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Orion shrugged off his jacket and draped it over her. She didn't budge.
How she’d managed to sleep on the freezing floor of the dock, Orion had no idea. There was that weight again.
I did this.
Orion dismissed it and opened the hatch to the cockpit. Bending down, he slid his arms under her limp form, taking care not to dislodge the jacket.
Her skin was ice against his bare arms as he climbed the short set of stairs into the cockpit. He linked his NS up to the ship’s CPU and signaled the copilot’s chair to recline. She muttered something against his skin as he positioned her in the seat, securing the jacket around her sides.
“I’ll fetch a pilot,” the dockmaster said behind him.
“No. I’ll fly.”
The man looked pained as he floundered. “I don’t think your mother would wa—”
“Last I checked, my mother has no authority over theZenithdock.” Orion’s voice was low as he eyed the man.
After a few moments of strained silence, the dockmaster stepped back and closed his eyes, subvocalizing something into his NS. When he opened them again, he looked a little more relaxed.
“All right, sir. She’s all yours.”
CHAPTER38
KAIA
The pain in her skull forced her awake, but all Kaia wanted to do was shove her face deeper into whatever softness she was lying on and never open her eyes again.
She flopped onto her stomach and scrunched her hands into the fabric underneath her, hugging it against her chest. Except it wasn’t just the headache. She was hot—too hot. She kicked her leg out from under whatever heavy thing covered her, only to realize there was nothing there. She was boiling all on her own.
Ugh.
She peeled her eyes open, squinting in preparation for whatever light was about to pierce her eyeballs.
Instead of eyeball-piercing, she saw dim, blurry outlines.
She was in a bed. An unusually firm one. Was she back on Riker 109?
No. This bed wasn’t lumpy enough to be Riker 109.
Shit… theZenith. She must be back in thatsuite. How long had it taken before he found and hauled her back there? And what had he done after?
Kaia’s head throbbed as she pushed herself upright, slowly taking in the surroundings.
It was the warm charcoal walls that first jogged her recognition. TheZenithwas bright white and cyan, blinding. Her cabin onColossalwas a light eggshell. But these walls—she’d seen these before.
Her monster had taken her back to his lair.
High-pitched ringing rose in her ears. She curled a fist into her sternum as her chest constricted. Air wheezed down her throat, but didn’t seem to fill her lungs. Her eyes were glued to the open doorway.
She stayed like that for an eternity, listening for anything past the sound of the buzzing in her ears or the pounding in her head. Was he out there? Was he waiting?
It turned out he wasn’t. When she forced her aching body out of bed to limp around the suite, she found it empty. Kaia’s throat was a parched husk. She’d never been so thirsty—getting used to drinking all that H2O had her hooked, wrecking her well-honed ability to survive on minimal hydration.
She took the liberty of getting a shot of water from Orion’s hydra station and downing it at once, followed by two more. She didn’t much care about his drinking allowance right now, or making Orion run out of it.
Now that she was up and not lying in a pool of her own sweat, Kaia realized the room was actually pretty cold. She looked down at the oversized T-shirt that came down to her knees. She didn’t want to think about how he’d gotten that on her. And she was sure it was him… Orion wouldn’t have the decency to have Alina do it. The coffee-mint scent of it made a sick lump rise in her throat. It brought back flashes of being chased, and pinned, and of his metallic finger in her mouth, eyes burning, locked on her tongue as he made her swallow his exorin.
Fifty-fifty shot, princess…
