No Quarter (Bounty, Book One) by Christine d'Abo Page B

put in. Then off it goes.”
    “Then off we go.”
    The unspoken you wasn’t lost on Faolan. Gods, it pissed him off he couldn’t break through Gar’s protective shell. He liked the Zeten. Faolan had never met a Zeten he could tolerate for more than ten minutes, let alone want to fuck his brains out. With the exception of Mace, but she was a completely different scenario. Hell, she didn’t even have the accent anymore. The silent ticking of time flying forward wasn’t helping matters. He had less than two days to win Gar over before the Belle Kurve arrived to whisk him away, allowing Gar to disappear forever into the black of space.
    Slapping his hands on his thighs, Faolan stood up to crack the vertebrae in his back. “Done. Guaranteed you won’t find a better quality job or your credits back.”
    Gar nodded and moved to the escape pod. Faolan didn’t shift away from the computer panel, wanting Gar to either make him move or brush up against him. He almost laughed out loud at the look of annoyed frustration when Gar realized what he was doing. Instead of saying anything at all, Gar walked around to the other side and accessed the secondary navigation system. Mark one for the bounty hunter.
    “What sector would be the best to send the pod?” Gar quirked an eyebrow. “We don’t want to set it too close to your ship.”
    “Don’t you worry about my ship. My crew can more than handle anything Jason throws at them.” Sauntering around the pod, Faolan shoved his hands in his pants pockets and tried to keep his casual air. “Where would you hide your ship if you were looking for a safe harbor?”
    Faolan watched as Gar chew his bottom lip. Another glimpse of Gar the man. “Why?”
    “Well, this is supposed to be you, right? Only makes sense you should pick a spot where you’d normally hide, considering Jason would try to anticipate what you would do. Anything less will look suspicious.”
    Gar considered this, all while his fingers beat out a nervous tattoo against the escape pod. “Tridan Nebula. It’s a conceivable place for me to hide and it has lots of debris I would be able to use as weapons. Plus there are several sensor blackout areas I would use to my advantage.”
    Faolan stopped a generous foot away from Gar’s back, nodding his head in agreement even though he knew he wasn’t completely visible. “Then the Tridan Nebula it is.”
    Without waiting for Gar to respond, Faolan strode out of the workroom and made his way toward the kitchen. Pleased he’d sufficiently unnerved Gar, Faolan planned to make the most of his strategic retreat. There was a particularly comfortable chair he’d spotted earlier he wanted to test out and he really needed to rest if he didn’t want to alert Gar to the fact he really wasn’t completely all right.
    The door to the kitchen was in sight before Gar’s footsteps finally echoed behind him. “Hey!”
    Faolan slowed but didn’t stop. “Problem?”
    “Where are you going?” Gar stopped him with a hand on Faolan’s shoulder.
    He let the young man hold him, ignoring the rush of blood down to his cock. “Kitchen. Thought I’d grab something quick to eat, unless you’re plan on starving me for the next two days.”
    “Don’t you need to contact your ship?” Gar had lowered his voice, gently squeezing Faolan. “Let them know about the danger?”
    Gods, his touch was perfect. Before he realized what he was doing Faolan covered Gar’s hand with his own and returned the squeeze. “We have a plan worked out. They will wait for me only so long then they’ll head to our backup rendezvous.”
    “I…I’m glad. Hate the idea of anyone suffering because of what I’ve done.”
    Faolan turned to face Gar, comforted when he didn’t pull his hand away. “How is it your fault? I seem to remember being the one who set himself up as bait in a bar waiting for Jason to send his goons. No offense.”
    “None taken. It still doesn’t explain why he’d want to kill