“Lucid dreaming,” he rumbled, his large hands clasping her waist. “I uploaded texts about it to my digitablet, but no matter how hard I tried, I could never shape my dreams.”

“I never dream,” she answered. “Just fall into my bunk and the next thing I know, it’s time to get up and go on patrol.” When her squad mates discussed their dreams over morning cups of kahve, she always kept silent, wondering what it would be like to visit impossible places, do impossible things. Her life kept her firmly grounded, as if the dreaming part of her mind simply refused to emerge, lest she wish for what could never be.

His voice was rough, so different from the controlled Engineering Corps member she had encountered in the briefing room on base. “Countless times, I wished for this very dream. You and me. The taste of you on my mouth. The feel of you beneath my hands.”

“I can pinch you,” she offered. “So you know you’re awake.”

A corner of his mouth tilted. “My consciousness right now is not under debate.” His hips pressed snug against hers, and the feel of the thick, hard shape of his cock sent waves of need through her.

She dug her fingers into his taut shoulders, urging him even closer. Their lips came together, hot and demanding. For a man who needed delicacy from his hands, he gripped her waist with a strength that skirted the edges of pain, as if concerned she might turn to smoke. Yet she reveled in the power of his grasp, holding him just as tightly.

As they kissed, hunger grew. Sensation gathered in her breasts, between her legs, lighting her nerves like a thousand stars. She moved her hips against his. His sharp inhalation drew breath from her mouth, and she moved again. It was only an echo of what could be, muted by the layers of fabric between them, yet even this contact sent hot shivers of pleasure through her.

Clever as he was, he followed her lead, his hips surging against hers. He rubbed his length along her, both a tease and fulfillment. The heat of him scorched. Her body responded, and she could feel lush slickness between her legs.

“This is real.” He growled. “Even if I had been able to dream of this, it couldn’t match the actuality.”

When he lifted his hand to cup her breast, she moaned. And when he circled his thumb around her nipple, drawing it into a tight point, her moan deepened, becoming almost animal.

More. She needed more. She leaned back, until she lay atop the table. Nils stretched over her, his straining body covering hers, and she reveled in the sensation of his weight pressing her down. They both knew that, trained in combat though he was, she could have him flat on his back and helpless in microseconds. Yet her willing ceding of control ignited them both.

They moved against each other. Even with the uniforms between them, she felt the gleaming edge of release coalesce, drawing nearer. It seemed impossible. The last time she’d reached a climax from simply touching, she had been a restless teenager in the cockpit of a local boy’s dustcruiser. Too much experience had happened between then and now for her to be this aroused. And yet she was.

What she wanted, what she needed, was Nils. Inside of her. Erasing the boundaries between them.

She pulled at the fastenings of his uniform. “Strip,” she rasped against his mouth. “Let me feel you.”

“Last I checked, we’re the same rank. Can’t give me orders.”

“Then, as one lieutenant to another, I strongly suggest you get naked.”

His grin was both boyish and wicked. “Having taken your suggestion under advisement, I concur that it’s the wisest course of action.”

They smiled at one another before they both attacked the fastenings on his uniform. An alarm shrilled through the ship, and their fingers froze. An instant later, she pushed upright and went for her blaster.

Nils’s hand covered hers, keeping her weapon holstered. “It’s all right.”

“If that’s PRAXIS—”

He shook his head. “After I made the mods to the ship, I set up an alarm to notify us when the ideal time to approach Marek’s planet arrived.”

“And that time is now.”

He groaned. “Seems like we’re always being interrupted.”

“Missions don’t care if we’re about to get naked.” Her words were flip, but true disappointment cut her right down the middle. She’d been so ready to let down the final boundaries between them. To create true intimacy, the kind she’d never before experienced.

She prayed to the many gods of the Starfield that she and Nils would get their chance.

As much as Nils despised Marek, he had to admit his former colleague had shown ample intelligence when selecting a hideout. The small planet appeared thick with dense vegetation, huge stretches of land covered by tangles of jungle. Not all civilizations were visible from thousands of miles up, but he ran scan after scan and found scarcely any sign of sentient habitation. Aside from Marek, the only indications of culture came in the form of isolated encampments. Further scanning proved that the encampments consisted of a few primitive huts and nothing more.

He and Celene would have to avoid these settlements, in case any of the inhabitants had a connection to Marek and alerted him to their presence.

“We’re going to have to trek in to Marek’s compound,” he said as they approached the planet. “If we land too close, he’ll be able to detect us.”

“In all your training, you ever deal with bushcraft?”

“Some,” he admitted. “Mostly, I’ve read texts. You?”

“Used to go camping on my homeworld. But,” she added, “I haven’t been on my homeworld in decades.”

“The sightless piloting the sightless.”

He stared out the front window of the Phantom as Celene carefully guided the Phantom to a good landing site. As they drew closer to the surface, he noted the massive size of the trees, tall as buildings, with wide trunks and long, twisting branches. Seeing through the canopy to the ground below proved difficult, but he occasionally caught glimpses of forest floor bisected by green rivers. They were still too far up to get a sense of animal life, though bright-colored, avian-like creatures burst from the trees and wheeled in the sky as Celene located a clearing and began to lower the ship.

Despite the narrow confines of the clearing, she brought the Phantom down effortlessly. Not a single tree branch was disturbed or broken. He could see how easily legends about her formed. She did almost everything with faultless skill. Yet he possessed tangible proof that Celene wasn’t a legend, but a real woman of heart and flesh.

The increase of his heartbeat’s rhythm came not just from landing on an alien planet’s surface, but remembering what had transpired between him and Celene less than an hour ago. The honesty they had shared. The heat of their bodies. The brutal demand that transformed him completely. With just a few memories of her legs around his hips, his cock stirred, and his hunger returned on sharp claws. He’d been moments away from making love to her atop the galley table, and wanted to take her back there now.

He forced all of this away. Many geomiles of unexplored jungle stood between them and Marek, and when they did finally reach the traitor, they’d have to breach his security measures, destroy the plans for the Wraith disruption device, capture Marek, and find their way back.

The Phantom touched down. A gentle shake rocked the ship as it settled onto terra firma. Celene exhaled at the landing.

“Another perfect landing,” he said.

She grinned. “Next time, give me a challenge.”

He rubbed his hands on his thighs, drying his damp palms on the fabric of his uniform. “The challenge is already here.” He nodded out the window, and she followed his gaze.

At ground level, the jungle appeared even more treacherous. A naturalist might consider the profusion of gigantic plant life to be rich with potential, begging to be studied and catalogued. Yet he saw abundant danger. Carnivorous plants were well documented. Any of these massive plants could be waiting with maws filled with digestive enzymes. Surely with this plentiful flora, animals and insects teemed, and any of them could be fatal. Swamps, rivers, falls. Hostile natives. A thousand ways to die. Most of them unpleasant.