“Shh! Someone is coming!”
Without warning, Reva pulled him back into a passionate embrace. His hands migrated to her hips of their own accord, and as she lifted her chin, he buried his face against her neck.
The feminine curves of her body reminded him of how he’d found her: lying naked in a cryochamber, her dark olive skin covered in intricate henna tattoos. He and Aaron had pulled her out of a derelict space station on the fringes of settled space, the sole survivor of her people. But the Gaian Imperials had confiscated the cryotank, and he hadn’t seen her again until a chance encounter behind enemy lines, when he’d rescued her from an escape pod. He’d learned very quickly that she had no taboo against nudity. Even in the darkness of the maintenance closet, her total lack of self-consciousness made his legs go weak.
Footsteps sounded outside the door, but they gradually faded away. Once again, Reva released him.
“We need to charge outrider?” she asked.
Isaac panted heavily as his whole body throbbed with arousal. “Yes,” he answered between gasps. “It will take at least… at least three or four hours, and we have to make it… so that they won’t find out.”
“That was what the dead man tried to do. Is there no other way?”
“Not unless we can hijack the ship,” Isaac said, recovering somewhat. “But there are ways to hide the reactor’s energy signature. The harder part is obtaining supplies.”
“Supplies?”
“Yes. Food and water. It could be weeks before we make it to the nearest colony. Outriders are designed to be short-range, interplanetary shuttles. They’re not made for long-range, interstellar voyages.”
“I will take care of supplies,” she said. “How soon can we go?”
Isaac thought a moment, his heart still pounding. “Not soon. I need to get remote access to the outriders somehow, without them catching us.”
“What do you need? Can I get it for you?”
“I’m not sure,” he muttered. “If I had a wrist console, I could probably sneak off long enough to sync it with one of the outriders.” But that still left the problem of how to hide the energy signature while the jump drive charged. If the pirates detected it, they would fire almost immediately after launch.
“Good,” said Reva. “I will find and bring for you in three dayshifts.”
“And the supplies?”
“Don’t worry, I will get them. Here, three dayshifts.”
She opened the door just a crack to make sure no one was outside, making the dim green light for the closet turn on. Her black hair glistened, and then she was out, the door shutting quietly behind her.
As the darkness returned and her footsteps faded away, Isaac leaned against the wall and sank to his ankles. Did these clandestine meetings mean anything to her? While the affair was just a ruse, meant to give them both an alibi in case they were discovered, he couldn’t help but wonder if it had turned into something more.
His breathing slowed, and his heartbeat gradually returned to normal. Even so, he couldn’t tell which was worse: the way the pirates treated him, or the way Reva was screwing with his mind.
Captives in Obscurity, book 5 in the Sons of the Starfarers series, will be available in ebook form on May 15th. Pre-order or find out more below:
Captives in Obscurity
There is no escape beyond Star's End.
Isaac and Reva are running out of time. Gulchina's cruelty knows no bounds, and on the edge of known space, no one can stop her. But an unexplored planet holds an ancient alien secret that may prove to be a game changer.
There is no escape beyond Star’s End.
The deadliest pirates in the galaxy have stolen the technology that will transform it. Now, on the edge of known space, they are poised to start an empire of their own.
Isaac and Reva are running out of time. Neither of them knows the extent of Gulchina’s plans, or whether the madwoman will keep them both alive after she achieves them.
But an unexplored planet beyond the Far Outworlds holds an ancient alien secret that not even Gulchina has uncovered. That secret will tip the balance in
SONS OF THE STARFARERS
BOOK V: CAPTIVES IN OBSCURITY
Final draft? CHECK.