Entropy

by Jess Anastasi

“No, we don’t,” Rian answered firmly before Varean could. “Baden Niels won’t stop coming for Ella. He won’t stop coming for me. And if he knew about this entanglement entropy thing we’ve got going on, he’d probably come for Varean, too.”

  Kira glanced up at Varean in alarm, while Varean sent him a look that said Rian had gone there on purpose to scare Kira. The commando might have thought it was a low blow, but when it came to the Reidar, there was very little Rian wouldn’t say or do to achieve his ends.

  “So we’re definitely doing this?” Qae didn’t even bother hiding the glee in his voice. He was probably already getting off on the idea of raiding Niels’s ships and warehouses, stealing crap, and blowing shite up. His cousin was an anarchist at heart.

  “We’ll run it by the rest of the crew to make sure everyone’s onboard.” Though he didn’t see why they wouldn’t be. For a year now, they’d been all but twiddling their thumbs. They were long past due for some action. And he was sick of only ever reacting to the latest shite the Reidar had thrown at them. It was time they took the fight to the aliens. Time to advance instead of simply standing their ground. “But yeah, we’re doing this.”

  Qae sent him a satisfied nod and shot a smile at Cami that was almost intimate. Frecking jezus. He really didn’t want to know. If Qae was dumb enough to go there—especially after promising Blackstone that he wouldn’t touch her—there was no hope for him, and Rian was washing his hands of it.

  “Let’s go catch everyone up.”

  The others nodded and filed out of the small medbay, while Kira tidied up what little mess had been made.

  Out in the corridor, Rian found Ella waiting for him as the others disappeared up the stairs. He made sure they were out of earshot before settling his attention on her.

  “Something wrong, princess?”

  Her lips quirked at his use of her nickname, probably because he hadn’t used it for a while.

  “I’m just surprised at how well you’re taking this.”

  He settled his hand on his weapons belt, taking a moment to think over her words.

  “Actually, I’m surprised at how well I’m taking it,” he admitted. Going on his own track record, he would have sworn something like this would have made him—what had Varean called it?—rage out. He still wasn’t happy about it, but there were worse things that could have happened to him.

  Maybe he’d just reached his quota of weird shite happening to him and wouldn’t ever be surprised about anything ever again. Or maybe it was simply that the connection had already been there with the two of them, this had simply solidified it. He still didn’t get what this was going to mean long-term. Maybe when he wasn’t distracted by getting his ship back and taking down Baden Niels, he’d have time to be really pissed at the universe for landing him in the middle of some quantum bullshite. No time now to dwell on the hows and whys of it. Although, he was curious.

  “Have you known other Arynians who have this entanglement entropy thing?”

  She shook her head, hair gleaming in the lights on the bulkhead above her. “It’s been many generations since any Arynians have achieved the entropy of entanglement.”

  “And the ones who did, what did it mean for them?”

  “They advanced our teachings. Did great things. They could see the universe in a way the rest of us couldn’t.”

  “Do they always come in threes, or are we just special?”

  Her brow creased. “Actually, I’ve never heard of it happening in a trio. Twos, usually. There have been very rare instances of fours recorded in our history, but three seems… I’m not sure. There is a unique symmetry to it. If I had access to the archives on Aryn, I could research it.”

  “We could go there. After we deal with Niels and get the Imojenna back,” he heard himself offering before he’d even thought about it.

  “No!” Ella flinched back a step and a spike of—fear?—registered in the part of his mind that now belonged to her before she regained her composure. “It would be too dangerous. The Reidar would have to be watching, waiting for me to go back so they can grab me.”

  She smoothed her hands over her skirts and the priestess mask, the one he hadn’t seen her use in months slipped back into place.

  “I’ll meditate over it. I may have already read what I need to know, it’s just a matter of finding it in my mind.”

  Before he could say anything else, she hurried up the stairs.

  What had that been all about? Because he got the feeling it hadn’t just been about the Reidar. As much as he thought he’d become familiar with Ella, he realized he barely knew anything about her.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Qae grabbed a few leftovers from dinner and shoveled them onto a plate. He’d missed eating with everyone else earlier because he’d been taking a shift at the helm. The ship mostly flew itself, but they’d been skirting a dense debris field leftover from a huge battle that’d taken place around fifteen years ago during the height of the Assimilation Wars.

  Pieces of ships and stations were scattered for millions of miles in this particular system. Most of the good stuff had been scavenged over the years, though rumor had it there was a treasure trove of tech and weapons right in the center for anyone dumb enough to try and get in and out in one piece—probably impossible.

  After leaving the Black Docks, they’d set a course for the Shrijav debris field to shake anyone who might have followed them. He was fairly sure no one had, but to stay on the safe side, they’d spent the entire day skimming through the outer edges of the debris, losing themselves in the remnants of the past.

  Jase had taken over on the bridge, and after they’d chatted about a few things, the ex-IPC officer had unceremoniously ordered him to go eat.

  He’d given a sardonic salute, which had earned him an adorable smile from Jase, before he’d headed over to the galley to do as he was told.

  The rest of the crew wasn’t around, though going on the noise emanating from the bottom of the ship, he was guessing some kind of game was taking place in the cargo hold. Though that kind of thing was always more than a little entertaining—especially when the others accused him of cheating, which he totally did—he was in the mood for a little solitude while he ate. Before he’d taken a shift on the bridge, they’d spent the day planning how they were going to get to Baden Niels and take down his company. They’d come up with a skeleton of a plan, but Tannin had to do a little research before they finalized it.

  He went into his cabin and tabbed up some music on his view screen, half watching the video clips as he polished off his food. Truthfully, his desire for solitude came down to one thing. Or should he say one person: Cami Blackstone.

  She’d taken the revelation about the Reidar better than anyone ever had. He’d already known she was the type of person to roll with the punches—figuratively, but sometimes literally as well—yet, she’d still surprised him. She kept surprising him, and that was half the reason he was falling hard for her.

  When they’d been sitting down in the cargo bay, after he’d told her the whole sordid story and she’d taken it in her stride, it’d been all he could do not to kiss her. He’d seen the reflection of it in her eyes. If he’d closed the distance between them, she would have kissed him right back. Which inevitably would have led to other things.

  Except that damn promise he’d made to her father stood in his way, as unmovable as a brick wall. He was cursing himself for making that vow.

  When they eventually got back to Tripoli, he would have to confront Rene Blackstone and ask the pirate lord if he could date his daughter like this was ancient Earth and the girl didn’t have a mind of her own.

  Frecking ridiculous.

  Until then, he was going to have to find a way to keep some distance between them, which he was finding harder and harder by the hour. It didn’t help that he was haunted by the memory of exactly how good things could be between them—and that had only been a taste.

  His feelings for her had evolved well be
yond simple lust. Empty desire he could have easily distracted himself from. But they’d connected on a deeper level, starting with when she’d handcuffed herself to him and ending with earlier today when they’d been planning the assault on Baden Niels, and they’d worked seamlessly together.

  It also didn’t help that he’d agreed to let her share his cabin in a moment of stubborn stupidity because he hadn’t wanted to concede how she’d gotten under his skin. They’d slept next to each other every night—sometimes cuddling, sometimes not. They were literally like an old married couple, complete with no sex, while they spent all their time together.

  He couldn’t decide if it was hilarious or utterly absurd. But at the same time, he couldn’t deny that he found a comfort and ease in her company he’d never experienced with anyone else.

  The door to his cabin opened and Cami walked in, smiling when she saw him. She was a little flushed—obviously whatever had been going on down in the cargo hold had been kind of strenuous.

  “Finished your shift on the bridge?” She came over and dropped down on the padded bench next to him.

  “Jase took over a little while ago.” He leaned over to set his empty plate on the nearby table.

  “Do you think we’ll be able to pull this off?” she asked as he sat back again and slouched deeper against the cushions.

  “It might seem hard to believe, but we’ve pulled off crazier schemes.”

  She smiled at him. “I’ve got no doubt about that. It’s the complexity of it that gets me. A lot of this is riding on Tannin’s abilities.”

  “He won’t let us down.” If Tannin didn’t think he could do it, he would have said so. And considering some of the things Rian had gotten Tannin to hack since the ex-Erebus inmate had joined the crew, he couldn’t see that what they were talking about here was such a stretch of his skills.

  His musings were interrupted when he heard a click and then felt a light weight around his wrist. He lifted his arm as Cami grinned at him.

  “Is there a reason we’re reverting back to the handcuff stage of our relationship?”

  “Oh, I’m not cuffing myself to you this time.” There was a wicked glint in her eyes and the logical part of his mind—the parts that were concerned with things like self-preservation and keeping his promise to the most infamous pirate in the universe—were screaming at him to get up and run from the room as fast as he could.

  However, the parts of him that had already given way to Cami kept him right where he was.

  “You’re not?” he asked, expecting another witty reply from her. But she simply reached over and grabbed his other hand so she could snap the second cuff around it.

  “Cami.” There was a definite rumble of warning in his voice, but no doubt they were both aware that if he really wanted to stop whatever was happening, he would have simply gotten up and left—handcuffs or not.

  “I’ve been thinking—”

  “A dangerous prospect, I’m coming to realize,” he muttered, earning a lightly indignant glare from her.

  “I’ve been thinking,” she repeated in a determined voice. “About how you promised my father that you wouldn’t touch me. At first, I thought it didn’t really matter. It wasn’t why I came along on this little jaunt. But the problem is, Qae, that I really like you.”

  “Do you just?” He sent her a smug grin, trying to cover the way his heart had started pounding like he was actually…nervous? Probably because he knew this was a bad, bad idea. But apparently, he didn’t have the god-given sense to stop it.

  She shifted, swinging a leg across his thighs and then settling in his lap.

  “Don’t pretend you don’t like me as well,” she murmured, sliding forward, pressing her hips closer to his, leaving him inhaling sharply. He was getting hard, and there was no way to hide it with the way she was pressed against him. “I can tell that you do.”

  “I wouldn’t bother wasting the energy on pretending I don’t like you, Cami. You know that’s not what’s going on here.” He kept his tone serious. One last ditch effort to hold out against her—weak as it was.

  “I know. It all comes down to that promise you made my father.” She reached down and took his cuffed hands and stretched his arms above his head, pinning them against the wall above the padded bench seat they were sitting on. “But you see, I didn’t make any kind of promise to my father. So to my mind, I can touch you as much as I want. And so long as you keep your hands to yourself, then technically you’re not breaking your word.”

  “That’s some pretty thin logic you’re peddling there.” The words came out rough because his breathing had become uneven.

  She set a hand against his cheek. “I prefer to call it thinking outside the box.”

  “You’re so far outside the box I doubt you can even see it,” he replied with a slight shake of his head.

  “Do you really want to keep debating semantics? Because otherwise, I’m going to leave you handcuffed here by yourself while I go have fun on my own.”

  “Like hell.” He closed the distance between them, capturing her mouth. Wait. Did that count as touching? Too late. He was way beyond caring.

  Cami slid her hand from his cheek into his hair, catching a handful and sending a shudder down his spine as she deepened the kiss.

  He clenched his hands into fists, wishing like hell he could get them on her ass and rock her up against him, but if he tried anything—cuffed hands or not—she’d end this game as quickly as she’d started it.

  Instead, he slid his tongue against hers, earning a low moan from her. And just like he’d been craving, she rocked up against him, creating enough friction between their bodies that his eyes almost rolled into the back of his head.

  His body was getting tight all over and he was fighting the urge to put her down on the cushions and take her with all the frustration he’d bottled since he’d met her, when she’d jerked him off then sashayed out of his ship like no one’s business.

  As he was reminding himself that technically he couldn’t touch her, which meant sitting here and taking whatever she saw fit to give him, she broke the kiss and pushed back from him to climb to her feet.

  He wanted to ask her what she was doing and why she’d stopped, but his brain had disconnected from his mouth and he couldn’t form words. Especially as she reached down and snapped free the fastener of her pants. He could only watch while she stripped off her pants, then started on her shirt, slipping open one catch at a time until the material was gaping to reveal a simple black bra. Nothing lacy or seductive, but sexy as hell.

  She climbed back onto the padded bench to straddle him once more, kneeling up as she tugged at his belt with a wicked smile titling her lips up. He leaned forward, mouth landing on her upper chest, tasting the sweet softness of her skin.

  “Why don’t you take off everything?” he asked in a low, husky voice.

  Her naked on top of him? Yeah, that’d be about the best thing that’d ever happened to him.

  “This is enough,” she replied as she finished with his belt and opened his pants.

  He sucked in a sharp breath as she wrapped a firm hand around his erection and freed him from the confines of the material.

  “Cami.” That note of warning was back in his voice. But unfortunately, the only effect it had on her was to make her grin widen. “No teasing this time.”

  “Oh, you mean like this?” She stroked her hand up and down the length of him, leaving him clenching his teeth over a moan. He didn’t think his sanity could take it again. Tempting him with the thought of being inside her, only to meet a premature end.

  Still, he couldn’t help thrusting into her hand, letting his head fall back against the cushions behind him with a deep groan.

  Cami kissed his jaw, her lips grazing his ear. “Don’t have all the fun without me.”

  He lazily opened his eyes to look at her, relishing the fact he’d given her complete control.

  “It’s got nothing to do with me. I’m just sitting here
minding my own business.”

  She gave a quick laugh. “Is that so?”

  “Uh-huh.” He held her gaze defiantly as he rocked slow and deep against her hand, even though at this point he was only torturing himself.

  Her eyes darkened, breath hitching before she kissed him again.

  This time there was a hint of wildness in the way they kissed each other, as though all the games and pretenses had fallen away, leaving them as two people desperate for their worlds to collide in the most intimate way.

  Cami shifted slightly and lowered herself as she let him go, but only because she was sinking onto him, slowly, maddeningly, taking him within her by the most gradual degrees. It was all he could do not to thrust upward, but without being able to grip her hips for leverage, it would have been a waste of energy. She had complete control.

  All he could do was sit there and let her ride him—a prospect that was making sweat break out on his brow and his body clench all over.

  She didn’t disappoint. Right away, she set into a rhythm obviously designed to drive him to oblivion. Though he’d often boasted and prided himself in his sexual stamina, he wasn’t going to be able to claim that this time. She had him too worked up.

  Ever since that first night he’d met her, he’d been on edge but doing everything in his power to ignore it. Had himself off in the shower whenever he could get away with it to keep the cravings for her at bay. He would have determinedly kept ignoring it if she hadn’t decided to take things into her own hands. At least that’s what he’d told himself. But now, as she undulated against him, he knew he’d been fooling himself.

  It would only have been a matter of time before he’d cracked and given in—promise to her father or not. No doubt the guilt would have eaten at him and he would have worried over her father’s retribution. This way, she’d effectively taken the responsibility out of his hands. Perhaps it was the same thin logic she’d applied in the first place, but he wasn’t going to let himself worry about it.

  Not when waves of pleasure were surging higher and higher through him, and Cami was moaning in a way that had him clenching his fists until his knuckles ached.