Chapter 31
Chapter
Thirty-One
Kolt
“It feels smaller.” Skye dropped the bag of food on the bed and pivoted on one foot to face me as Athena slid the door shut from the outside.
Strictly speaking, it was exactly the same size it had been last night, but I knew what she meant. Now that we’d spent most of the day with the theatre troupe, sequestering ourselves in a tiny, enclosed space seemed especially confining.
Without knowing why, I knew I preferred vast spaces. I was used to vast spaces—soaring ceilings, open-air walkways, cavernous ships. I knew, without being able to conjure accurate memories, that Vandar warbirds were massive.
“We will not need to be in here all night,” I said as I walked bent over to the bed. “They will come for us once the theatre is cleared.”
“After their performance, which won’t even start for a while.” Skye sighed, rubbing her arms briskly even though she was wearing the jacket Athena had given her. “I know it’s not the end of the world, but after the cell and now this, I’m really starting to feel twitchy in small spaces.”
Sitting because the ceiling was too low for me to stand, I leaned back on the bed. “Do not focus on the small space.”
She pressed her lips together as if physically holding back from a retort, then released a slow breath. “How do you suggest I do that?”
My instinct was to suggest we continue our battle practice, but it would be impossible where we were hiding. I extended my leg in front of me, grateful to be off it.
Her face instantly morphed from irritated to sympathetic. “Is it hurting again?”
I shook my head. “It is tender, but there is no pain.”
She crossed the room and sat next to me, moving the bag of food to the floor. “You big oaf. You should have told me if it was sore.”
“Oaf? What is an oaf?”
She flicked her gaze to me, then to my leg. “A guy who tries to be tough and pretends he’s not hurt when he is.”
I tilted my head at her. “That is a very specific word.”
She didn’t look up. “Yeah, well, English is a rich language.” She motioned to my kilt. “Do you mind if I move this to check on the bandage?”
“I do not mind.” I leaned my head against the wall and closed my eyes. It was enough that her fingers were brushing against my skin as she parted my kilt, but watching her touch me would be too much.
Even without watching, the warmth of her fingertips sent heat pulsing through me and made my heart stutter. I clenched my teeth and tried to think of anything but how close her hands were to my cock and how much I wanted them to be even closer.
“There’s no oozing,” she said to herself as much as to me. “No blood on the cloth, which is a good thing.”
She slid the makeshift fabric bandage aside as I tried to think of things that would keep my mind distracted. If only I knew what things I did not find arousing. The thought of battle axes made my heart race, and even imagining running from Imperial guards sent a thrill through me.
“I think it’s healing well,” she said with a loud exhale. “The skin isn’t warm, which means it’s probably not infected. If what they say about the Vandar healing quickly is true, you might be just like new in a day or two.”
Once she’d moved my bandage back into place and wasn’t touching me, I opened my eyes. “What else do you know about the Vandar?”
That startled her. “What do I know about your people?”
I shifted, moving my kilt back over the bandaged gash. “You know more than I do.”
“Then that’s sad, because I don’t know much.” She copied my position by leaning back against the wall. “I only ever saw you guys twice. The day you came to sign the agreement with Lexxona and do the lottery for your boss’s war bride and the time you tried to rescue me.”
“But you knew about us before then. You had heard. Just like you heard we heal quickly.”
She shrugged. “I guess so. The Vandar raiders are kind of notorious, but I have no idea if half of what people whisper is true.”
This piqued my curiosity. “What do they whisper?”
She moved her head to glance at me quickly. “The obvious stuff. That’s you’re bigger and stronger and have tails.”
I was suddenly very aware of the tail hanging to the side of me, the tip twitching as if it knew it had been mentioned. “That does not seem notorious.”
“I think it’s the other stuff. That you fly in hordes of massive ships that can be invisible, so you appear out of nowhere. Back when you first brought down the Zagrath, they called you wraiths and violent marauders.”
Some of what she said sparked flickers of familiarity. The word horde was one I had used many times, but I could not accept myself as a violent marauder.
“Obviously, the Empire was lying about you to scare people when they’re the ones who took over planets and siphoned off the resources, but the stories they used to tell were pretty scary.
Then when your boss walked into my friend’s bakery wearing nothing but a kilt and a fur throw that didn’t even close… ”
“You were afraid?”
She laughed. “More like we thought he was crazy. It was freezing outside. It’s always freezing on Lexxona. It’s an ice planet.”
“Vandar run hot,” I said, knowing this in my bones.
“I gathered.” Another furtive glance at me. “I wasn’t scared until you tried to take Jasmine. You were the one who fought us off. I’d never seen anyone move like that or disarm so many of us so quickly.”
I had no memory of this, but the tremor in her voice was like a dagger to my heart. “I frightened you?”
“You are…were very intimidating.”
“But not now?”
She drew a slow breath and released it. “To be honest, I was terrified when I realized I’d been taken captive and tossed in a cell with you. You’d made it pretty clear that you didn’t like humans and barely tolerated me.”
This could not be right. How could I dislike her simply because she was human? And how could any male not be intrigued by Skye? “I did not dislike you.”
Another small laugh. “Are you sure? I’m pretty good at reading people, and you could barely stand to be in the same room as me.”
“Impossible,” I said, even though this tickled a vague memory that I pushed aside. “I could not go from disliking you to…”
She turned her head to look at me. “To what?”
If I were wise, I would not reveal my feelings. After all, I had suffered an injury that had robbed me of my memories. I was unsure what was true about me and what was not. Aside from the basics that Skye had told me, I was unsure who I truly was.
But for some reason, my feelings about her felt like the one true thing. As much as reason told me I should not act on them, my heart told me she was safe. My gut told me that being truthful with Skye could never be a mistake.
I twisted my body so that I fully faced her. “I must believe you when you say that we were not lovers before. I might even believe you when you tell me I was intimidating. But I cannot believe that I did not desire you, even if I pretended I did not.”
She sucked in a sharp breath, her dark pupils flaring.
I put a hand to the side of her face, rubbing my thumb across her soft skin. “Even if we were not lovers before, every kiss has proved to me that we should be.”
I ran my fingers through her hair, cupping the back of her head in my palm and tilting her face to mine. “There are many more things about the Vandar that make us notorious, Skye. Many more reasons we are called marauders.”
A breathy moan escaped her lips as I pulled her mouth to mine and proceeded to show her.