Enemy Games (13 page)

She ignored the prod of guilt. Plenty of commercial passenger liners hit the station. Damen wouldn’t be stuck for long.

With the codes she’d brought over to the handheld, ships’ systems came up without hesitation. Jayleia started the checklist and began an automated panel routine to brute force the command code file. It was sloppy and inefficient, but it was all she had.

Something chirped. She started and swore. Thrice damned access violations. Hands shaking and heart pounding loud in her ears, she watched her program running through panel control combinations. She didn’t have all the time in the world. Someone would eventually come knocking.

A hand appeared from over her shoulder. Jayleia bit back a shriek of fright. It emerged as a squeak.

“Going somewhere?” Damen asked at her ear, sending a shiver of awareness down her spine. With swift, graceful commands entered on the panel, he secured the
Kawl Fergus
’s computers, locking her out.

T
RANSFIXED by the heat that rushed through him as his chest brushed her back, Damen swallowed a curse. Damn it. He had to find a way to keep his body from lighting up like a glow-in-the-dark fral-fly in mating season whenever she was near. He needed his anger. He couldn’t keep his aching head clear without it.

He choked off the second question he wanted to ask. Whether her kiss in the elevator had started as a bid for freedom had no bearing on their situation. And neither of them had the time for his notion of revenge. Or fun, depending on her answer. His lower body tightened at the thought. Hell of a way to ease a headache.

Ignoring discomfort, he brought up a sonic shield. He’d allowed the Silver City cleaning crew aboard. Of course they’d planted listening devices. He had no intention of giving the guild anything to use against them.

Jayleia glanced at him as the subtle hum came online, her expression troubled.

“We have a problem,” she said.

“Several,” he agreed, staring down at her.

His intent to exact retribution registered in the surge of apprehension in her face and in the flicker of her gaze fleeing his.

Good.

He studied the panel she’d been working. A bitter laugh escaped him, cutting off her indrawn breath.

“All systems but steering online,” he said. “For someone whose file suggests she’s had no programming training, that’s damned impressive. Would it have been as easy had I not loaded translation on your handheld?”

Her smile looked brittle and didn’t reach her eyes. “Had it been easy, you wouldn’t be aboard.”

“Where were you going?”

“To look for my father.”

“You do know where he is,” he noted, modulating his tone to sound as if he had all the time in the world to stalk her.

“No, I’m going to look, not to find,” she countered.

He hadn’t withdrawn his hand from the panel, pinning her in close contact. He felt a single tremor move through her body.

“Where?” he snapped.

She balled her hands into fists. “You understand I can’t answer that.”

The whip in his tone had been a mistake. Someone had taught her to stonewall interrogation. Who? Why? The urge to wrap her in his arms sideswiped him. He straightened. “You understand I can’t accept that answer.”

“You aren’t asking me to give up my father,” she said. Only the rasp in her voice offered evidence of agitation. “You’re after the director of IntCom. Without specific orders from him, I will not compromise the security of my people.”

Damen stared at her. “Not even to save him?”

She tossed him a pained glance that sent his heart thudding against his ribs.

It took his breath.

“Not even to save you,” she rasped. “Or me.”

Stunned, he sank into the chair beside hers. He tried to keep his words light, but they emerged thick and choked sounding. “You’d save me?”

Her gaze touched his face and the lines of pain around her mouth deepened for a moment. Then the conflict died in her eyes and her expression warmed. “If you ever find yourself in the middle of a nest of infected kuorls, don’t hesitate to call.”

His chuckle sounded strained.

She turned away, but not before he detected the edge of vulnerability in her eyes.

“Do you know what an insult it is among my kind that you work so hard to contain what you feel while in my company?” he asked.

She started, then peered at him as if waiting for what he’d said to sink in and make sense.

He suppressed a smile as he watched her mentally scramble for safe footing.

He leaned in, until he saw uneasiness spike in the white-knuckled grip of her hands on the arms of her chair. He could indulge in toying with her a little. It was the least he deserved after taking a neural disruptor to the head.

Pressing back in her chair, she shook her head.

“Why is it an insult?” she burst out, every bit of her attention on his face, her gaze keen, penetrating, seeing too much.

He faltered.

She edged forward, studying him. “You said it was an insult that I control what I feel in your company.”

“It is.” On impulse, he put a hand on hers, felt her shiver, and scented the cascade of hormones that dumped into her system, altering her body’s fragrance. His pulse turned thready and erratic.

“Emotional safety is paramount among my kind,” he said. “Slamming your shields up in my face tells me that you believe I’d willingly hurt you, that I can’t be trusted.”

Blowing out an unsteady breath, she sat back. “You do work for the enemy, Major.”

He flashed a grin at her. “We’re allied.”

“I lured you into a kiss, then knocked you unconscious.”

“Until the loss of consciousness, I enjoyed every sexy moment,” he replied.

She flushed an alluring shade of crimson, but he swore he saw her struggling to contain a smile.

His heart lifted and he shifted closer to wrap his hands around her bare arms. “I’ve gauged your defenses.”

“By weaponizing sex?” she said. “I am aware.”

“I’m a Claugh nib Dovvyth officer. I am trained to break past a rival agent’s conditioning by any means available.”

She frowned. “It isn’t all that’s available.”

“No, but it is the most fun.”

The glimmer he’d begun to think might be a breach in her shields winked out in her brown eyes.

He bit back a curse. Second mistake. Someone in her past had used sex to hurt her. Why wasn’t that in her file? A light went on in his brain. It wasn’t in her file because she was a spymaster’s daughter. Chances were good that the file he’d committed to memory wasn’t real. Time to go digging where TFC and IntCom didn’t want him.

“I appreciate your honesty,” she said, her tone dead.

“Do you?” He choked back a haze of rage aimed at an enemy he couldn’t see or fight. “Jayleia, the last time I saw shields as brittle and as overwhelmed by what they contained rather than by what they fended off, it was on a woman who’d survived three months of torture by the Chekydran.”

Her lip curled. “I’m nothing like Ari.”

“Aren’t you?”

“She survived something I couldn’t have. She’s brave and smart and tough and . . .”

“Twelve Gods, Jayleia,” he said. “You face deadly diseases every day. When I came to kidnap you, you were fighting off bloody, fanged, furry, prey animals. Your father is missing. Yet, you had the presence of mind while sick and feverish to formulate a brilliant escape. How can you pretend you aren’t your friend’s equal?”

“I’m not Ari,” she snapped.

It was intoxicating, experiencing the surge and pulse of her feelings struggling to break through her defenses.

“No, you aren’t Ari. As much as I like and admire Captain Idylle, it’s you I want.” The vehemence in his voice startled them both.

She stared at him. The disbelief hovering behind her eyes tore at him.

He leaned closer still, close enough to detect the upswing in her heart rate by the flutter of her pulse beneath her jaw. He wouldn’t kiss her. No matter how much desire ripped his gut, that move was hers. If he couldn’t coax her out from behind her defenses, he deserved to suffer.

“Yes, you knocked me cold after lighting me up with that kiss. First blood to you. I will have revenge in my own time,” he whispered, his gaze on her mouth.

She sucked in a ragged-sounding breath.

“I won’t hurt you,” he assured her, struggling against the heat and tightness in his lower body. “When I take second blood from you, we will both enjoy it. Eventually.”

“Three Hells,” she breathed. “I’m enjoying it now.”

Elation and want nearly paralyzed him. Vulnerability stood out in her wide, brown eyes, luring him. He whispered a curse.

Her gaze dropped to his lips.

No way would he be able to keep his promise. It didn’t matter anymore who made the next move. Did it? He needed to taste her one more time. And not be knocked unconscious before he’d had his fill.

The com panel chirped.

Damen closed his eyes, frustration lending claws to the pain in his head.

Jayleia cursed in a language he didn’t recognize. Her mother’s tongue?

The disappointment in her tone made him chuckle. Opening his eyes, Damen rose, crossed the cockpit, and tapped open the channel—incoming text-only message.

Jayleia savored the warm tide of desire washing her bloodstream. A species that valued emotional over physical safety. Twelve Gods. It was a promise worth switching sides for.

Maybe at this point, it didn’t matter. Her escape had failed. She had to find her father, regardless. Couldn’t she modify her plans and use Damen and the Claugh nib Dovvyth the same way they intended to use her? After all. They’d volunteered.

Sifting her options, she picked up her handheld, still connected to the
Kawl Fergus
’s systems.

“Come,” scrolled across the screen. “Bring your friend.”

Damen’s breath hissed between his teeth. She caught the tight set of his lips from her peripheral vision.

“I can’t compromise you,” Damen typed.

Hard to read tone into two lines of text, but she thought she sensed amusement in the reply.

“Not your call, hizzett. I’m waiting.”

Damen cut the line more violently than strictly necessary.

Jay put her handheld into place on her belt and forced her desire-shrouded brain into action as Damen glanced at her.

Evidence suggested Damen had a relationship with someone on station, a relationship close enough or contentious enough to include pet names. Damen’s nickname “hizzett” was a Tagrethian word for infant mammalian predators valued for their propensity to hunt vermin. Someone who’d fallen victim to the same impression she had of Damen as a long-toothed Azym, but who obviously didn’t feel at all threatened by the man?

The man in question pressed the heel of one hand against the center of his forehead. “I need a dose of painkiller.”

Guilt stirred in her chest.

“Don’t you dare say you’re sorry,” he warned.

Stung, she retorted, “Only that I failed to escape.”

He eyed her, approval in his gaze and a sly smile on his full lips. “Will it require another shot to my head to get you to kiss me again?”

She flushed, discomfited by the irrational desire to answer with a demonstration to the contrary. He needed medication. She needed to get far away from the disturbing pressure he exerted against her crumbling self-control.

“Medi-bay,” she choked out, then fled.

His chuckle trailed in her wake. He followed and leaned against the medi-bay door frame.

With his gaze upon her, Jayleia felt naked. Shoring up her defenses, she wondered how he’d managed to see through them. So few people bothered.

What did it mean that he’d invested the time and effort to get around her walls? He’d said he wanted her. When he looked at her, something in his eyes made her believe he saw her, Jayleia. Not the scientist. Not the warrior. He seemed to see past her protective masks, past her repeatedly broken heart, and genuinely desired her. How much longer could she resist that? A sore spot opened in her chest in answer.

“We have some issues complicating our next move,” she essayed as she rummaged through cabinets. “First, the ship isn’t sterile. The clean team did a cursory mop up. Any one of them could be infected.”

“I doubt it,” Damen replied. “They may have cheated me out of a few Imperials, but the quest for easy credit comes second only to self-preservation on this station. What else?”

“I gave most of your medical and emergency stores to a woman named Vala.”

Damen straightened, frowning.

A packet of medication in hand, Jayleia stopped a double arms’ length away from him. Given the tingle in her nerves, even that was too close. She held up the medicine. “Here. It’s not liquid, but it’s all that’s left.”