Baffled, Michael cast a curious gaze to Jace.
“Thank you, Captain Lawless. That means the challenge Michael offers to you now falls to me.” Kraft peered up at Michael.
“I offered to him, not you.”
“I just commandeered his ship.”
Michael snapped his fingers and pointed at Jace. “Put him in lock down.”
Jace didn’t fight as he was taken away, but he looked back over his shoulder at her, and she nodded—she’d told him to expect this. Her heart swelled with pride that he trusted her enough to let her take the lead, but her heart broke that she’d lied to him. As she watched the guards drag him away, she wished she’d kissed him goodbye last night.
Michael ordered the rest of the guard to leave. Once they were alone, he eyed her shrewdly. “Your plan won’t succeed. I will not fight you, and I will not let you go. If you refuse me, I will torture him to death while I make you watch.”
Kraft didn’t flinch. She’d known this was coming too. “If you harm him in any way, I’ll kill you.”
Michael flared at the threat.
“If you let him leave, I’ll stay.”
Surprise widened Michael’s golden-brown eyes. “You were playing him.” He stepped close.
She nodded reluctantly. “I had to. He refuses to leave without me. Now that I have command of his ship, he’ll have no choice.”
“You know I can’t let him go. He knows what I look like.”
“No matter how much money was involved, Jace wouldn’t turn a sketch of you over to the IWOG. He hates them more than he could ever hate you.”
Michael flashed her a dubious frown.
“Jace is from Tyaa.” She knew that explained everything. Rather than declaring war on the agricultural world, the IWOG unleashed a devastating virus. “The IWOG killed his wife and his three children. Do you really think he’d do anything to help them?”
With a grimace, Michael shook his head. “I’ll let him go if you stay.”
“I’ll stay.” She would stay until she knew Jace was safely away and then she would escape.
Michael smiled with triumph, grasped her shoulders and pulled her close. After a deep breath he stepped back as if burned. Shock then fury twisted his face.
“You love him. I can smell it.”
Her heart lurched. Now that Michael understood the depth of her feelings for Jace, she had no idea what he would do.
“I still can’t believe he just let us go.” Jace sat at the galley table. “Especially after buying all the goods at a fair price.”
Kraft nodded as she cleaned up the dinner dishes. She didn’t feel like talking, especially not about what had happened on Windmere.
“What did he say to you before we left?” Jace asked.
“It’s really not important.” She secured the pans behind the locking galley doors.
“I still want to know.”
Kraft paraphrased it. “Michael said it wouldn’t be long before I figured out how weak you are. That once I did, I would return to him.” Michael had been more explicit than that, more brutal than that, but that was the gist of what he said. Michael also realized that since she was in love with Jace, there was no hope of rekindling a romance between them. Defeated, he couldn’t get them off his planet fast enough. Michael never had been one to linger when he clearly couldn’t have his way.
“How weak I am?” Jace asked curiously.
“Michael apparently still operates under the delusion that might makes right.” She wiped the stove top and counters.
“Doesn’t it?”
“No.”
“You really could have taken him down, couldn’t you?”
Kraft nodded. “Good night, Captain.” She left the galley before he could ask her anything else.
Hours passed. She was settled into her bunk with a paperback when she heard Jace tap twice with his knuckle against her bedroom com.
“May I come in?”
Say no, say no, her mind begged, but her mouth said, “Yes.”
He wore that battered green shirt, the one that matched his eyes, and simple cut flax trousers. He looked scrumptious.
“What do you want, Captain?” She set the book aside.
“You.”
It took all her will not to react on the outside, but her heart pounded triple time in her chest. He had no idea how her feelings for him had changed, and she was determined that he would never find out. As she’d said in the galley, love was a dangerous thing on a ship. Loving Jace made her far too vulnerable. Walking away would be difficult enough with her heart broken. She didn’t need to break his too.
Jace leaned casually against the wall. “You could have taken Michael down. You could level me. Yet you said I could compel you to my bunk by your own honor.”
Swallowing down every carnal need in her body, Kraft boldly returned, “Is that what you want, Captain? Me in your bunk by my honor?”
He considered her question for a long time. His quiet speculation caused her nipples to tighten below her lacy bra and clinging shirt. That he noticed her reaction but didn’t blush or turn away made her flush ever so slightly. After the longest time, he said, “I want you there because I think you want to be there.”
“Just because I want something doesn’t mean it’s a good idea.”
Jace considered again then nodded. “I didn’t say it was a good idea. Just—an idea. You come to me if you want to. I won’t make you, I won’t compel you, I’m offering. You accept or decline on your own.”
Kraft watched the rolling grace of his big body as he strolled away after telling her in no uncertain terms that all she had to do was just show up at his bedroom door.
“Lord on high, he won’t even make me ask.”
Chapter Twenty
Two days later, Kraft waited by the door of Jace’s bunk. She wore all of her gear but her boots. She’d spilled water on them and they were drying out in her room. So, her feet were bare. She’d also left her bra off, but didn’t want to think about why, so she didn’t.
When he came down the hall she quietly said, “I guess you know what I want to talk to you about.”
Jace tapped the com and opened his bedroom door. “You want to flirt with me some more?” He stepped inside and nodded to her.
She followed him in as if they’d done this a thousand times. His room was sparsely furnished. No pictures or knickknacks detracted her attention from the tidy bunk against the port wall.
“Flirting is fun, isn’t it? But I’m a lady with a plan.” She deliberately kept her tone bright. “I have enough script to start working toward getting another ship. I think it’s best if I do it somewhere else.”
“You know, you’re welcome to stay.” Jace closed the door without looking at her. He perused a clipboard of reports.
“I know.” Kraft hesitated. “That makes it real hard to leave.”
“Is it Heller?”
“No.” She laughed. “He’s like Smug—a mean dog I knew back when—just gotta show him who’s boss. Heller’s not the reason.” She dropped her flippant tone. “Your ship feels more and more like home every day. That’s the reason I—you’re the reason I have to go.”
“Me? What have I done?” He cast aside the clipboard of reports he wasn’t really looking at anyway.
“Nothing. Everything.” She met his gaze. “Staying here is like watching my dream die. Honor among thieves is one thing, but a ship can’t have two captains, and I can’t be just a cook.”
“You’ve held on this long.”
“Because I owed you.” She held up her hands to stop him from denying the truth. “I think I’ve more than paid my debt to you. I have to get back to my own life.”
“Maybe this is your life.”
She shook her head. “This is your dance, and I’ve cut in far too much already.”
“Leading or following, you make a mighty fine dance partner.” He smiled grimly once he realized he could not sway her off her chosen path.
&nb
sp; “You once said you wouldn’t make me do anything I didn’t want to.” As soon as she said the words, she wanted to take them back. She’d known why she’d come to his room at night, after everyone else was in bed, without her boots or her bra. “But there’s something I’ve been wanting to do ever since I saw your pretty face at the end of my blade.” She walked forward and mussed his hair. “I’ll bet you thought I was going to kiss you.”
“Wishful thinking on my part, apparently.” He straightened his hair absently.
“Do you want me to?” She knew what she was doing was downright crazy, but she couldn’t stop herself.
He kept his gaze on the floor for the longest time then met her eyes with a guarded expression. “I don’t want you to go.”
“I know. And there’s a part of me that longs to stay. But it’d never work. We’d be fighting all the time. Every time I got put in danger, you’d tussle with it. You’d have a hard time splitting your loyalty between me and the rest of the crew. I’d have a hard time not being in charge. It’s a road you know we can’t go down.”
He nodded with bleak resolution. “I thought you expected your life to be difficult?”
“I’ve got no problem making my life difficult, but I have a big problem making yours so.”
He touched her face. “You are so impossible.”
“Am I?”
“Impossibly strong. Impossibly beautiful. Put your lips on mine, Kraft.”
Never had a man so sweetly inclined her to kiss him. She tilted her head and brushed her lips to his. A chorus of warning bells went off like a klaxon in her brain and she tried to pull back.
Jace danced her into his embrace with firm insistence.
Keeping his lips pressed to hers, he lifted his hand and gently fingered her lips until she opened to his tongue.
Sweeping slow, tender and deliciously erotic, Jace nudged her lips until she gave herself up fully. She kissed him more intimately than any man she’d ever known. Losing herself, feeling the fall in slow motion, she shook herself awake then danced back with a gasp. One kiss. One sweetly seductive kiss and she’d do anything for that way too pretty man.
“Now that was worth waiting for.” She took a deep breath. “And all the more reason I have to go.” She turned to the closed door of his bunk.
“Stay here, tonight, with me.” His voice was soft and plaintive. Gently, he turned her around.
She hesitated even though this was what she’d been after all along. “It’ll only make it harder to walk away.”
“I know.” He reached for her belt of blades. “But didn’t you tell me you have a knack for running down the most onerous road headlong?” He lowered his lips to her ear and breathed, “Blindfolded to boot.”
Fascinated and frightened, she watched him cast her belt of blades aside. Normally, when she desired a man, she just strode right up and asked for what she wanted, but with Jace she felt unsure and awkward.
“I would like it very much, Kraft, if you ran down this road with me headstrong and eyes wide.”
Jace blushed so many times at her ribald comments that she found it entirely fitting it was she who blushed now. Not at what he said, but at the way he looked at her. He gazed at her with such intensity she felt utterly desirable yet vulnerable.
Behind her, less than a quick turn and one step away, was the door to safety. In front of her, looking at her so openly and intently, stood Jace. She knew her life would be much simpler if she ran out his door right now.
Jace hit the com panel to his bunk. The heavy door locked with a thunk.
“You locked the door.” She gulped.
Jace nodded. “If you honestly want me to, I’ll unlock it.”
If she asked him to unlock his bedroom door, this strangely compelling dance would end. If she didn’t, she was about to dance her way down a road that might be fatally disastrous. Or at least extremely painful. Ever practical, she said, “Bailey could tap the com.”
“Not to my room when it’s locked.” Jace shook his head and gave her a slight smile, as if he applauded her effort. “Bailey can talk to me, but he can’t hear me.” Jace leaned close, put his hand to the top button of her shirt. “If you’re in here with me, that means he can’t hear you either.”
“Oh.” For a moment, she didn’t understand why she was so flustered. It wasn’t like she’d never been with a man before, but this was the first time she’d been with a man she loved. Everything was different, more intense, because with Jace, sex actually meant something.
“So, tell me, Kraft, should I touch that button?” He nodded to the com. “Or this?” He nodded to her shirt where his hand hovered.
“Captain, this—”
“Was inevitable.” He unbuttoned her shirt with a slow, deliberate hand as his gaze held hers. A slight smile lifted the corner of his mouth when he discovered she wasn’t wearing a bra.
“I’m your cook.” She offered it up as a last ditch effort to stop what happened between them.
“I thought you were only a passenger now?” He hesitated at the top button of her dextex pants.
“It’ll look bad.”
“Yes, it will look like I’m diddling my cook.” With a twist of his fingers and thumb, he popped the button and grasped the zipper tab.
“Captain, your crew will think—”
“A bunch of things I can’t control.”
He lifted his hand to her chin and slid his fingertips down her neck and between her breasts. His slow, languorous stroke thrummed her body and tightened her nipples.
“You once said you wouldn’t mind a quick dance in my trousers. How would you feel about a long and slow waltz?” He held his hand to her zipper.
“You have no idea what kind of trouble this would cause.”
“I really don’t think we’re going to have a bit of trouble if we do what I have in mind.” He let go of her zipper and unbuttoned his own shirt with that slow, deliberate hand. He shrugged his shoulders and the faded blue homespun fell to the floor behind him.
Black hair that she’d only seen peeking out of his shirt collars now compelled her gaze down. He held his hand to the top of his button-fly trousers.
“Tell me, Kraft. Do we dance this dance or not?”
She stood still, her chest tight with a mixture of desire and confusion. A thousand dreams and fears rushed through her. Eight years of calling her life a dance when it was so frenetic it could be only be called running.
“I’ll follow your lead.” She had much to lose, but more to gain.
“No matter where I twirl you?” He offered a welcoming smile.
“No matter.” She grasped the edge of his fly and popped the top two buttons with one hard yank. Her boldness surprised him, and she offered an apologetic grin. “I’ll try real hard not to step on your toes too much.”
“You lead this dance any time you have the notion to.” Jace slid down the zipper of her pants. He slipped his hand lower, between her legs, pressing his palm against the moist fabric.
Overwhelmed by the rush of pleasure, she rolled into the arc of his arm and squirmed wantonly against his powerful hand. She wanted her pants gone and his strong, thick fingers thrusting deep inside her.
“This dance would be better without all these clothes.” He slipped her unbuttoned shirt off. He brushed his fingertips gently over the swell of her breasts then tugged a turgid peak with forefinger and thumb. As his mouth replaced his hand, he reached for the waistband of her pants.
She felt again at crossroads. If she kept her pants on, nothing more would happen than just a taste of pleasure. He sensed her hesitation and moved back slightly.
“Tell me to stop if that’s what you want.” His eyes were heavy-lidded with longing, but also filled with concern. Even if thwarted lust killed him, Jace would stop if she asked.
His compassion, his genuine desire to please her, stripped away the last of her reluctance. Whatever may come from one night with him, she would gladly pay the consequences.
&
nbsp; Unable to find her voice, she pressed her face to his neck and bit him softly.
Groaning low and deep from his chest, he slipped off her pants and toyed with the top edge of her panties.
“Black lace against your exquisite mocha skin—and what’s this?” Before she could respond, he kissed his way down her belly and knelt on the floor. “A little red bow on a fancy wrapped gift.”
Her smile became an O of surprise when he pressed his mouth against her sex and exhaled a hot, moist breath. Ribbons of need encircled her nerves and she parted her legs to allow him greater access. Through the lace, he nibbled her clit to throbbing intensity. Her eyelids drifted closed and her head went back.
He continued his wicked ministrations until her groans turned to gasps. Lightheaded and close to climax, she trailed her fingers through his silky black hair and cupped the back of his head. With a final teasing bite, he slid his fingers under the elastic and pulled her panties down and off.
Breathless, she waited for what felt like a lifetime, but when he didn’t continue, she forced her eyes open and looked down. He met her gaze, parted her inner thighs, and slipped his tongue between her secret folds. Pleasure consumed her with such intensity her eyes snapped shut and she jerked back. He grasped her hips, steadied her, and twirled his tongue ever faster and bolder.
Burning for release, she tilted her hips and parted her knees. His long, thick fingers swirled against her core, but he made no effort to fill that ever tightening passage. A scream of frustration built in her chest, but before she could bellow out a command, he stood, pressed her against the wall, and thrust his fingers inside her.
Her held-back bellow became a gasp that he swallowed by capturing her mouth with his. He kissed her like the thirstiest man in the Void. Tasting her passion on his lips compelled her to rock against his thrusting hand. She clutched his shoulders, clinging to him, afraid that if she let go she would explode into a million shards.
“Come for me.”
The command in his husky voice pushed her over the edge. Her climax was a rainstorm that swept the desert of her body with a sudden and frightening intensity. Trembling legs couldn’t hold her against the onslaught, but when she faltered, Jace steadied her by holding her and pressing her to the wall.
Thief: Fringe, Book 1 Page 20