“Just the ones I expected,” she said. “The ones that were built in.”
“What I found wasn’t built in,” he said. “They were added to the computer system. I also found some in the trays of food the catering service left.”
“I expected that,” she said.
“Me, too.” He slid out. His cheek had a scrape on the left side, and a scratch on the right. He’d clearly wedged himself into some very tight places.
“You want to double check the engine room?” she asked.
“I wouldn’t know what I was looking for,” he said. “You might want to check for more of these things.”
He held out that handful of chips toward him.
“If someone put those in the engine, the ship wouldn’t run,” she said. “I did check to make sure no one had tampered with it or with the controls. I reset everything to factory levels, then I customized it, and did it all again. I looked for add-ons and things missing. Nothing came up.”
“We’re not going to lurch when the ship leaves the port?” he asked with just the trace of a smile. This man was resilient, if he could smile about nearly dying just a few hours ago.
“Not if I can help it,” she said.
“Did you check the living quarters?” he asked.
“I thought you were going to do that,” she said, staring at those chips.
His smile grew. “I did. I meant, have you looked at them?”
“No,” she said, feeling wary. “Why?”
“Five suites, and eight single cabins. We could take a crew out in this thing.”
“It’ll fly with just the two of us,” she said.
He laughed. “You are determined to miss my point. This thing is amazing.”
“Oh,” she said with a bit of a smile. “It is.”
“I think we should just take it somewhere we haven’t been before, and try every one of the beds.”
She laughed and blushed at the same time. “You thought of that?”
“You haven’t?” he asked. Then he touched his forehead with the heel of his other hand as if he had forgotten something. “That’s right. You haven’t had the time to inspect the important stuff.”
“Jack,” she protested.
“I think bedrooms are important,” he said. “Although I do have a fondness for cockpit floors.”
Her cheeks grew hot. “We have to get out of here safely.”
“Yes, we do,” he said. “And then we’re on no timetable but our own.”
She hadn’t thought of that. It made her breathless.
“We have research to do,” she said primly.
“And I think we need some sleep,” he said. “But then.…”
She laughed again. “Then we’ll check out some of the other beds.”
“And maybe,” he said, “the cockpit floor.”
Chapter 37
The third bed they tried turned out to be Jack’s favorite. Not because it was the first bed he actually fit in, although it was, but because he learned something about Skye’s body that made her coo.
He wasn’t sure she was aware she had cooed. She probably would have told him that she “ooed,” but she had made a sound that was uniquely her and something she probably didn’t even know she could do.
Just the thought of that sound made him want to replicate it. He shifted slightly on the bed, so grateful that his feet didn’t hang off the end and that he didn’t have to worry about hitting his head on the low ceiling. The suite itself was magnificent, with built-in upholstered chairs, a table, and trim that looked like real wood.
He would have inspected all of it, if he weren’t so interested in the woman beside him.
She had a hand behind her head, her eyes twinkling as she smiled up at him. “We’re like teenagers,” she said.
“And that’s a problem how?” he asked. Then he frowned. “You’re not saying that I am a bit too excitable?”
She laughed, and slid her hand down his flank. That simple soft gesture would have made him hard if he hadn’t already been. She was like candy to him. Candy and alcohol and the best burgers in the universe, things he couldn’t get enough of.
He’d never felt like this about a woman.
She slid her legs around his hips, then used her heels to guide him. Her hands played with his back, her mouth found his, and he was lost in sensation. Skin against skin, the tip of him pushing against her dampness, his tongue exploring the inside of her mouth as if he’d never explored it before.
But he had: her taste was familiar to him already, and the lower half of his body knew exactly where to go.
He slipped inside her slowly, rubbing against that spot that made her coo, and she did it again while her mouth was against his. He pulled her closer, her feet pushed him upward, and the rhythm started. He could barely control it, hitting that spot one more time.
She made a different sound of pleasure, a new one, and he slid all the way in. He buried himself in her, not moving, feeling her around him. She disentangled her mouth from his.
“Don’t slow down,” she said.
He smiled. “But slow drives you crazy.”
“C’mon,” she said. “Not slow.”
But he ignored that. Slow made her even wetter, made her moan, made her tilt her head back so he could find that spot on her neck that made her grab him so hard he felt like he could fuse with her.
“Now,” she said, her head back, his mouth on her neck. He felt the words as she spoke them. “Please.”
The please got him. He moved in and out just a bit faster. Her hands grabbed his buttocks and pushed him deeper, and all idea of control left him. He started a rhythm that she matched, then she sped it up, he kept up, and her hands fell to the side of the bed. He’d obviously hit the rhythm she wanted, and that was the last coherent thought he’d had for some time, lost in her, the taste and smell of her, the feel of her against him, the thought of her—
And then he lost that last bit of control, pouring himself inside her. She matched his pulsing or maybe he just thought so because his orgasm was so powerful that he felt like he was turning himself inside out.
He collapsed on her, unable to support himself by his elbows. When he realized what he’d done—and he wasn’t sure how long that was—he tried to push up, but she grabbed him again, those hands on his buttocks, which should have been (were, if he were honest) arousing, but he was exhausted too.
“We need sleep,” he said.
“Okay,” she said, and that was all he remembered for a very, very long time.
Chapter 38
He woke up hours later, still inside her—or as close as he could be without being aroused. Her hands touched on his hips, her head on his shoulder. He had rolled to one side at one point, but he still rested on her left thigh. Her leg had to be asleep, and one of her arms had to be asleep. He was probably crushing her and she hadn’t yet noticed.
He tried to ease off her, but she moaned and flexed her hands, holding him. He waited a moment. She sighed, still asleep, and didn’t move. He had to.
He needed to know if they were being followed. He needed to check a whole bunch of things. He wanted to stay in bed with her, but he also needed a shower, actual rest, some food, and a lot of information.
Jack continued to inch himself off her, managing to do so without waking her. She did clutch at him one
