Page 63 of Shellshock

“Do it, Lucca. Say, ‘I’m not a human, Caligher.’” He made it soundsinful—his musical dark voice turning it into some erotic, forbidden secret.

“Please, no,” she whispered.

But he continued to hold her, staring expectantly. Finally, letting her eyes slip shut in shame, she furnished the acid words. “I’m not a human, Caligher.”

Silence.

Her pulse hammered sharply beneath his fingers.

When she braved a peek, his eyes were on her throat. Their gazes locked and she wished she could undo everything.

“I’m sorry,” she said, but her words felt so inadequate.

Expressionless, he released her wrist. He let her go about her business through the darkened ship.

CHAPTER12

CALIGHER

Lucca’s maintenance loop brought her near the back of the ship right on schedule. The state of her lights and fried computer did nothing to deter her from the routine, and Caligher had to admit to being somewhat impressed. What even was there for her to work on? He imagined she would find it with all that obsessive searching.

He released a bright flare through the hallway, announcing his presence before she stumbled upon him. Her wary gaze flitted over his body and to the open wall panel his arm was currently buried within. Then her eyes went absolutely round.

“What the shit are you doing with the airlock!” she blurted. She brandished a multimeter probe at him. “Get—get your arm out of that!”

He withdrew his arm, pushing things roughly back in place before turning to her. Starlight and city light cast a low glow over her features, highlighting her curves in the deeper relief of shadows.

Her presence made awareness spread through him from carapace to inner skeleton, to all the little nerves between. He was nearly driven mad by the urge to touch her. Her dark eyes roamed over him in speculation as she chewed her lip, betraying the attraction she’d been trying to bury. Both of them were affected.

“We need to set some ground rules since you clearly can’t keep your hands out of my ship,” she said, hardening her expression. “Starting with the airlock.”

She splayed her open hand over her chest in a manner of introduction.

“I’m a human.”

He offered a saccharine smile. “You say it so easily now.”

Her eyes boiled as blood rushed to her cheeks, turning them darker. Rolling over his remark, she continued in earnest. “Space is more dangerous to me than it is to you. Fire, electrocution, system failures… those things are deadly to me. But fiddling with the fucking airlock? If you’retryingto get me killed, at least have the decency to say it to my face.”

He opened his mouth to remind her that hurting her wasn’t in the realm of options, but she kept talking.

“Please don’t fuck with the airlock, and for the love of all that’s holy, talk it over with me before you start making changes. I know it sounds pathetic to you, but my entire life revolves around keeping this ship from killing me. And seeing you mess with it like it’s a joke is…reallystressing me out.”

Her voice cracked. Searching his eyes, her words pulled on something deeper. “Maybe you don’t care. But this is freaking me out.”

She didn’t trust those vital doors to remain shut. She didn’t trust anything on this ship unless she had control over it, and Caligher had usurped control of everything.

By extension, she didn’t trust him.

“I wasn’t messing with the airlock,” he said.

“Your arm wasinsidethe wires,” she stressed. “You could short something out and open my ship. And thenboom. Just like that, you’ll kill me.”

He wasn’t sure why it bothered him that she couldn’t trust him.

Hedidn’t even trusther.

Changing the subject, he said, “I was assessing this spot as a jump-off point. Which reminds me. You don’t know how to jump.”

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