Destin's Hold (The Alliance #5)(23)

“God, I hate smart-alecky assholes almost as much as I hate space travel,” Destin muttered.

Several of the warriors chuckled at his snarky statement. Destin ignored them. Instead, he decided to focus on a mental vision of Sula’s beautiful face. If he was going to die, he’d rather have her face be the last thing he saw instead of Trig’s smug, ugly one.



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Sula finished placing the rest of her clothing in the storage compartments. The quarters she had been given were small but sufficient for her needs. Once again, her hand moved to the medallion around her neck and she absently stroked it as she picked up the tablet.

There would be plenty of time on the voyage to do more research on Earth. She had done an extensive amount the last time she had gone there, but that had been different. She had been instructed by her father to find out what Councilor Badrick had been doing and to report directly back to him.

She had read through mountains of reports, many of them contradictory to the next. It had been like trying to untangle a ball of string – every time she thought she was on the right path, she’d had to start all over again. It hadn’t helped that the Trivators had denied her access to the deceased Usoleum’s personal transport and to his office on Earth for almost a month after her arrival.

By the time she had been allowed admittance, all records had been wiped clean and the original crew removed. If not for the human nurse named Chelsea who she had met shortly after arriving, she wouldn’t have known anything that was going on. Sula had come down with the human version of a cold and had been miserable.

She had finally stopped being stubborn and gone to the medical unit set up on the former US Army National Guard building. Chelsea had been on duty. The human nurse had an infectious humor and a compassionate heart which encouraged confidences. Sula had poured out her frustrations, coated with a significant amount of nasal congestion, concerning her research on Badrick. She had broken down in tears and unleashed about the lack of cooperation from the Trivator forces, her frustration with the human male that had glared at her like she was some form of pest, and admitted she just felt lousy into Chelsea’s sympathetic ear. That was when she had first learned of Badrick’s true treachery.

Sula sank down on the bed in her living quarters. The file this time was not on Badrick and his betrayal; it was opened to Destin Parks. Before, she had only taken an ephemeral glance at his file. Badrick had made a few references to Destin that had been less than glowing. After her initial introduction to Destin, she had been more inclined to agree with Badrick – at least until she had learned the depths of Badrick’s deceit. Unfortunately, she had only had one brief, tense meeting with Destin before she discovered what Badrick had done. She had been recalled before she could see or talk to Destin again.

“You are a very complicated male, Destin Parks,” Sula murmured, staring down at his face on the tablet. “But, a very intriguing one.”

She was about to slide her finger across to the next page when a message alerting her that another report had uploaded flashed across her screen. Sula frowned. She wasn’t expecting any additional reports.

Curious, she touched the icon. Her breath hissed when a vidcom activated and flashed a very vivid, disturbing image before it disappeared. Sula blinked, wondering if she had imagined it. She glanced down at the tablet, trying to reopen the file, but it was gone.

“No!” she groaned, searching for it every possible way she could think of, but nothing she did worked. It was as if the file had never been there. “Ignoramus!” she muttered, rising off the bed in frustration.

Without thinking, she exited her quarters. Gripping the tablet, she muttered under her breath. She would find the Chief Communications Officer and see if he could find it.

“I see you’ve lost your shoes again,” a warm, masculine voice said, startling her.

Sula’s head jerked up and her eyes widened in surprise and delight. A smile curved her lips and she stared back in silence at the man she had just been thinking about and who was suddenly standing in front of her. Her lips parted when he suddenly strode toward her and wrapped an arm around her waist. The gasp died on a chuckle that was quickly smothered by his lips.

She didn’t think twice. Her arms rose and she wound them around his neck, returning his kiss with a heated one of her own. She vaguely heard the soft thump of his bag when he dropped it. Pleasure swept through her when he wrapped his now free arm around her waist and pulled her even closer to him.

“Destin, your quarters are only two doors down if you and the Usoleum Councilor want to finish this there. If not, I don’t mind a little entertainment, but I’d like to drop my own bags first,” a male voice said from behind them.

Sula broke the kiss and buried her face against Destin’s chest. She could feel her face heating with embarrassment. Never in her life had she acted so impulsively or without restraint. A shiver went through her when Destin held her firmly against him, refusing to let her retreat.

“Go to hell, Trig,” Destin muttered, glancing over his shoulder. “No one’s stopping you from walking on by.”

Trig chuckled. “I won’t be the only one seeing what is going on,” he said with a nod toward the security cameras. “I’ll just warn you that this ship has very few females on board and the voyage will seem a lot longer than it is because of it. The other warriors wouldn’t mind a little entertainment to help relieve the boredom, but I thought I should let you know, just in case you weren’t aware that whatever you do would be broadcasted far and wide.”