“Don’t run. The bed will still be there whenever we arrive.”
Raine slowed up, letting Kit slip an arm through his. “You sure you’re up for it? You do look tired.”
“Good thing I’ll be lying down, then.” They reached the door, and Kit turned Raine to face him. “Still wanna carry me, Chief?”
He launched himself at Raine, legs and arms wrapped around him, indulging the urge he’d felt so often to wrap himself all around his big, gorgeous man and feel safe. Raine laughed and caught him around the waist, then adjusted his grip when Kit slipped a bit. He put his hands under Kit’s ass, making a seat.
“I can’t enter the lock code with you, ah, sitting on my hands.”
“What is it?” Kit reached for the number pad with his left hand. Raine didn’t hesitate.
“Six, seven, five, four, two.”
Kit tapped it in, and the door opened. “Now I can sneak in on you in the night.”
“Now you live here.”
Before Kit could respond to this startling statement, Raine carried him inside and laid him on the bunk, being quite careful, treating him like something delicate. Kit felt delicate after his whole pirate-battling adventure and enjoyed having Raine be so gentle. So different from his usual barely under control passion. Not that he had any complaints about the passion, but variety was the spice of life. Raine stepped away from the bunk, and Kit leaned up on his elbows.
“Hard for me to undress with my hands the way they are,” he said.
“Don’t worry about it.” Raine started undressing. “I’ll get to you in a minute.”
“Raine, what you said about me living here…”
“I mean it. Come and stay with me for the rest of the voyage. Bring your things up from the bunk room.”
Kit looked around critically. “Can I redecorate?”
Raine smiled. He walked to the bunk, wearing only his pants. “Save it for after Saira. I’ll apply for a larger cabin.”
Kit had no time to ask him about those plans, because Raine knelt by the bunk and started to undress him, which soon emptied Kit’s mind of everything but the sensation of Raine’s hands and lips on his skin. Raine undressed him carefully, but his delicate touches had the tease and promise of his strength behind them.
When he was naked, Kit realized the room was at a pleasant temperature for him but too cold for Raine, goose bumps roughening his skin. Damn, even for the time left to Saira that would be a problem. Either Kit spent the whole time naked, or Raine spent it in five layers of clothes. Unacceptable when Kit wanted immediate access to Raine’s cock twenty-four hours a day.
“You’re cold,” he said. “Come on, get under the covers, let me keep you warm.”
“You’re already making me hot.” They got under the bedclothes, Raine shedding his pants before he did, his hard-on springing out ready to go.
“Lie back,” he said. “I mean… Can I…?”
“Of course.” Kit let his legs fall open, let Raine lie between them. He noticed the condoms and bottle of lube on a shelf over the bed, sitting there in plain sight. Kit grinned.
“Oh, my man is so brazen now.”
“What?” Raine said, looking up from his preparations.
“Never mind. Need you, Dan. Please.” His nearly useless hands frustrated him. Not only the pain he got if he tried to grab anything but not being able to touch Raine, feel his hot skin.
“Ready?”
Kit threw his head back as Raine filled him, his hands forgotten, the pain forgotten, nothing real but the fire in his belly and ass. Oh God, Raine. Dan. His man.
“I knew you’d come for me.” He moaned it as they moved together, Raine seemed to be trying to go slower than usual, Kit thought, perhaps wary of Kit’s exhaustion or wanting the moment to last. But passion soon took him in its grip, making him push harder, faster. “I knew you’d come for me.”
“I’ll always come for you.”
Kit wanted to giggle at the words. Coming was going to happen damn soon. But Raine’s words meant so much more. Meant everything. He’d never leave Kit to face danger alone. Not if it lay in his power to help.
But in three weeks time, he would have to.
Three weeks they had to make the most of. He pulled Raine closer until kisses rained on Kit’s chest and his body tightened around Raine, pleasure tearing though him in a wave, hot as lava. He wrapped his arms and legs around Raine again as Raine cried out and called Kit’s name over and over as he climaxed.
“Kit? Are you with me?”
Kit opened his eyes, coming back from the fuzzy pink place he’d been. Between his painkillers and his orgasm, he had the strength of a kitten. He lay in Raine’s arms, pressed close on the narrow bunk.
“Mmm, with you. Always with you.” If only “always” could be true. “Don’t let me go to sleep yet. We have so little time. We have to make the most of it.”
“Shh. The company will work it out.”
He sounded so sure. For a few moments, Kit allowed himself to imagine leaving Saira as a member of the
Dawn’s
crew. Sharing a cabin with Raine, officially partners. Though he’d never seen a future that included his being a spacer, so much had changed. But he knew it couldn’t happen.
“Company can’t fix it.”
“You have to trust in the law, Kit. You’re innocent. Trust the law, the captain, and the company. And me. We’re all on your side.”
His words sprang unexpected tears into Kit’s eyes. “Thanks, Dan.” He swallowed, trying to bring himself back under control, hoping Raine would put the husky and cracked tone of his voice down to tiredness. He didn’t argue anymore. Let Raine have his fantasy. He’d have to face reality soon enough.
He could still ask Raine to come with him, but, like Jeff, he might balk at giving up everything. It would be selfish of Kit to even ask. It would be madness for anyone to give up everything for something as tricky as love.
Kit wouldn’t ask.
He couldn’t go through the disappointment again.
* * *
Two weeks to go to Saira. Kit was back at work, his hands nearly healed and able to wield his mop again.
“You okay, Kit?” Gracie asked as she wiped down tables and he mopped. The mess hall stood empty after lunch. “You’re quiet today.”
“Raine was talking about after Saira again,” he said. “Getting a bigger cabin.”
“So that’s good, right? Nice big bed.”
Kit sighed and dipped his mop in the soapy water.
“There is no ‘after Saira’ for us, but I can’t make him see it. He thinks the company is going to magically fix everything.”
“They might.”
“It’s not gonna happen. After Saira my ass is on a one-way transport back to jail.”
She glanced around and moved closer to him, spoke quietly.
“Unless you escape. You’re still planning to, aren’t you?”
“Don’t ask me, Gracie. I won’t answer.” He wouldn’t involve her in any way. He wouldn’t even tell her his intentions.
“Look, Kit, I agree with you. The company probably can’t help you. The law isn’t on the side of people like us, is it? So you could ask Raine to help you escape.”
“No.”
“He’d do it.”
“I
know
he would.”
“Then why not ask?”
“Raine’s worked hard to get where he is. How can I ask him to throw it all away? It’s not fair.”
“Fair doesn’t come into it. He loves you.”
“Today he loves me. What about next year, two, three years? What if by then we wish we’d never met? Love doesn’t last forever.”
“Not with that attitude.” She scowled at him, looking as if she wanted to toss the wet cloth she held right at his cynical, miserable head.
“Just forget it. I’ll give evidence against Taylor at the hearing. Then one way or another, it’s going to be good-bye.”
* * *
The door buzzer surprised Raine as he relaxed on his bed, wearing only shorts, enjoying having the heat up high enough to be comfortable. Kit should still be on dinner duty, surely? Though he knew the door code and could come and go as he liked, he still buzzed first if he thought Raine was in.
Raine got up, putting aside his Link. He’d been reading a book. It was a relief not to have the tracker data there as a constant temptation to virtually stalk Kit around the ship anymore. He put on a robe—in case it wasn’t Kit—and opened the door.
“Gracie?”
“Sorry, were you asleep? Can I come in?”
“No, ah, I wasn’t asleep.” He cinched the belt of his robe tighter, self-conscious as he let her in. Rather a long time since he’d had a young woman in his cabin. Since never, in fact.
“Wow!” She fanned herself with her hand. “Kit wasn’t joking about the heat.”
“Sorry. I’ll turn it down.” He fiddled with it and sent cold air blasting into the room. Gracie stood by the vent and sighed with relief. Raine gave her a glass of water, hoping she wouldn’t faint or anything.
“Is there something I can do for you, Gracie?”
“Not for me. For Kit.”
“Ah…I don’t really feel comfortable talking about my private life. I know Kit probably talks to you, but I’m not that kind of man.”
“I know that,” she said, rolling her eyes. “Don’t we all know that? Don’t panic, I’m not here to talk about your private stuff.” She stopped and drank her water—a move Raine recognized as a delaying tactic. “I’ve been thinking about this for hours, and I didn’t know if I should come and tell you or not. But I think I should. For Kit.”
“Is something wrong?”
“He’s going to try to escape after the hearing.” She said the words in a great rush, then took another gulp of water. Sweat showed on her forehead, despite the cold air of the vent.
“He told you this?”
“No, of course not. He doesn’t want me involved. But I know.”
“You just…
know
?” Should Raine accept that? She and Kit were close. Also, people like Gracie, people nobody took much notice of, often understood and observed more than people gave them credit for. Back when he’d been an MP and looking for the truth about some event, he’d often found it by questioning the one person everyone thought of as the quiet, dumb one in the group. When people don’t talk to you much, there are so many fewer distractions.
“And you have to do something about it,” Gracie said, ignoring his skeptical tone. “You know what his escape plans are like—terrible! He’ll either fail or he’ll get himself into worse trouble.”
She made a good point. Kit didn’t have a brilliant record in the department of cunning planning. He’d stowed away on the
Dawn
on a whim. His last escape attempt had been foiled the instant he left the ship.
Raine groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose, his head starting to throb. Damn. Kit had stopped talking about them having only the time until Saira, and Raine thought he’d decided to trust the law and the company, even if he didn’t respond much to talk about afterward. But his plans hadn’t changed—he’d just been keeping quiet about them.
“You’d better go,” he said. “I need to get dressed. Kit and I need to have a little talk.” He started gathering clothes from the wardrobe.
“Wait! You can’t go and confront him.”
“I think I can. You’re right. He’ll get himself into bigger trouble. I have to bring him to his senses.”
“Do you think that’s why I told you? So you could stop him?”
Raine froze, a shirt in his hands. “Well, yes. Why else?”
Gracie sighed impatiently. “You are a big dumb ox, like Kit says.”
“What?”
“I told you so you could…” She shook her head. “Tell you what, Chief. You sit here and think about it for a while. Think about the possibility there might be a couple of other options worth considering.” She glanced at the clock. “Hell, I’d better get back. We’ll be starting cleanup in a second, and they’ll be wondering where I’ve gone. Hah, Trish will want to put a tracker on me.” She opened the door and dashed out. The door slid closed behind her.
Raine put down the shirt and shook his head slowly as if trying to shake out the pieces of the puzzle Gracie had handed him. If Kit planned to make an escape attempt on Saira, then what did Gracie expect Raine to do, aside from stop him? Did she expect him to do what he’d once offered and help Kit escape? Kit had probably told her about that. He seemed happy to talk about anything with the girl, even quite intimate matters, something Raine found odd.
But somehow he doubted she meant Raine should only help Kit escape. She’d been a supporter of their relationship from the start. While they’d been broken up and Kit had been seeing Parker, both Raine and Parker had come in for some blistering glares from her in the mess hall. Quite put Raine off his food sometimes—and those were only the ones she directed at Parker. When on the receiving end himself, he’d usually been driven from the room.
So he couldn’t believe she meant for him to help Kit escape and simply wave him good-bye. Gracie wanted them to be together. But she didn’t believe the law would clear Kit or the company could save him, so she didn’t think they could be together on the
Light of Dawn.
Which left only one option.
Chapter Twenty
Kit didn’t have kitchen duty the morning they arrived at Saira. After dinner cleanup the night before, Trish told him to sleep in the next day. He took his leave of her with thanks for her kindness over the last few months. He knew he’d never see her again.
Used to waking at 0530, he jerked awake with a feeling of panic around 0545, then lay back with a sigh when he remembered he didn’t have to get up yet. At his side, Raine stirred. He adjusted his hold on Kit without waking and stilled again.
Kit snuggled against him. They had no choice but to hold on to each other in the narrow bunk. Some nights Kit woke with Raine pinning him to the wall and had to shove him away, waking him up. On the plus side, this often led to some interesting middle-of-the-night shenanigans.
But Raine wasn’t crushing him now, so Kit let him sleep. He rested his head on Raine’s chest to feel the regular rise and fall as he breathed, to hear his heart thumping, and to smell soap and sweat on his skin. To imprint it all in his memory. He’d miss this so much. The big lug had grown on him.
Love you, Chief Stick-up-the-ass
. He tried not to think about the moment he’d have to say good-bye. He’d as soon rip his heart out and drop-kick it. The captain had no good news for them, though she said the company lawyers were still busy on Kit’s behalf, determined to help him. Too late, he knew. As soon as the Taylor hearing ended, the cops would drag him off. Inevitable.