Rystani Warrior 04 - The Quest by Susan Kearney Read Free Book Online

aboard.” He stepped closer and crowded her just a little. “And we are now alone. In my book, that’s a lot of trust.”
    Didn’t she understand how tempting she was? What a vulnerable position she’d placed herself in by relying on his honor?
    She rolled her eyes at the bulkhead. “You aren’t dangerous … to me.”
    He allowed a measure of heat to enter his gaze. “I wouldn’t be so certain. You have no inkling of my intentions.”
    She laughed, and her words turned bold. “So then tell me, Mr. I’m-so-noble-and-I’m-on-a-quest-to-save-the-galaxy-from-the-Zin, what are your intentions?”
    Angel didn’t have a clue that Kirek found her sassy sense of humor attractive. While Kirek loved his mother, Miri, and accepted her traditional choice to tend hearth and home, he’d always enjoyed the company of independent women like his Aunt Tessa, who ran Mystique, and Alara, an Endekian scientist trying to discover secrets within her people’s biology who’d married Xander, another male of his family. But that he was attracted to Angel on a physical level as well as a mental one struck him like a sucker punch to the jaw. If he had his full psi, would he feel the same way? He had no idea.
    Until now, he’d never believed in chemistry, or in that special zing of awareness that others claimed slammed them when they met the right person. But Kirek was fighting his attraction to her on every level. In that unguarded moment when he’d held her during the Kraj attack, he’d opened his suit’s filters, and her citrus scent had invaded his lungs, seared his brain, and now haunted him. Just the sound of her voice contradictorily relaxed and stimulated him.
    Looking at her was a treat. Her tall and slender body had plenty of female curves to draw his eyes to places they had no right to go. Her face might not have been beautiful in a traditional sense, but her animated expression and the brazen challenge in her eyes fired his imagination.
    Besides, he wasn’t averse to enjoying a woman during his mission. The only question was how direct should he be? Because damaged psi or not, he most definitely intended to pursue her. But he sensed she didn’t need to know that yet.
    However, he had just the item to attract her interest. “What would you say about going after the biggest salvage haul in Federation history?”
    Lion licked his paw. Angel sucked in her breath, and her eyes brightened. “You do know how to tempt a girl. Tell me more.”
    “We’re talking about an entire world of metal—solid bendar, millions of miles of wiring, the latest in electronics, circuitry, and mechanical systems.”
    She crossed her arms over her chest, as if bracing herself against falling for a trick. “A world of metal?”
    “An entire planet that is about the size of Jupiter.”
    “Jupiter? How do you know about Earth’s solar system?” Suspicion clouded her eyes.
    “I was on Earth to stop the Zin virus from coming through the wormhole.”
    “You were on Earth, but you’ve never seen a cat?” she scoffed.
    “We were in the desert. A remote area on the southern continent of Africa. All I saw was sand and sky and more sand.”
    She drummed her fingers on the counter. “An entire planet of metal?”
    “Yes.” He kept back his grin. He’d used the right bait. Despite her disbelief, he read the thrill of the chase in her eyes.
    “How come I’ve never heard of such a world?”
    “The information isn’t readily available.”
    “Then how did you hear about it? How do you know your data is accurate?”
    “I’ve seen the world.”
    She arched a skeptical brow. “What’s the catch?”
    “To reach the world of metal, we have to find an ancient portal left behind by the Perceptive Ones. To find the portal, we have to go to Dakmar.”
    “I don’t understand.”
    “On Dakmar, I’m meeting someone who will give me the portal’s coordinates.”
    “Why not just head straight for the metal planet?”
    Here came the tricky part.