Page 227 of Gladiators of the Vagabond Boxset

I had to admit that leaving to go God knows where with Sunder sounded appealing. Knowing that he’d arranged for someone to be there to warn us when the boys needed us—that also felt good. I just wondered how wise it was to trust a male who’d only last week been stoned out of his mind.

“I will call on your com the moment I hear a disturbance,” Uron said, his expression uncomfortable as his black eyes darted between Sunder and me.

I hadn’t stepped out into the hallway yet, not until Sunder offered me his hand.

When I took it, I found myself out of my room in moments, and Uron sidled inside, the door swishing shut behind him.

“Lock it,” Sunder ordered me gruffly. I had my hand on the lock, doing as he said before I had even contemplated the implications.

Was this another way to keep the guard from falling back into old habits?

Was I okay with the guard spending time in my room—unsupervised?

It made me slightly uncomfortable, but I didn’t have anything lying around that could implicate me.

My com, with pictures of Kimar, her mate, and Amar, was on my wrist. The datapad was locked, and since I regularly left it in my room, I’d made sure nothing was on it.

“What the heck is going on? Where are we going?” I asked Sunder. He hadn’t let go of my hand yet, and I wasn’t about to point that out. He led me to the courtyard without saying a word or explaining a thing, the cold air a slap in the face when we stepped outside.

“We’re going for a little flight,” Sunder finally responded, and then I was finally where I’d been dreaming of being again: his arms wrapped around my waist, his front pressing against mine.

His head dipped, deep gray eyes boring into mine.

I thought for sure he was about to kiss me.

My heart was pounding, and my fingers were digging into his shoulders.

He grinned, sharp tusks and fangs glittering from between dark, luscious lips.

His eyes twinkled with surprising mischief.

The next moment, my feet left the ground with a single beat of his huge wings.

I yelped, my stomach abruptly staying behind in that courtyard as we soared into the cool sky.

Any noise I made was muffled when his mouth covered mine, heat spiraling into me from the point of contact.

I opened for him, forgetting about the ground and about my stomach full of nerves.

Eagerly, I delved into that kiss, his taste of spice and heat, the protective way he held me in his arms, and the way I clung to him with my arms and legs.

This was the last thing I expected him to do, but I wasn’t going to deny myself that kind of pleasure.

He pulled away before I was ready, my fingers digging into the thick column of his neck, trying to hold him close.

A rough chuckle warmed the air between us.

“I have to see where I’m flying us, my Fire.

” My eyes shot open, my languorous mood disappearing when I took in the rapidly disappearing palace below us.

I didn’t think I had a fear of heights, but I wasn’t sure how much I liked being this high up in the air, with only Sunder’s arms to hold me.

“In the sky, sound carries,” he whispered against my ear, his lips brushing against the soft shell, tusks tangling in my hair.

The wind was whipping my clothing, blowing the sound of his voice away from me.

I scanned the palace, the scattering of many outbuildings, and the towering walls that surrounded the place.

I spotted the long swaths of farmland where they grew the disgusting Roka.

My eyes snagged on the silhouettes of several spaceships parked on the landing strip.

It wasn’t until we were over the forest, the verdant green glowing in the pale blue moonlight, that I realized what he meant.

The bastard had just kissed me to silence me, and that took some of the rosy glow filling my belly away.

I didn’t like being played with like this; I wasn’t just somebody’s convenient toy when they felt like it.

I had sat around, waiting for whatever attention one of my exes wanted to dole out to me once, I’d sworn I’d never go down that road again.

I should give him a piece of my mind about this.

After I’d told my hormones to back down, they were still very much on board with jumping his bones.

My eyes spotted an irregularity between the trees, something too straight to be anything but man-made.

Was that our destination? I should have realized this was anything but an outing for a good talk; he was taking me somewhere important.

I felt a wave of excitement. Maybe I’d forgive him for that sneaky kiss.

I was dying to get in on the action. I was desperate to do something so we could finally escape.

Sunder swung us around the structure in a wide circle, carefully slowing down as we approached.

My eyes had adjusted to the dark as best they could, but I still couldn’t make out many details, just a small tower, a thin spire rising at the top.

There were no lights, but I thought I saw a dark panel at the base, maybe a door.

We landed between the trees, Sunder deftly maneuvering us beneath the luscious canopy.

His big wings were huge, displacing a lot of air, but somehow their wingbeats were quiet, and our landing was just a soft rustling when our feet touched moss.

I stumbled, my legs weak as I unclamped them from around his waist. He caught my fall with an arm and a wing cupping around my back.

The thick, leathery membrane was shockingly firm and much more like skin than his actual skin was.

“Steady?” he asked. He’d dropped his voice into a low whisper, so I followed suit, eschewing making any noise at all.

I nodded, my hands still clinging to his wide chest for a moment longer.

The night around us was filled with animal noises, alien insects buzzing, some kind of bird screeching, and rustling in the nearby underbrush.

It seemed prudent to stay as close to him as I could, especially after what I’d read about the wildlife out here.

Did Sunder even know? Probably. He’d known about the lizards in the courtyard, after all.

We approached the small tower silently, my hand firmly clasped around one of his big paws.

I was so close to his heels that I could feel the tip of his tail brushing against my leg as it flicked back and forth.

The thick metal door was recessed in a heavy concrete frame, and I pressed my back to the stone while Sunder bent himself over the lock.

I scanned the dark night, my ears alert for any sound. “Can you get that door open?” I whispered, and was answered by an insulted-sounding snort. I took that to mean that he most definitely could, and now I really wondered why he’d even bothered to take me with him.