Gambit by Kim Knox

down her ingrained need to cover her scars. “He saved my mother. I owed him.”
    “And he apprenticed you to the Tryne Loxias Malyn to smuggle vials of caustic-angel.” His mouth hovered over the last of the line of scarring. “The drug has no effect on Ladaians or Trynes. You discovered that your first trip out.”
    She snorted. “Is there nothing you don’t know about me?” She was glad of the dim lights. The strafing on her stomach was one thing. The jagged mess on her back was another.
    Daned smirked and chased kisses down to her navel. “No.” He flicked his tongue and the sudden, sharp spike of sensation shot her pelvis off the bunk. “See?”
    “What about you, Daned? I know nothing…” Her words faded as he strung a wet line of kisses across her hip bone. Was this part of their permanence? That he could have her heart thudding and her breath short with a few simple kisses?
    “What’s to know?” His mouth paused on the crease of her leg. “You have three questions.”
    “Only three? I’m going to be stuck with you and that’s—”
    The curve of his smile against her skin sent flickers of heat to warm her belly. “Is that one of your questions?”
    “So funny.” She’d have smacked him, but the way his lips moved over her skin, the tantalizing lick of his tongue, stopped her hand. What did she want to know about him? Besides everything? Which just wasn’t her. She didn’t do relationships—not forever ones. He was more than perfection. Chae stared down at the smoothness of his skin and her first question hit her. “You don’t have scars.” His thumbs teased her thighs and the flow of need tightened her flesh. Was he trying to distract her? “You’re built to fight. You can’t be that good.”
    “I don’t scar. No Traern does.”
    “Lucky you.”
    “Perhaps.” For a moment, he just breathed and the brush of air tickled. Chae twisted and he gripped her thighs with hard fingers. “We’re bred for strength and beauty. Our history…” His thumbs started to stroke her skin in a slow, even rhythm. “I’m not allowed to display how I defend the Ara Family. Can’t have it mar me. I’m a well-trained machine for the Ara. A secret hidden in plain sight.”
    Chae’s stomach knotted at the suppressed pain in his voice. Her scars were a reminder of the past—most of it painful. She could happily live without them. Daned wanted that reminder, an acknowledgement of who he was, of his duty. Her fingers skimmed over his dark hair, needing to offer comfort. “I’m sorry.”
    “Another question.”
    Her fingers curled away. The undercurrent in his voice spoke of an old pain. It was too soon to pick at it. She scrabbled to think of something fun, something that would lift the sudden sour mood. She wanted to have fun with him, to be fun for him. That was another surprise, her wanting to please, and it brought up another question. In a way. “Shock me.”
    Daned looked up. “What?”
    “Tell me something about yourself that would shock—and excite—me.”
    He hesitated…before a smile touched his mouth. The gesture warmed her. “I don’t usually find myself face-deep in hot, naked pilot.”
    A laugh broke from her and she let her arms flop above her head. That was a shock. A nice one. Yes, this real man thing was so much better than bought flesh. No, not a real man. Just Daned. “You think I’m hot?” She stared at him. With the way he looked, wasn’t a scarred pilot a disappointment for permanence? But she didn’t, couldn’t, ask that question. Not that way. “And why not with the hot and the naked?”
    He grinned. “Yes, Chae, I think you’re hot. And that’s one question too many. I have a pilot to eat.” He dipped his head and traced his tongue down the crease of her thigh. Her flesh tightened.
    “Daned, you’re walking sex—”
    “The attention can become…tiresome. Annoying.” He glanced up and the stark overhead beam of light gleamed in his eyes. “Don’t