Mathiras (Corsair Brothers 4)

When I reach the edge of the wall, I move along it and then extend a hand out. My fingers brush a heavy boot and I immediately grab the occupant and fling him—or her—to the floor. I grab the head—feels like another szzt judging from the texture of the skin—and bash it against the floor, then move along the wall until I find the door panel. It lights up, illuminating my face in the darkness.

Uh oh. Immediately, I duck.

Three blaster shots narrowly miss me. Helen growls again—the sound adorable despite everything—and then I hear the strike of flesh against flesh, and then the sound of more bones breaking. There’s a low howl of pain and then more bones snapping.

“Helen?” I call out.

“One more,” she yells back from somewhere on my right. The sound of a struggle fills the room and then everything is eerily quiet. Helen calls out, “Okay, we should be good now.”

I move to the panel and activate it again, ducking just in case. When I’m not shot at, I flick to the room’s controls and turn the lights on.

Six aliens are sprawled out on the floor, dead. Helen’s got the seventh one pinned, her backside parked on his lower back and one boot on his ear. Her costume is destroyed and she’s breathless, but grins up at me, pleased at her efforts.

Off to one side, Bethiah is pressed to the wall. She blinks in surprise, her gaze fixed on Helen. “Okay, that’s new.”

CHAPTER 70

HELEN

My head is pounding with adrenaline, and my hands hurt a little from all the twisting I’ve been doing. My limbs are shaking, but nothing feels as good as the look of pride that Mathiras sends in my direction.

“Helen, love, you are absolutely incredible,” he tells me, putting his blaster aside and moving to where I sit atop the last bad guy, the one that he asked me to save. The man underneath me struggles, so I press my boot harder to his head, keeping him pinned down. Mathiras pulls a long strip from his pocket and grabs the man’s arms, binding them behind him as I get up from my spot. “You made that look far too easy.”

“She really did,” Bethiah drawls. The look she gives me is less proud. It’s speculative, as if I’m some sort of thing she hasn’t quite figured out yet. I don’t like that look, so I ignore her.

My focus is on Matty instead. I feel jittery and alive, and as he drags the alien to his feet, his big arms flex. I think about what we did earlier and I want to climb all over him and shove his hand between my thighs again so he can touch my pleasure spots. Or I wouldn’t mind easing his pants down and watching his cock harden as I touch it, stroking my fingers up and down those nice, thick, deep blue ridges…

“Helen…you’re bleeding,” Bethiah says, moving closer to me. “Are you all right?”

“She what?” Mathiras sounds outraged. He drops the bad guy he just hauled to his feet, sending him splattering back to the ground. He steps over the male and moves to my side, running his hands all over me. Oh, nice. I like this. I smile at Mathiras as he moves his hands all over me and pauses when he finds a wet spot on the belly of my uniform and growls low in his throat, angry. “They hit you?”

“It might have deflected weird,” I say, breathless at his touch. “I can’t feel it.”

“Adrenaline,” Bethiah says. “She’ll feel it later.”

Mathiras frowns mightily and activates the auto-fastener, loosening my clothing until he can see my belly. He touches the bloodied skin reverently, with gentle fingers. “It doesn’t look deep but there’s a lot of blood. Tell me if this hurts, Helen.”

“Can we focus?” Bethiah asks, waving her blaster at the closed doors. “Reinforcements are bound to show up soon and now we have a topless qura’aki with us. If we’re going for distraction, I like the plan, but otherwise, this needs to wait.”

“I’m all right,” I promise Mathiras. The look on his face is so intensely worried. “You know what would make me feel better?”

He pauses and looks up at me. “If you say orgasm, Helen, I’m going to kill you.”

Hmph. “Well, I won’t say it then.”

He shakes his head, his fingers skimming over my abdomen. “You’re sure it’s not too painful?”

Well, it is now that he’s touching it. But I’m positive it’s only a graze. “I’m fine. Can we go rescue the humans now?”

“Yeah, Matty,” Bethiah drawls. “Can we go rescue humans and get out of here before the reinforcements arrive?”

Mathiras frowns over at her, but fastens my clothing again, fussing over me. “Only if Helen wants to continue. If she can’t, then we’ll have to do this some other time. I’m not going to risk her safety. None of this means anything if Helen gets hurt.”