Ricochet (13 page)

Besides, he’d treated her by turns as a member of his circle of women or a newbie pilot. She wanted a man to give her respect and recognize she was worth more than a convenient place to stick a penis. Her pussy throbbed just imagining him near that portion of her anatomy. Uttering a squawk of outrage at how deeply he’d managed to infiltrate her brain, she marched after him, catching up with him in time to see him vanish into the cockpit of the ship.

“What are you doing? I thought you were tired.” The petulant tone in her voice annoyed her. Why did she care what he did? “Damn it, Stratton, I’m leaving.” Before she’d executed a half turn, he vaulted down and landed heavily on his feet.

“Had to grab the datapad. I’m going to try an abbreviated version of phishing on Chaf’s ship.” He winked. “I need the details on how he managed the second slot, among other things.”

“First off, that’s illegal and can get us kicked out of the race.” Hot, angry words burned on her lips at his audacity. With a tight grasp on self-control, she bit them back. “Second, why is it so hard to believe Chaf’s that good? When I flew with him, he impressed me at times with his skill as a pilot.” Of course, even though she admired the hell out of him at times, his attitude bordered on jerkdom. No matter how good his looks, he was still a first-class dick. Stratton didn’t need to know any of it. Let him think what he wanted.

“Oh, sure, wonderful Chaf.” Her defense of his rival apparently brought out the ire in Stratton. His eyes narrowed with a deep and deadly glint, while his fingers tightened on the datapad. “Trust me, he’s not. If he can cheat, he will.”

“So will you. Isn’t that what the phishing scheme is all about?”

“Nope, it’s doing research on my enemy.”

She caught hold of his arm, halting him when he would have swept past. A grimace was the only indication he still suffered from the fight. “If you do anything that jeopardizes our placement in this race, I swear I’ll track you down and kill you.” She held his gaze, openly challenging him to defy her. “Do you understand?”

A smug grin tugged at the corners of his mouth. “I doubt you have enough courage to kill anyone. I’ll even go so far to say you’ve never killed anything in your life, right? You’re one of those people who looks real good with a HEPP, keeps one around for personal security, but has never had cause to use it.”

She hated how well he knew her, despised the way she let herself be read. Instead of confirming or denying his statement, she lifted a brow. “When or why I use my HEPP is not your concern.” She released him, mostly because any sort of contact with the man heated her internally. “Let’s go find dinner. This day has worn me out.”

“Not yet. I intend to get my readings first.”

Willa frowned. “I forbid it.” To her horror, she stomped a foot as she’d done when she was a small child. He noticed as well, and his smirk deepened.

“You forbid it. How…cute.” He chucked her under the chin. “Go stand over there like you’re the good girl your daddy thinks you are. I’ll be back before you can work yourself into a rage.”

Her jaw dropped while he loped between the ships. In the darkness, she watched him duck under Chaf’s Scout. He manipulated the datapad screen. The faint light from its display did little to illuminate his face. She bit her lip, having no idea what he was thinking. Stupid man. If someone from the racing board came out of the hotel, they’d both be tossed from the rally and their entry fees forfeited.

I refuse to go down because of Stratton.

Before she could do much more than pace a tight circle a few times, he’d returned. So quickly she didn’t see him move, he grabbed her right hand and laced their fingers together.

“What do you think you’re doing?” The intimate gesture threw her off balance. Warning bells sounded in her head.

“Remember? I promised to show you something.”

“Oh, not this again.” She attempted to pull away, but he held fast. “If I say I’ll take a quick peek at your package, will you let me go?” What was it with men wanting to show off their goods?

“Now,
kita
, if I gave you a look, then I’d have to let everyone take one, and where would the fun be in that? All the mystery would be gone, and my value to females would be diminished.” With long-legged strides, he walked her around the back of the Hive. “Besides, if you want in these pants, it won’t be that easy. You’ll have to beg me for it.”

Willa snorted at the outrageous statement. “Guess you’ll have to be uncomfortable, then.” In no scenario could she envision herself begging him to take off his pants. Her cheeks flamed at the thought. “Where are we going?”

“Somewhere you don’t need to be in control. Somewhere your icy cold exterior will melt from the wonder of something bigger than yourself.” His grip never wavered as he pulled her along behind him, deeper into the night.

“Why can’t I see stars from here?” The brilliant points of light were missing in this section of the galaxy. She’d never visited the Belt, and the strangeness of it all started to play with her mind.

“The debris caused by the constantly shifting asteroid belt provides too much of a shield and leaves a haze in the atmosphere.”

Gnarled, scraggly shrubs crowded the ground. Their branches brushed against Willa’s legs as they passed. Barren, long-dead trees lifted wind-ravaged arms to the sky in a weird, somber gesture of reverence. She wondered what the landscape had looked like when this area had been vibrant; maybe the rocks of Megaris-8 had once been a planet or moon that had sustained life instead of hosting one pathetic hotel and a third-rate, understaffed spaceport.

A shiver shot down her spine. “It’s so lonely here, so sad.” When Stratton released her fingers in favor of sliding an arm around her shoulders, she didn’t protest but leaned into his warmth. “Are we almost there? I don’t like this place.”

“You’re not supposed to. Why else do you think they’ve named this place the Chrysalis Plain?”

“That would assume this hideous place will turn into something else. I don’t see how that’s possible. There’s no life here. No living thing can possibly make a home in this dead area.” She glanced at the silent trees they passed between, and another shiver raced over her skin, leaving goose bumps in its wake. “I hate it here.”

“Shut the yap. It’s about to get better.” He pulled her forward until the trees completely surrounded them. “For once in your life, stop talking, stop trying to maintain control. Watch and listen. Everyone will change into something else while they’re alive.”

Her heart beat a stuttering rhythm. It pounded in her temples, fluttered in her neck until she felt it all the way down to her toes. The silence grew deafening, thundering over her, surrounding her, seducing her to join it in the forlorn forest.

Willa’s muscles tensed. She wanted to run away from this terrible place and would have done just that if not for Stratton’s strong arm around her shoulders. Some of the terror she felt subsided, held at bay by the solid mass beside her.

At her next inhalation of breath, the barren wood shifted before her eyes. The first movement was hardly noticeable. The gnarled bark of the trees seemed
alive
somehow. The brownish-gray scales shimmered, undulating and flickering as if preparing to take flight.

With a languid, smooth movement, Stratton knelt, grabbed a rock from the asteroid floor and stood. He stared into her face, his gaze inscrutable, and then he took a few steps from her and hurled the rock into the trees.

The sky erupted in a flurry of movement. Thousands of wings fluttered around her in an eerie green-silver glow. The beat of their wings, multiplied by the thousands, had the power of a strong breeze. Everywhere she looked, moths the size of her palm took flight, floating in the air in an intricate dance only they could perform.

Laughing, Willa spread her arms wide and stood still, holding her breath as a few of the insects landed on her for the space of a heartbeat before taking off once more. One brushed her cheek with a feathery-soft wing. She tilted her head upward and watched the miracle taking place all around her.

From behind her, Stratton cleared his throat. “They’re called Lunal Inka moths. Throughout the year, they live all over the galaxy except for two precious weeks. Then they come to the Sybaris Belt to mate. Once that mission is accomplished, they fling themselves throughout the galaxy again, only to die a pitiful few weeks later after their eggs are laid.”

“How sad.”

“Perhaps, unless you’re a Lunal Inka moth, and you live for this moment, to be one with another of your kind, assuring the species will continue. To know, for one perfect space of time, you’ve found your exact equal and match. Then it’s not quite as sad as you think.”

Nearby, several pairs of moths looped and swirled, locked in their intimate dance. Willa waved a hand, and they skittered higher into the darkened sky. “Why did you bring me here?” She turned around and met his gaze. “Why?”

He shrugged. “I figured you needed the lesson.” When she couldn’t figure out his cryptic comment, he sighed and tucked the datapad into his slick gear next to his skin. “Most of the time, the Lunals are boring and brown in color. They’re all the same and competing for limited space and even more limited attention. They’re no different from any of their fellows, yet they fight to be seen and heard by any of their kind who will notice them.”

“And?” The pain around her heart began to ease as he talked.

“And in the end, it doesn’t matter. They do what needs to be done. Each one of them has a job, and they do it. Once their change occurs and their colors are achieved, the competition has disappeared, because they know, as they’ve known all along, they were always meant for this moment. The anxiety to be seen was wasted effort.”

Wasted effort. No matter how hard she tried, her father would never recognize her for who she was, and, yes, she was wasting effort when she could actually
enjoy
being that woman. She swallowed hard and hoped the emotions just under the surface would settle. “Thank you.”

He rubbed the back of his neck. “Come on. I have zero time for female weakness. I’m tired, and my muscles ache. I’m in need of dinner. You can rub my stomach when I’m done.” Without a backward glance, he strode from the woods. “After that, you can eat.”

“And you can spit polish my boots—with your face.” Willa easily matched his stride. “Why bring me here at all? I find it hard to believe
you
made a correlation between a moth’s life and mine.”

Stratton’s rich chuckle flowed over her skin and tingled in hidden areas. “I didn’t. You did.” He never wavered in his stride. “But since you mentioned it, learn from the moths. Get happy in your own skin,
kita
. Be what you’re born to be and do it freely, without restrictions.”

“Is that what you’ve done?”

“Pretty much, but this was never about me.” His casual glance sent shivers of awareness dancing over her skin. “When we leave in the morning, I’ll be piloting our piece of crap.”

Willa nodded. The man might be a jerk, but she’d learned the lesson or was letting it sink in. Damn him. Maybe he had a good side after all.

Chapter Eight

Stratton smirked on the ride in the egg-shaped elevator to their floor in the Hive. He stepped out first when they arrived at their floor, his aches all but forgotten. The golden-hued hallways glowed with ambient light, and as he counted down the doorways, he listened to Willa’s softer footfalls behind him. The whole thing with the moths seemed to have had an effect on her. Hopefully, he’d gotten it past her prickly exterior and into her stubborn brain that she didn’t need to try so hard to get male attention.

It was just as well. No way did she need to be flaunting herself throughout the galaxy. Her swagger and attitude about flying already garnered enough interest, but those curves belonged to…well…not to him. He had no claim, didn’t need to get attached. He had a bounty to catch and a life to start. If he kept her around after sex, she wouldn’t walk out of his life before he was ready. He would end the relationship, but everything was a big
if
. Being with Willa in any capacity right now was always subject to change.

Guarding himself from possible emotional angst was a great self-preservation effort, but where did it take him? In the end, what good did it do? Going through the galaxy, chasing unsavory beings for whatever reason didn’t serve much of a purpose besides racking up money and animosity. Did it fulfill him? Mostly, but what else could he want from this life? Stratton frowned at the door he’d paused in front of before realizing it was theirs. Who the hell said he needed a woman for more than a bedmate?

No one. It was his screwed-up mind making a big deal out of nothing more than a chance meeting during a rally. That and a desperate cock. He’d been doing fine by himself, footloose and unfettered by domestic chains.
I don’t want a life companion to slow me down.

He placed his left palm in the biometric reader in the middle of the door and gritted his teeth as a red light scanned his skin. The seconds dragged by before the reader glowed green in acceptance. He needed liquor and food. Otherwise, there’d be nothing to take his mind off the woman whose breath warmed the back of his neck, whose presence he felt in his very pores.

Open, already!

The door slid into the wall, and he strode through the portal, nearly stumbling onto the low bed that claimed most of the floor space. A foot-wide walkway separated the sleeping quarters from the tiny adjoining wash facilities. Directly behind him was a slim cupboard that probably contained towels, small appliances and toiletries. He stood aside as best he could to allow Willa to enter the compact room. At least her reaction should be entertaining. The Hive’s accommodations weren’t exactly luxurious.

“Quit hogging the doorway, Ace. And before you get any ideas, I’m taking the…” Her words trailed off as she took in the sparse furnishings. “Why is there only a bed in here?” She sucked in air as if it had suddenly been declared rare.

“I told you these rooms would be different.” He pressed his backside into the wall as the space seemed to shrink with her presence. “If you wanted a bigger room, you shouldn’t have spent so much time fraternizing with those thieves. I’m told the penthouses are very different.”