Page 84 of Her Lawless Prince

“It’s a blur of moments, but I think I have the gist of what transpired.” His grip around her tightened. “I’m not sure how we got on this ship, but it looks like Rick’s. Unless you’re telling me we never made it back to Qurilixen, and I just had one hell of a dream.”

“It’s no dream.” Payton told him of the Federation agreement and their attempt to execute Nyle, trying to fill in any blanks in his memory. “They found the article with your picture. Griggs tried to dismiss the part about those patients they left behind going to find the virus in the laboratory. She said they’d already searched, but then Rick intercepted her sending orders to have someone go to Cysgod and check again.”

“I have to get there first.” Nyle tried to sit up.

Payton held him down. “We’re flying there now. There is literally nothing to be done at the moment. We can’t make the ship go faster.”

“We need protective gear, medical equipment.” He again tried to pull away.

Payton didn’t let go. “We have gear.”

“But…”

“There is nothing you can do right now,” she insisted.

He settled next to her. “How did Rick intercept a Federation command?”

“Yevgen added a few software upgrades when he was connected to the ship. Doing it probably made him feel part pirate. He would have liked that. I know you think he was just a machine, but he was my friend.” Payton felt the sadness bubble up inside her, causing her words to catch in her throat.

“Hey, come here.” He held her tighter and stroked her back. “What do I know about anything? You lost someone close to you. Someone who sacrificed himself to save me, a person he seemed not to like all that much. Protecting me wasn’t in his coding. Maybe I was wrong. Maybe he did evolve. You once told me that Yevgen wanted nothing more than to understand love, that yearning for it was enough to prove his humanity. That idea stuck with me. I have thought about it often.”

Payton concentrated on the pressure of his body against hers. The world had always seemed so big to her, but now it felt small and fragile. She’d always pictured herself as a strong woman, but now she felt vulnerable and scared.

“I can’t lose you, Nyle,” Payton whispered. “My heart can’t take it. I’ll leave everything behind to be with you, but you have to promise me you’ll fight for us. No more talk of surrendering to the Federation.”

Nyle’s hand found her thigh and swept up under the shirt along her hip. “I promise I will always fight for you.”

“For us,” she insisted.

“Yes, for us.”

Nyle’s lips met hers. She poured everything she had into that kiss as she clung to him. She felt the gentle hum of the ship. It didn’t matter how much she hated space travel or the idea of the deep black surrounding them. As long as she was with him, she could live with those things.

His fingers moved around her back. Payton adjusted her position on the bed and pulled off the shirt. Nyle pushed his pants off his hips. Before he could work them completely off his legs, she had him fully on his back, straddling him beneath her.

Payton wanted him where she could see him, feel him. She leaned over to kiss him, the emotion exploding out of her as she devoured his lips with hers. His hands roamed her body, urging her closer as if he mirrored her desperation to join together.

She drew herself up and fitted his arousal along her sex, not stopping as need drove her onward. They made love in an aching frenzy of movements. Hands grasped. Lips pressed. Bodies strained. Even when the climax hit her like a rocket, it wasn’t enough. She wanted more. She wanted them to last forever.

He pulled her down to his chest, holding her on top of him.

“I love you, Payton,” Nyle whispered. “More than anything I have ever known and beyond all I could imagine. I don’t know how I came to get you, and I know I will never deserve you, but I love you. I promise never to forget that or take it for granted. I promise to fight for us.”

“I’m holding you to that,” she answered just as softly. “Because you’re it for me, Nyle. My mate. My husband. My life.”

He gave a soft moan of pleasure. “If you’re asking, I’m accepting.”

“It’s already done. It’s been done. I just didn’t realize it before.” Even with the slickness covering their bodies and the heat of the exertion, she didn’t move off him. “I’m never letting you go.”

29

Time hadlittle meaning in space. They took their meals with Dev, Jackson, and Rick. All of their conversations willfully avoided what they flew to do. Every moment he could, Nyle gravitated toward Payton. And, if he couldn’t reach her, he wanted to look at her. He hated the moments they were apart.

Nyle saw the guilt in her eyes. He recognized the emotion easily because he also carried it. He couldn’t help but think that the more she loved him the guiltier she felt about Yevgen.

Dev and Jackson formed a quiet contrast against Rick’s boisterous stories. Jackson cracked smiles and nodded, but Dev merely watched. Having a large Bevlon demonic creature staring at him was a little unnerving, and Nyle did his best not to make eye contact.

Days were marked by the artificial lifting and dimming of lights. There were minutes when he first opened his eyes that Nyle could convince himself they were in some kind of vortex with no beginning or end, a time where he could pretend that these moments with Payton were forever.

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