“Her cunt will be juicy now. All for him. Every once in a while as she works, she’ll remember those stolen moments, and when they come together again, she’ll be ready, open, wet.”
Her hands fisted and relaxed as she tried to control her breathing. Watching had always been her secret pleasure. It hadn’t always been sex; she’d loved to observe people without them knowing it. But this, this with him speaking in her ear, saying all those deliciously dirty things as his hard cock pressed against her ass? This was breathtakingly sexual.
He stepped back and keyed the door open. “Let’s go in. The departure lights just went yellow.”
On shaky legs, she preceded him into the room, happily moving into his embrace.
“One more jump, and we’ll be in Silesia,” he murmured in her ear. She held on tight, wanting the whole trip to be over but also being afraid of what would happen when they weren’t forced together this way. Her skin tingled with a new sort of awareness.
“I want it to be over, but I don’t want to be away from you. I like having you to myself, even if we are being chased by brigands and soldiers.”
He laughed softly, kissing her temple.
“Take me.” She tore her clothes off, leaving her totally naked and shockingly beautiful.
He double-checked that he’d locked the door and motioned her to the bed with a tip of his chin. As she moved to obey, he did all his usual stuff, setting personal alarms and laying out the jammer he’d use once they began the slip though the portal.
Something about how he looked, how he’d been that whole day drove her need. After that scene they’d watched, she wanted to rub herself all over him, wanted to lick him, kiss every part of his skin.
She sprang out of bed. “I changed my mind. I want to take
you
instead.”
“I’m all yours. Do with me what you will.” He held his arms out and smiled at her.
Her hands shook a little but got the job done as he bent to let her pull his sweater from his body. She paused to breathe in the scent of his skin, warm, and uniquely him.
Caressing every part of him she could reach, she managed to get his pants, undershorts and boots off. Once he stood totally naked and unashamed of his body, she circled him. Inner bells sounded on the transport signaling the impending slip.
He sighed softly as she pressed herself to his back, encircling his waist with her arms. The moment was perfect, clear, right, and she knew she’d never forget the pulse of love within her belly, spreading through her system like a drug. Just Daniel and Carina, naked to each other.
She circled to face him and pulled him back to the bed. Her gut pulled at the entry into the portal, and he reached out, hit the jammers and his hands were back on her before she could protest the absence of his body. He picked her up, devouring her mouth. She wrapped her legs around his waist, plastering herself against him.
Daniel’s head spun at how good it felt with her there, squirming against him, her naked, hot flesh stroking against his. Her power was heady, she owned it, owned her desires and took what she wanted. That appealed to him greatly.
The way she’d been as they watched the couple had ripped away everything left of his distance. He was in her, on her, she was under his skin in a way only she could be. How a woman could watch a couple getting each other off and still seem refreshingly . . . good, he wasn’t sure. But she was, she was everything good, his light, and he held that tight.
He took three steps, carrying them to the nearby wall, and set his legs just right to hold her weight.
“Sweet, should I fuck you now?” He teased around her gate with the head of his cock. She was hot and wet, ready for him.
“Why are you asking? Do it!” Her nails dug into his shoulders as she arched.
He laughed, thrusting up and shifting her weight down to fill her completely. “I asked because you said you wanted to take me, not the other way around.”
“This is . . . oh my gods.”
He pressed her against the wall a bit more solidly, relishing the way her pupils expanded and her breath gusted from that seductive mouth of hers.
“Yes?”
“I am taking you. Sort of. Whatever, whoever is taking, this is just perfect with me. I have this need”—she stretched the word out on a gasp of pleasure—“for you. It itches over my skin, I need you so badly. The moment you touch me, look at me, put me in your attention, things ease. I should feel shame for what you make me crave, how you make me feel, but all I feel is sated, and desired in return. You answer my need.”
He fell, tumbled into the abyss that was what he felt for this woman. Deep, bottomless, open as far as he could see, and he could not feel bad.
“There’s no shame between us. You
are
my need,” he murmured, continuing to fuck into her hard and deep.
She sank her teeth into his shoulder to muffle her cry, grinding herself against him as he thrust.
“That’s it, take it. Grind your clit on me,” he whispered, loving it when her pussy clutched around him, superheated and creamy. She groaned in what sounded like assent, so he kept going.
Her cunt superheated, tightening around him until he had to gasp in a breath at how beyond deliriously good it felt. She used her hands on his shoulders to lever herself up, to change her angle so she could get the friction she needed against her clit.
The heat of her stuttered breath against his neck drove him on, the sweetness of her body against his, the press of her nipples against his chest, the way her inner thigh muscles rippled as she moved herself against him, all worked together to drive him witless.
When she came, she knocked her head against the wall at her back, a hoarse cry pulled from her lips as she vised around his cock. He tried to hold on, tried to hold back, but the way she clenched around him, fluttering, wet and hot, he couldn’t resist and found himself on his knees, buried deep, as wave after wave of climax stole his breath.
The knowledge that in the short time he’d known her, he loved her, kept him on his knees searching for breath.
She kissed his cheek. “Each time I’m with you I can’t quite get past how it’s different than the last, but still intense and amazing.”
He opened his eyes to see her face, glowing and pleased, as she squirmed to get off his lap.
“Sorry, I must be squishing you.” She held a hand out, and he took it, kissing her palm.
He stood, smiling down at her, and she wondered just what he was thinking about. Probably more sex, which was, admittedly, just fine with her.
“I’m afraid that while we have more room here, the washing up will still be less than perfect.”
It was that he’d handed her a cloth, that he’d drawn the basin with warm water just for her, that wisped away any remaining ability to keep between herself and this enormous thing welling up inside her when she thought about Daniel Haws.
She was left there, bare to her emotions, bare to his gaze, and she was nothing more, nothing less than his woman. Whether he wanted it or not, it wouldn’t change what she felt, what she was.
He looked down into her face. Well,
looked
wasn’t the right word, it was as if he was committing every single bit of her to memory. She closed her eyes a moment, trying to paddle through the waves of emotion.
“I suppose you’re hungry?” she managed to say at long last. “Let me make you something to hold you until the evening meal.”
It gave her something to do with her hands at least, something to take her attention so she could get herself together.
He settled in, examining something in his pocket comm, so she left him alone, putting the food nearby. It surprised her when he took her hand and drew her down with him, arranged her into his side, all without a word.
She burrowed in, letting herself feel safe and adored. He stroked his fingertips up and down her arm, idly, as if he wasn’t quite thinking about it but didn’t want to not be touching her. She liked that. Felt it herself most of the time.
She wanted to talk to him. Openly. To speak of her past and her future in a way she didn’t feel she had to constantly monitor. She looked forward to that, to having a normal relationship with him, or the closest approximation to that they’d ever get, given his job.
It was on that thought that sleep came, that deep, dreamless sleep the body needed to truly rest and regenerate. Safe in his arms, his scent on her body, she slept.
Chapter 14
“
W
ake up,” Daniel murmured to her, shaking her gently. She’d dropped off shortly after they’d left and had slept through to the next day. She’d been sleeping fitfully on and off, and he knew she needed that rest, so he hadn’t bothered her, just checked to be sure she was all right and let her be.
Andrei had come by as they’d neared the portal. They’d exit in Silesia, the last Imperial-controlled ’Verse before the Edge. The Edge, while technically a buffer between Imperial and Federation territories, was solidly under the dominion of the Federation, though not always with total allegiance and safety for her citizens. They’d be on safer footing, or at the very least, have more access to their own people and intelligence far more readily once they left the Imperium behind.
She smiled and stretched.
“We’re going to be arriving soon. Get freshened up. We saved you some food from last evening.” He pointed to the wrapped bundle.
“Last evening? I slept all this time?” She pushed the hair from her face and got out of bed.
“You must have needed it.” He tried to sound matter-of-fact, but to his ears, he sounded a lot more like a lover than a keeper.
Andrei turned his back while she quickly washed up and changed, but Daniel knew he’d heard the tone.
“Cover your hair today.” He said it from instinct. As he did, she moved quickly to obey, wrapping her head in a nondescript scarf, knotting it effortlessly. He warmed as she wound the blue scarf he’d given her the day before around her neck.
Andrei quickly braided his and tucked it into the back of his shirt so that he appeared to have short hair. Daniel had let his go back to its normal color, and he was glad he had.
Something was up. He casually went outside their room and looked around as they coasted into the portal docks and were assigned an arrival bay. People seemed overly nervous. The tenor of the energy on the inner decks of the transport changed. No one looked anyone in the eye. Ducking back into the room, he sent a look to Andrei. There wasn’t time to play at hiding their conversation.
The feeling sharpened, ripened into urgency and he listened—acted.
He turned to Carina. “I need you to listen and
obey
me. Andrei is going to help you hide. Don’t make a sound. Get your weapon out, and don’t hesitate if you have to use it.” He kissed her hard. He could see it in her eyes; she wanted to ask questions, but she didn’t. Instead, she nodded and took Andrei’s hand, letting him boost her up into the smuggler’s hold.
He needed to focus. Methodically, he set to erase their presence. Down came his alarms, up went the listening devices. He wiped surfaces down with DNA wipes. Enough cross data to confuse anyone.
In the background he heard Andrei come back into the room. They’d play at having a conversation still in their cover. Now that he’d taken the jammers down, chances were they’d be overheard, so it was crucial to sound like the people they were supposed to be. “We should go and wait to get off. I know she’s anxious,” Andrei said it as he tossed their packs up into the hold.
He laughed, feeling only numb as he did everything he needed to. The noise came from down the hall, a few cabins away. Yelling, some screaming. A child’s cry.
He ruthlessly shut off his pain at hearing a child in fear. He could not help. He had a job and someone he
could
save. He got up and into the hold just as the door banged open and soldiers swarmed the room.
She trembled behind him but made no sound. He squeezed her ankle to reassure her. This wasn’t the first such incident like this he’d been in, so he found that quiet place in his head and went there. Normally it would have been easy, but normally he wouldn’t be in a cramped crawl space with the woman he was head over ass in love with. And she was scared. And the men below wanted to kill them all.
All he could do was keep a hand on her ankle, but it worked; her trembling stopped, and they continued to wait. The soldiers ransacked the cabin and upon finding nothing of use, they stormed out.
He wasn’t sure how long they waited, but finally he poked a head from the hold and motioned for Andrei and Carina to stay. She shook her head wildly, but he went, replacing the seal, leaving them safely hidden.
He stood at the door, ear pressed to it. No more screams. The noise seemed to have died off. By that time they would have offloaded the ship, and there’d be a mandatory turnaround hold before the transport could be used again. They had to get off the transport before the new crew came on, but not so close to the offload that the soldiers might still be watching.
As he stood there, a soldier opened the door. Before he could jump with surprise, Daniel reached out, grabbed him, pulled him in, twisted his neck and closed the door quietly.
He hated dead bodies. They were heavy and awkward to move, and there was always the pesky issue of disposal.
Andrei peeked some moments later, angling out to help Daniel lug the body and secret it in the hold. Carina’s face had been priceless, though he did feel bad that she had to see it. She skirted past the body, surprising Daniel when she helped shove it back into a far corner with a muffled curse.
“Clearly we have to split up!” she hissed in his ear once he’d crawled back up. He’d already figured that out but hadn’t wanted to admit it to himself. The soldiers were looking for a woman and a man, or even two men.
“I’m not going to let you do that,” he growled into her ear.