Kaiden

by Vivienne Savage

  “Nisrine?” he called through the door. “Have a moment?”

  “Come on in.”

  The stateroom was sparse, but comfortable. The only thing missing was a viewport, though Kaiden surmised it was a security measure. Nisrine sat at a narrow desk, hair wet and a towel wrapped around her. The sight of her like that was fire to his blood, sending a brief throb of interest to his dick.

  “I wanted to check on you.” Their tender night of kisses and intimacy seemed to have happened years ago, dulled by the horrors they faced now.

  “Sorry, I was running some searches and got distracted.” She pushed back her chair and stood. “I’ll get dressed and we can talk.”

  “No, no.” He smiled, and with greater willpower than it required to turn off his cybervision, he kept his eyes above her shoulders. It didn’t do any good, his cock taking the presence of a woman—of the woman he’d come to adore more than his own safety—as a reason to rise to half-mast. Hard enough to be an annoyance, but not so stiff he tented his suit. “Just a check in, as I said. You’re all right, then?”

  “As best I can be given the circumstances. How’s your jaw? That thug nailed you pretty good.”

  Kaiden raised a hand to his face. He’d seen it in the mirror after his shower and it was already purple. If the rest of him healed as quickly as he expected, it would be fading by morning.

  “It looks worse than it feels, I promise. I’ll let you get some rest.”

  “Where are you going?” Nisrine asked.

  “To my cot.”

  “You could stay here,” she offered, hesitant. “If you want to, I mean. Evie wouldn’t mind.”

  “I didn’t want to assume. A lot happens when a man and woman work as closely as we have during a mission.” And when the topic hadn’t come up again, he’d assumed her interests had changed.

  Her spine stiffened. “I don’t make a habit of fucking my partners.”

  Shit. “I didn’t mean to imply that, Nissie.”

  She gave a tight nod, shoulders relaxing. “I am extending the offer, but whatever makes you comfortable is best.”

  In a step, he bridged the gap between them and curved his arm around the small of her back. She felt slim in his embrace, just a towel and his flight suit separating them. Perfect.

  “Then I’m accepting the offer.” He kissed her, slow and unrushed. For those seconds, he allowed the worries of the galaxy to slide from his thoughts, because kissing Nisrine deserved every ounce of his attention. “I don’t know what this is between us, Nissie, but I like it.” His heart hammered against his chest to a frenetic beat. Mouth dry, he forced the words out before he could lose the nerve. “I meant what I said about exploring it once we’re home because… I like being with you, even if we’re goin’ through hell together. I care for you.”

  “I care for you, too,” she whispered against his lips between soft kisses. “And when this is over, that won’t have changed.”

  Nisrine cared for him, too. Those words reverberated through his mind, as pleasurable as they were terrifying, because too many years had passed since a woman cared about him who didn’t have the last name Lockhart.

  Her admission lifted a heavy weight from his chest, and finally he could breathe again.

  Until their lips met in another kiss, and the urge to slide her onto the bed overwhelmed all other senses. His cock twitched again. He ignored it, desperate to behave despite the mounting desire to dive balls deep into her until he forgot all of their troubles.

  Tilting her head back to gaze at him, Nisrine stroked his chest. “Do you have something else to tell me?”

  “Hm?”

  The next caress carried her hand lower, palm gliding over his abs. He shivered beneath her touch and found himself anticipating the path it would take. She didn’t disappoint. Her fingers pressed against his thickening cock, and a smile spread over her face. God, he loved her smiles.

  And he really loved the way she stroked his cock through his clothes, somehow finding the head and teasing it with two fingers until he was close to rock hard. “Was trying not to tackle you into the bed like a raging horndog.”

  “We finally have a quiet moment in a safe place.”

  “Yeah, but I didn’t want you to think sex was all I had on my mind.” He paused a beat. “Even if it is. I think of being inside you again and I go a little crazy inside.”

  “I don’t think I’ve ever driven a man crazy before.”

  “Then they were stupid, lass. And you…” He groaned, her fingers making another pass up and down his stiff length. “You’re just being an evil tease right now.”

  “Who’s teasing? I’ll gladly make love to you in this stateroom, Kai, whether someone hears us or not, but there’s one thing I want to do more right now.”

  Make love. Two words he’d never used related to sex.

  Before he realized what she was doing, Nisrine unfastened his suit and slid down to her knees in front of him, towel still wrapped around her gorgeous body. She took his cock out and ran her fingers down the hard length.

  “I want you to enjoy this.” Her gaze fixed on his, unwavering and so fucking bold, something sensual simmered like electrical current between them.

  Her kisses were light and playful at first, like an appetizer delivered before the main course. Kaiden dragged in a deep breath and prepared himself, recognizing the sparkle in her determined eyes.

  Then she licked his cock, tongue sliding on an exploratory path from the base to the tip. When her slick tongue delivered the next stroke, his shaft throbbed in excitement. One after the next she tasted him, savored it, leaving him glistening and watching her with mounting excitement. His girl had one hell of a talented mouth, as skilled as the rest of her body, and he had to fight an internal battle to hold on and not prematurely blow.

  Because it’d be a fucking crime to come that early.

  Her lips closed in a gentle circle just below the crown, her cheeks hollowed in suction, and he stumbled a step, forced to grip the edge of the desk beside them.

  “Fuck.”

  It was like she’d pulled his fantasy right from his head. Hell, maybe she had. The only thing missing was red lipstick. Her hot mouth eased over him to the base, devouring every damned inch until his eyes practically rolled in his head, and the world around him shimmered in a lightheaded blur.

  Nisrine knew how to deepthroat. It felt criminal that so much time had passed on the RV without him knowing this.

  “You’re killing me, baby. Killing me.”

  She stroked his thighs, slid back, and let every inch slip from her lips until she released him with an audible pop. Kaiden shuddered, because something told him she wasn’t done with him. Not yet.

  “Take your suit off.”

  He’d never stripped so fast in his life, positive he even ripped a couple seams in his haste. Still wet with her saliva, his erection swayed and bobbed with his movements while he stood before her kneeling body. Nisrine slid one hand between her thighs beneath the towel and touched what he couldn’t see, stroking herself.

  His mouth watered at the memory of her taste and how much he wanted to dive inside her. Before he could wonder for long over what he wanted wrapped around him more, her lips or her pussy, she answered the question for him and tongued the underside of his shaft before nibbling the magical little spot right below his cockhead. An ounce of suction tightened his balls, and his length ached like he’d never had a blowjob before. With the way she worked him over, all others before it ceased to exist.

  All the while, she never stopped touching herself, the quickening movements of her hand allowing him teasing peeks as the towel shifted. He wanted his fingers down there, but he’d be damned if he didn’t enjoy the show she provided. His attention kept shifting between her lips stretched around his cock and her thighs.

  Kaiden fisted his fingers in her hair. “Nissie, I’m going to—Baby, I can’t hold it.”

  She made a little humming sound and nudged forward until h
er nose pressed against the dark curls at his base and she’d taken his shaft into her throat. The vibrations pushed him over the edge and shattered his control.

  Then he was thrusting wildly, driven crazy from pleasure and need. In seconds, the wet heat of her mouth took him to heaven, ripping the sound of her name from him in a hoarse cry. He came harder than he ever had before, slamming deep and spilling one hot stream after the next while Nisrine hungrily swallowed each drop.

  The moment his brain regained functionality, Kaiden swept her from the floor and tossed her on the bed. Nisrine bounced when she hit the mattress, laughing. As much as he enjoyed the sound, what he wanted to hear most of all was the cry of his name. To make her scream it until every soul on the ship knew she was his and his alone.

  And he’d start by returning the favor she’d so generously given him.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Nothing brought royal marines and medics together like a galaxy-wide emergency, so almost all members of the ground assault squad were present in the Jemison’s cafe. And Gareth’s sole objective was to get fucking smashed, regardless of the company speculating over coffee and hard liquor about the future of the ship.

  Thandie had come up with the idea of bringing them together for some brotherly camaraderie. She’d probably hoped a stiff drink and the planned movie night in the lounge would distract him from his brother’s dilemma, but no amount of whiskey could ease his worries about Kaiden.

  Still, he appreciated the inclusion—that the group saw him as one of them. Originally, he’d filled in for another comm specialist, but he’d ended up accepting a permanent role and joining their mandatory training sessions under Viljoen and Xander’s instruction.

  It helped that he was a psychic, of course. Every ground assault squad needed at least one, and he was the best on the ship these days after surpassing Nisrine in the recent tests.

  Gareth had never expected to ascend to the next level of psionic prowess, especially after his brother went missing and he’d slid back to the B-class, but Oshiro and Xander were positive he’d achieved maximum human potential. He wasn’t just the strongest psychic on their ship—he’d soon be competing for the title of strongest human psychic in the galaxy.

  God. All that power and he couldn’t reach his brother. It seemed unfair. He’d tried at least, one desperate night two evenings past, but it hadn’t happened, and he’d received no response. Refusing to dwell on it, he raised his fifth shot to his lips and savored the sweet harmony of liquor. Damn, it felt good to get wasted on the ship instead of shambling back aboard in the middle of the night.

  Since psychics burned through booze and calories like gasoline on fire, he’d need a few more before he was pleasantly numbed.

  “Keep ’em comin’, Doc.”

  Xander had mixed together three enormous pitchers of the potent concoction, a combination of 150-proof Scottish whiskey, peach liqueur, and sours. By some sort of strange sorcery, the stuff didn’t taste anything like alcohol.

  “Where the hell did you get the recipe for this?” Viljoen asked. The commander wasn’t exactly a bestie with anyone present, but he’d taken the stick out of his ass sometime after Kaiden’s big rescue a couple years ago.

  Xander grinned. “Oshiro. Back when I was still a kid, he’d mix a pitcher of this shit when I was home from deployment. Said it was an old, old Earth recipe he stumbled over one day while reading.”

  “Stumbled,” Thandie said. “Knowing Doc O as I do now, he probably went looking for it. Not that I’m complaining, this stuff is great.”

  “A little too great,” Elizabeth said, a slight slur in her voice. The nurse medic had traded her drink for a glass of sparkling water. She set her blonde head on her arms atop the table and moaned.

  The marine sitting beside her snort-laughed. “Don’t blame the drink because you’re a lightweight, Fairchild.” Abernathy tossed back his shot and slid the glass forward for another. The big guy could have probably sucked down a dozen.

  Gareth glanced at the older woman behind the bar. She’d managed the cafe and its bar for years since he’d first been assigned to the ship, a genuine sweetheart. “Real nice of Stephanie to just open up the liquor locker like this.”

  “Without security systems online or Jem present to monitor everything, official records can be fudged. Data lost.” Xander raised his fingers for air quotes.

  “Besides, we’re all up shit creek anyway, so what’d adding a little drunkenness do to the list of things?” Viljoen raised his glass and they all followed suit.

  The lights flashed blue, held a split section, then pulsed gold. Gareth snapped his head up toward the ceiling to observe the subtle transition to a red and white pattern.

  “Why are the ship’s lights flashing?” Thandie asked. “Or am I that drunk I’m imagining this?”

  Xander tilted his head up to watch the light show. “Maybe it’s because they’ve taken Jem offline?”

  “We’ve been without A.I. support before,” Elizabeth pointed out. “And Jem has been offline for days.”

  Viljoen shrugged. “Maybe some shit short-circuited when the fuckers took her down?”

  Gareth shushed them. “Let me concentrate.”

  The group quieted.

  Purple. Blue. Green. Pulse. Pulse. Blue. He watched and took notes in shorthand on his datapad. Within minutes, the message relayed through the electrical lighting system was clear. Kaiden looped it to continuously repeat.

  Framed. Queen in imminent danger. Trust no one. High Command involved. Admiral complicit.

  It couldn’t be anyone but his brother.

  “It’s Kaiden. I don’t know how he did it, but he’s hacked the ship’s systems. He’s sending a message.”

  For days, he’d feared the worst outcome of his brother’s mission, and with one message, the weight lifted away. He sagged in relief and let the tension drain from him. Kaiden was alive. Then the severity of the message hit him and he bolted from his seat.

  Gareth rushed away from the bewildered group. The colorful light show carried throughout the ship and had everyone looking up, asking questions. Shoving past the gawkers, he took the lift up, raced down the corridor, and burst onto the bridge.

  “The bloody hell is happening with our lights,” Ethan’s dark mutter carried across the room. “Call support and—”

  “Commodore!”

  “Lockhart, the whole damn ship is on the fritz.”

  “No, sir, it’s not.” After he took Ethan aside for privacy, he lowered his voice. “It’s a message, sir. From Kaiden.”

  Ethan’s irritation vanished in an instant. He gestured for Gareth to follow and led the way into the briefing room.

  “Can you guarantee we aren’t under surveillance from the outside?” Ethan asked.

  “Positive. I’ve run every sweep possible for bugs.”

  “Good. Now report.”

  “You aren’t going to like what it says.”

  After he relayed the contents of the message to Ethan, the commodore’s features darkened. He swore and clenched his jaw before running a hand over his close-cropped hair. “We’re helpless. There isn’t anything we can do at the moment to help her. We could make the necessary report, but with high command involved, they’ll demand proof we can’t provide. If we’re to trust no one, how can we help?”

  The rhetorical question was obvious, so Gareth waited while Ethan paced back and forth and thought the matter over. The CO came to a stop and snapped his gaze toward him.

  “Gareth, can you get the Jemison back online?”

  “I’d have to perform an illegal override and crawl into Jem’s core to manually reset her.”

  “Do it. I want full capabilities and the engine up and running. We’ll make a ship-wide announcement and you can grab whoever you need to assist you. Take along someone you can trust.”

  “Nah. I don’t need help to bring Jem online. It’ll be a piece of cake.”

  “Good, but first, we need to gather the crew.”
Ethan turned away from him and dialed into the comm system. His announcement reached every corner of the ship, echoing across each stateroom and dorm. “All hands to the hangar bay.”

  Ten minutes later, every living soul still aboard the Jemison had gathered as directed. Gareth stood off to the side and watched as Ethan climbed up on the wing of a shuttle to stand above them in full view. Low murmurs and quiet talk created a hum of sound that filled the hangar bay.

  The tension in the air was palpable. Gareth didn’t even have to focus to sense the emotion filling the room. People were scared, some of them angry. Waves of uncertainty clashed with pulses of resolve and trust.

  “Listen up.” Ethan’s voice boomed across the open space and brought immediate silence. “We have been called into action. I know many of you are wondering why we’re on lockdown, and some of you may have heard rumors already. Two members of our crew have been framed for the attempted assassination of the queen while the true perpetrators walk free. This can’t be allowed to happen.”

  “If Lockhart and Shahid didn’t do it, who did?” a small, mousy-haired electrical engineer asked.

  “High Command is involved. I trust Kaiden Lockhart, and I believe in the lieutenant. We’ve received critical intel from both of them that another attack on the queen will take place soon.”

  “Shit,” someone mumbled in the crowd.

  Ethan nodded, solemn. “Indeed.”

  The same girl spoke up. “Why waste time telling us? We need to report this to—”

  Another crewman interrupted her. “To who? If High Command is tangled in this mess, no one will believe him.”

  A low hum filled the room, the murmur of many voices discussing the revelation among themselves. Faces filled with doubt and disbelief speckled the crowd, mixed with an overwhelming surge of anger.

  Commander Viljoen spoke the blessed words Gareth wanted to hear. “Then we need to get out there and do it ourselves, somehow.”

  “What are we going to do? We’re in lockdown,” Elizabeth pointed out.

  “Chief Lockhart believes he can reboot Jem’s system. By removing the Jemison from dry dock, we’ll be committing an act of treason. I am not going to force any of you to help. There will be no repercussions from me or anyone on this crew if you want to sit this one out. Once we’re in orbit, anyone who wishes to remain behind will be able to take the escape pods. You can remain in the hangar without shame, but you have to make the decision now. Once we start this, there’s no turning back.”