Page 37 of Taming Chaos

“I wouldn’t mind that at all.”

“You think you could handle all of this?” Seph responded to his flirting by wriggling her ass a little. Maybe she was insane, but she couldn’t help it. When he teased her like that, the logical part of her brain shut down.

Torin’s hands dropped to her hips, and he gave her a gentle squeeze. “With pleasure.” His voice was a low, tantalizing rumble.

Seph mentally pinched herself. They were in a dark, narrow stairwell on a grimy Bartharran pirate ship, surrounded by enemies, and she was flirting with an alien.

An alien who had just killed a group of vicious Bartharran males without breaking a sweat; who seemed to like what he saw, even though Seph had taken great care to keep herself covered with her travel cloak.

Julia’s gift was definitely a security blanket of sorts.

From experience, Seph had learned that her body could be quite… distracting to the opposite sex. At six feet tall and 200 pounds, she was voluptuous no matter how she dressed. Back on Earth, she’d spent countless lectures trying to get the students to pay attention to what she was saying, instead of ogling her damn chest. It wasn’t as if she dressed in a particularly provocative way. Her ‘work uniform’ consisted of dowdy cardigans, long-sleeved work shirts with high collars, and dark tailored slacks.

Still, she couldn’t hide her curves. Why was it that even in this modern age, people still made an inverse correlation with the size of her breasts and her IQ?

She’d even attracted looks on Zarhab Groht. As soon as she entered the crowd, she’d immediately noticed the way several aliens had followed her with their intense, hungry eyes. Some weird danger instinct had kicked in, telling her to cover the hell up, and she’d silently thanked Julia, ultra-competitive bitch extraordinaire and sometimes-thoughtful sister, for her unique gift.

But now she would have to take her precious cloak off, because climbing a ladder with fabric billowing around one’s feet and ankles was never a good idea.

“I’m going to have to get rid of this.” She touched the auto-clasp at her neck. The cloak loosened, threatening to slip from her shoulders. Seph pulled it off and rolled it up into a small ball, tucking it into her utility belt. Now she wore only her standard-issue Federation travel suit, which was designed to be figure-hugging at best.

Behind her, Torin inhaled sharply. He slid his hands up to the curve of her waist. “I can see everything, you know.” A certain rasp entered his voice, making her feel vulnerable, aroused, and sexy, all at the same time.

“Please don’t tell me you have x-ray vision too,” she joked.

Torin didn’t answer, and for a moment, Seph thought he might actually be able to see through her utility suit.

Don’t be stupid. That doesn’t even make sense… does it?

“Let’s go.” There was a hint of mischief in Torin’s voice as he applied gentle pressure to her waist, hoisting her up onto the ladder. “I’m right with you.”

She started to climb, feeling her way through the shadows. Torin kept pace, his long limbs brushing against hers as he maintained his position behind her, his movements in perfect sync.

At first, Seph was clumsy, fumbling in the dark. Torin patiently guided her hands when she found nothing to grasp and steadied her when her foot missed the lower rung. The more she climbed, the easier it became. Seph’s movements grew more and more fluid as she figured out the distance between the rungs.

Now and then, Torin would press a gentle, reassuring hand against the small of her back, encouraging her.

What he didn’t know was that his touch was doing all kinds of weird and wonderful things to her.

This had to be the most unexpectedly sexy climbing activity she’d ever experienced in her life. With her morbid fear of heights, she was supposed to be tense and afraid, but how could she worry when Torin’s sculpted body was continually pressing against hers? Delicious warmth radiated from him, mingling with his intoxicating male scent. In the narrow, cramped shaft, Seph was getting all hot and bothered.

What the hell is happening here?

Oh, deep down, she already knew what was happening, but the full realization still hit her like a ton of bricks.

Damn it, girl, just admit it, you’re attracted to the man.

Well, this was unexpected. Seph thought she would have learned her lesson by now. Her penchant for dangerous men had caused her a lot of heartbreak in her younger years. Oh, they could be thrilling and charming and all kinds of sexy, but in the end, there was always some kind of trade-off, usually in the departments of reliability, honesty, and most importantly, loyalty.

Seph had been burned in the past by men who were equal parts charming, dark, handsome, and dangerous. Torin had all those traits in spades. He had more of those things than all of her exes combined, and yet there was something different about him.

He wasn’t as… full of himself. She didn’t sense any ego at all, only a quiet, dangerous confidence.

He was the real deal, and he knew it.

As Seph climbed, carefully taking one rung after another, she realized she could see the outline of the ladder. Glancing up, she saw light at the end of the tunnel.

“The exit,” Torin whispered. Abruptly, he stiffened. “Hold on, Seph. Wait here. I need to sort something out.”

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