“How scared are you, Tannis?”
She didn’t think he expected an answer, which was just as well as she wasn’t sure she could speak. Or not make any sense. As she watched, he plucked at the nipples with his long, elegant fingers. Unable to help herself, she leaned back against the hard length of him, her bottom coming up against the rigid proof that she wasn’t the only one affected by their encounter. Without conscious thought, she pushed against him, and he growled low in his throat.
One hand left her breasts and stroked over her stomach. She held her breath as he found the gap between her T-shirt and her pants. For a moment, his hand rested on the bare skin, and then he pushed down inside the waistband. His fingers drifted through the curls at the base of her belly. Her insides melted. She could feel herself becoming hot, wet with need.
Every nerve ending yearning for his touch. Screaming for release.
Beep. Beep. Beep.
His hand stopped moving. “What was that?”
She wanted to yell at him to ignore it, but he was already withdrawing from her. Closing her eyes, she tried to get herself under some sort of control. She brought up an image of her old guard, Grady, and pictured his hands on her body. It was like liquid nitrogen over her heated skin, and her body was her own again. She stepped away.
When she was sure her voice would sound normal, she spoke. “It’s the scanners—looks like we’ve got company.”
“Shit. Bloody good timing.”
She turned slowly to find him watching her.
“Are you all right?” he asked.
“Why shouldn’t I be?” She sounded terse, but she couldn’t help it.
“I just—”
He broke off as Janey appeared in the doorway. For once, she wasn’t immaculately turned out but mussed from sleep, her dark red hair loose about her shoulders. If anything, she looked more beautiful without the heavy makeup she normally wore like a mask.
One drunken night, over a flask of Rico’s whisky, Janey had told Tannis of her past. Janey had married young, using her looks to catch the perfect man, rich, powerful, handsome, and a complete bastard. She’d spent five years with him before she’d had the courage to do something about the relationship. She hadn’t said exactly what she’d done but from the smile on her face at the time, Tannis guessed it had been terminal. She’d been on the run since—apparently her husband had powerful friends and even after ten years, there was still a reward out for her. She’d said she didn’t regret it.
Now, her eyes widened slightly as she took in Tannis and Callum standing close together, and Tannis took another step away. Her brain was slowly clearing from the haze of sexual desire.
“We have company,” she said.
Janey yawned. “I know. I set the scanners to alert me if they picked anything up.” She crossed the room and sat down at her console, her fingers flicking over the controls. “They’re definitely heading this way.”
“Coincidence?” Tannis asked, without much hope.
“I doubt it. They’re locked right on us.”
“Can you get an identification?”
“Give me a minute, and we’ll have a visual.”
Tannis pressed the comm unit on her wrist. “Rico?” She closed her ears for a moment while he got his moaning done with—Rico was never his best when he first woke up. “Get to the bridge and bring Skylar. We may have a problem.”
“Got it,” Janey said and Tannis moved closer to get a view of the screen. Callum came to stand beside her.
She frowned, expecting to see the Collective’s huge star cruiser, but this was someone else.
“Shit.” A smaller Mark Three cruiser filled the screen, similar to El Cazador, but white with a black cross on the side.
“The goddamn Church. Again. What the hell do they want?”
Actually, if she gave it any thought, it could be one of many things, but she’d been doing her best not to think too much about the Church. She’d really hoped that with the death of Hezrai Fischer, their Church-related problems had disappeared. Maybe not. They needed their resident Church expert.
She pressed her comm unit and tried to get hold of Alex, but got no reply. She reckoned they must have switched off their comm units, no doubt bloody shagging again, and she called Rico instead.
“Pick up Alex and Jon on your way; they’re not answering.” She turned back to Janey. “Have they tried to call us yet?”
“No, not yet.”
“Well, tell me as soon as they do.”