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Ghostly Desire

RIV

H e came to with a start.

Gasping, he levered himself upright.

His eyes stabbed through the darkness, not finding much light.

He ran his hands over his body and then slumped in relief. He was unharmed.

But where was he?

He tested his neural node and metanoids, and they wheeled inside him like sluggards, slow to fire up.

In time, his meta-sight adjusted for the gloominess.

He was in a storage hold.

Nada, scratch that—a cell within a small internal bay.

It was tiny, musty, reeked of old leather, stale Tansinian cloves, dust, and murkiness.

Riv’s breath hitched as a silhouette materialized in his nodal view.

His eyes locked onto a lilac iris staring at him from the shadows.

Fokk, it couldn’t be!

His mind reeled, and his heart beat so hard that the pounding bounced off the walls around him.

The singular gaze remained trained on him as a barrage of scents exploded.

Spice, blossoms, musk.

A fusion so rare it had never left him, not in all these years.

It had wafted into his dreams and haunted his waking hours. It’d often drifted into the air unannounced until it became an essence he conjured up by thought alone.

He’d yearned, pined, and ached for it over the years.

It was more potent than ever now because it was real and fokkin’ present.

The realization blew his mind and hit like a bolt of super-sized electrons.

He jerked and threw himself so hard his body thumped against a solid surface.

A wall with rusty bolts hanging precariously from the way one bit into his back, inflicting a shard of pain.

Nada.

His consciousness repeated the word as it reeled, and reality almost snapped into two.

With all the power he could muster, Riv forced his meta vision to focus. His noids probed until he made out a woman’s silhouette.

She crouched on the ground, glaring at him with singular focus through the transparent energy shield that separated them.

His soul twisted and wrenched, and he clamped hard on his lip to prevent the guttural cry that rose from inside him.

élisa .

His eyes raked her form with a hunger and need that had never left him.

He stared at the hypnotizing sight of her as he tensed with desire and yearning, ready to take her in that instant.

It was raw, it was excruciating, it was brutal.

The sinuous lines of her body called out to be caressed and held.

Her sensual lips and how they were now curved into a frown only heightened his rapid arousal.

The one eye, the only one he could make out, was lilac, bright, and luminous, and it threatened a storm.

The other lay shadowed under a contoured chrome patch covering her socket and upper cheek in an inverted V.

He started as he noted she’d lost her lodestone. A tiny violet gem surrounded by an intricate silver tattoo sat in its place.

He’d never seen her hair like it was now, pulled back in a severe ponytail that fell to a shimmering metallic river down her back.

His fingers itched to reach out and undo the knots.

To thread his fingers through it just like he’d done for hours, letting its sheen pass through like lustrous silk.

She still sported the pair of distinct chrome feathers she’d always had growing from the nape.

They’d been joined by three more, and they trailed down to mid-chest, even longer and silkier than he remembered.

Her essence flooded him. Taking him back to their early days when he’d made love to her non-stop.

Unbidden, unleashed, unstoppable until they were both undone for weeks on end.

Their pairing had always been so sacred and savage.

Images of kissing her rushed through his mind.

How he’d loved drinking from those ambrosia-laden lips that were sweet, tart, and heady, all at the same time.

How he’d spent hours buried in her silky, scented neck as she writhed underneath him. How her hands clutched his back, her nails raking his skin so hard it drew his silver blood.

Their frantic lovemaking had only heightened their senses and driven them mad with passion.

The thought alone was spiking his need. He caught the pheromones coming off his dermis, the eros of his lust mingling with the tiger-like redolence of his desire.

He sent a small command to his noids to pull back because she’d discern who he was the second she scented him.

Just like he was now sure of who she was.

He let his gaze fall on her form. Lithe, muscled, hard.

She was in a close-fitting jumpsuit that flowed over muscle and sinew. She’d pulled down the top of the suit and tied the arms at her waist to reveal jacked shoulders and silken skin covered in silver tattoos.

She was magnificent.

She was alive.

And she was here, within reach.

He growled to hold back his metanoids from surging through his body.

He forced a scowl to scurry on his face and clenched his jaw to stem the gush of wantonness that threatened to churn out of him and take over his senses.

It’d take just one second of weakness to pull the walls apart and wreck the sensor shield with his bare hands.

So he’d stride to her, gather her in his clasp, and cling to her forever.

While finding out where the fokk she’d been all these years!

His face froze in deep despair as he realise he could not reveal himself to her.

Not yet.

Chest heaving, he melded back to the wall behind him, not caring one iota about the raw-edged bolts cutting into him.

He only had eyes for her as they stared at each other.

Riv gazed across time, heartbreak, and sorrow, trying to create the illusion of casual disdain and anger at being captured. At the same time, his soul was mired in agitation.

Why, my love? Why?

His silent scream of righteous rage received no answer, and he reared up, about to surge to his feet and rush her, when he paused and slumped back.

It was what was in her hands that gave him pause.

He spotted a lethal blade, sharp enough to penetrate the energy barrier between them and sink into his chest if thrown with skill.

She turned it over as if deciding whether to let him live.

Wresting that weapon away from her would be simple.

Only if he were Riv.

Only if he were the man she’d loved way back when.

The Edenite, with dead straight silver hair that fell to his back in a long, smooth sheet with a braid to one side.

Her beloved, whose skin was pale, matching his white irised eyes, gave him the effect of a ghoul, albeit a very handsome one.

Her tall, ropey, muscled paramour, with whom she’d shared so much pleasure years ago.

Alas, what she perceived was nothing close to his true form.

Given that he was not Riv, he slumped back against the wall, reminding himself of his appearance in her eyes.

What she saw was a grizzled, bearded Galician miner with blue-black locks. His irises navy, his complexion dark like a desert nomad, his space suit rugged and worn.

Nothing like the man she’d once called her lover. Nor the groom she’d jilted at the altar.

The thought triggered his anguish, and he wanted to shout, scream, and rage at her. Why did you love me then leave me - without saying why?

Instead, he battled his soul and faked a glower.

‘Who are you?’

He jerked at her husky articulation, which sent bliss coursing through his veins, and took a harsh drag of air to restrain himself.

‘Who are you ?’ he countered in a whisper, even though he’d every fokkin ’ grip of what the response needed to be.

She cocked her head at his voice, reacting to his slight inflections and accented tones that he couldn’t conceal. He sighed in relief when there was no recognition in her single eye.

‘Someone who wants to know why you’ve been searching for me across the badlands, Galician.’

So she’d figured out his fake race but not his true identity.

His camouflage was holding up to scrutiny.

‘Says who?’ he drawled, with a twist to his lips.

‘Say all my contacts who tell me you’ve asked for me at all stops between here and the edge of the Sarisian jump point. Which is a vast region of space.’

He held his tongue, still reeling.

She tossed the knife and caught it in a perfect arc. ‘Did he send you?’

He raised a brow, his heart lurching. ‘He?’

Her mouth turned up in disdain. ‘Noab. Noab Hakim.’

Riv furrowed his forehead. ‘I’ve never come across him.’

Indeed, he hadn’t.

She huffed. ‘Everyone the breadth of the outer rim has, and if you haven’t, you’ve not operated in this backwater of Pegasi. Who are you, stranger, in a poor miner’s disguise?’

Little did she know.

He took his time replying, and impatience bloomed in her eye as she twirled her blade as if ready to toss it straight at his throat.

He’d deflect, of course, if she tried.

However, that would reveal he was a meta and, by virtue, an Edenite, which would give too much away before he was primed for their true encounter.

For now, he needed to appease her and find a way of gaining her trust.

‘You got me. The miner’s suit was a diversion, a pitiful one at that. I’m a bounty hunter, a mediocre dabbler in the art, given you captured me.’

‘Someone sent you after me?’

He nodded. ‘A contract.’

Her voice sharpened. ‘Who signed off on it?’

He shrugged. ‘I receive my hustles via an incognito comm message from my anonymous handler. All I got was a holo of your face and a possible search area. I got paid fifty per cent upfront -.’

‘By whom?’

‘A bond agency. Trevilian, if you should know.’

He’d picked one of Pegasi’s D-Class bounty firms. One so wracked with mismanagement and poor credit issues that cross-checking his information would be a pain most would avoid.

Her lip curled as she took note of the name. She, too, was aware of how incompetent they were. ‘Not much of an outfit or a tracker. You hunted me until I caught you.’

‘Now I won’t be able to collect the rest of what I’m owed,’ he added, sliding into a whine, signaling his disappointment at losing out on a good payday.

At the same time, it marked him as a shallow, greed-driven individual.

Her face relaxed somewhat, and her blade’s movements slowed. She slid it into a pouch to the side of her lithe thigh.

He shot his shot. ‘Hey, you going to let me go?’

She sucked her teeth, crossing her now empty hands over one knee. ‘I can’t. I need you.’

Her husky words were enough to send his desire into overdrive. ‘Excuse me?’

‘To be even more fokkin ’ clear, I require your ship.’

He bucked in surprise. ‘Why?’

She gave a slight shrug that emphasized her shoulders that he longed to trail his lips along. ‘Mine doesn’t have the bells and whistles yours does. I’ve been tracking you for days, and your boat is to my liking.’

He sat up, intrigued. ‘This is helpful to you because -?’

‘It’ll get me where I have to go.’

‘Why would I let that happen?’

Her eye flicked over his Galician face. ‘When you asked about me, you also mentioned some other lowlife. I may know where to find them.’

She was privy to Ankis’ location? The plot thickened.

His brow rose. ‘You know where my other contract is hiding?’

‘I might have seen him lurking close to where I need to take you. If you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours.’

He made a few appropriate curses. ‘I have to think about it. I’ll only consider it if the bounty on his head is enough to cover my costs on both jobs.’

She shrugged. ‘Not sure you’re in a position to bargain, stranger.’

He cocked his head. ‘That may be so, but I’d like to know where you want me to ferry you to - to calculate mileage, levies, expenses, outlay -’

She ignored him and rose to her feet, lifting a hand to interrupt him. ‘Think about it, Galician. You’ll be well paid for your efforts, of course. I can take care of all your outlay.’

‘So why not book a berth with an interplanetary passenger carrier?’ he shot out.

‘Anonymity is not assured on a voyager ship. Besides, the destination I have in mind has no public spaceport, nor do the locals take kindly to unannounced visits. I need to ghost in on a small gunship with some cloaking capability. You fit, savvy?’

Swiveling on her boots, she left, walking away from him, her shapely hips rolling, sending yet another jolt to his already heated groin.

‘Hey, come back,’ he managed, his voice pleading and desperate like his spineless bounty hunter character would do.

While he spoke, he trailed his eyes along her back on the single long silver braid that swished as she walked.

He lingered on her backside, feeling his entire body react with need, a craving so palpable that he almost groaned out loud.

She paused at the dim doorway, took one narrow-eyed look back at him, slid open the steel-looking door, and disappeared.