She ran again, and as she was about to jump over his bed again, he snaked an arm out. He caught her around the waist and yanked her back against him. She twisted and struggled wildly.
Malax was trying desperately not to hurt her. She was so small, and he was more than aware that he was far bigger and stronger than she was.
He spun her around, and she made a choked noise. Then she lifted her knee, ramming it between his legs.
He swiveled at the last second and her knee rammed into his thigh. Hard.
At least she’d missed her original target. Still, he grunted, and his leg gave out. They tumbled onto the bed.
More wrestling. She kicked and flailed. Enough of this. He rolled and pinned her beneath him.
They both went still.
Cren. His hips fell between her open legs, and their bodies pressed together. She smelled good. He breathed deep, and realized it was the scent of his own soap on her hair. She felt good, too. So soft.
Blue eyes went wide. Her hair was tangled around her face, and she looked winded. Then she lifted a hand, her fingers brushing down his cheek.
It was such a small touch, and yet Malax felt it all the way through his body, right to his hardening cock.
“What are you doing to me?” he growled as he lowered his head until their lips were a whisper apart.
“I have no idea,” she murmured. “But you’re doing it to me, too.”
He shifted, which only succeeded in pressing his stiff cock harder into her body. They both groaned.
“God, stop,” she said. “I can’t have you mesmerizing me like this.”
He blinked. “Wren—”
“Sorry, you are gorgeous and all, but I took a vow to steer clear of guys like you.”
“Guys like me?”
“Big, muscled, ripped.”
Ripped? He frowned at her.
“Not to mention guys who want to lock me in their brig. So, I have to do this.” She shifted her other hand, and he felt her slap her tablet against his shoulder.
An electric shock ran through his body.
Gritting his teeth, Malax’s body shuddered. His muscles locked tight, none of his limbs under his control.
He managed to meet those blue eyes and he thought he saw regret in them.
“It’s a localized charge I designed for close quarters combat.” She bit her lip. “I’m really, really sorry, WC.”
* * *
Wren heaved and finally, on attempt number three, succeeded in rolling the war commander’s prone body off her. He flopped onto the bed beside her.
She sat up, her skin tingling and her belly fluttering. God, she’d just stunned an Eon war commander.
If he was pissed before…
She looked down at him. Her gaze started at the heavy boots on his feet and skimmed up the black trousers covering his long legs. Damn, the man had big, muscular thighs. She skimmed over the bulge she’d just felt pressed between her thighs, her throat going dry. His black, sleeveless shirt was suction tight, and she could see the outline of all the ridges of his cut abdomen under the fabric. Hell. His body was unreal. No one should have that many abs. He made Lance look like a couch potato. She moved her attention up over his chest and his bulging biceps.
Wow. Just…wow.
She reached out and stroked his arm, her gaze moving upward. Her eyes locked with his. She jolted. He was still conscious and watching her. With furious eyes.
“You’re sure easy to look at.” And apparently, I have a weakness for good-looking, fit men. Her cheeks were flaming, but she could hardly hide the fact she’d been blatantly checking him out.
He glared at her.
Right. He was all cut perfection and warrior discipline. And she was…not cut. And not very disciplined. Wren was sure he preferred statuesque, warrior-woman types. Like her sisters.
Hello, Wren. Get out of there before he can move again. He should be out cold from the shock she’d given him. She shifted, getting ready to leave, when her gaze fell on the helian circling around his thick wrist. Fascinating. Curious, she touched it and felt a pulse of warmth from it. Whoa.
“Look—” she forced herself back to the matter at hand “—I need to get the Rengard to the meeting point with the Space Corps. I don’t want anyone to get hurt.” Her nose wrinkled. “Well, any more than they already have. I am sorry about the stunning thing.” She eyed him. “I can feel your angry thoughts battering at me.”
It was true. His emotions practically filled the room. It was a weird feeling.
She patted his chest and then slid off the bed. Her eyes went to the damaged panel in the ceiling above her. God, she was going to have to climb up there again.
Well, she couldn’t bounce on the bed this time, because the giant, stunned warrior was sprawled on it.
Glancing around, she grabbed a chair from the desk and dragged it over. She climbed up, then jumped for the hole.
She missed. Shit. She tried a few more times, trying to grip the edge. Soon, she was out of breath. This entire situation was made worse by the fact that Malax was watching her ungraceful attempts to escape.
Finally. She grabbed the edge of the vent tunnel and pulled herself up. She checked her tablet was safe in her pocket, then dropped her head down through the hole. She looked at Malax upside down.
“Catch you later, War Commander.”
He shot her another furious glare, just as alarms started blaring.
Startled, she jerked, thumping her shoulder on the side of the hole. Ouch. Damn, did the Rengard’s warriors know what she’d done to their war commander?
Best not to stick around to find out. Time to go. With one last glance at the furious alien warrior sprawled on the bed, she ducked back into the vent tunnel.
Time to get, while the getting was good.
* * *
The effects of the stun slowly wore off, and Malax sat up with a curse. By Alqin’s axe, that Terran was infuriating, surprising, and annoying.
Shaking his head to clear it, he touched his communicator. The ship’s alarms were still blaring and he needed to find out what was going on. “Report.”
Airen’s calm voice came across the line. “I’ve been trying to reach you. We have Kantos on scanners.”
Malax swallowed another curse. “Are they attacking?”
“No. They’re still too far away, but they’re interested.”
“Cut the alarms, but keep the ship on alert. Monitor the Kantos. I’ll be on the bridge shortly.”
“Malax, we need full control of the ship,” his second said. “We only have limited weapons’ control.”
“I know. I’ll take care of it.”
He stood slowly, testing his limbs, his hands finally going to his hips. The Rengard was just sitting there, floating in space. A big target for the Kantos, or any other enemies who wanted to get their hands on a high-tech Eon warship.
He looked around his cabin. It was a mess. He strode across the space, searching for any clue that Wren might have left behind. He glanced at the broken ceiling panels and made a mental note to have maintenance fix them. Then, he spotted something in the washroom, hanging off the corner of his clothes cleaner.
He strode over and grabbed the silky scrap of fabric. He held it up and his gut hardened.
It was a tiny pair of women’s panties. He studied the scrap of pink lace, and then, against his better judgement, he shoved them in his pocket.
Striding out of his cabin, he marched down the corridor and touched his communicator.
“Wren?”
“The alarms stopped,” her voice came through clearly. “I’m assuming everything’s okay?”
“No, everything is not okay. The Kantos are in range.”
He heard her hiss across the line.
“I need control of my ship, Wren. I need engines and weapons. We need to get out of here.”
There was a pause. “I’ll give you weapons.”
He growled. “Wren, I’m not tricking you. Your sisters
are safe and mated. The Eon have an alliance with Earth—”
“People lie all the time, Malax. And then they let you down.”
He frowned. Who had done that to her?
“Look,” she said. “I am really sorry about stunning you.”
“What about almost kissing me?”
Now a strangled sound came across the line. “You almost kissed me. And you rubbed yourself up against me!”
“You appeared to enjoy it.”
“Don’t make fun of me.”
He frowned. “I’m not—”
“Just stop talking.”
“It also appeared you enjoyed messing up my cabin. “
A pause. “Well, I’m a little sorry about that.”
“Just a little?”
“Look, I’ve got to go, WC.”
The line went dead, and again, he wondered where she was, if she was okay, if she was hungry. Malax shook his head, continuing on his way to the bridge.
Here he was, the famed War Commander Dann-Jad, worrying about a small, Terran woman who’d hijacked his ship, when he should be worried about his warriors and his warship.
Time to focus on his cren-cursed job.
Chapter Four
Wren was sick of crawling. She turned a corner into yet another tunnel and kept moving.
At least she was clean.
And it was kind of a bonus that she got to rub up against a hot guy.
Her skin flushed. She’d never anticipated this reaction to an Eon war commander. She wondered what exactly Malax did to have so many muscles.
Quit daydreaming, Wren. After Lance, she was well aware that her taste in men was off. Her sisters hadn’t liked Lance from day one, but Wren hadn’t seen it. She’d been so flattered that he’d been interested in her, and the sex had been pretty good. It had taken catching him doing a long-limbed, naked yoga instructor on his office desk for her to see the truth. I needed something you couldn’t give me, babe. What an asshole. He’d always made snide remarks about her: her body, her intelligence, her bank balance. She’d earned way more than him and he hadn’t liked it. God, she was so stupid to fall for it.
Shaking her head, she checked her tablet. She’d retrieved her mostly empty backpack and was moving back toward the room with the energy signature. She really hoped it would be a good little hiding place to hole up.
Her thoughts turned to the Kantos. Damn alien bugs. She hated that they were close. She needed to give control of the ship back to Malax. No way she’d risk the lives of everyone on board for Space Corps’ little game of galactic chess.
She paused. Was it possible that Eve and Lara were really mated to Eon warriors? That Earth had an alliance with the Eon Empire?
Eve and Lara mated? Wren shook her head at the idea. No way.
Neither of her sisters had ever had much time for men. Both were dedicated to their careers—or Eve had been, before her imprisonment. When her sisters had taken up with a guy, they both kept it simple, with no ties.
Wren kept crawling, frustration building when she felt the vent tunnel shift upward. She groaned.
Grunting and huffing, she pulled herself upward, and then finally she was alongside the strange energy signature. She searched the vent walls until she found a panel. She pulled out her AllDriver. With a few whizzes, the screws were undone, and the panel came loose.
Blue light flooded into the vent shaft.
Whoa. She quickly squeezed her way inside, and found there was enough space for her to stand.
She rose. Double whoa. The circular space wasn’t huge, and all around the walls, glowing blue crystals were set into the wall. There were big ones—almost as big as she was—and small ones that would fit in the palm of her hand. In the center of the space was a small table, and in the middle of it was a growth of blue crystals that made her think of the kiddie crystal experiments she’d loved to grow when she was little.
Walking closer, she reached out and stroked one of the large crystals on the wall. A shadow moved inside it and she snatched her hand back.
What the hell?
More shadows moved within the crystals and her heart thumped. With a start, she realized what it was—helians. Oh, wow. Somehow, the Eon had embedded their symbionts into the Rengard’s systems.
This was fascinating. She’d never heard of anything like this before. She lifted her tablet, scanning the room. The helians obviously played some important role in the ship’s systems. Thoughts raced through her head as she imagined the possibilities. Man, what she wouldn’t give to be able to research this.
You aren’t in your computer lab, Wren. Sighing, she set her tablet down on the central table, her gaze on the crystal formation in the center of it.
It wasn’t just amazing, it was pretty, too.
Her scans confirmed that the energy the crystals were giving off wasn’t dangerous. It was safe for her to be in there.
With her tablet still running scans, Wren dropped down on her butt. Tiredness was dragging on her. She leaned her head back against the wall and sighed. She was so tired. She hadn’t slept in a real bed for almost a week. She rubbed her eyes.
Hmm, she knew Malax’s bed would be comfy. Even comfier with the war commander in it. Oh, God. She rolled her eyes. Their little moment in his cabin aside, she couldn’t let herself obsess over the man. One, he wanted to kill her. Two, she’d hijacked his ship. Three…she couldn’t think of a three, but she was sure there was another good reason.
Right, focus on your mission. She opened her backpack and pulled out one of her last energy bars. They tasted one step up from cardboard, but hijackers couldn’t be fussy. She munched in silence, enjoying the play of blue light from the crystals.
Without realizing it, Wren dozed off. Her tired brain daydreamed, and she imagined strong arms wrapped around her, a hard body pressed against hers. “You’re safe, Wren. I’ll take care of you.”
It had been forever since she’d felt safe. Her space marine father had died when she was little and her mother had turned to alcohol to cope. Her sisters had been her only security. They’d been the ones to pack her lunch and braid her hair.
“You’re so beautiful, Wren.”
The echo of the deep, dream voice jolted Wren awake. Hmm, interestingly enough, that voice had sounded suspiciously like a certain war commander.
Her foot had gone to sleep, and she stretched her leg out, jiggling it to get rid of the uncomfortable pins and needles. She rubbed her eyes and glanced towards her tablet.
She froze.
Her tablet was exactly where she’d left it. But a small, blue crystal was crawling on it.
What the hell? She rubbed her eyes again, then rose.
Yep, a small, blue crystal was moving over her tablet screen. As she watched, it began to melt, like it was being absorbed into her tablet.
“No!” She leaped forward and snatched up the tablet. She couldn’t afford to lose it. It was the only thing that allowed her access to the ship’s systems.
The blue had spread over the screen. She touched it, and it stuck to her fingers like glue. She pulled her hand away, and the substance stretched like bubblegum.
Oh, no. Some was stuck to her hand and she shook her fingers. Then, the blue stuff began to crawl up her hand. Ew. She shook it again, but the substance wouldn’t budge. She watched it circle around her wrist, forming a thin, blue line. She was wearing a small leather bracelet that Eve had given her years ago, and as she watched, the blue goo mimicked the weave of the leather bracelet. She now had a new blue bracelet.
She tugged at it, but it wouldn’t budge. Great.
Suddenly, her tablet went crazy, the screen blinking and flickering.
“No!” Not her baby.
Wren frantically tapped the screen. The blue substance was gone now, except for a faint blue glow around the screen. She tried to reboot the tablet, but the screen stayed stubbornly black.
Come on. Come on. She shook the device. This couldn’t be happening to her. Her throat ti
ghtened, and she tapped the screen again.
She dropped down, her throat tight and tears threatening. She swallowed, fighting back the burn. She wouldn’t cry. As a little girl, she tried not to cry and make things harder for Eve and Lara. Even when she’d found her mom drunk again, or the kids at school had teased her for being smart or a klutz.
All of a sudden, the screen flared to life. She gasped, and her heart started beating again. She tapped in some commands, checking all her data and programs.
She blew out a relieved breath. They were all still there.
“Hello, Wren.”
The warm, female voice coming from her tablet almost made her drop it. “Um…”
“I like your Earth technology.”
Wren tilted her head. Her tablet hadn’t made a communication link with anyone. Who the hell was talking to her?
Feeling more than a little silly, Wren stared at her tablet. “Who are you?”
“I am an Eon helian-enhanced tech crystal. I help run the Rengard warship.”
Holy cow. “So, you’re a program? Or are you alive?”
“I’m both.”
Hmm, so this was some sort of Eon, organic-enhanced artificial intelligence. Somehow, the helian had tapped into her tablet.
“Um, so you’re just checking out my tablet?”
“I am now bonded with your tablet.”
Wren froze. Oh, shit. “So, you can un-bond with my tablet?”
“No.” The voice sounded amused.
Wren lifted her hand and touched the blue circle around her wrist. “And this?”
“And I’ve also bonded with you, Wren Traynor.” The voice sounded pleased with itself. “I can use the wristband to communicate with you.”
With her other hand, Wren plucked at the blue band again. It was stuck fast. “I’m not really sure how I feel about this.”
Suddenly, the ship shuddered, knocking Wren over. She tumbled to her knees, and then was jerked sideways. She landed on her ass.
“What’s happening?” she cried.
“A Kantos kill squad has boarded the Rengard,” the voice from her tablet said calmly.
“What?” Wren yelped. The damn woman, thing, helian, tablet—whatever the hell the thing was—didn’t have to sound so calm about it.
Heart of Eon: Eon Warriors #3 Page 3