, maybe he’d want to use his own hand, wrap his fist around the thick hardness that had pressed against her belly earlier. Every part of him was hard. His stomach was probably rippled with sleek muscles. She could see it perfectly—arms flexing, his hand pumping up and down the long, hot length. She pressed a hand to her warm cheeks.
How would he want to deliver his serum to her? She could lick it from his fingers. Or maybe he’d want her to use her mouth on his—
“Yes!” he said, voice elated.
Her mouth dropped open, and her stomach tightened with embarrassment. Had she spoken aloud? She turned toward him, aghast.
He smiled broadly. “I just got through. Look.” He pointed at a lighted hologram projected by a small metal sphere on the dash screen.
She stifled a cry of irrational panic.
A bluish hologram of a man’s head flickered in space. “Captain Tycho Van. Triannon.”
“Captain Van. This is Chief Ajax Willo. I need to speak with Tam.”
The hologram nodded. “He’s w—”
“As soon as possible. He’ll take my call. Get Reyback, too, please.”
The holograph shimmered for a moment before he nodded. “Ten. Twenty minutes, max.”
A muscle ticked in Ajax’s jaw, but he didn’t complain.
Tam was the future king of Triannon. She felt a stab of nerves at the thought of seeing one of the leaders of her people.
A few moments later, Tam appeared, and though she’d only seen him briefly, she recognized him. Hard jawed, dark haired, roughly featured. Beside him hovered the holographic head of the other man, who she had to assume was Reyback. Gruff and gray with the mischievous expression she associated with naughty children, not older men.
“Ajax—what the fuck, man? I just heard you took off with Upranimus’s mate. What the fuck were you thinking?”
She inhaled slowly. She refused to be afraid anymore. Rennie was dead. He couldn’t hurt her. And Utto was hundreds of thousands of miles away.
“Tam,” Ajax said, a smile in his voice. “Nice to see you, too. How’ve you been?”
Tam shook his head. “You dumb shit. Upranimus is the second richest guy in the galaxy. He’ll send bounty hunters and assassins after you. Every asshole in Argentus will come looking for you.”
The corner of Ajax’s mouth tightened. “Thanks for the summation of my current situation. I appreciate it.”
Tam laughed.
Reyback smiled, deep weathered lines and a slightly crooked front tooth. “From what I hear, Ajax’s father is no slouch himself.”
Tam glanced at Reyback askance. “Not like Upranimus. Ajax’s father is a senator, but from a smaller region. He’s got a fraction of the connections of Upranimus. Small bones in comparison.”
Reyback’s eyes narrowed. “Small bones add up. And your brother. Spiro’s already made War Chief. A well-connected family. Won’t hurt.”
“Let’s leave my family out of it for now. I’d rather not get them involved.” Ajax ran a hand along the back of his neck, and the fabric of his shirt clung to the thick muscles of his upper arms.
Her mouth went dry. What was the matter with her? It was as if the heat had already taken her.
Tam’s hologram cocked his head. “What do you need?”
“What’s the extradition policy on Triannon?”
Tam grinned. “Don’t have one yet. Interplanetary laws are still nascent here. I’ll get the squad of elders on it, though. It’ll give them something new to squawk about.” He shook his head.
At the warning gleam in his eyes, her stomach tightened.
“But it will take months to draft something iron-tight enough to man off against the legal shit-storm you’re talking about. Senator Upranimus is no joke. I’ll need to call in outside help. But Triannon protects its own. If that fuck touched her…” The hologram paused, taking a deep breath. “Tell Feola she still has a home here, family here.”
Her throat constricted. He hadn’t even asked if she was guilty. Tears burned the back of her eyes. Ajax reached out and gently stroked her knee. She squeezed his long, elegant fingers.
“Start now. I bet you hear from him in the next couple days. Triannon’s the obvious place for us to go. He’ll start laying on pressure fast.”
Tam’s brows lowered. “That’s my problem. Don’t worry about it.”
“So I need to know how to get under the radar,” Ajax said. “Where do I go? What do I do so they can’t trace the ship?”
Reyback’s mouth turned down at the corners. “You don’t. You can’t.”
“So, what do I do?” Ajax’s touch on her knee might be soft, but his voice was hard.
“You need a new ship.”
“Okay.”
“Get to Pilan. Ask for Quasilliaro. He’s a mean, dirty, rotten fucker. But he’ll trade you a three-hundred-year-old hulk of a junker for that pretty little Argenti ship of yours. From there, hole up for a couple months on some abandoned planet on the Edge and wait.”
Ajax nodded. “Can you send me Pilan’s co-ords?”
Reyback looked down. “Just did. Along with co-ords to Araa-Ara, my rec for a hider-planet. It’s an old vacation colony that was abandoned when better digs popped up, closer in. Expect it to be rough there. Hotter than balls in an engine. But a nice cozy ruin of a hotel on a hilltop.”
No one asked why this Reyback person had the coordinates readily available for “hider-planets.”
Reyback’s jaw tightened visibly. “You take that woman with you everywhere you go on Pilan. You keep her close. Dress her like a man if you can. That place is rough. Really rough. Don’t let her out of your sight.”
Ajax’s warm hand tightened around hers. “I won’t. Thanks. Both of you.”
The holographs of the men nodded, and the image of their heads imploded in a pinprick of bright white light.
Ajax tapped the control panel and looked at her. “Are you tired?”
“Yes.”
“Go on to bed, then. You take the bunk.”
“Where will you sleep?”
“I’m okay here.”
“In the seat?”
She’d seen the bed earlier when she’d used the bathroom. It was big enough for both of them. “Ajax, it’s okay. We’re both adults. We’ll share the bed.”
He shook his head again.
“Please, Ajax. I don’t want to be alone.”
He looked like he was about to ask questions again, so she spoke before he got a chance. “How long until we get to Pilan?”
“According to the computer, we’ll arrive tomorrow afternoon.”
She dropped her eyes to the floor. She’d need him before then. It couldn’t be avoided, and it would be less awkward if he expected it. He had to wonder when she’d need him. “I’ll need your serum tomorrow.”
He was silent for so long that she had to look up at him. One of his big hands came up, his fingertips stroked her scalp, and his thumb stroked along her cheekbone.
“You don’t need to be embarrassed,” he said in a gruff, raspy voice. The deep, rumbly kind that gave her the shivers. A wry half smile curved one side of his mouth. “I’m happy to supply it.” He raised a shoulder, and the smile spread over his lips into a full grin. “All you need.”
She’d never seen him so unguarded. For a single moment, she forgot they were on the run, she forgot about Utto and his uncle and Rennie. And she laughed. She couldn’t help it. All her horrible time on Romeo-Two faded away. Ajax made it all seem as though it had happened years ago, to some other woman; and if she felt Utto’s vicious wrath at the tiny, glistening bud of joy that uncurled within her, she refused to let it dampen the moment.
10
In for a long night.
“Can I borrow your shirt? To sleep in?”
Ajax stared at her dumbly, taking in the smudges under her eyes, the sad turn of her mouth. He glanced down, plucked at the white fabric of his shirt. In preparation for bed, he’d stripped off and hung up his weapons, harnesses, and the black flight suit.
He stood in only his briefs and the shirt, both of which he’d intended to wear to sleep.
“Sure.” He grabbed the shirt by the neck and pulled it off.
He hadn’t put a lot of thought into what she’d wear to sleep, but his shirt sounded good. Great, actually.
She disappeared into the bathroom, and he was strangely anxious to see her in his clothes.
When she came out a few minutes later, he had to fist his hands to keep himself from reaching for her. The shirt fell to the tops of her knees, the arms all the way past her elbows, the shoulders sagging on her smaller frame. Her nipples were hard, and dark, pushing against the fabric of the shirt. Oh, shit. It’s going to be a long night.
“Your turn,” she said sweetly, walking past him toward the bed with a waft of their commingled scents. She smelled like him, which made his cock absurdly happy.
He watched her over his shoulder. As she lifted a knee onto the bed, the shirt clung to the round curves of her ass. For just a minute, as she crawled away from him, the shirt shifted, riding high up the smooth skin of her thighs. Just another couple of inches from a pussy he remembered far too well. His eyes lingered on the gap between her thighs as she kept her slow crawl across the bed, her round ass moving in time with her legs.
He groaned, dropping his head back to stare at the ceiling. It wasn’t a good idea to be this hard. For this long. He’d treated patients for this exact problem.
The Breaking Page 6