“You should have brought this directly to me.”
“My orders from the queen said differently.”
Joaquin went quiet, but she could imagine the calculating look on his face. “I’ll arrange a meeting. Wait for me to contact you. Where is your location?”
“I’m not telling you that. What I will tell you is that it would take us days to reach Breteyne if the queen remains there.”
“Where’s the trust?” His wounded tone had no effect on her.
“I’ll be standing by for further instructions, Agent Estrada.”
She cut off the communication and his response, jamming her finger down on the console hard enough to chip her nail.
Kaiden poked his head in through the door. “Everything all right?”
“Estrada’s charm has worn thin,” she replied, “but the request has been made. He’ll contact us with arrangements soon.”
“Oh. All right. I’ll leave you to your work then.” He retreated to the open space of the RV’s living room and slumped on the sofa with his head tilted back and eyes closed. She watched him for several moments, his motionless body rife with tension, and all she wanted was some way to comfort him. Somehow over the course of their mission together, Kaiden had become more than a partner—he’d become a friend, a friend who hurt so much his emotions ebbed out on a sea of anguish.
Instead of pushing him to talk, Nisrine slipped past him into the kitchen and prepared tea. Albion floated in the distance beyond the viewing pane above the counter, a tiny sphere growing smaller by the second.
“What are you going to do once we’re out of deep cover and back on the Jemison?” he asked suddenly.
“I suppose I’ll take a break to see my family on Astreya again. It’s only been a few weeks, but it feels long overdue.”
“Maybe you should take a trip for yourself then. Go spend a week on Ame Station.”
She laughed and poured two tall mugs of a tea she’d brought from her home planet, rich with the aroma of cinnamon and other warm spices. “And do what? Gamble? Watch a show? Laze my days away in the spa?”
“What’s wrong with that?”
“Nothing, I suppose. But it seems a rather lonely trip.”
Kaiden said nothing, and soon after changed the subject altogether by pointing out the arrival of an incoming message on her console. She left him at the table to open Joaquin’s recent missive, but she couldn’t shake the feeling of sensing something had gone unspoken between her and Kaiden. As if he’d had something more to say.
“Set a course for Paradiso,” she called over. “We meet with the queen in three days.”
Chapter Fourteen
The Jemison had become home, and in the time since their departure, Kaiden had begun to miss her in earnest. Jem may have kept him company in his head, but the prolonged distance between him and his brother had begun to take its toll.
Daydreaming, Kaiden lay on his back, staring at the ceiling of the darkened living room. His mind remained active despite the full day ahead of them. He even considered knocking on Nisrine’s bedroom door to request her company, but realized she’d be asleep. As he should be.
While he had finally achieved self-acceptance, his confidence in dating had been shaken. He considered Nisrine; beautiful, intelligent, charismatic, and witty. The ideal woman who viewed him as a human being rather than an object constructed in a lab.
“Kai? Are you awake?”
Nisrine’s soft voice drifted to him from the corridor. A strip of fiber-optic light in pale blue ran the length of the ceiling, casting a cool glow over his companion’s features.
He sat up and tossed his blanket aside. “Yeah. Was thinking about our meeting with the queen,” he lied.
“Same. I couldn’t sleep,” she said, settling beside him. Even in the privacy of their shuttle, Nisrine wore a shayla over her hair, the deep teal color complemented by the golden robe worn over her pajamas.
“Should I make some coffee, then?”
“I’d love a cup.”
Leaving his spot on the couch, Kaiden shuffled into the kitchen and pressed a pod into the coffee maker. He knew her fondness for caffeine poured black, strong, and sweet, so he returned with two steaming mugs mixed to their respective preferences.
Nisrine smiled. As the cup exchanged hands, their fingers touched, eliciting a current between them. “Thanks.”
For a time, they sat in silence, blowing on coffee and sipping. Watching the stars drift by in endless space through the large picture window.
“Did you want to talk about it?” Nisrine asked.
“Not really.” Kaiden inhaled a deep breath and leaned back, his eyes directed to the pale ceiling. Their close proximity struck as a reminder of what he’d avoided and sacrificed since his awakening on the Jemison. Physical contact. His cyber-enhanced brain didn’t detract from natural male urges, and he was a man in his prime, only recently turned thirty-five.
“But something is bothering you,” Nisrine guessed.
Would it be wholly inappropriate to touch his partner? Neutral zones, such as her shoulder, her hand, or even her back registered as safe, yet Kaiden lowered his hand much lower. He touched her thigh and relished the moment of contact between them, however brief. She was warm and soft beneath those layers of silk. “Maybe a little. I was thinking about what that doctor said. About how I wasn’t human. Not anymore.” He raised his palm, the words a reminder of how easily he could break her fragile limbs.
“You shouldn’t listen to him. That man was a monster.”
“I’m not worried about what other people think this time,” he insisted. “I’m worried about my brother.”
“How so?” Nisrine placed her fingers over his hand and returned it to her leg.
“He’s had enough go wrong in his life without needing this kind of stress, too. Same with Mum. Dad died while I was… gone. Between that and my situation, she’s changed. I think I hurt her when I pleaded with United Command to allow me to stay in. She wanted me home with her.”
“I’m no psychologist, but it seems natural she would worry. However, this is your life and you must adjust to it on your terms. I’m sure she understands that. Your brother does, too, and from what I know of Gareth, he’s a practical man.”
“I hope so. I’m just not ready to go home now. Hell, I don’t know what I’d do as a civilian. Sit on a porch and twiddle my thumbs for a few hours a day? Fish?” What could he possibly do to occupy his mind besides gradually go mad?
“Kai,” she said, leaning close. Her lips brushed against his unshaven cheek. “We worry because we care, but no one expects you to lose yourself again.”
Kai? She’d said it minutes ago, too, but it hadn’t registered until then. Her closeness made his heart skip a beat, but the missing pulse apparently went to his cock instead. “Some of them do,” he muttered.
“You need to relax. Here, let’s play a game of Shogun.”
“What’s the point? I’ll only beat you as usual, and that’s not much of a distraction,” he pointed out. “Maybe if it was striptease rules or something.” He chuckled at his own joke and glanced away.
“An interesting proposal.”
“I wasn’t serious.”
Nisrine’s eyes met his without blinking or shying away. “And what if I am?”
He swallowed the lump in his throat, his mind stuck trying to figure out if she was serious while his body reacted. He hardened even more, the fantasy of stripping Nisrine a delightful torment that had hounded him for days. Weeks, even. “Fine.”
“Good. The loser of each match removes an item of their own choice. Fair?” Nisrine retrieved the game from a cabinet.
“Fine,” Kaiden agreed again, more uncertain by the second. “That’s fair.”
“I expect a real game,” she warned as she set up the board between them. “No letting me win.”
“You do realize you’re going to lose, right, Nissie? You don’t have a chance of beating me.”
“Perhaps.” Her lips curved upwards. “Or maybe I will surprise you.”
“You’ve got the white side, so you get to go first.” He flourished one hand toward her and leaned back in his seat. Strip-Shogun was about as juvenile as it got, and he hadn’t played a few rounds of it since his days in boot camp. Back then, he didn’t have a computer-augmented brain. Now? He’d never wanted to win more.
Nisrine studied the layout then carefully turned her first piece. The laser beam hit a dead end but she seemed content with the result. “Your turn.”
Kaiden reciprocated by moving one of his pieces. Three turns later, they continued to feel each other out by making minute, strategic changes to the game board.
“I’ve got a beautiful set on Albion. Mum had it made for me by a master craftsman from Xiao. The pieces are carved from jade and obsidian.”
“That doesn’t surprise me since the entire crew of the Jemison knows you’re a dedicated player of the game.” The laser struck the back of one of Kaiden’s samurai pieces and removed it from the game.
“Aye. You’re lookin’ at the Ayrshire National Shogun Champ of ’05.”
By removing his samurai, Nisrine cleared a path for Kaiden to swap his Torii gate with one of her samurai pieces. When he activated the laser, it traveled in a perfect square to meet the pagoda guarding her emperor. “Thanks.”
She blinked, surprised. “I did not see that opening. Well played.”
“Aye. Now what are you going to do to save him?”
Nisrine put up a valiant effort, he’d give her that. Once or twice, an unconventional move nearly won the game back for her. In the end, Kaiden tricked her again by using her own piece. As the light gleamed off a white samurai’s sword, her emperor glowed vibrant red, indicating a win for Kaiden. He grinned at her and waited for the defeat to sink in.
Nisrine responded by removing her shayla and draping it over the back of the small sofa.
Now that’s just unfair, he thought, struck by the sudden urge to run his fingers through her hair. Unbound, she shook it out and let it tumble down her back.
“It will not be so easy this time,” Nisrine said.
She was right, it wasn’t so easy. A conflict between his software protocols and male urges made it impossible to divide his attention between the game and the hint of shoulder visible where her robe slipped to the left.
I can’t ever make fun of the Victorian era again. Look at me. Excited about hair. And one shoulder.
Despite her confidence, Kaiden won the next game by obliterating her defensive pieces. “What were you saying about easy?”
“Perhaps I am learning your strategy and lulling you into a false sense of security.”
“Aye, that you are. With impending nudity. It’s not too late to back out, you know. Just in case you were wondering.”
He sensed her brief hesitation, but he’d be a damned liar to claim he didn’t eagerly await what was coming. Astreyan culture retained many old Earth customs. The women wore veils over their hair and never showed much skin, though it was for practical reasons, protecting them from the dry planet’s unforgiving sun and harsh environment.
Nisrine shrugged off the golden robe, revealing a plum camisole top. The thin fabric left little to the imagination. Kaiden’s gaze roamed over her shoulders and down her leanly muscled arms.
“I know this is going to sound like a lame pick up line, but is it incredibly hot in here or just me? I’m practically doing you a favor by winning your clothes,” Kaiden commented an hour into the third game. It was unusual for a match of Shogun to last so long, and the heat disrupted his concentration.
His opponent grinned. “Apologies. I must have raised it a few degrees too high before retiring for bed. Thandie likes to crank the thermostat down until we have icicles dangling from the lights, so I thought I’d take advantage of having the controls.”
“If I’d known you wanted to sleep in a sauna, I would have made cold drinks at the bar instead of coffee.” Then again, wandering around on the open floor in front of her also meant showcasing the prominent bulge below his belt. He couldn’t decide if it was a good or bad idea, but the confident part of his psyche that knew he had a cock to be proud of urged him to make the drinks. Now.
“What’s stopping you from doing it now?” she asked, restrained laughter in her voice.
Kaiden grunted. After wiping his brow with the back of one hand, he fumbled a Torii gate and set it in the wrong direction. He had intended to deflect the light to his left, but it shone toward him instead, bounced off the samurai guarding his Emperor, and snaked into the side of his own figure. He swore and removed the piece from the board.
Then Nisrine sealed the end of the game four rounds later. He could have won if he hadn’t been distracted by the graceful arch of her neck and the slight gap that revealed a hint of breast. His emperor lit up before he ever realized it was in danger.
“So much for your sweeping victory,” she teased with a smile.
“It’s warm in here anyway,” Kaiden mumbled.
“Having second thoughts?”
“I’m fine,” he insisted as he pulled off his t-shirt.
Her eyes lingered until she cleared her throat. “I believe the starting layout pattern is yours this time.”
Kaiden chose a more difficult design for the next game and claimed a third victory, prompting Nisrine to rise and push the silk pajama pants beneath her hips. He tried not to stare but it was hard when what he wanted most was to help peel them off with his teeth.
The loss of her bottoms left Nisrine in purple panties, barely more than a triangle scrap of fabric in front, but they disappeared beneath the longer hem of her camisole. His gaze followed a mile of bronzed thigh.
He hadn’t played a more difficult game of Shogun since his tournament days. He struggled to defend his pieces, but as they were removed from the board, his chances of winning dwindled. Especially when his distracted gaze kept drifting to her legs.
Would bare legs distract a machine? Probably not. The realization crashed into his awareness, as reassuring as it was maddening because the goal of the game was to get Nisrine naked and a logical machine wouldn’t deviate from the task of winning for glory—not to see a pair of what he suspected would be amazing tits.
Fuck. The outline of them taunted him, her nipples peaked and stiff beneath the thin silk.
“I told you it wouldn’t be so easy.”
“You did,” Kaiden agreed, speaking in an even tone despite his discomfort. He stood and shoved down his patriotic blue and white flannel sleep pants, but the elastic waistband caught on his erection and bounced the hard bulge contained by his boxers. He was so stiff he could have knelt and flipped the table with his erection, the raging hard-on unmistakable.
He caught Nisrine watching. His internal sensors picked up the change to her vitals, her pulse spiking and pupils dilating, gaze fixed below his waist in a shameless stare. He waited for her commentary, and when she gave none, he shook off the disappointment and retook his seat.
“Ready to give up yet?”
“Nope,” she replied, dark eyes glittering like onyx jewels. When she licked her lips, his cock twitched and reminded him of how much he wanted to thrust inside her pretty mouth. “Game six?”
“Aye, may as well beat the top off you, too.”
Nisrine set up the board for their next match, stealing glances at him as often as he looked at her. The temperature in the room rose another degree. Concentration failed him, and she took two of his samurais with an easy win.
Shit.
He had to get his head in the game, had to concentrate on something besides wondering how sweet her nipples would taste. And he needed an ice-cold drink. Irritable with his failing self-control, Kaiden abandoned the sofa and went to the bar.
The android’s metal head raised when Kaiden stepped within motion-detecting range. “What will it be today, sir?”
“What do you want, Nissie?” Then he paused before asking, “Do
you drink at all?”
“Plenty, when the moment is appropriate. A moonfruit daiquiri would be nice.”
It did sound nice, cool and refreshing to counter the ridiculous temperature on the thermostat. He glanced at it with his senses, noticed it was twenty-nine degrees Celsius—a whopping eighty-four in the old and forgotten measure of the past—and blinked. “Fuck it then. Two moonfruit daiquiris.”
“Quite different from your usual selection of Gloucester stout or whiskey, sir.”
“There isn’t enough whiskey in the world for this game, mate.”
“Extra rum for you then.” The robot chuckled, programmed with an affable disposition that paled in comparison to Jem’s livelier persona, but it did the trick anyway when he needed a brief social interaction and hadn’t wanted to bother Nisrine. Hoping to distract himself from the possibility of ending the night balls out in front of Nisrine, he watched the Robo-Tender blend frozen moonfruit, rum, lime, and a dash of star fruit liqueur.
When he rejoined her on the sofa, Nisrine accepted her drink with a smile. “Thank you. Shall we begin?”
“You certain you’re ready for this? The moment of truth is coming, lass.”
Though he’d prefer if she were the one coming beneath him, or astride him, those lean thighs straddling his hips while the motion of their fucking bounced her gorgeous tits. He wanted to lick her nipples and suck them and—
A big smile curved Nisrine’s mouth.
Was she reading his mind?
“Nissie?”
“Hm?” She sipped her daiquiri.
“You’re not in my thoughts, are you?”
“I don’t need psychic powers to know what’s on your mind, Kaiden. Private Kai told me everything I need to know,” she said with a downward gesture and sweep of her hand toward his groin.
He grunted and waited for her to make the first move.
The match moved fast. Almost too fast. The previous games had given him an understanding of her high-risk, high-reward strategy, and he was so eager for a win—any win, whether it was hers or his—that he adopted the same tactics.
Kaiden (The Nova Force Book 2) Page 15