The Mammoth Book of Futuristic Romance (Mammoth Books)

by Trisha Telep

  “Lear, you stay here and guard the ship,” Aidan ordered.

  Lear nodded, uncaring.

  In the bar, Vin and the crew claimed a table near a stage full of barely dressed dancers who were keeping step to a poorly choreographed number.

  A waitress took their drink orders. When she returned, Vin spotted Priya, and his heart stuttered. She faced away from them, perched on a stool. A quick survey of the drink in her hand told him she was going heavy tonight. Usually she sipped those theme-cup drinks with matching straw and umbrella. He always gave her shit for that, but secretly considered it adorable.

  Tonight, she drank something hard on ice. Could it be she’d been just as thrown by their meeting as he had?

  Or perhaps she had changed. Maybe she was a different person now, with different tastes and different preferences in men . . . in bed.

  Gods, he hoped not.

  He missed the noises she made when he nuzzled her just right. Remembering made him stiffen and he had to adjust himself.

  She swiveled in her seat, and he quickly turned away. When his gaze met the gyrating ladies on stage, he nervously shifted again, finding himself looking straight at Aidan, who studied him with a keen eye.

  Vin stifled a growl of irritation, and scowled.

  With the smallest movement, Aidan gestured his chin toward Priya.

  How could Aidan expect him to confront her? And here, of all places? The location was different, but still reminiscent of the last time he’d laid eyes on her. Only this time, there wasn’t some drunk, flirtatious working girl running fingers over his shoulders and whispering in his ear.

  He cringed.

  Aidan’s gaze shot past him and his lids lifted a fraction.

  Vin snatched his ale and gulped it down just before he heard her voice.

  “Could you guys get any closer?”

  Zeek answered. “I don’t think they allow you on the stage.”

  “How do you know if you don’t try?”

  “Good point.”

  When Zeek pushed back his chair, Aidan snapped, “Z, down.”

  Zeek plopped back down with a smile and sipped his drink.

  “Why don’t you join us, Priya?” Ash offered.

  Surprisingly, she pulled up a chair. Vin lifted his bottle to his lips, forgetting that he’d emptied it. He motioned to a nearby waitress for another.

  “So I’ve been thinking,” Priya said, propping one arm on the table and resting her chin on her palm. Using her other hand, she motioned to the entire group. “I don’t think this is a good idea.”

  Aidan replied first. “You haven’t even thought about it for a minute.”

  She gestured to her half-filled drink. “I’ve had three of these to think, and I still—”

  “Don’t say anything now. Take the night. And if you feel the same in the morning, then Vin is out.”

  “Hey,” Vin protested, leaning back in his seat.

  Aidan leveled him with a stare. “Talk to me when you can shoot like her.”

  Vin shrugged, conceding the point. He might be a great mechanic, but Priya was a badass with a gun.

  “So what have you been up to, Priya?” asked Asher.

  “I’ve been working security on Uli Rings.”

  So that’s where she ran off to, Vin thought.

  Ash raised a brow. “Impressive. They let you temporarily leave your position to run Phase Nine?”

  She frowned. “Not really.”

  “You quit to come here?”

  She didn’t respond, but her silence said as much.

  “Then you have to join us,” Zeek exclaimed. “You and Vin don’t even have to interact. In fact, I’ll do you one better and staple his mouth shut.”

  She rolled her eyes. “I saw the size of your ship. We’ll basically be living on top of each other.”

  “Mmm,” Zeek replied playfully. “Thanks for the visual.”

  Vin knocked him in the shoulder with his fist.

  “Ow.” Zeek rubbed the spot. “Joking.”

  Priya observed the exchange with an air of indifference. She brought her glass to her lips and took a long swig. Her expression told Vin she didn’t like the taste. Maybe she hadn’t changed that much after all.

  She caught him staring, and her eyes narrowed.

  He tried to keep his features passive. “Can I buy you a drink? Maybe one of those fruffy ones?”

  Her lids slit further.

  Damn, he shouldn’t have added that last part.

  “I’ll buy my own drinks. In fact, I’ll buy the next round for the table.”

  Despite his glass being full, Zeek ordered another drink.

  Vin leaned forward and muttered, “Priya, can we talk in private?”

  She pretended to think, tapping her chin and lifting her eyes to the upper right. “Um. No. Why don’t you go talk to her?” She pointed to a skinny blonde at the bar. “I’m sure she’ll be real interested in anything you have to say.”

  A muscle ticked in his jaw.

  Zeek stepped in. “I’m amazed at how non-uncomfortable this is. Am I right, guys?”

  Ash stood and flicked Zeek in the temple.

  “Ow! Enough with the abuse. I’ll shut up.”

  “How about I buy you a drink at the bar?” Ash said.

  “Jeez. Any more free drinks and I’m going to start questioning the cut of this blouse.” He tugged at his T-shirt.

  Aidan pushed out of his seat. “I need to get back to the ship and check on Lear. Some weird girls have been coming by asking to join the crew, and I’m afraid he might just let them.”

  Priya watched the traitors scurry away, leaving her alone with Vin. Most likely that had been their plan ever since she’d sat down. With just the right amount of alcohol in her, she couldn’t muster up the proper amount of outrage, or the conviction to get up and leave.

  She stared blankly at Vin. “Enjoying the entertainment?”

  The ladies on stage reached a pivotal point in their dance, moving to the fast beat of the music. To her surprise, he didn’t even glance at them.

  “What are you drinking?” he asked.

  “Solar orbit on the rocks.”

  “That’s a pretty stiff drink.”

  “Yeah, a guy turned me on to it a few months ago. It tastes good. He tasted even better.”

  His fists clenched around his bottle. She waited for satisfaction to flood her, but it never did. He took a long drink, placing his attention on the stage. She studied the table and sipped from her glass. The harsh bite of liquor hit her throat, warming her body as it made its way down.

  When she looked up, Vin’s eyes had creased in amusement and his lips had curled into a sexy, lopsided smile.

  “What?” she barked, mentally denying the desire that bloomed in her from that simple look.

  “Don’t you think I know you well enough to realize when you’re lying?”

  “You haven’t known me for a long, long time,” she countered.

  A flicker of doubt ran across his face, but he quickly turned it into disinterest. That bothered her. She wanted to hurt him like he had her. She raked her mind for something cutting to add, but came up empty.

  “So . . .” he said, after a moment of silence had passed. “Uli Rings?”

  “As if you didn’t know?”

  “How would I know that’s where you went?” He took another drink.

  “Because I bought my ticket with your credits.”

  He sputtered before working the liquid down his throat. His expression danced between stunned confusion and horror, making her realize he hadn’t checked his invoice before paying the bill.

  All this time, the fact that he hadn’t come after her had been devastating. She’d used that devastation to fuel her rage, but now she felt it escaping like air from a leaky valve. If he’d taken the time to go over his expenses, would he have come for her? Begged forgiveness?

  She snorted out loud. Knowing him, he would have demanded it. However, the idea that he
might have come after her made her hope for something she’d long since given up on.

  Yet, underneath that hope, resentment still simmered.

  “What’s funny?” Vin demanded, still reeling. She’d left him a trail to follow and he’d missed it!

  “I just figured you knew. You always keep track of your finances.”

  He mentally scolded himself. “I was a little off that day.”

  He remembered someone handing him a bill, glancing over it without really seeing, and then signing on the dotted line. It had been just after he had returned to their room, found all her belongings gone, and had started his panicked search for a pissed-off redhead.

  Gods, he had thoroughly screwed things up between them.

  Had she used his credits in an attempt at one last jab, or as a hint that she’d wanted him to follow her?

  His gut clenched, and he clung to the latter idea like a dying man to his last breath. He studied her closer. There was a stubborn shape to her lips, though she leaned back in her chair, appearing completely at ease. Her crystal-blue eyes were audacious. He could get lost in their steely depths for hours. With his gaze, he followed the smooth line of her jaw, wishing he could have his nose buried in the crook of her neck while her nails scraped along his scalp . . . his back.

  His need for her doubled. He would have followed her whether she wanted him to or not.

  “You don’t really think this will work, do you?” she asked, interrupting his thoughts.

  He shrugged, feigning nonchalance. “I don’t have a problem with it, but I’ll understand if you do.”

  As expected, she bristled. “You don’t think I can remain professional? You’re not the center of everyone’s universe, Vin.”

  Priya mentally laughed at the statement. At one point, he had been the center of her universe, but his ego didn’t need that particular piece of news.

  He smirked as if reading her thoughts. “Tell me about Mister Solar Orbit.”

  “What’s to say?” she hedged. “He’s nice.”

  “Just nice? That’s it?”

  “Do you really want me to talk about him?”

  Him. A fabricated lie in a petty attempt to make Vin jealous –which didn’t seem to be working.

  “Does he make you laugh?” His voice turned rough. “Make your blood fire?”

  No one did that anymore.

  She gulped. “He doesn’t hurt me.”

  He flinched and leaned back with his finger crooked around the neck of his bottle. “S’pose that’s something.”

  The dance number ended and a new set of girls took the stage. After watching them for a moment, Priya glanced at Vin from the corner of her eye. His lips were pressed in a hard line as he glared at his bottle. She wanted to ask him what he was thinking, but that was something a girlfriend did, and that was no longer her place. The silence between them made her feel like she was still light-years away.

  “I shouldn’t have come,” she blurted.

  His head snapped up. “Of course you should have. I bet you were just as excited as I was when you got Aidan’s transmission.”

  “Was,” she emphasized.

  His expression grew dark. “You hate me that much?”

  She shook her head, feeling a shadow of gloom fall over her. “I don’t hate you . . . that much. You have to admit, we’d make a pretty shitty team at the moment.”

  “I told you, I don’t have a problem—”

  “I have a problem with it,” she snapped.

  His continued insistence that he felt nothing grated on her.

  She pinched the bridge of her nose. “In the morning, I’m going to get a ticket back to Uli Rings. See if I can get my job back.”

  “So you’re just going to run away? Again.”

  She shot to her feet and scowled down at him. “Here,” she said, giving him a handful of credit chips. “Have a lap dance, on me.”

  Vin discarded the chips on the table, glowering after Priya as she walked away. He’d lost his taste for lap dances the day she’d left, but her words cut him deep. Just as she’d intended.

  His eyes dipped to her ass, swaying in that unconscious way that always drove him nuts. The turmoil inside him turned violent. A voice in the back of his mind screamed that he was about to lose her again.

  Can’t lose something I don’t have, he reasoned.

  Ash and Zeek returned to the table. Vin wondered how much of the show they had caught. Zeek offered him a fresh ale. He took it and downed half before coming up for air.

  “That bad?” Zeek observed.

  “Did you expect anything else?”

  “Honestly, I expected chairs to be thrown across tables.”

  “Then from that perspective, it went pretty well.” Vin sucked down more booze before saying, “She’s leaving tomorrow.”

  Ash let out a sigh. “Aidan’s going to be pissed.”

  “Who gives a fuck how Aidan feels?”

  The two men went quiet for a moment. Then Ash inquired, “How do you feel about it?”

  How did he feel? He felt like someone had chewed up his guts and spit them back out. Like his chest was about to collapse into a black hole and take this damn spaceport with it. Every muscle coiled with dread and urgency. But most of all, he felt, if he let her go this time, he would be sucked down the pit of despair that had nearly swallowed him the first time she’d walked out of his life.

  Without answering, he stood and bolted toward the ship. Inside, he rushed toward his compartment and rummaged through his things, snatching a small package and stuffing it in his pocket.

  On his way out, he passed Aidan.

  “How did it go?” Aidan yelled after him.

  “Don’t know yet!”

  Entering her tiny room, Priya flopped on the thin, lumpy mattress held up by the meager frame and placed her arms behind her head. The lack of color on the metal walls matched her dreary mood.

  She closed her eyes and let out a frustrated breath, remembering that terrible day. The day she’d caught Vin with a leggy tramp draped over him, his gaze riveted to her generous bosom. On her friggin’ birthday! She knew he’d seen her standing there in the doorway, and he hadn’t even had the gumption to look guilty.

  A knock sounded. After a short debate, she labored to her feet, knowing who it would be.

  Vin straightened as she opened the door, his russet eyes wary. “Can we speak?”

  She crossed her arms in answer.

  Turning defiant, he pushed past her, giving her a whiff of his musky scent. He smelled of hard work and man. She used to worship that scent.

  Stifling a sigh, she closed the door and gave him her best stubborn expression. Yet, on the inside, she was stupidly eager. He always did that to her. No matter how angry she was, he could always make her want him.

  Bastard.

  Silence filled the space, coated by tension.

  Finally, he spoke. “I just came to tell you I don’t want you to leave. I want to run Phase Nine with you, and I want us to win.”

  “Thank you for your opinion. I’ll take it into consideration.”

  His lips thinned.

  “Is that it?”

  “Yup.” He shrugged and lifted his palms as if at a loss.

  She stepped toward the door to let him out, but suddenly found herself being pulled back by the waist. Eyes wide, she flipped around in his arms. He’d made sure she was off balance and had to grip his shoulders for support.

  “No, that’s not it,” he hissed. “Why did you leave without a word?”

  “You know why.”

  “I know what you think you saw.” His words came out in a rush, as if he’d rehearsed them. “You know I was angry with you that day. I was already pretty drunk when I saw you at the club, and out of spite I let you think I was interested in that woman.” Sorrow entered his eyes. He shook his head. “I never assumed you’d disappear without railing at me.”

  Averting her gaze, she swallowed the lump that had built up in her thr
oat. “You told me we were finished.” She cursed the quiver in her voice. “When I saw you with her, I knew it was true.”

  “It was never true. Never,” he insisted. “Still isn’t.”

  His eyes locked on hers with such intensity it stole her breath. Her heartbeat faltered as she registered that familiar determination she used to love about him.

  Still loved about him.

  He pressed his mouth to hers, and she did nothing to dissuade him. His lips were soft and warm and molded to hers, just as she remembered. Her body responded, melting under the heat of his desire.

  When he crushed her against his chest, she felt something like desperation roll off him. Tilting her head, she deepened the kiss. He took her cue, slipping his tongue past the border of her parted lips.

  His taste flooded her and became a drug that fired in her veins, igniting her lust. A needy sound escaped her, and she began to meet him with every sweep of his tongue. Her arms latched around his neck as she pushed her body deeper into his.

  Just like that, she was lost.

  The kiss became demanding, as though both were starved for each other. He inched her backwards till he had her pressed against the wall, caged by his strong arms. The cold metal rivaled the burning heat that had come over her. She gave a soft moan. He responded with a rumbling, hungry groan. His calloused hand slipped to her backside, while the other gripped the small of her back.

  Then his kiss turned sweet as his mouth glided over hers, lazily nipping at her bottom lip. Slowly, he moved to the soft curve of her jaw, stopping just below her ear.

  “Forgive me,” he whispered. His breath caressed her skin.

  Her mind cried to relent, but she held back. “You can’t just kiss me and expect to be forgiven.”

  Against her neck, she felt his lips curve into a smile. “How about a thousand kisses?”

  “Try a million.”

  Hard yet tender, his fingers gripped her as though he would never let go. His mouth captured hers once more. She placed her palms over his broad shoulders, bringing them down his thick arms, reacquainting herself with each titillating muscle. His smooth skin felt blissful under her touch.

  Suddenly, he pulled back. “I have something for you.”

  She cocked her head. “What?” When he reached into his pocket, she rolled her eyes. “Don’t be cheeky.”