Page 2 of Synnr's Ride

She could handle one guard. But two? Hanna wasn’t a soldier, she was a spy. Well, more of a contractor with spy adjacent abilities. If she was doing her job right, she never had to fight anyone.

Three minutes. She was running out of time and still in the corridor.

Taking the guard’s clothes was her best option. She could blend in with the other Synnr soldiers, slip out, and be on her way.

And where would she go?

Hanna stopped her internal clock and slumped back against her bed. The springs creaked, and the whole thing felt like it might collapse if she sat down too quickly or turned over in her sleep with too much force.

She couldn’t escape.

Or, rather, shecouldescape, but that would screw her over even more.

That final question haunted her. Where would she go? Wherecouldshe go? She’d burned every bridge with one flash of her spark on her last mission. She couldn’t bring herself to regret it. If she hadn’t…

War brought out the worst in people, but she hadn’t thought the Apsyn high command would sink so low.

What did that make her? She’d betrayed her Apsyn supervisors, ensured they wouldn’t receive a piece of tech that could have led to a turning point in this useless war, and handed herself over to Synnr mercy. Was she still Apsyn? Was she a Synnr now? Was there some category in between for Zulir who weren’t sure what side of the divide they fell on?

It wasn’t just that Hanna had no place to go. She was a resourceful person and in the biggest city on this moon. If she needed, she could forge a new path for herself. She could leave her old name, her old identity behind and become a whole new woman.

But the escape would have to be flawless. If she got caught breaking out, that would evaporate whatever goodwill she’d earned from the Synnrs and she’d likely be thrown in a true prison.

And she’d prove Jori right.

Hanna curled up even tighter on the bed and ignored the creak of the springs. She shouldn’t be giving Jorissan Harek a single thought. He was just another spy-breaker, a Synnr who looked at her so intensely his spark lit up his eyes.

And hers reacted.

No one else had that effect on her. No one else would sit across from her in the interrogation room and stare at her silently for an hour before walking away without saying a word. If she really had information on Apsyn secrets, he would have gotten them from her.

She didn’t know how to convince him that he already had everything she knew.

Really, focusing on him was foolish. He was a Synnr, just like all the others. It didn’t matter that looking at him, taking in all that intensity sent a thrill down her spine and awakened an awareness in other parts of her body that really shouldn’t have been paying attention.

She really was a terrible spy. If she’d been any good at it, Hanna would have taken these feelings and used them against him. In that other life, she could have turned on the charm and seduced him.

That startled a laugh out of her.

She’d never seen the man smile. He was all seriousness and intensity when he sat down in that chair. And he was determined to pry her apart, one piece at a time. He wasn’t thinking about seduction. And neither should she.

Hanna wasn’t hiding anything from these Synnrs, but it didn’t mean she could let her guard down. And she couldn’t let Jorissan Harek get under her skin.

She wouldn’t let him be her weakness.

* * *

Lips trailed down Jori’s chest, slim fingers sliding along his side until he shivered. He arched into the touch, savoring the contact and letting it light him up. Flecks of his partner’s spark danced over his skin, threatening to consume him.

It was dangerous play. Misjudge the power and he could end up fried.

But he liked to live dangerously.

He groaned as fingers wrapped around his cock, stroking firmly just the way he liked. And when her lips joined her fingers, he was lost. Jori surrendered himself to sensation, weaving his fingers through her soft hair and taking all that she would give him.

He wanted it all.

And if he wasn’t completely overcome with the pleasure of it, he would have pulled her up, captured her lips with his own, and driven himself deep inside of her until they were so totally bound there was no disentangling them.

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