Chapter 7 #2
The footsteps started again. Faster now. She must have spotted his shadow through the door’s viewport and was trying to make it past before he—
He stepped into the corridor, blocking her path.
She gasped and tried to backpedal, but nearly ran into his chest anyway.
Her hands came up, and she caught herself against him.
The contact shot straight through him like a jolt of electricity.
Then, she jerked back like she’d been burnt, bouncing off the opposite wall.
“Raaze.” His name came out strangled. “I was just—”
“Avoiding me?”
“Checking the—Environmental seals.” She gestured vaguely behind her.
He bit back his amusement. “Environmental seals are aft. You were heading forward.”
A blush crept up her neck, and she tried to step around him.
Oh no, they weren’t having any of that. Stepping to the side, he blocked her path.
Not aggressively, there was no need for that.
The ship was so small that all he needed to do was stand there, and he filled the corridor.
She couldn’t get past without touching him.
He grinned.
“Excuse me,” she said tightly.
“In a minute.” He crossed his arms and studied her face. The flush had spread to her cheeks now, and she was looking at a point somewhere past his left shoulder like the bulkhead rivets were suddenly fascinating. “Got a question first.”
“I’m busy.”
“Did you enjoy the show?”
Her whole body went rigid, her eyes widening, and the flush going from pink to deep red in the space of a heartbeat. Guilt filled her eyes even as soon as she shook her head.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Draanth, she couldn’t even get through the sentence without her voice cracking.
“Sure you don’t.” He let the silence stretch, watching her squirm. “Cargo bay. Decon shower. Ring any bells?”
“I was checking the—” She stopped. Opened her mouth, closed it, then swallowed and tried again. “Uhhh, yeah… the temperature regulators were—”
“Flagging a minor fluctuation. Yeah, I know.” He dropped his arms and took a step closer.
She pressed back against the wall, but there was nowhere to go.
“Funny thing about that. The fluctuation cleared itself about thirty seconds after you pulled up the visual feed. But you kept watching for another… what? Ten minutes? Fifteen?”
The sound she made wasn’t quite a word. He enjoyed it anyway.
“I know where every camera on this ship is, kelarris.” He took another step closer, close enough to feel the heat of her skin against his even through their clothes, and to see the frantic pulse fluttering in the hollow of her throat.
Gods, she was so tiny and delicate. “I clocked them in my first hour aboard. I spent my whole career being watched… stadiums, media drones, fans in every corner with their recording lenses. I know what a camera looks like, and I can hear them. And I know when one’s active. ”
Her eyes finally snapped to his face, eyes wide. “You knew.”
“I knew.”
“The whole time.”
“Every second.”
The words landed, and he watched the mortification wash over her features.
If it had been just that, just embarrassment…
then he would have stepped back. Then her pupils blew wide and dark, her breathing catching in her throat, and heat rolled through him as his cock thickened against his thigh.
Yeah, she was into him. “You could have closed that feed any time you wanted, but you didn’t. ”
“You’re an arsehole.”
“Yeah,” he agreed. “I am.”
He closed the last of the distance between them, planting one hand flat against the bulkhead beside her head. The other came up to cup her jaw… the same move she’d pulled on him two days ago, only now he was the one steering.
Her breath shuddered out.
“Tell me to stop, kelarris.”
She didn’t.
Her eyes stayed locked on his. She didn’t move or push him away. All she did was stand there with her chest rising and falling too fast, her lips parted, and her whole body trembling like she was holding herself back by a thread.
He kissed her.
Not the controlled little peck she’d given him in the cockpit. This was the kiss he’d been thinking about since the landing pad, ever since he’d watched her crawl out from under that hull with grease on her cheek and defiance in her eyes.
His hand slid from her jaw to the back of her neck, fingers tangling in the hair at her nape.
He pulled her up against his larger, harder body and kissed her like he was starving.
Like she was air and he’d been drowning.
Like every moment of the last two days had been foreplay, and he was finally, finally collecting.
She melted against him.
One second, she was rigid against the wall, and the next, her hands fisted in his jacket, holding him close.
Her lips parted under his, and she kissed him back with an eager desperation that almost buckled his knees.
Her tongue slid against his, hot and eager, and the small sound she made in the back of her throat went straight to his cock.
Draanth, she tasted so good. Sweet and sharp, with another thread underneath it. A note that was just her.
He needed more.
Gripping her hips, he lifted her off her feet. She gasped into his mouth but didn’t break the kiss—just wrapped her legs around his waist. The new angle pressed her core right against the hard ridge of his cock, and they both groaned at the contact.
“Fuck,” she breathed.
Triumph roared through him, hot and fierce. Rocking his hips, he ground against her, and her head fell back against the bulkhead with a thunk. Her eyes were glazed, her lips swollen, her whole body arching into his.
“That’s it,” he growled against her throat. “There you are.”
He rocked again, dragging his cock along the seam of her pants, right where he could feel the heat of her through the fabric. She whimpered, actually whimpered. Her fingers dug into his shoulders hard enough to bruise, and her hips rolled to meet him, as she chased the friction.
“Raaze—”
“I know.” He nipped at her jaw, her ear, the sensitive spot below it that made her shudder. “I’ve got you.”
Another roll of his hips. Harder this time.
She cried out, her thighs clenching around him, and he swallowed the sound under his lips.
She was soaked—he could feel it even through both their clothes—and the thought of what she’d look like spread out beneath him, those pretty legs wrapped around his waist while he—
The ship’s speakers crackled.
“Approaching designated coordinates,” Fred announced. “Requesting landing instructions for Venrexx Prime.”
They both froze. Her legs were still locked around his waist, his hands were still gripping her ass, and his cock was still pressed against her core, thick and hard enough to pound nails.
Then reality crashed back in.
“Shit.” She unlocked her legs, and he let her slide down his body, slowly, because he was a draanthic and he wanted her to feel every inch of what she was walking away from. Her feet hit the deck, and she stumbled. He caught her elbow, steadying her.
“I need to—”
“Go.”
Her eyes were wide as she looked up at him. Her hair was a disaster, her lips were bruised red, and there was a dazed look in her eyes that made him want to pin her right back against that wall and finish what they’d started.
But the coordinates were locked, and if he didn’t let her go right now, he was going to forget why any of that mattered. Stepping back, he bowed like some fine lord at court and gave her room. The semblance of manners didn’t stop him from watching her cute little ass as she fled, though.
The corridor hatch hissed shut behind her. Groaning, he leaned back against the bulkhead. His cock strained against his pants, and his heart hammered as if he’d just played a full match in overtime. All for one little human female.
“Draanth,” he muttered to the empty corridor.
The word hung in the recycled air. It didn’t help. Nothing was going to help except getting his hands on her again, and that wasn’t happening until they cleared Venrexx Prime.
Dragging a hand down his face, he pushed off the wall.
First the healer, then the proof. Then he’d clear her name and his record and deal with every draanthing complication standing between them.
Because they were finishing this.
He’d make sure of it.