Page 36 of Claiming Sarah

She appeared fascinated by the thought. “It sounds intimate.”

“It can be.”

She leaned closer, her eyes on my mouth as she softly asked, “Can you show me?”

“Nope. You’ll have to learn about kissing from someone else. Sorry.”

She sighed. “Very well, Contra. Whatever you want.”

I was even more uncomfortable with her hitting on me. “What I want right now is to speak to my companions. Excuse me.”

I jumped up and quickly scurried toward the cockpit, but they weren’t there.Deacon’s quarters?I raced past Omen in the halls and knocked on his door.

The door opened, and the pair were sitting on Deacon’s bed. He smiled at me, until he saw my face. “What is wrong, Consort?”

I let the door shut behind me before I spoke. I didn’t want Leda to hear me. “What the hell, guys? Why did you leave me alone with her?”

They smirked at each other, before Jac pointed at the large monitor on the wall. The view was the café, where Leda sat, staring out the window.

I glared at them. “You were watching her hit on me?”

Jac laughed. “You handled it deftly, I must say.”

I resisted the urge to smack him. “I thought you two didn’t trust her from the start, but you left me alone with her?”

“Eh, no, we did not,” Deacon said. “The view you are seeing is not our camera system.”

I jammed my hands on my hips. “What is it, then?”

“Lanai Dea is morphed into the paneling,” he said of his android. “She would have executed Leda on the spot had she tried anything violent. I would not leave you with a stranger without protection, Consort.”

My irritation deflated out of me. Somewhat. “You should have told me you were going to do that.”

He frowned, and I imagined his reaction was due to my tone as much as my words. He walked to me, arms open, in an attempt to soothe me.

But I was still annoyed that he’d played that trick and I hugged myself instead of him. “Don’t touch me. I’m mad at you.”

His muscular arms dropped back to his sides, and he stopped a few feet away. “We needed to discover her intent toward you without our presence being known. I apologize. I should have told you before we decided to do this. You are right.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” I lifted my chin. “You thought I was too stupid to keep my mouth shut?”

“Not at all,” Jac said as he stood and joined Deacon’s side. “We just didn’t have a good moment without her to tell you beforehand. We put this mission together pretty fast to get it over with, and we didn’t think it would be a big deal to you. We are very sorry and we will not let it happen again.”

I couldn’t stay mad at them. I wobbled over to Deacon and burrowed against him. “Okay. You can hug me now.”

He wrapped me in his strong arms and Jac came up behind me and did the same to us both, as he kissed the side of my neck, making all my indignation melt away.

Feeling their love surrounding me, it didn’t take long for me to get worked up. I gripped the back of Deacon’s neck to bring him down for a kiss while I reached between me and Jac for his—

“We are on the approach to Faithless,” Drift said on the comm system.

Dammit.

CHAPTER 11

Jacaranda

We parkedAllegiantoutside the gates of Faithless. We had no intention of antagonizing Rex Terian anymore than we needed to and entering his city by flying over the gates via ship would have constituted an insult. He had established a border, so we were going to respect it. For now.

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