Page 44 of Sixth
Chapter 11
APEX HADwashed the soot from his hands, his hair looking lighter in the cabin light. He held a small case in one hand which he set on the counter and opened to reveal a coil of fiber and a sparker. He worked without looking at her, but the air between them seemed aware of everything. Heavy. Charged.Ripe.
“What are you doing?” she managed toask.
“Stripping a damaged line and replacing it. We will not risk a relay burn on a frayed conduit.”
“Can I help?”
He lifted his gaze. “Hold the light.”
She took the small hand lamp and stood close enough to see what he was doing. Freshly cleaned and dressed in the dark shirt and trousers she’d taken from the storage locker, she still felt raw and exposed under his steady presence.
The contrast between them—the calm precision of his movements and the faint scent of him clinging to her borrowed clothes—made her suddenly self-conscious, aware of every brush of fabric against her skin. She stood close enough to feel the heat of him as he bent over the open case, the muscles in his forearms flexed. His hands moved with the same exact purpose he brought to a fight.
“You must have been a mechanic before you were a warrior,” shesaid.
“I was born to a House that expected me to be both.”
“Lord Kael Vettar.”
His mouth barely moved. “Do not say that name too loudly. The walls remember.”
“Core already did.”
“It is in your public record,”Core said. “The memorial script references your military service, your House bloodline, and your decision to delay the Final Flight.”
He cut the fiber cleanly. “Of course it does. They will tell the story that suits them.”
Emmy angled the lamp. “What’s the story that suits you?”
He set the new line and locked the coupler. “Truth.”
She waited. He didn’t look away from the work. “I served four hundred years because I was so ordered. Idid not complete the Final Flight because I did not need to die to prove that I could. The apples I was fed from your planet simply returned what my body had been designed to be. That is all.”
“They think that makes you dangerous.”
“It makes me inconvenient since I will outlive all of them.” He spared her a brief glance. “As will you.”
“Will I? How?”
“Humans are easily repaired. Our medical facility will keep you young and healthy for generations.”
The breath stuttered in her lungs. “Generations?”
“Affirmative.”
He closed the panel and the click sounded like an answer. When he turned, the small space between them vanished, the heat of him wrapping around her. She told herself to step back. She didn’t.
His eyes dropped to her mouth, lingered, and rose to her eyes with an effort. Then his hand came up, tracing the air beside her cheekbone before his fingers finally touched her skin. The contact shattered restraint.
His thumb brushed along her face, down the line of her throat, tracing the edge of her collar before sweeping lower, his palm flattening against her ribs. The tremor went through him as his hand slid higher, cupping her breast through the thin fabric of her shirt, his touch gentle and devastating all at the same time. Her breath caught, asmall sound escaping her as he rubbed his thumb over her nipple, the friction lighting fire through her veins.
She reached for him in return, palms on his chest, stroking the solid muscle beneath, catching the beat of his heart against her hands. His other hand gripped her hip, pulling her closer until the heat of him pressed against her belly. The air thickened between them. He bent and kissed her, slow at first, then with hunger that deepened and darkened. His mouth moved againsthers, parting her lips, stealing her breath. The kiss turned rougher, more intense, until her knees weakened.
He caught her before she fell, his hand sliding to the small of her back, then lower, cupping her backside, drawing her against him. She gasped into his mouth, her pulse a wild drumbeat. His fingers tightened at her hip and his thumb traced the spot between her legs that pulsed with urgency, the barest graze that made her shudder. She broke the kiss with a desperate sound, eyes glazed, chest rising toofast.
He rested his forehead against hers, breathing hard, the air between them electric. His breath brushed her lips when he spoke, low and rough. “You test every limit I have.”
