Page 11 of Ghost Ship Numenon

The automatic fire suppression routines kicked in, popping the airlock doors open behind me. Just as I’d planned, the sudden rush of air into vacuum flung me into space like a doll shot from a cannon, and the fire snuffed out for lack of oxygen.You’d better be doing what I think you are, Kahdrex.

My emergency beacon activated, the first time it had ever seen use. Operating alone, there’d been no point to it, and for the first time, I was glad I’d never gotten around to disconnecting it.

TheNumenonfilled my vision, too big to comprehend. The twisted armor plates and the burned-out holes still made it look like a wreck, but the deadly lines of light stuttering out into the void showed it was a wreck with teeth.

My heads-up display started flashing, suit sensors detecting danger. Two spaceships approached at reckless speed, theAviraimed at the largest gap in theNumenon’sarmor and accelerating hard. I looked away just before the impact, and still the flash of light nearly blinded me. Blinking away tears, I noticed that theNumenon’sguns had stopped firing. Anima, if she still functioned, had more important problems to deal with now.

And then theMagpie,decelerating toward me, turning as it came, the cargo hold open like a monstrous mouth to swallow me whole. I smiled and let it take me.

“That was stupidly dangerous,”Kahdrex said, standing over me. His glare made me shiver, the ferocity of his words settingmy heart on fire. He couldn’t quite hide his smile. “You could have died.”

“Yeah,” I shot back. “Who’d take a chance like that?”

I lay, every inch of me aching and battered, on a heap of everything soft aboard theMagpie.Kahdrex had piled it all against the back wall of the cargo bay to give me a soft landing. Even with cushioning, the impact hurt, but nothing could get the grin off my face.

Kahdrex sank down into a crouch at my side, grin wide enough to match mine. Dark eyes sparkled as he looked at me with such intensity that it should have burned my suit off. I bit my lip, the thought making me tingle all over.

“Ihad a plan.” Confident and poised, he reached for the fastenings of my pressure suit. I swallowed as he slid the helmet from my head and slowly ran his fingers down my cheek, my neck, to the collar of my suit.

“Your plan would have killed us both if I hadn’t—mph!”He interrupted my argument by kissing me, and it was impossible to deny that it was a better use of our mouths. He brought his hand down my body, unclipping fastenings as he went. Peeling the pressure suit off me, inch by damnable inch, the anticipation driving me wild.

One clip after another sprang open until he reached my belt and removed it. The skintight pressure suit hung open from the throat right down to my waist.

Now he gasped, looking down along my body with awe-struck eyes. He broke our kiss to whisper in my ear. “Undress, beloved.”

I half-chuckled, half-groaned, and undid the top fastening onhissuit. His hands tensed on my body and a shudder ran through him. “Imeantundress yourself, be—mph!”

Giggling into the kiss, I peeled his suit off, too. Not the most efficient way to undress, but I couldn’t imagine a more enjoyableone. By the time we were both naked, we ached with mutual desire. Kahdrex shivered as I teased his cock, running my fingers up and down over the bumps and ridges.

His turn to get impatient.

My turn to drive him wild.

I kissed my way down his chest, the strange texture of his skin a delight to my lips and tongue. Down, across his stomach, further, to kiss and lick at his engorged cock.

That was more than he could bear. With a roar that echoed through the cargo hold, he grabbed me and threw me back onto the tangled nest of blankets and clothes, leaving me gasping and helpless as he pounced. He had my wrists in his grip, pinned to the bedding, before I realized what was happening. His teeth caught my neck, biting hard enough to make me cry out.

His cock pressed to my damp folds andthrummed. I bucked, squirming wildly, but apparently my turn was over. I was in his power, his captured prey. I’d never wanted anything more.

Lifting his mouth from my neck, he looked at me. We were both panting, both eager—no, desperate.

“You need this,” he growled, words hitting reverberating in my chest. “Say it.”

I licked my lips, nodding. “Weneed this.”

As I finished speaking, he thrust. Hard. Deep. His throbbing cock vibrated as he entered me with rough abandon, his eyes shining with passionate love as he fucked me.

The vibrations sent me over the edge again and again as he pounded me, and I wrapped myself around him, howling wordlessly. Each orgasm was more powerful than the last. Each time, I was sure I could take no more.

And each time, I was wrong. Kahdrex wrung more and more pleasure from me, the world melting around us as he filled me. My throat raw from shouting and screaming, I fell silent, burying my head in his shoulder and biting down hard.

He bit back, and the sensation sent me into the wildest orgasm yet, the world dissolving into white light. We were all that existed, all that mattered, like we’d slid out of time and space into a pocket realm of pleasure and love.

I looked him in the eyes, feeling his cock swelling inside me. Feelinghim,the tension and the power of him, the need that mirrored my own.

“I need you,” I whispered, and he exploded inside me. We convulsed together and tumbled over the edge into incredible ecstasy.

Kahdrex held me, carefully and gently, as I returned to myself. The tenderness in his touch and his gaze made me tear up. How long had our stupid pride held us apart?

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