Raine’s mouth went dry. Nevertheless, he kept his voice level when he thanked her and ended the call. He stood, grabbing his gloves from the desk.
“Warner!” Was she back yet? Yes. She appeared at the door in seconds.
“Sir?”
“We have a stowaway.”
* * *
Kit peeked around a corner. All clear. He was close to the locker rooms and aching to get under the stream of hot water until he felt clean and normal again.
Okay, go for it
. He stepped into the corridor. He’d put on the cap that went with the uniform, hoping the peak would help hide his face when he passed security cameras or any people.
Like this guy. Shit. He wore the uniform of the ship’s crew. He’d come around the corner at the opposite end of the corridor, and he was heading straight for Kit.
Looking
for Kit?
Kit came up on a side corridor to the right and ducked into it without a moment’s thought. He should have taken the moment. He’d turned into a dead end. No—an elevator stood at the end of the short corridor. Kit ran to it and whacked the call button a good one. Footsteps came closer, turned into the short corridor.
Shit. Shit. Shit. Open, damn you! Open the damn doors.
The doors slid open, and Kit dived inside.
Close! Come on! Oh, there’s a button for that
. He hit it. The doors began to close.
“Computer, hold the elevator.” The loud and bossy voice would be registered on the system—unlike Kit’s. The doors slid open.
“No!” Kit slapped the button again in desperation. The doors stayed stubbornly open. The man started to run, and Kit had no place to go. He considered making a break for it and trying to shove past him. But the guy was big, broad-shouldered. Kit would never get past him in the narrow corridor. Too late to try. Kit flattened himself against the wall of the elevator car as the man burst into it and snapped out a command.
“Computer, section ten. Security override, no stops.”
The doors closed, and the elevator moved off. The man turned to Kit.
“Now, who the hell are you?”
Brown eyes, squinted half shut, glared at Kit from under the peak of a dark blue cap. The face, more tanned than most spacers Kit had seen, was that of a man in his thirties, and not bad-looking at all. But Kit didn’t have the time to think of such things. The other man seemed to fill the elevator car, and Kit stayed leaning back against the wall, making himself smaller, afraid of provoking the man. He looked strong as a horse. The damn size of one too.
“What’s your name?”
Kit glanced down instinctively. He’d picked up a name badge discarded on a bench when he’d sneaked into the locker rooms a few days ago to take a shower. The other man wore one too, though of a different design. His read
Raine 3rdM
, whatever the hell that meant.
“Raine” shook his head at Kit’s giveaway glance down. Naturally. Most people didn’t need to read their name off a badge. Kit tried his luck nonetheless.
“Uh, John Willis.” The badge he wore read J Willis. He took a guess.
Raine pulled out a Link and pointed it to scan the badge, making Kit flinch back. Without a word, he held up the device to show the face of a man, with the name James Willis underneath. He was a dark-skinned, moon-faced man with an extra chin or two, making Kit glad he’d only filched James Willis’s badge and not his whole uniform.
“Ah, I lost some weight.”
“And pigment?”
No answer would serve, so Kit stayed silent.
“I’m chief of security of the
Light of Dawn
,” Raine said. “I’m arresting you for boarding this ship without authorization. Turn around and put your hands on the wall, please.”
His tone had softened from when he’d first burst into the elevator. He’d clearly decided Kit wasn’t a threat, which made Kit bristle. Okay, so this guy could probably snap him in two, but Kit wasn’t harmless, he could…
“Turn around.” Some of the snap came back.
He could turn around and assume the position—that’s what he could do. He turned to face the wall, laying his hands flat on it. His heart thudded in his ears, and he started breathing fast. Caught. Fucking caught. Screwed.
“Are you carrying any weapons?” Raine asked.
“No.” Which was stupid. He could have picked something up. A kitchen knife. Anything. And he’d do what? Stab Raine to death? Ridiculous.
“Warner,” Raine said, speaking on the comms, Kit realized. “I’ve got him in an elevator car, and we’re on our way to section ten. Send a squad to meet us there.”
“Right, Boss,” a woman’s voice replied. Kit glanced back at Raine but got a scowl that made him turn away again quickly.
“Stand still,” Raine ordered. He wore gloves, leather ones, and took them off before he began to pat Kit down. As he ran his large hands over Kit’s body, Kit’s stomach knotted with instinctive fear. Raine didn’t do anything to hurt him, but he could feel the strength in those hands. They swept down his legs—nothing hidden there, the pants he wore too tight-fitting to conceal much. They swept up again, brushed Kit’s ass, making him sigh. Kit might be scared, but those big strong hands touching his ass could only feel good. Raine paused but then moved again and checked the pants pockets, quickly sweeping his fingers around, close to…
“Sorry,” Raine said softly.
Oh, don’t be
. The apology and the slight hoarseness of his voice could mean one of two things. Either embarrassment about rummaging around so close to another man’s goodies—or it meant Kit had the start of a plan. He forced the fear to the back of his mind, tried to relax. Wait for his moment.
Raine was thorough. He turned up the collar of Kit’s stolen jacket, then whipped the cap from his head. Aware that it made him memorable around here, surrounded by crop-haired spacers, Kit had pulled his hair up under the cap. It fell down, sweeping over his shoulders and back.
Raine’s breathing changed. Kit heard it speed up, and he smiled. The hair always worked. A glance back and he was sure. Raine had desire written all over his face. Lust burned in his eyes.
Kit turned, right into Raine’s arms, and knew instantly what he wanted. Knew he was lost in a moment when everything else had faded away. No elevator, no space freighter, just them, their bodies responding to each other’s heat. He pressed himself forward, straining against Raine’s body.
Kissing him.
Chapter Two
Raine smelled so good, all soapy and like citrus, that Kit felt dirty by comparison, and he wished he’d made it the locker room for a shower and shave. His bristly chin rasped against Raine’s much smoother one. He didn’t smell good, and he had bristles; he expected Raine to shove him away in disgust any second.
He didn’t. He never broke the kiss. Kit expected at least some surprise, but Raine’s response was instant and hungry, indicating to Kit that he didn’t get it nearly enough. He pushed Kit back, heavy body pinning him against the wall of the elevator car, and held Kit’s head in his large hands, fingers tangling in his hair, pulling him closer.
Kit had to fight an urge to wrap his arms and legs around Raine, wanting to hang on to the strong man and feel safe after being so scared for so long. The urge confused him. It made no sense. He should be afraid of Raine. He was a cop. Chief of security, whatever; it meant the same.
But none of the other cops had kissed him. And what a kiss. Clumsy, perhaps, bumping noses until they found the right angle, Raine pressing too hard, too demanding, lost in the passion. Clumsy but so good Kit wanted to lose himself too. Raine’s tongue deep in his mouth, Raine’s hands in his hair. He didn’t want to open his eyes. Time would start again if he did. But he had to. Had to let his gaze slide away to the elevator’s control panel and the indicator showing them passing levels and sections.
In his mind, he made Raine a silent apology. Raine was hot, and he seriously needed to get laid, a problem Kit might otherwise have been happy to help him with. But not today.
Now
! Kit reached out and smacked the Emergency Stop button. The elevator stopped with a jolt that jarred Kit’s spine, but he regained his balance and shoved hard. Raine stumbled back, got his feet tangled together, and fell, crashing against the opposite wall. He cursed, surprisingly mildly.
The doors were open. As Kit had hoped, the elevator had stopped close enough to a floor that it had triggered the outer doors to open too. The car was a meter away from the deck, but he jumped down and hit the ground running. He sprinted off down an empty corridor.
No more elevators. Find a repair shaft with a ladder in it
. He had to get back down to the cargo hold and vanish.
* * *
The stowaway jumped out of the elevator before Raine even hit the floor. By the time he’d clambered out into the corridor the man was out of sight. But somewhere ahead, Raine heard running footsteps.
“Raine, you okay?” Warner’s voice came through on his comms as he took a breath, regaining his composure and willing his cock to go the hell down.
“I’m fine,” he said as he strode off. “He got away from me.”
“So I saw.”
He had a flutter of panic, wondering if someone had installed cameras in the elevators and not told him. Or if he’d left his comms channel open when he threw the man he was arresting up against the wall and shoved his tongue down the guy’s throat.
“He came out of the elevator like a cork out of a bottle,” Warner said. “But I’m tracking him on the cameras. Take the next right.”
He followed her instructions, speeding up when she told him the stowaway had found a maintenance access shaft and climbed inside. Damn, those things were a labyrinth.
“Scan for body heat in there,” he ordered. He’d had too close an encounter with the guy’s body heat already. No scanners involved. What the hell was he going to put in his report? “
The prisoner escaped from custody while I was distracted by sexually assaulting him
”? What the hell had come over him? The man wasn’t all
that
good-looking, was he?
But the hair… Something about the hair. Thinking of it made Raine’s softening cock start to stiffen up again, and he growled a warning at himself to keep his mind on the job.
“I’ve picked him up on the scanners,” Warner reported. “He’s heading down.”
“He’s probably intending to go to ground in one of the cargo containers.” Once he got inside one and out of range of the cameras on the door, he’d have a hundred places to hide.
“It would take us days to find him in there.”
“I know that.” He regretted his snappy tone at once. She didn’t deserve the rough edge of his tongue. The only person at fault here was himself. He could be walking into security with the guy in handcuffs right now if he hadn’t lost control. He took a deep breath and spoke in a more even tone.
“Get a squad into position to cut him off before he can get inside a container.”
“Right, Boss.”
He found an elevator and headed down to rendezvous with his squad. At least when they caught the man this time, Raine would have chaperones, so he couldn’t behave like a lunatic again. He closed his eyes as the elevator swished away, trying to regain full control of his emotions. Breathe deep. Become calm. See the sand and the sky and be there in the silence. Forget the anger. Forget the lust. Do the job.
With his eyes still closed, he took his gloves from his pocket and put them on, hands chilled after sweating. It had been an instant of weakness, no more. The stowaway had taken advantage, seen a way to distract him. He couldn’t claim he wasn’t at fault, but he hadn’t initiated the kiss.
He’d sure as hell responded. Growing hard in an instant—which
never
happened to him. He just wanted the guy so bad. The musky smell of him, a few days unwashed, had an excitement to it. Not since the old days out in the desert…
Stop.
Sky. Sand. Heat. Calm.
His eyes snapped open as the elevator doors slid back, and he strode out to meet his squad. They waited in the long, bare corridor that held the doors to the detachable containers holding cargo and stores.
“You’re ahead of him,” Warner reported. “He’s two levels above you, still moving down.”
Raine glanced up instinctively, then looked at the access panel in the bulkhead where the stowaway would have to emerge to come out on this deck. It came out right beside the door into the container Raine had first seen him in. Did he already have a hiding place in there?
“Knox, Munro, get inside the container. One of you go up a level, one down.” Each of the huge, detachable containers had three levels. “Don’t go too far in case he passes this one.”
“Right, Boss.” They headed into the container. Meanwhile, Raine hid himself and the rest of the squad in service alcoves along the corridor. They could stay entirely out of sight while Warner kept him updated with every move their quarry made. In a moment, she confirmed he was coming out of the access hatch Raine had expected.
“Got him on camera again,” she said, voice soft as if afraid the fugitive would overhear, though their earpieces fitted snugly and no sound leaked out. “FYI. The bridge is monitoring us.”
And the captain herself would be on this watch, Raine knew. Okay, better end this quick. And hope she never found out about the way Raine had acted in the elevator.
“He’s heading into the cargo container,” Warner said.
“Wait for it,” Raine whispered to his squad. If they went too soon, the stowaway might double back out of the door and run for it. Raine wanted him trapped between the men already inside and the squad out here, leaving him no place to go but into Raine’s arms, ah, their arms. Arrested.
“He’s five meters inside,” Warner said.
“Go!” Raine snapped out the order.
They ran, feet pounding on the metal deck, piling through the narrow door into the container. The stowaway stood at the top of the steps leading to the bottom level. Another set led to the upper level, but neither was an option for him, because of Munro coming up and Knox coming down. Raine’s squad cut off his retreat. Trapped, he stared around, eyes huge in his pale face.
“Give yourself up,” Raine ordered, approaching him slowly, not wanting to panic him. “You won’t be hurt.” Or indeed kissed. He had to give up, surely. Nowhere to go. Munro passed the landing and headed up the last flight, closing in. Abruptly, the stowaway spun away from Raine and ran straight at Munro, taking off down the steps at a dead run. What the hell? Raine ran after him and saw him grab the handrail and vault over it.
Oh hell, no, don’t do that
! Munro made a grab at him, missed.