Page 157 of Tempted by Celestial Bodies

Finally, Thrash navigated the vehicle to a stop behind a rocky outcropping. “This appears to be a sizable group of raiders. Large enough they had the balls to power down the colony support while they worked, knowing it would draw attention.”

Climate control was part of the colony support. The mammoth piece of machinery ran ultra hot. To stay cool, it siphoned icy runoff water from an underground iceberg deep below the cave. Hours were required to fully cool the equipment and drain the water.

I frowned. “Which means they probably have vibration detectors to know when we’re coming.”

“Precisely.” He turned off the crawler and looked at me. “We need to go on foot. I will handle the crew outside.”

I opened my mouth to argue, but he held up his hand.

“I will handle the crew outside because I am equipped to take on groups. Of the two of us, you know the machinery better and should get inside and get it back online as soon as possible.”

Mollified, I closed my mouth and nodded. “Agreed.”

It hadn’t escaped my attention he’d pivoted his opinion, allowing me to put myself in harm’s way. Confronting whatever was inside that cave was arguably more dangerous than what he would face outside. Warmth bloomed inside my chest.

Red alert! Red alert!Warning bells pealed in my head. I needed distance between me and this man before he ruined all my plans. As soon as we handled this situation and the machines were back online, I planned to lock myself in my quarters and avoid Thrash like the Sipphian Plague.

The crawler’s doors retracted. I slipped on my helmet and climbed out. The helmet was no longer necessary for atmospheric reasons, but it provided an extra layer of combat protection. I hadn’t expected to need it but was grateful for the last-minute equipment grab.

Thrash rounded the vehicle and stood next to me, far too close for comfort, a look of concern on his face. “Let me go first and draw their attention. I am not minimizing your abilities,” he said before I could object. “We don’t know how long climate control has been down. That endangers habitat stability and everything we have done here. You need space to handle the machinery. A distraction can give you that.”

My hands clenched into fists at my sides. Damn him, he was right. If we had a full team here, we would be splitting up. I needed to get over this thing I had for Thrash that insisted on blocking out all logic. “Agreed. What’s the signal for me to move in?”

He brushed a loose strand of hair peeking out from beneath my helmet behind my shoulder. I didn’t shy away from the contact.

“You will know it when you see it.” He dipped his head and gave me an intense look. “Stay alive, my mate.”

Thrash sprinted into the predawn haze at an almost incomprehensible pace. The shadows quickly claimed his form.

Only after I’d lost sight of him, did it occur to me I hadn’t objected to what he’d called me.Mate.

chapterfour

sweet and spicy

Hidden behind the rocky outcropping,toward the mouth of the cave, I stared hard into the dusky, predawn darkness. Shadows from the mountain ridge lay in heavy layers across the path.

No raiders had emerged from or re-entered the cave. No movement came from the shadows. My gaze swiveled back toward the dark, silent space Thrash had disappeared.

I flexed my hands against my thighs, itching to unsheathe my daggers and run after him.

It wasn’t that I didn’t believe he could handle himself. Despite my earlier doubts, I knew he could. No matter what landed him on my team, he had arrived with official paperwork. Someone, or a group of someones, high up in UFIS had sent him our way, which meant he was more than capable of taking on raiders. I would trust any members of my team.

But I’m afraid for Thrash.

That could prove to be a deadly mistake. Space was a wide-open, wild frontier and UFIS had countless highly dangerous departments. The ETP, specifically, the terraforming division, was in the top five. As a terraformer, the quickest way to get dead was to grow soft emotions.

I cared for my team members, but it wouldn’t hurt me if they fell. A stiff drink and good night’s sleep and I could move on. Cold? Maybe. Necessary? Absolutely.

Staring into the silent distance, I knew it would break me if Thrash fell. Stars take me, but I’d known it within five minutes of meeting the guy. I could almost feel my dreams withering on the vine like the Elfusian sugar grapes he so loved.

A fierce burn ignited in my thighs from crouching so long. The discomfort pulled me from my melodramatic thoughts. Where was the signal? I shifted, settling into a comfortable position.

As I sank to one knee, a brilliant light erupted from the darkness, bathing the surrounding area in shades of red, orange, and yellow. The ground trembled from a concussive blast. Small stones hopped along the path from the force. Somewhere, men and women screamed.

A trio of raiders burst from the cave and sprinted toward the chaos.

Thrash’s dark, impressive form stood out in stark relief at the center of an explosive light show. Even from this distance, the rings of bioluminescence flaring on his horns and between his scales were visible. Waves of light rolled away from him in a clearly directed path. More screams sliced through the murky dark.

---