“You need to stop.”

A grunt was Valdus’s only response.

“Put me down.” Ava tried again. “Neither Hollisworth nor the drones can follow us here.”

After they’d ducked into the smaller tunnel, they’d followed the same procedure as before, running as a pack before splitting into smaller and smaller numbers at each branch, confusing anyone trying to follow, until it was only her and Valdus and the raging sound of her own hopelessness shrieking in her head.

“You should have left me.” The words bubbled out, hot and tight. “You should have taken the ore when you had the chance.”

His grip tightened, but still he said nothing.

“We’ve lost our chance to defeat him. You should have let me go.”

Her feet hit the ground, a sudden dizzying shift that left her arms clinging to his neck and her body pressed to his.

“And left you with Draeke?” he roared at last. “Did you see what he did to your friend?”

“I’ve survived worse,” she shouted right back.

“But not on my watch.” He slammed his fist to his chest. “Not when I had the power to stop it.

“But what about your men? Our plan? Weren’t you the one who told me pity would only get a person killed faster.”

He whirled away. Smashed his fist into the wall.

Tiny fragments of stone exploded outward, his knuckles ripping wide.

Horror at what he’d done to himself—at what she’d driven him to do—extinguished her anger in an instant.

“Stop!” She seized his arm. Her hold slid right off.

His fist plowed forward again.

“Enough!” Changing tactics, she moved around him, sliding between his fist and the wall.

The woman she’d once been would have never taken such a risk. Never put herself in the line of fire. But the woman she was becoming knew this man would never hurt her.

His fist froze in midstrike, fury giving way to pain. “Maybe you’re right,” he whispered. “Maybe I should have left you and Griffin and taken the ore and told myself that as long as you were functional enough to give us the tracker serum by the time I got you back it was the right choice to make.” He dropped his bleeding fist to his side. “But I couldn’t. No fucking way.”

Surprise and something infinitely sweeter welled within, her grief and hopelessness ebbing as she realized his meaning. “You care for me.”

His chest rose hard and fast.

“That’s…that’s what you stayed by my side. Not just because I’m bait or because I have what you need,” she persisted. “But just because.”

His expression softened. “No one who has the chance to know you would feel any other way.”

Her heart soared.

Hollisworth had spent so long making her feel worthless. At this moment, it didn’t even matter that they’d lost the ore and their plan was in shambles, she felt more valuable than all the precious elements in the universe.

“I…I care for you, too.” Shy at first, the confession grew easier with every word. “Even if I shouldn’t. Even if every sane part of me is screaming that it’s madness to cherish anything down here except my own survival. I can’t stop.” She stepped closer, raising her hand to press it against his strong, beautiful, bruised jaw. “Even if it’s the worst idea in the universe, I can’t stamp out what I feel for you.”

Heat flared in his gaze, along with pain.

She understood. Their shared confessions changed everything—and nothing at all.

Turning his chin, he brushed his lips against her palm, inhaling deep. “What are you doing to me?”

“The same thing you’re doing to me,” she whispered.

The warmth of his full lips seared her palm, sparking an answering flame low in her belly.

“I don’t want to lose you.”

She slid closer. “Then don’t push me away.”

“I let emotion rule me in the mines and got Carvter killed. The ore lost. I failed us all.”

“Your teammate’s death is on Hollisworth, no one else.” She felt like a shrew for taking out her grief over losing the ore on Valdus, the one man who deserved only her praise. “And the rest of us are still standing. Ready to fight.” He’d stood strong when she’d wavered and needed him. Now, it was her turn. “We’ll figure something out. Seemingly fragile things survive down here. You told me that yourself. We will, too.”

“Such grit.” He pulled her close. Nuzzled her temple. “If you knew what was in my mind. If you knew what I wanted to do to you. Throw you over my shoulder. Steal you away. Keep you for myself alone. Fuck the mission. Fuck escape. Fuck our deal. Fuck everything, but the way you feel in my arms.”

Need arrowed through her. Not because of the heat, but because of the man himself. It was another new, extraordinary experience.

“But you won’t,” she said at last, her voice strengthened by absolute certainty. “Because your team needs you, too. Because they’re everything to you.”

“Not everything.” His eyes had darkened to near black. “Not anymore.”

Her heart skipped. “Touch me, Valdus. Wipe everything except you from my skin.”

A low groan issued from him, but his mouth stilled before it reached her own.

“You make me forget everything but you.” He shook his head, amusement flaring in his gaze. “But not this time. There’s something I want to show you.”

Wrapping his hand around her wrist, he ducked through a small low triangular space between two large rocks.

Looking up, she gasped

Liquid poured from a large crack near the ceiling and splashed its way down the rocky wall. A waterfall. She’d read of them, but water was so scarce on New Earth that those that had once existed were gone. Bella had sworn she’d seen one on Dragath25. Ava hadn’t been so lucky.

Until now.

“It…it’s amazing.” Hovering near the outskirts of the falls, soothing spray danced across her face. Wet. Almost too hot. But delicious nonetheless. Tilting her chin upward, she let it coat her hair, eyelashes, and skin. Roll across her cheeks. Down her chin. Each droplet pure bliss.

“I wanted to show you something special.” He pulled her close. “To prove it isn’t all ugliness and death down here.”

“How could it be,” she kept her gaze locked with his as she brushed her lips against his neck, “when you’re here?”

“I think…” he swallowed hard, “I think you’re going to break me.”

Blood from his temple mingled with the water, tracking down his neck and chest.

If only it could wipe away the storm in his eyes as easily.

“Or put you back together again.” She traced a fingertip along his jaw. “We’ll figure something out,” she insisted. “Together.”

His nostrils flared. “He will never have you.”

Their lips met in a fierce clash. Tongues. Teeth. Wild. Frantic.

They hadn’t resolved the tension brewing between them, hadn’t determined if what was growing between them was a troubling weakness or a miraculous strength, but right then and there she couldn’t seem to care either way.

Large hands slid to her ass, lifted her up, pressing her core against his thick erection and, holding her close, waded more fully beneath the forceful spray. The pounding water against her shoulders only amplified the arousal thundering through her veins.

“Sometimes I can’t believe you’re real.” His eyes were an even more brilliant blue against spiky lashes darkened by water. “Real and in my arms.”

“Real and aching.” The heavy weight of her soaked uniform clung to her skin, outlining the hard jut of her nipples even as it proved a frustrating barrier, restricting sensation, magnifying her desire to be skin to skin. To peel back every layer between them. To come together with no limits. Cleansed inside and out. Reborn. Untainted.

She’d never imagined craving something like that with Hollisworth’s technology still lodged inside her and yet, in this moment, she felt almost free.

“I need you to touch me.” She tugged at her sleeve. Bared her shoulders.

With a groan, his mouth skimmed the hollows of her collarbone, sipping at her skin while his hands glided over her arms and hips, the erotic shock of his bare, wet flesh against hers, swelling her clit.

Her hands mirrored his, touching him everywhere she could. Everywhere she’d dreamed of doing for so long. Bold in a way she’d never been before.

He gripped the front of her uniform enclosure, pulling it wide.

The slap of water against her naked breasts made her gasp. Blood rushed to the surface, intensifying her sensitivity a hundredfold.

One droplet clung to her puckered nipple. He flicked it with his tongue before his lips closed over it, the warm suction of his mouth an erotic contrast that sent her soaring.

“Yes. Just like that.” She seized hold of slick handfuls of hair, her back bowing. “Come inside me, please. I need you.”

He’d taken much while they’d been together, yes. But he’d given her even more. Shown her so many things about herself she’d never known.

“I can’t wait anymore.” Her feet hit the ground. Together, they yanked and tugged until the sopping wet uniform was at her feet. The smack of water against her breasts, her belly, her thighs, an exquisite assault, like the caress of a thousand rough fingers.

Desperate, fevered, she wrapped one leg around him and balanced on her tiptoes. Brought her pussy in line with his thick, hard cock. The roar of the pounding water nothing compared to the thunder in her blood.

He plunged deep inside.

She keened.

He groaned.

Her eyes fluttered shut. Slick skin fusing as they moved as one, their hips rolling as she gripped his perfect ass tight, lifting her hips to meet every ferocious thrust.

The violence of the surging water across her skin and the force of his claiming swirling together, heightening her pleasure, drawing her closer to the knife-edge of pleasure.

“Even if this is all we ever have,” she whispered. “It’s enough.”

“No,” he growled, thrusting harder, familiar determination flaring in his gaze. “It will never be enough. Not until you and my men are safe. Not until I’ve turned Hollisworth to Dragath dirt and freed you from him forever. Not until I see those emerald eyes lit by the suns and shining as bright as our stars.”

Our stars. She pressed her lips to his. Let the ferocity of the pounding surge carry her over the edge. Let herself come apart—and felt him join her, warm liquid coating her insides as he groaned her name and shuddered, holding her tighter as he pressed kisses to her temple and her jaw and the curve of her throat. Pleasure winding through them as they soared as one.

But even as she keened and shook and shattered, she knew.

Something was changing. Something growing between them. A connection as wonderous as it was dangerous.

Because caring for a man like Valdus, a man as fierce and wild and irresistible as the churning waterfall, might destroy her a hundred times faster than Hollisworth ever could.

Especially when their plan for escape was as far out of reach as it had ever been.