Free Light of Kaska by Michelle O'Leary

wasn’t going to make it easy.

    Chapter 4

    Sukeza tried not to stare at him. She was exhausted and emotionally drained, not having slept the night before due to the murders, tending to Stockton’s animals, and following up on evidence that others had ignored. But her brain was too wired to let her sleep. Just that morning she’d been standing outside Stryker’s jail room, afraid to step through the door because of where it might lead her. It had led her away from everything she’d known for the past five years, to the black of space and the company of a convicted criminal.
    She slanted him a quick glance and looked away just as swiftly. In the dimness, she couldn’t tell if his eyes were closed. Her skin prickled as if he was watching her, but for all she knew, he was out cold. Unlike her cocooned form, he had wrapped himself loosely from mid-torso down, arms drifting free. His hair was also drifting, a strange, dark corona around his head.
    What was she going to do? Was he telling the truth about trying to get her safe transport? Could she trust him to do as he said or should she be plotting her own escape from him the first chance she got? Neither choice sounded good—it would be stupid to trust him implicitly even though he hadn’t lied to her so far as she knew, but going off on her own would be, as he’d pointed out, incredibly dangerous. Was there a third option? If there was, her tired brain couldn’t find it.
    She snuck another quick look at him despite her best intentions. It was hard to resist the temptation to watch him, not just because it was prudent to keep an eye on any dangerous predator, but because he was still so beautiful to her, even more now than when they’d first met. Thoughts of their various interactions played through her mind along with the stark, vivid image of his naked body. He’d been just as formidable and beautiful without clothes as he was fully dressed. The breath left her body on a silent sigh. The Goddess who had made him must have loved her creation dearly. All those thick muscles and sleek cinnamon skin, body moving with controlled power and masculine grace, chest dusted with dark hair that thinned to a line down his hard muscled abdomen. And even unaroused, his sex had been as daunting as the rest of him.
    Sukeza took a deep, fortifying breath and let it out again. Beautiful all over, right down to his toes. Yes, the Goddess had loved him well. While she closed her eyes and indulged in the beguiling memory, sleep stole over her like a thief, unraveling her consciousness in furtive degree.
    Sukeza woke with a start, her body twisting at the line that attached her to the hull. Bits of dream followed her into reality, a strange mix of hostile accusers and hungry beasts. Staring around the cabin in vague disorientation, she twitched again at the sight of Stryker. He was still drifting in apparent sleep, an arm flung up to hover over his eyes, but the wrap had been shoved to his waist and his shirt was missing. He obviously was not feeling her space chill. Less wary in the aftermath of slumber, she took a moment to admire the bare-chested display.
    Then full memory of the day before washed over her and she closed her eyes against the strain of conflicting emotions. She hadn’t thought of the place as home—for her, there could be no home but Kaska—but she had thought of those people as her friends.
Some friends.
They had done their damnedest to kill her, not to mention accusing and sentencing an innocent man, and if Stryker was right, harboring a child murderer. Were they all insane?
    She opened her eyes again and shook her head against the sting of bewildered, frightened tears. Dwelling on it would not help her out of the current situation. But she needed to learn from it, to learn how to be more wary and less naïve.
    Unwrapping with quiet care, she used the facilities, blushing at the lack of privacy. But he still seemed asleep, the arm across his face not twitching even