Taking Liberty (7 page)

They broke through the stratus of clouds. A patchwork quilt of rolling landscape spread roughly ten thousand feet below them. Hope started to blossom inside Lucus's chest.

Then the final thruster crapped out.

Chapter Seven

The high-pitched scream of metal reverberated inside Rini's ears as the Liberty crashed into a stand of cacti and continued plowing onward. While the ship racked and stacked dismembered cactus parts outside the viewing shield, Lucus battled with the reluctant brake.

A boulder roughly the size of a small house loomed directly in their path. If the curses streaming from Lucus's mouth were any indication, he must have noticed the rock the same instant she did. He attempted veering around it. Easier said than done with a runaway spacecraft.

They collided with the boulder, the impact shearing off the left wing. The ship spun, executing several mad three hundred and sixty degree circles. Once the star cruiser coasted to a halt Rini groaned and dragged her head from the seatback, her vision blurry from the ship's spinning-top routine. She stared at Lucus, trying to determine which of the two figures wavering in front of her was the real him. “Are you okay?”

He unclipped his harness and staggered from the seat, peering around the bridge like he couldn't believe he was still alive. Shaking his head, he looked at her. “Yeah. How about you?”

“I think so.” Unsnapping her harness, she did a quick inspection for damage. Other than her double vision and the red crisscrossed welts where the straps dug into her torso, she seemed in overall decent shape.

She lifted from the seat and took an unsteady step. Her upper body swayed in the opposite direction of her feet and she stumbled into the control panel.

“You're walking like my brother after he's imbibed one too many cases of beer.”

“It's my head.” She clamped a hand on either side of her skull. “It won't stop spinning.”

“Then park your butt for a minute while I check things outside.”

“No, I'll go with you.” Dropping her hands, she shoved away from the panel and almost fell over.

Lucus grasped her shoulders and edged her sideways until her rear end nudged the arm of the copilot's seat. “Stay put. You'll do neither of us any good if you fall out of the ship and break your neck.”

Okay, he definitely had a point. Grudgingly, she watched him march off. Both of him. “
Ugh
.” Wincing, she massaged her temples. It really sucked having the same side effects that came from six rounds of margaritas, only without the accompanying buzz.

After giving her head five minutes to rest, her vision cleared enough for her to risk standing. When her legs remained sturdy, she decided to join Lucus and assess their dismal situation for herself. With the electrical system officially out of commission there was no way of opening the debarking doors. Fortunately—or not—a large gaping hole took residence in the same spot the wing used to be. The cock-eyed angle of the ship made it a fairly easy drop to the valley's floor. She followed the loud grumblings coming from somewhere near the front of the star cruiser and spied Lucus bent at the knees, glaring at the severed wing.

“Oh man, it's going to take a lot more than duct tape or Super Glue to fix that puppy.”

Lucus looked up and his gaze stalled on her chest. Glancing down, she noticed her black tank top clung snugly to her skin, courtesy of the dunking in the general's death tank. She crossed her arms over her breasts.

Dragging his attention to her face, he pushed to his feet. “Not that it matters. Without the system control, we can't exactly fly out of here anyway.”

“Speaking of here—where are we? I know we're on Aquatica, but how close are we to General Quarrel's base?”

“See that peak?” Lucus pointed to a mountain ridge on the far horizon. “That's where we flew out of.”

A shiver charted her spine as she stared across the valley. “Do you think there's any chance he knows we crashed back on the planet?”

“Let's hope to God not. We've got enough shit to worry about without adding Squid Face to the list.” He scruffed a hand through his hair and scanned the wreckage for a minute before pivoting and heading towards the exposed hole in the Liberty.

Rubbing her arms, Rini abandoned her station to investigate the enormous boulder responsible for the mangled wing. The rock towered over her by at least ten feet and spanned twice that in circumference. Strange symbols were carved near the center of the rock. She traced a fingertip over the grooves, wondering about the origins of the symbols and their meaning. During her four years at the ranger academy she'd studied the various alien languages, but there were so many it'd take a lifetime to learn them all.

“What are you doing?”

Jumping, she jerked her hand away from the rough-textured stone. Lucus tossed her the shirt draped over his shoulder. Apparently interpreting her blank stare, he shrugged. “Your skin's so fair I worried you'd blister beneath this sun.”

He was worried about me
? She immediately brushed away the tickle of happiness brought by the idea. It would be epically stupid getting warm fuzzies where Granger was concerned. The man was a smuggler, for crying out loud. If life had played out the way she'd originally planned she might have been faced with arresting him.

But he does kiss like nobody's business
. A fierce hot flash swamped her at the reminder. Tugging the shirt on, she flapped the collar, trying to stir forth a poor excuse for a breeze. She followed Lucus's interested scrutiny to the carved symbols in the rock. “I was trying to decipher them. I'm afraid my knowledge isn't—”

“
Khian tu jidah.
”

She stared at Lucus, shocked beyond words that he was versed in archaic alienese. “
Okaay
.”

“Translated from Illonican, it means Starflight Folly.”

Buttoning the shirt, she tied the bottom tails into a knot. “Just a tad bit cryptic.”

“Not really. It's the name of another ship that crash-landed in this valley.” He tapped his forefinger against another of the symbols. “Khtar. He's one of the crew members buried here.”

“
Buried
?” Her gaze immediately darted to the ground. “Are you telling me this rock is a freakin' headstone? Good God, how big were these aliens?”

Lucus chuckled. “I suspect the boulder is more a monument than a headstone.”

“Then I don't need to worry about disturbing the grave of Khtar, the ginormous alien?”

Lucus shook his head and she exhaled in relief.

“This might actually be good news. With a little scouting, maybe we'll find something from the Starflight Folly's wreckage to jerry rig the Liberty's control panel long enough to transmit a distress beacon.”

For the first time in what seemed like forever, hope seeded in Rini's heart. “Good idea. I'll start checking the area past those cacti over there.”

A warm palm clamped around her elbow before she could dash. She glanced up into Lucus's narrowed eyes. “What? We're wasting precious daylight.”

“You're not gallivanting off by yourself, damn it. We have no idea who or what could be prowling around.”

“I wasn't planning to stomp into the desert with a big flashing
eat me
sign.”

“Babe, you aren't stomping anywhere without me right beside you.”

“Terrific.” She threw her hands out in disgust. “We're back to you dishing the sexist ultimatums again. Look, I know you've got bigger muscles than mine and that extra appendage between your legs, but I'm fully capable of fending for myself. I've been doing it my entire life.”

Irritation shimmered in his dark irises. “You mean like how you were perfectly capable of fending for yourself back in the cell?”

The taunting memory of her meltdown slapped her like an icy hand across the face. Having Lucus witness that mortifying scene was bad enough. Having him rub it in was just plain obnoxious. “Unless you want to end up winded, flat on your back like before, I advise never bringing that up again.”

“If you start doing as I say, you and I won't have any issues.”

Her fingernails biting into her palms, she stared at the arrogant set of his jaw. Oh man, it was tempting to say the hell with it and remind Lucus how capable she was of taking him down. But one quick scan of the area drove home the disheartening truth. To survive, they needed to stick together. “Fine.”

“See, that wasn't so hard, was it?” Giving her arm a patronizing pat, he sidled past her and headed into the surrounding desert. “You coming?”

A lizard scampered up the side of the rock and flicked out its long tongue. Great, even the local reptiles were mocking her.

 

They spent what felt like hours combing the nearby terrain for remains from the Starflight Folly. Other than a few stray pieces of twisted metal, nothing useful cropped up. Certainly nothing that would get them off the godforsaken planet.

Rini used the toe of her boot to clear sand away from a strip of metal protruding from the ground. Satisfied she'd uncovered most of it, she stooped and pried the object from the desert's tenacious grasp. She buffed the metal with the hem of Lucus's shirt to get a better look at the symbol etched on the corroded surface. “This looks like one of the symbols from the rock.”

Lucus stopped poking through a stack of charred cactus husks and strode to her. She handed him the metal piece for inspection. “Yep. This is probably from the Starflight's masthead. Used to be captains would fly their ships with their crew's names and rankings displayed. Not sure why the practice isn't kept up.”

She stared at the shadow of day-old beard gracing Lucus's jawbone and became seriously irked when her nipples tightened at the idea of being teased by the dark bristles. “How is it you're fluent in ancient Illonican?” she demanded in hopes of distracting her aggravating hormones.

He gave the metal strip a final look before tossing it on top the burnt cacti. “When I first started trading, I did business with this grizzled farmer on Orrik who used to be a professor of languages.” A grin overtook his rugged features. “Guess Cal needed a change of pace from harvesting melons all day because he'd toss lecture books at me every chance he got.”

“Hmm, wish I'd known Cal when I was busting my hump trying to keep my grade point average steady at the ranger academy.”

A teasing hint of challenge danced in Lucus's eyes. “The girl who graduated top honors had trouble keeping up her grades?”

“Just in languages and anthropology.” She batted away a persistent army of gnats trying to roost in her hair. The damn things were a nuisance, particularly when she already felt sticky and grimy.

Lucus's palm suddenly squashed against her forehead. She gave him a double blink and one corner of his mouth quirked. “One of the gnats snuck by you.”

“Um…thanks.”

“Anytime.”

The heat of his skin continued seeping into her and she began to wonder if he'd forgotten where he'd plastered his hand. But then an intense look crept into his expression and she had no doubt he knew exactly what he was doing. His face inching closer, he snuck his hand along her cheek. She licked her lips. “Before this goes any further, I think we should both remember we don't like each other.”

“I like you fine.”

His lips brushed just to the side of hers and she released a shaky breath. “You said the same thing about your brother.”

“Yeah, but I don't have this overwhelming urge to lick my brother's nipples.”

“I should hope not, because that would be majorly twist—” Lucus's mouth swallowed the remainder of her sentence. His tongue coaxed its way inside and she had trouble remembering why kissing him back was an incredibly lousy idea. Her hands crept under his shirt and roved over the damp skin above his rib cage. Talk about unfair. Here she felt like a gross, sweat-soaked dishrag, yet Lucus's body was a slick and delicious yummy treat.

His lips trailed to the underside of her jaw and she gasped, blinking against the overhead glare of the sun. “What are we doing?”

Lucus's chuckle vibrated against her neck. “If you have to ask, I'm severely out of practice.” His teeth scraped the sensitive hollow beneath her earlobe.

“This…” She swallowed and tried again. “This is a residual effect of our close call with death.”

“Mm, you think?” His tongue traced the shell of her ear, making her shiver.

“Yes. I mean between the near drowning in the cell and crashing, it's a miracle we haven't ripped each other's clothes off.”
Oh man, why the hell did I say that
?

“Excellent point. Maybe we should do something about it.” His fingers swept to the buttons on her shirt and flicked the first one from its hole.

She should stop him. She should really, really stop him.

Eventually.

He made quick work releasing three more buttons. Her shirt gaped open and his hand slid inside, molding perfectly over one breast. His thumb rasped the cotton and lace covering her nipple. Gasping, she arched into him. Warm, firm lips resettled over hers with a groan. The sound rumbled through her, striking a match to her already inflamed senses.

His tongue glided over hers. She tasted desire and hot, aroused male. Dizzy from the sensory overload, she curved a hand around the nape of Lucus's neck, the ends of his dark brown hair tickling her knuckles.

She pulled back slightly, the oxygen leaving her lungs in staccato bursts. “You and I. Bad idea.”

“The worst.” He pushed her tank top upward until it was anchored beneath her armpits. Dipping beneath her bra cup, he caressed one traitorously eager nipple.

“You need to stop doing that.” Even as she forced the wispy words from her mouth, she leaned into him, effectively offering more of her breast to fondle.

“Yeah, I should.” Lowering his head, he eased the lace away and circled her nipple with the tip of his tongue. The touch might have been feather-soft but it sparked a lightning-bolt reaction throughout every nerve receptor in her body. His teeth enclosed her nipple before he suctioned the bud inside the warm, wet cavern of his mouth.