Kaya blinks at me. She smiles, like she thinks I’m joking. But when I don’t laugh, her smile dies. “I’m not… Sebastian, I’m not going to just stay here and play your hostage.”

“I’m not playing.” I pull her forward and slide my hand into the slim pocket of her skirt. When she tries to fight me, I pin her against my chest and try to ignore how good it feels to have her there. Then I pull the thin com device from her pocket and let her go.

She stumbles away from me, flinching when her bare foot lands on a twig. “Sebastian! Do not smash that!”

I roll my eyes at her. “I need this as badly as I need you. How else would I call in my demands?” But she seems way too relieved to hear that. “It’s transmitting, isn’t it? Can they trace the signal?” Fuck.

I press my thumb to the screen, which should bring up a ring of options including “power down.” But nothing happens.

“It only responds to my fingerprints.” Kaya crosses her arms over the front of her torn blouse, looking smug.

“Turn it off.”

“No.”

“Kaya, turn the damn thing off!”

“No!”

Damn it! With the com device in my left hand I grab her by the wrist with my right and press her hand against the screen. It flares to life, illuminating a broad circle around us with a pale bluish light. Kaya grunts as she tries to pull her hand back, but I slide mine over hers, pinning it in place, then I nudge one of her fingers over to the “power down” icon.

After a second, the device flashes, then goes dark, throwing the woods into deep shadows again.

She huffs in anger and jerks her hand free. Then her brows sink into an adorably fierce frown and she makes a grab for her com.

I hold it up, out of her reach. “Try that again, and I’ll store this in my pants. Where I know damn well you’ll never go after it.”

“You don’t know that.”

I laugh.

“That’s funny? You know nothing about me.”

I arch one brow at her in challenge as I slide her com device into the front of my pants, outside my underwear, where it sits cozy and secure, held in place by the tight material. Right next to my crotch. “Prove me wrong, then. Come get it.” I hold my arms out, in open invitation.

Her gaze strays to my crotch, then snaps back up to my face, and though I can’t see her very well in the dark, I know she’s blushing.

“I will come get it. My com, I mean.” She steps forward, her hand extended as if she’s planning to shake my hand, rather than dive into my pants. And just for a moment, I hope she actually goes through with it, even if that leads to her turning the device back on.

There is little in the galaxy I wouldn’t pay to feel her dainty little fingers just brush my cock. Casual contact only. Even outside my underwear.

At the thought, my shaft swells, and her eyes widen in the moonlight. “Stop that!” she sounds scandalized…and intrigued.

“It’s an involuntary reaction. Fair warning, though. If you stick your hand down my pants, it’s only going to get harder. And thicker,” I add, when I realize her breathing is a little…ragged. And she’s staring. “But don’t let that stop you.”

Her hand inches closer. Then suddenly, she snatches her hand away and shoves it behind her back. As if something bit her.

I laugh.

“You’re a…jerk,” she snaps, and I laugh even harder. I’ve never seen her this angry, but still she holds her language in check

“I know, and I’m sorry. But you know I’m not going to hurt you. I’m just trying to get my sister off this planet.”

“That has nothing to do with me.”

“I’m sorry about that too. But you’re a UA employee. You’re engaged to one of the shareholders.” One who owns enough stock to get invited to the annual conference. “UA will give me anything I want to get you back. And what I want is a shuttle off this planet, for Sylvie and me. So you’re going to come with me while I find her. Then we’re going to re-activate your com and make our demands. Sylvie and I will fly off this rock and drop you some place safe for your fiancé to come pick you up.”

There’s something strange in her expression. She wants to argue with me, and I can’t figure out what’s stopping her. Then she sighs, and I can practically see her mentally shifting gears. Choosing another approach. “Sebastian, I’m not going to stay on this planet with you, and you’re not cruel enough to do what it would take to stop me from leaving.”

I level her with a hard stare. “I don’t have to do anything to keep you with me, because you and I both know you won’t make it to the crash site on your own. Not barefoot, in the dark, half-dressed, on a planet full of violent criminals.”

“Half—?” She looks down and seems surprised to realize that when she hung from the tree branch on her stomach, she tore half the buttons off her blouse. Which is now gaping open. Even with scant moonlight shining through the foliage, I can see the tops of her breasts bulging over her lacy white bra cups. “Crap!” She pulls the halves of her top together and shoves the tails into the front of her skirt, but that’s a temporary fix, at best.

I shrug, trying not to show how disappointed I am by the loss. “If you want to go find the crash site, be my guest. But you’re on your own. I have to find Sylvie.” With that, I resettle my pack on my shoulders and head off opposite the direction of the crash. Holding my breath, so I can hear her footsteps when they start to follow me.

Kaya please follow me.

I can’t leave her on her own out here, but I am not going back to the blimp. They’ll shoot me on sight, for what I’ve done. Even though I pulled the alarm, to get people off the bottom floor.

But her footsteps go the other way. And they’re accompanied by soft little hisses of pain, every time her bare soles come down on a broken twig or a grass burr. She’s determined, for an uptight little…woman.

“You’re going to shred your feet,” I call after her. “The blood will draw predators.” I actually have no idea whether there are any large animal predators on Rhodon. But she probably doesn’t either. “And if you stumble into anyone else out here—someone who is cruel enough to stop you—you won’t be able to run away.”

Finally, her footsteps stop. A frustrated moan echoes back at me. “Sebastian, please. I can’t stay out here. I’m not built for this. I’m not dressed for this. I won’t survive this planet.”

I turn to find tears standing in her eyes, shining in the moonlight, and the ache in my chest is almost enough to make me give in. Almost. But this isn’t about me. It’s about Sylvie.

“You know I won’t let anything happen to you, Kaya.” I cross the distance between us until I’m standing right in front of her. Until she’s staring up at me, and one of those tears finally falls. “But you’re coming with me. So…how do you want to be carried? Fireman, cradle, or toddler?”

“Toddler?”

I shrug. “On my hip, with your legs around my waist. Like a toddler.”

Her jaw clenches. “I’m not a child. I don’t want to be carried at all.”

“We’re wasting time.” I lean down, and she gasps as I swing her up into a cradle hold with one arm behind her shoulders and one behind her knees. But her arms wind around my neck like they were meant to go there.

“You can’t carry me forever, Sebastian.”

“Is that a challenge?” She’s curvy, but not heavy. I could bench press her all day long.

“No, I—” Her mouth snaps shut as I take off through the woods, headed away from the crash site. After a few minutes, she lays her head on my shoulder.

It feels…nice.

Until I realize I have no right to touch her. Not even like this. She looks at me like she wants to lick syrup off every inch of my body—I damn well know that look—but she’s going to be married. To some bastard who makes his fortune off the backs of death row inmates forced to kill each other in front of a live audience of millions.

Fighting is one thing when free men sign up for it. When we’re provided proper medical care and plenty of rest. When we get paid for it. But convicts like Sylvie have no other choice. It’s a needle in the arm or twenty weeks on the sand, praying you survive until the end so they’ll commute your death sentence to life in this hellhole.

Why the hell would a compassionate woman like Kaya want to marry an asshole like that?

*

Kaya’s a light load, but by the time the sun comes up, several hours after the crash, my arms are so stiff I’m afraid I’m going to drop her. So finally, when I can see the end of the trees in the distance, I stop and set her down on a fallen log.

Kaya blinks up at me, groggy. She’s been asleep for at least two hours, and the only reason I kept going as long as I did was to keep from waking her up. I got her into this. The least I could do was let her get a little rest.

“Where are we?” She reaches up to wipe dark smudges of makeup from beneath her eyes, then seems horrified to see it on her fingers.

“On the edge of the woods. You haven’t missed anything. But I need a break.” I sit on the log next to her and swing my pack onto the ground. “If I’d known you’d be coming with me, I would have grabbed some clothes for you from the supply room. But at least we have a little food and water.” Though neither will last as long split between us as they would have for me alone.

“So, you didn’t plan to take me hostage?”

“No, that was a crime of opportunity,” I explain as I pull a clear bottle from my pack. The label says it’s spring water from some moon halfway across the galaxy; it’s the same brand I used to drink in my life before Devil’s Eye. “You’re the one who tried to run across a huge hole in the ship.”

“I thought—” she sputters, and I chuckle at her outrage. I can’t help it. She’s cute when she’s mad. And considering that I just kidnapped her, she’s probably going to be cute for quite a while. “How was I supposed to know the energy field failed? That thing doesn’t look any different when it’s off than when it’s on!”

“There were little red lights around the perimeter, to warn you that there was no floor.”

“I didn’t have time to notice that! I was trying to catch an escaped convict.”

“Good job.” I lift the bottle and take a long sip.

She scowls. “You’re making fun of me.”

“Yes. But to be fair, the energy field failed because I knocked out the ship’s auxiliary power. Which is why I punched the alarm button before I smashed the panel—to evacuate the viewing room.”

“So it’s your fault I nearly fell right off the yacht.”

“Yes. But it’s also my fault you didn’t fall right off the yacht.”

“Again, you don’t get credit for fixing problems you created.”

“Fair enough. Here.” I hand her the bottle, and she gulps from it as if she’s never even seen water. She’s probably dehydrated, considering that the last three drinks I saw in her hand were champagne, and that was hours ago. “I guess we should conserve this, huh? I mean, it’s not like there’s much bottled water out here.”

“No, and we can’t drink the ground water, either. They don’t issue water purification tablets to inmates in zone one—” Where the arena is. “—because there’s running water in the bullpen.”

“So, what if we run out?”

“We’ll have to boil our drinking water.” I dig in the pack again and pull out several books of matches I took from the supply room. They’re printed with the UA logo and a stylized sketch of the blimp, intended to be handed out to guests as souvenirs from the party they attended several hundred feet above the surface of Rhodon.

“What are we going to boil it in?”

“I haven’t figured that out yet. One thing at a time. Starting with this.” I dig a bottle of pills from the bag, glad that they do issue these in the bullpen.

“One-dose antibiotics?” Kaya guesses.

“Just to be safe.” I swallow one with a sip from the bottle, then I stand to show her the rips in the back of my pants. And in the flesh below.

“Oh my god, Sebastian, you’re bleeding!”

“They’re just scratches.”

“They’re gouges. From the tree?”

“Yeah.” My body took the brunt of the impact, mostly on the backs of my thighs, but I can feel a few raw spots along my spine as well. “It’ll be fine.” I sit again, staring at the water bottle in a reddish beam of early morning sunlight. “I used to have an entire refrigerator full of this stuff in my apartment. Nothing but water and vitamin supplements.”

“No food?”

“There was another fridge for food.” And it was all organic. Fresh raw vegetables and high-quality animal protein. Only the best, to keep my body in top condition.

“You gave up a lot for her,” Kaya says. “For Sylvie.”

“She gave up a lot for Skye.” Our baby sister. Sylvie earned the death penalty for killing Skye’s murderer. A task which should have fallen to me, as the older, stronger sibling. “I owed it to her. And I’m going to get her out of here.” We’ll settle on some backwater planet, where my parents can wire us some of the credits I put in their name before I trekked halfway across the galaxy to protect my only remaining sister.

We’ll live in freedom and anonymity. And safety.

“I’m sorry I don’t have any shoes for you. But these might help.” I dig in the bag again and come up with my only extra pair of clean socks. “They’re long enough that if you pull them all the way up, then fold them down again and pull the excess back over your foot, you’ll get a double layer of…wool. Or whatever this material is.” I hand her the folded socks, and she pulls the bundle apart. “You’ll still have to avoid puddles and mud, but these should keep your feet from getting cut up.”

“Thank you,” she says, but the words have the feel of an automatic response. It’s not that she’s actually grateful to me for handing her a used pair of socks, after I kidnapped her without shoes. It’s that her upbringing won’t let her skip the formality.

While she shoves her feet into my socks, I pull a prison-issue shirt from my pack, and I can’t help but notice that Kaya looks disappointed when I pull it on. “Do you look at your fiancé like that, when he gets dressed?”

“Like what?”

“Like you want to rip his clothes off with your teeth, the second he puts them on.”

“That’s not what I’m—” She bites off the denial and focuses extra hard on doubling the extra sock material over her foot.

“Kaya, it’s okay to be attracted to someone else, even if you’re engaged.”

“I’m not—”

“Don’t lie to me.” Her denial stings, and I’m not going to waste time trying to figure out why that is. “You don’t have to admit that you’re into me. But don’t lie about it.”

“You have no idea what I’m…into.”

I tug her up by one hand, then I just stand there, inches away, watching the struggle behind her eyes. The way her hands open and close, trying to resist an urge she insists she doesn’t feel. She wants to touch me. I mean, holy fuck, is that feeling mutual, but I’m not the one denying that.

“I remember the way you kissed me, Kaya.”

“You kissed me,” she insists, the words more air than sound. As if she can’t draw a deep breath.

“That may be how it started, but that’s not how it ended.”

“What’s your point?” She steps back, trips over the log, and almost goes down, but when I reach out to steady her, she slaps my hand away. “Don’t try to tell me that kiss meant something to you. You kiss like you eat. Indiscriminately.” Her accusation echoes with anger, but there’s something deeper than that in her eyes. She looks…hurt. “You just grab everything that looks good from the buffet and dive in, without even noticing what’s in front of you.”

“That’s not true.” Not about food or women. “I’m very careful not to eat off another man’s plate, Kaya. Even if someone keeps setting it in front of me.”

She blinks at me, and that hurt look gives way to a flash of guilt. But then her anger rebounds, and I recognize the defense mechanism, because I’ve had it. It’s easier to get mad about someone else’s actions than to question your own. “You kissed Yelena ten minutes after you met her. And not just her mouth. So don’t tell me you’re selective. I saw you with your tongue buried between her—”

“You don’t know what you saw.”

“Yes, I do! I saw you, and you wanted me to see you. Why would you want me to see that, Sebastian?”

Because I was fucking hurt, and I wanted to hurt her back! I wanted her have to see me with someone else, because I couldn’t stop picturing her with this fiancé.

Because I am a petty asshole. But what does that make her?

“Why were you watching?” I demand softly. “Why do you care where I put my tongue, Kaya?”