He laughed and moved farther into the room, catching her hips as she bent over, his mind speeding onto all sorts of interesting possibilities.
“Why do you assume I’m at fault?”
Turning in his embrace, she placed a hand against his chest, pushing him back a step.
“Because Rian’s the captain and what he says goes, whether we like it or not.” She stepped past him, gathered up the sheets, and took them over to the laundry chute.
“Well, this time I’m not talking about me personally, I’m talking about all of us. Did he tell you the Reidar are likely to attack as soon as we get anywhere near Kasson Three?”
She sighed as she turned back to him. “It wouldn’t be the first time. I’m starting to get immune to it, actually. Why do you think we had to make that emergency landing on Erebus? I know this ship might seem like a junker, but there’s a reason Rian chose her, and that’s because there’s never been another ship designed to outmaneuver and outrun weapon fire like the Nirali class.”
Tannin thought back to some of what he’d read on the ship’s specs. “Because they were used as a supply runner during the Assimilation Wars. I suppose they wouldn’t have been very effective if they were always getting blown out of the sky.”
She walked back toward him, hips swinging, and a heated gleam in her dark blue eyes. “So how long do we have until imminent death?”
He caught her up against him, groaning as she laced her fingers though his hair, nails scraping over his scalp, making him shudder.
“Not long enough. Rian’s expecting me on bridge. I should have been there two minutes ago. He’ll be down here with weapons drawn any second if I’m not.”
Leaning against him, she pulled him down and caught his mouth in a swift, intense kiss, nipping at his lower lip with her teeth. That alone almost made him forget why he couldn’t push her onto the bed and spend the rest of the day naked with her.
The ship’s comm chimed. “Scumrat, get your ass on bridge. We’re launching in ten seconds.” Rian’s voice cut out and Tannin pulled away, blowing out a deep sigh.
He let her go and stepped back with reluctance. “Just remember where we were up to for later.”
“I don’t think I’m likely to forget.” She blew him a kiss as he backed out the door.
No. He wouldn’t be forgetting either. No matter what happened from here on out, his life would never be the same for having known Zahli. She made him want things he couldn’t even think of, especially considering—according to Rian anyway—there was a good chance they were about to be obliterated.
He arrived on the bridge just as the Imojenna lifted off the ground, its heavy-atmosphere engines making the ship shimmy. Rian stood in front of the viewport, arms crossed, feet braced wide, while Lianna sat in the captain’s chair.
“Get set up at the co-pilot’s station,” Rian said without turning, as Tetsu’s landmass shrunk away with rapidly gathering speed.
Tannin dropped into the chair, swiveling it a little as he brought the crystal display to life and navigated the ship’s receiver to make it ready for the data rip. As soon as Rian gave the word, the Imojenna’s subspace binary transfer system would tear a good sized chunk in Kasson Three’s data stream.
“I’m logging our travel plans with the transit gate authorities now,” Lianna reported, but then made an annoyed noise. “Gate authority is telling me Kasson Three’s Gate has been decommissioned because of the black hole. Deemed too dangerous for travel.”
Rian turned from the viewport and went to stand next to her, leaning over to look at the display. “I suspected they might. What’s the closest gate?”
She brought up navs across the viewport showing that region of space. “The nearest gate is in orbit around Chal. It’ll take us a bit over an hour on sublight engines to reach Kasson Three after that.”
Rian straightened. “Take us through, then. You can stand down for now, scumrat.”
“Sure, sounds great.” Just what he wanted. To live at Rian’s beck and call. Leaving the program open and ready just in case, he swiveled back around, but Rian nodded, indicating for him to stay where he was.
“I thought you should know, both the contact who talked with Quaine and your old friend have disappeared.” Rian braced a foot against the bottom of the co-pilot’s console and hooked a hand onto his belt.
Tannin didn’t want to care. He’d cut himself off from that life and had spent too many years hating Quaine—even though he hadn’t been the one who’d murdered Broc. The Reidar had probably found out he’d been talking and had him killed.
Okay, yeah, he did feel bad that his escape and Rian’s poking around in old business might have caused Quaine’s death, especially if he was as much a victim of the Reidar.
“And you’re telling me because…?”
Rian shrugged. “Thought you might be interested. Last report I got said Quaine had decided to head back to Barasa. I haven’t heard anything from my contact since they arrived on your old homeworld.”
“So this contact of yours, we can assume you got them killed, too? What are you going to do about it?”
Rian raised a brow. “Why do you think we should do anything about it? He knew the risks.”
Rian’s callous attitude pissed him off and anger burned through him, making him forget why he should be wary.
“When you say stuff like that, it makes me wonder why I agreed to help you. It makes me think if I got killed, you’d be like oh well. Now where can I get another tech analyst so I can get him slaughtered, too?”
Rian’s lips twitched, but his somber expression didn’t alter. “Keep your pants on, sweetheart. Once we get whatever information we can from Kasson Three, we’ll head to Barasa and see what we can find out.”
Tannin deflated a bit, since that’d been about the last thing he’d expected Rian to say. “Well, okay. Since you’re not going to need me for a while, I’ll finish reading the newsreel I downloaded.”
The captain didn’t say anything else to him as he headed to the galley and dropped onto the couch. Nearly an hour went by before footsteps caught his attention and he looked up to see Zahli cross the common room.
“What are you up to?” he asked as she passed the dining table.
“Somehow, I got roped into making dinner again. Lianna always reminds me of the beef-pot-surprise incident, and next thing I’m agreeing to take on her galley duties for a month.”
She walked up to the couch and took a small leap, landing across his stomach with a knee either side of him. He grunted as he took her weight, catching her hands when she would have groped him in places he usually wouldn’t have argued over, but the common room wasn’t the location to be getting into something like that.
“Right, you’re cooking dinner. Can’t say I’ve ever seen it done quite like this before.”
She leaned toward him, rocking back a little at the same time, sending bursts of starlight sizzling through his veins. “Dinner later. Tannin first.”
Her mouth landed on his, though he may have reached up to meet her; he wasn’t sure by that point. A firestorm erupted, getting him high from the simple pleasure of the slight weight of her body and the movement of her lips and tongue against his.
He clenched his hands almost convulsively on her hips, needing to be inside her. She trailed a line of teasing kisses over his jaw and down his neck, flicking open the top two studs on his shirt.
He swallowed down his desperation. “You should stop. Right now, before this gets out of hand.”
She gave a low laugh, her breath warm against his collarbone.
“Me? I’m not doing anything. You’re holding me down.” She wiggled her hips as if to highlight the tight grip he had on her.
Another stud on his shirt flipped open and she grazed her teeth over his skin, making him groan. “I’m serious, Zahli.”
“I know, you feel very serious.” She undulated against him, a long stroke along the length of his erection and the firestorm turned i
nto a full, white-hot volcano. “Don’t worry, I locked the galley hatch.”
The temptation proved too much. With a growl, he flipped them over, putting her beneath him on the soft couch cushions, then kneeled up to rip his shirt the rest of the way off. Her supple hands came to rest against his chest as he dropped down again. He parted her legs with a knee and shoved his hips up against her. She moaned at the contact of his erection against her center, though clothes still separated them from what he really wanted to be doing.
Her hand slipped around to his back, running up his spine and then down, all the way to his ass, where she dug her fingers in and pulled him harder into her, making him groan.
He kissed her greedily, drinking in every little sigh and moan she made, his hands measuring her sweet curves until they were permanently imprinted on his brain. He felt her tug on his belt buckle, heard the soft clinking as she released the catch, but he couldn’t stop kissing her, couldn’t stop from slipping his arm beneath her lower back and arching her higher toward him.
His fingers found the hem of her T-shirt and slipped under the fabric along the smooth line of her stomach. Cupping her breast, he tugged the edge of her bra to brush a finger over her nipple, drawing out a deep moan from her. He imagined doing the same thing with his tongue and he burned all over—until he felt the cold, blunt end of a gun shoved into the side of his head.
“Make one more move and I’ll blow your goddamn frecking head off.”
Tannin’s breath slammed to a halt, his lungs seizing. Looking up, he met the psychotically pissed off glare of Zahli’s brother, and the nucleon gun got pushed harder against his temple.
Zahli gasped and pulled her T-shirt back down. “Rian—”
“Get off her. Right now.” Rian spoke right over her, his burning gaze never wavering.
Holding his hands out, Tannin climbed off Zahli and backed a couple of steps away from the couch. So much for the bloody door being locked.
“Rian, don’t you dare hurt him.”
Zahli jumped up and put herself between them, making him more terrified that she’d put herself in harm’s way, than the fact Rian seemed about ready to murder him. He grabbed her shoulders and shoved her behind him, holding her there with some difficulty when she tried to get back around him. She might have total confidence in her brother, but he didn’t trust Rian, not when he was this enraged. She could end up caught in the crossfire. And that thought inflated his own anger.
“What is your problem, Sherron?”
Rian’s expression altered so now he looked furious and incredulous. “What’s my problem? I don’t know. Could it be that I just walked in here to find you half naked and all over my goddamn sister?”
“Since I didn’t hear Zahli complaining, I don’t see how that’s any of your business. In fact, I’m pretty sure last time we did this she screamed oh god, yes.”
He winced as Zahli slapped him across his back. Except Rian outdid that by stepping forward and shoving the gun up under his chin, forcing him to tilt his head back.
“Shut your mouth, or I’ll shut if for you.”
“What are you going to do, Rian? Kill an unarmed man just because I touched your sister? You could at least make it a fair fight.”
Rian pulled the gun away and slammed it down on the table. “Fine. You want to fight this out?”
“Hell yeah,” he replied, at the same time Zahli yelled “no!”
Zahli wriggled out of his hold. She scooted in front of him with her back pressed against his chest. “I’m not going to stand here and watch you two fight like brainless idiots. I’m the one who encouraged Tannin. He wanted to follow your stupid frecking rules.”
Rian picked up his gun and shoved it back into his holster, at last seeming to wind down a notch or two. “Yeah, he looked like he was following the rules really well a few minutes ago.”
Tannin couldn’t stop himself from touching her, even under threat of death, because, before he’d quite realized what he was doing, he’d caught her hand, lacing their fingers together. She glanced up at him for a second then returned her gaze to Rian. “This isn’t just some casual affair, so you’re going to have to get used to the idea. I’m sorry you had to find out like this.”
“Actually, I don’t have to get used to the idea.” Rian hooked a thumb into a loop on his weapon’s belt. “One of you is out. I won’t have both of you on the ship anymore.”
Zahli scoffed. “That’s rich. Who are you going to kick out? Tannin, when you’re so desperate for his hacking skills, or your own sister?”
Rian’s lips thinned as his gaze locked on her and it hit Tannin that the captain had already made up his mind. And his decision was going to hurt Zahli.
“I’ll go,” he put in before Rian could say anything stupid. He looked down at Zahli, smoothing a strand of hair from the side of her face. “It’s your home. You’ll always belong here before me.”
Never mind that he had no credits, nowhere to go, and was still wanted by the IPC. But for Zahli he’d do anything, even face the risk of returning to Erebus.
“Actually, it’s not my home.” She looked back at Rian. “Home is on Dalphin, where we grew up. Maybe it’s time I went back. Because that’s what you were going to say, right, Rian? That you’re choosing Tannin and your obsession with the Reidar over me?”
Rian looked away from her. “It’s not an obsession.”
Zahli made a noise that conveyed all her disbelief.
Tannin turned her to face him, not caring what Rian did or thought any longer. He placed a palm against her cheek and tilted her head up. “You don’t have to do this, especially if you think it’s for my benefit.”
“Yes, I do. Rian was going to force me to leave, anyway.”
“We can’t take you to Dalphin until we’ve been to Kasson Three and then Barasa to follow up on Quaine Ayden,” Rian put in.
Zahli turned to Rian, moving out of his embrace altogether. “Because god forbid kicking me off your ship should interfere with your plans against the Reidar. Don’t bother. I’ll catch a public transport from Tetsu after we’ve been to Kasson Three.”
She brushed by Rian and strode out into the passage, anger and hurt clear in her posture.
Rian glared at him for a moment, as if the results of that conversation had been his fault, and then walked over to pick up his shirt.
“Put your damned clothes back on. And don’t touch her again.”
Tannin shoved his arms through the sleeves and threw it over his head. “All bets are off, Sherron. You kicked her off the crew, so you get no say.”
Rian hauled back and punched him. His aim was damn near perfect, because he landed his fist almost in the exact spot on his jaw from a few days before. “She’s still my sister, so watch your frecking mouth.”
Tannin flexed his jaw and before he could think too much about it, took a swing, catching Rian unguarded. Rian took the hit without a sound and when he straightened, his lower lip was bleeding.
“That’s the last time you hit me, Everette, or next time we’re in void-space, you and the hatch will be getting closely acquainted. And don’t forget, you’re always going to be one sub-space comm away from going back to Erebus.” Rian wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, taking away most of the blood. “I came down here to tell you we’re almost at Kasson Three. It’s time for you to roll.”
Rian turned and started back up towards the bridge. Tannin followed, his steps reluctant, wishing he could feel better about hitting the goddamn insensitive bastard. All he felt was a hollow ache at the knowledge Zahli would be leaving. What had he expected? Had he really thought for even half a second that whatever this was between them could be a forever kind of thing? There were too many obstacles he couldn’t see a way around, the biggest and most obvious being her brother.
But no matter what Rian expected of them, no matter what did or didn’t happen, it was too late for him. He’d fallen hard for her. The question was, how would he live with that once she’
d left?
He wanted to go with her, wanted to tell Rian he could freck off, no matter what the guy had done for him. But he couldn’t, not if he wanted to stay out of Erebus and keep Zahli safe. If he left with her and the IPC authorities caught the two of the together, Zahli would be implicated in his escape and the punishment for that was the same life sentence in hell he’d so recently escaped. No matter what he felt for her—or maybe because of it—he couldn’t risk all that for Zahli.
Up on the bridge, he slid back into the co-pilot’s chair, checking nothing had gone wrong with his program.
Lianna glanced at Rian. “Where’s my coffee?”
Rian glared at him. “I forgot it. Something distracted me.”
She shot Rian an annoyed look then returned her attention to her display.
“We’ll be coming onto Kasson Three’s short range scanners in another few minutes. That’s when they’ll know we’re heading right for them. The gravitational field of the black hole is already playing havoc with the Imojenna’s sensors.”
“Are you ready, Everette? We might only have a few seconds before we have to turn tail and make a run for it.”
Tannin wanted to make a smart-ass comment about the ex-war hero running away, but instead he focused on the screen in front of him, turning his mind to what needed to be done. “I can have the data ripped in ten seconds.”
“Good. Lianna, tell me as soon as we’re in short range, and keep an eye out for weapons.” Rian took up a stance in between the two seats, tapping a boot as he looked out the viewport.
There were a few minutes of silence, punctuated by the steady hum of the Imojenna’s engines. In the lower levels, Zahli was probably packing up her things, getting ready to leave them. Leave him. The pain in his chest increased to a dull throb.
“Thirty seconds to short range.” Lianna’s even voice interrupted his wallowing.
She started counting down the seconds, increasing his heart rate.
“Three…two…one.”
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