This wasn't a dead end. Not even close.
Torvald's information confirmed they were on the right track. Assuming nothing had happened to Raider and the rest—and she was convinced they were absolutely fine—they just needed to wait.
"Yes, I am," Graydon agreed.
Kira punched his side, the gesture hurting her hand much more than it did him. No matter what his fake grunt might have tried to claim.
"Tomorrow, then," Graydon said as Kira lifted her head.
Kira nodded. "Tomorrow."
Graydon looked pleased. "We're in agreement."
"For once." She gave him a dour look. "Don't let it go to your head."
It was a momentary weakness.
"You can't take it back now. When this is over, you'll remember how satisfying it is work in tandem with someone like me." His voice lowered to a whisper. "At that point, you'll beg for my company."
"Someone is feeling awful arrogant."
"I prefer to call that confidence."
Graydon
Graydon backed Kira toward the bed, unable to stand that look in her eyes.
His coli was beginning to break. There were cracks forming around her edges. Tiny fissures that grew wider as the days passed.
She needed a distraction. A reminder that Jin and Elena weren't the only things worth fighting for. That she deserved a chance too.
The playfulness fell from her face as she sensed the shift in his mood. Desire replacing their banter.
Kira trailed a finger down Graydon's chest, peeking up through her eyelashes at him in invitation.
One look and Graydon was lost. Perhaps from as far back as the first time he'd laid eyes on her, standing in the cramped hallway of a human space station. He'd known then that she'd irrevocably change his world.
It was why he'd resisted, preferring to see her as a potential burden rather than the gift she was. The calm in his storm.
Faces weren't forbidden from taking partners, but it wasn't common practice either. Balancing the conflicts of interest that could arise from such a relationship was often difficult. Most preferred shorter term relationships as a result.
Graydon was a selfish man though. He wanted it all. Duty and devotion. He preferred the risk of getting burned by the fire rather than walking away and missing the conflagration.
He'd never feared difficult. In fact, the harder something was, the greater the pleasure derived when he succeeded.
He was smart enough. And cunning enough to have the future he wanted without sacrificing the woman by his side.
He would accompany Kira on this journey. They would save Torvald's first born and Kira's niece. In the meantime, the emperor would use Graydon's absence as a chance to weed out those disloyal Tuann who may not have risked joining the uprising had Graydon still been in play.
A win-win as humans would say.
Graydon tugged the collar of Kira's top to the side, exposing the bare skin of her shoulder. He leaned forward to place a kiss there, a masculine feeling of satisfaction filling him at her low moan.
That's right, coli. Sing for me.
Kira hooked a hand around the back of his neck, massaging briefly.
Graydon grabbed her hand, bringing it around to press a gentle kiss on the inside of her wrist.
He held her gaze as he reached for the hem of her shirt. Kira didn't move to stop him, her lips parting. Her pupils blown wide with arousal.
Graydon lifted her shirt, up and over her head before letting it fall to the ground.
The perfection before him left him in awe. He took his time studying his woman. The play of muscles along her arms and shoulders. The faint battle scars that decorated her torso. Evidence of what she'd survived.
It wasn't Kira's exterior that made her beautiful. It was everything else that made Graydon cherish her.
"I'd follow you anywhere," Graydon vowed, an indescribable tenderness filling him as he brushed the hair away from her forehead. "Remember that when you think you are lost. You are not alone. You are loved."
Always. And forever.
Kira searched his expression, weighing each word as if she was deciding how much stock to place in them.
That was his prickly aksa. She placed rationality above all else, never losing herself to emotion. For her, actions spoke louder than words.
That was okay. He planned to imprint his message down to her very soul this night.
The arms and torso of Graydon's synth armor retracted, sliding under his skin back to the patch where a lu-ong's scale had been implanted.
Through half lidded eyes, Kira made no effort to disguise her admiration.
"If you look at me like that, I won't be able to control myself," Graydon warned.
"Maybe that's exactly what I want," Kira challenged.
Graydon yanked her body against his, the touch of her bare skin on his challenging his intention to take it slow. He caught her lips with his. One hand slipped between them to find her breast. He rolled the nipple between his fingers, pleased at how hard it already was.
Kira groaned, her hands coming up to grab his shoulders.
Graydon palmed her ass, lifting her. She wrapped her legs around him as the kiss deepened.
They ground against each other, unable to get enough. Graydon needed more. So much more.
Graydon's smile was slow. "I was hoping you'd say that."
Kira
Graydon's mouth fastened around her nipple, sucking.
Kira gasped. The sound changing to a moan as he nipped the sensitive skin on the inside of her breast.
Damn. How was he able to do this to her?
It was like he had a map to her pleasure centers and was intent on worshiping at every single one.
Not one to be outdone, Kira reached for him. She ran her nails over his chest. His muscles shivered.
He spilled them onto the bed. Kira yelped as she landed on her back. Graydon holding the bulk of his weight above her. He ground his length against Kira's core, dragging it over her clitoris until she saw stars.
Her breath caught, her eyelids fluttering.
"How's that, cheva nier?"
Graydon did it again.
Kira lost patience, grabbing his head and digging her fingers into his hair. She dragged his face down to hers. They nipped and sucked as they fought for dominance.
Kira needed to be closer. In his blood and in his bones.
She couldn't be the only one to lose herself.
If he wanted to, Graydon could destroy her like no other. Obliterate her.
He was her person. Now and forever. Her port in a storm. So rare that she sometimes felt she'd dreamed him up.
Except her dreams had never involved love or companionship.
Graydon divested Kira of her pants. Her body writhed as he pressed a kiss to the indent of her hip. Needy sounds escaped her mouth as he moved lower. Until finally, his lips closed around the sensitive bud at her center.
Kira sucked in a sharp breath, the sensation almost too much to bear.
Especially when Graydon inserted a finger into her warmth and flicked.
Kira's hips rose. Graydon subdued her, holding her still as he tortured her with his mouth and fingers.
Warmth pooled in her lower belly, coiling tight.
"Graydon!" Kira snarled.