It took many moments for indignation to usurp her stunned surprise. By the time it did, Dax was breathing the heavy, even breaths of sleep.
ChapterNine
After her second attempt to wiggle out from under Dax failed, Lena decided to leave well enough alone. The first time she tried, his hand merely tightened on her arm. The second time, he lifted his head and very causally threw one leg across her lower body, grinding his pelvis into her hip and proving beyond a shadow of doubt that, regardless of what he’d claimed to the contrary, there were parts of him that were very much alive.
She subsided, staring at the ceiling for a while, trying not to think about the warmth of his body against hers, and especially trying not to think about the very different kind of warmth that began to hum through her.
He didn’t trust her. That fact seemed unavoidable, that, as tired as he was, knowing he had to sleep, he figured the best way to do so was to make sure he didn’t have to concern himself about where she was or what she was doing. She didn’t delude herself into thinking it was anything else, even if his body said differently.
Sighing, she tried to angle her head enough to look down at him.
There was an angry red welt on his neck that would probably be a bruise before long.
She’d done that. Remorse filled her. She didn’t know what had come over her to fly at him like that. She’d never thought she was a violent person. She would never have believed she was capable of such a thing.
She’d been scared, and she’d felt threatened, but neither of those emotions were an excuse for behaving like a complete savage. It had been different when the clone had attacked her, mostly because the clone had attacked. She hadn’t been doing anything but trying to defend herself.
She had attacked Dax, though. He hadn’t done anything to her to warrant the attack.
Feeling his fingers grow lax on her wrist, she pulled free and lifted her hand to gently stroke the spot.
“I’ll live,” he murmured.
Lena glanced at him sharply, discovering his eyes were open a slit. She wondered how long he’d been watching her.
“Go to sleep.”
Lena sighed. “I’m not very comfortable.”
“You’re a real pain the ass, baby girl,” he growled, lifting away from her and pushing at her shoulder until she rolled onto her side facing the bulkhead.
She felt a lot more comfortable, for all of five seconds, but he merely scooted up behind her, threw one arm and leg across her and snuggled his groin against her ass.
She rather thought she’d been more comfortable with that beast of his against her hip. Having it nudging the cleft of her ass was a lot harder to ignore.
So was having his heated breath drifting over her neck and ear.
She wiggled, trying to get a little more comfortable.
The effect was immediate.
His cock grew hard as a rock. Angling her head around, she slanted a suspicious glance at his face and didn’t know whether to be relieved or irritated to see his face was completely relaxed.
Settling again, she laid perfectly still, waiting for her body, and his, to cool, and somewhere in the rounds drifted off to sleep.
* * * *
“Hungry?”
Lena stretched, allowing her eyes to drift open at the question.
Dax was studying her from across the cabin, one hip propped on his desk. His hair was tousled as if he’d just gotten up himself and his eyes looked nearly as tired as they had when he’d lain down.
Still more than a little disoriented, Lena pushed herself upright. “I’d like to bathe.”
He jerked his head in the direction of the door to his private bath. “You’ll have to put on the same uniform, though, unless you want to borrow one of mine.”
She could imagine how well that would fit. He was at least a foot taller than she was. “This is fine,” she murmured, wondering how long she was going to have to live in it. It seemed doubtful she would be seeing any of her own clothes anymore and clothes, like everything else, were hard to come by.
