With a speed he wasn’t expecting, she clasped his hand between both of hers. Truthfully, Garik could have avoided it if he wanted. He was an assassin after all and fast or not, she wasn’t faster than him.
The problem was that her touch wasn’t something he wanted to avoid. Damned if he knew why. It wasn’t the bond causing this anomaly. This reaction had started in his cell with the first brush of her fingers against his face. Maybe she’d possessed him and poisoned his mind against resisting her.
“I...I don’t know how. I’ve never ridden.”
Garik’s chest tightened at the shy look she cast his way with a lowering of her lashes. “It’s easy. Only rule since you’re on the back is to hold on and don’t let go.”
His voice was unintentionally gruff. She was bringing out a lot of old emotions in him. Emotions he hadn’t experienced since his parents’ death. Even before their loss, Garik had found it hard to connect with others, yet this wisp of a woman was tugging at his dark places and innermost demons. Emotions meant risk and risk meant danger.
“Ha! That sounds easy.” She smiled and moved to the back of the hover-cycle, placing one hand on his shoulder, then hesitated once more.
Damnation! Garik shoved his now free hand through his hair. They didn’t have time for this. Whatever was on her mind needed to be pushed far back for later. “Get on now, sesi.”
Pursing her lips, she hiked her skirts to her waist, flashing him a glimpse of startling white underwear and slim thighs as she slid behind him on the cycle. Her arms came around his waist as he’d instructed and she leaned forward, pressing the delicious mounds of her breasts against his back.
Garik didn’t waste time and cranked the starter button on the rod with a twist of his wrist. The beast responded with a low purr, bringing a grim smile to Garik’s mouth. He shoved cycle into gear and they took off like a shot.
Behind him, Saedra squealed and her hands pressed hard on the flat of his middle. Garik battled the urge to throw back his head and laugh as they took off down the road. He flicked the hover mode and they rose several inches from the paved street. Another burst of speed sent them zooming away.
Chapter 7
The hover-cycle had a preprogrammed location on the screen, mapping out a destination. Garik didn’t want to trust the directions but any energy boost he’d received from the adrenaline of their daring escape was fading fast. He refused to draw from his bond mate again. Saedra didn’t need to be any weaker after what he’d already taken.
Against his better judgment, Garik followed the map, making turns as the navigation tool announced them in a sterile voice. When he was less than a minute away from arrival at his destination, the directions told him to turn right. The right didn’t exist. Or at least the road for it didn’t. However, there was a dirt path grooved from traffic.
Garik slowed to a stop, engaged the wheels and lowered the cycle to the ground. He put one foot down for balance while keeping the other on the flat board pedal. Saedra propped her chin on his shoulder, lips almost caressing his ear. “What’s wrong? Why’d you stop?”
His cock throbbed and lengthened in arousal. Without answering, Garik set his foot back on the flat board and turned down the beaten path. They flowed over the ground at reduced speed while he kept his senses alert for an ambush.
The path ended at a small clearing and a shack that had seen better days. Insects chirped to one another from the disturbance. Garik powered the cycle down and eased his weight off. Saedra used his shoulder to brace and dismounted faster than she’d gotten on. When he noticed her balance tip, he reached out and caught her at the waist.
She stumbled into him with an oomph. Their groins smashed together and her startled gasp made it obvious she felt his adrenaline-induced arousal. Not that there was anything he could do about it in his current state. His body was still battered and there was no guarantee on his performance.
Ignoring the way her breasts slid against his chest as she stepped back, Garik belatedly answered her question. “I stopped because the programmed directions led to here.”
“Oh.” Her mouth formed a perfect circle, drawing attention to her bottom lip, narrow for the most part but puffy at the center dip from where she’d bitten it earlier. Her shoulders stiffened and her chin jutted up. Was that a scar on her face? The night prevented a clear glance. “We can stash the cycle inside with us.”
Garik glanced from the expensive hover-cycle to the shed-like structure. If they were discovered, there would be no place to hide in such a site. “What about the tracking mechanism on it?”
Her smile was bright, proud. The annoying shift in his chest area occurred again. “Disabled. I requested that at the time of purchase.”
Garik grunted and immediately went to his knees to access the panel on the underside of the ride to confirm her statement. Anyone would tell you what you wanted to hear and then do the complete opposite. He should know as he’d been a master at the game in trapping his targets.
Garik removed the protective covering over the small pad and viewed the script and code running across the screen. He tapped a familiar icon and received a red error message. He exhaled. The tracking was indeed disabled. He stood and gave a nod at her nervous questioning glance.
Once more, she offered a smile, appearing way too pleased for their circumstances. “Right. Well. Let’s get it inside so no one knows we’re here.”
Considering the path they’d taken to get here, casual traffic wouldn’t see the structure, but overhead search fliers would be able to detect it.
“Lead on.” Garik activated the starter and walked the hover-cycle with them to the front door.
This time, she didn’t use a key chip or any other unlocking mechanism that he could note. Just twisted the knob and gave it a slight shove. The door opened wide with no squeak or telltale sound. Garik tensed, senses alert as he scanned the dim interior. Saedra walked ahead and tapped a lantern mounted on the wall. It lit, giving a harsh halogen glare to the simple space.
Stale air greeted them, musky and damp. The shed was sturdier and neater on the inside than the outside. The chill in the air brought back memories of the nights he’d recently spent curled on a cell floor.
Garik shut down the hover-cycle and rolled it inside to lean on the wall beside the door to keep it from outside view. Although the tiny, single window would require someone being directly near it to see inside, Garik would hear an intruder approach far sooner.
He strode to the center of the room and looked around. There wasn’t much to it. A pile of blankets was folded next to a portable mattress. Across the room was a lone counter with a faucet and recycling drain tray beneath it. There were half a dozen prepackaged squares he recognized as nutrient meals. Disgusting to the taste but bearable.
In the far corner, it was hard to miss the retractable latrine station open and on display, the gleaming silver basin mounted next to the collapsible urinal for space saving purposes.
“It’s not much.” Saedra spun around. “I needed a place Maurin wouldn’t think to search, away from the main parts of the city.”
Garik didn’t spend a lot of time on Quantoon. The higher rating targets he was assigned would rarely thought this moon station a viable option for safety and discretion. It was hard to determine if this was a good option or not. “How certain are you that we won’t be discovered?”