Ax slumped in one of the acceleration chairs on the bridge, fingers trailing absently through the list of challenges without picking any of them. Okay, he thought. That first one went well. When will the other shoe drop?

Fluff bumped into his ankle insistently. Rather than prolong the irritation, Ax gave in, picked the creature up, and put it on his lap. He combed his fingers through Fluff’s fur with one hand while he examined his choices. There had to be something else, another small-points challenge that would allow them to stay well away from places that Gobby and her miscreants typically frequented. The options looked grim. Smaller points meant they’d be racing longer, which kept him safe in the short term. On the other hand, the longer he took to pay off Gobby, the more likely she’d be to cram him into a pain-amplifier for a long time, and then kill him.

Fluff made a trilling noise somewhere between a grumble and a purr as it settled more thoroughly into his lap. Ax reminded himself that he wasn’t a pet person, though he had to admit to a certain sense of ease and satisfaction as the creature relaxed.

The door opened from the hall, and he didn’t have to turn around to know that Kayana had walked onto the bridge. Somehow, his nerves just seemed to stretch toward her. His skin tingled from the nearness of her, from the memory of her touch. He couldn’t avoid noticing her, even if he wanted to. It was a poor survival trait, like a mouse infatuated with cats.

She walked up behind his chair and curled one hand onto his shoulder. He could feel the points of her nails through the fabric of his shirt, but it was the warmth of her skin that sent the blood rushing from his head to other, less-responsible places. She leaned down, and the loose neck of her shirt gaped open; it would be an act of supreme will to avoid looking down the front of her shirt.

His willpower had never been that good.

Beyond the open neckline, her scarlet skin swelled into the soft mounds he remembered from their time in the cave. If he craned his neck, he might have a better view, but the last thing he wanted to do was call attention to his peeking.

She cleared her throat, and he lifted his gaze to a smile that was all teeth. “Find anything interesting?”

“Extremely,” he replied, and her nails dug into his shoulder just enough to be teasingly painful. Before his brain could spin that out into any number of delicious fantasies, he leaned up to enlarge the display. “So, there are a few options.” Ax scrolled through until he reached the challenge he thought best suited them. And more importantly one that was a fair distance away.

She frowned. “That seems a little unambitious. Why not something worth more points? We handled that last one well enough.”

“You handled that last one. It was fortunate for us that those things used heat to track.”

“You’re the one who thought to bring flares.” She eased the pressure from her hand and looked back at the list. “We should consider some of these higher-value challenges while our luck is running.”

“In my experience, luck is not a trustworthy bedmate.” He chuckled at the bitter truth of the statement. “She loses interest quickly and finds new blood when it pleases her.”

“That seems a waste. Far better to exhaust all the options. Wring every last drop out of the person, then toss away the husk.”

Dammit. That should not have been as sexy as she made it sound. But with her husky voice and the soft promise of debauchery in her accent? Ax had never wanted to be used quite so badly. He swallowed and forced himself to keep his eyes on her face.

Not that her face was that much safer a place to look. Her position put her mouth at eye level, and it was too easy to remember that kiss and how delicious it had been. She licked her lip quickly. The pink tip of her tongue against the charcoal of her lips sent an electric jolt racing down his spine and directly into his groin. They were talking about something; why couldn’t he remember what it was? What had been his point?

Points!

“See, there’s a problem with that.” Ax turned away and busied himself sorting the challenge list by planet. “See these challenges here? They’re all on Altaira. It may look like there’s a lot of them, and that’s because there are. Every team has to stop on this planet in order to complete the race. Probably because Octiron cut some sweet deal with their Board of Tourism. If you look, though, all of them are pretty high points. That leads me to believe that, whatever the tourism board wants the public to think, this place is a deathtrap.”

He took a breath and glanced back to her face, making sure she was still paying attention. She nodded to him, so he continued. “The more points we accrue before we head there, the easier challenge we can get away with when we finally arrive. Make sense?” It should, Ax thought. It made sense to him as well. Of course, she’d pointed out his cowardice more than once, though he preferred the term self-preservation.

Kayana hesitated. Her teeth worried at her bottom lip, and Ax caught himself staring again. “But three high-scoring challenges will complete in shorter time than four low-value ones. I thought it was about speed?”

“Doesn’t stop the requirement about us going to Altaira,” he admitted. “And we can’t win if we don’t survive. But sure. It’s your choice.” She leaned closer, her body warm where it pressed into his shoulder. He couldn’t miss the slightly spicy smell of her skin, and it summoned memories of their kiss. Not the passionate one, though that had been spectacular, but the sudden kiss when he’d produced the flares for her. A moment of pure, unguarded joy that made him wonder what she was like without all her walls in place.

She pulled up a mid-range challenge on the display. “How about this one?”

Ax studied the description. It wouldn’t be the whole truth of course, but it didn’t sound too horrible. “It’s a temperate water world, so we’ll be able to get some beach time in as well as score another challenge. Did you pack a swimsuit?” As soon as the words left his mouth, he remembered that she had nothing. That everything she’d once had was space dust, because of him.

Kayana smirked, the impish expression more than enough fuel to spark the fire in his blood. She stepped around to stand in front of his chair then bent slowly forward to read the challenge from the display. She shifted her weight from foot to foot, leaving Ax squirming and unable to look at anything but the curves of her backside.

She made a soft, purring sound. “Actually, on my homeworld, we never wear them.”

That settled it. There was simply no position Ax could sit in that made his pants comfortable. The idea of her frolicking naked in the water wasn’t making them feel any less tight.

She poked a finger into the display, and the text turned green. “Algol, tell the Octiron Corporation we’ve accepted this challenge. Plot a course for Vedenemo and engage.”

The ship’s AI didn’t manifest, which Ax supposed was a good thing. Its voice—buzzing and nasal—was enough to remind him of its appearance. The stars on the viewscreens at the front of the bridge shifted as the yacht rotated into a new heading in preparation for the jump. “Affirmative. Travel time is eighteen hours.”

“Eighteen hours,” Kayana repeated. She turned back to face him, leaning in close to brush her lips teasingly against his. He moved to lean into the kiss, but she pulled back, just tracing the corner of his mouth with her tongue. Her nails dragged down his chest and scraped one nipple through the cloth, sending another jolt of electric hunger straight to his aching cock. Her whisper was a gunshot against the silence of the bridge. “Whatever shall we do to fill the time?”

#

THIS WAS NOT A GOOD idea. Part of Kayana’s brain kept railing against what she had planned, but she couldn’t deny that the inappropriateness created most of the appeal. His banter was entertaining, but that kiss in the cave kept playing through her brain. It distracted her from her goal, which was winning the race and getting back in her family’s good graces.

Just this once. Like a catchy tune stuck in her head, maybe she needed more to get Ax out of her system.

She smirked at her ability to justify things. She wanted him. And from the way he trailed down the hall after her, like an elastic band connected him to her waist, it went both ways. After Endarion’s rejection, and the vicious warrior image she’d cultivated among the pirates, it was nice to be desired.

I just won’t let it happen again. She spun after passing through the door to her room, and he fell into her arms. His mouth found hers, and the naked hunger in his kiss seared her veins and awakened an answering fire low in her belly. Her v’tana flared, and without a flame to shape it turned the heat inward on itself, desperate for something to ignite. His clever thigh pressed between her legs, and she ground down. The sparks of pleasure the pressure created only heightened her frustration. She broke the kiss to draw a fresh breath, and his kisses drifted to her cheek, then the sensitive point of her ear.

The world spun, and she whimpered at the graze of his teeth, the delicious rasp of stubble over her skin. She could already imagine other places for him to put his mouth, a thought that tightened her nipples past aching. He kissed the side of her neck, and she tilted her head to allow him better access. She stepped back, bringing him with her until her backside bumped the low dresser that ran along the cabin wall.

The stability of the furniture anchored her, at least until Ax’s mouth returned to her earlobe, tracing the delicate skin with tiny kisses. His voice was a husky whisper of stretched control. “I want to see you naked.”

A momentary flutter of concern flashed through her brain. “What about the cameras?” Film evidence of her liaison was not the way back to her family’s graces.

“Did you sign a red-band contract?”

There’d only been the one contract and a handful of release forms. She didn’t remember anything extra for producing mature content. “No.”

“Me either,” he smiled. “Algol? Main cabin cameras off.” A moment later the computer replied that the task was complete.

“It’s that easy?”

“Octiron has enough would-be exhibitionists lining up. They don’t need nonconsensual footage.” His gaze drifted down her body, leaving her skin tingling everywhere it fell. “Now, about these clothes.”

She still had sense enough to tease him. “Think your heart can take it?”

His teeth grazed her collarbone through the neck of her shirt, fingers trailing under the hem to brush her fluttering stomach. “I’m willing to risk it.”

Kayana smiled and held up her arms. “You’ve got hands.”

He nipped at her lower lip before lifting her shirt over her head. She hadn’t worn a support garment since they’d returned from Caldera, having washed the only one she had, and the cool air against her bared skin pulled another gasp from her. His attention drifted back to her ear, then to her neck, while his hands skimmed down the sides of her rib cage. His thumbs stroked the underside of her breasts, stopping annoyingly short of where she wanted them.

Under other circumstances, she might have appreciated him taking his time, but at the moment it only delayed the release she wanted. She locked her fingers into his hair, dragging his mouth down to the aching point of her breast. Ax chuckled, smiling against the pebbled skin before whispering, “Greedy.”

“Get used to it.” The last word turned into a whine as he sucked her nipple between his teeth. He pinched the other between his thumb and finger, the pressure flooding her senses and tightening the need that possessed her.

His fingers drifted lower, slipping beneath her waistband. Every place his mouth touched set her skin ablaze, and the scrape of stubble over her stomach made her grip the edge of the dresser for support. He knelt in front of her, tugging her loose-fitting trousers down with him. She kicked them off her feet, then had a moment of self-consciousness as he stared at her. She covered the front of her underwear with one hand, suddenly worried about what he might think. Humans were so much hairier than her people.

He wrapped his fingers around her wrist, easing her hand away as he pressed a kiss to the front of her thigh. “Don’t. You’re beautiful. Fucking perfect.” Another kiss punctuated each sentence as he worked his way higher, easing her back onto the top edge of the dresser.

Kayana held her breath, the tension stretching her nerves until she could barely move. He nuzzled the damp fabric, tracing her mound with teasing kisses and the delicate brush of his tongue. Her head lolled back, and she raked her nails across his scalp, his name like a gasp of pleasure on her lips. “Ax... Please...I need—”

She couldn’t finish the sentence. The first two words gave him the permission he’d apparently been wanting, and he tugged her underwear down out of the way. The cool air was replaced immediately by the heat of his mouth. She rocked into him, shamelessly digging her feet into his ribs as his tongue darted, stroked, and tormented. Every motion he made built the pressure within her, until her breath could only come in shallow gasps. His thumbs spread her wider, baring her to his merciless mouth.

Her hand drifted to her breast, pinching the tight peak as she used the other hand to keep his head right where she wanted it. Where she needed it. When she thought she couldn’t draw another breath, he plunged two fingers into her. The delicious stretch from his fingers might have been enough, but his mouth fastened onto her most-sensitive flesh, suckling and pulling. The tension drawing her nerves tight snapped on a wave of pleasure. She may have screamed, may have whimpered, but every cell of her was alive and flying apart. The tremors that racked her legs made her thankful for the dresser, knowing she’d have fallen without it. She was falling, even with it. Falling while remaining upright.

She tugged his mouth back to hers, eager to taste herself on his lips. Wanting something more substantial than tongues and fingers to fill the emptiness that remained. And how in the Nine was he still dressed through all of this?

A fist pounded on the cabin door, and they froze like teenagers caught by unexpected parents. Berniss. Of all the lousy timing. Kayana tried to remember if they’d locked the door on the way in, but couldn’t. Dammit.

The knock came again, followed by the camerawoman’s voice. “Kayana? The cameras are off in your room. Are you okay?”

Okay? That was an understatement. She gave Ax another kiss, then stood on shaky legs, like a newborn krath. She started to answer, and he placed a finger on her lips, then pointed her toward the bed. Once she’d gotten beneath the covers, he turned and opened the door. As soon as the was room, Fluff bee-lined for the bed and jumped up to settle by her feet.

Ax watched the animal charge the room then turned back to the door. “Hi, Berniss.” He leaned against the door, his proud smile making Kayana stifle a chuckle. “I came running over right after I heard her shout. She must have had a bad dream.”

The reporter narrowed her eyes, but the drone floating behind her had nothing salacious to film. Through a tight-lipped smile, she replied, “Or something like that.”

Ax followed Berniss out into the hall but ducked his head back into the cabin. The smile he gave her sent another round of hot shivers through her legs. “I’ll check in on you later.”

Kayana licked her lips slowly and pulled the covers back far enough to expose one breast. The hungry look that possessed him pleased her more than it should. “Indeed. Later.”

He gave a rough-sounding breath and slid the door shut behind him. She closed her eyes as another aftershock of pleasure raced along her nerves. She may have told herself it wouldn’t happen again, but at the moment only one thing was certain. Later wasn’t going to come soon enough.