Page 16 of In a Dangerous Orbit
She was panting now, her eyes closed, a light sheen of perspiration on her forehead.
“Are you turned on right now?” he murmured.
Her eyes opened, shining a deep, vibrant green. “I thought you military guys were all strong and silent, and hopeless at stringing sentences together?”
He smiled. “I’m a simple man. I just say it as I see it.”
A small smile flirted around her lips. “Simple, my ass.”
“It’s a mighty fine ass.”
She laughed now. “True. And yes, I’m turned on.” Something wicked flashed in her eyes, and Hunt’s gut tightened.Uh oh, something told him Relda was about to flex her claws.
She pressed into him until he felt the hard nubs of her nipples against his chest. Gods, it felt good. She went up on her toes, her mouth brushing his jaw. “My panties are completely soaked because of you.”
Desire was like a hammer to the gut. His cock, already hard, got even harder and he groaned.
“Do you know that old Earth saying, Hunt? Tit for tat.”
It was his own fault. He couldn’t do anything right now, not with unknown assailants out there waiting to attack. Her safety came first, but once this was over…
“Yeah. And now I’ll suffer just as much as you.”
Her smile was satisfied. “Good.”
“I will keep you safe, but you have to help me.” He stared into the eyes of the woman he knew in his gut was his. He was planning to keep her, even if she fought him on it. “Where’s the Trojan Moon, Relda?”
She gripped her necklace and held up the jewel at the end. “Here.”
Relda’s bloodwas still pumping hard and fast from Hunt’s little seduction. She took him more for a man of action, not words, but his dirty talk…well it had worked, big time.
She watched him study the diamond. It was now pulsing in time with her heartbeat and almost all the blue was gone. The entire stone was now a rich red.
“Where did you get it?”
“It was passed down through my family. Yes, it’s fantastically valuable, but I’d never sell it. It’s a piece of history.”
“Tell me.”
“It’s a Terran diamond. The Trojan Moon was said to have been crafted from a large blue-gray diamond that once belonged to Terran kings. It’s been known as the Hope Diamond, the King’s Jewel, and the Tavernier Blue. It was revered for years by the people of Earth and kept in museums. Some legends said it was cursed, others that it was snatched from the forehead of a statue of some long-forgotten Terran goddess.” Sometimes, in the dark of night, Relda wondered if the jewel was cursed, if it had been the reason all she’d loved had been destroyed.
His gaze met hers. “You wear it?”
“Sometimes.” She’d never again wear it in public. “I guess someone must have recognized it.”
“I couldn’t find an image of it, but maybe someone else did.”
“I think—” It was then she noticed the fog.
It was drifting into the room from the small cracks around the window. It looked like dark gray smoke.
“Hunt—”
“I see it.” He drew his laser pistol and pulled her back toward the doorway.
But from the gap beneath the door, more of the eerie gray fog was also drifting in.
“Poison?” she asked.
