Page 18 of Stealing the Star Stone

Chapter Twelve

Laurus Research Vessel

Gaining an unexpected ally. Without pimping.

Day Two.

Nova didn’t think Orien’s archeology team knew what they were doing.

Her right hand stung from yet another round of pinpricks.

Again, they took samples of her hair and skin.

What they’d done with the others, she couldn’t say.

Burned them? She wouldn’t put it past them to perform some sort of pagan ritual.

With a cup of tea in hand, she sat on the cabin’s floor, a scruffy notebook between her thighs.

It took a moment for her eyes to decipher the scrawl, then she was off, paging through it.

Rough galaxy maps were barely recognizable, but she got the general idea.

Like she’d guessed, the moon Lethara was in the Kegawa Belt, except, it had been discovered two decades ago.

No wonder Orien’s stone was such a big hit.

His funding must have dried up, and finding anything worthwhile meant renewed investments.

And the ass was greedy as all hell. Thorne had donated a fortune, so he’d said, and yet, Orien wanted more.

Seemed to her that having a lordship didn’t come with generational wealth. Or maybe, he’d squandered that already.

The moon was labeled as GJ 172 A e. Sir Allan Teher had named it Lethara when he’d met the first inhabitant. She flipped from page to page, studying the scribbles.

When she snapped it shut, she sat there, her mind reeling.

One, they knew nothing about the artefact, other than the humming. So, what did they hope to learn from these tests? She was starting to suspect it was nothing more than an excuse to punish them for destroying the stone.

Two, why had Frederik given them these books? Was it at Orien’s instruction, who’d, no doubt, be laughing in his brandy? Or had Frederik done it on the sly, having a hidden agenda?

She scowled into her cold tea. Not knowing bothered her. She’d have liked some descriptors about the moon, too. Was it a jungle, a desert, a water world? She had to assume it had breathable air. Hell, a photo would’ve gone a long way in calming her fears.

Eli glided in like a model in those heels. He waved a fist at the shut door, muttering curses she couldn’t quite catch. “Cock blocked.” Then maybe, “Neanderthal.”

“What is it?” she asked, trailing him with her gaze when he sank onto the nearest couch.

“Xander Payne, remember him?” He arched a brow, then leaped to his feet to grab a bottle of water. “Cute young man we could’ve swayed to our side if the mountain hadn’t watched me every second.”

Ah, a failed seduction. Good.

Gripping his bottle, he stopped behind her, peering at the spread out books. “Anything interesting?”

She tossed a journal aside and chose another. “Rough idea where this Lethara is. That’s a start.”

“It is.” He sat beside her, removing the heels. “Hand me a book.”

She did, and the scrape of pages turning filled the silence between them.

“Mm, this writing… It’s like your tattoo.” He ran his fingers across the letters scratched onto a page.

“It does,” she said, leaning in to study the delicate, almost romantic alphabet—a mixture between Mayan and cuneiform. How did he know? She froze, her head whipped to the right, bringing her lips so close to his. “You looked.”

“Of course I did.” He dipped his gaze to his cleavage. “Woman, your body’s a work of art.”

Her face flushed, the compliment making her heart twinge. She nibbled on her bottom lip. Had he remembered that one night she’d been such a na?ve groupie? “When?”

“Yesterday.”

Fire exploded within her, masking the warmth of relief. She curled her fingers into fists, trying to stem the urge to slap him. “I told you not to, Thorne.”

“I got it out of the way,” he said, not even glancing up. “Besides, you peeked. Fair is fair.”

“When did I—” She clenched her jaw, crushing the words. The double-dimple discussion from earlier… Never would she reveal she’d seen his gorgeous ass so many years ago.

His touch along her cheek, neck, and across her collarbone dragged her back to the moment.

She shivered, liking the caress more than she should.

“I don’t mind if you admire my body, Nova,” he whispered, the intensity in his eyes darkening the amber to gold.

A flood of heat rushed to her groin, dulling her thoughts, and ramping up the urge to fuck. She jerked back, now sporting a semi hard-on.

She cupped his cock. “Stop it,” she hissed.

“You can’t resist me forever,” he sang, then tossed her a charming smile. “And I’ll be waiting for your sweet pleas.”

She bristled. “Not a fuck—”

“Oh, no, not singular. Many,” he said, flipping through the pages. “So looking forward to it, too. Your irritability is probably because you haven’t been laid in a while.”

He’d flabbergasted her, again. She wasn’t wearing a neon sign stating she was celibate.

So how had he figured it out? Sex hadn’t been a priority for Seth.

They’d loved each other’s minds. But sexual releases were medically good for them, so they’d scheduled their bedroom time to once a week: Wednesday morning, post-shower.

Many a time she’d been disappointed, not finding the fulfilment she’d craved.

They’d been happy, and it had seemed selfish of her to raise her discontent over this one aspect of their lives.

Older her—wiser, maybe—realized how stupid she’d been.

Cracks weakened a relationship, forming a fertile ground for anger, resentment, and unforgiveness.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make you sad.”

“I’m not…” Tears dripped off her chin. She wiped them aside and sniffled. “Was thinking of Seth, my late husband.” She settled beside Eli and took up a discarded notebook. “There has to be a clue somewhere.”

“Are you wondering the same?” He waved at the scattered books. “Why do we have these?”

“Either they have tons of information we can use or nothing.”

“What we need is a tablet, a way to make notes.” He held his place with a finger between the pages. “Orien mentioned the stone hummed at a frequency too low for humans to hear.”

She shifted on her ass to find a comfortable spot, her thoughts ricocheting. “And it was multi-colored until we touched it.”

“Yeah,” he frowned, “but why us?”

“Exactly.” She thumped the book on her thigh. “And was the humming consistent? Did it react to anyone else?”

He shook his head. “If it had, they’d be in the labs with us, losing their hair.”

“True.” She slumped. “It’s too much to hope that these,” she swept out a hand, “are gifts from an ally.”

“Well, we’d know if we find a useful nugget of info.”

She divided the unread stack into two. “We’ve got to be thorough.” She flashed him a grin. “Up for the challenge?”

He chuckled. “I had other plans tonight, y’know.”

Time ticked by as they sifted through the scribbles made by various archeologists who hated Orien’s guts. That was made abundantly clear when on nearly each page, the man was cursed or disfigured with words amid vows for revenge.

“Today, the stone did something odd,” Eli read. “Deep in its depths, a spark flared white, then clear, before returning to a dark magenta. And all I did was touch it.” He met her gaze then resumed. “I didn’t mention this to Orien when X didn’t either.”

“Ex?” She clambered to her feet and stretched, working the kinks out of her back. Eli trailed her with a heated gaze when she looped around the couch to reach the tea station.

“Could be Xander, an actual ex-lover, or a mystery,” he said, smiling when she brought him a bottle of water.

“Huh. They must have stepped away from the stone, breaking the contact, or…” She frowned. “I’m not okay with thinking the thing’s alive. Sentient rock? What’s next, plants that talk?”

“Same, but when we’ve eliminated all other possibilities, we’re left with the probable.”

She lowered herself beside him, careful not to spill a drop of tea. “Still, why us? This just proves we’re not an anomaly.”

“The star stone was egg-shaped. Do you think it carried a creature?”

“Could be,” she said, taking a gulp of the hot liquid, then humming when it warmed her from throat to stomach.

“I didn’t see anything that resembled a yoke or embryo.

Rainbow-colored jello as embryonic fluid?

From an alien world, maybe. And its zap might be the transfer of its life force?

” She showed her palm where the blue tendrils had spread to her wrist.

“Mm, why isn’t this a curiosity?” He set aside his book and sipped his water. “I’d like to see the X-rays. On you, they’d find many a healed bone. I’ve forgotten the number of times I’ve injured myself.”

“Broke a pinky once, pretending to karate chop with my youngest sister.” She chuckled, but her good humor faded. “I was hoping to visit my family on Artivar. Now, I’ll be lucky not to be arrested.”

“Yeah, I wanted to visit my family, too.”

It took something this traumatic to make her realize what mattered in life. “After this…adventure.”

He raised his bottle in salute. “Sorry about being a pain. I just wanted to spend time with you.”

She froze. “What? Why?”

“Besides Graham and my family, most people don’t show me their genuine side. You weren’t playing a game and had no hidden agenda. What I see is what I get.” His smile was tight.

He’d said similar things the night he’d asked her to be his plus-one for the premiere.

“Well, now you get to spend loads of time with me,” she said, trying to fill the awkward silence.

He chuckled. “Sure. More than I intended.”

“Way more than I expected to.”

He met and held her gaze. “I’d like us to at least end this as friends.”

She studied him, respecting his sincerity. “Let’s survive first.”

“Fair enough,” he said, opening his book.

By the time Frederik served lunch, they’d stumbled on a few ‘nuggets.’ Once the catering staff left, she hurried to prevent him from leaving, standing dead center in the doorway.

“Do you have a moment to chat?”

He leaned back as if she’d threatened him. “How may I assist, Mr. Thorne?”

“We’d like something to write on and a pen or pencil, please, Frederik.

” She pointed to the stacked books, going around him so he wouldn’t feel trapped.

“So far, we’ve gleaned the barest of details: a rough location where Lethara is, the destroyed star stone was found in a cave, and,” she lowered her voice, “that Orien killed the natives when he stole it.”

Frederik stared at her, making her doubt that he’d help them. He cleared his throat. “I shall gather what you need.”

The door closed on his disappearing shoulders.

She faced Thorne. “Now, I’m worried.”

“Eat,” he said, gesturing to the lunchtime spread. “We’ll need our strength, either way.”

She harumphed but conceded he had a point. Not ten minutes later, with half a bowl of chicken soup and three toast points in her belly, the door chimed. Frederik marched in, placed a pen and notepad on the coffee table, and left.

“Thanks,” Eli called, then grinned. “That’s a good sign.”

She mumbled around a mouthful of soup, “Sure is. Pity he can’t whisk us out of this. It’s been two days, and I’m done with waiting.”

“It goes against everything in me to let them do ‘tests’ on us.” He chose a bowl of fruit, picking out slivers of apple, and dropping them onto an empty plate. “We’re co-operating to stay alive, but it still grates.”

“Okay.” She waved her spoon in a circle. “What if we could escape now? Let’s run through the scenarios.”

“Ah, planning is better than surprise, right?” He moaned when he bit into a strawberry.

She dipped her chin, trying not to react to the blatant and cliché sensual imagery, but nope, his cock responded as if on cue. Stupid thing revealing her emotions so willy-nilly. She kept a glass of orange juice over her groin, hoping to hide a semi hard-on.

Desperate for a distraction, she said, “We’re in a shuttle; let’s not dwell on the how.”

“Heading to Lethara. What are we looking for?”

“A cave system of sorts.” She nudged her chin at the stack of books where she’d been sitting. “I earmarked a crudely drawn map of where they’ve looked. We start on one they haven’t visited, yet.”

“I’m loving this…planning our adventure.” He chuckled, licking cream off a spoon—the lucky bastard.

She shifted on the couch, raised her glass, and crossed an ankle over a knee. The full erection was making demands she desperately wanted to ignore. “We need to land somewhere and head into the cave.”

“Sounds simple enough,” he said, then met her gaze. “But it won’t be. We’ll need the proper gear, a light source, a weapon…” He pointed with his spoon at a discarded stiletto. “Not much good against cave monsters.”

She slumped. He was right. Even if they managed to steal a shuttle, that didn’t guarantee they’d make it to Lethara, land safely, find a cave and a star stone inside it, or flee the moon unscathed, having swapped their bodies.

But they had to try.

A moan snapped her back to their dismal reality. Thorne had dropped the top of the summer dress and removed the bra. He cupped her breasts, giving them a good rub.

Her mouth dried at the sheer bliss in his expression. “Thorne,” she spat.

“Feels so damn good. Let me be, Nova…”

“Quit it,” she hissed.

“That thing’s a torture device,” he said, tossing the bra aside before fixing his dress. “This experience has opened my eyes, Nova, seriously.”

“Right,” she scoffed. “Like you’ll stop thinking a woman in a bra’s sexy.”

Even though it was with her lips, he flashed his signature smirk. “True.”

She pulled her fruit salad closer, thankfully without cream or ice cream. Food wasn’t the top priority, not when a knot had twisted her gut. But she’d need her strength.

Something had to give, because letting Orien get away with this gritted her teeth. No matter what happened, the ass had to pay.

But so far, he’d outwitted and outplayed them.

That smarted, too. If she had to be brutally honest. Losing her free will hit a primal instinct within her to rebel. And damned if she would lay down and take this…without a fight.