“Wait!”
He raised his eyebrows at her shout.
Nia bit her lip. “Is there a way for me to contact the captives fromElara Five?”
The hope in her eyes was enough to cool his emotions. “No. It’s not allowed.”
Her gaze fell, and he tried to ignore the resulting pang in his chest. He needed to get out of there before he considered breaking Captive Laws to give her what she wanted.
The door closed between them, and Mace exhaled. He couldn’t be in the same room as her, not when his emotions were so volatile and he didn’t know which way was up.
He flexed his healed knuckles and knew he needed to bruise them again.
Chapter ten
Niadriftedinasafe space, warm and cozy.
Waking increments at a time, she realized she hadn’t had one of the bizarre dreams, memories, that usually woke her. No images of birds eating eyeballs. No double-edged knives waved in her face. No voice saying, “Here’s a pretty.”
She sighed, contentment seeping into her limbs, then snuggled deeper into the plush bedding. Her face pressed against something smooth but hard, her knee cocked upward, and her one hand was wedged between two warm thighs.
She froze.Thighs. Oh god.
Her eyes flew open.Mace.Her whole body was squeezed against him.
She pushed away. “Don’t touch me!” she screamed, shooting to her feet to hunch against the bulkhead. Her whole side was warm from his body heat. She rubbed her hands against it, trying to erase the sensation. A flush traveled up her throat.
“I wasn’t,” Mace replied, his hands stacked behind his head, fully clothed. He hadn’t moved.
Her cheeks burned. She’d been using him like a pillow.
“Sorry,” she muttered, then shook her head. Why was she apologizing?
Amusement flashed across his face.
Nia narrowed her eyes. His uniform clung to his body, outlining his pectorals and abdominals. She knew each of those defined muscles from when she’d healed his wound.
Tearing her gaze away, she stared above him, at the crisscrossed overhead beams, and fisted her hands. “I need to use the washroom,” she said between clenched teeth.
“Go ahead,” he replied, remaining where he was.
A huff of disbelief burst between her lips. He wasn’t going to move?Fine.She shuffled to the side, keeping her spine against the bulkhead, then nudged his socked feet with her toes. They jiggled, but he didn’t move out of the way.
So she kicked him.
Averting his face, he rolled to his feet, and she could have sworn he swallowed a chuckle.A chuckle!Cheeks burning, she hopped off the bed and scurried to the washroom. The door slid closed behind her, lights illuminating the small space a second later.
She turned to the digital mirror, but it was off.
“Viewer on,” she murmured. Nothing happened. “Mirror on.” It remained inert. Then she noticed the button on the bulkhead and pressed it. Her image flickered to life.
Why is nothing voice activated here?
Shoulders tense, Nia stared at herself, her heightened color blazing at her. She really wished she didn’t light up like a fixture every time she felt embarrassed. It plagued her existence. She was a doctor, not a ten-year-old.
Still agitated, she used the toilet, then the steam shower. The clothes Dee had made for her had been waiting in neat piles on the bed when she’d arrived yesterday, but she hadn’t thought to grab a new set in her haste. There’d been some other changes in Mace’s quarters too. The room had been cleaned, none of what she’d destroyed remaining. The refrigeration unit had been coded to her biometrics, as well as one of the clothing compartments under the bed.
The only evidence of yesterday’s tantrum was the sapling missing from the table.
