“You’ll take me with you? But where are you going?”
“Three, two—”
“I’m going with you.” I didn’t care much where we went. I’d take my chances with Isaak one-on-one. Even if he turned out to be a bad guy, I’d rather deal with just one than an entire dome full of criminals hunting me.
He nodded, then took my hand and started running. I had to sprint to keep up with his long legs, careful to keep the titan stick up and away from my feet. I kept it turned on. Well, I had no idea how to turn it off. It wasn’t like a toy light saber with a button that I could find. Every once in a while, it would hit the wall and sparks would fly.
“Stop doing that,” he snapped over his shoulder. “You’ll draw too much attention.”
I looked around. We were sprinting through corridors lined with people. Some held more than others, but still. “We’re running. People are already looking at us.”
“People run. Nothing new. But there’s only one titan stick on this rock, and everyone knows exactly who it belongs to. And it’s not you.” He was barely breathing hard, and I had to admire his stamina. My adrenaline rush was on the downward spiral, and I was running on fumes.
“Shit.” So, I’d stolen slimy-tail’s famous weapon? And it was one of a kind?
I couldn’t help the grin, the smile growing to a full-blown cheek buster the more I thought about it. Good. I hoped the thing cost a fortune. But I did make sure not to strike any more walls.
We ran for what felt like forever but was probably only a few minutes. I was gasping by the time we reached what looked like a huge ship holding area. There was one gigantic exit that seemed to be closed in with a forcefield of some kind. Very SciFi Channel. Beyond that, I saw nothing but blackness. And stars. No blue sky and mountains. No trees. Nothing but barren rocks and… space.
I froze in awe. I was really and truly in outer space. Like, walk on the moon, go to Mars, go to Trion, outer freaking space. “Holy shit.”
“Fark.” Isaak pulled me to one side, hard enough that I stumbled into him.
“Hey! What—”
He cut me off with a kiss. Um, what? His mouth was on mine.
On. Mine.
Holy hell, did he know how to kiss! After the day I’d had, I sank into it, let myself enjoy the heat of him pressed to my body, the feel of his hand burning into my hip. The other cradled the back of my head like I was treasured. His heat seeped into me, and I realized this place was cold. Scary and horrible and cold. And I very much needed to be warm.
Long moments passed, and I kissed him back, not even taking time to wonder why he was kissing me here, now. I rolled the taste of him around on my tongue. His flavor was like exotic whiskey and man. I wondered what he’d been drinking to make him so… delicious or if it was just him.
I melted. My mind screamed at me that this was insane, but my body and my soul had taken enough for the day. Both needed one good moment to rest. To heal. To not be scared out of our collective fucking mind because within two minutes of transporting off of Earth, life had been one hell after another.
“Gara.” Isaak tore his mouth from mine, and I would have slumped into the wall next to me if not for his hands still wrapped around me. “Fark.” His dark eyes roved over my face, rested on my lips as if he wanted to go back for seconds. And thirds. “I should not have done that.”
I blinked. Tried to think. Found the task to be extremely difficult while drowning in his stare. I licked my lips, trying to get more of his taste. “Why did you?”
“We are being hunted.” He used his gaze to motion over my shoulder, and I turned my head as far as his grip in my hair would allow to see two frighteningly massive aliens wearing red arm bands, waving weapons around and yelling at a small group of people. “They are looking for a couple fleeing, not kissing.”
I blinked, tried to clear my muzzy head. “These are the people who work for Cerberus,” I said, trying to understand.
He nodded. “Cerberus is the leader of the Cerberus legion on Rogue 5. To you, it means nothing. To the rest of the galaxy, it means trouble. Big trouble. The red arm band signifies their allegiance to him, to the legion and to all they stand for, none of it good.”
The fantasy bubble burst, and my brain took control in one second flat. “Where is your ship?” I didn’t pull away from him because I didn’t want to move enough to draw attention. We were in trouble here. The kiss might have delayed the bad guys seeing us while doing a quick scan of the busy landing bay, but we wouldn't be able to hide forever. And there were probably more of the bad guys from this… Cerberus legion coming.
Using my hair, he gently turned my face toward him. “Behind me. Three docks down on the left.”
Without moving my head, I peeked around the corner wall, where we’d been hiding in a kind of nook lined with beams, to see spaceship-sized parking spaces painted on the floor in bright, reflective orange. Each space had a strange set of symbols on them. The ship he’d indicated was smaller than the rest. Much smaller. “The little one?”
His spine stiffened, and his chest rose, rubbing against my all-too sensitive nipples. I drew in a sharp breath as he answered me. “My ship is built for stealth.” His voice was low and practically snarled. Yeah, even guys in space had size issues.
“Okay. But can it make the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs?”
