Chapter 6 #2
“Feel around, you’ll find the tab,” he assured me.
“They are stimulants that will increase my healing rate. I’ll be better far sooner than they’ll expect.
” That sounded great, but did he really expect me to just feel his thigh and find this mysterious pocket?
It made heat rise to my cheeks, my stomach twisting.
Touch him casually while he was still tied up?
It felt naughty, illicit, and I had to scold myself for thinking that way.
This was life or death, a simple action that would help us escape.
This wasn’t about attraction, and he probably wasn’t even attracted to me.
What happened earlier had just been a physical response, a reflex.
I knelt on the floor by his feet, biting my lip as I reached for his leg.
I aimed for the most obvious spots first, ones where I’d expect a pocket to be, or seams that might indicate an opening.
Nothing, and Flack didn’t help either, just watched me with glowing eyes and a smile curling his sexy mouth like he was enjoying the show.
He probably enjoyed the way I was patting his leg, too.
I was getting a little desperate to find this mystery pocket, and bolder as I rushed to get it over with.
That big thigh, all tense muscle and implied strength, was a little too tempting to touch.
“Ah,” Flack jerked beneath my hand. “A little too far to the left, little one.” My head shot up, eyes widening as embarrassment washed over me.
Had I just… touched his cock by accident?
Pocket! I just needed to find one stupid pocket!
“Try lower, by my knee,” he said into my shocked face, laughter curling through the air between us.
I didn’t think he was laughing at me, but he was definitely amused.
My hand tingled, my fingers recalling the shapes I’d touched all too well.
Against my will, I was trying to piece together his form—what his cock had felt like beneath my touch—but I was too frazzled for it to make any sense.
Lower, on the outside of his leg, by his knee, there was indeed a pocket.
I finally found it when I leaned in closer and studied his pants before touching.
Yes, a seam, different from the others, and something tucked into the protective padding that shielded his knees.
I drew the injector out with a triumphant smile and a whole lot of relief.
“Good job, clever girl,” Flack said. Back when I was in college and in charge of my dorm floor, that would have pissed me off something fierce.
It would have felt patronizing back then, but now?
It felt like he was celebrating a win, genuinely pleased I’d found it.
When I rose and saw his expression, I was pretty sure he’d enjoyed that entire encounter.
It was very, very hard not to look at his crotch and check if he’d gotten hard.
Heat stained my cheeks even more fiercely.
I looked at the injector instead, taking off the safety cap and then finding the right button.
It wasn’t the same kind of injector as the ones from the Vidu; this was sleeker, smaller, and more modern-looking.
“Just aim and press the button. Doesn’t matter where, but close to the wound is good.
” I was grateful he said it without me having to ask.
I was pretty sure I couldn’t wrap my tongue around actual words right now.
Pressing the injector to his side, I did as he said, sort of hopeful as I raised my eyes to see any changes.
There were none, but he looked pleased, and that smirk made my stomach twist. “So…” I whispered, “now what?” I was a bit at a loss, and that damn hope was making me eager to do things now.
To get out of here this instant, if only I had the key to his shackles.
“Now, you go get some sleep somewhere safe,” he said to me.
“And preferably dream sweet dreams of me.” Ah, fuck, he threw me for a loop again with that comment.
That was definitely flirty, and I couldn’t handle it.
It had to be his default setting; there was no way he was attracted to tiny, damaged me.
I opened my mouth to protest, deflect, anything to get him to stop saying things to me that spun my world upside down. Dream of him? I knew I was, but he shouldn’t want that, because all he cared about was what I could do to help him escape. In return, he helped me. It was as simple as that.
“Do you have access to communications?” he asked before I could get a word in.
My tongue stuck to the roof of my mouth, and now I had whiplash from the rapid shift in topic.
I nodded slowly because I could get anywhere on the ship, and that included finding an abandoned comm station somewhere.
I’d secretly observed enough of the crew to know the basics of how it worked, even if the computer was in a language I couldn’t read.
“If you can get a message out to my ship, they’ll come for us.
Can you memorize this hail sign? It’s all you’ll need to know, you don’t even need to speak to anyone.
Just let it ring, and they’ll know.” I nodded along, relieved it wouldn’t require actually talking to anyone.
Then he rattled off the symbols I was supposed to tap, and my hope was dashed.
If I couldn’t read, I sure as hell wouldn’t know how to recognize these letters and numbers on the screen.
“Ah…no, don’t worry your pretty head about it,” Flack said, abruptly aborting the sequence.
His body shifted on the cot, hands twitching like he wanted to reach for me.
I stepped back instinctively, nearly out of the cell.
“You can’t read the screens. I shouldn’t have asked.
” No, I couldn’t read the screen, but, damn it, I wasn’t completely useless.
I wanted to do this, wanted to take action, take control of my fate.
Darting out of the cell, I ignored him when he called out, warning me I’d left his door open.
I rummaged through the crates in the cell I’d hidden in, and moments later came up triumphant with a lost alien marker of some sort—something someone had used to write on the crates.
I held it up when I got back to him, along with a strip of the packaging that had previously held the regenerator. “Can you write it down?”
His eyes gleamed and he nodded. “Clever, clever. Yeah, we can do this.” Except, when I eyed his tied-up hands, my whole body shook with what I needed to do.
Get really, really close. I shuffled toward him, hands shaking, and then braced my knee on the hard cot next to him so I could press the marker into his hand.
“A little closer,” he murmured when I held the packaging in front of that same hand.
Awkwardly balanced, I did, but he was so bloody tall I needed my other knee on the cot too.
Then I nearly lost my balance and reached quickly for his shoulder with a free hand to steady myself.
Heat seared my skin and shot up my arm. We both shook, and then he moaned, as if that simple, innocent touch had actually caused him pleasure.
“Oh no, that’s not some weird, alien erogenous zone on your body, is it?
” I asked, jerking back my hand like I’d been burned and rubbing my palm against my dress—not because it felt dirty, but because I’d liked the feel of his silky skin a little too much.
His chuckle was hoarse, a little too seductive, but the mirth was real.
“No, no weird alien erogenous zone. Mine are pretty much where you’d expect them.
You’re just so damn pretty I can’t help myself.
” I wanted to call him a liar again, but I blushed instead.
Then, just to test myself, I placed my hand back on his shoulder while watching his face.
I really shouldn’t like how pleased that made him look.
This time it wasn’t like getting struck by lightning, but it still felt good to touch him.
He opened his mouth, probably to say something else flirty, and I hurriedly told him to get to work.
He smirked, but he did, writing down symbols and checking them to make sure he’d done them right, when he could barely see what he was doing.
Eventually, I had the hailing code he wanted me to try, and I was confident enough that I could type in the right symbols.
“It’s not a priority, Irena,” Flack said as I began to retreat, pulling the tattered remains of my dignity back around me and firmly telling the eager hormones rushing through my body to get a grip.
“Your safety comes first, so do this only if you think there is no risk. Do you understand?” Gah, why did his commandeering tone sound just as hot, just as seductive as when he actually said flirty things?
I nodded, because I knew that’s what he was after, and then finally—finally—I could retreat, locking his cell door, gathering every bit of evidence I’d been here, and then slipping away through a narrow hatch in the wall.
I was pretty sure I couldn’t risk getting caught on camera leaving at such an odd time. Better they not see me leave at all.