Finding the Blood Assassin [Lords of the Expanse 3] (Siren Publishing Allure) (6 page)

Nodding, he kept his mouth shut and his hands to himself. Though it was a battle, the brief touch and the scent of her skin had his teeth sliding down in need. Once she was gone Raven leaned his head back in the chair and closed his eyes as he lifted a hand to rub at his forehead. Only a few more hours and they would be back home, and then he could feed properly to ensure he didn’t attack her. But gods, the next few hours were going to be a true test for him.

It was silent for a long time, even though the open comms link let him hear her progress through the ship. The sound of a door opening and shutting was followed by a small thump. “What is it about that man that has me in knots? What is it about him that makes my whole damn body burn with need?” Her words were a mere whisper, but she’d obviously forgotten that the ship’s communications were still open.

Jerking upright, Raven lowered his feet to the deck plates as he listened to her soft words and felt his body react accordingly. Letting out a breath, he pushed to his feet and made his way through the ship until he stood over her sitting form. Crouching down, he touched her hair lightly. “You should know, that when asking yourself such interesting questions, you should ensure the communications within the ship are turned off.”

She looked up at him in horror and gulped. “Well son of a bitch,” she grumbled, and her face went a very becoming pink shade. “And you had to come here personally to tell me?” She licked her lips, her gaze a little hungry on his face as she stared at him.

“It seemed the wiser choice at the time, as I could ensure you didn’t throw yourself out an airlock,” he told her quietly. “Do you want to say anything else now that you’re faced with the devil, or should I leave you alone to muse by yourself?” he asked softly.

“You aren’t the devil,” she said instantly, a knee-jerk reply obviously. “The things that I want to say, you really don’t want to hear because they are very lustful and needy, and that is so not what you need or want to hear in this moment in time.”

“Likely not,” he agreed, nodding as he settled to the deck before her, his legs on each side of hers. “But you may as well tell me. I’m currently too tired to do anything about whatever you might say or suggest. I have, perhaps, enough energy to return to the quarters you gave me to pass out, but I would not place any wagers on that fact,” he said with a shrug.

She grinned and shook her head. “How about you head up to your room and while I am down here safely tucked away from you where I don’t have to see the horror on your face, I will tell you?” she asked with a smile. “Go. If you are tired, my lord, you should go and rest. I will talk to you until you are ready for sleep. Go.”

Remaining still for a moment longer he nodded slowly, knowing it was likely the only way he’d hear whatever thoughts might be running about in her head. “All right, but you’d better talk to me or I’ll be very cranky and have to figure a way back down here to throttle you,” he said. He was joking, of course, his tone very clear. Which he only could do since the bloodlust wasn’t riding him just then. However when it was, there was no joking, just deadly seriousness. Pushing to his feet slowly, his whole body aching and sore, he looked down at her for a moment before walking out of the engine room and back to his assigned quarters.

“I will talk to you, my lord,” she whispered as he left her. As he moved he could hear her starting to work, the distinctive clang of tools to metal clear through the link.

Inside the room he undressed and then, crawling into the bed, he flopped onto his back with a groan. Ordering the computer to shut the lights off, he didn’t really need them anyway, he pushed a pillow under his head. “All right, my lady, I’m as comfortable as I can get,” he told her, draping an arm across his forehead, the other at his side with his hand on his lower belly and his eyes on the ceiling.

“I was just thinking.” She made the turn of the valve she held before she pulled back, working on the ship while talking to him. “I was just thinking of how you looked naked. Seeing you lying there on the bed as you were, I had the urge to reach out and touch you.” She leaned back against the bulkhead for a moment and wiped her brow on her sleeve. “I was thinking of how I wanted to lick at the silver in your cock and balls, and I wanted to know just how thick and how hard you got.” She was never going to be able to look at him again, but she didn’t seem to care in that moment.

“I’ve never looked at a man and wanted him like I do you.” She let her head drop down, her chin to her chest. “But the coup de grace was me thinking of you pressing me hard against the bulkhead. I wanted to know if you were as rough in bed as out.”

“Depends on my partner,” he told her. She could hear the bed creaking under his weight. “I always try to please the woman before anything else, and it’s always whatever she wants.”

She straightened and, wiping her hands on a cloth, sighed. “And that, my lord, that was what I was thinking.” She moved to the other side of the engine. “Get some rest, my lord. I will have you home before you know it.” And then she was going to find a nice deep hole to crawl into and never come out of. She couldn’t believe she had told him her deepest, darkest thoughts. The only thing she could think of was the fact that she didn’t lie. She didn’t have the stomach for it when he asked. “Rest, my lord. Soon you will be home and safe once more.” She crawled under the engine, but before she did she finished with, “I won’t be able to hear you for a while, so rest and don’t wig out when you can’t hear me or I you.”

Growling at her words, he stretched slowly. “Pigheaded woman,” he muttered. “Too bad you can’t hear what I was going to mention,” he said, idly wondering at the same time if maybe she was listening. “If you could hear me you’d hear how your scent affected me, made me harder than I’ve ever been in my life, and trust me on this Jamison, it’s been a very long life.” Sometimes it seemed longer than he could stand. “When I held you to the wall all I wanted to do was tear your clothing off, open you to me, and fuck you as hard as I could. I was even tempted to take blood from you while I fucked your pussy. Something I’ve never done with a female, ever. Course, the downside is that the silver in my cock might irritate you and that wouldn’t be a good thing. Or maybe it could rub at you just right and have you coming so hard that both our heads explode.” Shrugging, he rolled carefully to his stomach. “Oh well, guess we’ll never know will we?” he muttered in a sleepy tone before yawning. “Good night, my lady,” he said on a sigh as he slid into sleep.

* * * *

She was under the loudly purring engine, ensuring all of the lines were running accordingly and then slid out. With a sigh, she patted the engine. “You are doing wonderfully. Get us there to drop him off, and then we will retire for a few years.” She was done with wandering, done with traveling. She didn’t know how or why she made that realization, but she had.

She left the engine room and paused by his door, lightly touching it before moving to her room to curse. First, however, she turned off the comm. She could hear him, but not he her. “What is it about him that has me in knots? Why is he making me feel things that aren’t possible for me?” She sat down on her bed and sighed, dropping her head between her knees and simply breathing in and out, sadness swamping her. “Soon, soon I will have him off the ship and then I can try to find a balance.” But somehow she knew it would never be found. “Who am I kidding?” she asked herself and fell back on the bed. “This wasn’t supposed to happen.” She didn’t even know him, she wasn’t supposed to feel for him, at all, but she did. Deeply. Far too deeply.

Chapter 6

Waking slowly, it took him a moment to remember where he was and why he was so comfortable, more or less. The bed was very comfortable, but the raging erection stemming from a dream featuring his little shipmate most definitely wasn’t. Rolling to his back, he rubbed at his eyes with the heels of his hands. “Now if only she’d be willing to do something about it,” he muttered darkly as he shifted his eyes to the tented blanket over his groin. The dull throb, his pulse beating in need through the swollen member, was enough to drive any man to do something crazed.

“We are an hour out from your home, my lord. If you would like you can shower and get ready to disembark, or you may come up here and sit with me. Your choice.” Her voice was very chipper, but it sounded brittle to his ears. Something was off.

“Yeah,” he said softly, letting his head fall back to the pillow as he stared at the ceiling. He was nearly home, and that should have thrilled him. He’d be able to feed and yet. Pushing to a sitting position, he eased from the bed and had a quick sonic shower before he dressed. Moving slowly, dragging his feet really, because he didn’t want to leave her behind. Not exactly the thoughts he should be having, and yet he was and they were depressing. Entering the flight control room, he kept his gazed lowered just in case she had the view screen operating and, sitting in the copilot’s chair, spun it so he was facing the doors.

“The screen is down. I don’t really need it, not when I have the sonic radar.” She was trying to be considerate for him, interesting. “You will be careful? Safe, you will be safe here, won’t you?” Raven could hear the worry in her voice, and it seemed odd to him that anyone, especially someone that knew next to nothing about him, was worried.

“As safe as anywhere, I suppose,” he said with a shrug, sliding down in the seat and propping his boots up onto the unused console. “I’m not exactly the golden child,” he pointed out, though why he said it he couldn’t figure out. “But I have my uses, so I will take a few days, heal, and then return to what I do best. What about you?” he asked, glancing to her, and knew it for the mistake it was. “Will you be continuing on and bring home the lost sheep once more? Your husband must be a very generous man to be so at ease with you always away.” Yeah, that had definitely not been very subtle.

She snorted and shook her head. “No, no husband.” She wasn’t going to expand on that. Sure, she had bed partners from time to time, but no one ever made her feel. “As for that, no. I think that you were my last case.” She was tired. She was tired of trying to always find the missing, the lost. Using her abilities actually took a lot out of her, and she was done with it. “I think it’s time for me to retire.” There was a hesitation. “You can’t tell anyone that I am the one who found you. I don’t know how your mother knew that I was who I am, but she did.” And that was dangerous in and of itself. “So, if you don’t mind, forget you ever met me?” She wouldn’t forget him, though.

“I doubt that will ever be possible, but if that is your wish I will try,” he said quietly. “Mayhap you will be truly lucky and I’ll be killed on my next mission.” He shrugged as he got to his feet. “At least then your secret will be forever safe, my lady. Let me know when we land, and I’ll get out of your hair as quickly as possible so that you may have the life you want without one such as I am in it.” That said, he left the cabin. She watched him, leaving and walking toward the back of the craft and the ramp to get out as soon as she touched down she knew.

She was a royal fuck-up and she damn well knew it. As they were landing she waited to extend the back ramp and, when they touched down, locked it out before opening the comms once more. “Just so that you know one thing before you go off for your happily ever after, my lord.” She pressed the release so that the ramp would slowly lower. “There is one person who would give a damn if you died. Take care of yourself, Raven, if not for you, for me.” It was the first time she said his name with some of the emotion she felt deep inside for him. Looking to the feed from the ramp, she could see him.

He was fisting his hands at his sides over and over again, and then he shook out his arms and shook his head. “You’re wrong,” he murmured. “In time you, too, will wish me dead, everyone does.” Shaking his head once more, he stepped forward and moved down the ramp. She watched as he stopped at the bottom and appeared to take in a deep breath. A moment later he shot a look over his shoulder before jogging off. She soon lost sight of him in the darkness covering the land.

She sighed and shook her head. He was wrong. He was very, very wrong on that. Closing the ramp, she lifted off and leaned back in her seat and wiped at the tears with frustrated fists. “All right, Raven, it’s time for me to break the news to your dear old mom that you aren’t coming back into the fold.” She had a feeling that was going to be a wonderful chat.

* * * *

Thirty hours later Jamison stepped from her craft, resplendent in her full station gown and jewelry. Walking toward the woman who was waiting for her on the landing platform, she bowed her head respectfully. “Hello, my lady.”

The lady tipped her head in a regal manner, her eyes searching behind Jamison. “Where is my son?”

“He has chosen to not come back. He doesn’t want the title and is fine with it going to another.”

The lady screamed and narrowed her gaze on Jamison. “You will go and get him. You will bring him back here now.”

“No, I won’t. I liberated him and took him where he wanted to be. He is an adult, he is a High Lord, and it’s what he wanted.” She stopped and looked down at the netting that had been tossed around her. “What are you doing?”

“No one ever backs out of a deal with me,” the older woman said and nodded to the guard holding the netting. “Take her to the dungeons. Treat her as you would any other thief.” Lady Kato smiled at Jamison as the man began to chuckle, not a nice sound. “Yes, you can do with her as you will. I will arrange for her little ship to explode and relay the terrible news to her parents. Good bye, Jamison. You will enjoy him, until he splits you in half.” She turned and walked away even as Jamison began to scream and fight the bonds she was wrapped in.