Chapter 9
CHAPTER NINE
When the shuttle docked with the Infinitas, Eos finally took a deep breath.
But she knew they weren’t safe yet.
She followed Dathan into the main part of the ship.
“Thank God.” Niklas gave her a quick hug. So did Zayn.
“Let’s get away from here,” Dathan suggested. “Quickly.”
“Far, far away,” she added.
Zayn broke orbit and soon they were flying through the red mist of the nebula. There was a tense silence in the cockpit. Eos wondered if the Countess had discovered she’d been duped yet.
The Infinitas shuddered under her feet. The ship pitched to the left, sending her stumbling. Zayn’s ripe curses filled the air. The ship lurched forward, and Eos skidded into the wall.
Dathan grabbed her and tugged her into a seat.
“Is it the slavers?” She hated the fear in her voice.
“No. Strap in.”
“You’re sure?”
His hand gripped her shoulder, squeezed. “Positive. Take a look.” He nodded at the cockpit window.
The red gases of the nebula looked deeper here. And beyond it, she saw normal space and released a breath. “We’re at the nebula’s edge.”
“Yep. Almost home free.”
“Except for the funky space,” Zayn said.
She frowned. “Funky space?”
“The laws of physics kind of go out the airlock.” Zayn didn’t look their way. “You get all kinds of strange anomalies. Gravity wells, micro singularities, Hubble vortices.”
Dathan leaned closer. “This one time, we were hunting in an outer rim system and got stuck in a gravity well…for three days.”
“That wasn’t the worst part of it,” Niklas added.
“I dunno, being stuck with you two in a small space for three days was pretty bad.”
Nik rolled his eyes. “A micro singularity tore through the starboard engine. Made a huge mess. We barely managed to limp back to Khan. Luckily Zayn is the best pilot in the galaxy.”
The ship shuddered again and Zayn swore. A few taps of the command screen and they veered right. The shuddering stopped.
“The anomalies make flying hard?” she guessed.
Zayn snorted. “Understatement. At best, they slow us down.”
“And worst?” She watched Dathan and Niklas trade a heavy glance.
“At worst, they’ll rip the ship apart,” Dathan said.
Great. She closed her eyes. Could anything else go wrong?
An alarm sounded.
Zayn let out a particularly creative curse and Eos raised her brows.
“Slaver ship coming up behind us!”
Her heart contracted. She twisted her hands in her lap, her nails cutting into her skin.
“How far?” Dathan bit out.
“We’ll beat them out of the nebula…if we don’t hit any more anomalies.”
“They won’t follow?” Eos asked.
“The Devil’s law ends at the nebula.” But Dathan’s frown was fierce. “So they probably won’t follow us. And once we’re clear of the nebula, we can use the cloak to evade them.”
“If we get out,” Zayn said darkly.
Tension filled the ship. Eos tried to control her breathing, to remember the mantras she’d recited as a child. They’d kept her sane after her mother’s death, and helped her when fear and uncertainty had threatened to overwhelm her.
“They’re gaining. Two hundred miles.” Zayn pushed the ship, the boosters firing.
Okay, the mantras weren’t working. She felt like her chest was going to burst. She heard her rapid breathing, dizziness made her head spin.
“Eos, look at me.”
She glanced over at Dathan. Those blue-green eyes were so beautiful. It was so easy for a girl to lose herself in them. You wouldn’t be the first or the last.
Dathan pushed a strand of hair off her face. “That’s it, stay focused on me.”
The ship shuddered again, vibrating around them. A dull groan of metal under strain reverberated through the ship.
Zayn sent the Infinitas rocketing forward. “Hang on!”
A shower of electrical sparks burst from a side wall. Eos saw a bright silver flash and a wavy shimmer, like a mirage in Vedia’s central desert.
“Singularity!” Zayn yelled.
The ship spun, faster than Eos had thought possible. Through the cockpit windows, she caught a glimpse of the large slaver vessel. Her stomach turned, fear punching through her gut.
Then the ship was gone. Zayn turned the Infinitas again and they were racing toward the edge of the nebula.
The sprinkle of white stars on black looked so close. So impossibly close.
“Slaver ship is one hundred miles and gaining.” BEll’s modulated voice came through a speaker.
“Come on, babe.” Zayn smoothed a hand over the top of the command screen. “I know I ask too much of you, but you can do it.”
Like the ship had heard his plea, they shot forward.
“Slaver ship is fifty miles,” BEll said.
They broke out of the nebula.
The red mists were gone and all that was ahead was perfect dark space and a scatter of stars. In the distance was the bluish orb of a gas giant.
Eos flopped back in her seat. She felt like she’d run a marathon.
“Slavers have slowed.” Zayn’s chair turned and he grinned. “They’re turning.”
“You’re sure they won’t follow?” She forced her hands to relax.
“Zayn?” Dathan stretched his legs out and crossed his ankles. “Cloak on.”
“Roger that.” Zayn swiveled back to the controls. “Next stop, Beta7.”
She looked at them. Niklas was studying his communicator, Dathan had closed his eyes, and Zayn was humming under his breath. They’d gone from being threatened with destruction or slavery to relaxation in a blink. Her pulse was still racing.
“How can you be so…calm?”
Dathan opened one eye. “Practice?”
“You drive me crazy!”
He closed his eye again. “Likewise, Doc.”
Ahh. She wanted to scream. Then a reluctant smile tugged at her lips. At least she wasn’t scared anymore. She studied Dathan’s relaxed, handsome face. She suspected it was exactly what he was hoping for.
But she still felt the filth of Lucifa on her skin. “I’m going to shower and change.” She wrinkled her nose. “I’d sell my soul for a shower with water.” She knew starships didn’t carry water for bathing. “Or better yet, a bath.”
“Sorry, Eos,” Zayn said. “You’ll have to make do with the UV light.”
She turned.
“Doc?”
She glanced back at Dathan.
“You’re safe now.”
Her throat tightened. “I know.”
In the tiny bathroom off her cabin, Eos stood under the warm light of the UV shower. She scrubbed and scrubbed her skin with a dry sponge, but she still didn’t feel clean. Leaning her head against the wall, she dragged air into her lungs.
You’re fine. Get a grip. She went back to scrubbing but all that ran through her head were memories of hands tearing her clothes away, fingers touching her mehndi, of standing completely exposed in a room full of people. Sobs caught in her chest, but she refused to let them out.
“Eos?”
Dathan’s quiet murmur made her jump. His big frame was a dark shadow through the clouded plastic stall.
“I can’t—” she slammed her palms against the stall “—I can’t get clean, dammit.”
He pushed open the shower door, his big body crowding in behind her. He wrapped his arms around her, his hands closing over hers, stilling them.
He smoothed a hand down her arm. “Your skin looks smooth and clean to me.”
“I keep remembering…”
He hugged her tighter, his strength so solid she couldn’t stop herself leaning into him.
“You’re safe now.”
She sucked in a ragged breath and nodded.
“It’ll stay with you for a while. You aren’t alone.”
She turned, pressing her face into his chest. “I was so scared.”
“You’ll be fine.” His lips pressed to her hair. “Because you’re far too smart and too strong to let it beat you.”
She sighed. “I’d give anything for real water to wash myself clean.”
He pulled back with a smile. Then he grabbed her cream silk robe that she’d laid out on the bed and wrapped it around her. He fingered the material. “Nice.”
She’d saved for a year to buy it. Real silk was expensive, but she hadn’t wanted synthetic. He cinched the sash around her waist, then scooped her up into his arms.
“What are you doing?” She slid her hands around his neck. When was the last time anyone had carried her?
He strode through her cabin and into the corridor. “I have a surprise for you.”
He entered a cabin farther down the hall. It was larger than hers and had Dathan stamped on every inch of it. A built-in desk was covered in a mix of artifacts, pieces of various weapons, and some hard-copy star maps.
The bed had been retracted and a large metal tub sat in front of the window. Tendrils of steam curled out of the tub. He set her on her feet beside it.
She clutched at the lapels of her robe and stared. She couldn’t form any words.
“BEll helped me. We siphoned some water from the central storage tank. It’s been sterilized and heated.” His hands slid to grip hers where they held her robe.
She swallowed. “Thank you.”
His lips formed the tiniest smile. Slowly, he slid the silk off her shoulders. It fell into a pool at her feet. They stared at each other for a long humming moment. She knew being naked in front of him should bother her, but it didn’t.
Then he stepped back and helped her into the bath. She sank into the water with a huge sigh.
“BEll synthesized some bath oil. Something native to your planet.”
Eos breathed the luscious scent in. “Jasmina. I have a vine of it that grows on my balcony.” She looked up at him, the warm water lapping against her breasts. “It’s my favorite.”
“Good. Well, I’ll go and let you enjoy a soak—”
As he turned, she gripped his hand. “No.”
Those stunning blue-green eyes blazed. “Eos—”
She pulled his hand toward her chest, flattening it over her beating heart. “Don’t go.”
“You’ve had a pretty rough few hours…” He blew out a breath. “And contrary to popular belief, I’m not an asshole.”
“I’m okay now. And I’m thinking very clearly.” She stood, water streaming down her naked body. “I want to wash away the memories of Lucifa.”
He made a hungry sound, his thumb rubbing along her collarbone. She shivered. That. She wanted that delicious feeling.
“But more than that, I want to replace them with something else.”
His jaw clenched, his free hand balled into a fist.
It just made her want him more. “I need you, Dathan.”
His shoulders jerked. Had no one ever told him that before?
She leaned down and scooped a soft cloth from the water. She pressed it into his hand. “How about we start with you washing my back?” Turning, she stared at the window. She didn’t see the rush of stars beyond it, just the reflection of her body and the strong man behind her.
A man she wanted.
Slim golden curves beckoned, but it was the tantalizing floral markings gracing Eos’ skin that drew Dathan in.
He wanted to touch them. More than any treasure he’d ever coveted. The swirling black designs had just teased him before, but now he took in every detail of them.
He reached out and brushed his fingers down her mehndi. It looked like ink, but looking closer, he could see that it was a part of her. Blended into her skin like it belonged nowhere else.
Starting at her lower back, he followed the floral trail up her delicate spine. She arched under his touch. He saw her face in the glass. Her lips were parted, her eyes bright.
He dipped the cloth in the warm, fragrant water and then smoothed it over her back. More than anything, he wanted to see the last of the fear leave her eyes. To see the fine tension in her muscles dissolve away.
He told himself he should be noble. He shouldn’t take advantage of her. But he wasn’t strong enough.
There was something seriously sexy about her naked in the bath, and him fully clothed and touching her. For him, sex was usually a quick, fast tumble. A strike of lightning, intense and over in a flash. It wasn’t a slow, dangerous buildup that left his pulse racing and his heart tight.
He smoothed the cloth over her shoulders, down her arms. He heard her breathing grow shallow. He dipped the fabric over the curves of her buttocks and then slid it between her legs. She made a choking cry and moved her feet apart.
He wanted to feel her skin. He let the cloth drop back into the water and then ran his hand over the bumps of her spine, over her ass, and between her thighs.
“Yes.” As Eos whispered the word, her legs trembled.
She was hot and damp and so very delicate. He fingered the soft folds and worked one finger inside her. “You’re so hot, so tight.”
She made a small mewling sound, her hips moving against his hand. He slid another finger inside her.
He needed to see her. He loved her slim, decorated back, but he wanted to watch her face as he pleasured her. Pulling his hand back, he gripped her hip and turned her. “God, look at you.”
There was no hair between her legs, just more mehndi swirling at the juncture of her thighs.
He touched her again, sliding his fingers deep. She pulsed around him, her hands clutching at his shoulders. He started a faster rhythm, sliding his fingers in and out of her warmth. His thumb brushed the small hidden nub. She cried out, water sloshing at the side of the tub.
“Come for me, Eos. Just for me.”
He bent his head. Took her mouth hard and fast, to match his caress between her thighs.
She kissed him back, moaning into his mouth. Then she shattered, throwing her head back and crying out. He held her tight as she found her release.
He continued to hold her, heedless of the water soaking his shirt, as she came down from the high. Had anything ever felt so right before? For a brilliant second, he imagined what it would be like to have a woman like her in his life.
“Take your clothes off.” Her voice was husky and thick.
Oh, he wanted to. His cock was so damn hard and the way her gaze lingered on his tattoo had his gut tightening.
Instead, he pressed a kiss to her bare shoulder and lowered her back into the water. God, when had he ever turned down a willing woman?
“I want you to soak a while and enjoy your bath.” He stood. Shit, his hands were shaking. Eos Rai, with her brains, beauty, and strength, was turning him inside out.
He saw confusion, embarrassment, and a mess of other emotions swirl in her golden eyes. He wondered if she saw the same in his.
As he walked away, he called himself a fool in every language in his lingual implant.