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Her stomach dropped. She thought he was referencing the same thing he’d brought up in the shower. A wave of fluttery nervousness swept over her.
“Thatmade you go uncharacteristically quiet,” he observed. “Except for your heart. That part is loud.”
“That’s creepy,” she said, pulling a laugh from him.
“I’ve got good hearing, Lucca. I’ve always been able to hear your heart.” He gave another hard tug at the door before grunting, “Do you want me to break this door? Because I will if you don’t let me go.”
“I want you to fix the air leak,” she said.
“Unrelated…”
“I… don’t want any accidents.”
He relented. “Fine. Stop the ship. I’ll patch it. And after that—”
She swallowed so hard that there was no doubt he heard it. “You meanright now.” Her voice was hoarse and nervous.
“Yes, Lucca. Stop the ship. Raise your battlements. After that, I’m coming after you.”
CHAPTER19
LUCCA
A descending tone hummed through the hull right as she finalized what she was doing. The gravity vanished and she grappled for her terminal, activating those last necessary changes.
“Motherfucker. At least give me a minute to—”
Her words bled into a scream as she twisted to find Caligherright the fuckbehind her.
He tore her from the chair in a heartbeat, dragging her against his body. She fought for her life, disoriented by the lack of downward force. And she didn’t even register that he’d lifted her translator until he held it in front of their faces, one solid arm looped around her neck.
“What is this?” he asked mockingly. She could vaguely understand his foreign words.“You needed a translator to hide your identity?”
Her mind spun. This was how it would have unfolded if they’d started off with the truth. She swiped for the thing but he lifted it out of reach, spinning her to face him. A look of scornful amusement stuck to his face as he toyed with the precious device. “What else do you have that doesn’t belong to you? This ship?”
“Give it back!”
“It’s not yours anymore.” He dangled it carelessly in the air. “Nothing on this ship belongs to you. Not the hull. Not the helm. Not even this little earpiece.”
His eyes blatantly crawled over her body as if he meant to add her to that list. It sent an angry rush through her veins. With a ‘come and try me’expression, he tipped his head back, popped the translator into his mouth, and swallowed it whole—holding her stare the entire time.
What.
The actual fuck.
Angry disbelief stunned her.
“You can’t do that!” she exploded.
He circled her in a quick lap, sizing up the living creature he’d caught. The air brightened with the smell of a storm just before his breath brushed her ear, sending inappropriate tingles through the boiling infuriation and straight to her traitorous core. Her heart pumped dangerously fast, triggering her fight or flight—but a different kind of instinct kicked in underneath.
He stopped directly behind her.
“I’ll give you a small head-start, human, but when I catch up with you…”
She knew what would happen. It made her tremble hard enough that she nearly surrendered right then and there.
He kicked off the race by whispering a single word directly into her ear.
