by Autumn Dawn
Carefully choosing his words, Skye answered, “What happened after your crash?”
Unsure what one thing had to do with the other, she answered slowly, “I went to work for Sesame.…” How horrible! Surely he didn’t mean Sesame took her on out of pity? For a bribe? And all this time she’d been so proud to have made it on her own merits, to have provided for herself without help!
Shaken, she insisted, “I earned my way, Drac! Are you trying to say she only hired me out of a sense of charity?” She stared at him, willing him to say what she wanted to hear.
“Initially.” Brutally honest, he went on, “But she soon discovered what a great pilot you were. Besides, she didn’t offer you a partnership out of pity. You earned that,” he said, offering what comfort he could.
It helped, but it wasn’t enough. Not nearly enough.
He knew it, too. A heavy sigh escaped him. “I can’t tell you.... Jaide, I’m not what you think I am.”
“Just a reminder, D’rath,” she said, punching in numbers to bring up a practice log, shutting him out. She had no more patience that day for people who pretended to be what they weren’t. Painful enough to discover her partner and only friend had been nothing but charitable illusions. “I’m a poor candidate for the blind faith club.”
What a stupid, gullible fool she’d been! What had she been thinking, to trust so easily? Nobody truly cared about or wanted her. Why couldn’t she get that through her head? Why did life have to hurt so much?
So bruised and furious was she that she suppressed the information that might have given her solace. Chrys wasn’t what she’d thought, or so it seemed. But then, who knew who she could trust anymore? Should she take the word of a man like Skye? Did she even know what kind of a man he really was?
They landed on Nexus several hours later. Jaide opted to stay behind with Quadril while the rest disembarked to take care of business. While they were away, she offered to bring him a cup of strong tea, since she was getting some anyway. He accepted the drugged beverage without a clue.
Jaide stole the ship, leaving it, and Quadril, at the first convenient stop and buying passage out of there, disguised as an elderly immigrant. She sent Skye another petition for divorce.
It was granted.
Two years later.
Jaide rubbed the hand holding her stylus against her temple, trying, and failing, to focus. The hunger was coming back, stronger than ever tonight. In another couple of minutes she was going to have to leave the house and take a brisk stroll across the moonlit sands of Dnarth’s second largest dessert. The pleasant chill of the air coupled with the featureless cream dunes were the only things that helped her to sleep, though sleep was not her friend these days.
Run away. The silent accusation haunted her as she slipped out the door of the dome she shared with a handful of scientists and a number of ever changing dignitaries. The experimental station where she worked as a test pilot fell rapidly behind as her impatience ate up distance. The station was an outlet for her mind, but it did little for her soul.
She made a good living flying experimental ships no one else cared to brave testing. Not that money meant much to her now. She didn’t go anywhere and her pet project didn’t strain her pocketbook. She smiled grimly as she thought of it. Yes, she’d certainly proved she could get by on her own, and then some.
The stars winked down at her, cold points of fire. Indifferent, the way she’d become.
No Draconians came here. Heck, almost no one came to this little known section of space on the edge of nowhere, unless they had very good reason. She stopped to admire the aurora playing across the stars.
Ironically, it had been her...Skye’s gift that had gotten her this far. The station’s sponsors had been intrigued by the idea of a Draconian female joining their researchers. They believed a wide mixture of backgrounds made for better innovations and friendly competition, and thus, better profits. So happy had they been that they hadn’t questioned her forged credentials or looked for holes in her story, especially when she’d proven so very capable.
And profitable, she reminded herself, sinking down to sit upon the sand. Let’s not forget profitable. They don’t.
Jaide grunted and toed a hole in the sand. The urge to chuck it all and grab the next ship out of there was strong. So why didn’t she? It wasn’t as if she were in love with her work.
That was the problem.
With a heartfelt groan, she dropped her head to her knees. It had taken long enough to admit it. No one else made her feel like Skye. Divorced or not, the rare sexual advances she’d received had held no appeal. She couldn’t, and her body wouldn’t. Just the thought of allowing another’s touch turned her stomach and triggered melancholy thoughts of the one man who’d ever called her his. Instead of fading with time, the reaction only grew worse, because she knew he was still alive. She could feel him inside her heart, growing as if she’d never severed contact, never turned away. It was a burning, intolerable ache, and something told her that even if she waited ten years, twenty, the rest of her life, it would never fade. So what was she going to do about it?
Now there was the burning question.
All evidence pointed to his guilt. Guilt was bad; it kept her from him. Yet he’d hinted that something different was going on, something he wasn’t able to tell her about. Latching onto that thought, she examined it, looking for clues. If the man wasn’t a criminal, then just what was he? What would it take to get some answers?
“Need another waitress?”
You are nuts, Calanarre, she told herself as Domino stared at her for one speechless moment, shocked at her audacity, not only in asking for a job, but in daring to invade his apartments in the wee hours of the morning.
“Get out of my club!” When she turned as if to comply, his hand shot out and grabbed her arm, spinning her back around. Undiluted fury burned in his Draconian eyes. “Do you have any idea what you’ve done to my brother?” When she looked down, he shook her in outrage. “You ruined his life, you little witch! What madness possessed you to hide for all this time and then show up now? I ought to kill you!”
Oh, well. I tried, she thought cheerfully, then stunned the brute with the stinger hidden in her palm.
When next he woke, he wasn’t in a position to make threats.
“Let me go, woman!” he ordered her, glaring so furiously she was tempted to agree.
Instead, she leaned against his breakfast bar as if she hadn’t a care in the world and regarded the man tied to the heavy chair with interest. “Or what, Drac?” She grinned. “You and your brother might be prime pieces both, but neither of you is likely to rip through ropes.” She spread her hands, palms up. “Looks like I have the winning hand.”
His jaw tensed. “What do you want, witch?”
She cocked her head. “Did you know your brother doesn’t exist? According to the central computer system, he’s a ghost who showed up five years ago and started nabbing bad guys. He was never born, and looks like he’ll never die.”
“How amusing,” he said, without the slightest trace of humor. “So glad you’re here to provide trivia. And now?” He raised a lordly brow and gestured with his hand for her to release him.
Shaking her head in amusement at the man-who was wearing only a pair of pants and strapped down as well-presuming to order her around, she said, “Maybe later, Domino. Or do you prefer to be called Lord Dminis?” She studied him thoughtfully. “Or should I use your military rank instead?” She shrugged. “Ah, well. I was never the formal sort. Domino it is.” When he merely glowered at her, she stroked her chin in thought. “I wonder what the odds are of finding some rather interesting tidbits tucked away in your personal computer system, brother dear.”
“You have no right to call me that.” His tone could have cut steel.
She tilted her head to him, acknowledging the truth. “Not according to the laws of my people, no.” She scowled at him. “Though I did just discover that’s meaningless among you Dracs
.” Deeply disturbed, she began to pace. “I could have used a warning.”
“Is that what this is?” he asked with scorn. “I can solve your problems right now, baby. Just tell me as a witness that you’ve spread yourself around, and I’ll happily negate the wedding.”
Jaide clenched her jaw and forced herself to hold his fierce gaze. “I assume you want the truth about it?”
His smile was jaded. “Oh, please. Just spare me the sordid details,” he drawled.
Looking to the side in an effort to hide her ever present longing, she said quietly, “I hate to disappoint you, Drac, but there’s nothing to tell. But that’s not why I came,” she said, forcing a frown to match his own. “I want to know the truth about your brother, presuming that’s what he really is,” she ended warily as his expression turned intensely thoughtful.
“What would it matter to you?” he wanted to know. “You ran from him, and more than once.” To his amazement, she blushed.
“Yeah. Well.” She examined the toe of her boot. “At the time you would have done the same. But I’ve had some time to think about it” she ignored his rude snort, “and I’ve decided to give him the benefit of the doubt until I’ve thoroughly checked him out.” She flashed him a cheeky grin. “Starting with you.”
Completely baffled by her good humor, he said, “I have nothing to tell you.”
She raised her brows. “Not even whether or not you’re really his genetic brother?”
“I am his brother,” he confirmed warily.
“Glad to hear it.” She pulled out a palm-sized device, pointing the flashing red light on the end of the black box at his computer array. She hit a key and gave him another smile. “Data retrieval system. Your data is now my data.”
Domino’s nostrils flared, but he said nothing.
The box beeped and she checked it, then flicked it off and stowed it in her pocket. “Don’t worry about it, sweet thing,” she said, tweaking him on the ear as she sauntered past. “I won’t share.”
He pulled away with a snarl. “The least you could do is hand me a knife.”
She slowly shook her head at him, amused he would think her that stupid. “Sorry, Dom. I’m afraid that you’ll just have to wait for your sisters to get here in about—” she glanced at her wrist cuff. “Twenty minutes.” Snapping him a salute, she strode out the door.
“I had a most interesting visit from your wife today.”
Skye’s head whipped up from his steaming mug of Seti tea. Domino watched him expectantly. “Where? Is she there now?” The idea made his heart race and his hands shake as he set the nasty tea far from him. Even though his use of it had been infrequent, there were times when he understood Jaide’s need to drown herself in it.
“No.” Domino paused, then added grudgingly, “But I know where she is.” Before Skye could explode, he added, “And I’ve set two men of mine to watch the place. It’s not far from here. A short walk.”
Somewhat mollified, Skye asked, “What did she say?”
His brother snorted. “She asked if I needed a waitress. When I told her no, the little witch stunned me, tied me up and took off with the contents of my computer drive.” At his brother’s stunned look, he added grimly, “Apparently she’s been nosing around. Somehow she discovered my ranks, but nothing about you, yet. She said that’s why she came to me. Said she wanted to know the truth.”
Skye grew thoughtful. “What else?”
Domino sighed. “She was surprised to find out she was still married, but she didn’t try to end it when she had the chance.” He frowned. “She says she’s been faithful.”
A little of the crazy tension inside him subsided, and Skye sat back and closed his eyes, feeling rather dizzy with relief. “Invite her back. Tell her you want to talk.”
Domino hesitated. “I don’t want to see you like this again. The woman is trouble for you.”
Skye shook his head. “This time it will be different. I let her go, and she came back of her own free will. What more proof do you need?”
“Perhaps you’re right,” Domino agreed slowly. He sighed in resignation. “Very well. I will ask her back.”
Jaide had made it her business to know a great deal about Draconians, and even more about Domino himself. That was why, when the carefully worded invitation arrived to meet with him at the club, she dared to go without hiring a small army to watch her back. Dracs didn’t hurt women, ever. He certainly wasn’t going to harm his brother’s wife, no matter how estranged she might be from her husband.
Jaide was sitting at a table that evening, twisting her drink and watching the ice clink in her glass when someone sat at the table with her. Expecting to see Domino, she looked up, and froze. Looking even more like his brother with the extra ten inches to his hair, Skye filled her entire vista. With eyes like an exotic, dangerous beast, he still had the power to tint the air blue with his very presence.
“Hello.” His husky purr racked her with shivers, made her stare at his lips, framed by a black goatee. He looked like an exotic stranger. A very edible stranger. “You look good enough to eat, wife,” he drawled, as if reading her thoughts.
“You granted me a divorce,” she whispered, drinking him in.
“Ah...that.” Relaxing back in his chair, he watched her as if ready to spring at any minute. “I signed a piece of paper. It had nothing to do with it.”
Jaide blinked and shook her head, trying to clear space for thought. “I guess you heard about my visit to your brother.” She offered him a cunning grin. “He wasn’t very happy with me.” When he just watched her with hungry eyes the smile flattened out under the tension. “I want to know what you really are, and what you really do. Who are you, Skye?”
“Why did you come here?” he countered. “Why see me again after all this time?”
She couldn’t meet his eyes. “I thought that we should...talk.”
Skye wasn’t settling for lame excuses. “You wanted to make love to me.”
Caught off guard, she fumbled for a moment. Still, as embarrassing as it was, now wasn’t the time to lie, not when he watched her to see if she would. Licking her lips in nervous reaction, she admitted, “That may have been part of it.”
“And the second part?” When she squirmed, toying with her glass, he reached over and casually took it. Holding it to his mouth, he rubbed it slowly against his bottom lip before taking a cooling swallow, closing his eyes as he savored the flavored water as if it were the finest wine.
Jaide’s lips parted in response.
“It’s been a long time, heartflame. I might just devour you.”
Quivers started in her tailbone, radiated outward to all the important places from there at his husky warning. “It’s been a long time here, too. I waited.” The words stumbled out, generated by her mushy mind. “No one else was you.” The fire leapt in his eyes, and she scooted back in her chair, suddenly aware this was going too far too fast. “What I meant was…” She swallowed hard. “None of that matters until I know who and what you are. I won’t fly in the dark, Skye.”
A shadow masked the fire for a moment, and it was his turn to study the glass. “I swore an oath to keep that to myself, Jaide.” His eyes came up, serious and steady. “At best I can give you my word that my work is honorable.”
She groaned and leaned back even farther. “Not good enough.”
“I can return the Bat. Had I known where you were before—”
Jaide waved an impatient hand. “Forget the Bat. It was a childish fetish of mine, and I’ve already done it one better-though you’d better see it’s taken care of,” she warned, giving him a stern look. “She’s still my baby.”
He smiled a little at her admonition. “I will.” Growing more serious, he asked, “But what about us? I want you, and you want me....” His visually traced her lips, her face. “And you are still my wife.”
Squaring her shoulders, she took a choke hold on her giddy libido and said, “Until I’m satisfied that I know what I need to,
I don’t think that we ought to confuse the issue, do you? I mean, sex is a big conflict of interest right now....”
“Making love,” he corrected, then suggested softly, “Sharing ourselves. Giving pleasure.
Mating until we both die of exhaustion.”
“Right,” she said hastily, cutting off his tempting descriptions before her eyes glazed any further. “Like you said, a big conflict of interests.”
One black brow went up in amusement at her ploy. “I said that?” He looked her black suede jacket and leather halter top over with heightened interest. “You’ve picked up some curious habits since last we met, wife.”
She showed him her palms. “What can I say? I’ve broadened my horizons. Learned a trick or two.” It was difficult to suppress her smile. He had no idea.
Mischief danced in his rascal eyes. “Tell me. I’ll trade an honest answer for an honest answer, wife, so long as you don’t ask me again what I do.”
Gesturing to the server for another drink, this time one with a slight alcoholic edge, she offered, “Deal. You go first.”
Placing an order as well, he returned his attention to her, then asked, “Where have you been? The only reason I signed that paper was so that you’d grow careless and show yourself.”
Shocked, she stared at him. “It was? I figured you were finally sick of me, but frankly, I didn’t think my hide was too safe anywhere in your sight.”
He became very still. “That was never true. I could not hurt you. Not then, not ever.”
He couldn’t know how much that moved her. Daring greatly, she reached across the table and took the hand that rested there, wrapping her much smaller one around it. “I know that now, and...I’m sorry. I was thinking like a green kid back then. Everything was confusing, and I didn’t know where to stick you, mentally. I didn’t have a category to file you in, so I tried to deal with you based on what I knew from before.” She grimaced. “You were a learning curve that defied my feeble brain, Skye, but I’m working on it.”