Born of Ice Read online

  "Shh," he said, keeping her against him to calm her down. "I'm not accusing you of being a whore." Damn, what had her father and his crew done to her? "I just don't want you to think that part of your duties on this ship is to take care of me when I'm horny. Ever."

  Alix calmed down as she saw the sincerity in his eyes. Why did he have to be so sweet and handsome?

  Why do I have to betray the only decent man I've ever met? It was so unfair.

  "Okay," she whispered. "I just know that men have needs and when you can't get what you want, you take what's available. I won't bother you again."

  Devyn wrapped his arms around her, preventing her from retrieving her pants from the floor. "Alix... I had the chance on Nera to sleep with the most amazing redhead I've ever seen. She was all over me before I got drunk and believe me, she all but had me naked."

  Those words made her ache. "You are such an asshole to tell me that." Then she frowned at his confession, not understanding it. "Why didn't you sleep with her?"

  "Because she wasn't you."

  "I'm confused again."

  He took her hand into his and led it to his cock, which was already starting to harden again. "Like you said, you're the one who did this to me. I didn't want what was available, Alix. I wanted you."

  "Why?"

  Devyn was aghast at the fact that she couldn't accept the fact that he was attracted to her because she was hotter than hell. "You're smart. Funny. Fearless, and you come without all the shit and drama most women carry. You don't play head games. You don't tell me you're all right when you're not. You're competent, not whiny ... and the gods know I've had it with whiny, incompetent women who can't look after themselves." He buried his hand in her hair. "And you have the most beautiful hair and eyes I've ever seen. Best of all you not only get my sarcasm, you dish it back." He grinned at her. "I like a woman with sass."

  She moaned as he dipped his head down to kiss her again. His cock hardened even more while he trapped her hand between their bodies.

  He pulled back to growl before he jerked his shirt off over his head. Taking her hand, he urged her up and pulled her into his bathroom. She froze as she saw how nice it was. Three times the size of hers, it had gold fixtures and black marble. Everything was so beautiful...It was like a dream.

  He released her so that he could turn the shower on. While he adjusted the water, she removed her top and bra.

  Her breath caught as she watched the play of muscles under his skin. He was absolutely gorgeous. With the exception of several severe scars, his body was perfect.

  And when he turned around to smile at her, she shivered. He held his hand out toward her. "Care to join me?"

  She took his hand and allowed him to pull her inside where the hot water slid sensually against her skin.

  Devyn grabbed the washcloth and soap so that he could quickly bathe himself, then turned to lather her body.

  Alix sighed in pleasure as Devyn gently bathed her breasts. He used his hands and the cloth to heighten the pleasure until she was hungry again. And when he nudged her legs apart to bathe the center of her body, she could barely stand. He pressed her back against the wall while his fingers toyed with her. She trembled as his breath caressed her skin. He circled her earlobe before tracing the entire outline of her ear with his tongue.

  She came again with an orgasm so fierce it made a mockery of her earlier one. He gave a low, light laugh in her ear as he sank down before her.

  His grin was infectious as he looked up at her and captured her gaze. Breathless, she was still recovering when he took her into his mouth.

  She let out a delighted squeal.

  "Oh... my..." Her head spun as he gave her three more orgasms.

  Only then did he slide himself up her body and enter her again.

  Devyn closed his eyes as he savored every inch of her body while he thrust against her. This was what he'd been craving for days. The scent and feel of her was unlike anything he'd ever known.

  And when he came, he had his face and hand buried in the wet strands of her long hair.

  Alix cradled Devyn against her while the water continued to pelt down on them. "Aren't we wasting resources?"

  He laughed. "You're the only one who would think of that right now." Pulling back, he kissed her fiercely.

  She moaned at the taste of him.

  He finally released her and quickly bathed himself while she watched. She felt suddenly awkward as she tried to cover herself with her hands. Should she leave?

  Was she dismissed now that he was done with her?

  Just as she started to go, he caught her for another stunning kiss.

  He wiped a strand of hair back from her face before he gently nipped her chin. "You look really uncomfortable right now, so I'll leave you to finish." He placed his washcloth in her hand. "I hope you'll stay with me tonight and not go back to your room." He stepped away, then paused. "And that's not an order, Alix. I don't want you there unless you want to be there."

  Those words brought a lump to her throat. "I'll stay."

  He nipped her lips, then left her alone.

  What am I doing? I have to hand him over to the authorities. And they were going to ruin and then kill him. How would she ever live with herself?

  *

  Devyn frowned as Alix came out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around her. She twisted one corner of it. He found the uncertainty of her gesture absolutely charming and adorable. "Um...I need my nightclothes out of my room."

  He pulled the covers back. "No, you don't."

  She arched a single questioning brow that charmed him even more. "You want me to sleep naked... with you?"

  "Not like I haven't seen you."

  "What about Sway and Vik?"

  "I don't want to sleep naked with them."

  Her face turned bright pink. "That's not what I meant."

  "I know. It's okay. I promise, I just want to hold you while I sleep. I assure you I don't have enough energy left to do anything else."

  Alix hesitated before she crossed the room. She'd never done anything like this before. And the scariest part was how much she wanted to sleep with him like that.

  This is wrong.

  Even so, she climbed under the covers before she removed her towel.

  Devyn wrapped his arms around her and pulled her back against his front. "Thank you for staying."

  She wanted to thank him, too, but right now she couldn't speak. She was too overwhelmed by everything that had happened. With his kindness and consideration. How did someone learn to be so nice?

  Especially to someone like her, who definitely didn't deserve anything except his scorn and hatred.

  And just as she started to doze, his link buzzed. She jumped at the same time he cursed.

  Rolling over, he grabbed the earpiece. He inserted it, then tapped it to open the channel. "Yeah, Mom... No, I'm not exercising or fighting. I was trying to go to sleep." He let out a tired sigh as he listened to her. "Yeah. I'll call in the morning. Love you, too." He slid a sheepish glance to Alix before he made a kissing sound for his mom.

  She bit back a smile as he returned the link to his nightstand. "That's very sweet."

  "Humiliating, you mean."

  "I find it refreshing that you show her respect. Most men wouldn't."

  He laughed out loud. "You say that only because you've never met my mom. You show her respect or she kicks your ass. Trust me, she's small but vicious."

  "I'm sure she never kicked yours."

  "You'd be surprised. She was loving, but tough at times. My mom doesn't take lip from anyone... except maybe Vik. And she has never taken it from me. Her basic philosophy is, 'I brought you into this world and I will take you out of it.'" He returned to holding her close.

  "I don't think your mom would ever really hurt you."

  "Let's just say I have no intention of finding out." He buried his face in her hair and inhaled deeply.

  She swallowed as she looked down at his arm draped over her. His skin was so dark compared to hers. His fingers long and lean. Powerful and beautiful. A part of her warmed at the memory of how they'd felt while they pleased her.

  And as she absorbed the warmth of his body snuggled next to hers, tenderness for him choked her. She should be sorry over what they'd done tonight, but she couldn't muster that feeling. She'd wanted him, and now she knew exactly how kind Devyn Kell could be.

  Even when he was drunk...

  Alix lay there for hours, listening to him breathe as he slept.

  And she hated herself for what she was about to do. I have no choice.

  Getting up carefully so as not to wake him, she made her way to his computer. With any luck, Vik wouldn't be monitoring it since it was Devyn's. Surely the captain's computer would be immune from the mecha's snooping.

  Her heart pounding, she touched the pad to bring it out of sleep mode. The monitor flashed as it came online. She glanced at Devyn to make sure he was still asleep before she searched for old manifests.

  She touched the first file that came up to open it.

  Instead of a spreadsheet, it was a picture of a young Devyn sitting on the shoulders of a man who looked so similar in features that she was sure it was his father. The only difference was the feral gleam in his father's eyes. It was as if he could look through and see straight into her soul even through the photograph.

  He must be truly terrifying in person. As intense and powerful as Devyn was, he had nothing on the man who'd created him. There was no mistaking the ruthless killer that lived inside his father.

  She touched back and then went to the next file. It was a list of cargo...

  That told her nothing. It looked like a million other legal shipping documents. So she moved on.

  "What are you doing?"

  She jumped at Devyn's low, sharp tone as she quickly closed the file and her search. Luckily, he was still in bed and not making any moves to see what she was looking at. "I--I was trying to pull up the ship's core to make sure everything was holding."

  Devyn yawned. "Come back to bed and don't worry about it. Vik'll let us know if something happens. He'll know before it even reaches the sys scan."

  She clicked out so that he couldn't find her search and returned to bed.

  But as she lay there, she couldn't stop trembling.

  That had been too close. Had he gotten up, he'd have seen her search...

  "Are you all right?"

  She nodded. "Fine."

  "Why are you shaking?"

  "Cold."

  He nuzzled her neck and wrapped his arms tight around her as he held her even closer. Every inch of that lean, hard body was pressed against hers. Protective. Sweet. Wicked. "I'll warm you."

  I'm so going to burn in oblivion for this... But every time she felt guilty about handing him over, all she had to do was see the face of her mother and sister and her conscience was squelched.

  She hoped...

  And yet lying here in his arms, she'd never felt safer.

  Cherished.

  He doesn't feel like that toward you. He was just a man with an itch and you were a convenient body for him. You don't even know him.

  That was hard to say convincingly since he was naked with her. She definitely knew him now... his touch and scent were branded in her memory. Rolling over, she stared at the handsome planes of his face. With his eyes closed, he looked almost vulnerable.

  Except for his hands. They were still rugged even while the rest of him was relaxed. And as she lay there, watching him, she couldn't help wondering what it would be like to have a man like him in her life. One who would be there for her when she needed him.

  One who could love her.

  She didn't dare dream of a husband. She was too used and too tired to even go there.

  But deep inside, in a place where she was almost afraid to look, was a tiny kernel of hope that her father's cruelty hadn't slaughtered. That little flickering light ignited and tortured her with images of a home and someone like Devyn who could love her in spite of everything.

  You're such a moping fool.

  How many times in her life would she be kicked in the teeth by fate before she learned that happy endings and happiness didn't belong to gutter trash like her? It was for free women who were born into nice, normal families.

  Yeah, but what if?

  Reaching up, she laid her hand against his cheek. His whiskers prickled her palm. And for a minute, she imagined the life she wished she had.

  And that unrealistic dream was what sent her off into the most blissful sleep of her life.

  Devyn came awake to something pressing hard against his back. At first he thought he was asleep in his pilot's chair, until he heard a light, gentle snore.

  Alix.

  A slow smile curled his lips as he rolled over to find her knee in his back and her hand in his hair. The low lights highlighted just enough of her bare body to make him instantly hard.

  It was so confusing to be attracted to a woman who looked this much like his ex in the face. There was nothing else they shared, except for the way his body reacted. He should be well satisfied after last night and yet ...

  He wanted a bite of her succulent skin.

  "Devyn?"

  He sighed at the mecha's low voice. No doubt he'd been monitoring his vitals to know when he was awake. "What, Vik?"

  "There's something strange that I'm picking up. I think you might want to come up here and look at it."

  "Can't you shoot it to my computer in here?"

  "I really think you need to come up here and look at it."

  That set off the alarms inside him. What was going on? Vik wasn't one to be coy when it was something that threatened them.

  Grateful Alix was still asleep, he slid out of bed and quickly dressed, then went to the bridge.

  The lights came up immediately.

  Devyn went to his chair. "Where's Sway?"

  "Asleep."

  "Okay, then what's up?"

  Vik transferred data to the main computer in front of him. "I think we're tagged." Tagged meant that someone had a tracer on them and was able to track them.

  "Who?"

  "No idea and it's real sophisticated. Something your father would come up with."

  Devyn arched a brow at that. When it came to computers and electronics, his father was unrivaled. "Dad wouldn't have bugged me covertly." He knew what devices his father had planted on the ship and in his chronometer. His parents were paranoid as hell, but at least they were openly obnoxious about it. "Can you jam the signal?"

  "Let me get back to the part where I said it's like something your father would come up with."

  "He also came up with you, Vik."

  "Flattery right now might get you shot. I've been trying to isolate it, but it's impressive. I've tried jamming and everything else. Whatever it is, it's beyond my abilities."

  That was extremely interesting. And concerning as hell. "Who would have done something like this?"

  "Someone wanting to keep tabs on you. Since we don't know who, I think it best we assume they're hostile."

  Devyn snorted at a comment so stupid he couldn't believe it'd come out of Vik's mouth. "You think?"

  "Oh, sarcasm will definitely get you shot. Especially at this time of the day."

  "Sorry, V. You know that's my stress release."

  "I suggest you learn to channel that into a new direction that won't end up with you bleeding on the floor."

  "Thanks, Vik. Love you, too, man. Just out of curiosity, why couldn't you tell me this in my room?"

  He hesitated before he answered. "Because I'm not too sure Alix isn't the source of it."

  Devyn's stomach hit the floor as every alarm in his body went into high alert. "What do you mean?"

  "I have suspicions where she's concerned."

  Al technically weren't capable of being suspicious. But Devyn's father had wired a human central nervous system into Vik, and more than that, he'd crossbred human DNA with some of his wiring. While Vik may not have been born from a mother, he was damn near human in all ways.

  All ways.

  Which meant that his powers of observation were above reproach. If he was suspicious, Alix was basically guilty of something.

  "What's tripped your concerns?"

  "Can't put my finger on it and that's pissing me off. Just that I've caught her trying to access some of our records. Shipping manifests and cargo inventory."

  "That could be natural curiosity. If I were on a ship and could go to jail for my duties, I'd want to know what we were carrying, too."

  "Perhaps. But it feels weird to me."

  Devyn would argue if he hadn't had such a bad experience with Clotilde. After that, he'd lost all faith in his ability to judge people. Vik had never liked that bitch and if he'd listened to Vik then, it would have saved him an eternity of grief.

  He pushed himself away from his console. "Keep an eye on her and let me know if you see anything concrete."

  "I take it that you don't want me to watch her while she's with you."

  "Goes without saying."

  "Thought so. By the way, she's awake and getting dressed in your room."

  Shit. But if she was an enemy, then he shouldn't care what she did. Something much easier said than done.

  This definitely wasn't what he'd wanted to wake up to. Licking Alix for a few hours... now that had been the plan. "By the way, thanks for ruining my plans for the morning, Vik. Appreciate it."

  "Ever my pleasure to irritate you, embryo."

  Sighing, Devyn headed for the door.

  "Can I ask a question?"

  He frowned as he paused in the middle of the bridge. "Sure."

  "I understand the physical nature of sex, but why didn't you sleep with your redhead at the station?"

  A wave of irritation went through him as he realized he'd been spied on. "Vik--"

  "Not my fault. Your heart rate increased, and I peeked only to make sure you were all right. I overheard that tiny bit and then immediately shut down my monitoring."

  He would be angry if monitoring his vitals wasn't part of Vik's duties. Besides, there was no real malice in Vik, only an innate curiosity about human relations. "It's complicated. There's sex, which, don't get me wrong, is a good thing. But it's not as good as when you have a connection to someone. That kind of sex is astronomical."

  "I don't understand."

  Devyn smiled. "Neither do I most days. It's just something about it is more satisfying when you're with someone you know." He looked up at the speaker. "It's one of those things you have to experience to understand, Vik."

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