Bianca D'Arc (6 page)

“We’re almost there.”

“I’m glad you know where we are,” she
muttered, sticking close to his side.

He chuckled to himself. She was holding up
well, all things considered. Most civ women would probably be
asking a million questions in much too loud a voice. Either that,
or quaking in fear, unable to move. All in all, Lila was performing
at a very high level he hadn’t quite expected.

“When we get home, we’re going to have a long
talk,” he promised. He’d decided along the way that the time had
come to take her further into his confidence. Her file—or rather,
the gaps in it—coupled with the way she’d handled this situation so
far, led him to believe there was a lot more to Lila than met the
eye.

“About what?” She kept her voice pitched low
enough not to be overheard.

“About what you did between your first job as
a magistrate and your marriage. There’s this huge gap in your file,
Lila, and I begin to suspect they left the most interesting parts
of your past out.”

“You’ve read my file?” she asked quickly,
following up just as quickly with a hand on his arm, squeezing
gently as he helped her around a bulkhead. “What am I saying? Of
course you’ve read my file. You would have been stupid not to. But
you realize by telling me this, you’ve basically confirmed my
suspicions about your presence here, right?”

He sent her a pleased smile. Yeah, she was on
the ball, his Lila. Sharp as a tack and sensible in a way that was
very appealing to him.

“Showing you this backdoor was already an
admission of sorts.” He shrugged as if it didn’t matter that he’d
extended his trust, but they both knew it was a very big deal. In
this game, trusting the wrong person could easily mean not only
betrayal, but death. “I figured it was time we started working
together fully instead of just dancing around the edges. We both
know something’s going down on this station in the near future.
Tonight, you were targeted by one of the suspect group. The shit’s
about to hit the fan and I think we’re the only ones aware of the
problem, in a position to do something about it.”

He stopped, turning to face her as they
arrived at the final hidden hatch. Her gaze was serious, her head
tilted in consideration.

“Winters is… a friend of the family would be
the best way to describe him, I guess. I worked for him in those
intervening years before I got married. You work for him now, don’t
you?” Admission and challenge. Parry and attack. Chip liked her
style.

“Let’s get inside before we go any further.”
He knew they were safe enough in this well protected tunnel, but he
wanted the security of the bar for what came next.

He closed the hatch behind them and Lila was
surprised at where the back tunnels had led them. She recognized
the server bot storage area right away. The bay was mostly empty
now as the bots were all out in the bar, doing their various
cleaning cycles. She’d thought the entrance used by the bots would
be too small for a person, but looking around she realized he
hadn’t used the bot entrance at all. No, they’d come through a wall
panel that looked just the same as any other, except this one
opened on silent, invisible hinges.

“Obviously, this entrance is best used when
the bots are busy outside,” Chip explained as he led the way out of
the storage area.

Lila didn’t comment as she followed Chip
through the back area of the bar, straight into the rooms she’d
only entered once before. This was Alex’s private apartment. While
Alex was away, Chip had moved in and set up shop here and she could
see only subtle differences from the way it had been the last time
she’d seen the main living area. For one thing, all the reading
material had been moved off the central table and put away
neatly.

Some loose wiring had been left out, along
with a small toolkit. Perhaps Chip was making modifications of his
own to the security system, she reasoned.

He directed her to the long, well padded
couch. It had been a harrowing few minutes and it was good to sit
someplace safe and quiet and just… be.

Chip puttered for a moment in the galley
while she collected her thoughts. When he returned, he was holding
two cups of coffee. He handed one to her and she took it
gratefully.

When he sat beside her on the couch, suddenly
the large piece of furniture seemed too small, but his big,
protective presence was welcome. Especially as she recalled the
strong thoughts Beezus had been broadcasting about his plans after
he ambushed her. What the fallout would be from her narrow escape,
she had no idea.

“Do you think all the conspirators are after
me or just Beezus?” she asked in a small voice before Chip could
say anything.

He looked at her over the rim of his coffee
cup. “What did you sense?”

“Beezus was broadcasting some very, uh,
lascivious thoughts about what he was going to do with me once he
had me. Other than that, I didn’t pick up much.”

“Try to put the disturbing thoughts aside and
sort out the rest.”

“That’s hard to do.” She bit her lip and
cringed when she opened herself up to the memory of that short
burst of filth-ridden thought directed at her.

Chip put his cup down on the table in front
of the couch, then reached for hers and placed it there as well. He
took her into his arms again and she went willingly. In the short
space of an hour, his arms had become a sanctuary for her.

“It’s okay, sweetheart.” He stroked her hair
with such gentle hands. He made her feel safe in a way no man ever
had. “Beezus won’t get you. Not ever. I’ll kill him before he ever
lays a finger on you. That’s a promise.”

She believed him. Even if his promise wasn’t
practical, it was touching. He couldn’t protect her from
everything, but she knew in her heart, he’d give it his best try.
And Charlemagne’s best was really something. With his strength and
his words giving her courage, she was able to calm herself enough
to separate out the different thoughts and feelings that had been
in Beezus’s blast of hatred and lust.

“He was glad Bjornson had finally given him
the go ahead to trap me. I think…” She hesitated, trying to tease
out the nuances of thought. “I think maybe one of their group saw
me watching the exchange outside the bar and they decided to take
no chances. Beezus doesn’t think I’m a threat, but he jumped at any
excuse to get his grimy paws on me.”

“Never gonna happen. Not as long as I’m
around,” Chip promised in a low, intimate voice.

She looked into his eyes and time stopped.
For a moment, she forgot to breathe. She saw… the future, the past,
the moment… all wrapped up in his gaze. His head moved closer and
then his lips were on hers and time began again in a whirlwind of
sound, color and feeling.

The feel of his lips on hers, his tongue
seeking entrance to her mouth, which she granted after only a
moment’s hesitation. Her head was spinning, her senses engulfed by
him. He surrounded her with his power, his aura of calm and the
intent she read now in his every move. To have her. To claim her.
To make her his own.

Lila took only a split second to negotiate
her inner surrender. Reason wondered what would come tomorrow, but
her heart said
who cares?
Her heart and her soul needed this
moment. Needed this man. Needed his body inside hers, his soul
engulfing hers, protecting her, making them both stronger in the
end. She would lean on his strength, take it into herself, girding
her for the troubles ahead that they would face together.

It was her gift to know that Chip was serious
when he said he’d kill for her. He’d also die for her, but he was
very hard to kill. If the split second of vision she’d been granted
held true, danger might be closer than either one of them was ready
to contemplate.

But the future would come. That was a fact
she’d had to learn to accept. Sometimes there was little she could
do to change it—even with all her knowledge and foresight.
Sometimes she just had to let the currents of time sweep her along,
batting her from side to side in its endless march onward.

This was one of those times, but these next
few hours also promised to be one of the most pleasurable
interludes of her life. She didn’t have to be clairvoyant to know
that. Chip’s kiss and the way her senses came alive under his touch
told her all she needed to know about his skills as a lover and her
response to him. This was going to be fun.

Harnessing the inner fire that had been
denied for a very long time, Lila threw caution to the wind and
climbed over Chip’s lap until she was straddling him, on her knees
on the couch. The new position put her above him, keeping their
lips fused as she took control of the kiss and the situation. Her
hands tugged at his clothing, pushing fabric down, off his muscular
shoulders until she could feel his hot skin beneath her fingers.
She heard the tear of fabric, but she didn’t care. She wanted to
touch him. To feel his masculine hardness against her body.

She wanted to know his possession and possess
him in return. She’d never been so hot for a man. Not even her
husband. They’d been young and she’d been inexperienced when he’d
seduced her in a gentle, respectful loving. That tone had
characterized their entire time together and she’d loved him for
the way he’d treated her, as if she was made of spun glass. She’d
enjoyed the way he’d cherished her and their children and she’d
mourned deeply when he’d gone on without her into the next
realm.

It had taken her years to get over his loss
but she was ready now. Ready to take the lover fate had told her
was coming. The lover who would show her things she never imagined
and would dare her to be something more than she had always been.
With this man, she would realize her full potential and together
they could do great things. If they lived long enough, that is.

Fate was a fickle mistress and not even Lila
knew for certain what the outcome of the upcoming trial would be.
She was resigned to enjoy the time they had together until their
fate was decided by their actions. They would either survive to
fight another day, or not. Worrying about it now, while she had the
most masculine specimen of manhood she’d ever beheld under her, was
a shameful waste and she’d vowed not to allow herself to think too
hard about what was yet to be.

Now was the important moment. The here. The
now. The man under her thighs whose rough hands were undressing
her, caressing her. Oh, yeah. This was the important thing. The
important man. And the feelings he inspired in her reawakening
body.

Lila squirmed against him, angling her hips
so that she could feel the hard length of his cock rubbing against
her crotch. Too many layers of fabric lay between them, but she was
definitely impressed by the length and girth of him. She wanted
that monster inside her and then, after the initial frenzy had worn
off, she wanted to learn him with her tongue and discover how to
drive him wild.

First things first, though. She was burning
up from the inside out and needed relief. She tore her lips from
his and sat back on her haunches, wanting her remaining clothing
gone. She held his gaze as her fingers went to the fastening of her
bra. Chip had already unbuttoned her blouse and it hung loosely
from her shoulders. She shrugged out of it and threw it behind her,
not caring where it landed. The bra came next and she felt a moment
of shyness as the straps slid down her arms.

Chip must have realized her slight discomfort
because he leaned forward and kissed her gently as his fingers took
control of the fabric and slid it completely away while his mouth
distracted her. The next thing she knew was the warmth of his big
hands cupping her, his fingers stroking her nipples and playing her
body like a master. He knew just how to touch her to make
everything all right. More than all right, actually. Flaming hot
and ready was how she felt as he stroked her breasts and made love
to her mouth with his tongue.

He drew back, breaking the kiss and held her
gaze for a moment before deliberately dropping his attention to the
heavy mounds he held in his hands. He squeezed her and plucked at
her nipples, leaning forward and angling his head downward, licking
outward with his talented tongue to play with her hard peaks. When
he sucked one tight bud into his mouth and applied his tongue, she
surprised herself with an involuntary moan.

He smiled against her skin. She could feel
it. Then he redoubled his efforts, wringing another moan of
heightened pleasure out of her unresisting body. He was learning
what she liked and teaching her things about her body even she
hadn’t known.

When his hands dropped to her waist, she was
more than eager to be rid of her pants. She wanted his fingers on
her, in her. She wanted to know how he would touch her and bring
her pleasure. But she also wanted to do the same for him.

Lila cupped his cheeks, drawing backward,
separating them so she could stand. Boldly, she removed her pants
and underwear, going slow so they could both enjoy the moment of
revelation. She liked the way his gaze followed her movements, as
if mesmerized by the sway of her hips. When she was naked, she
dropped slowly—seductively, she hoped—to her knees in front of him,
her hands reaching for his waistband. She wanted him naked.

He didn’t resist. In fact, he scooted his
hips forward and spread his knees to facilitate her actions. She
was in a hurry, but she also didn’t want to waste this opportunity
to learn more about his hard body. She traced her palms up his
fabric covered legs, moving along his inner thighs and enjoying the
way his muscles tensed as she moved upward from knee to groin.

She was unsurprised to find him hard and
straining against the closure of his pants. His balls were
substantial from what she could tell and his cock was just as thick
and long as she’d suspected from rubbing against him moments
before. She licked her lips as she released the closure, looking up
at him only once or twice to gauge his reaction.