Page 21 of Radiant Exception
“It’s not that bad. I don’t snore or anything…do you?” I lifted a brow.
Vaughn glared at me. “There’s a camera in the corner above the bathroom door.”
“What!?” I spun around, frantically searching, finding a pinprick of black a moment later. Man, I was rusty. I hadn’t considered cameras in the bedrooms, but the ship was so new. “You’ve been watching me!?” I accused Vaughn.
“What!?” he exclaimed. “NO!”
“Then what!?”
“They’re in every room—every space on the ship, for safety. Nobody monitors the feeds unless it’s needed, but the footage is kept.” He shook his head.
“I presume there’s no audio, since you’re speaking freely.” I glanced back up at the camera, unable to prevent a blush from flowing into my cheeks. I’d been walking around the room half naked for days, thinking I had some sort of privacy.
“No, there’s no audio. Thank Christ.” He exhaled. “But we’ll have to operate as if we’re being monitored. Meridian has their hooks in this ship, and I’d be a fool to think they don’t have access to the video feed.”
I didn’t like the idea of being watched on this ship, no matter what time or where I was, even though I had assumed as much in the public areas. “You should have told me.”
Vaughn released an exasperated sigh. “I’ve had a lot on my mind.”
“Perhaps I can be of assistance,” I offered, knowing he wouldn’t take me up on it.
“Go to bed, Trouble,” he deadpanned before staggering into the bathroom. I had the sense that if the doors were capable of slamming, he would have done so. Unfortunately for him, they were automatic, so his exit was punctuated with a quiet whoosh of the mechanisms.
Well, that hadn’t exactly gone to plan.
I stared at the bathroom door, trying to reassess the situation. I’d gotten what I’d wanted. We were in the same space, and would be for quite some time, and again tomorrow. Vaughn was pissed, but he’d chill out eventually. The question was, what did I want to get out of the situation first?
Vaughn had looked completely beat. I had wanted to put up more of a fight, truth be told, because pushing his buttons was somewhat amusing, but seeing how tired he’d appeared made me feel a little bad about the whole thing.
And obviously I hadn’t known about the stupid camera, which complicated things. But in another respect, maybe if I attempted to seduce Vaughn, he’d be more willing to work with me. I’d had to do worse on past missions, and at least Vaughn was my type.
If I could just get him to share a little bit of information with me, I could show him that I could be an asset. We clearly had our own strengths, and I could easily see why Darren had paired the two of us together on this mission. We needed each other. Surely Vaughn had to see that.
The bathroom door snicked open, revealing a shirtless Vaughn, and all thoughts of reason immediately flew out of my head.
Fuck. The guy was built.
I wasn’t sure if I was looking at his chest or simply a wall of muscle…both, I supposed. Along his entire left arm was a tattoo sleeve that mimicked scales, and although they were shaded in to appear real, the lines that outlined each one were uniquely curved. As he paced toward me, I realized they were words that formed each curved line. How fascinating.
Each muscle was neatly carved along his body, and equally covered with a patchwork of different tattoos in various sizes and artwork styles, telling a story all their own. I wanted to map them out and learn what they meant to him.
Each bump and ridge of his body had clearly been earned through hard work in the ship’s gym, or hard labor of some sort. The lines at the edges of his lower torso, leading beneath the hem of his pants, were particularly captivating.
I gulped, wondering what it would be like to trace each one with my finger…or perhaps my tongue. Despite him being exactly my type, I’d never dated or been with someone who had a physique like his. I think part of what led to such attraction was the idea of being with someone who was physically larger than me.
At five feet, ten inches, I was tall for a woman, and it made it that much more challenging to find men who were at least my height, although I preferred them taller. And Vaughn…was much taller…much larger. In fact, when I was near him, he made me feel downright petite; I relished the thought.
“Did nobody ever teach you it’s rude to stare?”
I snapped my jaw closed. I hadn’t meant to ogle him. “I figured you’d at least wear a shirt to bed, since we have to share now.”
“Thanks to you,” he grumbled.
“So where are you with the mission?” I asked, scooting back into the nook the bed was nestled against.
Vaughn glared at me, silently saying,fuck off, I’m not sharing any intel with you.
“Fine, then let’s talk about how you’re overtaxing the engines and you wiped all of Sully’s coding optimizations when he left, even though they were most certainly illegal anyway.” I stared up at him petulantly.
