Page 13 of Jordan

When he didn’t respond, she pulled her hand away. Silence filled the air between them for several pregnant moments.

He caught her wrist, his thumb caressing her skin. “It’s gorgeous.”

There was no denying the fact he’d just closed down on her but was trying to save face. “Return my hand to me, please.”

“Baby.”

She swallowed hard. “Jordan, no more. I let you in,” she touched her chest with her free hand, “and I knew better. I’ve been acting like I’m new to this game—this dance done between a man and woman.” She jerked her hand away from his. “The only part of this that’s new to me is acting like a bloody fool.”

Jordan exhaled a shaky breath. “Nina.”

“Just pilot the shuttle, Vasil,” she commanded, too hurt to look at him again.

“Shit, I didn’t mean to shut down on you,” he said. “It’s just that—”

The shuttle jolted to the left, hard, banking and then leveling. Red lights flashed as internal sirens sounded. Nina wasn’t sure what alarm went to what but if Jordan’s expression was anything to go off of, they were in serious trouble.

He flipped switches and grunted, punching the dash panel near the lower portion. He broke straight through it and pulled out a handful of wires. “Nina, take the controls.”

She stared at him with wide eyes. “What? No. I can’t! I don’t know what to do.”

An odd calmness came over him. “Just hold it as steady as you can and pull up if we start to go down.”

She unbuckled and nodded, sliding past him as he in turn went to the floor of the shuttle. He lay on his back, his hands busy at work with the wiring.

“Should we call for assistance?” she asked, positive that any moment she’d fly them straight into the ground.

“Can’t,” he said, his head disappearing under the control panel. “The entire navigational and communications system is totally offline.”

“What? How?”

“I don’t know, baby.”

“Can you fix it?” The tree line cleared and she spotted the red sea.

Jordan came up fast, something amiss on his face.

He grabbed her and ripped her from the pilot’s seat. He shoved her, thrusting her into the cargo bay portion of the shuttle.

She landed hard and skidded across the unforgiving grated flooring. The shifter side of her rose to what it took to be a challenge. No man, even one it desired, was permitted to handle her in such a manner.

Jordan began keying a code into the panel doors that would seal off the cockpit from the cargo bay. He met her gaze, and when she saw the look in his eyes, she knew he was about to do something that in the end would cost him his life—that he was willing to sacrifice himself for her.

Her beast receded and Nina reacted without thought.

She darted forward and seized hold of Jordan’s shirt, yanking him towards her mere seconds before the cargo bay doors slid to a close.

The weight of Jordan coming at her knocked her off balance and they both tumbled to the floor. Somehow, Jordan managed to catch her and cradle her to his body. She cupped his face, questions burning through her.

He put his forehead to hers. “Nina, there are explosives wired into the panel. I need to separate the cargo bay from the cockpit and I need to pilot it away from you. There’s a chance you’ll make it, that the integrity of the cargo bay will hold and—”

She clung to him, shaking her head. “There is zero chance you’ll survive if you’re in the cockpit when it explodes.”

The look he gave her said he knew as much. He tried to stand but she held desperately to him. “No!”

“Nina, baby, please…it’s the only way you’ll have a chance.”

She didn’t want a chance. Not without him.

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