Page 40 of Sublime Target

“I’m free to leave the premises as needed. I do so all the time. I was talking about being absent from work.” Her heartbeat was a rapid staccato. She felt light and heady, detached from reality. “Where would you even take me? And how?”

“My cruiser is waiting above. I’ll take you to a place of my choosing, but we won’t leave Earth’s orbit. And if it gets you in trouble, you can tell your boss that I made this demand as part of the negotiations.”

“You’re being rather insistent, aren’t you?”

“Why shouldn’t I be?” Roguish and self-assured, he was still smiling. He had the air of a man who could do anything he wanted.

“Why should you be?” she countered, half-scared to know the truth.

Why me?

“Because you accepted my offer. As a Kordolian, I take such declarations extremely seriously.”

“Persistent, aren’t you?”

“It appears you know me well enough already.”

“Fine,” she sighed, feigning reluctance even as a flicker of excitement coursed through her. Whoever would have thought a Kordolian—rare and inaccessible as they were—would be inviting her out for lunch?

In what appeared to be a declaration of his interest… in her.

It was beyond madness.

She should walk away right now before he entangled her in something that was way beyond her understanding.

It’s just lunch… right?

Right?

He held out his hand—big, powerful, encased in inky-black armor.

“All right. As long as we stay on Earth. I need to be able to receive calls and return within a few minutes’ notice if necessary.”

“Understood.”

She stared down at his outstretched hand, a quiet entreaty.

Fine.

“There’s nothing sinister behind it,” he said gruffly as if reading her mind—Kordolians couldn’t read minds, could they? “I just want to take you out of here.”

When he looked at her like that... and when he looked like that, he was a glimpse of something alien and otherworldly in her otherwise mundane existence.

Something impossible.

What was the point of it all if she didn’t take a risk now and then?

She slipped her fingers into his. They were warm, soft, and hard, all at the same time. It was a hand that could probably crush hers in an instant, and yet he was so impossibly gentle with her.

“Let’s get out of here, then,” Clarissa said, her voice coming out breathier than expected. She stole a glance at him yet again—she could hardly believe someone like him existed. “Before the office gossips learn that I’ve traipsed off to lunch with some mysterious Kordolian.”

“Mysterious?” His pale eyebrow rose in a quizzical manner. “There’s nothing mysterious about me, Clarissa. What you see is what you get.”

SIXTEEN

They rode the elevator up to the rooftop again. It was only a few seconds, but being in such close proximity to Jerik made it feel like an eternity.

The silence between them was filled with her second thoughts and the palpable awareness of his presence.

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