Mercenary Courage (Mandrake Company) by Ruby Lionsdrake Read Free Book Online Page B

forget propriety.
    “I could get a room,” she murmured, “for tonight.”
    She had yet to back away from him, and he had yet to lower his hand. He rubbed her back through her shirt, breathing in her scent, even as he wrestled with his sense of duty. True, he had already decided that little could be gained from him going back to the ship that night. It was more the appearance of privilege that concerned him, the fact that the men would know he was off on the station with Ankari when they were denied the chance to go seek companionship of their own.
    “I’ve missed you,” Ankari whispered and nuzzled his neck.
    The soft brushes of her lips against his skin sent shivers of sensation through his entire body. He grew sharply aware of her every slight movement against his groin. His trousers stretched uncomfortably tight, and he longed to relieve that discomfort.
    “Get a room,” Viktor said. “I’ll—”
    A comm beeped, the sound muted by clothing. It must have been hers, the unit buried in a pocket, but she did not immediately reach for it. She licked his throat as her fingers shifted through his hair, kneading his scalp. She leaned into him, rubbing against the erection that pressed against her stomach.
    “Excited to see me?” she murmured.
    “Always.”
    If she did not reserve a room, he might have to. All thoughts of checking on the ship had fled his mind. His hand lowered until he could cup her ass, pulling her into him, against him. He longed to tear off her clothes, the passersby be damned.
    “We should do something about that,” Ankari whispered below his ear. She stood on her tiptoes to brush her lips along the bottom of his lobe. She sucked playfully at it, and electricity rocketed through his body.
    “Ankari,” he growled.
    Her comm beeped again.
    “Are you going to answer that?” he asked, though he did not care if she did. He simply wanted to move away from the busy area, to take her someplace private. Every now and then, a small black security camera—or perhaps those spheres were news cameras—floated through the intersection. He grimaced, envisioning the men watching him grope his girlfriend on the station feed.
    Ankari sighed and nipped at his lobe before dropping down to the flats of her feet. “I don’t know. I’d hate for you to escape if I do.” She licked her lips, her eyes locked on his, and she pressed her palm against his chest, as if to imprison him against the wall.
    He grunted. As if he wanted to escape. “I’m not going anywhere without you.”
    He had not released her, nor did he intend to. He had to fight to keep from rocking his hips into her, giving in to the ache in his groin. Neither of them would find satisfaction with their clothes on, and those Station Security men getting off the sidewalk might object to public nudity.
    “What is it?” Ankari murmured into her comm unit.
    “The rat store is still closed,” Lauren announced.
    “You went by yourself?” Ankari rolled her eyes at the silliness of the interruption, but she sounded amused, too, as if the likelihood of her microbiologist wandering around the station was low. Maybe it was. Viktor had rarely seen Lauren out of her lab.
    “Jamie and I went. She said something about it perhaps being a good time not to be in the shuttle, in case visitors came. I didn’t get the full story there. But Ankari, this is unacceptable. What kind of space station doesn’t have rats?”
    “I’m sure they’re there. The shopkeeper is probably sick. Or drunk. Or arrested.”
    Viktor was about to make a comment on the bodies that had been found, but his own comm-patch beeped. Reluctantly, he released Ankari, letting her back away to continue her conversation while he started one of his own. He closed the flaps of his duster coat so the elderly ladies getting off the sidewalk with arms full of shopping bags would not think his trouser cannon had armed itself for them .
    “Mandrake here.”
    “Sir? It’s Sequoia. There’s a