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He shot her a salute. “Got it, boss. And you never know, this could be fun.”

Cleo didn’t reply, although the smile on her face told him everything. She was excited to do something different.

She never complained, but Hunter knew Cleo got cabin fever from being stuck on the Apocalypse. And the only time they got to leave was to go to these soul sucking meetings at the bequest of High Command and be talked at for hours.

“Just half an hour,” Cleo said. “No longer.”

“Whatever you say.” This was just what she needed, time to cut loose and do what she excelled in. Cleo deserved the best, and Hunter was determined to give it to her, even if she didn’t realize she wanted him to.

***

Excitement rippledthrough Cleo as they approached the planet, and she saw the first hint of rock and water as they descended through the clouds. She’d missed the adrenaline buzz of getting her hands dirty and doing real work. Not that dealing with the demands of High Command wasn’t real. It was all too real.

“The signal is coming from the south-east quadrant.” Cleo leaned forward in her seat.

“Already on it,” Hunter said. “I’ll find somewhere level for us to land.”

His deep, rumbling voice always made her insides shake a little. If only she’d known what the future held for them, she’d never have acted recklessly and hooked up with him for that one blissful night. A night she kept reminding herself was a one-off. A woman only got one chance to have six out-of-this-world orgasms all in the same night.

Cleo forced herself not to think about Hunter and the knee trembling effect he had on her. Instead, she focused on the signal on the planet’s surface. “It’s still strong, so I don’t think it’s a system blip. There’s definitely something down there. Once we get close enough, the ship should detect what animal it is.”

“There’s not much else around to mess with the signal,” Hunter said. “This place was abandoned over two hundred and fifty years ago because of tectonic plate instability. A whole city got swallowed up when a huge quake hit.”

“Which means we won’t get disturbed while we look around.”

“And we can take our time doing that.” Hunter flashed her a smile. “Sound good?”

She grinned back at him. “It does.” Her gaze locked onto his fingers as he altered the ship’s course and they headed lower. Those fingers were magic. The things he’d done to her when they’d been together that night. She slammed those thoughts to the back of her mind. It was ancient history. She’d decided they couldn’t be together.

Cleo forced her gaze away and pretended to look at the scenery. But she was still a woman with needs, a woman who hadn’t been with a guy since she’d let Hunter into her bed, and onto her couch, and into her shower.

And it wasn’t like she didn’t enjoy a good time in bed, but she was always so busy. It didn’t help that a lot of guys were intimidated by her because she ran a star cruiser. A star cruiser with a stellar reputation for getting results. And results didn’t happen by screwing a member of the crew.

Although Hunter never blinked at her being in charge. He probably found it a turn on to have screwed the boss.

No! She had to keep her professional hat on, and that meant her underwear was glued in place when it came to Hunter. There would be no hot Apexian for her.

“I’ll set down on that flat piece of land close to the trees,” Hunter said. “It’s only a ten-minute walk to the signal location. It’s the closest I can get us.”

“That will do.”

“And the air is breathable, so we won’t need to take respirators.”

“Even if we find nothing, it’ll be good to stretch our legs.” Cleo itched to see something different than the inside of a ship. She loved the Apocalypse, but sometimes, she longed for dirt under her nails and the wind on her skin.

“I have a good feeling about this place,” Hunter said. “Something is waiting for us out there.”

Cleo had never met an Apexian who was so driven by his feelings until she’d been introduced to Hunter. High Command had partnered with the Apexians because of their skills as fighters. They were a warrior race and trained from an early age to become experts at killing and defense. They also had incredible healing abilities and came with the handy ability to transfer some of that healing energy. That skill had saved her crews’ lives on several occasions.

The partnership between humans and Apexians worked well. Although she silently wished they weren’t so damn hot. Why couldn’t they come with tentacles, slime, or noxious breath? No, they had to be tall, muscled, and made most women go weak at the knees every time they entered a room.

And they were so dominant, but in a non-dickhead way. They didn’t sneer or strut around flexing their muscles all the time. They didn’t need to. They knew they were too damn good to peacock it in front of anyone.

Once the ship had docked, they took five minutes to grab supplies and a tracker, and then headed out. Hunter went first, surveying the landscape, his muscled arms tight as he looked for any danger.

“It’s all clear,” he said.

Cleo followed behind him. She sucked in a deep breath of the odd smelling air and grinned. This felt like she was back in training. She had almost a decade of experience working in species conservation on Earth, but had spent six months in an intensive training program to get familiar with the planets and animals they’d encounter in their conservation and rescue work. They’d visited dozens of planets and encountered so many odd animals that her head had spun. These days, it felt routine, but mainly because she didn’t get to experience this.