Page 61 of Star Prince

He was still standing, at least. So was the tree. Then he realized that Tee’s arms were wrapped around his waist, her warm head tucked under his chin. He hugged her close, circling his palm soothingly over her back. He still throbbed, pulses of pleasure arcing up through his stomach. But the surge of tenderness he felt for the woman in his arms was far more powerful.

“Sweetheart,”he murmured.

She tipped her head up. “An Earth endearment?”she asked, giving him a smile that made his chest tighten.

“Yeah. An Earth endearment.” He tucked his thumb under her chin and kissed her gently, lovingly, and tasted himself on her lips. The intimacy of it threw him. Why had she come into his life at all if he couldn’t be with her? This had to be some kind of cruel test. “What am I going to do about you?” he whispered.

She covered a fleeting pensive expression with a mischievous smile. “Perhaps the better question is, what are you going to doto me?”

He chuckled, zipping up his jeans. Abruptly he spun her around and backed her into the tree. “Good question.” With his forearm propped on the bark over her head, he leaned his weight against the trunk. His voice was low and thick. “I think you’ll like the answer.” Her stomach muscles contracted and her breaths quickened as he curved his hand between her thighs.

A distant rumbling interrupted the forest’s serenity. Tee went rigid. “Someone’s coming.”

He tucked in his shirt. Tee snatched their binoculars from the Harley, and they bolted through the trees and shrubs toward the road. “Talk about lousy timing,” he said with an apologetic smile.

“It’s not as bad as it could have been.” The knowingtwinkle in her eyes brought him damned close to blushing.

They hunkered down behind some shrubbery that hid them from the road. The noise grew louder. A flash of sunlight glinted off metal, and Randall’s jeep raced past with a whoosh of gasoline-scented wind. It was headed toward the fortress.

The vehicle carried four passengers—the senator, his two companions Ian had met in the bar, and another man. Ian lifted his binoculars to his eyes.

The wind played with the stranger’s hood, lifting it just far enough to reveal his face…and the trademark coppery hair of a highbornVash Nadah.

“This traffic is craggin’ridiculous,” Lara said over her shoulder to Gann. “I’ll take a shortcut.” Grabbing hold of the control yoke she banked theQuillieto the left and careened across Grüma’s heavily traveled space lanes.

Gann uncrossed his legs and dropped his feet to the floor. The navigation viewscreen grew cluttered with symbols denoting other vessels. Then the ship’s proximity siren sounded, alerting them to oncoming traffic.

Gann clenched his thigh muscles, bracing himself. “Watch it!” he shouted.

Lara jerked the ship to the right, but not quickly enough. A glowing fuselage whooshed past the front viewscreen close enough for Gann to count every porthole, whether he had wanted to or not.

“Didn’tyou see that ship?” he demanded. Outside theQuillie’sviewscreen the stars glowed sweetly, as if they hadn’t just witnessed his near-death.

“Aye. Of course,” Lara shot back. “They saw us too.”

“At that distance, we’d have been hard to miss. You cut that awfully close, Miss Sunshine.”

Lara appeared startled by his use of the nickname he had, until now, only used inside his head.

“I may have cut it close,” she said in a somewhat more conciliatory tone. “But I don’t cut corners. I knew what I was doing.”

“Which was?”

“Getting us to Grüma—quickly. We’ve yourVashdamsel-in-distress waiting there, no doubt wishing we’d arrived yesterday.”

He sauntered over to her chair, leaned against her worktable, crossing his arms over his chest. “It’s a rush for you, isn’t it? The risk-taking.”

She swallowed, re-establishing them in the space lanes. For a moment, she appeared as if she would challenge him, but she relented. “It once was,” she admitted. “Danger reminded me that I wasn’t dead. Now”—she searched his face, a smile playing gently around her lips— “it seems your badgering does a far more effective job.”

At first silence hovered between them, then Gann reached out and smoothed his hand over her tawny hair and then her cheek. She shuddered and shut her eyes. “I want to do more than badger you, Lara,”he whispered. And he did. Never had he so wanted to make love to a woman.

Her eyelids twitched but remained closed. He brought his other hand to her face, framing her jaw, tipping up her chin as he bent toward her. Their breath mingled. Then she stretched upward and touched her lips to his.

He tasted her, moving his mouth over hers lightly, savoring the feel. It was the gentlest of kisses, an invitation. A promise, he hoped, of more. Of better. “Sweet sunshine,” he murmured.

He thought he heard her sigh as he pulled away, but he wasn’t sure. Nonetheless, he gave her his most irresistible smile. “So, my badgering is effective, eh? You may regret revealing that little discovery.”

She gave a small smile, then said, “In this case, I’d say the gamble is worth the risk.” Then she turned her back to him and went to work getting them where they needed to go, one hand resting on the kettacat’s bony back.

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