“H e’s a goddamn Qui!”
Ahnna threw her hands up. Emphasize the point, hide Tierc’s nature in full view, and hope Zeke’s replacement drone didn’t zoom in on the perspiration dampening her hair.
She hated these interviews.
Crandal’s flickering image sat on a chair in her cabin facing Ahnna who sat on her bed, sharp eyes burning through her charade. Until her near buried-alive experience on Altaira, her past had been Crandal’s obsession. Now Octiron’s guard dog had his teeth in a new bone—Tierc Marcel—and their handler wasn’t giving up. She no longer feared Tierc’s true nature, well, maybe a bit, but now a new worry chewed her gut. Tierc hid his shifting ability from Octiron and for good reason. Until they gained true freedom, it was vital Octiron didn’t discover Tierc’s rare nature.
He had no Qui Empire to protect him here.
That was now her job. Self-assigned and, even more revolutionary, more important to her than her former allegiance to Human Defense-X, former beliefs meaningless in the face of Tierc’s inexplicable loyalty to her.
“Qui are strong, fast, and apparently amazing climbers, not something I had really thought about before. He gave you a demonstration getting your bogus geo-scan! What’s your problem?”
Interest flashed in Crandal’s eyes. “Bogus?”
“You didn’t need us to get the scan. You could have sent a drone.”
“Where would be the entertainment in that? Look, Altaira’s unpredictable, the sand trap being a case in point.” He paused, frowned. “We’re getting off topic. Explain to me. If Qui are such good climbers, why did Tierc need you to take charge of the rope?”
Folding her arms, Ahnna initiated bio-rhythm control courtesy of her nanos, enough to pass a lie detector test. “I don’t know. Why don’t you ask him?”
“I did. He claims he used the ropes for your benefit, that he didn’t want to force his Qui abilities in your face.”
Ahnna softened her voice and let her hands fall into her lap, palms up. “Yeah, well, not like I was gonna let him carry me over his shoulder…”
Crandal laughed agreement even as a sly look stole across his face. “He climbed a considerable distance to the facility level, far more challenging than his demonstration. And then he negotiated the climb back down carrying piping, all while you held your breath.”
“I can hold my breath a long time.”
“Not long enough. I suggest he did the impossible.”
“He wanted to save me.” Ahnna couldn’t prevent the hint of wonder in her voice. Tierc cared for her, sincerely, deeply. Her heart soared and a smile tugged at the corner of her lips, took over. “He loves me.”
Crandal’s return smile dampened the exuberance dancing inside her. “Yes, I believe he does. You know, love and war defines The Great Space Race. Joy and pain sells air time and our audience is eating up this newfound truce on the Orion Nebula, the laying down of arms in exchange for silk bedsheets.” Messianic notes lifted his voice. “As they watch you and Tierc whisper sweet terms of surrender, they can’t help but argue over how soon old enmities will rise up and blow the sweet lovers apart.”
* * *
“The whole ‘captured High Priestess’ could be a sham too,” Tierc mused.
It was a definite possibility. Crandal hadn’t denied Ahnna’s accusation over the geo-scan on Altaira, although he didn’t give Crandal’s claims much credence one way or the other. “How much do we trust Axo’s research of current events in Verdon? Octiron owns his systems.”
He and Ahnna debated their next task on the ship’s bridge over a cup of coffee and Tierc paused, predicting the AI wouldn’t let the slur go unanswered. He didn’t wait long.
“If you do not trust the data I provide then your task becomes more complicated,” Axo extolled, his neutral response at odds with his abrupt appearance. The AI cast Ahnna a cautious look, but when she said nothing, Axo appeared to relax, its robotic features taking on a more human appearance despite the internal light-show, and still Ahnna did not object.
Thinking it over, Ahnna seemed less mercurial generally.
Except in bed.
Tierc shifted in his seat, his pants uncomfortably tight, his Qui itching to emerge. He fingered the closed cuffs on his wrists, relieved they hugged the skin tightly enough to pass cursory inspection. Should have made Ahnna lock them properly—it had been a mistake thinking he had his mating urge under control. A startled look appeared on Ahnna’s face and she peered at him more closely.
A monumental effort vanquished emergence of his Qui, but did nothing to alleviate his discomfort. “Axo, please could you give us some privacy?”
Zeke instantly materialized into the room before Axo could disappear. The vid operator walked over and studied Tierc. “I’ll make you a deal.”
Ahnna slammed her coffee cup down. Tierc recognized a reflexive response, more agitation than anger. She hated Octiron’s ever watchful eye stalking her at every turn.
Zeke turned to her. “Both of you.”
“No,” Ahnna said flatly.
“You have not heard the deal?” Zeke protested.
Her eyes narrowed. “We are not putting on a sex show for the masses.”
The thought turned the hard lump in Tierc’s pants to iron. Fuck, his unrelenting attraction to Ahnna had switched on some wild fantasies, but Zeke’s weaving head and wry expression suggested Ahnna had got it spot on.
“Why would you suggest such a thing?” Tierc asked Zeke.
“You flush blue when you’re horny.”
Alarm widened Tierc’s eyes. Skal! He needed to get those cuffs locked.
Zeke winked lewdly. “First noticed it during your introduction interview.”
Now Ahnna looked shocked, then a smug grin burst through her defenses and punched Tierc in the gut.
Zeke turned to the woman spinning Tierc’s equilibrium into meltdown, perhaps sensing an opening. “Look, I’ll be discreet. I’ll make it sexy, but nothing on show—a glimpse of curves, a tender kiss, maybe a shot of Tierc’s ass lifting the bedsheet.” Ahnna’s arching eyebrows didn’t stop Zeke. Octiron’s cameraman was on a roll, his hands framing shots Tierc didn’t want to imagine because he could barely control his Qui from tackling Ahnna in front of the camera. “I can make it look like you’ve done the dirty deed and are relaxing in happy bliss before you reach any real action. Then I‘m out the door. No drone. No spying. I guarantee you privacy. My word.”
“No AI spying on us,” Tierc countered.
“What?” Ahnna yelped, her eyes widening. “Axo spies on us? Where? In the bathroom?”
“I can arrange that,” Zeke answered Tierc, and then to Ahnna, “Technically, no, not the bathroom, unless you went in together…”
Tierc threw his hands out in surrender. “If it gets you out the bedroom, I’m in.”
Ahnna’s glare threatened to burn a hole through his skull. “You hump your ass as much as you like, count me out!”
“Ahnna, we need this. I need this.” Tierc stared back at grey eyes bordering on silver, willing her to see past her fury and embarrassment. He sought words she would understand but Zeke would dismiss. “I want you so badly, Ahnna. I’m in physical pain here.”
So much flashed across her face—first disappointment, followed by amusement mixed with surprise, and then understanding. Her jaw tightened, she looked torn. “Fine, but you’re not talking me out of going after the High Priestess. Tierc, she’s hardly more than a child… stolen from her home and family.”
Skal. What a jerk he’d been. Rescuing Xecara was intricately tied to the loss of her son.
He reached out to her. “Ahnna, I owe you an apology. I thought you identified with the cause—an indigenous people standing against a spiteful empire—and taking on the government of an entire sector is a crazy dangerous stunt. I just want to complete the race and I thought you were seeking a new cause in Paragon. I should have realized…”
She placed her fingers in his and a charge shot up his nerve endings.
Her eyes crinkled in retrospective thought and then she shook her head. “No, you were right, some of that is true, I can’t deny it. I was raised to fight injustice, oppression, and now I’m so mixed up, I’m questioning everything I believe in but, it’s just… Tierc, I’ve done the research and she’s so young! Her parents are devastated and I just know that if Xecara were my child and I could do something…” A tear brimmed up out of nowhere, sparkled on her lower eyelashes.
Tierc clutched her fingers, the moment stretching between them, broken by Zeke clearing his throat.
The man crouched down beside Ahnna, Zeke’s ability to interact with their environment uncanny. “Xecara is not a scam for entertainment. This challenge is genuine and you two could make a real difference to the people of Sorsei, not to mention opening up Verdon to outside media will have ramifications way beyond Octiron’s ambitions.” His nose screwed up with reservation. “Although I’ve no idea how you intend to pull it off. Look, I want to help you here. Give me enough material and I can eke it out, satisfy my producers. They’ll never know it came from one shot. Crandal’s off fighting fires above my paygrade. This is the ideal chance. Damn, I’ll make it my finest work. You two together are hot. By the time I’m finished, Paragon’s wormholes will be asizzle.” Zeke stared into Ahnna’s eyes, an honest connection that jumped the lightyears between them. “You’ll never be ashamed of this, Ahnna, I swear on my last drone’s headstone.”
Ahnna snorted and then nodded. Zeke’s clinching promise won them both over.
They all felt it. Zeke had joined their team.
* * *
In Tierc’s bed for the dirty deed, Ahnna naked in his arms, Tierc waited until Zeke’s attention was distracted. He felt guilty for the deception. However much he liked Zeke, the man still worked for Octiron. Pulling the cover over their heads, he whispered in Ahnna’s ear.
“Lock them. I need the cuffs to maintain control over my Qui.”
To his relief, Ahnna didn’t argue.
Reaching up, she gripped his cuffs. Her eyes closed. The intensity of her expression impressed on him as the cuffs tightened uncomfortably. A touch-backed psycom command in the locking mechanism explained why Octiron failed to hack the device. He ground his teeth as nerve endings fired in protest. Skal that hurt! The sensation subsided.
So, he was truly hers now… again.
His cock stiffened and that familiar punishing pain shot up his wrist and through his core.
“Fuck,” he whispered, reacquainting himself with the sensation, using the pain to control his Qui. Better this way. If Zeke’s camerawork detected his skin coloration then he would also detect scaling and Tierc couldn’t risk his shifting ability being investigated. His shift abilities went beyond scaling and wings, a change Paragon would view as relatively uninteresting given other shifting species that existed here, like the cat-like Tygean, Mia, or Luc Amaveo with his dragon scaling.
Finish the race, get out of Dodge, and disappear with Ahnna. Maybe then he could be his true self, although if Ahnna asked, he could live forcibly human. Living with both cuffs and Ahnna had improved his control no end, the odd twinge of pain bearable.
Except the odd “twinge” still had the power to take his breath away.
Cool air fanned Tierc’s bare ass as Zeke directed Ahnna to lift her arm.
Virtual Zeke moved a vid drone into position. “Okay, Tierc, do your stuff. Ahnna, arch your back. Beautiful, honey, real sexy.”
Zeke had no idea.
Tierc wanted to tongue those pert swollen nipples. He fought back pain and perspiration, banned by Ahnna from entering her while in Zeke’s presence. Wedged against the soft delicate flesh of Ahnna’s thigh, his cock throbbed to distraction. They had been working for thirty minutes. Zeke knew his stuff, had an easy way of relaxing Ahnna who had a tendency to collapse into giggles the moment stuff got hot.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered catching Tierc’s scowl as her body quivered in a fresh spasm of laughter.
“You’re killing me.”
“Cut.”
Tierc closed his eyes, grabbed the sheet and covered himself before turning. “What now?”
Zeke grinned. “I have what I need. The room is yours.” And with a flourish and a bow, their merciless torturer winked out of existence. The drone flew to the door. Tierc launched up and let the holovid out, slamming the door shut in case Zeke changed his mind.
For a few seconds, silence reigned. Tierc looked down on Ahnna who was biting her lip. She threw back the cover and seductively bent a knee, inviting him in. He wasted no time, relishing her soft flesh beneath him.
She reached up and cupped his face in her hands, drew his head down. “I need you,” she whispered, her lips tantalizingly close to his. He kissed her, increased the pressure as her fingers wandered into his hair. Shifting position, he entered her slick warmth, his actions releasing her delicious scent. Nails scraped his shoulders and he rose up, grabbed her wrists and pinned them above her head. She drew breath and closed her eyes, her features trapped in a sensual expression of pleasure, turning him on even more.
Unable to hold back any longer, he came, carried away by a pulsating release as Ahnna clenched around him with a soft cry.