He let out a contented sigh, but he was already asleep.
Smiling, she took her time playing with his hair and listening to him breathe. Took her time running her hand down his muscled arm and ribs and buttocks. When she reached the short hairs at the center of his body, she started to leave him alone, but that had also been one of her favorite things to caress. And it’d been too long since she last had him like this.
At least any place other than in her dreams.
Before she could stop herself, she sank her fingers into the crisp mat and ran her fingernails through it. He grew hard instantly. And yet he didn’t wake. Which told her exactly how exhausted he was. In the past, he’d have awakened instantly and been inside her within a few minutes. Foreplay be damned.
One of his more irritating habits. But it’d been one that she’d decided she could live with as it’d always proven to her how much he desired her. How much he loved her.
Her humor over that died as her gaze dipped to the Ravin mark that marred his abdomen. The injustice of it all enraged her to a level that made her want to kill everyone involved with what had been done to his parents and hers.
Wrongfully convicted. She’d spent hours over the years trying to imagine the horror he’d lived through having seen his family slaughtered, and then having been arrested and sentenced for it.
How could Alura do that to him?
Ember had never understood, and still didn’t. There was nothing in the universe that could compel her to harm someone that way.
Sure there is.
You’d do it to save your son.
But only for that reason. Alura had had none whatsoever. None. It’d been heartless and cruel. Especially after Bastien had given up his happiness with Ember to marry Alura over a lie that she knew would destroy them both internally.
How selfish could one human being be? But then her sister had always been that way. She’d always held her needs out as greater than those of the rest of them. A congenital birth defect.
I swear, Alura, if I ever get my hands on you, I will strangle you for this.
Her days of protecting her sister were over.
*
Bastien slept for two full days. He didn’t stir until they were landing on the Dread Reckoning outpost. Even then, Ember had to practically inject him with adrenaline to wake him.
Like a languid cat, he opened his eyes and stretched. “Where am I?”
“We landed about half an hour ago.… I’ve been trying to wake you.”
“No wonder I have to go so badly.” He flashed a grin before he rushed from the bed.
She laughed as she waited for him to return.
And waited.
By the time he came back, she realized he’d taken a quick shower first.
He flashed that devilish grin at her. “I was rather ripe.”
“No comment.”
Stretching, he yawned. “Where’s Drake?”
“They went into the main hailing room to talk to Tasi’s mom. Apparently, he’s known her for a while, but she didn’t realize who he was until now. And had never given her his call sign before.”
“Good thing or bad thing?”
“Appears good.”
Bastien let out a relieved breath. They could use some good.
And speaking of … He swept a hungry gaze over her lush body. She’d always made him hungry.
Hard.
He didn’t know what it was about her, but damn. An image of her long dark hair in his lap really didn’t help the mood, either.
“I know that expression.” She tsked at him. “We can’t. Rian’s waiting for you.”
“I know. And I need to make plans with Drake and Saf. Which I meant to do instead of sleep the entire trip.”
“You must have been exhausted.”
He nodded. “Been a long time since I had someplace really safe to sleep.”
“Safe because of me or Drake?”
“You.” His eyes darkened. “Definitely you.”
“So you trust me?”
His gaze turned warm as he began to slowly kiss his way around her neck. “I’ve always trusted you, Ember. You were the one who lacked faith in me.”
She looked away, letting him know he’d struck the truth with that comment.
But before he could pursue it, Drake came on board.
“Ember?”
Bastien pulled away from her with a frustrated hiss.
“Yeah?”
“You’re Hadean Corps, right?” Drake asked from outside, in the hallway.
“I am.”
He opened the door to see them, and grinned at Bastien. “Nice to see the dead has risen.”
Bastien rolled his eyes.
Ignoring him, Drake returned his attention to Ember. “I’m intercepting some strange Tavali stuff, and I can’t get ahold of my brother, Ryn. But I swear I heard his mother’s name mentioned and it concerns me. Can you take a listen and see what you think?”
“Absolutely.”
She and Bastien followed him off the ship and outside to the primitive base that had once been a mining facility. But it’d petered out centuries before and been abandoned. Since no one had come here and it seldom showed on maps, the DR had decided it was a great place to use for emergencies.