Athena’s Ashes (Star Thief Chronicles #2)(36)
Author: Jamie Grey

“I need you,” she whispered. “Now.”

With a growl, Finn rose above her, positioning himself between her thighs before thrusting into her. She gasped as he stretched and filled her, deep enough that she could feel him at her very core. Slowly he slid himself in and out, teasing her, testing her. Each movement made her body convulse, heat and pleasure surging through her until her eyes rolled back and she let herself escape into the feelings.

His fingers traced her jaw, and he lowered himself to kiss her again, still keeping up the slow, intense thrusts that were driving her insane.

Renna’s whole body trembled at his touch, screaming for release. She moaned against his lips, then grabbed his ass, hoping to force him to go faster, to ride her until she exploded.

“Please, Finn,” she begged, arching her back and trying to climb inside him.

He stroked her cheek with a single finger. “Only if you call me Nick.”

Her eyes flew open. “Nick?”

“My name. No one uses it. I’d like you to be the only one.”

Something warm and soft flowed through her chest. Was she worthy of this kind of intimacy? Especially with him? She pulled his mouth back to hers. “I want you, Nick,” she whispered as she kissed him.

He groaned, thrusting hard and deep, and all other thoughts flew from her mind. Renna gasped as he gathered her into his arms and flipped onto his back. “Ride me, Renna. I want to watch you as you come apart.”

She smiled seductively. “My pleasure.” Renna slid down the length of him, her fingers tracing his ni**les as he filled her. She could feel him, rock hard inside her as she rocked against him.

He grabbed her hips, holding her to him, then thrust into her, harder and harder until they were both panting. Finn captured her hands in his and pulled her down until their foreheads touched and their breaths mingled. As their gazes met, something wordless passed between them. Something she hadn’t felt in years. Love. A promise of more.

Renna’s heart clenched as emotions flooded through her, emotions she thought she’d buried long ago. But being with Finn had awakened them, had opened her to them again. And this time she wasn’t going to deny them.

Beneath her, Finn began to move again, his eyes never leaving hers. The pressure built inside her like a glowing star, and with one last thrust, it went supernova, shattering her from the inside out. She let out a low cry and shuddered as wave after wave of pleasure flowed through her. Finn’s gaze wavered as his own release neared, and a moment later he went stiff, groaning as he came.

Renna collapsed, draping herself over Finn’s body. She rested her head on his chest, listening to his heartbeat. Her eyelids drifted shut, despite wanting to caress every plane of his body and then begin again.

Finn brushed her hair back from her face and kissed her forehead. “I missed you, Renna.”

“I missed you, too, Nick.”

She felt him smile against her skin. “I like hearing you say my name. Knowing that you’re the only one who uses it. It’s like a secret.”

“I like it, too.” She slid off him, nestling herself against his body, snuggled securely under the covers with her head still on his shoulder. “Don’t go anywhere. Just need a few minutes to rest my eyes.”

“Sounds like a plan,” he agreed, pulling her even closer.

Renna smiled as she drifted off. She felt content for the first time since this whole thing had begun.

TWENTY-TWO

Renna jerked awake the next morning as Jayla’s voice filled the room.

“Crew, we’ll be landing on Hera III in an hour. Please prep for landing.”

The intercom snapped off, and Renna snuggled her cheek against Finn’s bare chest. His arm tightened around her.

“Just think,” she said. “We get the drug from Wall, Dr. Aldani does his thing, and I’ll be back to normal. And then we can get on with hunting down Samil.”

“I’m going to enjoy making her pay for all of this,” Finn said. “I trusted the doctor. I thought we were friends. For her do to this…”

“I don’t understand it,” Renna said, tracing a finger through the dark hair that dusted Finn’s chest. “She has everything. What could MYTH possibly have taken from her?”

Finn shook his head. “I wish I knew. Samil kept to herself when she served on the Athena. She was always friendly, but never gave any indication she wanted to get personal, so I left her alone. Now I wish I’d made the effort to get to know her.”

“We’ll figure it out. Maybe it doesn’t even matter. She’s evil and has to be stopped. Simple as that.”

“Fair enough,” he said, voice rumbling beneath her ear. “I’ll be happy to put this all behind us.”

“I think we all will.” She raised her head to look at him. “In the meantime, I think we have a better way to spend the next hour than talking about her, don’t you?”

Finn grinned. “I certainly do.”

When the Eris landed at the spaceport in New Queensland, the crew immediately started the prep for a quick take-off. Commander Jayla and Lieutenant Blake stayed on board, while Renna, Viktis, and Finn trekked to the edge of the city to find a speeder.

Wall had agreed to meet them in his new compound and had sent the coordinates to Viktis through a secure comm channel. When the spaceport on Lenue was destroyed in Navang’s attack, Wall had relocated his drug production facility to Hera III, a tiny planet on the edge of Coalition space.

The government had tried terraforming it, to bring in settlers from Earth, but the planet was as stubborn as its indigenous species—a willowy group of aliens who called themselves the F’Obon. They towered over the humans at seven feet, with long thin necks and perfectly round heads. Their leathery skin protected them from the harsh winds that blew across the dusty terrain.

The humans who stayed behind when the Coalition left formed a settlement in a protected valley, where they harvested the spindly cactus-like plants to use in medical dispensaries. New Queensland had roughly fifty-thousand residents, squished into apartments and adobe houses, who spent their days either searching for or processing the plants for shipment off-world.

It was the perfect place for Wall to retreat to.

“What the hell is taking so long?” Finn growled, crossing his arms.

Viktis lounged against the crumbling rock wall that marked the edge of the dusty plain and the beginning of civilization. He shrugged. “The settlers on this world run on their own time. No sense in getting impatient.”