Raptor's Desire (A Planet Desire novelette)(7)

“We don’t need clothing.” Khalim’s breath stirred the hair resting on her shoulder.

She hadn’t realized he stood so close and shivered. “I’m cold,” she lied.

“Then we’ll tell life support to increase the temperature. There will be no lies between us.”

Her hands clenched around the black fabric of her R-suit. “How does clothing constitute a lie?”

He gripped her waist and turned her. She let the suit fall to her bunk. Her breasts brushed his chest and pebbled instantly.

His gaze dropped to where their flesh met for a moment, and then rose again. “Your body doesn’t lie about what pleases you.”

She lifted her chin. “And how do you know I’m not simply chilled?”

His hand stroked between her legs, and then he lifted his fingers and glided them across her lips. Without a word, he proved his point. She inhaled the fragrance of her arousal.

How she wished she could reach for her weapons in the cabinet behind her feet. A tap from her electro-stun would wipe the smirk from his lips.

“Besides,” he said, his voice a low purr that only heightened her awareness of the bunk pressed behind her knees, “you wouldn’t have anything large enough for me to wear.”

“I have clothing for you.” Desperate to erect barriers between them, she continued, “There’s a suit my last…partner left aboard the ship.”

“Partner?” His expression grew alert. “Did he share this bed with you?”

“No, it’s too small.” Too late she noticed the narrowing of his gaze. He’d noted her choice of words.

“Then you shared the bed at the end of the corridor?”

She ignored his question. “You’ve been snooping around my ship?”

“Of course. I also found the weapons in the drawer behind you.”

She jerked.

“They aren’t there anymore.”

No clothes. No weapons. How the hell was she going to get out of this fix? “I need to head back to the bridge.” She shoved at his chest and slid past him.

“What happened to your partner?”

“None of your damn business.” Had she not been acutely aware of her nakedness, she would have stomped all the way back to the bridge. For now, she’d do nothing to incite his anger or lust. If he expected her to be as easy a conquest as she had been in her dreams, he’d be disappointed.

He stayed one step behind her. “But it is my business—if he expects you to contact him.”

“He won’t.”

Khalim’s hand closed around her arm, bringing her to a halt.

She pulled from his grasp and he let her go. “He won’t contact me.”

“Tell me why.” His expression was implacable, but his narrowed eyes hinted at deeper emotion.

Sighing, she hid her hurt and blurted, “We parted company six months ago.”

“Was this by mutual agreement?”

Her cheeks burned. “No.”

“He has no reason to return?”

“He took our entire client list with him. There’s nothing of value left here.”

Khalim stood still, his penetrating gaze holding hers for a long moment, and then he nodded. “He was a fool.”

With a nonchalant shrug, she turned, intent on ending the conversation.

Again his hand stopped her—this time, his fingers spread over her belly, and he pulled her flush with his body. “If you don’t care, why do you sleep in this narrow bunk rather than the larger bed down the corridor?”

She swallowed past the lump in her throat. “I don’t care about him. But I hate to think about how foolish I was to believe he wanted me.”

“I would never leave you,” he said softly. His hand rose to her breast and cupped it. “And I wouldn’t use your love to steal from you. I would cherish you.”

She lifted her hand and pried his fingers from her breast. “Well, I’ll never know that for sure, will I? Because I’m not going to love you.” She whirled away from his embrace. “And I won’t let you steal my ship.”

His hands fisted at his sides directing her gaze downward.

“I’m getting you some clothes as soon as I check our coordinates.” She ignored the look of masculine pride that curved his lips and stomped from the room.

Unfortunately, she couldn’t stalk far enough to vent her anger. The end of the corridor opened onto the bridge.

She stepped down metal rungs to the captain’s deck below and slid into her chair, extending the right arm of her chair to expose the controls.

Khalim eased into the seat beside her.

With the press of a button, the large bioluminescent screen in front of them flickered into life. A living recreation of the stars in their path glimmered against the blue-black screen. “Add vector,” Andromeda said.

Instantly, a glowing red line stretched before them, disappearing into the hazy, spiraling cloud of the distant Milky Way galaxy. “Compute arrival time,” she said.

[04 days; 03 hours; 24 minutes] appeared at the edge of the screen.

Andromeda blew out a breath. She’d slept longer than she’d thought. Her gaze slanted toward Khalim.

He stared back at her, his expression impassive. Only days away from imprisonment, perhaps for life, yet he betrayed not a single emotion.