by Dani Worth
“What a miserable fucking place,” Bastian yelled as he stretched flat.
I reclined beside him, careful not to touch him. I couldn’t imagine body heat on top of this. I hoped storms were fast here.
They weren’t.
At least this one wasn’t. Hours passed and all Bastian and I could do was lie still and sweat. Exhaustion hit me at some point, but I was too uncomfortable to sleep. The heat drugged me until I lay in a state of misery. I rolled my head at one point to find Bastian in the same state, only he watched me. I offered a tremulous smile before turning away.
When the rain abruptly stopped, my ears rang for a full thirty seconds before I could sit up. The sand below us was soaked and it caked the back of my body, crawling into places I really didn’t want sand. Groaning, I shook my hands to dislodge what I could. “We’ll have to rinse off in that lake—clothes, too.”
He nodded and snatched his clothes off the ground. Clumps of sand fell from them as he walked to the edge of the lake. A more welcome kind of warmth filled my gut at the sight of his long, stunning body from the back. Nice, lean muscles rippled in his thighs. Fine auburn hair looked soft on his legs. The long, luxurious hair on his head was darker from the sweat and humidity and it stuck to his back, ending just above the most incredibly round and firm-looking ass. He turned and must have read the complete lust I was feeling on my face because a sexy smile stretched his lips.
I was too tired for anything fun, though.
Exhaustion weighted down every muscle in my body as I grimaced and decided to skip the rinse. I wasn’t walking around naked until I knew where we were and why we were here. I brushed off as much sand as I could, stumbled while pulling on my pants, and sucked in a startled breath to find Bastian had come back. I must have zoned out. He caught my arm, holding me up with a strong, steady grip. Staring up at him, I took in the dark color of his sweat-soaked hair as it stuck to his face, neck and chest. Even shiny and bedraggled, the kid had a beauty that stole my breath. He looked back, intensity narrowing his eyes until I felt the answering response in my lower body.
He was getting under my skin.
Bastian grinned and began pulling wet strands of hair off my face. “This planet sucks.” He knelt and rummaged in one of the satchels. “There must be something we can tie our hair up with in here.”
I chuckled. “You think the space pirates sent along hair clips?”
“Some kind of small rope would work.”
“Let’s just find whoever wanted Jarana.” My shoulders slumped. “And maybe a safer place to rinse off and sleep.” My vision blurred and I swayed.
Bastian was instantly on his feet, staring down at me with concern. “Let’s reverse that. Sleep, then find the bad guys.”
I could only nod, though my gut was telling me there was just one bad guy.
He hefted both satchels and put a protective hand on my arm as we left the trees. It didn’t even bother me, I was glad for the support because I was pretty sure I’d never been this tired in my life.
“There’s bound to be some kind of safe place set up away from the trees and those creatures.” He tugged me closer, leaned down. “Someone is watching us. Can you feel it?”
“Yes.” I shivered.
“You’re cold?”
I shook my head slowly. “No, I don’t feel well. I’ve never done well with knock-out gas and it’s just so hot. Let’s sit.” My legs picked that moment to give out and quicker than I could take another breath Bastian lifted me into his arms. “You can’t carry me and the bags.”
“It’s not that far and I want us away from the forest. Just relax. You don’t weigh that much.” His voice grew louder the closer we got to the roaring waterfall.
“Sure I do—I’m all muscle.”
He had to lean close to hear me. “Trust me, you aren’t all muscle. You have the most wonderful soft places…”
His voice drifted off and he continued walking. When he stopped, I lifted my head and followed his gaze. If I’d been standing, the world would have dropped out from under my feet.
Jackson Canfield, leaning against the side of a massive opening in the stone wall. I flashed back to the day after my eighteenth birthday, when he’d leaned against another wall. Heart racing, I gripped Bastian’s arms so tightly he looked down at me, genuine alarm filling his expression.
“Vala!” His yell could barely be heard over the waterfall—even in front of my face—but the tightening of his arms made me look up. He lifted an eyebrow and I could only shake my head. Didn’t have it in me to yell over the noise.
Suddenly feeling weak, I closed my eyes and leaned my head on Bastian’s chest. He shrugged off the satchels and ran, still carrying me.
Ran toward Jacks.
Chapter Five
Jacks had tried to take me when we reached the entrance by the waterfall, but Bastian wouldn’t let go. It would have shocked me if he’d handed me over to a stranger, even when it was obvious from my expression he was no stranger to me. Bastian held me close as we followed Jacks past the doorway and behind the waterfall. Suns, it was loud. Bastian tried to carefully pick his way over wet stone, and I wiggled until he was forced to let me stand. But he wrapped one arm around me.
It grew darker and the roar of the waterfall made my headache worse. We reached a point where it looked like we’d be stepping into a black abyss and I stopped. Jacks turned and held out his hand, waited patiently for me to take it.
I didn’t want to.
Bastian, his arm still wrapped around my ribs, nudged me, so I took the hand. Jacks tightened his fingers and stared at our entwined hands with a sad expression before he tugged me into the dark. With the pounding of my head, the noise and the pitch-black, I was glad for Bastian’s tight, strong hold on me.
Luckily, it didn’t take long to get to another shadowy area. At this point, my nausea was taking most of my attention. I let go of Jacks’ hand and the second we passed under the waterfall into another stone doorway, I sagged against Bastian, who immediately swung me up into his arms again. This time I didn’t complain. Not that he could have heard me. We followed Jacks through a maze of narrow stone passages that were hopefully too small for those lizard creatures. As we walked, the roar of the waterfall faded but my ears felt hollow and achy—even the sound of boots on the hard floor made me grit my teeth.
“Sometimes, it takes time to adjust to the humidity on this planet, but it’s worse when the rains come. We shouldn’t have another for at least two weeks.” Jacks’ voice was too close.
I opened my eyes wide to try and make him out in the near darkness, and gave up when a wave of dizziness hit me again.
“Don’t worry, Vala, you’ll feel better as soon as you have water and rest.”
“You know her?” Bastian asked, cradling me closer.
“Unfortunately.” I muttered the word into Bastian’s neck. Bastian was breathing hard. He was just as exhausted from the fight, the run and the rainstorm. “Hey,” I said softly. “You can put me down now. I can walk.”
He merely tightened his embrace. “You were really pale.”
“It’s not much farther,” Jacks said. “You can put her on my bed.”
I snorted. “I’m not going anywhere near your bed.”
His tone was even more subdued when he finally spoke. “You don’t have a choice. I’m not set up for guests.”
I lifted my head. “Where did you plan to put Jarana, because she certainly wouldn’t go anywhere near your bed either.”
“I didn’t plan to sleep with the Tracker. I planned to lock her up and stop her. Her little foray into my business set off alarms I didn’t need. She very nearly ruined something I’ve had planned for years.”
I lifted my head. “You planned to lock her up?”
Bastian laughed. “He’s obviously never met Jarana.”
“I can’t afford to have her mess things up. Besides, I wanted to know who hired her. Guess I have my answer on that one.” Jacks pushed open a huge
wooden door. “Christ, my brother is an idiot. What were you doing on that supply station anyway? Last I heard, you were zipping all over the galaxies.”
“Put me down, Bastian.” I didn’t leave room for argument in my tone. He set me on my feet and I leaned against him because my legs still felt wobbly. The long-sleeved waterproof shirt the pirates had given me felt clammy and scratchy against my skin. The sand adhering to it underneath even worse. I wanted it off, but I wanted to see, to really see, Jacks more.
He stood in the center of a huge room of gray stone. Legs spread, arms crossed, he stared back at me. His hair, cut close to his head, was still mostly the dark brown of Gowlen nuts, but threads of gray wove through the hair at his temples. He was leaner, more muscular and harder looking, those ice-blue eyes of his pricking like shards of glass.
“You look good, Vala.”
I didn’t. I was sweaty, pale according to Bastian, and my hair clung to my face and neck. Not that I cared what he thought of me.
“The last you heard? Have you kept tabs on me, Jackson?”
“Rumors on the wires, that’s all.”
“That’s shit and you know it. I’m not anyone to make the news—any news. And the work I do isn’t online anywhere. I fix things.”
He surprised me when something dark passed through his expression. “I heard you didn’t follow your dreams. And you had all those scholarships.”
I’d planned to study kithronite, find ways to use it to better environments. Those plans tanked not only with the loss of the scholarships, but the rare access to kithronite. And my heartbreak had quite a bit to do with my choices, too. “The Kithran scholarships, you mean?”
His lips tightened. He looked away and in that moment, I glimpsed years of pain on his face. The man had changed. A lot. I narrowed my eyes when I realized my love for him was still buried somewhere inside. Anger made me ball my hands into fists, take a step toward him. I wanted to hurt him.
“I wonder why my brother dropped you on the wrong side of the falls.”
“I should have realized that pirate captain was related to you,” I muttered. “Same cruel eyes.”
He lifted a brow. “Cruel? Claybourne?” He shook his head. “Not likely. But he was supposed to kidnap the Tracker. How did you end up in his net?”
“Stupidity runs in the family?”
The corner of his mouth twisted. He looked at Bastian. “And you are?”
“Not interested in sharing that info. You got the wrong people, so let us go home.” Bastian pulled me back against him, and I could almost feel the exhaustion pouring off him.
I looked up to give him a reassuring smile, but another wave of dizziness hit me. I slumped a little before regaining my feet.
Frowning, Jacks stalked to the corner of the room to a simulator. One of the huge, old-fashioned ones that took up serious space. I hated the things. They worked with a synthetic, vitamin-rich paste and the machine formed it into whatever you asked for. Some things stored inside were real—like water, some fruits, vegetables and spirits. But everything else tasted like artificially flavored chewy rubber. Jacks brought tubes of water to us.
A few swallows of water and I started to feel more like myself. “So, are you going to call the stupid captain brother? He can’t be far.”
“I’m sorry, I can’t. You can’t leave. I’m too close and can’t risk anyone finding out where I am.”
“Too close to what?”
“Revenge.”
My legs finally felt sturdy so I stalked to Jacks and shoved the empty tube at him. “I don’t want to be here. I don’t want to be anywhere near you.”
“Then why send the Tracker after me?”
“You know why,” I whispered as I watched the color leave his face. “I just wanted to know. You soulless bastard. I saw you running from the caves. I saw you.”
He closed his eyes. “And all these years you’ve thought—”
“Known,” I interrupted. “Known that what happened to Kithra had something to do with you. Are you going to tell me it didn’t?”
He shook his head. “I can’t.”
The cry that tore from my throat was loud and I only had time to see his eyes go wide before I slammed my fist into his nose. He stumbled back, obviously surprised by the strength of the blow. I didn’t hesitate, didn’t give him time to recover—I hit him two more times before he grabbed my arms in a viselike grip and yanked me up to him.
“Take a breath, Vala. Let me explain.”
“You need to get your hands off her.” Bastian’s tone was deceptively quiet, but the thread of warning came through loud and clear.
“Go ahead, Jackson. Tell the kid why you won’t let us go home. Tell him why you were running from the mines days before the explosions that killed almost everyone we knew. Tell him.”
“The kid?” He looked at Bastian over my shoulder. “How old are you?”
“Twenty.”
A wry smile twisted Jacks’ lips as he looked back down at me. “It’s like déjà vu. How old are you these days?”
“You know very well how old I am, because you talked about nothing but my age back then.” I tried to yank my arms from Jacks’ grip but he held strong. He didn’t even let go to wipe the blood slowly dripping from his nose. “Tell me what you did to Kithra.”
“It’s not an easy story and certainly not one for two exhausted and hungry Gwinarians. Let me feed you both and let you get some rest.”
“Years, Jackson. I’ve waited years to know the truth.”
He shook me. “So have the rest of the worlds, Vala.” He smeared the blood from his nose onto the shoulder of his T-shirt. “You going to hit me again?”
“Ever?”
He grinned. “I know better than to ask for that.”
I narrowed my eyes. “You can ask nothing from me. Do you understand? Nothing.”
He let go, his expression closed. “Yeah, Vala. I understand.” He pointed to the simulator. “It’s fully stocked with most foods. No Kithran fare.”
“Caused painful memories, did it?”
This time the look that passed through his eyes hurt me. Physically hurt me.
“More painful than you can imagine.”
“I doubt that. You didn’t lose anyone important in that blast, after all.”
“Didn’t I?” He walked to the other door in the room and opened it. “I had a bathroom with a shower installed. Go ahead and program your preferences in the panel and get showers after you eat. You’re welcome to use my bed, but I know you probably won’t. Unfortunately, I don’t have a lot of luxuries here and that bed is pretty much the only soft place to lie down. I suggest you get past your anger long enough to get a good rest.”
“Where are you going?”
“To get some fresh food.”
He left the room and I sagged on the edge of the bed and buried my face in my hands.
“You think that man is responsible for all the explosions on Kithra?”
I looked up at Bastian. I don’t think he even realized he was swaying in place. Even though I hated to admit it, Jacks was right. We needed food and rest first. Then we’d be strong enough to deal with this ridiculous situation. Shaking my head, I stalked to the simulator and programmed a simple vegetable pie into it. It was a dish most simulators couldn’t mess up. A six-inch diameter personal serving of vegetable protein, spices and enough nutrients to replenish our bodies. One minute later, I handed the pie to Bastian, who looked around for a table.
“There’s only the one in the corner with all the clothes on it. No chairs. It’s hard to believe Jacks lives like this. He always liked his creature comforts.”
Bastian sat on the end of the bed. “I get the feeling he’s nothing like he was when you knew him. The man has suffered.”
“Good.”
He took a bite of the pie, chewed while he stared at me. He swallowed. “Vala, I think he hates himself as much as you hate him. Just listen to him—that’s all I ask. Sometimes…sometime
s there’s more to a person’s story. Reasons why they did bad things.”
I grabbed another pie and sat next to him. “Why do you care whether I listen to him or not?”
He shrugged. “The man’s got a glare that makes my balls shrink, but I don’t sense any danger from him.” He looked down at his lap. “I’ve become very good at picking out bad seeds over the years. I don’t think he’s one of them. And, Vala, the man cares for you. Deeply.”
I shook my head. “Bastian—”
“No,” he interrupted. “You’re too smart not to know there’s more to the story.”
I took a bite of the pie, surprised to find it was better than I expected. I searched Bastian’s eyes, feeling a smile tug at the corner of my mouth. “You are something else. How did you end up so kind after growing up in an orphanage?”
He shrugged, chewed another bite of food. “I’m not as kind as you think. I’ve done some bad things, Vala.” He set the plate in his lap. “Really bad things. I hope the people I’ve hurt will someday forgive me.”
“Who did you hurt, Bastian?”
“A friend. A long time ago. I lost him when I should have held on to him.”
There was a lot more to this story, but I saw true exhaustion sagging his shoulders, watched as his chewing grew slower. I hurriedly finished my pie, then looked around, trying to figure out how Jacks washed his plates. Shrugging, I set them on the rickety table then came back to the bed to hold out my hand. “Let’s hold each other up in that shower.”
We ended up literally doing that. Jacks’ palm reader had a glitch and I had to program our preferences into it twice, and still the first stream of water that hit us was freezing. I would have enjoyed thoroughly soaping Bastian from head to toe, but we were too tired for anything more than a perfunctory wash before we stood under the stream and just held on to each other. The water was nice and warm now, and I placed my cheek on his chest, listening to his heartbeat as I closed my eyes.
Bastian had his back against the simulated glass panel as I leaned on him. Even as exhausted as we were, desire uncurled between us. What I felt for him was growing stronger, and it was so very different from the desperate ache I’d carried for Jacks. This was warmer, comforting…yet all those warm fuzzies were laced with an edgy excitement. I pulled back and looked up to find his eyes closed, a small smile on his sexy mouth. I stood on my toes, wrapped my arms around his neck and pressed my breasts to his chest. He slowly opened those dark eyes.