Polaris Rising (Consortium Rebellion, #1)(49)

The diagnostic came back with a few questionable items. None were critical, so I disabled them all until I could dig deeper into their functions. A chime announced the gate had given us a location. Five minutes until the FTL drive was ready.

I dozed until the jump woke me. I checked our location and surroundings. We were exactly where I’d requested. I rubbed my eyes and got to work on the first registration change.



By the time we landed in Sedition, the largest city on APD Zero, Infineon had been renamed and reregistered twice. Now named Polaris, it was registered to one of the many dummy corporations I owned. It wouldn’t pass a deep dive, but no one was likely to look that closely. And because it was supposedly a merc ship, the name wasn’t written on the outside. Bonus.

The name changes would make tracking us a little more difficult, but I doubted they would slow Richard that much. Much more interestingly, each FTL jump actually had required just one hour of downtime, even with two jumps back-to-back. That would require looking into, but not tonight. I just didn’t have the mental capacity to dive into an unknown engine system tonight.

I locked the ship down tight. In Universal Time it was morning and I’d been up all night. On APD Zero it was just after eleven at night, so no one would expect us to leave the ship tonight. I’d already paid the docking fee for a week. Now I needed at least a few hours of sleep or I was going to fall on my face at the first opportunity.

I stumbled toward the captain’s quarters with a jaw-cracking yawn. I closed and locked the door. I didn’t really think anyone on the ship would attempt to take me out, but you never know how a scared mother will react to a situation where her kid could be at risk.

I continued through the sitting room into the bedroom, only to stop in the doorway. Marcus Loch lay sprawled across my bed, wearing only black boxer briefs and barely covered by the sheet. He hadn’t been here earlier when I checked for bugs.

My eyes were gritty with lack of sleep. I was entirely too tired to deal with this shit. The urge to kick him out was nearly overwhelming, but he was injured. I sighed softly. The sofa would have to do for tonight because I didn’t think I could make it downstairs to a crew bed.

“Come on,” Loch said. “The bed is big enough to share. Sleeping only.” His teeth flashed white in the dark. “Unless you have other ideas.”

I entered the room. “Why are you here?”

“I wanted to talk to you, but you were so deep in whatever you were doing you didn’t even notice me enter the flight deck. So I waited here. Then when you still didn’t show, I decided if I was here anyway, I should sleep. Doctor’s orders.”

“We already said all that needed to be said.”

“No, we didn’t,” Loch said quietly. “But that is a discussion for later. Get in bed before you fall down. If you want, I’ll sleep on the sofa.”

Spite and hurt almost had me blurting the demand. Only the memory of the livid bruises stilled my tongue. “No funny business,” I said.

I stripped down to my T-shirt and underwear, put my smart glasses on the nightstand, then crawled into bed. Loch hauled me close when I would’ve hugged my edge. I protested and tried to wiggle away. “Just sleep, Ada,” he murmured against the back of my neck. “I’ve got you.”

I focused on relaxing each muscle, one at a time. I had only made it halfway before the warmth and security of Loch’s body at my back lulled me into sleep.





Chapter 14




I awoke with the pleasant stiffness that meant I had slept deep and long. I had forgotten to set an alarm, so no telling what time it was. An arm tightened around my middle when I would’ve rolled over, and Loch nuzzled the back of my neck.

“Morning,” he murmured.

I stiffened. I could count on one hand the number of times I’d woken up with a man. As the daughter of a High House, I had to be careful, both because I was completely defenseless during sex and because many men thought they could use my body to win my heart—and therefore my name. My hookups had been with men I’d trusted, but even then it wasn’t usually a stay-the-night kind of event.

Loch’s thumb drew a distracting little circle on my waist and all thoughts of being careful scattered. He slid his hand under my shirt, and his palm blazed a trail of heat up my body. When he stopped at my ribs, I arched in invitation. His hand remained where it was.

I huffed in annoyance and he chuckled. “Did you want something?”

I wanted his hands on my breasts, his mouth on my nipples. I wanted him inside of me. The sheer force of my desire shocked me. I took a deep breath and reined in my wayward body. “I want many things,” I said honestly, “but I should get up.”

Loch pulled me over onto my back and pressed up against my right side. His hand slid out from under my shirt and I shivered from the loss. His grin told me that I wasn’t playing it as cool as I thought. It also made him unbearably sexy. Down, girl.

“What is your plan for the day?” he asked.

I shoved aside my desire and mentally sorted through all of the things that needed to happen today. “The bank first, I think. Then I can decide if it’s worth renting a room or if I should just keep running. Plus it’ll be done if I get caught.”

“I will go with you,” Loch said. “What else?”