Page 20 of Stars in Umbra (The Sable Riders #8)

Relentless Incandescence

RINA

T hey spent the rest of the day together, losing themselves in each other.

After one particularly wild, incandescent blaze of orgasm, after the sounds and sweat and gasps and the way their bodies moved like they’d been crafted for one another, Rina couldn’t move.

She couldn’t think, not even pretend she hadn’t just experienced a scorching of her soul.

She lay on her back, chest rising and falling, eyes fixed to the ceiling like the stars might realign to mark the moment.

Beside her, Mo turned to her on his side, one strong arm curling over her waist, drawing her close.

His lips brushed her bare shoulder, then her neck.

Then, with a sleepy, lazy sort of delight, he pressed his mouth to the dip of her spine.

She stifled a laugh.

Then he did it again.

A kiss to her hip. Then her temple. One on the bend of her elbow, soft, gentle, random.

As if he couldn’t stop himself from tasting the skin he now had a right to touch.

Each touch lit a spark of giddy, stunned joy deep inside them.

No one had ever kissed her like that, not after sex.

Not like she was precious, not like her body was a landscape worth exploring.

When he stilled, Rina wriggled from beneath the quilt with a quiet sigh and padded barefoot to the bathroom.

She cleaned up, smoothing her hair, catching a look at her flushed, still-glowing face in the mirror. A small smile tugged at her lips.

She flicked off the lights and returned to the bedroom, where Mo rolled to his side, facing the spot where she’d been.

His eyes were still closed, his face relaxed in a rare moment of peace.

She slipped under the covers, crawling into the space beside him.

He stirred, waiting till she was comfortable.

Without a word, he gathered her close again.

Like a mountain shifting, enveloping her with warmth and solidity and skin.

His hand found her waist. His lips brushed her shoulder again. Then her cheek, then her bicep.

She giggled into his chest. ‘You’re relentless.’

He didn’t answer. He just smiled into her hair and kept on kissing her, worshiping her, until both their bodies softened into the lure of slumber.

Sometime later, long before sunrise, her wrist alarm vibrated.

Rina blinked in the darkness.

Mo was still asleep, curled into her like a fortress of flesh and bone. His breathing was steady, warm against her throat.

She turned, studying him.

He looked different in sleep; innocence in his now smooth brow, a hint of a smile on those lush lips as if his soul was at peace.

It was uncanny how it seemed as if he’d always been meant to lie in this bed with her in his arms.

She wanted to run her fingers over his jawline and cheeks, to kiss and adore him for the rest of the day.

She was so gone for him.

Yet how was one man able to take over so much space in her mind, in her heart, in such a short time?

Rina was gloriously, terrifyingly, not ready.

Despite all her pining for a man, she was not prepared for a committed relationship.

Nor was she willing to give up her career, which was on the fast track to General.

She was on the verge of gaining her Brigadier stripes.

Her work had galaxy-reaching impact and purpose, and she enjoyed her independence.

Did she have time for a love affair, and was she finally setting aside her ‘ no romance ’ rule?

Still, her heart leaped at the chance to pamper her softer side, for a delicious, responsibility-free moment.

She studied Mo in sleep, realising she did want to indulge, to have a carefree fling with a man who had to be the galaxy’s best lover, at least in her estimation.

Promising not to overthink it, she pressed a kiss to his shoulder.

Then with care, she slipped from bed, dressing in the hush before dawn.

When she was ready, she stood over him for a beat, eyes on him, drinking in his beauty, still in awe at the incandescence of their lovemaking.

With a sigh, she forced herself to leave.

She had negotiations to lead, war zones to navigate, and rebels to disarm.

However, throughout the day, as she sat in conferences and signed off on ceasefire terms, her mind strayed.

Back to the man who kissed her back to sleep, to the gorgeous man she left entwined between the sheets.

MOLAN

Mo woke alone.

The sheets were warm, tangled around his legs, still steeped in the scent of her, jasmine and heat, musk and sweat, that raw, aching perfume of sex and surrender.

His eyes blinked open, lashes sticky with sleep, the first rays of dawn painting the ceiling in gold. But the bed, her space in it, was empty.

He turned his head, nose brushing the bedding where her hair had fallen. Her fragrance was still fresh on the linens, was primal, and he rolled into her pillow, breathing it in deeply.

His spirit lit up and flamed.

Not just with lust but with a soul yearning need, a profound, searing, god-touched hunger he hadn’t ever experienced.

His glyphs responded at once, flaring to life across his torso and arms in glowing bands of molten white, then pulsing a soft, gold radiance.

They hadn’t done so in years.

The last time had been when he said farewell to his mother.

The flare was a sign of a complex aspect of his otherworldly core, and it was rhythmic now.

He lay back again, one knee bent, the other leg kicked free of the covers, one arm slung behind his head as his body simmered and his psyche spun.

Fokk. What was she doing to him?

He pictured her again in his mind, walking ahead of him through The Osirian , sashaying, leaving chaos in her wake.

Her curls bouncing, her heels clacking across the polished floor.

Then later, her voice, her blushes, the way she parted her lips when he fed her that first bite of fish.

How her breath caught when he kissed her.

Then the way she led him upstairs. Silent, seductive, hot as fokk .

How she traced his glyphs like they were holy as he made love to her, and made her moan between the sheets.

Mo exhaled, a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.

Rina Mendi, Colonel, peacekeeper, military whiz, and his wildcat in bed, undid him with so much wild, feminine grace that he was still reeling.

She was the first woman to make him consider torching every plan he had for the week to keep her in arm’s reach.

He needed to get up, head to his new gig, prep for his novel security role, and meet more of his team.

Instead, he was plotting how to make Rina his.

At least for as long as she was still in town.

Maybe longer.

The thought sparked more desire in him and a wistful yearning as his grin softened into a vulnerable curve of his lips.

What would life look like with Rina in his life permanently?

He let the thought roll over him.

It was an unexpected, even ridiculous sentiment, yet so perfect.

The alternative, her being out of his life, was unthinkable.

It seemed that Colonel Rina Mendi and her blend of shyness and fierceness were impossible to set aside as just a one-night stand.

Fact, she was a forever kind of woman.

His hand slid over his chest, palm brushing the still-glowing sigils with a sigh as they flared brighter.

Hell, it appeared his soul liked the idea too damn much.

RINA

Rina slipped out of the conference chamber unnoticed, her boots silent on the marble floors as she made her way through the back corridor of Eden II’s Grand Unity Center.

Delegates still buzzed over the recent panel, but she had other orders to follow, ones that couldn’t wait for pleasantries or protocol.

Inside a secured working office two levels above the central hall, she keyed in her clearance and activated the room’s comms console.

The screens flickered to life, casting a pale light across her sharp features as she pulled up the encrypted line to Mirage.

‘I need your help, please,’ Rina said without preamble.

Mirage’s face appeared in a holographic projection, her hair secured back, eyes flitting over unseen data.

‘I’m so sorry, Colonel, but I’m busy,’ Mirage said, not unkindly. ‘I’m running point on airspace, transport layers, and security protocols for over two hundred dignitaries right now. Can you tap into our private network, SableNet? I can give you access.’

Rina frowned but nodded. ‘I’ll appreciate it.’

With clearance to the Rider’s matrix on her terminal, she pinged her Military Police Investigations Team in Dunia.

They worked at the military’s central HQ and were among the brilliant minds in the Peace Corps.

Within minutes, her squad responded. One of them, a young analyst named Viri Sonamhi, joined the live holo call.

‘We’ve got something, Colonel,’ Viri said. ‘It’s raw footage from a satellite drone that was passing above the Allorian corridor, picked up a burst transmission near Vesk Tyran’s location during the assassination window.’

Rina leaned in. The screen blinked, loading the grainy clip. It displayed a sweep of dense forest.

Then, Rina jolted at a pixel onscreen.

‘There,’ Rina pointed. ‘Back it up. Frame by frame.’

They did.

A figure flickered into view, half-shrouded by tree canopy, sprinting through the trees with preternatural speed.

It was humanoid. Agile. Almost a blur.

For just a split second, an angle, a movement, a hint about them snagged at Rina’s memory.

Her brows drew together. ‘Pause. Zoom in.’

The image pixelated more than it revealed. She squinted at the vague outline.

A sloped shoulder. A glint of something metallic at the wrist.

The grain made it impossible to identify any features.

‘I’ve seen that gait before,’ she murmured to herself. ‘But I can’t place it.’

She opened a holo-call to her team. Three faces appeared in the air around her: Viri, Captain Toma, and intel expert Sean.

‘You’ve seen it?’ Rina asked.

They assented as they studied the footage in silence.

‘They’re fast,’ Sean said. ‘Too rapid for normal military conditioning, they must be enhanced.’

‘Hard to tell who, though,’ Toma added. ‘Might be anyone with access to accelerant mods or augment runes.’

Viri nodded. ‘It’s not enough for confirmation, Colonel. We can’t even ID if it’s male or female. Just freakin’ speedy. Moving like a projectile.’

Rina exhaled, her gaze fixed on the monitor. Particulars about the figure gnawed at her, but for the life of her, she couldn’t nail it.

‘All right,’ she said. ‘Run facial reconstructions based on available posture and metadata. Flag any matches with any known augmented operatives in the region.’

‘We’ll get on it,’ Sean confirmed.

Rina cut the feed and sat back, the silhouette still frozen on the screen.

She stared at the silent specter slipping through the trees.

The answer was just on the edges of her memory.

She couldn’t see it yet.

RINA

Rina slammed her tablet shut with more force than necessary and let out a groan that came from the soul.

The grainy forest footage, the endless round table briefings, the parade of generals too eager to flex their medals or their tired pickup lines, wrung her dry.

Tyran’s assassin was still a ghost, the conference was a bureaucratic crawl, and if she had to field one more ‘ Are you seeing anyone, Colonel ?’ from a man with liver spots and ego inflation, she was going to throw herself into Eden II’s core.

She tapped her comms and waited.

‘Hey,’ came Mo’s voice, warm and deep.

‘I need saving.’

After a pause, came the familiar rumble of his laugh. ‘Bad day, mi kaya ?’

‘The worst,’ she groaned. ‘I have to get as far away from generals, intel briefings, and middle-aged combat dogs trying to buy me dinner with glory stories from the last Unification War.’

‘I’d fight them for you,’ he said, still amused.

‘You’d win,’ she muttered, rubbing her temples. ‘To be honest, I just want not to think. Can you make that happen?’

‘ Fokk yeah,’ he said, voice dropping a degree. ‘I’ve got something in mind.’

She hesitated. ‘Should I be nervous?’

‘ Naam , in the good way.’

Despite herself, she smiled. ‘You’re for real?’

‘Be ready in an hour, at your suite. Dress smart casual, and no tactical gear in sight, Colonel.’

Rina ended the call and blinked at the wall for a second, then she was up and moving.