Kyla was convinced there was nothing in the universe that felt better than kissing Hall.

Of course, she’d never kissed any other man—not for real, anyway—but that didn’t negate her conclusion. It didn’t only feel good to her senses. Her entire being was involved in the kiss. And all of it—all of her—felt so incredibly good that she couldn’t bring herself to stop.

A small part of her mind recognized that, although they might be hidden by the woods, they weren’t all that far from the palace. But it was still a long time before she could mumble against his mouth, “We better stop.”

Hall was really into the kiss. Even if she hadn’t felt him in her mind on and off during the kiss, she would have been able to see it in his body. He was slightly flushed and damp with perspiration, and his entire body was tight, including the erection she recognized in the bulge of his pants. He groaned and kissed her again.

When she was about to completely lose control of her responses, she gave him a little push to make herself stop the kiss.

Relief washed over her in a strangely intense wave, like she’d just been trapped and now she was free. She blinked, trying to dispel the sensation and concentrate on what was more important. “We should move away from here,” she said, glancing through the trees at the glimpses of the courtyard she could still see.

Then she turned back to Hall, and her eyes widened at the dazed, dumbfounded expression on his face. “What’s the matter?”

He’d been staring at a blank spot in the air, but now he managed to focus on her face. “You pushed me out,” he said slowly, hoarsely.

“I’m sorry.” She was frowning now too, since his reaction was so inappropriate for the situation. “I just gave you a little push. I was too into the kiss, and it was the only way to get myself to stop. I knew you’d stop if I asked you to. I just didn’t trust myself to ask. It wasn’t that hard, was it?”

His forehead wrinkled into horizontal lines. “No. I mean, you pushed me out.”

She suddenly realized what he was talking about, and why he was reacting the way he was. He’d been filling her completely as they were kissing. She’d assumed he’d withdrawn when she ended their physical proximity, but thinking back she recognized that she’d ended their internal connection before she’d actually separated their bodies. “Oh. Oh! I didn’t think I could do that.”

“Me either. I didn’t think anyone could do that.” He squeezed his forehead between his fingers and thumb, like he was getting a headache. “How did you do it?”

“I don’t know. I just pushed. I’m sorry.” He looked so shocked and dizzy that she was worried. She stepped over and put a hand on his chest. “Did it hurt or something?”

“No. It was just…” He cleared his throat. “I’ve just never felt it before. I had no idea people could hold me back. It’s…it’s…I’m glad.”

“You are?”

“Yeah. Believe it or not, it’s a little unnerving to have this weapon you can’t always control—particularly when it could be used against people you…you care about. It’s nice to know you can do something about.”

She smiled as a fond shiver rushed through her. “So you care about me?”

He smiled back and shook his head. “Uh, you’d figured that out before, hadn’t you?”

“Yeah.” She giggled, but then remembered why she’d pushed him out to begin with. “But seriously, we should move away from here. It’s entirely possible someone could pass by and see us, and then we’d be in big trouble.”

Hall nodded and reached for her hand as they walked down the trail, deeper into the woods. Kyla breathed deeply of the woodsy smell of dirt and trees, trying to unravel the tangle of thoughts and feelings in her mind. She was on the edge of something here. They both were. But there were a lot of complications—including some potential life-or-death ones—so they needed to act wisely and not just get caught up in the moment, like two teenagers experiencing attraction for the first time.

She did really like that Hall was holding her hand, though. It was simple. Almost sweet. As if there could be something pure about their coming together—something different from the jaded, complicated worlds in which they lived.

After a few minutes, they were far enough into the woods to be fairly safe from any discovery. It was darker here, the artificial sunlight shaded by the thick covering of trees. She couldn’t see the small nuances of Hall’s expression as well as she normally could.

He released her hand and said, “All right. Business first. Lenna and I are finishing up our job tomorrow, so we were planning to leave tomorrow night.”

“That soon?” She swallowed, her mind flashing briefly to Patrice. “Okay. Good.”

“That’s all right, isn’t it? It’s dangerous for us here, and we need to get away.”

“Of course. I’m ready any time.” She smiled at him, letting go of the threads still tying her to this planet, to her sister. Patrice had made it very clear that there was nothing real to keep her here.

Hall tilted his head, peering down at her face. “I know it’s not going to be easy,” he murmured.

“I’m a little sad—at leaving my home. But I’ve never been really happy here—especially since my father died. You know that as well as I do.”

“I do.” He reached up to cup her face with his hand. He hadn’t opened a connection between them, but it almost felt like there was one open anyway, all the time. “We’ll find another home, a place where we can both be really free.”

She gave him a wobbly smile. “That sounds like heaven, but it might be kind of hard to find. Freedom doesn’t really exist in Coalition space.”

“It does if we find somewhere off the grid, on the uncivilized edges of their control, a planet that offers the Coalition nothing.” He glanced away briefly. “You know, that couple I was in prison with. They live on a backward planet that has only one small city on it. The Coalition doesn’t even have a station there. It’s nothing but farms and villages and open country. I would never have been able to find me, but they reached out to several months ago—just to see how I was doing—and I went to visit them. At first, I thought they were crazy to move there, but now I can actually see the appeal.”

“That sounds amazing.” She couldn’t even imagine a world like that, without the Coalition hovering behind every shadow, ready to strangle the life out of you. Then she giggled and gave him a little punch. “But you’re not planning to work on a farm, are you?”

Hall laughed too. “Uh, no. That’s probably not a good fit.” He sighed, his expression changing. “I have no idea what I should do.”

“Then we’re in the same boat.” She leaned her head against his shoulder briefly. “I have no idea either.”

After a moment, he cleared his throat and straightened up. “Okay. We can figure that out later. Right now, the first step is to get off this planet.”

“So what is the plan?”

“There’s a shipment of fresh produce arriving tonight, which means the empty trailers will be leaving after it’s delivered. We’re getting the wool onto those trailers. We’ve bribed the driver, so he’ll make a quick stop at the launch port before docking his transport.”

“That sounds easy enough.”

“It should be. It took a while for our guy here to filter off enough wool for the shipment without being noticed, and then Lenna had to find the right driver to bribe. It’s never a sure thing, because people make mistakes and occasionally turn on you. But I don’t think this job should be very high risk. If you can get outside tomorrow night, I can just pick you up on our way out.”

Kyla was breathing faster now, excitement and fear both mixed together in her chest. “Yes. I’m sure I can. I used to sometimes sneak out for moonlit walks.”

“Meeting a secret love?” His eyebrows arched, but there was warm amusement in his eyes.

“I never had a secret love.”

He gave her a quick kiss. “You do now.”

She was so full of emotion that she wrapped her arms around his neck and deepened the kiss.

“So that concludes our business?” he murmured against her lips.

She was smiling as she kissed him. “Absolutely.”

They kissed—deeply, urgently—for a while, until Kyla’s whole body was humming, and she could feel that Hall was aroused again against her.

“You know, we’ve never actually had sex yet.” One of his hands was tangled in her hair, and the other was cupping her ass.

“We’ve had sex.” She rubbed herself against him shamelessly. “We’ve just not made it to intercourse yet.”

“No time like the present.”

He was breathless. So was she.

“The woods don’t really lend themselves to comfortable intercourse.” She cringed as she pulled away from him enough to glance down at the ground, which was hard dirt, tree roots, and dropped branches and other prickly tree flotsam.

“Yeah.” He groaned as he pulled away from her lips, settling her body against his in a half-hug. “Maybe you should get another migraine this afternoon so you can take to your bed.”

“That’s an idea, but do you really think we should risk getting caught this close to running away. We were lucky no one came in and caught us yesterday. My sister doesn’t always knock.”

Hall groaned again. “Yeah.” He’d been idly stroking her bottom, but now he slid his hand higher, up to her back. “What’s another day or two? I’ve already been waiting for you forever. I’ve got to meet Lenna in not too long anyway, so we probably wouldn’t have time. I never knew being in a real relationship would be such torture.”

“Torture, is it?” She was aroused and rather frustrated, but not nearly as much as Hall seemed to be. It wasn’t just his hard cock. His whole body was so tight he was almost shaking.

She wanted to take care of him. In every way. And she suddenly realized how she could.

She gave him a different sort of smile as she kissed him again.

He took her face in both of his hands, trying to pull her away even as he kissed her back. “I love that expression you’re wearing, but we better not do this anymore, or I’ll be taking you against this tree—and you’d have to resign yourself to a back scratched up by tree bark.”

She chuckled as she kissed his jaw, his throat, his shoulder.

“I’m serious, Kyla.” His voice was hoarse and faint. “You have no idea how much you turn me on. I’m not used to denying myself, so I shouldn’t tempt fate.”

“There’s no tempting going on here.” She had the strangest feeling of possessiveness as she reached down to massage his arousal through the thick fabric of his trousers.

He grunted and closed his eyes. “Uh, there’s definitely tempting going on.”

“Well, maybe.” She had to look down to unfasten his trousers and then pushed them down to free his cock. “But tempting to a purpose.”

His body jerked visibly as she lowered herself to crouch down so her mouth was on the level of his groin. He stared down at her—hotly, dazedly.

She’d never felt anything as thrilling in life as that particular look on his face. She smiled.

“Fuck, Kyla,” Hall rasped, moving his hands to her hair. “You don’t have to…you shouldn’t…” He gasped helplessly as she took his erection in her hands and gave the head a little lick with her tongue. “Oh, fuck!”

She was torn between hot need and fond amusement as she teased him a little bit before taking him full in her mouth. She’d never done this before, but she’d seen it often enough, and she’d never expected it would feel like this. Not just about sex, but about being with him, taking care of him, giving him what he needed.

Hall seemed to be completely overwhelmed. He’d fisted his hands in her hair now and pressed his back against the tree trunk, spreading his legs slightly to stay on his feet as she started to suck.

She was a little confused when she took more of him in her mouth, and for a moment she couldn’t find a comfortable way to position her mouth. But with a few adjustments she managed to get a rhythm going that didn’t choke her.

Hall definitely appeared to be enjoying it. He was groaning helplessly now and rocking his hips very slightly into her mouth. She’d never seen him so out of control, and it was absolutely thrilling.

Her thighs burned from crouching the way she was, but she ignored it. She didn’t think this would take long, anyway. He was already pretty far gone.

She had to hold onto his hip to balance herself, but she used the other hand to find and squeeze his balls. He let out an uninhibited exclamation as she sucked and squeezed in unison.

Then his body broke in an eruption of shakes and spasms, and he was shouting out something helpless and wordless as he released into her mouth.

She coughed a little on his ejaculate, but it was a minor disruption of what had felt absolutely incredible. She hadn’t come, but this was almost better. She’d never believed herself capable of being with a man like this before.

Being with anyone.

“Fuck, oh, fuck,” Hall was muttering over and over again as his body finally relaxed.

Kyla tried to strand up, but her legs were shaking and painful from squatting for so long. She whimpered as she clutched at his thighs for support. “Ugh. Help me up.”

“Help you up?” Hall’s voice was thick and fond. He reached down to pull her to her feet. “I might just fall down. Then we’ll both end up in the dirt.”

He didn’t fall down. Neither of them did. When she was standing again, he pulled her into a tight hug. “Thank you,” he murmured against her hair. “You did not need to do that.”

“I know. I wanted to.” She couldn’t stop smiling as she pulled out of the hug.

“You want me to do you n—”

“No. I’m not really excited about the tree bark or the dirt.”

“Tell me about it. My back is definitely scratched up now.” He didn’t look at all concerned about this fact. “But I’m sure we could figure out a way to—”

“No, no. I don’t really want to. I just wanted to do that for you.”

He kissed her. “Later then.”

“Later.” She cleared her throat. “Don’t you need to meet Lenna, anyway?”

“Yeah. Pretty soon. Actually, you should probably come with me.”

“Really?”

“Lenna isn’t big on trust, and she’s not going to let me take someone else along unless she’s met you first. I should have thought of that before.” He frowned, as if recognizing a problem he hadn’t thought of before.

“Oh. Okay. Where are you meeting her?”

“There’s a little café—it’s just over—”

“I know where it is. So we’ll have to climb the wall?” She felt a familiar shiver of reluctance. It had been a long time since she’d dared to climb the wall.

“Don’t you want to? If you’re going to leave with me, you should probably be willing to break a few rules.”

“I am. It’s fine.” She gave him a little smile. “Let’s go then.”

They walked quickly to the corner of the property with the vine-covered wall. Hall stopped there and studied her closely. “You ready for this? You’re sure about going with me, aren’t you?”

“Of course I am.” She was sure—but that didn’t mean it was easy. To distract herself from her worries, she gave Hall a once-over. He was rumpled and flushed and not really pulled together. “Speaking of being ready, you should probably make yourself more presentable for going out in public.”

“What’s the matter?” he asked.

She smoothed down his shirt and refastened his trousers. “You look a little worse for wear.” She looked at the back of his shirt and cringed as she tried to brush off the dirt there.

He shook himself off and re-tucked in his shirt. Then he pushed a hand through his tousled hair. “There. How am I?”

“You still have some dirt on your back.” She giggled as she looked at his face. “Plus, you look like you just had sex. Try not to look so relaxed and happy.”

“Not much chance of that.” He gave her a kiss. “I’ll live with the world knowing I just had great sex. You ready to go over the wall?”

Kyla took a deep breath and let it out. “I’m ready.”

***

Fifteen minutes later, Hall put a hand on Kyla’s back as they stepped into the outdoor café where he’d arranged to meet with Lenna.

Lenna was not going to be pleased.

He was prepared for it, though, so he wasn’t surprised or particularly worried when he saw her frowning as he and Kyla approached her table.

“What’s going on?” Lenna demanded softly, glaring at him after giving Kyla a quick look.

“This is Kyla,” he said calmly, nodding at Kyla to indicate she should sit down.

She was worried—glancing nervously between him and Lenna. He needed to make sure he didn’t let Lenna scare her off.

“I know who she is,” Lenna said, her blue eyes shooting out sparks. “What is she doing here?”

“She’s coming with us.”

Hall couldn’t believe he was actually saying that to his partner. He couldn’t believe it was true. He couldn’t believe that nothing else had ever felt so right in his life.

What the hell had happened to him on this planet?”

Lenna’s sharp eyes studied him closely, and she obviously saw everything she needed to see in his expression.

She let out a breath. “You have got to be kidding me.” She shook her head and appeared more annoyed than genuinely angry. “Damn it, Hall. I thought you were immune to losing your heart.”

He managed not to flinch, although he was a little taken aback about her saying something like that. He hadn’t lost his heart. He hadn’t lost anything.

He was still himself—and completely in control of this.

“It’s not like that,” Kyla said softly. “We’ve made no commitments or anything. And I promise I won’t cause any trouble or get in your way.”

Lenna was still shaking her head. “That’s nice of you to say, but how do you know it’s true?” She looked back at Hall. “She’s part of the royal family. Are we going to have Evalonian guards chasing us down?”

Hall glanced over to Kyla for an answer.

She shook her head. “Not after we’re off-planet. They don’t leave the planet, unless forced to by the Coalition.”

“Well, that’s something I guess.” Lenna sighed. “Fine. As long as we keep to our original schedule, you can come along.” Her eyes narrowed. “But there’s not going to be any fucking on my ship, and I’m not going to listen to any sappy declarations of feelings.”

Hall felt an uncomfortable twisting of his gut that was entirely inappropriate, but Kyla actually laughed. “It’s a deal.”

Lenna smiled at Kyla, but her expression changed when she turned to Hall. “You have to agree to it too.”

“Of course I agree.”

Lenna didn’t look like she believed him.