Tilly yawns and stretches her hands outward. Her eyelids open and she freezes. Her sharp, green gaze roves the steel-blue wall to her left, arcs to the ceiling, then lands on me.
“Where the hell am I?”
I scratch my jaw. “Now, before you go ballistic, let me explain. I—”
“You havegotto be kidding me.” She throws off the thin sheet covering her body and slams her bare feet to the floor. After she stands, she shoves at my chest. “I better not be in what I think I’m in, going to a place I shouldn’t.”
“Well, actually, I don’t remember you saying you didn’t want to go to Mars, you said you weren’t putting another foot on a Baltin ship.” I gesture toward the cockpit. “So, I found us a skirmisher.” I give her my sexiest grin.
Her pupils don’t dilate as usual. Instead, they constrict. A muscle in her jaw twitches.
I widen my smile and wiggle my eyebrows.Nope, not working.
“You egotistical”—her finger jabs my chest—“arrogant, overbearing, conniving, manipulating—”
“Conniving and manipulating are synonyms, so you’re really just repeating yourself.” Grabbing her finger, I yank the tip to my mouth and move my kiss to her knuckles, brushing my lips over the soft skin.
“I-I...” She clenches her hand into a fist and tries to pull away, but I don’t let go. “I am going to murder your maniacal, shady ass in your sleep, Jareth.”
“Oh, Red. You know I don’t need much rest. I can actually stay awake for weeks. One or two hours here and there are all I need.”
Her nostrils flare. “I cannot believe you would stoop so low. Why can’t you think about my feelings, my needs?” She shakes her head and slumps her shoulders. A tear rolls down her cheek.
“Iamthinking about your needs.” All humor fades from my heart, and I wrap my arms around her tiny body and draw her to me. “You need to be safe, physically and medically. I’m not enough to keep you that way.”
She tilts her head to gaze at my face, her eyes searching mine. “Jareth, youareenough for me, but this is some shady shit.”
“It’s the right thing to do and you know it.” I kiss the tip of her nose.
“If you really believe that, then why’d you have to abduct me?”
I frown and step back, letting the ship’s electronic chatter in the background of my mind soothe my nerves. “You make it sound nefarious.”
“Itisnefarious.”
KJ whines, then lifts on his hind legs and places his puppy paws on her calf. She picks him up and holds him to her neck, burying her nose in his fur.
“Well, you wouldn’t listen to reason. I had no other choice.” I turn and stalk to the pilot chair and sit.
“God, how can you make me want to throttle you and kiss you at the same time?” She moves to the copilot seat and throws herself down, tucking KJ into her lap.
“Well, technically, that’s something we’ve never tried before, but I’m up for anything.” I swipe a screen and give her a wink. “I’ve read asphyxiation right at the moment of orgasm is supposed to heighten—”
“J-Jesus.” Her cheeks flare scarlet. “You know what I mean.”
“Yes, I certainly do, and now I can’t get it out of my head. After the baby’s born, we should definitely try it.”
“I know what you’re doing and it’s not going to work.” She leans forward and inspects a screen as if making a show of ignoring me.
“What do you mean?” I twist my chair in her direction and cross my feet at the ankles.
“You’re trying to distract me from the real issue here.” She inputs coordinates to change the ship’s end destination from Mars to Earth. An angry beep rewards her efforts.
I chuckle.
With a quick twist in my direction, she skewers me with a glare. “Turn us around right now, Jareth. I’m not going to have our baby on Mars, surrounded by a bunch of Baltins who’d like nothing better than to see me dead.”
“No one’s going to know we’re there. It’ll be perfectly safe.”And she’ll have the best medical care available.“So...not an option.” I arch a brow and cross my arms over my chest.
