Page 29 of Radiant Exception
“It’s not an excuse,” he said while dressing the gash in my palm with gauze. “But I’ve had a rough morning, and I shouldn’t have asked you to repair the engine without powering down.”
His eyes met mine. And while so often his chocolate gaze had appeared cold and distant, this close, I could see the flecks of gold and the variation in tone in his iris. They were molten, and seeing what had happened as a result of his snap judgment was melting him.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I’ll never forgive myself for allowing you to be hurt under my watch.” The words lingering between us were so much heavier than the tone with which they had been spoken. Because he wasn’t just apologizing for my injuries, he was apologizing for everything that happened before too, and it kind of felt like he was asking for forgiveness with the same breath.
“I’m still mad at you,” I told him honestly, but there was no venom in my voice.
“I know.” He sighed. “You should be.” Still kneeling in front of me, he brought his palms up and rested them on my knees, his eyes trained on my bandaged hand, resting in my lap.
Silence permeated the air as the space between us filled with tension.
Finally, his gaze rose from my injury to meet mine. “All I can do is promise that I’ll never put you at risk like that again, while you’re on my ship, under my watch.”
I swallowed hard, trying desperately to ignore how my stomach flipped under his watchful and apologetic expression.
With me seated and his height, we were exactly eye to eye, and I think I might have seen the very moment that the thought crossed his mind…the same thought that had been infesting my own mind since the moment I’d first kissed him…that maybe there was potential here—between us—for something more.
And I think he and I both realized at the same time just how close we were, in his office, him kneeling between my legs and me seated before him, our faces a breath apart.
I was the one who leaned forward first, our lips meeting in a kiss that was soft and tentative. I felt his hands tighten around my knees a moment before he pulled back, a look of both question and concern on his face. As if to ask if I was sure about all of it.
But I was.
So when I fisted my uninjured hand in his uniform and pulled him to me again, our next kiss was much more like our first: uninhibited and frenzied.
Vaughn kissed me like a man possessed, pulling me to him as if he was experiencing his last moments on this plane of existence, and I was his salvation.
And me?
I was just desperate to be closer to him, so much so that I pushed forward in the chair and ended up spilling out of it, into his lap, straddling him.
His lips and tongue were everywhere, in my mouth, along my jawline and neck. His hands were just as ravenous as mine, runningover every surface, pausing to caress the side of one breast or squeeze my ass while I ground against him, unable to do anything but let my body and desire take over completely.
That is, until someone from the bridge buzzed Vaughn’s comm with a mandatory alert.
Vaughn reluctantly pulled away from me. Both of us were panting and the mood was immediately tense and awkward as the reality of what we’d just done sank in.
“I—umm…” He pointed to the comm up on the desk behind him, just beyond reach.
“Oh, sorry.” I dismounted him as gracefully as possible, given the circumstances.
Vaughn’s throat bobbed as he swallowed, his eyes firmly planted on my bruised and wet lips before darting up to meet my gaze, when he realized I’d caught him looking.
A sheepish blush crept along his cheeks.
How cute.
“Go ahead,” Vaughn said into the comm.
“We’ve got an incoming transmission from HQ,” Cassidy said through the device.
Vaughn’s eyes darted to mine, dismissing me from his office.
“Oh, and you owe Chadwick a letter of recommendation. It was the only way I could get him into the engine room while it was still running,” I casually mentioned as I passed him.
He rolled his eyes, but I noted a hint of a smile as I turned and left.
Icould still taste her on my lips.
