Rayven's Keep. Kylie Wolft

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СКАЧАТЬ got her off-world though, didn’t it?” Seth said.

      “Yeah, I guess. The problem is, if she recognized me then someone else might have as well. It could explain how our names got connected. Damn it, the trip was supposed to be a quick in and out without any fanfare. Only the head of Geotern knew the day I planned to be there and he was invested in keeping it quiet. Hell, I even dressed like a friggin’ transport pilot to blend in.”

      Seth snorted and shook his head. Even Callen stopped working to stare.

      “What?” Nick snapped, daring either of them to say anything. When they suddenly became interested elsewhere, he grinned. Sometimes it was good to be the boss.

      He stood, grabbed his chair and spun it back in place. He had too much to do to spend time in idle speculation about Tru. There was the small matter of the package delivery. It had priority above his own curiosity.

      Idly, he scratched his jaw, felt the rough stubble on his face and grimaced at the dirt under his fingernails. His beard annoyed him and the grit left over from Lodestone irritated places it shouldn’t have reached. Standing under a shower was just what he needed to wash away some of his annoyance from this trip.

      As he sauntered out of the hidden room, he made sure the panel slid back into place behind him. He crossed through the front office and headed toward the stairs. He took them two at a time, and reached the top without being out of breath. Long strides took him to his suite of rooms at the opposite end of the hallway from Tru. Shutting his bedroom door, he took a deep breath and allowed some of the cares of the day to drop away.

      A place to belong was important to him, as with the others. His home was his sanctuary. Losing everything that mattered to him after Tonlith’s destruction had been a blow he’d never gotten over. After the disastrous final battle, he’d drifted from one world to the next, never satisfied, always restless. Angry. Disillusioned.

      By sheer accident he’d discovered Seth in the middle of a bar fight, outnumbered, bloody and refusing to quit. Nick had been amazed the man had any fight left in him, but he had no interest in getting involved. About to turn away, he’d stopped dead in his tracks when he heard the man taunting his attackers in a language he never thought to hear again. It had snapped his attention back to the man.

      Nick hadn’t heard Tonlithian spoken in at least a year. A long, barren year. It was reason enough to wade into the brawl and help the other man. Maybe a good fight was just what he’d needed after all and hearing his native language soothed his battered soul. Introductions would wait.

      After it was over, the two were barely standing. The same couldn’t be said for their opponents.

      A seedy bar, in a rough and tumble town on the world Euphonie, had been the last place Nick ever thought he’d find a fellow exile. For the first time he’d allowed himself to consider if they had survived impossible odds, then maybe others had too. It ignited a spark in both men and laid the groundwork for a strong friendship. Eventually, they found Wulf and then Callen. Theirs was a bond forged from the fires of war and the consequences, which had cast them adrift. Something none of them would ever forget.

      When the idea for Rayven Security was born, they agreed on the planet Alludra as their base. The surrounding land was close enough to what they remembered of Tonlith to bring them all a measure of comfort. It was a start.

      Shaking off his memories, Nick shed his clothing as he headed for the rain shower. The hot water was a welcome relief as it flowed over taut muscles and sloughed off the gritty dirt clinging to him. Closing his eyes, he placed his hands on the tiled wall in front of him and bowed his head, letting the water run in rivulets down his skin. His mind buzzed with unanswered questions and most of them seemed to lead back to Tru. Every time she got near, his body reacted, leaving him in a semi-aroused state, and it was playing hell with his nerves. The first time she raised those incredible blue eyes to his had been like a punch to his solar plexus and left him scrambling to form a coherent thought. That jolt, that sizzle of bone deep awareness hadn’t stopped since, if anything it had gotten worse. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d been so affected by a woman.

      Growling, he slapped the wall and firmly pushed the images of Tru out of his mind. He had a job to do and he was not going to let hormones get in his way. What he needed was a quick trip to the pleasure houses in Glendoran to take care of his sexual needs. Maybe then, he could ignore the attraction heating his blood whenever she was around. A simple solution and one he needed to find time for.

      The water had long since cooled before Nick shut it off. He grabbed a drying cloth draped it low on his hips and secured it with a quick fold. Moisture hung heavy in the air, and he wiped condensation off the sink mirror, getting a good look at himself in the process. Deciding there wasn’t much he could do about his looks other than shave off the whiskers wasn’t much comfort. His face looked lived-in, hard and unforgiving. The scar dissecting his eyebrow was a constant reminder of things he would rather forget. He’d been lucky the shrapnel hadn’t cut his eye. He had learned to live with his past, had found a reason to keep living, but it had been hard won and it showed.

      A droplet of water from his wet hair dripped onto his chest and traced a meandering path from his collarbone to the tattoo over his heart. Nick brushed the artistically scrolled letters, removing the water. The men in his unit had each sported the same tattoo design after a memorable shore leave. Reaching for his shaver, he ignored the flash of grief and concentrated on getting rid of the stubble on his face.

       Chapter 6

      Tru did her best not to tug at the hem of the large shirt she wore. To get a better fit, she fastened her wide leather belt loosely over her hips. It added some definition to the material, but the fact remained this was a man’s clothing and dwarfed her smaller frame. She debated putting her jacket on over the shirt, but it was filthy and she couldn’t bring herself to do it. The drawstring pants Seth supplied were impossible to keep up and too easy to trip over, even if she wore the scuffed and oversized boots she’d arrived in to give her added height. After a serious internal debate, Tru opted not to wear them and risk falling in an embarrassing heap when she walked.

      Dressed in an acceptable manner, the shirt covering her from neck to knees, she still felt exposed and vulnerable. She shoved a long sleeve up past her elbow but it slid down to cover her hand again. Unsure of what to do next, she perched on a chair in the bedroom and tried to ignore the butterflies dancing in her stomach.

      What did she know about Nick Rayven other than what she’d learned through research? If she were going to be being honest with herself, she would have to admit her imagination had cast Nick in the same mold as many of the men she knew. Urbane. Successful. Sophisticated.

      After spending a brief time with him, she understood her naive assessment bore little resemblance to the man himself. He was tough, commanding and impatient, but he also made her knees go weak when he looked at her and had shown kindness when she was the most in need of it. He was everything she hadn’t known she wanted, until she met him.

      Still, she was stranded on an unfamiliar planet and in the company of a man she knew almost nothing about. Granted, he’d been polite and considerate of her well-being, but he could also have been plotting to hold her for ransom, for all she knew. Her family was well known for its wealth and payoff demands were not unheard of among the more affluent families on her world. It gave her pause. Attraction aside, she needed to be cautious.

      An overactive imagination had led her into trouble more times than she could count, and once the idea of ransom demands took hold, she couldn’t shake it. One horrible scenario after another whirled through her mind. Tying herself in knots, she took a steadying breath and stopped her train СКАЧАТЬ