Her eyes narrowed as her razor-sharp gaze shifted over the lighted panels. Her mouth thinned, and she hmphed.
Shade grinned. This was turning fun again.
Tess had spirit. She made every sentence feel like a dare—like she was daring him to be different. To be more. He’d wanted more from the women he’d dated in the last decade, but all he’d found were people trying so hard to conform that they’d left him feeling frustrated and unsatisfied. Even in private, no one was willing to make a ripple for fear of where that wave might wash up—and who it could drag under. He didn’t blame them, but there was nothing exciting about it, especially in bed. The galactic ideal was boring as fuck.
Tess finally grinned back. “You’re just trying to rile me up.”
“Guilty,” he said with a wink, although that hadn’t been entirely it.
The city disappeared behind them, giving way to green fields and then to a tangle of foliage. They flew over the forest, and Tess inched away from the window while still avidly staring down. She looked like she couldn’t decide if she wanted to jump in with both feet or run away screaming. It was cute.
“We have dragons,” Shade said, nodding toward the darkening treetops. “That’s where they live.”
She gasped, and her head whipped around. “What? Really?”
Damn. He couldn’t help smiling again. “Just kidding.”
“Why would you do that?” Tess’s hand snapped out and thumped him hard across the chest. “Dragons don’t exist.”
His lips twitched. “Maybe they did—at one point.”
She shook her head. “Next you’ll be telling me there are mermaids in your ocean.”
Shade sighed. “Ah, wouldn’t that be nice. I’d come to the beach every day, if that were the case.”
He thought she muttered men under her breath.
Tess looked like she was having fun again. So was he. That was a problem—and yet he didn’t want it to stop.
The cruiser’s com buzzed, and Shade glanced at the caller ID. His pulse surged. Solan and Raquel.
He reached over and rejected the communication.
“Do you need to answer that?” Tess asked.
Shade shook his head. “Nothing important.” Now, if he could just convince his hammering heart of that.
A few minutes later, the casino resort came into view. Tess pressed up so close to the window that it started fogging up, and she had to use her sweater to wipe it off.
“The shore is amazing,” she breathed out. “Such pretty lights.”
“What? The torches?” Shade asked. They lined the long stretch of beach.
She nodded. “It looks so…ancient and exotic.”
That was what he’d always thought. Every time he saw them, he half expected prehistoric tribespeople to materialize with their body paint and drums and start dancing beneath the moons.
“It’s pest control,” he told her. “There’s a scent that keeps insects away from the beach.”
“It’s beautiful,” Tess murmured, sounding like she was caught in a dream and just waking up.
Fuck mermaids. Tess had a siren’s voice that sent his blood rushing south. Shade shifted in his seat. “Let’s go down for a closer look.”
She turned his way again. “Not to the casino, though, right? Just to the beach?”
Shade nodded. Every wily rat in Sector 2 frequented the Star Palace Casino, and there was no way he was bringing Tess into it. He’d gone in exactly once and lost everything. He hated that place.
Next to it, though, was the only safe stretch of beach on this side of Albion 5. Most of the coast was rocky and lined with sheer, often-crumbling cliffs. And here, the waters were all netted off. Nothing that might eat you could get through.
Shade requested a docking space, paid electronically, and then brought the cruiser down to his assigned platform in the beehive-like structure adjacent to the resort. Landing here put them closer to the casino than he liked, but there was no other choice. This was all Star Palace land for as far as the eye could see, and the owner didn’t tolerate anyone on his property for free. The minimum to set foot on the private beach was forking over the docking fee.
With a smirk in Tess’s direction, Shade very pointedly unlocked the doors. Tess smirked back and hopped out, but he didn’t miss the humor in her eyes. It made him feel both warm and cold.
The com buzzed a second time, drawing his attention away from Tess. Solan and Raquel. Again. Couldn’t they leave him alone? Figure things out on their own for once?
Or not, he revised, glancing at his companion. He knew what, or