Ride the Stars

by Autumn Dawn

  The man wasn’t in love. That ridiculous factor wasn’t even a consideration, as she knew herself to be completely unlovable. Given the overwhelming evidence, she could accept, tentatively, that he did desire her. A wondrous thing in itself, but it had to be fleeting. She looked down at her body doubtfully. True, she’d slimmed down and maybe she looked a bit better than she had in her youth, but she was no raving beauty. Whatever interest he had in her had to be transitory.

  So why had he done it? She latched onto the cultural thing again as the only possible explanation. Ok, fine. She’d just find out what the misunderstanding was and clear it up. Besides, what could be simpler than getting a divorce in such an informal culture? After all, if it was that easy to get ‘married’ for a Draconian, then it must be just as easy to get unmarried, right? So all she had to do was ask him.

  A weak, yet persistent part of her cried out in agony at her decision, but she squashed it, deliberately forcing her mind away from the protest. She splashed the sudsy water, reinforcing her choice with physical action. It was just a momentary reaction, prompted by the memory of last night’s pleasure. Quickly she slammed the door on that thought, too.

  A smart woman cut her losses before they cut her.

  When Skye returned from showering and changing in his own room, he found his wife waiting, cool and collected, in a chair facing the door. He scowled at her and tossed his coat on the back of the couch. “Why are you looking so grim? I was the one denied my wife.”

  She studied the floor and raised a brow. “According to the laws I recognize, you have no wife.”

  Looking entirely too smug, he reminded her, “You were standing on Draconian property at the time. No one forced the words from you. Hence, Draconian rules apply. You are my wife.”

  That pierced her calm. Uneasy, she shifted in her seat and asked the last thing he expected to hear. “Why? I mean....” she waved her hand in the air, almost heartbreakingly bewildered. “Why would you want to marry me?” She risked a glance at his stunned face. “I mean, you could have said no. Right? Or is there some cultural rule here I didn’t know? Some reason you had to say what you did?“

  Two fast strides and he was in front of her, kneeling. “Why would you think I was forced?” he whispered, searching her face for answers, unable to fathom the shadows there. She tried to hide her face, but he cupped her jaw, making her look at him. “Why are you hurting? I wanted to bring you such joy.”

  “You thought doing this to me would do it?” she demanded tightly, making a short gesture that encompassed the entire situation. “All you can do is hurt me when you go.”

  “Go? I will never go!” Angry and amazed at her thinking, he glared at her. How could she doubt him this way? Didn’t she know how he prized his honor?

  Realization crashed into him. Of course she didn’t. Regardless of what had passed between them, she knew little of his culture, and almost nothing about him. Still, he’d thought she’d at least learned to trust him. The knowledge that she hadn’t hurt, but knowledge was power. He could teach her trust, starting now.

  “You won’t last a month,” she was saying, looking determined. “Four weeks with me and you’ll be begging me to leave. Well, I have my pride, you know. It’s better that I walk out now-mph!”

  She glared at him over the fingers against her mouth, but he didn’t care. “Is that a wager, then?” His smile was that of a man completely confident in his appeal, and terribly lethal to her resolve. “I should warn you I never make a bet I can’t win.”

  “There’s always a first time.” His expression didn’t change, and she grew uneasy. In truth, winning would give her little satisfaction, but what other way was there to convince him? As difficult as it would be to keep her emotional distance from him, the time would allow her to finish on the Black Tide.

  “You’ll have until I finish augmenting your ship. Two weeks, at the most.” For some reason, just saying it made her want to cry. It was too much to hope he’d miss it.

  He didn’t. With an incredibly tender expression, he touched her face, smoothing away invisible tears. “Four weeks,” he corrected softly, smoothing his thumb over her lips. “Then forever.” He ached to say so much more, to tell her his heart, but he knew instinctively if he did the conflict on her face would turn to panic. First he had to give her an emotional measure of security, to pull her out of the quicksand of her own lonely background onto the bedrock of her new family.

  She was going to need it when he got his hands on Chrys.

  “Let’s go find something to eat,” he said, pulling Jaide to her feet. As he escorted her to the breakfast room he thought about her brother.

  They’d never really talked about him. There hadn’t been a reason to before. No one had considered the effect on Jaide when they’d sought out Sesame. Taking Jaide along had been nothing more than a whim, or fate, depending how one viewed it.

  He glanced at Jaide. So far as he knew, she still had no idea of the true reason they’d insisted on hiring Sesame. There was no telling what kind of explosion they’d get when she did find out. It was just surprising that Sesame had chosen to keep the knowledge to herself for so long. Maybe she knew Jaide well enough to dread the revelation. Unfortunately, it was just one of many shocks his new wife had in store for her.

  Before it had been a matter of security to keep her ignorant, and then it had been for her own safety. Her startling determination to see her brother behind bars had thrown him off balance. If Chrys had only realized what a fury he’d set loose by allowing her to see the remains of his theft....

  The memory of her brother’s shabby treatment last night surfaced, and he sucked in a furious breath, then smiled pleasantly at his wife’s inquiring look. There was no reason to upset her with unpleasant reminders.

  Still, brother by marriage or not, the next time he had that space scum in his sights....

  Chapter 7

  It wasn’t her imagination. Even in the bright natural sunlight of the dining area, there still remained an odd tint to her vision.

  “What?” Nemesis, who was seated across from her, asked. “You keep giving everything the oddest looks.”

  Jaide shook her head and poked at the food on her plate. “I think I need to get my eyes checked. Everything seems to have a funny tint to it this morning.”

  The men exchanged looks. “What color?” Lore asked with a sly grin, elbowing Quadril.

  She looked around, then raked her gaze over Skye, who was trying to contain his amusement. “Blue mostly.”

  Lore choked, spurting fruit juice out his nose and all over his plate.

  Distracted for a moment, Jaide watched with concern as Sesame swatted him on the back. Their gazes locked for a moment and Sesame rolled her eyes. She’d already quizzed Jaide in the ladies room while they waited for their order. Oddly enough, she hadn’t been surprised or particularly concerned about Jaide’s hasty wedding.

  “It was bound to happen,” was all she’d said, seeming almost pleased.

  “Blue, you say?” Skye asked, recalling Jaide to the present conversation. This confession he had to hear.

  Still distracted, she answered, “There are sometimes other colors, like orange and sour green, but mostly blue.” Her eyes tracked up his body. “A really vivid, almost electric blue—”

  The table lost it. Lore started snickering, then snorting as he fought to contain himself, then lost. Quadril turned a brilliant shade of garnet and became incredibly engrossed in his flatware. More contained than the rest, Nemesis raised his steaming tea, trying to hide his wide smile behind the porcelain.

  “Electric blue, you say?” Skye inquired, grinning like a shark with an angelfish in its path. Draping an arm around the back of her chair, he cocked his head, watching her with intense interest. “All the time?”

  She narrowed her eyes. “What did you do to me?” Topaz eyes widened with patented innocence that must have once really annoyed his mother, but she wasn’t buying it. “Whatever it was, it�
�s also making my voice sound like a man in drag, so you’d better fix it.” She shook her head. “I wondered why I sounded so strange this morning.”

  “I thought your voice had a lovely, husky sound to it.” Skye lowered his volume, murmuring in her ear, “Like a woman loved to exhaustion.” At her warning glare, he sighed and subsided. Easing back into his chair, but keeping his arm around her, he said, “No one can take it back. It’s the arskt; my wedding gift to you.” Seeing her changing eyes begin to spark, he explained further, “It’s how we mate with a woman of a compatible race. It enables reproduction.”

  That little piece of information did nothing for her temper. “You’re changing me into a Draconian?” she demanded harshly, unable to believe his gall. “Without my permission?” Her voice rose, causing several other diners to look their way.

  “Don’t be frightened,” he tried to soothe her.

  “I am not scared! I’m pissed off!” she snarled, standing up and staring Skye down. How dare he be so arrogant as to think she’d let this slide? “I was fine the way I was!”

  Too furious to stand the sight of him another minute, Jaide stormed off, but she hadn’t gone more than two strides before her husband joined her. “You Dracs don’t ask for anything, do you?”

  “We don’t like hearing no,” he agreed. “Just look where we would have been had we asked permission to land on Antarctica.” Without remorse, he added, “Or if I’d asked you to wed, or to change, or to even work for us, for that matter.”

  “You are incredibly arrogant, you know that?” she hissed.

  “Just one of the many reasons why you love me,” came the blasé reply.

  Stopped in her tracks, she stared at him, appalled. “I don’t love you.” It was very important they both understood that.

  Undaunted, he snaked an arm around her, plastering her to his lethal body. “As long as you still see blue,” he purred, and sizzled her with a kiss.

  That set the tone for the rest of the day. Jaide did her best to avoid her amorous new husband by working on the Black Tide. Under the guise of ‘helping’, he did his best to distract and tantalize, and his best was very, very effective.

  The second time Jaide found herself clinging to a landing strut while her husband loved her with his hands and his dizzying mouth, she decided to call it a day. “You never give up, do you?” she gasped, even as she moved against his driving fingers.

  “Never,” he agreed from behind her, drawing on her exposed neck. Her coveralls were unzipped to her navel and he took shameless advantage of it, shifting his hand from one aching breast to tease the other. His voice dropped to a sexy purr as he suggested, “Come to bed with me?”

  Was there ever any doubt?

  “This wasn’t what I expected.”

  Completely naked, Jaide sat with her equally nude lover as native fire dancers, their athletic bodies gleaming with oil, swirled around the central bonfire. Grass skirts swished on both men and women as the drums beat a wild, joyous salute. As much as she felt on display, not a single head turned in their direction as Skye lay her back on their burgundy rug, teasing her lips with a succulent slice of fruit.

  “Relax, heartflame.” Skye grinned. “They’re only holograms.” Though he had to admit that Domino’s holosuite was better than most.

  “I know, but—” her protest was swallowed in his kiss, and the drums changed to the rhythmic sway of the sea. She relaxed and began to tremble as a new tension took over.

  “Better?”

  She gave him a small, shy smile and accepted his offering of fruit.

  His mood shifted to a more solemn regard as his gaze swept her face. “You are beautiful, my wife,” he said, smoothing her darkening hair behind her ear. Soon it would be as night black as his own, just as her eyes would complete the change. She looked away, shook her head, but he didn’t relent. “I’ve always thought so.”

  “You didn’t like me.”

  “Like is a mild term for what I felt, heartflame.” He smiled with fond remembrance. “You were so different from what I had known before....and so challenging.”

  She scowled, poking at his chest. “There’s that word again.”

  He propped his head up on his elbow as she turned on her side, toward him. “What’s wrong with challenging? You changed my views on human women right from the start. I liked that.”

  She snorted in amusement. “And what were your views on human women? Let me guess-you thought that we were all a bunch of bed hounds.”

  Surprised laughter gave him away. “Lore did try to warn me I’d been seeing too much of the wrong kind of women.”

  All traces of humor gone, she looked away.

  “I said seeing them, wife. I was not with them.” He stroked her bare shoulder, soothing them both. “You are special in that. I had not wanted a woman outside of my own kind until I saw you.”

  Still unsure, she asked soberly, “And now?”

  “And now...” his eyes darkened with rising passion as he touched his lips to her own. “Now all I want is you.”

  The loving was softer this time, more a joining of hearts then their last frantic mating. He took his time to explore and pleasure her, wringing several climaxes from her before he slid between her thighs. She was still tight, and he coaxed her with soft kisses and lover’s words to relax and give herself fully. Only when she was completely aroused and with him did he increase his tempo to the boiling point. With cries of satisfaction, they both plunged over.

  Panting softly, she stroked his slick back. “You’re a naughty lad, man o’ mine.”

  He reared back to grin at her. “You liked it.”

  “I liked it.” She grinned back. “I had no idea you could do that with your tongue.”

  Brow cocked, he inquired, “Is that a hint?”

  She just smiled and stretched in a very provocative way.

  Skye chuckled and slid down her body, trailing kisses. He was good with hints.

  Two days later, Jaide walked alone among the docked ships of the port, enjoying the last of the late afternoon sunshine. It was a particularly warm day and yet the heat felt almost pleasant; yet another by-product of the adaptagen.

  She still hadn’t gotten used to hearing a husky alto coming out of her mouth instead of her own voice, and she was getting tired of seeing the others smile when she cleared her throat and tried to bring it back to its normal range.

  They were leaving tonight. She was a little surprised to find she’d miss this place, or maybe it was the memories they’d made here. It wouldn’t have been nearly the same had she come here alone.

  Still, at the moment she needed solitude, which was why she’d slipped away for this walk. Too many things had happened, and she hadn’t had a chance to think any of it over. Not to mention that with the way Skye kept her busy at night, her prime hours of deliberation had been pretty much scratched. A heat that owed nothing to the sun warmed her as she recalled the ways he’d promised to occupy her tonight.

  Movement caught the corner of her eye, flickered a warning to her nerves. As if she were merely adjusting her sunglass, she reached up and pressed the zoom vision on the frame of the lenses. After all, people came and went around here all the time. There was no reason to be jumpy, but....

  V.B. Trell and two strangers were coming her way.

  Hissing in fear and fury, she turned on her heel and ran, discarding all attempts at dignity. Darting around ships and dodging cargo, she wove her way toward the Black Tide and safety.

  Only three ship lengths from her goal, she darted around a crate bearing alien script and ducked under a plastic tarp, praying they’d run on by and miss her.

  Racing feet pulled to a stop beside her, and she heard Trell curse. Then they took off in the opposite direction.

  Puzzled, Jaide held still, unsure what to think but unwilling to give away her hiding place. Then Skye’s voice, as unperturbed as if he’d seen nothing wrong-he likely hadn’t-came into range. Relieved, Jaide started to lift the t
arp.

  “....parked the Bat in slot nine-five,” Chrys was saying.

  Jaide froze in confusion. What the?

  “Good. She’ll never see it from here,” Skye said with satisfaction. “Nemesis doesn’t want her to know anything about it yet; not until we finish this mission. Sesame agrees that it’s too risky. There’s no telling what she would do.”

  Chrys’ laugh was rusty, almost tired. “What can she do? She’ll be on the Black Tide by then, and it’s not as if she can get past you....”

  She didn’t move a muscle as their voices faded out. For several moments she crouched there, one thought pounding in her brain. Skye...had sold her out. Everything, every last touch, had been a lie. Almost worse than that, if she could believe her ears, Sesame was in on it.

  Memories crashed in on her.

  Sesame laughing as Jaide fretted over the security measures for their creation. “Don’t worry about it, Jaide. Nobody’s going to steal the Bat. How could they? No one knows about it yet.”

  Sesame comforting her after the ‘theft’. “Don’t take it so hard, girl. We can build another one.”

  Fury scorched her as she tossed aside the tarp and ran in the direction of slot nine-five.

  It was time to steal back her life.

  “Where’s Jaide?”

  Skye looked up in surprise from his console. “Wasn’t she in the engine room?”

  Lore shook his head. “She’s nowhere. I looked.”

  They were scheduled to leave in ten minutes. Concerned, Skye checked his cabin, then the rest of the ship. Wherever she was, she wasn’t on board.

  “She didn’t say a word to me,” Sesame insisted, looking worried. “Would she have—”

  A com signal cut her off. Thinking it might be his wife, Skye answered it, unsure what to expect.

  “Skye, this is Chrys.” There was a long, awful pause. Chrys wouldn’t risk contact, unless....

  ”My sister has the Bat.”

  Secure in the knowledge that death himself couldn’t find her as long as she had the Bat, Jaide sent Skye a recording of her petition for divorce, adding spitefully that he could pass along the information to Chrys, since he knew him so well. Then she drew a large amount of cash, the balance of her account, and headed towards a remote mining colony she selected at random. With a population of several thousand and the subtle cloak on the Bat, really only a shift in appearance, she’d never stand out. Complete invisibility. That’s what she wanted.