“Thousands.”
“And have you ever been attacked?”
“No. But there is always…”
My throat closed as Abby removed the armored shirt I had generated for her earlier. Her gaze held mine as she backed toward the exit that led to the rest of the ship. “How about we play a game?”
I barely managed to swallow around the lump in my throat. “What kind of game?”
“Hide and seek.” She pulled the soft undershirt up and over her head as she stepped farther away from me, baring exposed skin. Small, round breasts. Nipples peaked from arousal? Excitement? Cold? I didn’t know and I didn’t care. I simplywanted.
“What are the rules?” Everything had rules. Everything.
“You close your eyes and count to twenty, out loud, while I hide.”
“And then?”
“You find me.”
“No.” I glanced at the scans and data reports streaming into the ship’s systems. Nothing of concern at the moment, but that could change at any…
She was gone. So were her clothes.
“Abby?”
Silence.
“Abigail! You will answer me! This is not safe!” I began unbuckling my flight harness. “Abby? Come back here!” Fuck. She could open the wrong panel. Trip and fall. Hit her head. Fall down a ladder and break her leg or her ankle. We could be attacked, and I would be forced to take evasive action, which would throw her around the ship like unsecured cargo. “Abby!”
Silence.
“Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.” I set the controls to autopilot and set the alarms to sound through every level of the ship. Free of the harness, I stomped into the corridor and closed my eyes, allowed my ancient Everian Hunter blood to surge to life inside me like a wild thing. Normally, I equated this feeling with a need for battle. To hunt. Track. Kill.
Not this time.
I stumbled into the wall as the primal urge to find and claim mymatemade my head spin. She had challenged me to a hunt, which I now realized was the most dangerous thing she could have done. I wasn’t sure I could maintain control once I found her, not with the Hyperion savagery tearing at me to…take what wasmine.
Several seconds passed as I gained a modicum of control, fought off the dizziness and the shock.
I stood, breathing in her scent, already searching for her as I did what she had asked and counted out to twenty in a loud voice.
I would find her.
I would strip her naked.
I would fuck her until she knew exactly who she belonged to, who she taunted.
My fangs dripped in anticipation.
7
Abby
Biting my lip to hold back a giggle—half glee, half fear—I watched through the ceiling’s air duct panel as Cormac reached under a storage chest and found the panties I’d left there for him, smeared with wet goodness from my very aroused body.
His roar of frustration made my eardrums rattle, and I barely held back a full-blown laugh.
“I know you are in the ducts, female! Get out of there now!”