Chapter 35
CHAPTER
THIRTY-FIVE
The male fell in a heap, blaster misfiring and piercing the pedestal right beside me, shattering it into pieces.
I barely noticed, however. Not when Asher prowled from the dark and sheathed his blade within the holster strapped across his chest. His hair was mussed, cheeks a darker shade of blue, and his silver gaze burned a hole through me as he removed his blood-covered gloves.
“Thank fuck,” Lucien cursed as he leaned forward and braced his hands on his knees. “That was close.”
I looked between them in astonishment until Asher turned toward one of the cameras and nodded before stepping over the body.
“I, um, I wasn’t—” My toe tapped the glass box behind me. “It’s not…”
Asher nodded. “Lucien knows.”
The male in question straightened, smoothing the front of his silk shirt. “Listra sent it off planet at the beginning of the gala. If only Blom had kept his fucking mouth shut in that ventilation shaft.”
I stared at him, mouth popping open. All the smooth edges of Lucien disappeared in an instant, even his voice deepened. He crouched in front of the box, lifting it to inspect the holographic label before cursing.
“Is that your crew?” I asked.
He looked up at me, shaking a curl from his eye. “No, thank the Maker. My climber would have never been so thoughtless.”
“Neither would mine.” The warmth in Asher’s tone made me turn toward him, heat creeping up my cheeks. He reached for me. “It’s time to go. Luc, how long will Listra be down?”
Lucien sucked on his teeth for a moment. “Maybe another fifteen minutes or so.”
I frowned. There’d been so little time between when I left them and Listra passing out. “How did you get a tranquilizer in him?”
He winked, a hand sliding down the placket of his trousers to grip his cock. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”
A growl slipped through the room and we both looked at Asher, who kept his hand outstretched for mine. “We need to go. Rys can only loop the cameras for so long. Rhiaon is coming now to dispose of the body.”
I didn’t take his hand, but I did move toward him, noting the blood speckling his cheeks.
A buzzing flared in my chest as his scent surrounded me and he gestured me forward.
I stepped over the body, careful to avoid my skirt trailing in the blood splatters.
Usually quara blades were neat, but I supposed slicing a male’s throat open would have been messy regardless.
“I’ll stay with Phyenix to make it look like I passed out too.” Lucien settled next to the unconscious male in the hall.
Asher nodded once before pushing me ahead with a hand on my lower back, warm through the fabric of my dress. It was silent for a moment as we turned one corner, then another.
“How did Lucien find out?”
He blew out a breath and stopped walking, pressing me into an alcove right before the hall opened up into a much busier corridor.
“Yesterday before Lesephous’ party, Rys was able to track the comms to two of Lucien’s crew: Senator Jucinda, who he was with on the transport this morning, and another male we don’t know.
When you fell asleep, I went to find Lucien, knowing that Phyenix would more than likely take an interest in you.
” A muscle jumped in his jaw and his eyes slid to the side, as if he suddenly found the wall very interesting.
“I offered him a deal in exchange for staying close and making sure things didn’t get out of hand. ”
Something like betrayal itched at the back of my head, even though I knew it was pointless to feel such things.
I’d known Asher would go behind my back and yet here I was, hands fisting in the fabric of my skirt to stop them from trembling.
But it wasn’t hate bubbling beneath my skin and somehow that was even worse.
That Asher had offered Lucien a deal—whatever that meant—for my protection.
It all made sense: why Lucien had appeared the moment Phyenix came closer, why he’d maneuvered the male to take his attention. Shame burned through my cheeks. “You thought I couldn’t do it.”
“No, June, no—”
“Don’t call me that,” I snapped. “You thought I couldn’t complete my part of the job so you made sure to hire someone who could.”
A stricken look broke apart his features and Asher shook his head. “I knew you would do whatever you could to complete the job—even if it meant sacrificing something of yourself. I…” He blew out a breath. “I couldn’t let you do that.”
My hollow laugh filled the space between us while the heat of shame slid from my cheeks to my eyes.
I shook my head to hide their glassiness and took a step back, but his hand flashed out, palm wrapping around my wrist. Buzzing rippled up my arm, heat flared within my veins.
My next breath was more of a pant and the world grew warmer, inexplicably so.
His fingers tensed around my arm, silver blown away by dark pupils.
“Fuck,” he moaned.
Heat pooled between my thighs. I’d never felt this before, this wanting, not like this. I let out a needy whimper, flipping my wrist to grab his, arm flying out to wrap around his neck. Closer, I needed to be closer. I needed to crawl inside of his skin. Needed to be filled, needed him to relieve…
“Mahsi, my mahsi.” The word was a prayer on his lips as I crashed against him.
He turned us, hiking my leg up his hip with his free hand. My shoulders pressed against the wall, skin so hot the crystal was icy in contrast. I tangled my fingers in his hair, hips churning against him, desperate for friction.
“Please, please, please,” I sobbed, releasing his wrist to pull myself closer, using my hand at his neck as leverage to lift my other leg until I could wrap them around his waist.
He pressed his cock against my center and stars burst behind my eyes. The world was suddenly in color after cycles and cycles of endless gray.
A small voice at the back of my mind slithered in, awareness pricking the back of my neck. The lagneia…
But the thought was wiped away as Asher rocked against me, his face just inches from my own. I keened, sounds I’d never even known I was capable of making dripped from my lips. I needed more, needed to feel him. I’d never wanted so much.
“Shhh,” Asher murmured, holding me back while I leaned forward to try to lick the column of his throat. “We can’t do this, June.”
I understood the words and yet my hips continued to move against him. “I know, I know.”
Another groan, another rock. The heat of his body slid into my pores and it was not enough.
And though I knew it was the wine and that deep down my body was telling me something I was too afraid to acknowledge, I couldn’t find it in myself to stop.
Not when it felt like this, not when each time he thrust, his hard fabric-covered length slid against my clit.
My desire dripped between us until his pants were slick with it.
One of his hands gripped my thigh and moved higher.
“Fuck,” he groaned as he realized I wore nothing beneath the dress. “You’re going to kill me, j’ska mahsi.”
His fingers curled around my backside, pressing tight to the rounded flesh. I moaned, head tipping back. His eyes burned bright, lips parting as he gave another rock. “We need to stop.”
I nodded but he thrust again and we moaned in tandem. The fabric of his trousers maddened me; every so often he almost slid home, just to be stopped before the ache could be relieved. Tears sprang in the corners of my eyes, desperate little moans slipped through my lips. “Need—I need…”
A hand wrapped around my throat, hips pinning me to the wall. “I know what you need, sweetheart. You’re dripping onto the floor.”
The lagneia thrummed through my veins until I was too far gone to care.
I struggled to remember why we should stop.
Why he couldn’t free himself and thrust so deep he would be branded into my skin.
There was nothing but him, nothing but this moment, nothing but each breath and the ache erasing every blemish on my soul.
Asher leaned forward, breath ghosting across my cheeks.
I tipped my chin up, ready for him to take this, to take me.
And then a throat cleared behind us. “Captain.”
Rhiaon stood only a few feet away, staring resolutely at the ceiling. I was ready to throw my shame to the wind and reach between us, Maker be damned if anyone was there. But Asher stiffened, slowly lowering my feet to the floor, steadying me for a moment while he stepped away.
The moment his skin left mine ice crackled in his wake. I blanched, a different kind of heat bleeding through my cheeks. My skin itched and my fingers spread wide before fisting, knuckles bleached white. Asher watched each subtle change, his hair mussed, clothes askew.
In the next breath a mask slid over his face, the one I knew so well because I wore it on my own. He turned to Rhiaon as if we’d merely been in the middle of a pointless conversation. As if what had just happened was nothing. Another reminder, another mask, another thread in his tangled web.
“Is everything done?”
They nodded at the ceiling. “Transport is ready when you are. Hudzon and Greabes are with Crux, about to take an industrial jumper we commandeered up to the ship.”
Asher smoothed back his hair. “Juniper and I will return to the party, enough to speak with Lesephous and create our alibi—”
“No,” I rasped. His jaw shut with a snap, attention shooting back to me. I turned my face away, toward Rhiaon. “I’ll return to the Kuxatana with Crux and the others.”
They looked between us and my blood boiled when Asher gave a subtle nod. Rhiaon reached for me and I went willingly, skirting past Asher before he could grab me. I’d seen his hand tense, that telltale movement I now knew so well.
“June—”
“Don’t,” I hissed, whirling toward him.
In that moment, I was sure I’d mastered it—sure hate now curled through my heart to eat away at the shame. Because I’d wanted him and he knew it. I couldn’t take back the way my body had moved against him, the way I’d begged him.
But I would never beg again.