With the rough draft complete, I began revising, tweaking the language until it was ironclad. Loch came down sometime during the first pass, but when I muttered something vaguely intelligible at him after he questioned me for the third time, he laughed and left.
I didn’t make any changes on the fourth pass, so I figured it was as good as it was getting. I’d dealt with enough contracts to at least be familiar with the common pitfalls.
With the contract done, I began working on the accompanying note. It had to strike the right balance between friendly and threatening or he’d gut my contract without a second thought. By the time I was happy with it, my back ached from hunching over the table for so long.
I signed the message with my personal key, encrypted it with our House key, and sent it highest priority. Because APD Zero was within minutes of the gate, Father should receive the message in the next twenty minutes.
I also sent a copy to Bianca. Perhaps she could be the voice of reason if Father got carried away.
My stomach twisted as anxiety dumped adrenaline into my system. I stood and stretched. I needed to move and not just because I’d been sitting for hours. Fight or flight rode me hard even though the danger was likely sitting behind a desk a million light-years away.
I slid down the ladder to the bottom deck. My arm stung just enough to remind me to take it easy. I heard the rattle of weights before I entered the exercise room. Either I’d found Loch or the ship was haunted.
Loch was doing deadlifts with some ridiculous amount of weight. He wore a pair of low-slung athletic shorts and no shirt. Watching the muscles play across his body as he lifted the weight was a thing of beauty.
“Hey,” I said once he was done with the set, “I sent my message and need a distraction. Care to spar?”
“You going to run away?” he asked.
I grinned at him. “Probably.”
“What do I get if I catch you?”
“I’ll give you a pat on the back and permission to feel smug for a whole thirty seconds.”
He chuckled. “With an offer like that, how can I refuse?” He turned serious. “How’s your arm?”
“Mostly fine, but still a little tender. Try not to directly hit it if possible.” I moved to the sparring mats and dropped into an alternate stance with my right side forward. It was my weaker stance, but it kept my left arm farther out of harm’s way.
Loch mirrored my stance. It didn’t surprise me that he could fight reversed. He threw a slow right jab at me. I danced back, out of range of the left cross I knew would follow.
Unfortunately, I’d forgotten how quick he was when he wasn’t purposefully slowing down.
Instead of the left cross I expected, he closed the distance between us, changed his stance, and threw a right cross at me. I deflected it—barely—but it cost me. His left hand connected with stinging force to my right side. If he’d been hitting me at full strength, he would’ve broken ribs.
“Do I get my pat on the back yet?” he asked. He retreated to let me regroup.
“Sure,” I said with a grimace. “Come closer and I’ll give it to you.”
A flash of a grin was all the warning I got before Loch tackled me to the mats. He held his upper body so that his chest just barely brushed my breasts, but his hips were wedged firmly between my thighs, pinning me in place. “Is this close enough?” he asked. His deep voice was huskier than usual. I shivered as lust blazed hot and fast.
I patted him on the back before his growing erection destroyed my ability to think. “There you go. Shall I count for you?”
“I have a better idea,” he murmured against my jaw. He trailed kisses up to the corner of my lips. I clutched his head when he would’ve moved on and slid my tongue into his mouth. He groaned and kissed me deeply.
I spread my legs wide, planted my feet, and lifted my hips to rub against him. We both hissed in pleasure. Loch helped me shimmy out of my clothes, and I pushed his shorts down to reveal he was commando underneath. I reached for him, but he backed away with a wicked gleam in his eyes.
He ran his hands from my ankles up to my knees, then pressed a kiss to my inner thigh just above my right knee. His hands inched higher and kisses followed their path. Anticipation tightened my stomach as I fought the conflicting desires for him to linger and to hurry. When his breath ghosted over my clit, I moaned and tilted my hips in invitation.
His lips closed around me and two fingers pressed inside. I clutched his head and rocked against his mouth, desperate to come, desperate to prolong the pleasure. Release roared toward me, driven by his clever lips and fingers and tongue. His name was a chant and a prayer as I tipped into bliss.
Loch barely gave me time to recover before he rolled me over onto my hands and knees. “Is this okay for your arm?” he asked, his voice tight.
Truth be told, I couldn’t feel my arm over the pleasure still pulsing through my system, so I nodded. He groaned and rubbed against me. I shifted, impatient. He gripped my hips and entered me with one smooth thrust. He felt huge from this angle and hit every still-sensitive nerve I had. “Yes,” I hissed.
He thrust slowly, once, twice, then froze. “Ah, fuck,” he growled. “I need—” His control shattered, and he set a frantic pace that ratcheted my desire higher with every stroke. I dropped my chest to the floor and he felt even bigger. The pleasure nearly blinded me.
When he reached under me to pinch a stiff nipple while he continued to thrust, I hurtled into another orgasm with a gasp. He followed with a muttered curse and a groan. He pulled us over onto our right sides, still buried inside of me. He pressed a kiss to my shoulder and I sighed in bliss.
“For future reference, I like your ideas,” I said.
He chuckled. “I’ll keep that in mind,” he said. “How are you feeling?”
“Better. Calmer. I don’t feel like I’m going to crawl out of my skin,” I said. “But it’ll only last until I check my com. If Father has responded, expect me to go neurotic again. If he hasn’t, well, same result really.”
The proximity alarm went off. “Polaris, show me the location of the alarm,” I said. A vid screen in the wall showed Rhys and Veronica on the cargo ramp. Veronica held a shopping bag, but my heart sank. If she was planning to go with me, she would’ve brought Lin and Imma. “Scan the immediate vicinity for life-forms.”
“Two people detected in the cargo ramp quadrant,” the ship replied.
“Open the cargo door and tell them we’ll meet them in the mess.”
By the time we cleaned up and redressed, Rhys and Veronica had beat us to the mess hall. Rhys grinned when we walked in. “It’s good to see you two getting along again,” he said. “I thought I was going to have to knock your heads together.”
“You’re welcome to try,” Loch growled at him, but there was no heat behind the words.
It had been nearly an hour since I messaged Father, so I checked my com. No response yet. I set it faceup on the table and tried to ignore it.
“Ada, I brought you boots,” Veronica said. “I didn’t know if you planned to go shopping, but I noticed you came out of Richard’s care”—the word was heavy with sarcasm—“without any. I got a few different sizes.”
“Thank you so much. Richard confiscated my only pair.”
“I think this is the brand you wear,” she said. She pulled four different sizes of my exact brand and style boot out of her bag. She had a brilliant eye for detail and noticed things that would slip past me.
I found the right size, pulled them on, and laced them up. They fit perfectly. “You’re my hero,” I said seriously.
She blushed and ducked her head. “Think nothing of it,” she said.
My com vibrated against the table. I snatched it up. The breath whooshed out of me. Father had responded. I tapped the message with a trembling finger. This was the first direct communication we’d had in nearly two years.
“Is it from Albrecht?” Loch asked.