Romance on the Go ®
On a distant planet in a far-future age, talented Chief Architect Fyona must fiercely conceal her forbidden entanglement with the Captain of Imperial Security.
No matter how loyal to the planet’s Empress Fyona is, it’s still considered too risky to permit foreign offworlders like her into close relationships with such high-security agents. However, a lustful secret liaison ends in a promise to spend the night together. The Captain may be a reserved and enigmatic man—as all good spies are—but his desire for Fyona burns bright.
It sets her recalling how the unlikely pair first fell in love: when the Captain bravely intervened to stop an unexpected attack, just before Fyona’s scheduled memory-wipe. Illegally cheating the memory-wipe, Fyona has cherished that remembrance of him. So when the Captain secretly visits her bed again, she knows exactly what sort of a man he is…and how much he wants her.
Excerpt:
Suddenly, the thought goes through me like a shockwave: He won’t be around forever. Who knows which mission will be his last? Grab your chances together whilst you can.
And I catch his eye. That’s my fatal mistake.
In the empty corridor, I catch his longing gaze, halt helplessly, and glance recklessly.
“Fuck it.”
And swoop in for a desperate kiss.
Our mouths connect with a gasped clash, one that softens quickly to adoring connection. I lock a hand to the back of his neck, urging him close. His hand finds my shoulder, fumbling aside the roll of training equipment to step closer. A vague clatter and impact on the top of my shoe; I’ve dropped my folders of notes.
Fuck it. Fuck everything that isn’t this kiss.
I lick into Veren’s beautifully-defined lips instead of bending to pick things up, jelly-kneed at feeling the characteristic shape of his mouth on mine.
I feel him reach out for me with his other hand, his whole body twisting as if to press against me. But then he catches himself. And steps back. Breathing audibly. Between the cool air and the sudden bright intrusiveness of the public corridor, I come to my senses somewhat.
“I know, I know. I’m sorry,” I murmur. “This can’t be public. I know.” I tuck a tabby-striped lock of hair behind my ear, bending to collect my dropped notes.
The injustice sears me. I have known him half a year, ever since I began working here. And I have wanted him for exactly that long. Am I only to work, and work, and work yet more, until the Empress’s new palace expansion monopolizes my every thought? Is that all I am for? The other staff may spend time outside their work on friendship, romance, and affection, so why can’t I? Because, by mere chance, the one I choose it with is deemed off-limits? And on nothing but a stupid technicality!
It isn’t right. But we could make it right. And truthfully, forbidden though it is, by the look Veren is giving me he wants to make it right every bit as much as me.
Veren checks the dial on his wrist with an inscrutable expression. “Eleven minutes.”
I blink at him. “What of them?”
“Eleven minutes and the Imperial Advisory Council convenes…in here,” he says, swiftly leading me back through the open door I’d just exited. Gracefully producing one of his many skeleton-keys, he locks the door behind us. We shouldn’t be walked in on. Although… if someone tries to open the door and finds it inexplicably locked, they’ll start asking questions. Veren pulls the stiffened concertina-like fabric screens across the glass panels of the room. “Tell me if you don’t want to do this, dear Fyona. After all, it is only eleven minutes. But then again, it is a whole eleven minutes,” he adds meaningfully.
And swoops to his knees before me.
