Ricochet (6 page)

Thrusting Stratton from her mind, she gazed at the façade of the Arms of Aga. Truly, it was one of the greatest sights she’d ever seen. Made in the image of a naked woman, the jade structure boasted four pairs of arms. From the little information she’d gleaned from a brochure at the front desk, the statue was said to represent a once-worshipped deity from one of the first settlements on Aga. With the religion now defunct and the religious followers extinct, the government had decided to remodel the statue into a luxury hotel. Each outstretched hand held a suite module with standard rooms filling the woman’s body. Private, glass turbolifts ran from the ground to each of the suites.

Willa grinned even as her shoulders ached with fatigue. Racing always keyed her up, locked her muscles with tension, and dealing with Stratton had exacerbated her anxiety. The first-place finish was great, but a tiny niggle of doubt wedged itself into her heart. It wasn’t good enough. They could have made better time, could have done a better job of utilizing the wormhole. She blew out a defeated breath.
Why can’t I just be happy in the moment?
A hot shower and dinner was all she needed. After that, she’d take the bed. Stratton could sleep outside for all she cared.

Two hours later, Willa stepped out of the pleasantly warm and steamy bathing area only to encounter the second most beautiful sight of the afternoon—now evening. Stratton stood in the center of the room, contemplating the large bed. A frown pulled at his sensual lips while his slick-gear top hung loose about his waist, baring his chest.

“Uh, I didn’t hear you come in.” She pulled the sash of a plush robe tighter around her waist, very conscious of her naked state.

“The shower was on when I got here. I intended to go straight to bed, but then became distracted by the remains of dinner.” His gaze flicked down her body in such a leisurely fashion, she felt every inch of the inspection. “I assume you enjoyed yourself in my absence? From the looks of things, you had a hearty appetite.”

She nodded. Shortly after her arrival into the suite, a huge four-course dinner under glass and silver domes had been delivered. She’d eaten her fill, Stratton’s hunger be damned. “Any time away from your barbaric attitude is well spent.” Unable to glance away, she drank in his semi-dressed state as if she’d never seen a man before. Black curls made a light mat over his pectoral muscles, and a thin, black ribbon of hair trailed down the middle of his chest, past his belly button to continue into his waistband. Her mouth watered at the sight of that creamy, brown skin. Her fingers itched to explore his perfect abdominal planes.

By the time her gaze jerked to his face, he was openly smirking. “Like what you see? I’d be happy to uncover the rest if you want to check out my lower half.” His fingers drifted to the zipper.

“Don’t flatter yourself.” In an effort to change the subject and prevent drooling on her part, Willa gestured toward a low bureau on one side of the room. “There’s your prize for first place.” Curiosity about what had occurred between him and Chaf buzzed in her mind, but she held it in check. Wondering about their juvenile fighting would only hamper her objective.

Stratton moved across the room, affording her the opportunity to greedily take in the play of muscles along his back. “
This
is the prize?” A long, slim finger tapped the head of a foot-high statue which was a direct replica of the hotel. “Not that a jade sculpture isn’t valuable on the black markets. I had a different purse in mind.”

“You giant ass, didn’t you read the informational packet regarding this stop?”

“No. That was your job as nav, remember, so I can concentrate on flying and driving?”

“Pig.” She stormed to his side, plucked a small silver mallet from beside the statue and handed it to him. “You break the statue. It’s not jade but made of spun sugar to resemble it.”

He wasted no time. With one mighty smack of the mallet, pieces of the statue flew in every direction, leaving a pile of glittering emeralds of all shapes in its place. “Fantastic! Do you know how rare emeralds are in this galaxy?” He picked one up, holding it in his palm. “This is more like it.” Flipping the stone in her direction, he grinned when it tumbled down her cleavage. “I guess women aren’t useless in the cockpit after all.”

A host of Lingorian words to describe his chauvinistic attitude leaped to her mind. Too bad they’d all be wasted on him. His sense of self-worth was incredible. Instead, she wriggled until the heavy emerald fell to the floor. “You could say you’re proud of me and leave it at that.”

“What is your hang-up with people being proud of you? Don’t you know if someone is or not? Why do you need to hear the accolades so badly?”

“You and I aren’t close enough for a heart-to-heart talk.” Despite her words, yearning for his praise tugged at her.

“And there it is. The official raising of that wall of yours.” He rolled his eyes. “Damn, you’re a frosty bitch.”

The heat in her face returned, spurred by the anger he churned in her. “You bring it out. I was perfectly fine before I met you.”

“But still a bitch, since you didn’t deny it.” A burst of cynical laughter broke from his throat. “I doubt you were fine. Beneath that prickly exterior, you teeter on a lack of self-confidence and self-esteem.” His fingers fumbled again at his zipper. “I’m about to get comfortable. By all means, look if you’re curious.”

Willa turned away and beat a retreat to the opposite side of the room. What did he wear beneath the uniform? For that matter, why had neither one of them remembered to bring their overnight bags in from the quad rover? Not for worlds would she turn around and watch him undress. When she heard him move into the attached bathroom, she heaved a shuddering sigh. It was insane to be trapped in a hotel room with a man who truly represented the embodiment of sin.
Get through the night, Willa. Nothing else matters but being on that podium at the end of the race.

She nodded to herself and drifted to the huge window that occupied one wall. Pulling open the heavy brocade drapes, she sucked in a breath. Starset occurred much more quickly here than in other parts of the galaxy, and the darkness only served to showcase the planet Isolinee. Reddish land masses flowed serenely into greenish-blue bodies of water, lightly veiled by wispy white clouds. “Gorgeous.”

“That’s the general reaction I get.” His whispered voice tickled her ear, prickling her skin. She jumped, unaware he’d snuck up on her, so absorbed had she been in the view.

Despite her earlier admonition, she half turned and gasped in relief. He’d exchanged his slick gear for a robe similar to hers. “I meant the view.” Belatedly, she realized he could take that the wrong way as well. “Of the planet.” Her throat went dry when she thought of sleeping in the same bed as him. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to turn in while you bathe. I’m pretty worn out.”

“Actually, I do mind. You’re like an old-fashioned powder keg,
kita
, ready to blow.” He reached out a hand and tugged at a lock of her unbound hair. “Tell me why you find it so hard to believe your father is proud of you. I didn’t have the chance to really get to know my parents, so I’m curious.”

“Tell me your story first.” She couldn’t think straight with him so close. No one flirted with the wall she kept around herself, but Stratton didn’t seem to play by anyone’s rules except his own.

“Sorry, can’t do that. You owe me something for that first-rate performance you did in the rover.”

So he’d noticed her double wordplay. Terrific.

The smirk returned. “The longer you don’t talk, the more I might feel the need to drop this robe. And, in case you were wondering, I sleep nude, so prepare yourself.”

Chapter Four

Willa closed her eyes against the image of his finely honed body reposing between the sheets. When she opened them again, Stratton stared at her, one dark eyebrow cocked, waiting. The lesser of two evils it would be. “Having so many brothers and being the only girl, I suppose it was natural that I’d be expected to compete and perform like one of the boys.”

“Were you expected to, or did you do it in order to be heard over the noise?”

She shrugged, unwilling to delve deeper to figure it out. She was here to win a race, not navigate the shadowy tangents of her brain. “I’m not sure.”

“Here’s the way I see it. Your brothers took to flying naturally. When you realized you were the only girl in a male-dominated household, you probably felt your folks treated you differently. In your eyes, that made you bizarre or not loved equally, so you did everything you could to play down your gender.”

“That’s not true.” Willa backed away, under Stratton’s intense gaze, until the cool glass pressed against her rear.

He wasn’t done theorizing. “And when none of that gained your family’s attention, you talked yourself into believing winning the next race or conquering the next obstacle would be the key to unlocking that love.” His gaze never relented. “Sound familiar?”

Was she so transparent that Stratton could read her? Her throat tightened. She cleared it, banishing the emotion. “I know they’re proud of me. I can feel it in my heart, but it’s easy to doubt when I never hear it. Does that make sense?”

“Absolutely.” Stratton’s eyes were the same hard brown she’d glimpsed at their first meeting. “How do you feel about that?”

“It doesn’t matter how I feel.
They
won’t change.”

“Yet you keep doing these things to gain their attention. Why?”

“I’ve done it so long, I have no idea what I should be doing.” Willa rapidly blinked her burning eyes. She hated the thought of crying in front of him, knowing he’d mock her, yet the urge to unburden her soul and start anew remained strong.

Instead of the reaction she expected, Stratton took a few steps toward her. “You know, it’s okay if you want to let it out. Hell, I’ll wager you’ve kept it bottled up inside. Just yell, scream, hit me if you need to, but leave it here.” He cupped her cheek and drew the pad of his thumb along her bottom lip. “You have to move forward, and you can’t do that until you leave the baggage behind.”

She nodded, holding his gaze, wondering how he could be so certain of things he knew nothing about. It was almost as if he could see inside her soul and read her hidden thoughts. “You’re right. Of course you are.” She turned away from him, relieved that their brief contact was broken. His touch heated her skin, made her feel alive like never before, as if she could disregard all that she was and do crazy things. That scared her. “How did you come to terms with your past? I know you have one.” The beauty of the planet held her attention and staved off additional thoughts of him.

Stratton Sinnet left heartache in his wake. She refused to be a part of his legacy.

“I do have a past. It’s not something I could control. It’s not something I’d trade.” He shrugged, and she caught his grin in the window’s reflection. He was sin, all right. If he continued to smile like that, she’d have no muscle strength left and no willpower to resist him. “It happened.”

“What did?” She held her breath. Would he finally reveal something personal?

“My parents died during an alien attack on Earth when I was eight years old. After that, I bounced around from family to family. Some were kind; some were not. Each one taught me a lesson and toughened my hide for the life I lead now.”

“How can you talk of it without emotion, like it never happened?” She kept her focus on the spacescape. It was the only way to maintain control.

“There was plenty of emotional angst for years, but when there was no one left to care, I left it behind. Why dwell on something I can’t change?” He moved to stand behind her. “It built character. I took that character once the government finally kicked me off Earth for my…unsavory idiosyncrasies and began a new life.”

“Of crime?” When he lifted her hair and the coolness of the room hit her skin, she shivered. As the gentle touch of his lips warmed her nape, flutters filled her stomach. He didn’t answer, which was just as well. She didn’t want to know that either. The less she knew, the less likely she’d begin to understand him or care about him. “Good for you. I don’t have that much strength, apparently.”

“That’s an excuse, and you know it.” Stratton placed another fleeting kiss on her neck. “It doesn’t matter what your family thinks of you. It doesn’t matter what anyone else on this circuit thinks of you. It’s what you think about yourself that’ll keep you moving into your future.”

“But…” But what? What could she say that wouldn’t make her look weaker than she already did? She frowned. When had she started wanting to make a good impression on Stratton, of all people?

He cut into her thoughts. “I’ve known you for two days. I have a feeling you’re gonna shake things up all over this galaxy before you’re done.” When he released her hair, it dropped heavily over her shoulders. “Dump the doubts.”

“And what? Then my life will suddenly change, and I’ll be pooping out starshine?”

“I don’t know you that well, but it could happen.” He gave her a swat on her rear, an accompaniment to a chuckle. “From what I’ve seen, you’re too good a person to let your clueless family determine your self-worth.”

“Are you proud of our finish today?” From all she’d seen of him, she expected him to be crowing with arrogance and victory. When he didn’t, but treated her with tenderness instead, she reeled in a twister of confusion.

“Yeah, I am. You surprised the hell out of me today, Willa. No woman has ever been able to do that, but what I think doesn’t matter either.” A rustling followed his statement.

She watched him in the glass but kept silent. He’d yanked a pillow case from one of the pillows and was now loading it up with toiletries from the bathroom as well as extra linens and anything else he could find.

“If you don’t believe in yourself, you’ll never go anywhere. I can promise you that.”

Willa stared at her reflection in the window, looked past her face and focused on Stratton. He’d finished with his low-key looting and stood silently behind her once more, his expression inscrutable. What was his angle in all of this? Was his pep talk a way to break her down, undermine her determination?