Page 100 of Gladiators of the Vagabond Boxset

Chloe

I woke up like everything was normal. My heartbeat was steady, and my body felt warm and safe, with a hint of that typical medbay smell.

My brain felt crystal clear too; I could remember, down to the strangest detail, my collapse behind the nav-console during our fourth jump.

I should open my eyes and see where I was.

Blinking my eyelids, I realized nothing had changed.

With a sinking feeling, I realized my eyes had already been open, but everything was still completely dark.

Now a little panic made my heart race; was it just really dark in the medbay?

I was otherwise feeling perfectly fine, so Kitan and the Doc had gotten me the help I needed, hadn’t they?

I tried lifting a hand, only to realize there was a warm weight on it.

When I moved my fingers, the weight shifted and moved.

“Chloe?” Kitan’s voice made everything okay.

So what if it was dark here? As long as I had him at my side, everything was going to be alright.

“Kitan,” I croaked, my mouth dry. There was rustling, the weight disappeared from my hand, and then, suddenly, a straw was pressed against my lips.

“Here, my mate, drink some water. It will help.” I greedily sucked up the cold water through the straw, feeling more alert by the minute.

The darkness was freaking me out a little, but I could deal with that. I was alive, at least.

Trapping Kitan’s hand when he started to move the cup away, I asked, “Did the surgery work? How long was I out for?” I wanted to feel the back of my head with my other hand to test the site of the port.

I refrained because I didn’t want to disturb anything if it was still healing. There was no pain, so I was hopeful.

Kitan took the cup away, the sound indicating that he put it down somewhere. Then his hands came to cup my face. His forehead pressed against mine, and I relished the contact. His breath filtered across my lips, making my toes curl beneath the blankets.

“You were out for two months while we got you to the surgeon and while you recovered afterward. You’re now aboard the Vagabond, in your room.

Doc took you off the meds that kept you sedated while you recovered last night.

” He let out a shudder that sounded like it came from deep, deep inside him.

Two months was a long time; it must have been agonizing waiting all that time.

I felt along his shoulders, letting the pads of my fingers be my guide to locate the nape of his neck and pull him in for a kiss.

“I’m back now, Kitan. I made it,” I said with a sigh.

Another shudder wracked his body, and I felt another pinch of fear.

Nothing penetrated my darkness, but I didn’t need to see to know that there was something he wasn’t telling me.

“Did the new implant work? Tell me what’s wrong, Kitan. I know you’re hiding something.”

There was a moment where the silence made me think he wasn’t going to say a thing, but he kept holding me—kept that point of contact between our foreheads.

Even while I strained to decipher anything, to see his face in the dark, it was impossible.

So when, in a husky rumble, he said, “There was some damage to portions of your brain. It seems the portion where you translate input from your eyes…was most heavily hit.”

Ah, so it wasn’t dark in the room—I was blind.

“Okay,” I said to Kitan, “is that all?” Beneath the blankets that covered me from chest to toes, I tried to take stock of my body.

Was I able to move everything? Feel everything?

I thought so. Being blind was not the end of the world, even if it sucked.

Honestly, though? I felt like laughing in joy.

For so long, I thought I was going to die…

That to live, and live a life with Kitan?

Paying the price of losing my eyesight somehow seemed small in comparison.

“Okay? That’s all you’ve got to say?” Kitan asked incredulously, which made my laughter bubble out of my throat.

I slid my hands along his nape and forward, so I was cupping his slightly stubbly chin. “Yeah, it’s a small price to pay for getting to spend my life with you.” There wasn’t even a shred of doubt in my mind that Kitan would still want me even if I couldn’t see.

He made a low sound in his throat, and then his hands slid off my face and into my hair, pulling me closer and kissing me with fervor.

He held nothing back in that kiss, and soon I was moaning, pressing myself up against his hard chest, my legs moving restlessly.

I wanted him; I wanted to reaffirm life with him. But first, I needed to wash up.

Kitan assisted me carefully out of the bed.

Though stasis had kept my muscles healthy and strong, I had no trouble making my way across my quarters.

It was a little disorienting not to be able to rely on sight, but Kitan guided me by the elbow into the small shower unit and helped me undress.

“Your implant has had all the time needed to heal and fully integrate,” he assured me as he slipped the oversized shirt I wore over my head.

“If you wanted to, I think you’d be safe to navigate the Vagabond right this instant. ”

I laughed, my body twitching in excitement at the thought of plugging in without fear and really taking this ship for a ride with Kitan.

“Shower, sex, food,” I told him, “and then we fly.” Kitan groaned as if my words excited him, or maybe it was just my naked body.

I felt the heat of him scald my skin as he followed me into the tiny shower unit, water cascading over both of us and washing away the slightly icky feeling of having lain still for as long as I had.

He washed me with soapy hands from top to bottom and I moaned at the intense sensations each touch invoked.

Without sight, every touch seemed far more intense.

He started with my back, enveloping me in his arms, my face against his chest as he ran his hands up and down my spine.

He cupped my bottom and knelt at my feet, his crown brushing against my hips as he soaped up my legs with careful hands.

Using his shoulders for balance, I was still surprised when his lips whispered across my hipbone, nearly causing me to tumble.

My body felt more alive than I could remember, and when his soapy hands brushed tenderly across my belly, my arms, and my breasts, I felt as though my legs wouldn’t hold me up for much longer.

Kitan soaped up my hair and rinsed everything out, taking care of me so tenderly that arousal took a backseat to the love I felt rushing through me—his love and my own for him in return.

Drying off when we got out of the shower was as careful and tender a moment as washing had been.

Now, though, Kitan designed each brush of the towel to enhance my arousal, ratcheting it up a notch by touching or not touching the spots desperate for it.

I squeaked when he suddenly picked me up, growling low in his throat, his chest vibrating against my bare skin.

He was still slick and wet, but he was clearly out of tender patience now, pinning my body to the bed with an arm across my hips.

His mouth found the neediest spot between my thighs and licked along my slit.

“Chloe! I missed this,” he groaned, and then he didn’t let up until I’d shouted his name during a crashing orgasm.

It wasn’t enough. I needed him inside of me to make this reunion perfect.

He was more than willing to oblige. When I yanked at his hair, pulling him up my body so I could desperately seek out his mouth, he was laughing.

It turned into a husky groan when I clamped my legs around his narrow hips and rubbed my wet mound against his erection.

It throbbed and pulsed and felt divine. Unerringly, I grabbed it with a hand and lined us up.

Kitan needed no further urging to surge home inside of me.

We found our pleasure together fast and quick, my orgasm blasting through me with a burst of colors behind my eyelids that I shouldn’t have been able to see.

The nubbed texture at the top of his shaft glided along my clit with each push and pull of his hips.

Soon, I was there again, this time clamping down hard on him as we spiraled, unraveled into pleasure together.

I might not have eyesight any longer, but I had my mate, my friends, and a ship to fly. Life couldn’t be more perfect.

***

Thorin

“You wanted to see me?” I demanded the moment I barged into the ready room off the bridge.

Ziame and Abby had claimed the space as their office, so it was no surprise to see both of them kitty-corner at the huge desk that dominated the space.

Of course, Ziame was so big that he made the damn desk look tiny.

He was sitting with his knees pressed up beneath the table, body hunched down so he could peruse the data on the pad in front of him.

Both of them looked up as soon as they saw me, Abby giving me a friendly smile while Ziame just growled some indecipherable greeting in his native tongue.

“Have a seat,” Abby said, gesturing at the pair of mismatched, scuffed chairs in front of the desk.

That made me feel far too much like being called into the principal’s office at school, so I just propped myself against a wall, stretching out my leg and ignoring the dull ache in it.

“Or not,” she grumbled, hiding what was clearly a smile. I had a soft spot for the brave female with hair as curly as my own. “What’s up?” I demanded when they didn’t start talking. I had other things to do than stand here. Okay, that was a lie. They just didn’t need to know I’d gotten injured.