Free Sons of Lyra: Stranded by Felicity Heaton Page B

a while. The
sight of him like this was driving her fatigue to the back of her
mind. There wasn’t room in her head for it and all the wicked
thoughts. She fanned herself with her hand as her temperature rose
and then unzipped her tight flight suit to just below her breasts
so the start of her low-cut white vest was showing. There was a
frustrated growl and the sound of a fist hitting
something.

    “ Captain?”

    Acer looked at the panel
above him and the flashing red warning light. He clenched his fist,
causing the dark blue leather of his gloves to creak, and hit it
again. The warning light went out. So did all the other lights on
the panel.

    “ Cruskin
nyaaeso!” He cursed and hit it again for good measure.

    “ Captain?” Her
voice became more concerned.

    Nothing left now but to
confess. Perhaps he should’ve let her deal with it. He was sure she
would’ve fixed it in the end and he’d be on his way to Lyra Prime.
His family probably thought he wasn’t coming. He wished he
wasn’t.

    “ I think the
climate system went down,” he said.

    “ What?” Her
voice was louder now and full of disbelief.

    He looked down the length
of his body to see her bent over and looking up at him. His lips
parted. His breath left him in a rush. His blood boiled. He could
see right down her flight suit, could see the luscious curves of
her breasts. His eyes shot back to the dead panel and then slowly
returned to her.

    “ Do you want me
to come down there?”

    She got down onto her
knees and then all fours. She was going to crawl into the tight
tunnel with him. Her breasts squashed together and her hand brushed
his thigh. He swallowed at the brief contact and then shook his
head. He slid out, stood and looked down at her where she knelt on
the floor.

    His older brother was a
bastard for placing this siren under his protection. Balt had known
what he’d been doing when he’d transferred her for something as
petty as a gravity drive failure. Since setting eyes on her at the
port of Antilles, Acer hadn’t been able to get her out of his
thoughts.

    She stared up with him
round brown eyes that gave her an innocent look and full blush lips
that commanded he kiss her. Her fingers combed though her
sweat-dampened long brown hair. He’d done that once. She’d been
unconscious in his arms at the time. It had been barely a month
ago, when they’d been attacked by the first Minervan mercenary
ship. He’d received the call from home shortly after that and had
selected one crew member to come with him to the Lyra system while
the others had shore leave.

    He’d chosen
her.

    It was too late
though.

    It was only a matter of
time now before she discovered why he had to return to Lyra Prime
and before he lost her forever.

    “ It’s getting
hot,” she said and unzipped her flight suit, pushing the arms off
so only a tight white vest covered her top half.

    His eyes widened when she
stood and started tugging the blue suit down, revealing an even
tighter pair of little white shorts that hugged her hips. His
temperature shot to hotter than the Lyran sun and he couldn’t stop
his eyes from running down the length of her long slender legs. His
heart pounded.

    By Iskara’s wings, she was
trying to kill him.

    “ Engineer, what
do you think you are doing?”

    She stepped out of her
boots and then the flight suit. “I need to get this engine working
and I can’t do it when I’m slowly boiling to death.”

    He raked his gaze over her
again and swallowed hard.

    He had to admit, it was
getting hot in the ship.

    Her gaze skimmed up his
legs, lingered on his bare torso, and then met his eyes.

    “ You should do
the same. You’ll boil if you don’t.” She gave him a small smile,
one that made him believe that she wanted him in just his
underwear.

    It was a cruel temptation.
Perhaps he should’ve told her why he had to return home. Maybe then
she wouldn’t have stripped off. If she knew it was as hopeless as
he did, she