They played with the currents, testing them, dancing between them, taunting the feel of them. And he imagined the feel of her.
Faster and faster and faster the currents flew, static in a lightning storm, until, at last, one of the currents broke free, singeing right up to her neckline. The wave sliced over her ponytail, billowing the vanilla hair back behind her like a flag in the wind.
“Oh!” she squealed, squirming her shoulders up to her ears as one of the currents rippled, tickling the sensitive skin below. She examined the strands where the wave had rushed her ponytail. Only once she had deemed it secure did she turn fiery eyes back on him.
“My turn.”
Lee didn’t even try to put up a front, a thrill shooting up his spine as Kat stirred up a stormy sequence, directing energy wave after energy wave to crest towards him. And as they crashed, hebraced his feet on the floor, absorbing the zaps in little prickling spirals up his body. He would take whatever she could throw at him. Always. She was worth that.
When the storm slowed, Lee sank down to the floor, stretching spread-eagled on the floor as Kat cooed her little war cry. The sounds of her feet pounding the floor echoed as she sprinted towards him, flipping above him in an airborne roundoff.
She landed not a third of a meter from Lee’s head.
“Gotcha,” she panted, sending another little mini-current splashing over his chest.
“Hook, line, and sinker,” Lee said as he pulled her down into him to catch her own shock wave. And as the energy reverberated back up his arms and torso, he held her tighter, feeling each and every zap where the two of them collided.
There was only her body on his. Her and him against the world, and everything else was just white noise.
His lips bore into hers, teeth clacking, tongues clashing. Any games tore away from them, ripping through those mental barriers until there was just their need and that raw hunger. And that infinite drive to taste more. Try more.
Their kisses slowed to something more deliberate and claiming as they rode out this latest wave of longing. How many years he had waited for this, waited for her. He intended to spend the rest of his life exploring her and figuring out how her galaxy worked.
Minutes or hours later, they lay at the edge of the rings on their stomachs facing each other, lips numb and tingling, the skin hot under his suit. The press of the mats were cool against his hands. Kat was looking at something on her hyperband. Lee was looking at her. She electrified him. She always would.
She frowned at something she was reading. Reaching over to bridge the fraction of space between them, Lee brushed his handlightly across her wrist. Kat only pouted more as she glared back at him.
“What’s that look for?” Lee asked, arching a brow as he sat up.
She continued to glare at him, also sitting up, but he could see some of the competitive gleam re-entering the playing field with her gaze.
“What did I do, Hanneman?” Lee taunted, feigning interest.
She waved her hyperband in his face. “Thanks to your little showcase with the Laser Rounds the other day, Waters, I have been bumped down to number two!”
Lee busted up laughing, falling backwards with his head slapping against the mats, the gusty ache in his stomach a welcome reprieve. He didn’t even bother to glance over at the latest rankings as Kat read them off for him. “Kat Hanneman. Number two—right after Leland Waters.”
That initial burst quelling, he sat up, rolling his eyes lazily. “I imagine you’ll be back up there in a day or two.”
“Obviously. But a little more of a heads up next time would be nice. Give me a few days to get ahead before you go all sudden-death on me.”
“Whatever you like.” Lee returned his hand to her wrist, tracing looping swirls along the sleeve of her forearm. She relaxed the muscle there, lying still as he finished drawing the second word of a certain three syllable phrase over her upper arm.
He meant it too. He didn’t care about the rankings. He never had. Not so long as they put Kat where she belonged: Commander of his soul.
He looked down when the next message came in. He’d been expecting this one to come their way.
Squadron leads Leland Waters and Kat Hanneman are expected to report to Mission Assignment & Briefing at 12:00 hours, on the sixth day, in coordination with the lifting of raid restriction 7.2B…
Whether he was determined, or just keen to put this last week in their rearview mirror, the familiar epinephrine kicked into gear as he read through the concisely scripted wording once more.
And so it began.
CHAPTER 9: KAT
TWO DAYS later, Kat and Lee filed into Mission Assignment and Briefing to accept their latest directive.
They hadn’t seen Commander Blanche since their debriefing with the council and General. That day, their Commander had possessed an air of defiance, an impenetrable fortress guarding her cadets as General Narron lay siege to their testimonies.
