Seht turned his head away, breaking the kiss and panting for breath. “I thought I was imagining it, your scent. I could only catch the smallest hint under the stink of humans.”
Ravnos pressed his lips to Seht’s exposed jawline and swept his tongue along it.
“Comes from living among them.”
Seht snorted and tugged his wrists. “Release my hands.”
Ravnos grinned against Seht’s throat. “But I kind of like you like this. I like the way feel against me.” He bit down lightly on the long muscle and massaged it with his tongue.
Seht groaned and lifted his chin, exposing the length of his throat to Ravnos’s mouth. “I want to sheathe my weapons.”
Ravnos snorted and ground his erection against Seht’s. “Is that what you’re calling them these days?”
Seht groaned; then his lip curled in something close to a smile. “I was referring to my hands. They are going numb.” He licked his lips. “I wish to touch you. I need to touch you.”
The lift pinged, warning that the doors were about to open.
Sense splashed ice water through Ravnos’s veins. What the hell am I doing? He released Seht and jumped back.
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The Skeldhi prince lifted a silver brow and slid his sword and dagger into their respective sheaths with near-blinding speed. “Still shy?”
Ravnos kept a smile pasted to his lips. “Diplomatic courtesy.”
Seht frowned.
The doors parted, revealing a man in a plain black visor dressed in a severely understated black frockcoat and breeches tucked into flat black knee-high boots. His hands held no weapons with only a simple sword belted to his hip, but there was no mistaking the subtle scent of metal and hydraulic oils. The man was clearly a marine-class cyborg. Behind him stood six lightly armored men in dark blue fatigues emblazoned with the word “security” across their chests, bearing electro-spears.
The cyborg lifted his chin slightly. “Gentlemen.”
Ravnos forcibly kept his expression nonchalant but winced inwardly. Crap. It hadn’t even occurred to him to consider the security surveillance that had to have been in the lift. Fate only knew what kind of trouble he was in for his rather rash…conduct with the Skeldhi prince. He glanced over at Seht.
Seht met his glance and gave the smallest of smiles.
Ravnos stepped from the lift, followed closely by Seht.
The six spearmen stepped past Ravnos and Seht to crowd into the lift, followed by the cyborg.
Ravnos turned to stare in surprise. I’m not under arrest?
The cyborg grinned, winked, and the doors closed.
Seht snorted. “They are quite likely heading to the battle you just pulled me from, or did you forget?” His lips tilted upward with the hint of a smile.
Ravnos stiffened. He had forgotten. He shot a glare at the amused prince.
Seht’s brows lifted, and his lips curved upward into a definite smirk. “How nice to know that you find me so…distracting.” He took a step toward Ravnos.
Ravnos stepped back. Seht was distracting, too distracting. His worst nightmare had come true; he’d been discovered. Yet instead of fear, excitement was racing through him. Instead of considering ways to escape, his gloved hands clenched with the urge to grab Seht, find the nearest dark corner, and take him down to the floor so he could peel off all that gleaming black armor to get to the porcelain-pale skin that was under it, and…
Seht lunged forward lightning quick, grabbing Ravnos’s face with his hands. His mouth crashed onto Ravnos’s, and his tongue plunged past his parted lips.
118
Morgan Hawke
Chapter Nineteen
The flavor of Seht’s kiss bloomed on Ravnos’s tongue, triggering shudders of raw hunger. Practically devouring Seht’s lips and tongue, Ravnos caught the Skeldhi prince around the waist and crushed him to his chest, lifting the slighter man from his feet. He teetered slightly off balance and crashed backward into a wall. A quick twist and he was pressing Seht up against it, one knee jammed between the Skeldhi prince’s thighs.
Using his tongue and teeth to answer Ravnos’s kiss, Seht growled into his mouth, a low and liquid rumble. His fingers slid from Ravnos’s face to his shoulders, the long fingers digging in with bruising force. He turned his head sharply, breaking their kiss.
“I can’t feel a damned thing through this body armor.”
Ravnos grinned. “Yours or mine?”
Seht snorted. “Both.” The smile on his lips faded. “I searched everywhere for you.”
Pain speared Ravnos through the heart. He released Seht and stepped back, forcing a smile onto his lips. “I was somewhat…preoccupied.”
Seht’s brows rose. “Apparently so…Captain.” He nodded toward the silver braiding and the insignia on Ravnos’s coat and smiled. “So, what do you fly?”
Ravnos smiled broadly and tugged on his lapels to set his coat back in place. “A very big ship.” He nodded up the window-lined hallway before them and stepped toward it in silent inquiry.
Seht snorted. “A very big ship.” He stepped alongside Ravnos, matching strides.
“Why am I not surprised?”
Ravnos kept his gaze forward, his mouth shut, and the smile on his lips by force of will alone. Every ounce of pride urged him to tell Seht that he’d done well enough to have earned the captaincy of a demon-class dreadnaught, but he really had no interest in having his ship hounded all over known space by Skeldhi hunters.
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Seht’s brows rose. “You don’t intend to tell me.” It wasn’t a question.
Ravnos’s smile faded. “No.”
Seht nodded. “Wise decision.” His lips quirked into a sour smile. “You’re not as rash as you used to be.”
Ravnos winced and scratched the back of his head in embarrassment. “Oh, sure, if you don’t count charging into the middle of a battle to drag you into an elevator.”
Stupid rehkyt instincts…
Seht chuckled. “Well, some natural impulses are rather difficult to overcome.”
Ravnos very nearly growled. “Fine, rub it in.”
Seht tilted his head, and a small smile appeared. “Don’t mind if I do.” His smile faded, and he folded his hands behind him. “You have no idea how glad
