Escape Velocity (Off-World Series, Book 7): Sexy Science-Fiction Romance Novel Page 8

  “Hold up a minute,” he said to Amber, stopping in front of a display of exotic teas. He made a hasty purchase of some leaves, then decided that wasn’t reason enough to come here—unless he was a tea freak. Across the aisle was a woman with antique jewelry.

  She saw him eying her display and said, “I have pieces from Old Earth.”

  “I’m afraid that’s a little rich for me,” he said.

  “I have Farlian jewelry from the prerevolutionary period. The artist Colmar was popular with the nobility then. I have some of his best work here.” She held out a tray.

  Max knew nothing about the artist, but a bracelet with an intricate design caught his eye.

  Picking it up, he turned it in his hands, then held it out to Amber. “Do you like it?”

  She looked shell-shocked, as if she couldn’t believe they had stopped to look at jewelry when they had just left two dead men in a storage room.

  “It’s beautiful.”

  He undid the clasp, fastened it onto her wrist. “How much?” he asked the woman.

  “For you, a thousand credits.”

  “Still too much.”

  “Eight hundred.”

  “Six fifty.”

  She made a face but accepted the offer. After paying electronically, he ushered Amber into the hallway leading to the bay.

  She kept staring at the bracelet. “This is beautiful. But you shouldn’t have gotten it for me. Not now.”

  “I wanted to,” he answered, not quite sure why he had done it. “Now let’s get the hell out of here.”

  They were back in the Golden Fleece a few minutes later. As soon as they were inside the ship, he heard Amber let out a sigh of relief.

  “Yeah,” he agreed as he stripped off the extra clothing he was wearing. When he pulled his arm through the sleeve, he gritted his teeth.

  She stared at the charred fabric of his sleeve. “Your burn! I wasn’t even thinking about it.”

  “I’ll take care of it later.”

  She pulled off the headgear he’d made her wear and stripped away the two dresses over her shirt and pants.

  Turning, he headed for the bridge, and she followed, plopping into the copilot’s seat beside him and leaning back with another long sigh.

  He gave her a quick glance, noting the way the color had drained from her skin. He knew she was reacting to her close brush with disaster, but he didn’t have time to deal with that now.

  After checking the fuel readout and seeing that he had almost a full charge, he signaled his departure to the controller. Five minutes later, they were out of there. He didn’t know his ultimate destination, but he figured the nearest asteroid belt would be a good interim stopping point.

  As they pulled away from the station, Amber spoke. “You should be angry with me.”

  “Who says I’m not.”

  “You didn’t beat me.”

  “I don’t beat women,” he snapped. Turning toward her, he added, “I’ll deal with you later. Now, I need to pilot us to somewhere safer.”

  “I should get out of your way.”

  He felt some of his tension drain away when she left the control room. He didn’t really want to talk to her. But her conversation with the bastards kept playing in his head. Had she betrayed him? Or what? For his own safety, he had to find out, but he wanted to wait until he felt in control of his emotions before he heard any answers she had to give him. Plus, he’d better be sharp enough to know when she was lying.

  He remembered the pipe coming down on his head. He’d been out for about a minute, the shop lady had said. Maybe he had a concussion. Maybe that accounted for his out-of-pattern reactions.

  While he set the ship’s course, he couldn’t stop questions about Amber from swirling in his mind. What did she mean about the situation being “her fault?” And how had she tricked him? He was pretty sure she’d done something he wasn’t going to like hearing about.

  Because he didn’t want to deal with Amber, he stayed in the pilot’s chair for several hours, simply focusing on the task of putting distance between the Golden Fleece and Freedom Station. As he felt his energy draining like a fuel cell with a leak, he acknowledged that the ship was better off using the automatic pilot. He set a course for a spot in the asteroid belt where he had hidden out before.

  As he made his way down the companionway, he noted that the door to Amber’s cabin was closed, and he knew she was staying out of his way, which was a wise move at the moment. He thought of knocking and asking if he could trust her while he got some sleep. Imagining that confrontation made him snort. Why bother if he couldn’t trust her answer?

  He stopped in the head, used the facilities, then got out the medical kit and pulled off his shirt. He’d been too busy to think about the burn, but removing the shirt made the scorched skin sting like a bastard. Still, as he examined the damage, he could see it was only superficial. He slapped on some healing salve, then gingerly touched the spot on his head where he’d been hit. It was sore, but he decided the best thing to do was leave it alone.

  Leaning toward the mirror, he checked his pupils. They were the same size. That was good, but was it all right for him to sleep?

  Knowing he didn’t have a choice about that, he went to his cabin where he dimmed the lights, kicked off his boots, shoved his beamer into a storage compartment, and flopped onto the bed.

  Almost as soon as his head hit the pillow, he was asleep.

  ###

  He woke sometime later when he felt the mattress shift.In the dim light that had switched on, he saw Amber sitting on the side of the bed. She was wearing one of the dresses he’d pulled from the boxes. In their mad rush to fashion a disguise, it had done nothing to improve her appearance. But she’d arranged it in a different way, and now it looked sexy.

  “Are you feeling better?” she asked.

  He flexed his arm. The salve had helped. “Yes. The burn wasn’t deep.”

  “I’m glad.” She swung her legs up onto the mattress. And rolled to her side so that she was lying with her body wedged against his.

  He could have pushed her away. Instead he asked, “What are you doing?”

  “I want to give you something, but there’s only one thing I can give. Myself.”

  “Oh yeah? I heard one of those hang-arounds say you were more valuable as a virgin. Is that true?”

  “Yes.”

  “What are you up to now? Making sure I ruin you?”

  “Don’t call it that. I want to be with you tonight. For you—and for me.”

  “So, you can make sure I’m on your side.”

  “No.”

  He dragged in a breath and let it out.

  “Then what?”

  “Let me be normal with you.”

  “I think you don’t know what normal is.”

  Her breath hitched. “You may be right. It’s been a long time since I lived a life anyone would have chosen.” She considered for a moment. “Well, maybe never. But nobody ever asked what I wanted.”

  Despite his resolve not to react to her, he could feel himself falling under a spell she was weaving around the two of them. Fighting the pull, he asked, “What did you mean when you said you’d tricked me?”

  “I don’t want any of that in your head now. I will tell you—I promise. After this.” As she spoke, she slid her hand across the front of his body, landing on his cock and staying there.

  “Don’t.”

  “Let me.”

  He should push her away and demand to know what game she was playing. Yet, he couldn’t stop himself from responding to her sensual touch.

  He made another attempt to pull himself back to reality. “Were you lying when you said you’d never had an orgasm?” he asked, hearing the thickness of his own voice.

  “I wasn’t lying.”

  “Then . . .”

  “Just let me be with you now. Then I’ll tell you everything. I promise.”

  Was she offering a trade? Stalling?

  He looked i
nto her eyes, seeing desire—and hope. If she thought seducing him would make a difference, maybe she was right.

  Chapter Nine

  All the while they’d been talking Amber had been caressing him, making his skin heat, the blood rush hotly through his veins, and his brain fog up.

  Was he making a big mistake by letting her entice him? He struggled for coherence and wondered if he could discourage her by asking, “Do you know it hurts a woman the first time she has intercourse?”

  “Yes.” When she started to climb off the bed, he reached to grab her wrist, but she was too quick for him and he wondered if she’d only been teasing him—or if she’d decided that she couldn’t go through with the seduction.

  In the next moment, she reached to adjust the lights, bringing them up so that the cabin was flooded with a warm glow. Stepping away from the bed, she swayed her hips, tantalizing him with the way the fabric of the dress caressed her body, then arching her back, thrusting her breasts toward him as she lifted her rich, silky hair from her neck before slowly sifting it through her fingers.

  She’d aroused him with her touch. Her sensual gestures made his breath quicken.

  He watched transfixed as her hands went to the front of her dress. Slowly she began to slide the buttons open, and at the same time she started to sing. She’d charmed him with her voice when he’d first brought her to the ship. That song had been plaintive. This one was low and sexy. He couldn’t catch the words, but they didn’t matter. It was the timbre of her voice, the combination of notes, and the skill of her control. That first tentative performance had been only an introduction; now he realized she was a master of the art.

  Her singing seemed to pin him in place. And he could barely breathe as he watched her open the front of the dress, sliding one more button open and then another. He wanted to shout at her to hurry up, but his voice was frozen in his throat.

  She opened the top of the dress and pulled the sides away, folding them so that they cupped her breasts. The image was so erotic that he had to grab handfuls of the sheet to keep from reaching for her.

  She held the bodice in place as she slowly raised the long skirt, showing him her knees, her thighs. The revelation of the lower part of her body was no more than he’d see if a woman were wearing a bathing costume, but the combination of her bared breasts and her legs made his breath grow ragged. He’d questioned her motives for coming in here, but she’d pulled him in with her erotic performance.

  Now he was unable to simply watch her performance. Surging off the bed, reaching for her, gathering her in his arms, pressing the length of her body to his for a long breathless moment.

  She wrapped her arms around him, holding tight.

  “I need to touch you,” he growled.

  Her gaze questioned him as she untangled her arms and stepped away from him.

  He kept his focus on her face as he cupped her breasts, balancing them in his palms, squeezing gently before taking the nipples between his thumbs and fingers, pressing and twisting.

  She made a small needy sound, then gasped as he took one distended nipple into his mouth, swirling his tongue around the pebbled tip before sucking strongly.

  Her hands went to the sides of his face, holding him in place as her breath turned ragged.

  “That’s good. So good,” she crooned.

  He stayed where he was for long moments before lifting his head. His gaze burned into hers as he reached to pull the dress off her shoulders. She helped him by shrugging out of the sleeves, and the garment fell to the floor, leaving her standing naked in front of him.

  He heard her clear her throat.

  “What?”

  In a tentative voice she asked, “Do you need to use something to keep me from getting pregnant?”

  “I take a long-term contraceptive.”

  “A man would take that responsibility?”

  “Yes. If he doesn’t want to leave children scattered around the seven planets.”

  She answered with a small nod.

  With that detail taken care of, he turned his attention back to her body. He had seen her when she’d stripped off her slave clothes. He’d reacted to her then. Again, the sight of her high breasts, narrow waist and rounded hips was like an erotic vision.

  “You are perfect.”

  “Am I?”

  “Yes.”

  “You are wearing too much clothing, I think.”

  She had unbuttoned the front of her dress. Now she did the same for his shirt, opening the front so she could ease the sleeve off his burned arm before turning to the other side.

  As his shirt fell to the deck, she swept her gaze across his chest. “And you are a magnificent man.”

  She stroked her hands across his heated skin, then found his nipples, pulling on them the way he had pulled on hers.

  He sucked in a breath.

  “Is that all right?”

  “It’s good.”

  Her hands slid downward to the waistband of his slacks where she opened the button at the front, then spread the placket.

  When she reached inside and wrapped her fist around his aching cock, he caught his breath, allowing himself to enjoy the pleasure for a few moments before lifting her hand away.

  She gave him a questioning look.

  “You’ll make me come.”

  “I want you to do that—inside me.”

  She walked around him to the bunk and lay down, looking up at him. “Show me how to do it.”

  Following her down, he began to touch her again, loving the feel of her silky skin as he stroked the sides of her breasts, the curve of her hip, avoiding the center of her body until he reached the juncture of her legs, where he combed his fingers through her crisp thatch of hair.

  She raised her hips, thrusting toward his hand. “Go lower,” she whispered.

  He did as she asked, dipping into her intimate folds, finding her slick and swollen for him.

  She rocked her hips against his fingers, and he watched her face as he stroked from her clit to her vagina, then back again.

  Her breath came in little pants.

  “Do it now.”

  As she spoke, she reached for his cock and guided him to her. He did it fast, hoping that would get the pain over quickly.

  Still, she made a muffled sound, and he went still.

  “I hurt you.”

  “Only a little.” She circled his shoulders with her arms as she tipped her hips upward, drawing him farther inside her. Rolling her to the side, he moved slowly in and out of her as he caressed her breasts, her clit, bringing her back to the level of arousal where she’d been a few moments earlier.

  He heard her gasp, felt her inner muscles clench, then spasm. She cried out again, and he shouted his own pleasure as he followed her over the edge into ecstasy.

  ###

  Amber pressed her forehead to Max’s chest. He had made wonderful love to her, as she’d known he would, and she wanted to stay in his arms like this for as long as she could. It wasn’t just the lovemaking. He could have left her to her fate on the space station. Instead he had risked his life to rescue her. That thought made her chest tighten.

  What would it be like to have a good man trust you? Be committed to you no matter what? She hadn’t known him long, but she had quickly discovered his character. He might not follow all the laws of his world, but he did what he thought was right. In addition, he was brave and smart—and the master of many skills. When they’d first met, she had been using him to get off Naxion. Anyone would have done. Now it was painful to admit he was the kind of man she would have wanted to spend her life with—if she’d had any kind of choice. But above and beyond the jeopardy of her basic situation, she had given him little reason to offer her his loyalty.

  He held her for long moments, and even when she felt the air cooling around them, he stayed where he was. But finally, she felt him stir.

  He sat up, reached to the end of the bunk and pulled up the blanket that was folded at the foot.
<
br />   “You were going to tell me what you’ve been hiding,” he reminded her, his voice gritty.

  He’d covered them, but they were still naked, and she wanted to be dressed for this conversation.

  “Give me a minute to clean up,” she whispered.

  He answered with a little nod.

  Chapter Ten

  Climbing off the bunk, Amber reached to scoop up the dress where it had fallen. She carried it over her arm as she hurried down the corridor to the head.

  She’d bought herself a few more minutes before she had to tell him the awful truth. When she used the facilities, she found she was bleeding. He hadn’t mentioned that, but she knew it made sense. She used toilet tissue to wipe the blood from her thighs.

  It was proof that he’d ruined her—as the kidnappers had called it. She called it insurance, although she wasn’t actually sure how much good it would do her.

  She shuddered when she thought about how different this sexual experience could have been. Max had been warm and tender with her. Another man might have showed her his anger—or taken his own pleasure with no regard for hers.

  After pulling on her dress, she rebuttoned the front and studied herself in the mirror. She looked pale and worried.

  She pinched her cheeks to give them a little color, then strode back to the captain’s cabin.

  When she stepped inside, Max had put his pants back on and was sitting in the only chair in the room.

  She stiffened her legs and knitted her fingers in front of herself as she stood before him.

  “You can sit down,” he said.

  The only place was the edge of the bunk, where she perched awkwardly, bracing her feet against the floor.

  “It’s past time. What did you want to tell me?” he asked.

  “I told you some lies,” she said.

  “Are you saying you weren’t a slave?”

  “No. I was a slave.”

  “Then what? Just spit it out.”

  She swallowed hard, wishing she could sink through the floor. But to where?

  “I lied to you when I said they were going to kill you and take me back. I said it because I wanted you to get me away from them and not take me to the man who had bought me.”