Born of Ice

“I don’t think your mom would ever really hurt you.”


“Let’s just say I have no intention of finding out.” He buried his face in her hair and inhaled deeply.

She swallowed as she looked down at his arm draped over her. His skin was so dark compared to hers. His fingers long and lean. Powerful and beautiful. A part of her warmed at the memory of how they’d felt while they pleased her.

And as she absorbed the warmth of his body snuggled next to hers, tenderness for him choked her. She should be sorry over what they’d done tonight, but she couldn’t muster that feeling. She’d wanted him, and now she knew exactly how kind Devyn Kell could be.

Even when he was drunk . . .

Alix lay there for hours, listening to him breathe as he slept.

And she hated herself for what she was about to do. I have no choice.

Getting up carefully so as not to wake him, she made her way to his computer. With any luck, Vik wouldn’t be monitoring it since it was Devyn’s. Surely the captain’s computer would be immune from the mecha’s snooping.

Her heart pounding, she touched the pad to bring it out of sleep mode. The monitor flashed as it came online. She glanced at Devyn to make sure he was still asleep before she searched for old manifests.

She touched the first file that came up to open it.

Instead of a spreadsheet, it was a picture of a young Devyn sitting on the shoulders of a man who looked so similar in features that she was sure it was his father. The only difference was the feral gleam in his father’s eyes. It was as if he could look through and see straight into her soul even through the photograph.

He must be truly terrifying in person. As intense and powerful as Devyn was, he had nothing on the man who’d created him. There was no mistaking the ruthless killer that lived inside his father.

She touched back and then went to the next file. It was a list of cargo . . .

That told her nothing. It looked like a million other legal shipping documents. So she moved on.

“What are you doing?”

She jumped at Devyn’s low, sharp tone as she quickly closed the file and her search. Luckily, he was still in bed and not making any moves to see what she was looking at. “I—I was trying to pull up the ship’s core to make sure everything was holding.”

Devyn yawned. “Come back to bed and don’t worry about it. Vik’ll let us know if something happens. He’ll know before it even reaches the sys scan.”

She clicked out so that he couldn’t find her search and returned to bed.

But as she lay there, she couldn’t stop trembling.

That had been too close. Had he gotten up, he’d have seen her search . . .

“Are you all right?”

She nodded. “Fine.”

“Why are you shaking?”

“Cold.”

He nuzzled her neck and wrapped his arms tight around her as he held her even closer. Every inch of that lean, hard body was pressed against hers. Protective. Sweet. Wicked. “I’ll warm you.”

I’m so going to burn in oblivion for this . . . But every time she felt guilty about handing him over, all she had to do was see the face of her mother and sister and her conscience was squelched.

She hoped . . .

And yet lying here in his arms, she’d never felt safer.

Cherished.

He doesn’t feel like that toward you. He was just a man with an itch and you were a convenient body for him. You don’t even know him.

That was hard to say convincingly since he was naked with her. She definitely knew him now . . . his touch and scent were branded in her memory. Rolling over, she stared at the handsome planes of his face. With his eyes closed, he looked almost vulnerable.

Except for his hands. They were still rugged even while the rest of him was relaxed. And as she lay there, watching him, she couldn’t help wondering what it would be like to have a man like him in her life. One who would be there for her when she needed him.

One who could love her.

She didn’t dare dream of a husband. She was too used and too tired to even go there.

But deep inside, in a place where she was almost afraid to look, was a tiny kernel of hope that her father’s cruelty hadn’t slaughtered. That little flickering light ignited and tortured her with images of a home and someone like Devyn who could love her in spite of everything.

You’re such a moping fool.

How many times in her life would she be kicked in the teeth by fate before she learned that happy endings and happiness didn’t belong to gutter trash like her? It was for free women who were born into nice, normal families.

Yeah, but what if?

Reaching up, she laid her hand against his cheek. His whiskers prickled her palm. And for a minute, she imagined the life she wished she had.

And that unrealistic dream was what sent her off into the most blissful sleep of her life.



Devyn came awake to something pressing hard against his back. At first he thought he was asleep in his pilot’s chair, until he heard a light, gentle snore.