Hewasflirting with her. He’d been doing it ever since he’d briefly taken her hostage on Fortuna Tau.
And Arin was doing her best to studiously ignore him.
Even though he apparently liked her.
Even though she found herself foolishly unafraid of him. His manner was dangerously disarming, especially when he flashed that brilliant, sharp-toothed smile at her.
Arin took a deep breath to steady her beating heart as the elevator groaned. It was taking an unusually long time to reach the communications room, which was located on the uppermost deck. These old cargo freighters were rigged with some decidedly dodgy engineering, but surely the freight elevators were faster thanthis.
The shaking became more intense, and a loud screech tore through the elevator shaft. Arin swore in English, tapping her comm to activate it. “Navigation, can you tell me what the situation is with service elevator four? We seem to be grinding to a halt.”
No response.
A panel on the wall flashed red and amber, but it was all in diagrammatic engineering gibberish, and Arin couldn’t understand any of it.
The elevator shook as if they were caught in a massive earthquake, and then it stopped moving altogether.
“Great,” Arin groaned. She was now officially trapped inside a confined space with the most beautiful creature she’d ever seen, and helikedher.
“Your machine is broken,” Rykal remarked.
“Yeah,” Arin replied. She noticed the emergency call panel on the wall, pressing it with her palm. In this current state of chaos, she doubted anyone, robot or otherwise, would come, but anything was worth a try.
This was another unexpected pain-in-the-ass. She needed to get to the communications room to access a secure line. Because of the network blackout, none of her wireless devices would be able to reach Earth.
Rykal strode across to the sliding doors and tried to wedge his fingers between them. What was he going to do, force them apart with his bare hands? If it were him, he could probably manage. He dug his fingers in, but he couldn’t find any purchase. He stepped back and drew his sword as the lights began to flicker.
“What are you going to do with that?” Arin couldn’t see how that curved blade of his might be helpful right now.
Rykal turned to her, his silver features swimming in and out of her vision as they were bathed in alternating beats of darkness and light. “Just wait.” His golden eyes were almost luminescent, and as the light flickered like a strobe, he turnedand stabbed the sword into the elevator doors. Arin caught a glimpse of his powerful shoulders as they bunched and flexed. The blade easily penetrated the thick metal. Rykal gripped the hilt with both hands, pulling the blade across. There was a great screech as he sliced through the elevator doors like they were butter, creating a convenient person-sized hole. He kicked with one leg, and the two metal halves of the doors fell away, slipping to the floor below. There was a loud clatter as they landed on some hard surface beneath them.
“Freak,” she muttered under her breath in English, but it was more an expression of wonder rather than scorn. Callidum could cut through anything. Rykal had said it many times, and Arin finally believed it.
“We seem to be between levels,” Rykal informed her, as the flickering light finally went out.
Arin’s world was plunged into darkness. She swore, dropping her pack and setting the rocket launcher down gently beside it. She started to fumble through her pack, searching for the familiar shape of her link-band. The damn thing received no reception up here, but she could use its small guide-light.
“Can I help you out?” Rykal’s voice was a whisper against her ear, startling her.
Shit. When had he moved?
Judging from the direction of his voice, he was crouching down beside her.
“I’m here,” he said softly.
So close.Shit.Where was he?
Without thinking, Arin reached out with one hand, thinking she’d grasp only air. What she got instead was hair. He wasso closeto her.Arin suppressed the urge to gasp as an image of Rykal’s pale hair entered her mind. From memory, she knew it was the color of moonlight, cut short but not as short as some of the other Kordolians. It wasn’t done in a buzz cut, but rather in a slightly messy crop that accentuated his sharp features. It was impossibly soft and silky.
She hadn’t been expectingthat.
She withdrew as if she’d been burned, but not before he grasped her wrist, gently stroking the inner aspect with his thumb.
His hands were bare.
How had he managed that?
She was grateful for the darkness as it hid her reaction, but then she remembered something. “You can see in the dark, can’t you?”
