“I’m fine. Honestly I’ve been jostled and touched more intimately than that at the Subterranean.”
“The what?”
“It’s a club underground that a friend of ours—of mine and Ella’s—runs.” When his eyes narrowed, she quickly explained, “A dance club, not one of these kinky clubs like yours.”
“Ah.” He slipped his finger under one of the ropes crisscrossing her body and tugged. “You did very well tonight. Did you like it?”
She drew her initials on his chest. “You know I did.”
As if to confirm his earlier findings, Venom pushed aside the damp fabric guarding her pussy and slipped two fingers between her labia. “Yes, you did.”
She pressed against him. “Take me home.”
“To do what, sugar?”
“You know what I want.” But he was going to make her say it.
“I know what I want. I’m only guessing when it comes to you.” His fingers slowly manipulated her throbbing clitoris.
“Bull,” she said with a little snort. “I don’t think you’ve guessed once when it comes to making love to me.” She gazed up at him with such awe. “I think you figured me out that first time you put your hands on me.”
He grinned and started to speak but they were interrupted by a loud knock at the door. Venom removed his hand from her panties just as the door swung open. Raze appeared with such fury burning in his eyes that Dizzy was taken aback. As she tried to figure out what had made him so mad she finally realized that men were running down the hall behind him.
“You’d better get her untied and taken back to your quarters.” The foreboding edge to Raze’s voice filled her with dread. “The Splinters hit one of our cargo ships—and it’s bad.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Venom didn’t miss a beat. “How many dead?”
“Dozens,” Raze growled. “There will be more, of course. We’ve only just received preliminary reports. They’re not good.”
His instincts as a soldier immediately overwhelmed him. Jerking the knife out of the sheath at his waist, Venom started slitting the ropes decorating Dizzy’s beautiful body. He hated to end things so abruptly but an attack on a cargo ship was serious business. With a mole still running loose on the Valiant and that mess with Axis, Venom feared the Splinters might try to attack this battleship as well. A one-two punch if there ever was one.
“Which ship was it, Raze?”
“The Night Bird,” he answered solemnly.
Venom’s eyes closed briefly. The escort team with that ship had been the second SRU team off the Arctis. Even worse? The Night Bird had been scheduled to carry the extremely powerful fuel rods used to power the fleet. “Our guys?”
Raze shook his head. “It doesn’t look promising.”
Dizzy placed a comforting hand against his neck. She surprised him by suppressing her curious nature and asking no questions. The second she was freed from the corset, she grabbed her clothing. The haunted look in her pretty brown eyes caused him such pain. He had promised that he would keep her safe and protect her from the horror and terror she had known back in The City. Now those same terrorists were threatening her life here.
Venom brushed his thumb across her mouth before kissing her forehead. He refused to make empty promises about how safe the Valiant was. Despite being a massive warship and a floating fortress surrounded by dozens of guard ships, the Valiant was just as vulnerable as every other vessel.
He didn’t bother cleaning up his mess. Grabbing his bag, he put his hand against her back and guided her forward. She carried her high-heeled shoes so she could keep up with his long strides. At the elevator bank he broke away from Raze, who hurried to join the men cramming into the cars that serviced the operations decks instead of the housing wings.
Once inside the elevator Venom tapped the communication screen mounted on the wall to read the up-to-the-minute briefings provided. His gut lurched as he scanned the reports coming in from the Redemption, the ship tasked with picking up the rescue pods.
“What does neutralize the ship mean?”
Venom hesitated before answering her because he was certain it would upset her. “It means the Night Bird has lost control and is drifting into your planet’s gravitational field. It’s going to fall and it’s going to fall hard. To protect life on Calyx, the ships in the vicinity are ordered to fire at will. The goal is to reduce the ship to the smallest pieces possible so the bulk will burn up during reentry.”
“But…what about the rescue pods? What about the men who might still be trapped on the ship?”
“Collateral damage,” he said gruffly.
“That’s so awful.” She sounded as though she might start crying.
“That’s war, Dizzy.” He hated to be so cold with her but he didn’t have time to coddle her right now.
When they reached their floor, he rushed her out of the elevator and into their quarters. Dropping his bag, he pulled her into his arms and tried to decide what to tell her. The truth was he didn’t know what to expect once they deployed. The mop-up could take days or weeks.
Terror’s warning from their fitting room meetup chilled him. He refused to believe this was the last time he would see her. He’d survived too much to lose it all now. “I’ll be back as soon as possible.”
“I’ll be fine. Please don’t worry about me. Just focus on your work. I’m a big girl, remember? I’ve done this winging-it-on-my-own thing before and made a success of it.”
His stomach clenched painfully. Her urge to protect him by setting his mind at ease made him love her even more.
And he did love her. It wasn’t simple infatuation and lust that made him feel as if his heart were being ripped out of his chest right now. They had been given nearly two weeks of impossibly perfect bliss—he refused to even acknowledge the bumps along the way—and he wanted so much more with her.
But duty called. His brothers-in-arms needed him.
For the first time in his life, he resented his unwavering loyalty to the men who bled with him on the battlefield. He had never before been tempted to say fuck it to an official order…until faced with leaving Dizzy behind.
“You should go.” She must have sensed his warring emotions. Smiling so bravely, she rubbed his chest and lifted up to kiss him. “I’ll be here, waiting for you.”
He met her seeking mouth with much tenderness. Though he wanted nothing more than to lift her up against the nearest wall and make love to her one last time, Venom wrenched free from Dizzy and stalked to the door. He didn’t dare look back after separating from her. Raze and the rest of his team were waiting. He couldn’t let them down—even if every step away from Dizzy tore at him.
Stepping into the elevator, he tapped at the screen. The doors had nearly closed when her smaller hand gripped the metal and prevented it from closing. The door slid back on its track. “Obstruction detected. Please clear.”
Grinning mischievously, Dizzy appeared before him as the authoritative male voice boomed from the speakers. “I’ve been called worse things than an obstruction, I guess.”
“What are you doing?”
“I decided that I had to tell you something.” She gripped the front of his shirt and hauled him down until their noses were nearly touching. “I love you.”
The words he had dreamed of one day hearing washed over him like sunshine, blazing away the gut-wrenching pain of leaving her behind. His own love for her left him trembling and feeling nearly giddy. “I love you so much, Dizzy.”
“Good. I hear it works better when two people in a marriage share that love thing.”
He laughed while his heart felt as if it were doing wild flips in his chest. “Yeah. I’ve heard that too.”
She pressed her lips to his in a lingering kiss. “I love you. I’ll see you soon. Be safe, okay?”
“I will.” He brushed his knuckles down her cheek. “I love you.”
Dizzy stepped back and the elevator door slid slowly closed. He tried to burn the image of her happy, blushing face right into his brain. It was a vision that would sustain him through whatever awaited him on this mission.
When he hit the SRU floor, Venom discovered Raze had already set out his weapon and gear. He swapped his play clothes for his uniform and strapped on his vest and holsters. He entered the briefing room just as Cipher was starting their mic and radio checks.
Taking his place next to Raze, Venom looked over the information flooding the intelligence screens mounted on the wall. He saw that fighter pilots including Zephyr and Blaze had been in hot pursuit of the three Splinter ships that had attacked the Night Bird.
“Shit.” Venom watched the radar blips as one of the smaller Splinter craft spiraled toward Calyx after being hit hard by Zephyr. “That’s going to be a hell of an impact.”
“Thankfully most of that backward little planet is uninhabited,” Raze grumbled. “Not that there aren’t a couple of villages down there that wouldn’t be better of being obliterated.”
Venom’s mouth settled into a frown at Raze’s callous remarks. “What are our orders?”
“To aid the Shadow Force in recovering the fuel rods,” Raze answered. “A fighter contingent has boxed in the ship suspected of holding the stolen cargo. They’ve disabled their engines and left them adrift. We’ll breach and board and run a quadrant search.” Raze lifted his voice. “Boys, let’s move out!”