When he scowled, she threw her head back and laughed with delight. The laughter poured from her, light and musical and before he knew it he was chuckling too. He was about to reach for her and pull her into his arms, when the ship rocked hard to the side, throwing her into his embrace. Alarms sounded.
“What the hell?” she gasped as she steadied herself against him. Her eyes went wide as she looked at him and he knew she was wondering how he’d saved them from a puddle of tangled limbs. She glanced down, noticing they hovered just above the floor. Her gaze was accusatory. “Is there anything you’re not prepared for?”
He gave her a swift, hard kiss before moving to the captain’s chair. They’d been so wrapped up in talking to each other, they hadn’t noticed when the ship had fallen out of lightspeed.
“Shit! Hang on.” He grabbed the controls, shut off the autopilot and activated the shields, before tilting them hard right. A phaser shot barely missed them.
Sable took the copilot’s chair. “It’s a Federation ship,” she said in surprise after a quick glance at the console. She’d barely secured her harness before he was forced to make another evasive roll.
With grim resignation, Derek kept his eyes on the control panel in front of him and noted the second Federation ship approaching. “Now would be a good time to tell me what kind of trouble you’re in, Sable.”
“Me? Why does this have to be about me?”
He risked a side-glance at her. “Cut the shit. We’re on the far edges of the Delta Sector. Why did you decide to drop out of lightspeed here?”
Her eyes met his for an instant, then she flushed and looked away. “To avoid you. I figured you wouldn’t think to look for me here.”
She punched a few buttons on the armrest and a visor lowered from the ceiling. Within seconds, the chair spun silently around as she watched their enemy through the visor and returned fire.
Derek shook his head. Damned impossible woman. “We’re going to discuss your relationship issues later. Right now I want to know how two Federation fighter ships ended up deep in Council space at the exact remote location you decided to use.”
“I have no fucking idea. I reported my intention to travel to Rashier 6, but not the flight plan. No one knew I was coming out here.”
Derek watched as the second Federation ship flew over them, followed by a rapid volley of phasers from Sable. She was good. The second ship was already badly damaged.
“Maybe we stumbled onto something by accident.” She spun her chair to the left and fired on the first ship.
The Starwing shook with teeth-chattering force. “Yeah, a big accident. Shields are down to seventy-five percent.”
Sable fired back with even more ferocity. “Can you get us out of here?”
“No. That first hit knocked out the hyperdrive and the comm link. Whoever these guys are, they don’t like you at all.”
“They’ll have to take a number.” Her next round of fire destroyed one of the Federation ships. “Turn around so I can get the other one.”
He pulled up and over, coming in behind the remaining ship that continued to fire on them with enthusiasm. “Shields down to fifty percent and falling fast.”
Sable spun around and cursed. The remaining Federation ship was gone. “They jumped.”
“They timed that well,” Derek noted. “They arrived and left before the border probe made its rounds.”
She shook off the harness. The visor automatically rose out of her way. “Why didn’t they finish us?”
“I don’t know but I think they probably weren’t expecting a fight and ran out of time.”
She stood, her short robe twisted by the movement of the chair and the five-point harness until he could almost see her pussy.
He got hard instantly.
Shit. He shouldn’t be thinking about that now. Frustrated, he bolted out of his chair.
“We have to repair the ship and get out of here before they decide to come back,” he growled, raking a hand through his hair.
She shot him a quizzical glance. “Grumpy, aren’t we?”
“Horny,” he corrected and choked off a laugh at the grimace she made. She beat a hasty retreat.
“I’m going down to fix the hyperdrive,” she shouted as she went below deck. “You work on the shields.”