Under the warm rays of the Great Star, I almost started to understand the faithful and their devotion. Maybe it was just the moment, the beauty, and looking out over a place that people flocked to because they believed so hard in something they couldn’t see or touch or prove existed. We’d abandoned our old God for this one. Somewhere down the line, we’d abandon the Sky Mother for the next whatever in a long line of them. Maybe they were all one and the same, so it didn’t matter what we called them. Or maybe there was no greater power, nothing except for what the collision of imperfectly balanced matter and antimatter had given us.
“I might start my own church,” I said, suddenly desperate to lighten the mood again. “The Church of the Big Bang has a nice ring to it.”
A chuckle ghosted past Shade’s lips. “Will you worship photons?”
“Well, and gravity. And subatomic particles. I might throw in some quarks as my Powers.”
“Should you have been a physicist instead of a thieving rebel?” He arched his brows, sounding impressed. Too bad I had to burst his bubble.
“No. I pretty much just exhausted my knowledge.”
He grinned and reached for me, pulling me against him and settling his hands on my waist. “You know what quarks do when they’re together?”
We stood toe-to-toe. I draped my arms around his neck. “I’m afraid I missed that lesson. Mareeka was always making me clean the air ducts on Starway 8 because I kept skipping out on math and sciences.”
“Quarks latch on to one another.” Shade tugged us even closer, demonstrating. I angled my hips forward, warmth spreading through me. He pressed back a little. “And the harder you try to separate them, the harder they hold on to each other.”
I looked at him through my lashes. “Are you asking me to be your quark, Shade Ganavan?”
“Baby, you’re my quark and then some.” He dipped his head and kissed me.
My eyes fluttered closed, and a lavalike heat rose in my blood faster than I’d have thought possible. Shade kissed my jaw, my neck. My breathing accelerated. My bones grew heavy. He dragged his lips down the column of my throat. I tilted my head for him. At the hollow of my neck, he opened his mouth against my skin and thrust his tongue against me.
I gasped, the muscles between my legs heating and clenching. Arousal blazed inside me, urging me to move against him. Shade’s heavy hands anchored me, keeping me still. Our lips fused again for a kiss that only made me more desperate for friction. Our mouths and tongues didn’t satisfy the need building and throbbing like a primitive drumbeat deep inside my body. Tearing off my clothes, clutching Shade’s shoulders, and climbing up him had just moved to the top of my priority list.
I broke away. “Jungle sex,” I panted.
“Let’s go swimming,” Shade said at the same time.
We stared at each other. He grinned like a loon. I blinked and then grinned also.
“I like the way you think, starshine.” Desire was a bright lick of flame in his eyes, and I knew I could convince him. I also knew he wanted to get in that beautiful clear pool for the first time in more than a decade.
“We’ll finish this later?” The pressure between my thighs protested the decision, but the rest of me thought swimming sounded fantastic.
The promise burning in Shade’s expression flipped my belly inside out. “I wouldn’t miss it,” he vowed.
I glanced at the pool. “I might have to punish you for teasing me like this.”
He hummed low under his breath. “I’ll look forward to that.”
“You won’t like it.” I’d grown up in an orphanage with thousands of kids. I was pretty inventive when it came to payback.
His eyes smoldered, somehow growing in intensity, and they’d already been melting me on the spot. “We’ll see about that.”
Curiosity leaped inside me. Leave it to Shade to make punishment sound like something I might want to open my horizons to—you know, time permitting.
“I don’t have a bathing suit,” I hedged, suddenly nervous about how deep the pool might be. Clear water could be deceiving.
“Jungle swimming is always naked.”
I’d have to take his word for it. Shade was the expert. “Are there things in that water?”
“There shouldn’t be. It’s pretty hard to get to.”
Hmm. Not a hard no, but I’d accept it. “Can I stand?”
“It’ll come up to your shoulders.”
“What if there’s quicksand?” I’d read about that. It sounded awful. A bit like death by floating, only slower. And dirtier. Really, the only thing they might have in common was me ending up without air, which I wanted to avoid wherever.
“There’s not. Don’t worry about that. I know this place, and I won’t let you drown. I promise.”
“We don’t have towels.” I didn’t even want to avoid swimming. Excuses kept popping out anyway.
Shade set down the pack he’d brought. I’d only seen him put in water, but he pulled out two towels and a picnic lunch and turned back to me with a smile. “A good Space Rogue Phenom never goes anywhere without provisions and equipment.”
I grinned. He’d thought of everything.
Shade undressed in record time and jumped into the pool feet first at the deeper end. He reemerged and shook water from his head. Droplets sprayed around me. His wet shoulders glistened in the heavy tropical sunlight, a ripple of tanned skin, broad bones, and hard muscle. The water reached his pectorals, lapping at his chest in a way I wanted to follow with my lips and fingers.
Shade held out his hand to me. “Let’s teach you to swim while we can. We’ve only got a few hours until we have to deal with Bridgebane and all hell might break loose again.”
I tossed aside my clothing and reached for him. Shade eased me into the pool, our bodies touching and tangling under the pleasantly warm water. My heart soared in spite of the uncertain remainder of the day ahead of us. Right now, I was Tess-the-Fucking-Jungle-Queen, and I was ready for anything.
Chapter 6
SHADE
Tess was a natural at pretty much everything—except for swimming. By the end of our lesson, she could float—mostly—and blow bubbles underwater. That was already something, but throw in waves, cold temperatures, or anything stressful, and I had a feeling she’d sink like a meteor.
None of that mattered, though, because she had fun. Seeing her smile was all I wanted. I doubted it would last long. Nathaniel Bridgebane could be on Reaginine right now, waiting for his clock to hit day ten after we’d struck this messed-up bargain with him. Technically, we had the entire day to make contact, but I knew he’d be there at hour one.