Surrendering to him.
Her sex clenched and stretched around him, achingly sensitive from her last climax. She lifted to meet each long, hard thrust, his hips pumping to work deeper and deeper.
Groaning, he hooked her legs over his forearms and they both cried out at the change in angle.
“Kaela,” he murmured, burying his face in the crook of her shoulder, driving into her harder. “I can’t…” he trailed off, his breath rushing across her skin. “Fuck—”
She arched into the pleasure that exploded inside her, his answering groan as the hot walls gripped him tighter, following hers. Still he didn’t let up, rocking into her as though he didn’t dare stop.
And she didn’t want him to, didn’t want it to ever end.
CHAPTER EIGHT
“I need a drink.” Maybe two. Half a dozen would be better. She might stand half a chance then of finding the strength to pretend what just happened hadn’t knocked every sexual benchmark right into the stratosphere.
She also needed to get dressed, which unfortunately involved getting up and untangling herself from Lorcan. The sheet was lost somewhere below her hip and bunched between her back and her thighs, held in place where he’d thrown his leg over hers. She resisted the urge to snuggle closer, knowing that would make it harder to forget how good it felt to be this close to him.
“Wait here.” Lorcan dropped a kiss on her shoulder and rose from the bed.
Her smile turned into a frown when he snagged his pants off the floor, denying her the fantastic view of his ass. Tugging the sheet to her breasts, she sat up, trying hard not to think about anything but the gala they would attend in just over an hour.
Across the room, Lorcan poured them each something cold to drink. If the man looked half as good for tonight’s event as he had during the banquet on the passenger cruiser she might have a serious distraction issue.
“Here you go.” He offered her a small glass, sipping from his own as he sat on the edge of the bed.
She stared into the glass, making up her mind.
“Something wrong?”
Kaela shook her head, taking a long drink of the cold tea, savoring the rich peach flavor. “For a while now the Dominion has been trying to get a handle on the Battalia’s production and distribution of crystalline. It’s believed Varek has become one of the middlemen.”
“You’re here to catch him in the act.”
“Not exactly. He’s not stupid enough to use his home turf to mediate the deals and shipments.” They couldn’t be that lucky. She rubbed her hand across her hip and the scar Lorcan had become preoccupied with. “The day I got this, I learned that Varek was using a senior Dominion officer to make sure no patrols were anywhere in the vicinity of the transfer points.”
“But you don’t know who?”
“No, but whoever it is should be here tonight.”
He frowned. “So you’re not here to bust Varek?”
“No. The Dominion is making sure they have irrefutable proof before making their move. They need to nail him in the process or directly after money or crystalline has changed hands. Right now the primary objective is to identify the traitor in our midst and turn them over for interrogation.”
Lorcan finished off his tea and held his hand out for hers.
She quickly drained the contents, handing it back to him. The second she released the glass, her fingertips began to tingle.
Shit.
Her gaze snapped from her empty glass to Lorcan’s face.
He stood a few feet away, what almost passed for regret darkening his eyes. “I can’t risk what I came here to do, Kaela. I wish there was another way.”
Whatever drug he’d slipped into her drink was already buzzing under her skin. Sonofabitch. She tried voicing that particular thought, but her tongue felt too thick in her mouth, her vision growing fuzzy at the edges.
She struggled out of bed. Her knees buckled the moment her feet touched the floor, but Lorcan caught her before she hit the ground. Her arms dangled at her sides, too weighed down by the drug to be of any help. Stuffed dolls had a better range of motion than she did at the moment, and the harder she tried to make her limbs cooperate the more sluggish they felt.
The dry taste of cinnamon on her tongue gave her no real comfort. The longer she fought the heavy veil blanketing her mind, the more likely she’d begin to hallucinate, one of Cynergy’s predominant side effects.
And the psychedelic butterfly sitting on Lorcan’s shoulder was not a good sign at all.
He laid her back on the bed and brushed the hair back from her face. She would have gleefully broken his fingers if she could, and if she wasn’t preoccupied with the ever-changing design on the butterfly’s wings.
“Don’t fight it.”
She glared at him, but doubted her heavy-lidded gaze came across all that threatening. The three butterflies chilling out on his shoulder could probably do more damage than she could. Correction, three butterflies and one wicked-looking pink mouse.
Fuck.
* * *
“And this just keeps getting better and better.”
Lorcan scowled at Zypher who just grinned at him from the other side of the bed.
Kaela lay out cold on the mattress wearing the short black skirt and strapless top he’d quickly dressed her in. Rather modest by slave fashion standards, but he doubted she would have appreciated any more of the geometric-shaped outfits that excelled at showing off every tantalizing curve.
Staying focused tonight would be hard enough knowing how furious she’d be when she woke up. He didn’t need the added distraction of easy-to-remove triangles, circles or squares. He’d be lucky if she came to without the desire to see him thrown in front of a pod cruiser, never mind looking to crawl back into his bed.
“I hope she kicks your ass,” Zoe muttered, tucking her fusion pistol into a holster at the small of her back. Her sea-green gown—just transparent enough to make Lorcan avoid looking at her for any length of time—fell in gathered folds down the center of her back, effectively masking her weapon.
“She could probably take you,” Zypher mused.
“Whose side are you two on?” Lorcan growled.
Zoe shrugged, flopping back in the chair she’d dragged over to the bed after Lorcan had shown up at their door with an unconscious sentinel in his arms.
“We can’t risk her trying to go off half-cocked in the middle of this.” He didn’t have a clue whose benefit he said it for.
Kaela was probably dreaming about winged horses or fucked-up teddy bears—he had the one and only time he’d been jacked up on Cynergy. Only the intent then had been to stave off infection from a spider bite. Zoe was too busy looking annoyed about the change in plan to pay attention to any argument defending his actions, and Zypher—
“Hey,” Lorcan snapped.
Zypher frowned, but didn’t meet his gaze.
“I still don’t see why I get stuck with babysitting duty.” Zoe crossed her arms, accentuating the cleavage Lorcan caught Zypher pretending not to stare at. “I’d be much better mingling at the gala and keeping an eye out for trouble.”
As far as Lorcan was concerned, Kaela was all the trouble he could handle at the moment. They’d planned every angle of tonight’s theft forward and backward, targeting the rarest of the post-Exodus pieces they’d uncovered before Varek crossed the line.
That the jade pendant encrusted with hundreds of diamonds also happened to be the very piece Erik had dug out of the side of the crater made it that much more important not to screw this up.
Lorcan had been careful not to let his anger over the loss of his friend interfere with the job. Something he might not have been able to manage without the added distraction of pinning down his feelings for Kaela. If he could just take a damn breath without feeling like steel vines were tightening across his chest, he’d be doing fine.
“We need to go.” Zypher headed for the door.
Tearing his eyes away from the sleeping s
entinel, he paused. “If anything goes wrong…” Lorcan began.
“It won’t.” Failure wasn’t an option tonight and Zoe’s vehement tone didn’t let him forget that.
They’d coded their transmitters earlier, enabling them to keep in contact as the evening progressed. With nothing left to say, he followed Zypher outside, giving the door one last thoughtful look before falling into step with his friend.
Zypher slanted him a curious look. “How bad?”
Lorcan knew without asking that he was talking about Kaela, and “bad” fell light-years short of an accurate description. Bad would have captured the state of his increasing attraction after what happened in the merchant’s shop. Disastrous would have hit the mark somewhere around the time he’d had her against the wall in his quarters on the passenger cruiser.
An hour ago he’d surpassed doomed at speeds that shocked the hell out of him.
“That bad,” Zypher guessed, his expression grim at Lorcan’s heavy silence.
“Could be worse.”
His friend arched a brow. “Oh yeah?”
He nodded. “I could be attracted to my best friend’s sister.”
To Zypher’s credit, his steps didn’t falter and his eyes gave away nothing. “Zoe is off limits.” And if he had sounded halfway convincing, Lorcan might have actually believed him.
* * *
Butterflies had to be the prettiest things, Kaela mused, discovering two sitting on her toes when she pried her eyes open. Except for their antennae. The twitching black feelers cast a reddish shadow that gave the colorful insects a sinister edge.
Fuck, did one of them just wink at her?
Hallucinations. There was no other explanation. The brittle flavor of cinnamon coated her tongue as she tried to pull her thoughts together. Focusing her tangled brain mass took effort, effort continually sabotaged by the flash of color that kept darting across her peripheral vision.
Cinnamon and fucking butterflies. She scrambled backward, biting back the nausea that burned up her throat, her stomach churning. She gritted her teeth until the queasiness passed, the world around her still fuzzy and washed out.
Something furry brushed her ankle and she tensed at the sight of the pink mouse sitting by her feet. Not real, she reminded herself, closing her eyes. Deep breath. Deep breath. Deep…
The mouse was gone when she opened her eyes, letting her assess her situation more objectively. Objectively but for the two butterflies that fluttered just beyond her direct line of sight. Dismissing them, she sat up and discovered the restraints locking her wrists together.
Lorcan.
Anger shot through her veins, giving her a little added focus. The bastard had drugged her. Drugged her and left her. She shook her head. One thing at a time. She needed the lavatory.
Prepared to get up close and personal with the stone floor, she slid off the bed. More like wiggled since her limbs still felt clumsy and worthless.
Surprised that she managed to stay upright, Kaela weaved toward the lavatory, slowly. Without a doubt she’d still be unconscious if not for her exposure to Cynergy as part of her resistance training.
The Dominion’s questionable practice of exposing their sentinels to small doses of drugs that could be used against them was a definite advantage from where Kaela stood. If that’s what you could call shuffling across the floor, tilting to the side and trying hard to ignore the two butterflies and their twitching antennae.
Her hands shook as she jerked on the cabinet door in the lavatory, scanning the contents inside. She nearly missed the small blue bottle and dropped it twice before she sank to the floor.
It took three tries to get it open, one try to convince herself that drinking the bottle of synthesized alcohol was absolutely necessary to help counteract the drug, and two tries to bring the bottle to her lips. The foul smell of it alone cramped her stomach but she tossed it back, cringing at both the taste and the damn pink mouse that faded in and out.
Kaela gave the alcohol two minutes to kick in and then she dragged herself to her feet, reassured by her increased coordination. The lack of butterflies was clearly a plus. She knew the counter effect wouldn’t last long, but would hopefully give her enough time to reach the gala, preferably in time to spot the Dominion traitor mingling with Varek.
She’d worry about Lorcan later. Having lost almost two hours, she didn’t have time to think about being dumped in an unfamiliar room and abandoned.
By the time she got the restraints off, she headed for the perimeter of the villa. Picking out the security detail wasn’t hard. Luring one into the shadows between two maintenance buildings took even less effort. A few calculated stumbles, a lot of coy smiles and seemingly intoxicated ramblings about being lonely landed her a burly guy dressed all in black. With little encouragement, he holstered his weapon to get his hands on her.
She didn’t try to save him from dropping hard to the ground when he fell victim to the same maneuver she’d used on Lorcan. Quickly, she searched his pockets, grinning when she encountered the slim compact.
In under twenty seconds she ripped a strip of material off her skirt and rubbed it first in the slick alloy that powered the compact AI unit, and then beneath the man’s nose, leaving a thick layer of the substance on his skin.
Satisfied the subtle fumes would keep him out for a while, she retrieved his fusion pistol and tucked it at the small of her back. The black shirt Lorcan had chosen for her made the weapon less obvious, but anyone looking too long at her would get curious.
Snatching up the compact AI unit, she pressed the man’s thumb over the sensor, gaining access to the device. As ready as she’d ever be, she made her way to the main hall.
Music rose on the cool desert air, people filtering toward and away from the celebration in both pairs and large groups. She merged with a trio heading inside, blending in as best as she could to avoid any added scrutiny from the obvious security people stationed near the main entrance. Normally the large crowd wouldn’t have worried her. Seeing as she was working with borrowed time, the sheer volume of partygoers would slow her down considerably.
Vantage point, she thought, slowly threading through the crowd in the direction of the sprawling staircase leading to the second floor. Her energy was already waning by the time she reached the second-floor landing and took up position near one of the small pockets of guests chatting along the sculpted railing that ran the length of the room.
Sipping from a glass of wine, she surveyed the room below, the compact AI ready to capture anything of interest. Minutes later, a flash of red hair caught her attention, and Kaela’s gaze followed Zoe through the crowd, wondering if the other woman was searching for Lorcan.
Don’t go there, she warned herself, banishing the memory of coming apart beneath him, her arms locked around his neck as though she’d never let him go. She needed to focus on what she could control, not what she’d surrendered to a man who had ditched her like the expendable slave she was to him.
Zoe moved toward the corner closest to the terrace leading outside, stopping at a small group of men. Kaela’s pulse quickened as she easily picked out Varek and a prominent Battalian commander with him. A third man had his back to her but appeared as riveted as the other two by whatever Zoe was saying.
And just what was the woman telling them? Was this part of Lorcan’s plan or something else altogether?
Varek tensed and he jerked his head at one of his men who seemed to emerge from the woodwork. The small group began making their way to the staircase. Kaela eased back along the wall, tracking their progress, something familiar about the third man whose face she couldn’t see clearly—
Caplan?
* * *
More than once Lorcan had to force his attention back to breaching the vault.
Thinking about how he’d blown Kaela’s trust all to hell by drugging her was getting him exactly nowhere. Although he hadn’t anticipated the unexpected show of trust when she finally admitted her interest in Varek,
he couldn’t let it influence his game plan. He’d come here to get the pendant back and he wasn’t leaving without it.
So why, then, couldn’t he stop wondering how he could make it up to her?
“Something’s not right.”
Lorcan tensed at the soft warning that echoed in his ears, seconds away from accessing the vault containing the jade pendant.
“Zoe’s not responding,” Zypher continued. “And the hired muscle are scrambling. We need to go. Now.”
Twenty seconds. That’s all he needed. A few more seconds to unscramble the last biomed signature… The whoosh of the air seal made him grin. He quickly slipped the pendant into the cloth bag and tucked it into his pocket.
He had the vault closed and was halfway across the room when Zypher came through the door, weapon drawn. “We’ve got a serious problem.”
“I would say so, gentlemen.”
Lorcan whirled at the voice behind him, his hand halfway to his own weapon as five men filed into the room from the rear entrance that connected to Varek’s offices. Zypher brought his fusion pistol up, his aim faltering as the two of them spotted Zoe standing between Varek and the four armed men who fanned out around him.
Shit.
“Imagine my surprise,” the former quadrant chancellor continued, “to hear I was in the midst of being robbed.”
Lorcan’s gaze snapped to Zoe, who didn’t take her eyes off Varek for a moment.
“What the fuck did you do?” The deadly accusation in Zypher’s voice made Lorcan’s blood run cold.
Zoe squared her shoulders, her tone as uncompromising as Zypher’s. “What I had to.”
Lorcan couldn’t begin to guess what she meant or how he could have anticipated something like this. Hell, he’d known Zoe for nearly five years and would have pegged her as the last one to ever sell them out.
So where in the hell was this coming from? A question he’d have to find an answer for once the immediate threat was addressed—namely the four guys with their weapons trained on him and Zypher.
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