Lee shook his can, letting the cappuccino swirl around like the dismal thoughts in his head.
“Ahem.” A teasing cough from behind them sent all three of them looking back. “Hello again, boys. And what are you three up to?”
Kat.
Beside him, Whistler angled his body towards her with a crooked grin. Zane crossed his arms over his chest in forgivable, halfhearted disdain. And when Lee finally turned around, he took his time dragging his gaze up from her sturdy black boots.
She wore the new suit. He knew it the moment he saw her. This one hugged all the feminine curves of her hips and chest, made perfectly to her specifications like before. But it seemed darker. Blacker, somehow. And against her vanilla-blonde hair, the freshly washed strands hanging wild and taunting well past her shoulder blades, her suit seemed to yank all the light from the room. Mysteries he’d let his hands compliment later.
She was stunning.
She knew it too. She winked, letting some of that rogue spirit peek through her grin before she let her eyes graze past the other two boys.
“I’m out.” Zane sighed with an obvious impatience. He pushed off from the side as Kat rolled her eyes.
Whistler didn’t share the same inclinations and only excused himself when he got a message from Demi.
She took up Zane’s spot at the railing, cocking her head to the side. “You three—this is going to be a normal occurrence now?”
Lee huffed a laugh. “I have no idea.”
His eyes snagged again on her new suit, the heat rising to his lips. She smelled of fresh oranges still on the branch, her lips shining as she nibbled on the bottom one. Some of his focus flickered as she went to grab his drink from him, more wafts of orange blossom trailing in her wake.
She peered into the can and wrinkled her nose, drawing a breathless chuckle from him.
“Ew.” She didn’t return his drink, she didn’t move to set it down, either, but rather whirled herself in closer, teasing their balance against the railing.
“I like the new suit,” he said, voice catching as she peered up at him with sultry eyes.
“Yeah?” she asked, her breath caressing his chin. She had that sparkle in her eye again.
And then she was yanking him after her, drink abandoned, as she led him out through the Hideaway doors and down stairways. Melting through the floors and walls as they weaved through the ship. She halted them when they reached the first of the training levels, before they were moving again.
“This way!” she laughed.
Lee didn’t bother to make any apologies to the younger-level cadets they careened past as they zagged deeper into the training floors.
“This one?” she asked, peering around breathlessly as the door slid open.
Laughing, his heart pounding in his ears, Lee let her pull him inside, backing her against the wall, two fugitives on the run. His forehead pressed into hers as he held them there against the wall, the rhythm in his lungs far from steady. Her cheeks so flushed.
But he wouldn’t make it that easy on her.
Tongue between his teeth, still breathing erratically, Lee pushed away from her, snatching a couple of the energy bands from the shelf on the wall as he backed towards a set of rings drawn on the floor. “You versus me, Hanneman.”
“Oh, oh, is that what we’re playing?” She pushed off the wall, eyes like brightest fire.
“That’s what we’re playing.” His lips curved up into a challenge.
She took the bait, snapping up a couple of bands of her own as she sprinted, pitching herself into the ring farthest from them. She landed near the center in a shower of amethyst and gold sparks.
He left the wave analyzers and scoring off this afternoon. But he could feel the currents zing from wrist to spine as he stepped into the one opposite hers, his a splash of emerald and gold. As if they needed the titillation of more electricity zapping at the senses to spark their chemistry.
A game of control—or riding the edge. The ring’s energy sparked at either wrist, alive and thrumming outward from ligament to ligament, as he tracked his gorgeous opponent a couple of meters away.
“Let’s see what you’ve got, Hanneman.” He caught her eye before drawing up both arms in a balanced stance, the power stemming from fingertip to fingertip, and then he sent the wave of energy crashing towards her.
The brilliant purple sparked as she whirled, already absorbing its currents before she sent them hurling back. The zaps bit at his shins and elbows as he drew up a fresh wave.
