Page 60 of Sublime Target

He couldn’t imagine how good she would taste.

At last, the elevator stopped. Jerik’s weapon hand was steady, the point of his plasma gun leveled at the head mercenary—the blue-eyed woman who had quickly recognized the real danger in the room—him.

Pragmatic, this one. She served her masters, but only up until a point.

She must’ve had some off-planet experience. It hadn’t taken long for her to understand the situation perfectly well.

And he could smell her fear.

But the only one who mattered to him was Clarissa, and she wasn’t afraid of him, only mildly irritated.

That made him happy.

“Come,” he rumbled, turning to look at her, ignoring the other humans entirely. “Let’s go and meet this boss of yours.”

Her eyebrows rose. A hint of a smile tugged at one corner of her mouth. There was a glint in her eyes he hadn’t seen before—a look of defiance.

But it wasn’t directed at him.

“Let’s do that.” She kept her tone low enough that only he could hear.

The mercs watched their interaction with thinly veiled curiosity, but they couldn’t understand—or do—a single thing.

“Give me space.” She moved across the floor. Jerik waved his gun, herding the mercs into a corner. They were sufficiently wary of him. Clearly, they understood the destructive capabilities of plasma.

A disembodied voice spoke through a hidden speaker. “Clarissa Lee. Identification confirmed. Numerous unidentified persons present. Access denied. Return to ground floor.”

She placed her finger on a glowing panel-screen beside the doors. “I suppose you know how to get around this,” she said dryly, glancing at Jerik.

“A simple fix.” He glared at the two mercs. “If you value your heads, don’t move.” They were already spooked, but it was good to give them a reminder now and then. The last thing he wanted was for them to think they had an opportunity or an opening and do something unpredictable.

In these kinds of situations, jittery mercenaries needed to know that he was watching them all the fucking time.

The woman offered him a grudging nod.

“Clarissa, come here. Please.” He added the last word so as not to make it seem he was ordering her around. Because he wasn’t, for safety reasons, he just wanted her by his side when he…

She wasn’t a fool. She came to him without a word, without any hesitation or protest.

She allowed him to slide his arm around her waist.

She leaned into him as he moved across to the doors and pressed the tip of his gun against the metal.

“Brace yourself,” he whispered in her ear, quietly enough so nobody else could hear. He enjoyed their closeness: the fact that she smelled so good, that she let him get this close without shying away.

It was becoming more and more natural.

He pulled the trigger.

Boom!

Suddenly, there was a hole in the middle of the doors. A gaping, smoking, head-sized hole.

“Holy shit,” the other merc, a big, bearded male, whispered.

“Door breach. Severe damage detected. Security systems compromised.”

“Did you just destroy my elevator?” Clarissa glared at him.

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