Raine didn’t agree, but kept silent. She didn’t want to waste further time allotted to them.
“What should we use as the code?”
“We aren’t going to need a code. I’m going to knock him out as soon as we’re out of eyesight and follow Piper. After I get her back, I’ll hold Olf”—she deliberately mispronounced his name—“ransom to make them give you back.”
Raine wanted to pull her hair out at the mention of ransom. There was going to be a lot of ransoming going on, and she didn’t want to be caught out in the cold if her group didn’t want her back. She wasn’t Ms. Popular in the vault.
“I really don’t think that’s a good idea.”
Tayla pinned her with a level stare. “You want to go back to the vault without Piper?”
“No,” she admitted. Lucas could be a little scary where his sister was concerned.
“Fine, we’ll go with it. Just in case we should come up with something to show if everything is okay, you could ask what my favorite fruit is. If I answer peaches, you know I’m safe, and if I’m not, I say grapes.”
“Works for me.”
It was everything she could do not to shake Tayla. The only reason she didn’t was because she was afraid Tayla would smash her to smithereens with one of her flying kicks. She thought Tayla was overconfident about her abilities then had to admit the kicks she had taught the whole group before any of them were allowed to go on food searches had proven useful.
“Come.” Skars firmly brought an end to their talk, extending his hand toward her as the other Vikings opened their machines.
Raine gave another glance toward Tayla, seeking assurance that they were really going with them.
Giving her a fatalistic shrug, Tayla walked back to Ulf as Raine returned to Skars. Putting off the inevitable, she watched as Tayla ignored the hand Ulf held out to her, getting on behind him. Raine then watched as the shell closed again, enclosing them inside.
Turning her gaze back to Skars then upward, she couldn’t make herself take the small step forward.
“Wife, I truly mean you no harm,” he said softly, as if trying to calm her.
Raine lowered her gaze back to ground level. “I’m afraid of heights.”
“Come here.”
His soft command curled her stomach in knots. All the heroines in her books would have already been sitting behind him.
Hating herself for being such a coward, she was about to take a step back when Skars locked his hand around her wrist and pulled her to him. “Get on.”
Forcing herself to lift her leg as Skars steadied her, she climbed on awkwardly, nearly going over the seat when she tripped, not noticing there was a small place for her other foot to go where it would have made it easier for her to do without Skars’ help.
Humiliated at the ungainly way she managed to seat herself, she didn’t look at the other Vikings to see their reactions.
It was everything she could do not to scream bloody murder when the shell slid down as Ulf and the others’ vehicles started rising into the air.
Skars must have sensed how close she was to going into another screaming fit because his soothing voice reached her through the rising tide of hysteria. “Close your eyes and lay your head on my shoulder. Hold on to my waist if you want to, but the side of the nejim will hold you still.”
“Okay,” she croaked out. “Quick question before you take off. Do you have to have a pilot’s license to fly one of these things?” Before he could answer, she was already on to the next question. “Are you very experienced flying—”
“Raine…” Skars put his hands behind his back, seeking her hands. Raine didn’t resist when he wound them around his waist to press them against his flat abs. “I’m very experienced at everything I do.”
Chapter 11
Skars
Skars felt Raine’s hands shaking on his abdomen. Gritting his teeth, he concentrated on the nejim’s instruments rather than on the thickening of his cock.
His wife clung to him like the finest whore in Manitorz. The planet Leron was a well-known area in the galaxy where any sexual encounter could be had with any species, at the price of their currency.
Thorsen had stopped there many times during their journeys. Several times, he, too, had gone down to the planet to relieve the sexual frustrations of not having a tru-mate.
Because Reva had foreseen no tru-mate in his future, the vision had guided his acceptance so freely when the opportunity arose to claim the woman holding him now. He was now second-guessing the rash decision.
She didn’t trust him. He tried not to blame her for that, but while she ran with the grace of a gazelle, she kicked with the grace of a mule, sounded like a lanree when it was trapped when she was fighting, and fought like a shield-maiden’s seamstress.