StarShadow by CJ CADE

Author:CJ CADE [Cade, CJ]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Windtree Press
Published: 2017-11-19T18:30:00+00:00

Mia looked up at Arek, her senses still flooded with relief, and something else... excitement at his nearness. She couldn't help the urge to sniff him, draw in his scent, and savor his warmth. He was like a heat unit, giving off enough heat to warm the surrounding area. Of course he'd just completed a daring physical challenge, then run back to the ship. She was feeling quite flushed, herself.

Which had nothing to do with him looming over her, as if deciding whether to take a bite. More likely wanting to reprimand her again. She frowned at him. "What?"

He surveyed her for another moment, then slowly shook his head. "It will wait."

Straightening, he moved away, leaving Mia staring after him. No, she wasn't disappointed. He was just annoying, that was all. Riling her up and then just ignoring her.

With a toss of her head, she turned her attention back to the nav com. Space ahead was clear for a long way. Not a meteor shower, black hole or dead star to be found. Good, that was good. She'd focus on their current good fortune, then. And not on how they'd both nearly died twice today.

Because she may have pretended that piloting them through that asteroid belt had been easy because of her race—but the truth was, she'd also been very lucky. And she might not want to admit that to Arek, but only an absolute fool refused to admit the truth to oneself. And she hoped she wasn't an absolute fool... she was certainly some kind of fool.

She'd thought this race would be a light-hearted adventure, not the life-and-death contest it truly was. Right now, if she could go home—even to face the censure of her parents and brother—she'd do it

Except... she took a look around her. Taking in the nav com that she had worked hard to learn the skills to operate. Taking in the sleek cockpit, and the cabin behind her. Taking in the tall, irritating but handsome, and extremely skilled warrior who was her partner, who now crouched across the cabin, doing something with their body armor. And remembering that she and he had made it through the first, and surely the most dangerous of the three race challenges. That she'd now done something, experienced something that no one she knew had. Not her friends, her parents, or even her older brother, with all his experience in space travel.

A tiny smile curved up her lips. She sat up straighter in the nav chair, and straightened her shoulders.

"Deuce," she said. "What points did we receive for completing the first challenge?"

Arek did not look up from his task, but she saw a smile curve up the near side of his lean face. With a toss of her hair, Mia focused on the view of space outside their craft. Two could play at ignoring.

"Team Starry Night," Deuce announced, "Having accomplished Task One, without injury to yourselves or to your craft, you have achieved all points possible for the challenge."

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