He remembered someone handing him a bill, glancing over it without really seeing, and then signing on the dotted line. It had been just after he had returned to their room, found all her belongings gone, and had started his panicked search for a pissed-off redhead.
Gods, he had thoroughly screwed things up between them.
Had she used his credits in an attempt at one last jab, or as a hint that she’d wanted him to follow her?
His gut clenched, and he clung to the latter idea like a dying man to his last breath. He studied her closer. There was a stubborn shape to her lips, though she leaned back in her chair, appearing completely at ease. Her crystal-blue eyes were audacious. He could get lost in their steely depths for hours. With his gaze, he followed the smooth line of her jaw, wishing he could have his nose buried in the crook of her neck while her nails scraped along his scalp . . . his back.
His need for her doubled. He would have followed her whether she wanted him to or not.
“You don’t really think this will work, do you?” she asked, interrupting his thoughts.
He shrugged, feigning nonchalance. “I don’t have a problem with it, but I’ll understand if you do.”
As expected, she bristled. “You don’t think I can remain professional? You’re not the center of everyone’s universe, Vin.”
Priya mentally laughed at the statement. At one point, he had been the center of her universe, but his ego didn’t need that particular piece of news.
He smirked as if reading her thoughts. “Tell me about Mister Solar Orbit.”
“What’s to say?” she hedged. “He’s nice.”
“Just nice? That’s it?”
“Do you really want me to talk about him?”
Him. A fabricated lie in a petty attempt to make Vin jealous –which didn’t seem to be working.
“Does he make you laugh?” His voice turned rough. “Make your blood fire?”
No one did that anymore.
She gulped. “He doesn’t hurt me.”
He flinched and leaned back with his finger crooked around the neck of his bottle. “S’pose that’s something.”
The dance number ended and a new set of girls took the stage. After watching them for a moment, Priya glanced at Vin from the corner of her eye. His lips were pressed in a hard line as he glared at his bottle.
She wanted to ask him what he was thinking, but that was something a girlfriend did, and that was no longer her place. The silence between them made her feel like she was still light-years away.
“I shouldn’t have come,” she blurted.
His head snapped up. “Of course you should have. I bet you were just as excited as I was when you got Aidan’s transmission.”
“Was,” she emphasized.
His expression grew dark. “You hate me that much?”
She shook her head, feeling a shadow of gloom fall over her. “I don’t hate you . . . that much. You have to admit, we’d make a pretty shitty team at the moment.”
“I told you, I don’t have a problem—”
“I have a problem with it,” she snapped.
His continued insistence that he felt nothing grated on her.
She pinched the bridge of her nose. “In the morning, I’m going to get a ticket back to Uli Rings. See if I can get my job back.”
“So you’re just going to run away? Again.”
She shot to her feet and scowled down at him. “Here,” she said, giving him a handful of credit chips.
“Have a lap dance, on me.”
Vin discarded the chips on the table, glowering after Priya as she walked away. He’d lost his taste for lap dances the day she’d left, but her words cut him deep. Just as she’d intended.
His eyes dipped to her ass, swaying in that unconscious way that always drove him nuts. The turmoil inside him turned violent. A voice in the back of his mind screamed that he was about to lose her again.
Can’t lose something I don’t have, he reasoned.
Ash and Zeek returned to the table. Vin wondered how much of the show they had caught. Zeek offered him a fresh ale. He took it and downed half before coming up for air.
“That bad?” Zeek observed.
“Did you expect anything else?”
“Honestly, I expected chairs to be thrown across tables.”
“Then from that perspective, it went pretty well.” Vin sucked down more booze before saying, “She’s leaving tomorrow.”
Ash let out a sigh. “Aidan’s going to be pissed.”
“Who gives a fuck how Aidan feels?”
The two men went quiet for a moment. Then Ash inquired, “How do you feel about it?”
How did he feel? He felt like someone had chewed up his guts and spit them back out. Like his chest was about to collapse into a black hole and take this damn spaceport with it. Every muscle coiled with dread and urgency. But most of all, he felt, if he let her go this time, he would be sucked down the pit of despair that had nearly swallowed him the first time she’d walked out of his life.
Without answering, he stood and bolted toward the ship. Inside, he rushed toward his compartment and rummaged through his things, snatching a small package and stuffing it in his pocket.
On his way out, he passed Aidan.
“How did it go?” Aidan yelled after him.
“Don’t know yet!”
Entering her tiny room, Priya flopped on the thin, lumpy mattress held up by the meager frame and placed her arms behind her head. The lack of color on the metal walls matched her dreary mood.
She closed her eyes and let out a frustrated breath, remembering that terrible day. The day she’d caught Vin with a leggy tramp draped over him, his gaze riveted to her generous bosom. On her friggin’ birthday! She knew he’d seen her standing there in the doorway, and he hadn’t even had the gumption to look guilty.
A knock sounded. After a short debate, she labored to her feet, knowing who it would be.
Vin straightened as she opened the door, his russet eyes wary. “Can we speak?”
She crossed her arms in answer.
Turning defiant, he pushed past her, giving her a whiff of his musky scent. He smelled of hard work and man. She used to worship that scent.
Stifling a sigh, she closed the door and gave him her best stubborn expression. Yet, on the inside, she was stupidly eager. He always did that to her. No matter how angry she was, he could always make her want him.
Bastard.
Silence filled the space, coated by tension.
Finally, he spoke. “I just came to tell you I don’t want you to leave. I want to run Phase Nine with you, and I want us to win.”
“Thank you for your opinion. I’ll take it into consideration.”
His lips thinned.
“Is that it?”
“Yup.” He shrugged and lifted his palms as if at a loss.
She stepped toward the door to let him out, but suddenly found herself being pulled back by the waist.
Eyes wide, she flipped around in his arms. He’d made sure she was off balance and had to grip his shoulders for support.
“No, that’s not it,” he hissed. “Why did you leave without a word?”
“You know why.”
“I know what you think you saw.” His words came out in a rush, as if he’d rehearsed them. “You know I was angry with you that day. I was already pretty drunk when I saw you at the club, and out of spite I let you think I was interested in that woman.” Sorrow entered his eyes. He shook his head. “I never assumed you’d disappear without railing at me.”