Thief (25 page)

“You once said you wouldn’t make me do anything I didn’t want to.” As soon as she said the words, she wanted to take them back. She’d known why she’d come to his room at night, after everyone else was in bed, without her boots or her bra. “But there’s something I’ve been wanting to do ever since I saw your pretty face at the end of my blade.” She walked forward and mussed his hair. “I’ll bet you thought I was going to kiss you.”

“Wishful thinking on my part, apparently.” He straightened his hair absently.

“Do you want me to?” She knew what she was doing was downright crazy, but she couldn’t stop herself.

He kept his gaze on the floor for the longest time then met her eyes with a guarded expression. “I don’t want you to go.”

“I know. And there’s a part of me that longs to stay. But it’d never work. We’d be fighting all the time. Every time I got put in danger, you’d tussle with it. You’d have a hard time splitting your loyalty between me and the rest of the crew. I’d have a hard time not being in charge. It’s a road you know we can’t go down.”

He nodded with bleak resolution. “I thought you expected your life to be difficult?”

“I’ve got no problem making my life difficult, but I have a big problem making yours so.”

He touched her face. “You are so impossible.”

“Am I?”

“Impossibly strong. Impossibly beautiful. Put your lips on mine, Kraft.”

Never had a man so sweetly inclined her to kiss him. She tilted her head and brushed her lips to his. A chorus of warning bells went off like a klaxon in her brain and she tried to pull back.

Jace danced her into his embrace with firm insistence.

Keeping his lips pressed to hers, he lifted his hand and gently fingered her lips until she opened to his tongue.

Sweeping slow, tender and deliciously erotic, Jace nudged her lips until she gave herself up fully. She kissed him more intimately than any man she’d ever known. Losing herself, feeling the fall in slow motion, she shook herself awake then danced back with a gasp. One kiss. One sweetly seductive kiss and she’d do anything for that way too pretty man.

“Now that was worth waiting for.” She took a deep breath. “And all the more reason I have to go.” She turned to the closed door of his bunk.

“Stay here, tonight, with me.” His voice was soft and plaintive. Gently, he turned her around.

She hesitated even though this was what she’d been after all along. “It’ll only make it harder to walk away.”

“I know.” He reached for her belt of blades. “But didn’t you tell me you have a knack for running down the most onerous road headlong?” He lowered his lips to her ear and breathed, “Blindfolded to boot.”

Fascinated and frightened, she watched him cast her belt of blades aside. Normally, when she desired a man, she just strode right up and asked for what she wanted, but with Jace she felt unsure and awkward.

“I would like it very much, Kraft, if you ran down this road with me headstrong and eyes wide.”

Jace blushed so many times at her ribald comments that she found it entirely fitting it was she who blushed now. Not at what he said, but at the way he looked at her. He gazed at her with such intensity she felt utterly desirable yet vulnerable.

Behind her, less than a quick turn and one step away, was the door to safety. In front of her, looking at her so openly and intently, stood Jace. She knew her life would be much simpler if she ran out his door right now.

Jace hit the com panel to his bunk. The heavy door locked with a
thunk
.

“You locked the door.” She gulped.

Jace nodded. “If you honestly want me to, I’ll unlock it.”

If she asked him to unlock his bedroom door, this strangely compelling dance would end. If she didn’t, she was about to dance her way down a road that might be fatally disastrous. Or at least extremely painful. Ever practical, she said, “Bailey could tap the com.”

“Not to my room when it’s locked.” Jace shook his head and gave her a slight smile, as if he applauded her effort. “Bailey can talk to me, but he can’t hear me.” Jace leaned close, put his hand to the top button of her shirt. “If you’re in here with me, that means he can’t hear
you
either.”

“Oh.” For a moment, she didn’t understand why she was so flustered. It wasn’t like she’d never been with a man before, but this was the first time she’d been with a man she loved. Everything was different, more intense, because with Jace, sex actually meant something.

“So, tell me, Kraft, should I touch that button?” He nodded to the com. “Or this?” He nodded to her shirt where his hand hovered.

“Captain, this—”

“Was inevitable.” He unbuttoned her shirt with a slow, deliberate hand as his gaze held hers. A slight smile lifted the corner of his mouth when he discovered she wasn’t wearing a bra.

“I’m your cook.” She offered it up as a last ditch effort to stop what happened between them.

“I thought you were only a passenger now?” He hesitated at the top button of her dextex pants.

“It’ll look bad.”

“Yes, it will look like I’m diddling my cook.” With a twist of his fingers and thumb, he popped the button and grasped the zipper tab.

“Captain, your crew will think—”

“A bunch of things I can’t control.”

He lifted his hand to her chin and slid his fingertips down her neck and between her breasts. His slow, languorous stroke thrummed her body and tightened her nipples.

“You once said you wouldn’t mind a quick dance in my trousers. How would you feel about a long and slow waltz?” He held his hand to her zipper.

“You have no idea what kind of trouble this would cause.”

“I really don’t think we’re going to have a bit of trouble if we do what I have in mind.” He let go of her zipper and unbuttoned his own shirt with that slow, deliberate hand. He shrugged his shoulders and the faded blue homespun fell to the floor behind him.

Black hair that she’d only seen peeking out of his shirt collars now compelled her gaze down. He held his hand to the top of his button-fly trousers.

“Tell me, Kraft. Do we dance this dance or not?”

She stood still, her chest tight with a mixture of desire and confusion. A thousand dreams and fears rushed through her. Eight years of calling her life a dance when it was so frenetic it could be only be called running.

“I’ll follow your lead.” She had much to lose, but more to gain.

“No matter where I twirl you?” He offered a welcoming smile.

“No matter.” She grasped the edge of his fly and popped the top two buttons with one hard yank. Her boldness surprised him, and she offered an apologetic grin. “I’ll try real hard not to step on your toes too much.”

“You lead this dance any time you have the notion to.” Jace slid down the zipper of her pants. He slipped his hand lower, between her legs, pressing his palm against the moist fabric.

Overwhelmed by the rush of pleasure, she rolled into the arc of his arm and squirmed wantonly against his powerful hand. She wanted her pants gone and his strong, thick fingers thrusting deep inside her.

“This dance would be better without all these clothes.” He slipped her unbuttoned shirt off. He brushed his fingertips gently over the swell of her breasts then tugged a turgid peak with forefinger and thumb. As his mouth replaced his hand, he reached for the waistband of her pants.

She felt again at crossroads. If she kept her pants on, nothing more would happen than just a taste of pleasure. He sensed her hesitation and moved back slightly.

“Tell me to stop if that’s what you want.” His eyes were heavy-lidded with longing, but also filled with concern. Even if thwarted lust killed him, Jace would stop if she asked.

His compassion, his genuine desire to please her, stripped away the last of her reluctance. Whatever may come from one night with him, she would gladly pay the consequences.

Unable to find her voice, she pressed her face to his neck and bit him softly.

Groaning low and deep from his chest, he slipped off her pants and toyed with the top edge of her panties.

“Black lace against your exquisite mocha skin—and what’s this?” Before she could respond, he kissed his way down her belly and knelt on the floor. “A little red bow on a fancy wrapped gift.”

Her smile became an O of surprise when he pressed his mouth against her sex and exhaled a hot, moist breath. Ribbons of need encircled her nerves and she parted her legs to allow him greater access. Through the lace, he nibbled her clit to throbbing intensity. Her eyelids drifted closed and her head went back.

He continued his wicked ministrations until her groans turned to gasps. Lightheaded and close to climax, she trailed her fingers through his silky black hair and cupped the back of his head. With a final teasing bite, he slid his fingers under the elastic and pulled her panties down and off.

Breathless, she waited for what felt like a lifetime, but when he didn’t continue, she forced her eyes open and looked down. He met her gaze, parted her inner thighs, and slipped his tongue between her secret folds. Pleasure consumed her with such intensity her eyes snapped shut and she jerked back. He grasped her hips, steadied her, and twirled his tongue ever faster and bolder.

Burning for release, she tilted her hips and parted her knees. His long, thick fingers swirled against her core, but he made no effort to fill that ever tightening passage. A scream of frustration built in her chest, but before she could bellow out a command, he stood, pressed her against the wall, and thrust his fingers inside her.

Her held-back bellow became a gasp that he swallowed by capturing her mouth with his. He kissed her like the thirstiest man in the Void. Tasting her passion on his lips compelled her to rock against his thrusting hand. She clutched his shoulders, clinging to him, afraid that if she let go she would explode into a million shards.

“Come for me.”

The command in his husky voice pushed her over the edge. Her climax was a rainstorm that swept the desert of her body with a sudden and frightening intensity. Trembling legs couldn’t hold her against the onslaught, but when she faltered, Jace steadied her by holding her and pressing her to the wall.

His lips found hers again. He kissed and stroked her gently as the waves of pleasure subsided. For the first time in her life, she felt vulnerable without feeling afraid. She’d surrendered to him and discovered, much to her surprise, that capitulation empowered her.

“Captain, I—” She stopped speaking when he withdrew.

“Is that why you…” Confusion deepened the lines around his eyes as his gaze searched her face. Relief melted the lines away when he smiled. “Call me Jace.”

“Jace.” She called him by his first name for the first time. On the derelict Basic, she addressed him as Captain Lawless to show respect. Held captive on his ship, she called him Captain Lawless again, only calling him Captain when he gave her permission. She hadn’t even been aware she’d been waiting for his permission to call him by his first name. “Jace.”

Here and now, in this moment, he was only a man who wanted to be with her as a woman. He didn’t want her as his captive cook, as a proud warrior beaten, or the humbled female captain—Jace wanted her, the woman, the soul behind all the masks.

“Jace.” She cupped his face and kissed him.

A surge of need possessed him as her tongue danced wantonly with his. Jace wanted to possess her, to fill her. He didn’t need to be a reader to know Kraft felt exactly the same way, but he didn’t want to rush this wonderful fulfillment of all his longings.

Murmuring words of how beautiful and special she was, he drew her to his bunk. Kraft reclined and pulled him with her, but he shook his head. He lifted her hand and placed a gentle kiss in the center of her palm.

The liquid heat in her eyes deepened as he kissed his way to her wrist where her flesh pulsed with her heartbeat. Ever so slowly, he worked his way up her arm to the sensitive skin of her neck. She arched her head back, encouraging him with low rumbles of pleasure. Teasing her with teeth and tongue, he explored her upper body until she grew restless and tugged at the fly of his pants.

“Not yet.” He captured her hands. He feared one touch of her naked body against his would compel a climax he wouldn’t be able to stop. Slipping on top of her, he straddled her hips, pressed her hands above her head, and lowered his face to hers.

Jace explored her beautiful high cheekbones and the angles of her jaw. He pulled her full bottom lip between his and sucked lightly.

Sliding his hands down her arms, he kissed the tops of her breasts and the full inner curves. Her toffee dark nipples strained as he nipped close without touching. Kraft writhed below him, groaning out guttural commands and straining to angle her breasts toward his mouth. He waited until her frustration became fever-pitched then he took one toffee peak between his lips.

Breathing heavily, she cupped the back of his head, trailing her hand through his hair as he continued to torment her exquisitely sensitive breasts. His name escaped her lips in a begging chant.

When he angled up, he discovered her eyes were heavy-lidded and sweat beaded on her forehead. Her strong hands gripped his shoulders as if she would flip him over at any moment.

“You find it very difficult to be passive, don’t you?” He sat up astride her hips and unbuttoned his trousers.

“Almost impossible.” She flashed him that slow, lazy and unbearably sexy smile as she pushed his pants and boxers aside, exposing his now painfully hard penis.

Before he realized her intent, she lifted from the bed, grasped his hips, and took the tip of him into the warm hollow of her mouth. Shock and pleasure surged, tightening every muscle in his body. Slowly, she eased her lips over his shaft. She encouraged him to rock his hips by gripping his buttocks and easing him back and forth.

Close to climax, he retreated. The sensation of cold air on his wet erection cooled his ardor. He climbed off the bed and quickly shucked his clothing.

She watched him with hungry eyes.

For a moment, he simply stood by his bunk, amazed to find such a lovely woman waiting for him. Trepidation filled him as he sat down beside her.