Racing Hearts (Shadow Quest 4.5) (3 page)

Yet, underneath that hope, resentment
still thrived.

——

“What’s funny?” Vin demanded, still
reeling. She’d left him a trail to follow and he’d missed
it!

“I just figured you knew. You always
keep track of your finances.”

He mentally scolded himself. “I was a
little off that day.”

He remembered someone handing him a
bill, glancing over it without really seeing, and then signing on
the dotted line. It had been just after he had returned to their
room, found all her belongings gone, and had started his panicked
search for a pissed-off redhead.

Gods, he had thoroughly screwed things
up between them.

Had she used his credits in an attempt
at one last jab, or as a hint that she’d wanted him to follow
her?

His gut clenched, and he clung to the
idea like a dying man to his last breath. He studied her closer.
There was a stubborn shape to her lips, though she leaned back in
her chair, appearing completely at ease. Her crystal blue eyes were
audacious. He could get lost in their steely depths for hours. With
his gaze, he followed the smooth line of her jaw, wishing he could
have his nose buried in the crook of her neck while her nails
scraped along his scalp…his back.

His need for her doubled. He would have
followed her whether she wanted him to or not.

“You don’t really think this will work,
do you?” she asked, interrupting his thoughts.

He shrugged, feigning nonchalance. “I
don’t have a problem with it, but I’ll understand if you
do.”

As expected, she bristled. “You don’t
think I can remain professional? You’re not the center of
everyone’s universe, Vin.”

——

Priya mentally laughed at
the statement. At one point, he
had
been the center of her universe, but his ego
didn’t need that particular piece of news.

He smirked as if reading her thoughts.
“Tell me about Mister Solar Orbit.”

“What’s to say,” she hedged. “He’s
nice.”

“Just nice? That’s it?”

“Do you really want me to talk about
him?”

Him, who had been a fabricated lie in a
petty attempt to make Vin jealous—which didn’t seem to be
working.

“Does he make you laugh?” His voice
turned rough. “Make your blood fire?”

No one did that anymore.

She gulped. “He doesn’t hurt
me.”

He flinched and leaned back with his
finger crooked around the neck of his bottle. “S’pose that’s
something.”

The dance number ended and a new set of
girls took the stage. After watching them for a moment, Priya
glanced at Vin from the corner of her eye. His lips were pressed in
a hard line as he glared at his bottle. She wanted to ask him what
he was thinking, but that was something a girlfriend did and that
was no longer her place. The silence between them made her feel
like she was still light-years away.

“I shouldn’t have come,” she
blurted.

His head snapped up. “Of course you
should have. I bet you were just as excited as I was when you got
Aidan’s transmission.”

“Was
,” she emphasized.

His expression grew dark. “You hate me
that much?”

She shook her head, feeling a shadow of
gloom fall over her. “I don’t hate you…that much. You have to
admit, we’d make a pretty shitty team at the moment.”

“I told you, I don’t have a
problem—”

“I
have a problem with it,” she snapped.

His continued insistence that he felt
nothing grated on her.

She pinched the bridge of her nose. “In
the morning, I’m going to get a ticket back to Uli Rings. See if I
can get my job back.”

“So you’re just going to run away?
Again.”

She shot to her feet and scowled down
at him. “Here,” she said, giving him a handful of credit chips.
“Have a lap dance, on me.”

——

Vin discarded the chips on the table,
glowering after Priya as she walked away. He’d lost his taste for
lap dances the day she’d left, but her words cut him deep. Just as
she’d intended.

His eyes dipped to her ass, swaying in
that unconscious way that always drove him nuts. The turmoil inside
him turned violent. A voice in the back of his mind screamed that
he was about to lose her again.

Can’t lose something I don’t have, he
reasoned.

Ash and Zeek returned to the table. Vin
wondered how much of the show they had caught. Zeek offered him a
fresh ale. He took it and downed half before coming up for
air.

“That bad?” Zeek observed.

“Did you expect anything
else?”

“Honestly, I expected chairs to be
thrown across tables.”

“Then from that perspective, it went
pretty well.” Vin sucked down more booze before saying, “She’s
leaving tomorrow.”

Ash let out a sigh. “Aidan’s going to
be pissed.”

“Who gives a fuck how Aidan
feels?”

The two men went quiet for a moment.
Then Ash inquired, “How do you feel about it?”

How did he feel? He felt like someone
had chewed up his guts and spit them back out. Like his chest was
about to collapse into a black hole and take this damn spaceport
with it. Every muscle coiled with dread and urgency. But most of
all, he felt, if he let her go this time, he would be sucked down
the pit of despair that had nearly swallowed him the first time
she’d walked out of his life.

Without answering, he stood and bolted
toward the ship. Inside, he rushed toward his compartment and
rummaged through his things, snatching a small package and stuffing
it in his pocket.

On his way out, he passed
Aidan.

“How did it go?” Aidan yelled after
him.

“Don’t know yet!”

——

Entering her tiny room, Priya flopped
on the thin, lumpy mattress held up by the meager frame and placed
her arms behind her head. The lack of color on the metal walls
matched her dreary mood.

She closed her eyes and let out a
frustrated breath, remembering that terrible day. The day she’d
caught Vin with a leggy tramp draped over him, his gaze riveted to
her generous bosom. On her friggin’ birthday! She knew he’d seen
her standing there in the doorway, and he hadn’t even had the
gumption to look guilty.

A knock sounded. After a short debate,
she labored to her feet, knowing who it would be.

Vin straightened as she opened the
door, his russet eyes wary. “Can we speak?”

She crossed her arms in
answer.

Turning defiant, he pushed past her,
giving her a whiff of his musky scent. He smelled of hard work and
man. She used to worship that scent.

Stifling a sigh, she closed the door
and gave him her best stubborn expression. Yet, on the inside, she
was stupidly eager. He always did that to her. No matter how angry
she’d been at him, he could always make her want him.

Bastard.

Silence filled the space, coated by
tension.

Finally, he spoke. “I just came to tell
you I don’t want you to leave. I want to run Phase Nine with you,
and I want us to win.”

“Thank you for your opinion. I’ll take
it into consideration.”

His lips thinned.

“Is that it?”

“Yup.” He shrugged and lifted his palms
as if at a loss.

She stepped toward the door to let him
out, but suddenly found herself being pulled back by the waist.
Eyes wide, she flipped around in his arms. He’d made sure she was
off balance and had to grip his shoulders for support.

“No, that’s not it,” he hissed. “Why
did you leave without a word?”

“You know why.”

“I know what you
think
you saw.” His words
came out in a rush, as if he’d rehearsed them. “You know I was
angry with you that day. I was already pretty drunk when I saw you
at the club, and out of spite I let you think I was interested in
that woman.” Sorrow entered his eyes. He shook his head. “I never
assumed you’d disappear without railing at me.”

Averting her gaze, she swallowed the
lump that had built up in her throat. “You told me we were
finished.” She cursed the quiver in her voice. “When I saw you with
her, I knew it was true.”

“It was never true. Never,” he
insisted. “Still isn’t.”

His eyes locked on hers with such
intensity it stole her breath. Her heartbeat faltered as she
registered that familiar determination she used to love about
him.

Still loved about him.

He pressed his mouth to hers, and she
did nothing to dissuade him. His lips were soft and warm and molded
to hers, just as she remembered. Her body responded, melting under
the heat of his desire.

When he crushed her against his chest,
she felt something like desperation roll off him. Tilting her head,
she deepened the kiss. He took her cue, slipping his tongue past
the border of her parted lips.

His taste flooded her and became a drug
that fired in her veins, igniting her lust. A needy sound escaped
her, and she began to meet him with every sweep of his tongue. Her
arms latched around his neck as she pushed her body deeper into
his.

Just like that, she was
lost.

The kiss became demanding, as though
both were starved for each other. He inched her backwards till he
had her pressed against the wall, caged by his strong arms. The
cold metal rivaled the burning heat that had come over her. She
gave a soft moan. He responded with a rumbling, hungry groan. His
calloused hand slipped to her backside, while the other gripped the
small of her back.

Then his kiss turned sweet as his mouth
glided over hers, lazily nipping at her bottom lip. Slowly, he
moved to the soft curve of her jaw, stopping just below her
ear.

“Forgive me,” he whispered. His breath
caressed her skin.

Her mind cried to relent, but she held
back. “You can’t just kiss me and expect to be
forgiven.”

Against her neck, she felt his lips
curve into a smile. “How about a thousand kisses?”

“Try a million.”

Hard yet tender, his fingers gripped
her as though he would never let go. His mouth captured hers once
more. She placed her palms over his broad shoulders, bringing them
down his thick arms, reacquainting herself with each titillating
muscle. His smooth skin felt blissful under her touch.

Suddenly, he pulled back. “I have
something for you.”

She cocked her head. “What?” When he
reached into his pocket, she rolled her eyes. “Don’t be
cheeky.”

He laughed. “Where’s your mind
at?”

Then he presented her with a
rectangular box.

She raised a brow and took it, pulling
off the lid. Inside, a thin silver chain with a heart-shaped
pendant sparkled.

Anger flared.

She glared at him. “There
are no gift shops on this spaceport. Who did you
really
buy this
for?”

He took a step back, hurt. “I’ve had
that since the day you left. I bought it for you after I left the
club. Before I knew you’d gone.”

Her mouth fell open to speak, but
nothing came out.

“It was going to be a
please-don’t-be-mad bribe. I was going to grovel on my knees, like
this.” He dropped to the floor, his hands skating up her legs to
rest on her thighs as he looked up at her with emotion filled eyes.
“And I was going to say, I’m sorry I’m such an ass and if you don’t
like the necklace, I’ll get you something else.”

She felt her face frozen in shock. She
glanced down at the box. The corners were old and worn. When she
examined the pendant again, her memory stirred. A few days before
her birthday, she had not-so-subtly pointed it out to
him.

Her throat suddenly tightened and her
response came out breathy. “I would have said you are an ass, and I
love the necklace, and if you ever touch another woman again I will
shove it in a place that will take many doctors, many hours to
extract.”

He gave her a heart-stopping grin and
stood to kiss her with renewed hunger. Her arms clasped around his
neck and she hitched her legs around his waist. Taking her full
weight, he carried her to the bed, following her down onto the
mattress. He kissed her in quick succession, finding a new place
each time: the corner of her mouth, her cheek, her neck, her
shoulder, making his way to her cleavage.

The sensation made her
squirm.

She pulled at his shirt. He sat up to
shrug out of it, and then went for her dress. As he pushed the hem
up her thighs, he made sure to trail his hands along her skin,
making her shiver. He discarded the dress to the floor. His belt
and pants soon followed.