Slip Point (10 page)

“Getting on won’t be that hard,” he said. “We’ll tell them the truth.”

“Secrecy, remember?”

“Not about what we’re doing. But who we are. There are legit reasons for a Corpsman to visit a barricade ship.”

“And for me?” She realized as soon as she asked and shot him a dirty look. “No. I am not going to be your tame little captive.”

“The last thing they’d expect you to be,” he said with a wry smile, “is tame.”

“No one’s ever come close to catching me,” she said.

“You’re worried about your reputation? With these stakes?”

How could she make him understand? “You get to pretend,” she said. “I don’t. If I do this, I’ll really be a prisoner. I’ve never been caught, Jayce. It’s not pride. It’s survival.”

He laid her palm over his chest and covered it with both his hands. “I’m asking you to trust me.”

She closed her eyes, felt the steadiness of his heartbeat and the warmth of his grip. Of course she trusted him. He’d never betrayed her. She was the one who’d left him.

“All right,” she said with a sigh, and he held her hand a moment longer before letting go.

“I’ll bring you in and say I was on special assignment to track you down. Naturally I can’t take you in to Albarz, but I’m tired of toting you around, so they’re my next pick. Of course, I’ll want to oversee how they handle you.”

She smiled suddenly.

“What?” he asked in suspicion.

“Guess how we’re going to get back off that military ship.”

His eyes grew vague in thought, then widened. “No. You are
not
going to overpower me and force me off as a hostage.”

“Don’t worry about your reputation,” she said sweetly.

“It’s about making it believable.” He raised his hands to defend against her glare. “You’re a damn good pirate—I can’t believe I’m saying this!—but you’re not an escape artist, and you’re not stronger than I am. Especially if you’re in restraints, and there’s no way a prisoner would be otherwise.”

She sighed. “It was a lovely thought. Do you have a better idea?”

They both considered their options. Then a grin spread across Jayce’s face.

“Why don’t you steal the ship?”

Shayalin would have once said she’d never abandon her ship, and her instincts still skittered against the notion. She had to keep herself from clutching convulsively at the controls, letting her hands drift over them one last time in farewell. There were more important things now. The precious compass would be stowed aboard the Swallow, which Jayce would fly over to the barricade ship. The
Adannaya
would be left to drift crewless.

Jayce stood behind her in respectful silence.

She turned to him. “Before we do this…”

He looked at her questioningly.

Shayalin didn’t know how to go about this. She leaned in and kissed him, but he was too surprised to respond properly. She couldn’t let things end there, not when there was a chance she might never emerge from the barricade ship’s brig. Taking hold of his wrist, she gently pulled him down the hall to her cabin.

“Shayalin,” he said, his voice rough. Suddenly terrified he would tell her no, she turned and placed her fingertips on his lips, quieting him. He didn’t say anything more, but he watched her intently.

Shayalin undressed, not looking at him but hearing the change in his breathing. It encouraged her. Her hands moved languorously along her own body as she pulled off her clothing.

After she dropped the last article on the floor she stretched out on the bed. She was cold, naked. Goosebumps spread across her skin and her nipples hardened from the chill. He still stood by the doorway, and she propped herself up on one elbow to look at him. “Jayce?”

He crossed the room like a sleepwalker, slow but unerring. “I’ve dreamed this before,” he murmured.

“And did you let my dream-self freeze to death?”

His hand drifted down to alight just beneath one of her breasts. He traced its curve with a gossamer touch that nonetheless left her skin tingling. Then his fingers made their way to her erect nipple, dancing about it in circles that in her sensitive state made her gasp.

“You’re so much more beautiful than I remembered,” he said thickly.

And he had a memory of her as a teenager. She was glad the comparison was favorable, but she didn’t want this hazy Jayce who seemed trapped in the dream he described, his movements slow and his eyes lost. She wanted him here and now.

“Hey,” Shayalin said, “I’m here. I’m
here
,” and she curled upward and caught his face in her hands, drew it down toward her and kissed him hard, raking her teeth over his lower lip.

He made a guttural noise and suddenly she was flat on her back again, his mouth devouring hers and his hands hot against both her breasts. The heat and weight of him loosed a torrent of need inside her and she tore at his clothes, trying to touch as much of his skin as she could. She was greedy for him after ten years’ drought, demanding all of him when he might have drawn back to a more moderate pace.

When he pushed into her, it was with a single slick glide that brought them to a complete joining.

He buried his face in her hair. “God, I’ve missed you, Shay.”

She had missed him too—not just inside her, but just there with her, a solid presence she had always counted on. Could have always counted on, if not for a terrible mistake. How had she survived without him for ten years? “Don’t stop moving,” she pleaded, her hips rising and falling to keep to that instinctual rhythm. He felt right for her in ways she hadn’t been able to describe to her past lovers. This was the boy who had known exactly what to say to dare her into childhood pranks; this was the youth who had first woken her body into heated awareness; and this was the man who still knew her better than anyone, who remembered the old paths along her skin that aroused her and who could read her so well that he knew which new techniques would please her now. It was familiar and exciting all at once. It was Jayce.

The thought spurred her to roll them over and she rose above him, increasing the tempo of her movements. He curled his fingers over her hips and slammed her down over him. Her thoughts scattered and there was only Jayce under her, inside her, again and again…

She surrendered to the growing heat, letting it overwhelm her over that sharp, exquisite edge. Time shuddered to a halt. Then sensation flooded her in waves.

“Ah, Shay—” He reached up to caress her face. She opened her eyes to meet his gaze, and he groaned and arched upward for a long moment. She watched him unwind, his muscles loose and his smile easy.

She moved off of him and set one foot on the floor, ready to rise from the bed.

“Hey.” He caught her wrist. “You don’t have to bolt right afterward.”

If she didn’t, she almost said, she would want to stay there forever, and this was supposed to be just a quick, one-time release. She lay down beside him without saying it, stiffly, but he tucked her against him and she found herself relaxing into their old pose, her head on his shoulder, one leg thrown over one of his. She didn’t have to look at his face this way.

“Shay, talk to me.”

She searched for words that were safe but those were precisely what he didn’t want to hear. She took a deep breath, still gazing at the far wall. The wall. She could handle talking to the wall. “Finding out that my father was a pirate was a shock.”

That hadn’t been what she had planned to say, but Jayce didn’t seem discomfited by her choice of subject. “You adjusted pretty well,” he observed. “After all, you became one.”

“Where else could I go? Not back to Centuris.”

He shook his head in reluctant agreement, no doubt envisioning the scene with her mother. “No, of course not.”

“And I couldn’t tell you, not after I’d said all that about my father when we were kids.”

Jayce sighed. “So you left me without a word of explanation.”

“You had your dream,” she said, but the words rang hollow even to her ears.

“And you couldn’t bear it, could you? That I’d gotten it and you hadn’t.” He wasn’t gloating or angry. He sounded anguished.

She looked at him for the first time and saw that same pain in his expression. She couldn’t help herself from reaching out and touching his face, trying to ease away the hurt.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I was happy for you. But you’re right, I was jealous too. When we raced as kids, you’d usually win, but we’d just end up hanging out together afterward. That wasn’t going to happen this time. I thought I was trying not to ruin your moment, but I was really running off to nurse my pride.”

“With pirates?”

His voice was so comically dismayed that she laughed. “I wanted to fly, and the Corps wasn’t an option,” she said. “I didn’t even think about commercial pilots and the like. And I wanted to meet my father.”

“What’s he like?”

“Nothing like the sort of person you’d think my mother would be with,” she said, and it was his turn to laugh. She could feel it as much as hear it, pressed near his chest as she was. It was soothing to be curled around his warmth.

She was usually indifferent about whether her lovers stayed the night, but she didn’t want Jayce to go. “Tell me about the Corps.”

He tucked one hand behind his head, the other stroking her hair. “In a lot of ways it was like Centuris.” He glanced over, saw her disbelieving expression, and chuckled. “Really. All that discipline. Chores to do, speaking respectfully, that sort of thing. But there was so much they didn’t teach us that I had to catch up on—I didn’t even know the names of all of the Hub worlds. And, of course, there were the other recruits. They were merciless at first.”

“The Rim accent?”

He grinned. “You got bashed for that too?” He tapped her nose. “I slip back when I’m talking to you. It’s nice.”

Her accent did return in full force around him, too, she realized with dismay. She’d worked so hard at ridding herself of it. But it was true that the familiar cadences from her home planet somehow put her more at ease. “Yeah, everyone assumed I was a backcountry idiot whenever I opened my mouth.”

“Same here. Until I proved I wasn’t stupid. Then the women decided the accent was sexy.”

She sat up, indignant. “Why didn’t the men think that about me?”

He pulled her back down and pressed a kiss to her temple. “I think it’s incredibly sexy.”

“Hunh.”

“Even your grunts have an accent.” He nuzzled her ear. “That’s hot.”

Amused despite herself, she slathered on her thickest Centuris drawl. “Hotter than repairing a barn roof in midsummer?”

“I must have you now!” he declared, rolling over onto her. But he wasn’t just acting, she noticed. His erection nudged her.

“I don’t think we have time,” she said reluctantly.

“Tease.”

She grinned up at him. “Arrogant bastard.”

His mouth covered hers in a brief but fierce possession, and then he moved off of her. “Witch,” he said softly, and she couldn’t imagine any endearment more tenderly spoken.

She’d slept with him so she’d have no regrets. Perhaps her plan had backfired.

***

Shayalin had never quite shaken her admiration for the clean lines of military ships, loaded with weaponry and outfitted with the latest technological upgrades. But she rarely had the luxury of getting a close look at them—usually she was running away, making frantic slipspace calculations.

Here, now, they slowed their approach. There was a downside to Swallows, Shayalin discovered. It was impossible to pace in their tight confines.

The comm chirruped. Shayalin toggled it.

“Carrier
Paradigm
’s Commander Chodere Amas. Identify yourself.”

“Pilot Jayce Dietrich of the Atian Corps, flying
Shdai
on detached duty.”

His voice seemed a stranger’s, crisp and respectful. Shayalin looked at him askance, but he was focused on the exchange.

“What brings you to the
Paradigm
, Pilot? Your spoke’s under quarantine.”

“I’m aware of that. I have a criminal in custody, and as I’m unable to turn her over to the Atian justice system, it seems best to leave her with you,” he said. He made her sound distinctly unglamorous.

“You’ve captured the dread pirate Lin Bailey, scourge of the shipping lanes,” she said,
sotto voce.
“At least act like it was easier than trapping a rat.”

He set his hand firmly over her mouth. “I’d like to turn her over for proper processing and get some repairs done to my ship before I return to my command unit.”

“Who is this criminal?” The commander’s voice held a trace of curiosity.

“She’s known as Lin Bailey.”

Someone else’s voice exclaimed in the background, “Lin—?” and was cut off by an abrupt muting. Shayalin grinned as she imagined the sudden uproar.

The commander returned. “You may dock. We’ll send you coordinates.”

“Thank you, Commander.”

“See, they’re excited about getting their hands on me,” she said, but as soon she said it her stomach dropped. She was letting herself be captured.

Jayce pulled her in close. “Trust me, I get plenty excited about getting my hands on you,” he said. He tipped her head back and kissed her, his mouth warm on hers, a little teasing but not urgent. She felt herself relaxing into it.

“I’m ready,” she said.

He took up her hands and snapped restraints around her wrists.

They weren’t physically uncomfortable but they still chafed at her. Even so, she raised her gaze to Jayce’s and said again, “I’m ready.” Only then did he guide the Swallow into the
Paradigm
’s dock.

They had an escort, of course, a pair of soldiers who checked Shayalin’s restraints and drew up sharply at attention in front of Jayce.

He gave them a sly grin after introducing himself and said, “Sorry for the ever-so-exciting duty,” and they immediately relaxed.

“Better than recalibrating all the company’s rifles,” one of them said easily.

“So what’s the story?” the other soldier asked.

“I was detached for a special mission,” Jayce said. “Nabbed a pirate.”

“You were sent off solo to chase after a pirate?” one of the soldiers asked in disbelief.

Jayce leaned toward them, as though in confidence. “She’s Lin Bailey.”

She gritted her teeth as their heads swung toward her and they stared. Then one of them let loose with a hoot. “You got Lin Bailey! They’ll have you up for promotion for this.”

“They’d better,” Jayce said. “I hear I missed out on a lot while she was leading me her merry way across the Wheel.”

“How’d you do it?”

“A chance encounter at a bar and a couple of Blue Pythons,” he said with a straight face.

They laughed.

Shayalin glared at him, not acting at all. What was he trying to do to her reputation, rip it into shreds?

“No, really,” one of them said, and she couldn’t help feeling better that he doubted her easy capture.

“I’ll tell you about it over a drink after I get her safely in your brig,” Jayce promised.

She decided this was her cue and slammed the back of her head into Jayce’s face. Although he was expecting the attack, he grunted in surprise. Still, he managed to haul her down on the floor before either soldier could react, which she was grateful for. Jayce didn’t really want to hurt her. She couldn’t be sure with the other two.

He rose and toed her in the stomach. “Don’t try that again.” He hauled her to her feet and she cried out, letting her ankle roll in. From the way Jayce’s hand tightened convulsively around her arm, she’d fooled even him for a moment there. “Can you stand?”

“Get your paws off me,” she snapped, loosing her Centuris accent in full force, even as she lurched away on the ankle she’d decided to sprain. Anything to make them underestimate her.

Jayce’s face was a mess, streaked with crimson and already bruising. She’d given him a beautiful nosebleed. He wiped away blood with his sleeve and turned to the soldiers. “Which way’s the infirmary?”

“It’s a different direction than the brig. We could take her into custody while you get patched up,” one of the soldiers suggested.

Jayce just looked at him steadily.

“…or not,” he muttered.

“Not for me,” Jayce said. “For her. Look, I appreciate you guys rendering assistance and all that, but it’s hard for me that the pinnacle of my career is taking place on another spoke’s ship without a proper debriefing and recognition. The last thing I want to do is turn over a prisoner who could claim she was brutalized on my watch.”