Gambit (2 page)

A grin cracked across her mouth. “I think I was shivering about something else.”

Govan muttered something under his breath in a language that escaped her. He straightened. “We want your ship to act as one of many decoys bound for Ladaia-prime.”

“And yet we still haven’t talked money. Being loyal to a cause won’t feed me.”

Daned glanced back at the older man, and that strange stream of understanding flowed between them. Telepathy? Not a trait she shared, though it would be bloody handy. He moved closer to stand beside her table and pressed unseen keys. The metal groaned, whirred and Chae gave a sharp gasp as the surface tilted. The force-straps held her in place and she found herself at eye level with Daned.

His scent, warm, male with a hint of unknown spices, wrapped around her. He stood in front of her and, shit, if she could just stretch her fingers up from the straps…

Daned glanced down and then lifted his gaze. Dark, twisted humor shone there and her heart pounded harder. “Seriously, how much for you?”

A smile lifted his lips. “How about this job?”

Chae snorted. Lust—serious, aching lust that had her blood on fire and her flesh tight—was one thing, but she wouldn’t blow off a payment. No matter how much the echo of the truth-crawler’s venom wanted her to say it. “I want to talk money.”

Daned’s head tilted. The promise of his mouth, so close, the urge to strain forward and sink her teeth into his bottom lip, filled Chae’s thoughts. What was it about him that made her mind turn away from money to satisfying instant lust?

“You don’t.”

Chae held his gaze. What was he after?
Shit.
He was playing her…and he knew the venom had worn off. Hell, she didn’t want another of those synthetic nasties burrowing into her flesh. “What’s your offer? Hauling from here to Ladaia-prime? With its insane security? That will cost. So?”

“A standard imperial crate of Ladaian black crystal from the Ara mine. And two when you complete the mission. For this you will take one passenger with you. You will not share this knowledge with anyone. Break our agreement and I will personally kill you in a way that will become legend. Now…” His palm slid hot over her neck and Chae sucked in a quick breath, her gaze fixed on him. Daned’s touch was electric, sparking through her flesh. His fingertips teased her skin and then his palm jerked hard against the truth-crawler. Her shriek of pain mixed with the crack of the crawler’s tough shell. Hot liquid fire surged, bringing with it the very last of the creature’s venom. “Do we have a deal, Captain Beyon?”

Three imperial crates. She could retire. With that amount of black crystal she could buy her own bloody planet. “Why so much?” Shit. The truth had caught her and she snapped out, “Yes. I agree to the deal.”

“Good.” Daned’s fingers pulled away and she shivered at the loss of his warm skin against hers. He stepped back. “A prince is wealthy enough to reward his faithful subject.”

“Wealthy?” Something itched under her skin and it wasn’t just the disintegrating remains of the truth-crawler. Too much money for too easy a job…as long as they didn’t expect her to break through to Ladaia-prime proper. Her sharp senses screamed out against the whole mission. And with her shitty her luck it was bound to be a colossal fuck up…but hell, three imperial crates of black crystal. Her mercenary heart kicked in. “How wealthy?”

Chae felt Govan’s eyes on her, heavy with disdain. She glared at him. “What? I’ve been alone since I was eleven. I learned fast that money solves my problems.” She turned her hips, pushing hard against the force strap, and held down a wince. “Deal done. Truth-crawler nulled. Deactivate these things.”

Daned keyed the thick side of the metal slab. With a slow hum, the straps eased back until she dropped quickly to the floor.

Chae caught herself before she stumbled. She flexed her neck, hearing the final crackle of the synthetic crawler as it broke down in her body. “And that’s all I have to do? Run to the Ladaia system with some stooge?” She pushed her hand through her tangled hair, her joints stiff and aching from the force-straps. Venom had caught her at the end despite her efforts. It wasn’t an easy job. Not at all. The route she’d take after she exited from rift lock pushed through her thoughts. Chae frowned. She would earn her three crates. “So, who’s my passenger?”

Daned presented her with a bleak smile. “Me.”

“You?” She flashed him a wicked grin in return. “Will you feel quite safe being alone with me?”

“I’m from the first caste of Ara, Captain Beyon. I think I’ll survive.”

“I’m sure if I knew what that was I’d be scared and impressed.” She ran her hands over the rumpled material of her tunic. Another brush with a truth-crawler had passed and she’d deflected practically all of its venom. Almost. She let the satisfied smile curve her mouth. “So…where’s my first crate?”

Govan frowned. “You don’t seem to appreciate the seriousness of this situation—”

“I appreciate being paid.”

“Your first crate is secured in your hangar, but, as evidence of our good faith…” Daned’s shoulders straightened and, with odd ceremony, he opened his palm. A thin sliver of black crystal sat there.

Chae willed the tremor from her hand. She’d never been so close to the precious rock. Her fingers flexed before she picked up the crystal. It pressed cool against her skin and she brought it to her mouth. She ran her tongue along a flat plane and her eyes drifted shut. The warming taste of cloves filled her. The damn thing was real…but still she held it up to the light.

Her heart squeezed at the clear shine of a golden latticework threading through the crystal. Pure, Ladaian-grown black crystal. The sliver, no bigger than her little finger, would buy her luxury for a year. Her mouth dried at the thought.

“When you’re ready, Captain.” Daned’s head tilted and his dark eyes burned into her.

Chae felt his look down to her toes. Now she couldn’t blame the swift reaction of her body to him on the invading venom. No, she could blame it on closing her fist around pure black crystal. Her gaze flicked over his tailored and too-conservative suit. She wanted to see what lay beneath—again—and her smile deepened. “I think you’ll have to change.”

He frowned and suspicion lit his eyes. “Change?”

“You have to know I don’t take passengers. And I don’t need a co-pilot.” She gave him a short smile. They’d stacked the game in her favor to set up their little scheme. “And I did win you fair and right.”

“Yes, we investigated you, Captain Beyon. I was assigned to this mission and to you for a reason. Now…” He waved his arm to the far end of the long room. Light eased back the heavy shadows and revealed a hairline seam in the gray metal. “It’s time to go.”

Unease itched up her spine. How far had these people investigated her? Her current occupation as a barely legal cargo runner was bad enough. Did they know about her life before that, working for her mother’s employer?

Chae pushed down those thoughts. Who cared how far they’d dug into her past if she got to see Daned practically naked. She pushed the sliver of crystal into her boot, the softened leather enclosing it, hiding it from prying eyes. She straightened. “So you really don’t mind being seen as bought flesh?”

A thin smile cut his mouth. “People will wonder how you could ever afford me.”

Govan ran a quick hand over his thinning hair, a scowl tightening his face. “Enough.” He let out a slow breath. “You have six standard hours to reach Ladaia-prime.”

Chae blinked. All right, cutting it fine. But her ship was gamma-class, a thing of beauty and speed. Rift lock would flow by in minutes, not hours. “How am I identified as a decoy?” She glanced at Daned. “Having him on board?”

“The princes have spies everywhere. All Inner Circle members from every Family monitor each other. No doubt they’ll be aware of our time in the gaming rooms in Khovd to some degree.” Daned pressed a palm to the metal wall and it glowed around his imprint. With a groan, a door slid back, revealing a narrow corridor beyond. “Don’t worry, Captain, they will be following us. As long as they’re unsure where the principal is, we’re doing our job and keeping him safe.”

He led the way down the narrow corridor. Chae had no choice but to follow Daned as Govan waved her ahead of him. Trapped between the two men, she was marched toward another door set at the end of the long corridor. “So an empty throne has you so regimented?”

“Our throne, the sunder-seld, has been without a dynasty for nearly a hundred years.” Govan’s deep voice echoed off the metal walls. She could almost hear the start of a long and no doubt boring lecture on Ladaian history. Her shoulders sagged. His breathing changed, tightening with his tension. Yes, she was pissing him off. “Without the throne, we fall back into our initial patterns.”

Chae laughed. “So you’re all in your factory settings. That must be dull.”

Govan muttered under his breath, a string of guttural-sounding words that probably cursed her. “Maybe you would prefer to submit to the Host, long for the taste of blood and bone in your mouth, let it run hot into your belly?”

Her stomach cramped involuntarily. She had no idea why her body reacted at the single word
Host.
It made no sense. But…they
had
pumped her full of crap to get her to their dark little den, so they could’ve easily added another drug to make her freak over one stupid word. She cut short her answer as Daned opened the narrow door onto another small room. A table sat on the middle and on it a box lit by the room’s single light.

Govan stopped and his expression tightened. “I’ll wait here.”

“What? Why?” But the door shut with a dull clunk, sealing her into the small space with Daned. Her fingers pressed against her lips before she realized what she was doing. She straightened her shoulders and fixed a bright grin to her mouth. She was not panicking. “Alone at last.”

“Yes, we are.” And Daned slid his gaze to her as he loosened the collar of his shirt.

Chae pulled in a tight breath and fought the quick pounding of her heart. Yes, the panic had surged into an entirely different emotion. Her hands balled into fists and she held them behind her back because the need to help him remove his clothes, to tease and touch his hot skin, powered through her. His steady gaze scorched her and his fingers moved, tugging open convenient tabs.

“Early payment? Or just getting into your role?” she asked.

“Bought flesh wears the mark of its owner.” He shrugged out of his jacket and shirt and dropped them across the table. His hands moved to his trousers as he toed off his boots. “And for that I have to be naked.”

Chae bit back a grin. “Yes, yes, you do.”

Daned lifted an eyebrow as his trousers joined his other clothes. “I told you I was assigned to you for a reason.”

“So your investigations revealed that I’ve bought flesh.” Chae took a step closer. Her eagerness irked her, but she couldn’t help herself. His warm scent eased through the stale, dry air of the room and she had to pull it into her lungs. Her lips tingled. Damn it, she wanted to taste him. “Did you do in-depth research?”

The brief, hard smile that cut his mouth made her blood pound. “You’ve obviously not met anyone from the Traern family before.”

“No, I haven’t.” Her gaze darted involuntarily over his strong, lean perfection. Hell, he looked grown, something brewed in a laboratory and then molded into a stunning—and expensive—specimen. He was right. She could never afford him. Handy to have won him in a rigged game then. “So you all look like this?”

Daned glanced down at his nakedness, running a hand over his flat stomach. The brush of skin against skin rippled a shiver through her flesh. Without thought, she caught her fingers in her hair and they tightened into a fist. The pounding in her chest almost made her head light, and it was suddenly hard to breathe. What was this? The overwhelming attraction, the lust gripping her…it just wasn’t her. A knot twisted hard in her gut. Was it something else they’d influenced? Though lusting after Daned distracted her, which couldn’t be exactly safe.

He looked up and a brief flare of wickedness shone in his gaze. “Yes, we do.” He opened the small box on the table and lifted out the thin wrought gold that would form his costume. The single light sparked over shifting metal laid across his open palms. Daned raised an eyebrow. “I know you’ve done this before, Captain. Suddenly shy?”

Chae glared at him. She wouldn’t admit that she’d never wrapped gold before. The lesser Igasho metals, yes, but never gold. Her owning of flesh had never stretched to such an expensive…bauble. She closed the short distance between them and took the long strings from his upturned hands. The living tech bound into the gold ran a tingle through her skin. “Did your wealthy prince buy these too? The growers are usually rabid about their live gold.”

“You don’t have to worry about the details.” Daned straightened and lifted his chin, but he watched her and dark humor gleamed. “I’m getting cold, Captain.”

“I doubt this will warm you.” Chae pressed her hand to his shoulder, the live gold writhing against her palm as it bonded her to him. She forced herself to breathe evenly as her palm eased the tech-embedded metal over the hard curve of his pectoral muscle. Damn, it shouldn’t be this difficult. She’d wrapped flesh before, but the bodies she ran her hands over had simply been passive, unresponsive…hadn’t felt real. The binding brought them life, activating the cybernetics at their core.

Daned’s heart beat strong and even under her palm. His strength, the intoxicating scent wreathing around her, drew her in as the living gold bound him. Heat burned in her cheeks as the warming metal moved with her, molding to the satin-smooth skin of his stomach. The need to follow the run of molten gold, to press it into his muscles with her mouth, tease the bonding with her tongue, forced her to close her eyes and pause.

“Captain?”

His voice, low and too close, made her bite her bottom lip. What was wrong with her? Shit, had it been that long since she’d had a man
not
grown in a vat? “I definitely couldn’t afford you.”

“And that’s a part of the decoy. People will wonder where you got the credit to buy me.”