Gambit (3 page)

Chae willed her eyes to open and fixed her gaze on his collarbone. Her hand dipped lower, skirting over his hip. She’d wanted this, time alone and him buck naked, but hell, she was nervous. Living gold bound deep, brought unimaginable bliss. She swallowed and skimmed gold over his abdomen.

Daned’s chest hitched and he sucked in a quick breath. “Captain…”

The title was almost a growl. Her head snapped up and she held his fierce, dark gaze. Her blood pounded in her ears and she ached to close the space between them, press herself up against his body and find out whether the rumors of bound gold were true.

“We’re living an illusion,” he murmured. “Remember this is just a job.”

“You’re bound to me.” Need and nerves fired through her and she forced the tremor from her hand to guide the gold over the length of his erection. A muscle jumped in his jaw. He could say it was a job, but the tech woven into the gold had other plans for him. “Living gold insists that my pleasure is your pleasure.”

A smile tugged at his mouth. “Igasho metal can’t compare to the Ladaian coding in my blood.”

“Is that a dare?” she asked. His smile curved into a wicked grin, one that had her moving closer, his bare skin so near the need to taste it burned on her tongue. “Because you shouldn’t throw a dare in the face of a runner.”

Daned traced his index finger along her jaw, a feather-light touch that forced the air from her lungs. “Believe me, you’d know if a Traern found you of interest.”

“And this?” She teased the blunt head of his cock with the thumb tip. Gold flowed over him. “What’s this, if not interest?”

His gaze narrowed on her. “A biological reaction. My duty to the sunder-seld comes first.”

Chae smirked at him. “Before you do? That has to be inconvenient.”

“Finish this.” His mouth pulled upward into a bleak smile, but it didn’t soften his order. “Please.”

“You’re no fun, Daned.”

“I know.”

Chae eased her hand away from his cock and pressed the gold over his other hip. She ducked under his arm to stroke the warm gold across his buttocks and up over the lean strength of his back. She closed her eyes against the feel of him under her palm, warm, sleek, his skin taunting her, demanding that she trail hot, open-mouth kisses up his spine. She held back a groan. Damn it, this was not fair.

The length of gold met the first thread clinging to his shoulder. Her palm held it there, its molten heat stinging her skin. Daned didn’t flinch, even as Chae knew that the heat tore through the living gold to seal it to his flesh.

The gold cooled under her hand. It was over. Well, almost. And the almost had her heart beating hard. She wanted to sag against him, let her forehead fall against his shoulder, needing the reality of him to sink into her flesh, her soul. Shit, she would come to hate living gold. The upside was that when it was time to break the bond, her interest would die too. Her gaze raked his back, enjoying the smooth play of muscles under cider-brown skin far too much.

Yeah. Right. All interest would just…evaporate.

Not a chance.

Chae willed herself to take a step back. “Done,” she said.

Daned turned to face her. Wry humor shone in his eyes and he
had
to know how attractive it made him. “Not quite. The Igasho have their incantation, the activating phrase.” He closed the space between them and his voice dropped, softened. “I believe it’s ‘Make me yours.’”

The words spiraled through her blood and beat heat into her face. Bastard. Was he having fun at her expense? Chae lifted her chin and held his dark gaze. “Living gold needs more to activate it.”

“Yes, I know.” His finger traced a path along her jaw, the same lightness of touch that flicked fire under her skin. “Is this enough?”

His mouth hovered over hers, his breath brushing warm over her lips. Her heart beat hard in her ears and her fingers slid over the firm muscles in his forearms, gripping him, needing the contact to break her desire to take his mouth. His skin burned under her palms. “I don’t know.” Her gaze focused on his lips. They had to seal the bond with a kiss…and they both knew it. “Is my pleasure your pleasure yet?”

His mouth quirked upward. “No.”

“How about now?” The first slow brush of her lips over his hollowed her belly and sparked desire in her flesh. He tasted warm, soft, and the hint of strange spices urged her to change the kiss, to tease and play, and the first chaste kiss melted into another and another.

Her tongue tip touched his and her fingers bit hard into his forearms. Damn it, since when did a simple kiss practically have her shaking? It was the gold. The bloody stuff twisted her thoughts, her reactions, but didn’t stop her from deepening the contact, from stroking her tongue over his, savoring him. She thought she moaned, a low, needy sound that seemed to fill her chest. Somehow, it brought Daned closer, his soft, subtle mouth making her heart pound and curse the fact that too much clothing separated her from him.

Her fingers pushed up his arms, pressing herself against the hardness of his body. “This is not enough.” She groaned the words against his lips and drove him back into the edge of the table. “Not nearly enough.”

For a timeless second she held his gaze, found heat and an unending darkness, just before his mouth and hands found her. Her world spun and her backside hit the table. Daned was ruthless, demanding, everything she wanted, needed. Chae clung to him. The living gold seared through the thick fabric of her tunic, branding her skin, binding her to this man. Heat coiled low in her belly. The rub of his erection against her flesh danced sparks behind her eyes. Almost. She could almost taste the fire of her release—

Daned ripped his mouth from hers and stepped back. He wiped the back of his hand across his mouth and his eyes narrowed on her. “More than enough,” he muttered.

Chapter Two

Chae pressed her hands to her face and willed down the wild riot in her flesh. She pulled in slow breaths. All right, he wasn’t happy where the gold had almost taken him. She snorted and raked her fingers through her tangled hair. “For you maybe.” She pushed herself away from the table and stretched her spine. Shit, her body still ached and flicking a glance over Daned’s lithe perfection didn’t ease her need to jump him one little bit. Once they hit rift lock, she intended to bury herself away in her cabin, just her and her toy of choice.

A smile tugged at her mouth. Better yet, she now had enough black crystal to custom order flesh, flesh that looked exactly like the man frowning at her. Not exactly legal, but crystal would ease a manufacturer’s conscience. Her smile grew into a grin. How pissed off would a copy make the original? “Ready to go.” Her gaze fixed on his erection, gilded in a cover of gold. Hell, flesh was always ready. She smirked at him. “If you are.”

His frown deepened as he waved her toward the door.

“You know, flesh never gets grumpy.”

“I know.”

She shrugged. “Just saying.”

“Thank you.”

The door opened and Govan glared at her. Chae bit back her smile, but only just as anger tightened his face. “I believe we’re ready.”

Govan looked beyond her to Daned, and that strange sensation, a prickle running fast over her skin, flared again. Why had she lost out on Ladaian telepathy? Was it her usual crappy luck? Maybe it was a male thing, which was entirely shitty. Her mother had left so many gaps in her education about her race, but then she’d had no interest in learning her history herself. It looked as if that was a major error on her part. “Are you two finished? Can we go get my black crystal now?”

Govan blinked. “Yes, it’s time you left.” He turned and led the way back down the corridor.

“Something I said?”

Govan ignored her. More twists and turns led them to an outer door. The older man paused. “Once I open this door, Daned is bought flesh. Duty and tradition bind you to your task. Do you understand the mission you are to undertake, Captain Beyon?”

Chae stopped herself from rolling her eyes. These people needed a new arse on their throne because their factory settings stank. “You give me one crate of black crystal, I’m a decoy so that your precious prince or whatever he is gets to sit on a throne before another aristocrat plants his backside there. Does that seem like I understand?”

Govan’s mouth thinned. “You dishonor your heritage.”

“I’ll live with it.” Chae straightened her shoulders and lifted an eyebrow. “Time is a factor here?” Govan muttered a string of guttural words that had Daned shifting behind her. “Well?”

He looked past her to Daned. “Good luck,” he said, as he returned Chae’s weapon to her.

She held down a snort. With her, that was doubtful. She flexed her fingers around the hard grip of her heavy-duty Sel-9, working it back into its comfortable shape. She slid it into the holster strapped to her thigh, its familiar weight against her leg making her feel more herself. “What about my tech?” She’d felt naked without it, but the promise of a large pot and an idiot waiting to be fleeced had forced her hand in Khovd. “I left it with the gaming room in good faith.”

“You resisted on your way out. We could only salvage your gun, Captain. I’m sorry.” Govan sounded anything but. “Your payment covers all damages.”

“And you expect me to get to my ship with just my Sel-9?” She patted her weapon. “I’ll be lucky to get to my black crystal. Do you know how shitty my luck is?”

“Daned will ensure that you reach your ship.”

She stared up at the almost naked man beside her. “He—”

“Enough. We don’t have time.” Govan turned and pressed his palm against the smooth metal.

The slow hiss of isomorphic tech filled the air and it pricked her skin. She would never have escaped the warren…well, not quickly. The faint glow around his fingers faded to dull, black metal again. Air gushed from the broken seals and brought with it the stale odors of the outside world. She pulled them into her lungs. She knew that stink.

The door opened onto a dark alley, a slice of gray-white sky casting bleak light against the uneven walls on an unmarked building. With no further words, Govan disappeared into the darkness of the alley. Her gaze darted around the derelict and jagged-roofed buildings that blocked the sky. The reek of refuse and decay forced its way into her lungs.

A smile tugged at her mouth. Yes, the familiar scent of the Ulan Bator district. At least they didn’t have to cover the ground from Khovd. The hangar that housed her ship was little more than a twisted klick away. “Ready?”

“What do you wish of me?” Daned kept his face neutral, mimicking the familiar passive mode of grown humans.

Oh, she liked owning him as flesh, especially flesh that had to be seething over the few scraps and strings of gold that stood between him and complete nakedness. “If we had time, the things I would order…” She didn’t miss the spark of anger that lit his dark eyes and it deepened her smile. “But we have places to be.” She glanced up to the dark walls and could almost feel eyes watching from the heavy blackness. “And I’ve never been keen on an audience.”

She touched his shoulder and a tendril of gold crept along his skin to curl once around his throat to form a collar. A thickened band of metal teased out into a leash and Chae gripped it. “This way, pretty.”

Daned’s mouth thinned and the brief flare of fury in his gaze would’ve incinerated her, but it died away and he gave her a compliant nod. “Yes, lady.”

Chae bit down a smile and led the way along the narrow alley, her hand pressed hard against the butt of her weapon. Her heart thudded and her senses, the feeling that others watched her from the blackness, stung her spine. Yes, they wanted to make her earn her black crystal. Time to weave another lie. The Ladaian’s lie wouldn’t help her now.

“Your grower’s not picked the most…salubrious…of areas for his business.” She laughed, something short and not loud as she scanned the shadow-thick buildings looming over her. “He won’t be in business long, you know.”

The bustle of the main concourse was little more than a hundred meters away, the curve of the sky track twisting overhead to sink the alley into further gloom. Chae straightened her shoulders and took longer strides. Daned matched her. His expression was vacant—shit, he really was good at vacuous—but she could feel it, it almost flowed from him, a ready tension. He knew how to use his lithe strength. She didn’t want that knowledge to ease the rapid thud of her heart, but it did.

“Living gold…Now that’s worth more than the lush flesh it’s on.”

Chae ignored the male voice from the darkness and focused on the bright glare of the concourse. Her skin itched with the feel of them, shapes forming out of the shadows and the jagged brick and steel of the alley buildings. She held down curses that would have impressed even Govan and kept her body loose, ready. If they attacked, she had to run. Everything screamed that she was heavily outnumbered. And even with Daned at her side, she couldn’t risk a confrontation. They had to maintain the illusion he was passive flesh. They broke that, and her crates of crystal would vanish.

“I think he belongs to us,” muttered another male voice.

“He looks very familiar.”

“Yes, he does.”

That made at least four. Hell, had Govan even made it out of the other end of the alley alive? Factory settings stank. They hadn’t planned, hadn’t thought how fucking dangerous her city was. Morons.

She focused. Her life and her future wealth depended on getting to her ship. But, shit, the shadow thickened, the light of the concourse a brilliant, taunting rectangle little more than fifty meters away. Sweat stuck her tunic to her bare spine and she formed a tight fist around Daned’s leash. Her weapon slid, silent and quick, from its thigh holster and she primed it, the whine lost in the crunch of her boots over the uneven ground. They’d dragged her from Khovd and not thought to actually equip her to get to her ship. Complete morons.

“Did he think he could set up a factory in our yard and we wouldn’t take our share?”

The first voice moved closer and the darkness shifted. Fuck. She should have known better. Of course, she would never get her hands on three crates of black crystal. Her luck never ran that way. It was always,
always
shitty. “He’s mine, bonded to me. He’s useless to you.”