Ride the Stars

by Autumn Dawn

  It didn’t quite work that way.

  Thanks to her ex-husband’s infernal ‘gift’, coupled with the fact that Draconian women never traveled alone, anonymity was more challenging than she’d expected. Even with temporary eye dye and hair wash, there wasn’t much that she could do about her altered voice, or her lengthy new canines. All it had taken was one ill-timed yawn and the secret had been out. Giving in to the inevitable, she wore a blaster openly and went about her business like everyone else.

  It didn’t take long for her to discover the Draconian fetish for dark glasses. It was much easier to concentrate without shades of emotion clouding one’s vision. Besides, all she saw anyway was bruised purple and washes of grey. It was much easier to pretend the colors came from the lenses.

  It was a hard thing to discover that one was a fool.

  As Jaide lay on her couch in her Spartan room that evening drinking a raspberry beer and watching an old newscast from the library archives, she figured she should have known. Skye’s expression on the screen as he was questioned about his latest kill was remote, cold. Even the hardened reporter thrusting a mike in his face faltered, backing off in the face of Skye’s aura of terror. Any fool could see the man was a killer, that he had no heart.

  Recent memories tried to flood her vision, blocking out his figure as he descended the steps from the courthouse where he’d just gotten his next assignment. Skye kissing her, telling her she was all he wanted....

  Lies!

  Slamming her empty bottle down, Jaide sat up, massaging her temples. Face it, baby, she sneered at herself, closing her eyes to blot out the fall of glossy black hair obscuring her vision, He tagged and bagged you. You were never anything to him but a convenience. So what if he was good in bed; it’s probably that way for him every time. She laughed bitterly. Hey, for all you know it’s a Draconian thing.

  Her heart twisted in denial, but she ignored it. She got up, grabbed another beer and dropped back down on the couch, stretching out to watch yet another newscast. She’d play them over and over again, back to back, until it finally sunk in just how smart she’d been to cut and run.

  Run…and not look back.

  Chapter 8

  Jaide was crouched underneath the Bat, tinkering with the wiring, when a number of black clad legs and long, flowing coats came into view. Before she could recover from her frozen shock, Skye crouched down, staring her full in the face and radiating fury. “Miss me?”

  Self-preservation kicked in and she hissed, tossed her pliers in his face and rolled. Before she could complete one revolution he was on her, pinning her face up on the fluid stained concrete with the length of his hard body. “Get off me!” she snarled.

  Instead, he shifted his hips, deliberately brushing against her in a way that shortened her breath and brought fire to her cheeks, even after all he’d done. “Sure that’s what you want?” he murmured, smiling insolently as he slid a knee between her thighs.

  Gritting her teeth, she shut her eyes, opening them to a world swirling red-and blue. Brilliant, electric blue. “What are you doing here?”

  Rolling out from under the ship, he took her unwilling hand and jerked her to her feet, then shifted his grip to her wrist. “Collecting my wife.”

  “Ex-wife,” she snapped, then noticed Quadril crouching under the ship, closing up the panel she’d been working on. “Get out of there!”

  “Bring it up when you’re finished,” Skye told him, pulling her away.

  “That’s my ship!” she protested, beyond angry and digging in her heels. How dare he?

  He didn’t even blink. “According to Draconian law, it’s now my ship, too.” He still hadn’t let go of her wrist.

  “That figures,” she said bitterly, then added just for spite, “But he’s going to have a real short flight flying your half of the ship without my command codes.”

  Skye started walking, flanked by Lore. “He’ll get them.” He turned his head to stare at her, his eyes masked by his shades. “I have complete faith in him.”

  She narrowed her eyes. “Maybe he’s earned it,” she shot back. She didn’t say another word as he towed her the short distance to the Black Tide, his grip just short of bruising. He didn’t let go until she was strapped into a seat, prepared, if not eager, for take off. She toyed with the idea of cutting off the Tide’s power with a command, but his humorless smile discouraged it.

  “You’re already locked out of the system,” he informed her, his fingers dancing across his console’s controls. “I’m not giving you another chance at it.”

  Her answering smile was tight. “Ditto.”

  He sent her a silent warning but went back to work.

  Sesame was nowhere in sight, which was good, because Jaide was so furious she’d likely stutter over the things she had to say to the traitorous bitch.

  Almost as if he sensed her thoughts, Nemesis looked at her, but said nothing.

  The moment they were in orbit, Skye took her to his cabin. One look at the bed and she was ready to bolt. Especially when he noticed her darting glance. “It’s not going to work, Skye,” she warned him. “Not unless you fancy rape.”

  “I don’t need to rape my wife,” he retorted, half-sitting on the top of his desk and crossing his arms. “I want to know why you ran.”

  Weariness seeped into her, leeched her dry. “Unless you’re dimmer than I give you credit for, you already know why. What I want to know is why you bothered following me.” She smiled without humor. “The only reason that comes to mind is that you and the others have some other scheme cooked up using my technology.”

  He was silent for a long moment. “I was not using you for your mind, Jaide.”

  Again the smile that wasn’t. “Well, I guess I can’t blame a man for getting a little extra.”

  This time the silence was even longer. “I can’t tell you what we’re doing. Not yet.” He searched her empty eyes. “I’d ask for your trust”

  She laughed.

  “But I know you won’t give it. Instead I ask for your cooperation for just a little while, until I can show you....” he trailed off, stymied by her unyielding expression. “You are still my wife,” he said quietly.

  She rose from her chair. “I’m the woman you helped to rob and deceive,” she said with all the warmth of an arctic winter. “Then had the gall to kidnap to work for you. I’m not your wife. Just because we had an interlude doesn’t mean anything to me. You never shared anything of yourself. I don’t even know your mother’s name,” she tossed over her shoulder as she headed for the door.

  “Ariose.”

  “What?” She looked at him.

  His eyes were dark, unfathomable. “Her name was Ariose.”

  “I could use some help with the engine.”

  Jaide turned brilliant eyes on Quadril from where she sprawled in an easy chair, watching nasty newscasts of his captain. Giving him a smart salute, she quipped, “Ship’s fool here, I aim to please.”

  For a moment he looked as if he wanted to beat her. However, he did retreat and leave her alone. Just as well. She snorted and took a swig of hot tea laced with honey. She didn’t need his busy work.

  Since she refused to set foot in the engine room and she’d been told that Sesame was off on business, Jaide had the galley to herself. Only at night when the others congregated there did she slip away to work out in the small gym or to read in her room. No one bothered her. She liked it that way.

  For about three days.

  Soon the silence began to get annoying. Jeeves-the only member of the crew she would speak to-wasn’t much of a conversationalist. She caught herself lingering and listening during their meals, though she pretended to be engrossed in working her way through the movie archives and ignoring the lot of them. Especially her would-be husband, who looked entirely too good for her peace of mind. Worse than that, she caught her mouth beginning to water whenever her traitorous eyes lingered his way too long.

  Catching herself in the act again,
she jerked her attention back to the screen and scowled, popped a honeyed nut into her mouth. The man had conditioned her far too well in the few short days he’d had her at his mercy back on Tantalus. The best thing she could possibly do would be to ignore him.

  Still...she was bored.

  On pretext of searching for munchies, she wandered into their circle, reaching around Skye to nab a rye crisp. Skye promptly wrapped an arm around her and pulled her into his lap for a fast kiss.

  “What—” she demanded, stunned.

  “Penalty for interrupting the game,” he informed her, holding her firm with one hand and turning his attention back to the cards in his other. Lore smirked and Nemesis chuckled as he discarded a card. Quadril was on deck, flying the ship.

  Jaide glowered and tried to squirm off his lap, but it was impossible, besides being obviously stimulating. Subsiding with ill grace, she pulled the bowl of thick, creamy dip towards her and scooped up a generous glob with her crisp. Since Skye was unwilling to set her loose, she also confiscated his carbonated juice, finishing it off.

  He reached over and refilled it from the pitcher.

  Beneath the table, Skye’s hand began to slowly stroke her thigh. She nudged him in the chest with her elbow.

  “Be still. I’m concentrating,” he told her sternly, but the hint of a smile played at his mouth. She grabbed his hand. He reversed their positions, trapped her hand beneath his and began a slow trek towards uncharted waters. Shocked, she snatched her hand away. He smiled at his cards and resumed his stroking.

  More than a little unsettled, she glanced around, desperate for distraction. “So when’s Sesame coming back?”

  “Do you miss her?” Skye purred in her ear, sending chills down her spine.

  She really didn’t like him. “I have a few things to say to her,” she growled, nearly grinding her teeth to master her reactions. He was not going to do this to her!

  He didn’t need to say it. His slow smile promised to liven her life, given half a chance. “If you’re lonely for female company I’ll buy you a pet. What would you like?” Before she could protest, his hand moved up to hover menacingly at the top of her thigh.

  Hardly daring to move, she looked at him out of the corner of her eye. A straight answer suddenly seemed prudent. “I’ve always liked white lynx cats.”

  Grinning triumphantly, he returned his hand to a less dangerous position. “You have expensive tastes. I like it.”

  “I’m also fond of bats,” she reminded him. He still hadn’t told her what they’d done with it.

  “That ship is registered under Sesame’s name, if you’ll recall,” he said, his hidden hand stilling. “She said you insisted on it, since she provided most of the financing for it.”

  Her answering stare was eloquent enough. This time he hesitated only a moment before letting her up.

  She looked down on him with cold contempt. “I just love how you guys justify yourself. And they say the female mind is a mysterious thing....”

  He watched her go, shaking her head in disgust. Even counting her retreat, though, the evening hadn’t been a complete wash. He’d got to hold her, and that could never be counted a loss.

  “Don’t even think it.”

  Skye looked at Nemesis’ grim face in inquiry.

  Slowly he shook his head. “You know the orders.”

  “I haven’t forgotten them,” Skye said, his tone cool. Nemesis said nothing else, and they resumed the game, but none of their minds were on cards.

  Jaide froze in the doorway to the exercise room. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what the maneuver Lore and the bare-chested Skye were practicing.

  Skye turned and noticed her. “Good morning.” A distracting sheen of sweat glistened on his chest and all the way down to his striped forearms. “Would you like to practice with us?”

  Dismissing him, she headed for the exercise machine. “I don’t plan on ripping out anyone’s heart anytime soon, thanks.” She could really have done without seeing him. In spite of the warm ups she’d done in her room, the sight of him practicing mayhem left her feeling wooden and clumsy.

  “It’s the unexpected that you have to plan for,” Lore rasped, his breathing a touch ragged as he reached for a towel. He retreated, leaving them alone.

  Skye set himself up at another machine. Masculine muscles flexed and stretched in a mesmerizing pattern that she was not going to watch. “Well, that’s what I have you for, isn’t it?” she said with more than a trace of spleen as she set to work.

  “So long as you stay with me and stop running away,” he agreed easily enough, but she heard the underlying temper.

  So what? “As a free woman I have the right to go wherever I please—”

  “Don’t!” His expression was savage as he leaned forward, radiating menace. “Not unless you want me to prove just what you are and who you belong to.” There was a moment of charged, defiant silence, then Jaide turned her head and ignored him, pretending an icy calm. She wasn’t fooling him, though. Everything from her flared nostrils to her savage movements spelled out rebellion.

  Skye gave up on the machine. It wasn’t helping to redirect his energy anyway. Nothing could when all he wanted was her.

  Standing up, he went to her and gripped the frame of the machine she worked at, daring her to ignore him. She tried to pretend indifference, but her eyes gave her away. Her movements slowed down, became weaker. Finally they stopped altogether. With extreme reluctance, she turned her head slightly towards him, not quite looking at him. “It’s only hormones.” Her voice was strained. It couldn’t be an easy thing to admit, considering what she thought of him.

  “If that’s what you want to believe.” Holding her eyes, he offered her his hand. Almost against her will, her hand rose to grasp it.

  Her things were moved to his room, although Jaide wasn’t the one who moved them. They were there when she woke up, naked and alone in the cocoon of Skye’s grey silk sheets. Glad she didn’t have to face him with memories of wild abandon and hot demand still fresh in her mind, she lay back and tried to think. Not an easy task when her body still hummed with craving. Drat his hide, the man was addictive!

  Resigned to the fact that she’d never form a coherent thought if she remained in his bed, she sighed and got dressed. Annoying as it was to find herself moved in, there was no point in raising a stink about it. After all, she’d already given in the only way that truly mattered. Compared to that, what was sharing a room?

  Even if she was sharing it with a criminal.

  Wincing at that unwelcome reminder of the depths of her folly, Jaide sat down at the desk and rubbed the bone between her brows. What now? Continue on as the bride of a doting space thug, or do something to set her life back on course?

  The choice was not as easy as she would have liked.

  “What are you doing?”

  Jaide didn’t even look up. “Looking up the data on the Nexus Canyon Race. Trell likes to take a break from space races to test his luck with gravity now and then. He’s especially fond of-hmm.…” Names scrolled on her screen and she shook her head with rye amusement. “Poor, poor Trell. You’re such a predictable little troll.”

  Skye glanced at her screen, one hand resting on the back of her chair. “I thought that sort of information was classified until the day of the race,” he said, knowing very well that it was. There was something very arousing about watching a woman outsmart a computer system.

  “All for a good cause,” she said with a shrug and swiveled around to look at him, her expression carefully neutral. “Are you going after him?” After all she’d seen and heard, she wasn’t sure what kind of answer to expect.

  “We land on Nexus tonight.” He searched her face, but whatever she felt about the hours they’d shared was nowhere on the surface.

  She glanced at the computer thoughtfully. “Are you going to allow me free access to the computer system again?”

  “Would that be wise?” he asked, just to see if she
’d lie.

  “Probably not.” She rubbed her finger lightly over a key. “Even so, a bored Jaide is a dangerous thing. Any reason I can’t practice flight maneuvers at this station? I can only spend so much time in the galley watching movies before going insane.”

  He studied her for a long moment. “The Draconian government approached Sesame and offered her an obscene amount of money for the Bat. She was sympathetic to their need for security from the other world powers and sold it to them. They insisted on keeping the deal private, and she knew the both of you could build another ship. The ‘insurance money’ for the ‘theft’ she split with you, remember?”

  A long moment passed while she studied him with jaded skepticism. She remembered protesting her too generous cut of the ‘insurance settlement’, but that didn’t begin to explain what was going on. “I tracked down reports of witnesses who’d seen my brother flying the Bat directly after the theft. Are you saying he’s part of the Draconian government?” Her expression hardened. “Does your government make its living from drug trafficking, D’rath?”

  “No.”

  His tone was crisp and exasperated, as if he couldn’t believe her bizarre deductive reasoning. It got on her nerves. “No, you’re not a bunch of drug runners?” she asked with a sweet, hard smile, “Or no, you don’t employ a criminal with a history of beating women? For that matter, D’rath, what happened to my money?”

  “He used it to buy your safety.”

  Jaide stared at him, stunned. Of all the things she’d been expecting, that was not one of them. “What are you talking about? Bought it from whom?”