by Tamsin Ley
That could be enough diversion to get her to the brig undetected. Without an engineer, the crew’d scramble to figure out what the noise was. On the other hand, if someone didn’t figure out what was wrong and shut it down, the shuttle’s innards would experience a meltdown. Possibly explode.
By then you’ll have Kashatok free. The brig’s door controls should be a piece of cake to override using the spanner in her pocket. Together they’d return to the shuttle and shut the power coil down. Hell, maybe they could actually use the shuttle to escape.
Sucky plan, but it was all she had.
She made the adjustment and crept outside, waiting nervously near the shuttle’s pointed nose.
Heartbeat loud in her ears, she watched the mouth of the corridor expectantly for what felt like hours. The nanites seemed to surge in time with her pulse, making her camera’s focus go in and out. She shut her eyes against the disorienting sensation, but only for a moment. She couldn’t afford to be blind if someone came around the corner and spotted her.
Finally, a rolling wail echoed through the bay. She counted to ten before peeking around the nose. The guards had risen and she caught sight of Ekwok disappearing into the far corridor. Moore remained at the makeshift table with his back to her.
She slipped from behind the shuttle and darted toward the door to the brig, sure she’d feel the bite of a pulse blast any moment. Clearing the corner, she breathed a sigh of relief and took the last few steps. The door’s force shield glimmered, making her camera’s auto-filters roll through several settings before stabilizing. Once she could see again she peered through the shield to meet Kashatok’s furious gaze.
The alarm bell rolling through the ship was a perfect accompaniment to the confusion coursing through Kashatok’s system. Joy was here, looking at him. His hearts warred with conflicting emotions. Joy could see again? Had she received his warning? If she had, why was she here? And the thing he really didn’t want to know—was she actually a Syndicorp spy?
He said the only thing he could think of. “You shouldn’t be here.”
She jimmied the door’s control panel loose and applied the spanner to the mechanism. “I got your message.”
He glanced to the corner where Jhikik hunkered over a naujiar branch he’d dragged up the vent a few minutes earlier. “The collar was supposed to be a warning, not an invitation.”
The glittering force shield sputtered and dissipated. Joy dropped the spanner and flung herself into his arms. “Did they hurt you?”
Any anger he may have been trying to summon vanished. She felt so good, so right. He’d lived aloof so long, he’d forgotten the simple pleasure of being touched. Stealing a moment to return her embrace, he breathed deeply against her hair, filling himself with her essence.
The alarm cut off as suddenly as it began. He pushed her away. “You’re in danger. Go back right now.”
“I can’t.” She was trembling, her liquid brown eyes tense. “Kashatok, there’s something I need to tell you.”
He wrapped one hand around her arm and pulled her from the brig, listening intently for approaching footsteps before turning toward the cargo bay. “You’re Syndicorp, I know.”
She stiffened. “I’m not, though.”
He took a deep breath. He didn’t have time to argue. Whatever was occupying the crew wasn’t likely to last. Looking over his shoulder, he said, “Either way, you’re not safe here.”
“Neither are you. They locked you up because of me, didn’t they? Are they planning to kill you?”
He continued pulling her forward. “We don’t have time to stand here and—”
A pulse blast whizzed past his shoulder. He grabbed Joy around the waist and dashed into the cavernous bay, sidestepping around the corner. Setting her down, he scanned the open space for other attackers. The shuttle blocked his view of the boarding tube, but the rest of the bay appeared empty.
He looked at Joy’s empty hands. “Did you happen to bring a weapon?”
She cringed. “I dropped the spanner back there.” Pulling a small screwdriver from her back pocket, she held it out. “This is all I have.”
“Uminaq!” Ignoring the screwdriver, he turned to face the mouth of the corridor. Standing between their attacker and Joy, he could protect them from one pulse blast with his ionic shielding. He prayed no one crept up on them from behind the shuttle. Joy moved in close, her warmth reassuring against his back.
Aleknagik’s shaggy head poked around the corner several feet away, followed by a pistol leveled at Kashatok’s chest. The mutinous first mate stepped into view as casually as if he were saying hello. “I wondered if I might find you together. Good to see our little female in working order again.”
“Leave her alone.” Kashatok balled his fists, daring the man to come within range.
“Can’t. Turns out you not only brought a female on board but a Syndicorp spy. Captain Qaiyaan’s eager to talk to the lady in question.”
Kashatok maintained his shield, glancing desperately about the big bay. If both crews knew Joy was Syndicorp, neither ship was safe for her. But there was a third option. “Let us take the shuttle, and I’ll relinquish the Kinship. Yours, free and clear.”
Joy’s breath fanned over his shoulder blade. “Kashatok, I don’t…”
A new voice echoed through the cargo bay from the comm. “Captain, I’m detecting troopers on long-range sensors. They’ve found us again.”
Aleknagik extended his free hand forward. “Tell you what. Hand her over and I’ll let you take the shuttle.”
“Fuck you.” Kashatok snarled.
The sound of raised voices echoed from beyond the shuttle, Tovik’s young voice carrying through the bay. “I don’t think you understand how serious this is. Just let me help look for her. She’s probably in engineering.”
“Captain gave me direct orders not to allow you on board. Now get off our ship.” Moore’s gravelly retort left no question about whose side he was on.
Aleknagik’s nose flared. “Sounds like she has that little punk as duped as you are, Kashatok.”
The comm crackled again. “Troopers are coming in fast. The Hardship says we have to burn in three.”
“She’s not a spy,” Kashatok said, putting as much surety behind his words as he could muster.
“Are you sure?” Aleknagik tilted his head, eyes narrowed. “The troopers have tracked us through two burns.”
Tracking a ship through burn was difficult, to say the least; the frequency alignments that allowed a burn drive to fold space were very precise. A spy on board the Kinship would make the troopers’ arrival much more plausible. Deep inside, Kashatok fought to contain his doubts. Was Joy responsible?
More arguing echoed from the other side of the shuttle. Tovik sputtered, “If she’s not buffered when we burn, the nanites could kill her!”
“You hear that?” Aleknagik tilted his head toward the shuttle. “We don’t have much time. Step aside, and I’ll make sure she gets stabilized. We’d all prefer to keep her…” His teeth flashed in a grotesque leer. “Functioning.”
Joy’s fingertips dug into Kashatok’s sides, and he could sense her heart racing. Every instinct told him to protect her. But what could he do?
“Two minutes,” the comm announced.
Kashatok ground his teeth. Even if Joy ran, she’d never get herself positioned into a nav-grav seat in time. Burning was no longer an option—they had to stand and fight. He took a deep breath and shouted, “Battle stations!”
From the far end of the bay, Ekwok appeared from the opposite corridor. He stopped and gaped. “Captain?”
At Kashatok’s back, Joy’s warmth faded. She must’ve moved. If she wasn’t directly behind him, she’d be vulnerable to a blast from the pulse pistol. “Joy, stay close.” He took a step backward without taking his gaze off Aleknagik. Speaking loud enough to be heard throughout the bay, he said, “Are we going to run like scared dogs forever? We stand here with two ships. Two crews. It’s time to s
tand and fight!”
Aleknagik aimed the pistol barrel at Kashatok’s head.
Kashatok focused all his power to the front of his ionic shield.
The comm announced, “One minute to burn.”
It was too late. Too late for everything. Kashatok’s entire sorry existence flickered before his eyes. Yet damned if he wouldn’t go down fighting. He coiled himself to pounce as a clunk and a hiss came from behind him, followed by a rush of stale air.
Joy’s hand gripped the back of his waistband, yanking him backward through the narrow opening of an escape pod. He sensed a pulse blast headed his direction. Reality became slow motion as he grappled for the pod door. His fingers wrapped around the door’s airlock wheel. A pulse blast struck him straight in the chest, knocking him off his feet.
And his world went black.
Chapter Fourteen
Kashatok opened gritty eyes, his head pillowed against warm skin. Above him, a brushed metal ceiling glowed with ambient light. Green and amber alerts blinked somewhere in his peripheral vision. His ribcage felt like he’d been used as a punching bag. He let out a slow breath, his ionic senses detecting a beating heart to his left just as a cool hand cupped his cheek.
Joy’s face moved into his line of sight. “Kashatok? Are you awake?”
For a moment, he simply drank in her smooth olive complexion, the short dark ringlets surrounding her face, the liquid quality of her eyes. “What happened?”
A shiver coursed through her, and he realized his head was cradled on her lap. “You grabbed the escape pod’s door handle just as you were shot. The blow shoved you backward, slamming the hatch shut. I hit the seal and ejected.”
He remembered now; they’d been within seconds of burn. An escape pod caught by the edge of a ship’s burn frequency was either pulled along, torn apart, or flung into a random sector of space. A pod could even end up in another galaxy, although no one had ever returned to prove it true. “What are our coordinates?”
She shook her head. “I can’t tell.”
Then he realized she wasn’t looking at him. She wasn’t looking at anything. His stomach tightened and he reached up to caress her velvety cheek with the back of one hand. “Are you blind again?”
Her eyes performed a hard, slow blink, then she met his gaze. “My eyes can’t see, but my camera can. I get a headache using it too long. And I can only use them for one thing at a time. I was reading the ship’s systems just now.”
He wasn’t sure whether to be grateful or worried. “We have to get you to a doctor.”
Although he wanted to remain in the comfort of her lap, he sat up, one hand pressed against his bruised ribs. The pod was literally that: a metal hexagon with passenger seats on four sides and a viewport with a rudimentary control panel on the fifth. Sprawled on the floor, he took up the entire space. No wonder he’d been on her lap.
On hands and knees, he moved to the panel, muscles still spasming with the aftershocks from the deflected pulse blast, and knelt in front of the controls. A green light next to the comm indicated the emergency beacon had automatically engaged after they ejected. Life support was also green. The navigation system blinked amber, unable to correlate their current position with any locations in its databank. Not that it really mattered; the pod had the maneuverability of a rowboat.
Swallowing, he did a sensor scan of the surrounding space. Emptiness. “How long was I out?”
Joy scooted over and knelt behind him, one soft breast brushing his shoulder as she leaned forward to view the panel. “A few hours, I think.”
A few hours and no one had responded to their emergency beacon. This did not bode well. He relaxed onto his heels.
Joy settled back to make room, her breath fanning his shoulder. “Where are we?”
“Nowhere.”
For long moments they both stared at the blinking control panel. They were out of tools and out of alternatives.
“How long can we survive in the pod?” She whispered.
He’d been asking himself the same thing. Turning, he sat cross-legged to face her. “It’s designed to keep three or four crewmen alive a few days. We might have a week with only two of us.”
She grimaced. “And you didn’t detect any nearby systems?”
He shook his head. He could feel her heartbeat racing and smell her warm citrus scent filling the pod’s small space. Watching as she chewed her bottom lip in that distracting fashion of hers, he was filled with the desire to run his thumb across her mouth, to press inside and feel her teeth and tongue and…
How could he be thinking about these things when they were facing imminent death? He forced himself to look away.
“Are we going to die out here?” she asked.
He swallowed. No sense hiding the truth. They were in this together. “Probably.”
She inhaled and blew it out in a long breath. “Then I have a final request.”
He dragged his gaze back to her face, meeting her liquid brown eyes. The intensity there was shocking, sending sparks directly into his bloodstream.
She licked her lips, leaving them moist and rosy. “Make love to me.”
Her request about knocked him flat. What was she thinking? She knew he couldn’t. Yet her heartbeat fluttered, her breathing quickened, and her body temperature rose in what could only be classified as arousal. Uminaq, even her scent told him she wanted him at least as much as he wanted her. “You know I can’t.”
“I think you can. Mek said he had good news for you before everything fell apart. I’m pretty sure it was the results of your DNA test.” She smiled tremulously. “You’re not a carayak.”
Her words made no sense. For almost two decades he’d lived without sex, defining himself as a monster. Mek’s test had to be wrong. Wrong or right, you still can’t be with her. She was human. He was Denaidan. “Carayak or not, I can’t be with you.”
She seemed to shrink, her shoulders drawing up. “You don’t want me?”
“Of course I want you!” The words were out before he could rein them in. Even his cock surged to life, as if affronted she’d suggest such a thing.
With a trembling hand, she touched his knee. “Then what’s stopping you? I have the nanites.”
It was as if she’d flipped a switch directly tied to his groin. His hearts pumped rhythmically in his chest, the increased blood flow heightening his awareness of her through every sense. Could he be with her? Dare he? Memories of Aiyana surfaced, but her face was blurred by time, more like a nightmare than a memory. Fresher was the recent memory of Joy’s heated kiss in his cabin, her tender mouth beneath his, her soft breasts against his chest.
He scrubbed both hands over his face. “I couldn’t bear it if you died. Especially like… that. With me.”
“We’re likely to die anyway.” Her voice was firmer than he’d expect, and her gaze remained steady. “Let’s go out in a blaze of pleasure.”
“Ellam Cua, woman.” But he couldn’t deny her. Not her words, not her body, and not her plump and inviting mouth. He reached out and wrapped both hands around her hips, pulling her forward to straddle his lap. “I’m not in control. If I take you, it won’t be gentle.” His voice sounded like he’d eaten broken glass.
“Let’s try.” Her fingers threaded through his long hair, forcing his head back ever so slightly. She leaned in and brushed her lips against his like a breath of wind, then her tongue teased the seam of his lips.
He opened his mouth against hers, one hand running up her back to cup the nape of her neck as he savored the kiss. Still, a part of him held back. He murmured against her lips, “I won’t be able to stop once I start.”
She rocked forward on top of his erection, then back again before sliding one hand down his shoulder and over his hip. Her fingers dipped inside the waistband of his pants, brushing the tip of his throbbing cock. He sucked a breath through his nose, trying with every ounce of strength to control himself. Her hand moved deeper, fingers sliding down his shaft, cupping his ball
s. He stiffened, unable to breathe as he hardened to the point of pain. His chest burned and his vision hazed. Never had anyone touched him like this.
With a growl, he lifted her off his lap and laid her back on the floor. In the blink of an eye, he’d torn her tunic down the front, exposing the bindings around her breasts. Her nipples poked hard and sharp through the layered fabric. He yanked the binding free, lowering his head to one nipple. The hardened peak against his tongue was ecstasy. A gasp escaped her lips and she arched into him, nearly toppling him over the edge. He ran his tongue over the silken mound of flesh, nipping and suckling until he reached the other. There, he drew the nipple hard between his lips and she cried out, her fingers digging into his shoulder blades.
His cock throbbed painfully against his pants, but he knew the moment he exposed himself, all would be lost. Instead, he grabbed hold of her waistband, tugging the clothing over her hips to expose her downy sex.
He could have cried with joy. The beauty of her olive skin, the perfect V of curls, the scent of arousal reaching his nostrils was like a taste of heaven. Ellam Cua, he’d heard his men speak of tasting a woman. He was going to more than taste. He was going to devour her. He yanked her legs free and flung her pants aside before sliding his hands beneath her knees. Drawing her legs up and apart, he dove into her warm center like a man who’d found an oasis in the desert. She was as savory as honey. He lapped at her folds, her fingers threading into his hair while he stroked his thumbs along the creases of her thighs and feasted.
She moaned, a song that soared through his bloodstream like a drug.
Grabbing hold of the nub of her clit with his lips, he suckled, teasing until she was swollen and throbbing. Her slickness filled his senses. He wanted to feel every part of her. To make her moan his name as she came around him again and again. Sliding one long finger against her opening, he delved inside.
She bucked against him. “Kashatok!”
His name on her lips was like a prayer. He delved again, and she widened her legs, giving him access to the ridges within her. Her essence coated his hand, filled him with a pleasure he’d only imagined for over fifteen years. Everything was so much better than he remembered. He added a second finger, stroking in and out while he circled her clit with his tongue. He could smell her arousal reaching its peak. Feel her tightening around his fingers. There was nothing in the galaxy better than this, and he’d denied himself too long.