Free Adira's Mate by April Zyon Page A

my
side.”
    She leaned into his touch and
nuzzled his hand slightly. She finally nodded and pulled back. Moving from him
to the console, she put in her codes to do a full memory dump and clean up.
Once that was accomplished, she smiled. “Let’s get you home.” She was nervous,
but she would be stupid not to be. “I trust you.”
    “ Good,” he said quietly. Leaning
in, he kissed her gently, wrapping an arm around her waist to pull her body up
tight to his. He took the kiss deeper, but didn’t rush it in any way. His free
hand slid up and down her hip. Slowly he lifted his head, licking his lips as
he did so. “Personally I can’t wait to have pants that actually fit.”
    “ I bet.” She let her hands move
over his chest and downward. “Although there is something
seriously sexy about having you in clothes that are so tight on you. You
are truly hot.” Her hands moved to his back and she looked up at him once more.
“We could always get naked again, you know.”
    Cocking
his head slightly, he asked her, “ So
you were watching me when I was showering. I thought so, but now I know for
sure. Why don’t we shelf that until we have a real bed? One
where my feet are not dangling off the end while my head is at an unnatural
angle.”
    That had her laughing. “Yes, I
watched you as you showered. How could I not?” She shook her head. “We will be
a while before we have a real bed, won’t we?” she asked nervously. “Or will we
have one aboard the destroyer? And can we go through our contract on board the
destroyer as well, so that we can both be naked, together?”
    “ Being an officer has its perks, Adira . One of them being a real bed with all the amenities
included. We can do the rough draft of the contract, though we may not be able
to finalize it. Depends on how stubborn we both are over any of the details.
Who knows, we might have it done very quickly with enough motivation to drive
us.”
    “ I like that idea.” She would try
not to be stubborn. She wanted this with him far too much. “I’m glad that being
an officer will come with those perks, by the way. And what about your destroyer,
when will you be back on board your own ship?”
    “ That depends. I was missing for
three months. There will likely be a very long question period to find out all
that was done, what I found out, and a bunch of other nonsense. I’ll have to
ask Bracken where my ship is currently. They don’t tend to put them out of
commission when their officer disappears. They do tend to put someone else in
charge, though. So this could become rather messy in the long run.” A couple of
beeps sounded, and Fintan wrapped his arm around her
tighter while reaching up to grab one of the ribs of the crawler a moment
before the ship was jolted about. “Hold tight,” he instructed.
    She wrapped one arm around his
waist and the other she braced on the wall. Wavering slightly, she lay her head back on his chest and closed her eyes. “Well
let’s hope that they will install you back onto your destroyer, because I have
a feeling that you live for the action, don’t you?”
    “ I used to think so. Certain
recent happenings, though, have me reconsidering my outlook on life. I suppose
we’ll find out soon enough.” They both bumped about as the crawler settled with
a bit of a shriek of metal. “We’ve arrived. Let’s go greet them before they
decide to try and break in here.”
    She took a deep breath and
settled in just at his back and side. She slipped her hand into his, gave it a
squeeze, and nodded. Reaching out, he punched in the code to open the
door and lower the steps. “Remember, say nothing no matter what. Trust in me a
little longer,” he said under his breath. They were in a landing bay with a
couple of officers and some other soldiers. All had happy looks until they saw
her—then the weapons came up fast.

 
    Chapter Seven
     
    Fintan eased in front of her. “Lower
your weapons, now,” he said in a tightly