Chapter 7 #2
“Okay,” she agreed, and rather than asking more questions, she lifted the injector she was supposed to give me and emptied it with a hiss into the air, away from us.
The pale liquid of the drug lurched into the dark and disappeared against the grimy, smeared flooring of the brig.
A wave of relief washed over me at the sight, and tension uncoiled deep inside my gut.
I hadn’t realized how much I’d loathed the inability to change, the vulnerable state it put me in.
Now, it was over. Not much longer, and the previous dose would fully wear off.
My fingers tightened, curling into fists.
What would I do the moment I could get out of here?
As strong as I was, and as ragtag as the crew was, I couldn’t take them all on at once.
It was very tempting to sink my claws into Dimon’s gut, or to tear into Xathena’s throat and make her pay for her cowardly attack.
I burned to make them all pay for what they’d done to Irena, how they’d treated her. It was unforgivable.
“It’s done,” she whispered, and it drew me out of my spiraling—and considerably violent—thoughts.
Irena. She was the only person who mattered on this rust bucket, and vengeance would have to come second to ensuring her safety.
My mind already spun with options, but there was no escaping the Vidu while in space.
None of her shuttles functioned well enough to use for an escape, so we’d have to make our move down on the planet where the diamond was.
The Verana diamond that had once slipped through my grasp, but which I’d gladly let go again if it meant rescuing Irena.
Of the two, she was by far the greater treasure.
“Thank you, sweetheart,” I said, and forced a smile onto my face to banish the darkness in my mind.
I had my priorities straight, but that did not mean the desire to use claws and teeth on my enemies had abated.
“Shall we eat now? Trixom’s food is certainly nothing to write home about, but it fills the belly…
” And it would bring her closer to me. I could not wait to feel the tentative brush of her hand on my shoulder once again.
My body ached just remembering that, as if it had been a kiss, a passionate embrace.
She gave me a long look that made my muscles tighten beneath my skin.
Just yesterday, I didn’t think she would have managed to hold my gaze this long, but she was holding it now, her eyes clinging to mine as if she were trying to see straight into my soul.
Was she still deciding whether to trust me? To believe Dimon’s word or mine?
Then she did this little thing where she nibbled on her lush lower lip, and I found myself jerking forward, all instinct and no thought.
The shackles tightened around my wrists, rattling dangerously, and the cot groaned beneath me as if it was about to give.
“Stars! That’s hot,” I growled, a voice at the back of my mind screaming a warning.
Too much, this was too much, and I’d scare her away.
Irena, though, she was made of bolder stuff.
I didn’t once believe it was because I’d done that good a job convincing her she could trust me.
Pink stained her cheeks. The grid-like scar had taken on a more defined shape since healing, now forming pale white lines across her skin.
Her eyes grew wide and shimmery, mirrors of deep, soft brown that reflected my image back at me.
“Are you crazy, Flack? You keep saying things like that, but… have you seen me? Really seen me?” She flung her hands wide, then gestured at her body, inviting me to look.
I jerked against my chains again, fighting the urge to reach for her when I couldn’t. Touching her as much as I wanted would definitely scare her off, so it was a good thing I was still bound, even if my instinctive struggle was drawing red welts across my wrists where the shackles tightened.
“Have I seen you? Stars…” I said, mouth dry, pulse spiking, and all that tedious boredom of the day banished.
Lust pounded through my veins, and there was no hiding a desire that powerful.
My cock grew firm beneath my black armor, pressing against the tight confines with a delicious ache for her.
“I have not seen nearly enough, and yet I know all I need to know. You are the most divine creature I’ve ever laid eyes on.
In you, I see all the things I thought I’d never have. In you, I see a home.”
Damn it, that was not nearly a good enough declaration; it barely skimmed the surface of the immense things I felt when I laid eyes on her.
Home, that was true, though. Seeing her made me think I could be the right thing, the right male, for just this one person in the galaxy.
It was frustrating to be trapped, to want things that were just beyond my grasp, and then to fail at the one thing that normally never failed me: my way with words.