Stirring the Embers

        Six weeks. Six weeks she’d been putting up with his crap. Nika had to admit that she found Brian Connelly’s attentions to be both frustrating and intriguing, all at the same time. He acted like a teenager sometimes—pulling her hair, throwing a piece of bread at her at the dinner table when no one was looking. The last time they’d kissed dirt she’d made a point of avoiding him. After that conversation on the bridge the night she’d cut the Alliance guy, she hadn’t been sure what he might get up to … and she hadn’t been sure she wanted to test it either. But she’d come back aboard just before wheels-up to find a small bunch of violets in her quarters. Weeks in space made avoiding him difficult.
        As she walked down the hall from the bridge, Nika found herself suddenly crowded from behind, a man’s hands on her hips as he used his whole body to compel her sideways right into the bulkhead. She had no fear of anyone on the ship, so she quelled her instinct to fight, finding herself spun around a moment later with her back to the bulkhead and Brian’s arms bracketing her body.
        Awareness arced like lightning between them.
        “Hey,” he drawled with a slow smile.
        Nika arched a single eyebrow at him, struggling to ignore the fact that they were face to face in a very intimate position. “Hey yourself. Problem?”
        “Nope, no problem,” he replied, his eyes on her face.
        “So … why are you crowding me?”
        “Because you’re ignoring me,” Brian replied, as if it were obvious. He moved closer, invading her personal space. One hand moved up next to her head to brace his body, the other slid once more to her hip. “I don’t like it when you ignore me,” he told her softly.
        Nika tensed slightly as he moved close enough to barely brush her front with his body. She looked up at him, and boy was that a mistake. She retorted breathlessly, unable to tear her eyes from him. “I ignore you because if I didn’t, I might hit you for acting like a twelve-year-old with a crush.”
        Whatever he’d been about to say was cut off by the sound of someone coming up the intersecting corridor. He swooped in for a heated kiss, pinning her against the wall with his body. It couldn’t have been five seconds worth of time, really. By the time Harry rounded the corner, Brian was walking the other way. Whistling.


        Yu-Shin Harrington, affectionately known as Harry to the Harbinger crew, turned the corner in the hall and stopped dead, silently backpedaling around the corner. And then she peeked out. It was rare that anything shocked her, but seeing the ship’s XO leaned against a bulkhead crowding her pilot? Yeah, that was enough to make her pause and check to be sure there wasn’t something ass-kicking-worthy going on there. Nika could take care of herself, of course, but that didn’t mean Harry wouldn’t rip Connelly’s balls off and shove them down his throat if he needed it.
        Nope. Looked like Nika had it well in hand, giving Connelly a grin that made Harry raise her eyebrows to her hairline. Well, now. Isn’t that interesting? And with a faint grin, she withdrew far enough down the hall to make a bunch of noise and warn them she was coming. By the time she rounded the corner once more, the only person left in the corridor was Nika. Harry merely nodded to her and went about her business.

        Sitting her shift on the bridge, Nika was reading a novel on a Cortex screen when Harry came up behind her. “Might want to watch out for that one. He’s got a girl in every port.”
        Nika jumped, looking surprised by the words. She and Harry had a friendly relationship, but they rarely spoke of anything of great import. Though Nika had been on board the ship for a year and a half already, she still kept a lot of the crew at arm’s length. “What are you talking about, Harry?” Nika’s response was edged with amusement, covering her butt.
        “You know what I’m talking about, girl.” Harry left a cup of coffee on the console for Nika and rested her hip against the co-pilot’s chair while she sipped from her own cup. “That little thing you got brewing with the XO.”
        “Pfft,” came Nika’s reply. “Still don’t know what you’re talkin’ about, Harry. Ain’t got a thing with the XO. That’d be against Kramer’s rules.”
        Harry chuckled. “Yeah. And?”
        Nika paused, her cup hovering in front of her mouth as she looked at the weapons specialist in surprise. “Aaaaannnnd…. She’d kick my ass to the next star system and back,” she said.
        “Whatever,” Harry answered, clearly unimpressed. “Shyla’s a good captain, runs a tight ship. And she’s got her rules, but as long as nothing you do kills the crew dynamic on this ship, she isn’t gonna say much.”
        Taking the time to sip her coffee, Nika looked toward the viewport of the cockpit as she chose her words. “Harry… you ever break the rules?”
        Harry shrugged. “A time or two,” she admitted. “Usually with someone just passing through. Which is why I’m telling you to be careful. If you’re the type to get your heart involved, he’ll break it well and good.”
        Nika leaned her head back against her seat and contemplated. She grinned at Harry. “C’mon, you already know me well enough to know I’m not gonna go do something *that* stupid. Too much uncertainty out here, even if I was lookin’ for forever.”
        Harry shrugged and said, “Just sayin’.” And then she turned to go. “When we make planetfall, Shyla wants a girls’ night. Beer’s on her.”
        Nika pursed her lips and nodded. “Tell her we got about twelve hours.”

 * * *

        Coming off duty, Nika headed toward her quarters. Brian fell into step next to her, his usual half-smirk on his face. “Where ya heading?”
        “On a ship this size? Where ya think I’m heading?” Nika rolled her eyes. In the past six weeks, the man had done nothing untoward but he’d made a point of letting her know the invitation was still open. Would remain open. It wasn’t anything obvious—the occasional tug of her braid when he passed her in the corridors, every once in a while he’d bring her coffee on the bridge just because. Every time they sat on the bridge, she’d catch him watching her with that knowing little smile dimpling his cheek. It was making her restless, too, as evidenced by her reaction when he made the overt move of cornering her in the hall on her way to the bridge earlier. He was getting bold, and she liked it.
        “I think you’re heading for your quarters so you can get out of talking to me again,” he said with a grin. “I’m getting to you.”
        “Keep dreaming, Connelly,” she retorted.
        “Oh, I do, Earhart. And you’ve had a starring role lately, girl.”
        Nika stopped outside her quarters and drawled, “Well, now, darlin’, I’m mighty flattered, but I told you. I’m not breakin’ the frat regs on this ship for you.”
        He leaned into her, once more using his height advantage to crowd her back a bit. She put her hand dead smack in the middle of his chest and pushed. “Never make the same move twice,” she said with a smirk.
        He grinned, capturing her hand and bringing it up to his mouth so that he could place a very gentle kiss into her palm, letting his breath sensitize the nerves there before pulling back from her. “See ya later.”
        Nika’s eyes went wide on his face and she shuddered, staring at him. That move, that one right there, was the straw. She’d seen him be cocky, she’d seen him be flirtatious, she’d even seen him be tender on occasion. But that one small move, just the tiniest hint of romance instead of, for example, leaning in just to steal a full kiss?
        Crap… now she was going to have to test it out.

        “Hey, cap’n, you got a minute?”
        Shyla looked up from her desk. The nicest part about absconding with an Alliance vessel was that the captain still had a small office. Not much more than a closet, but all hers. And Shyla kept an open-door policy for her crew. “What’s on your mind, Harry?”
        The tiny weapons master stepped into the office and closed the door behind her.
        “You been watching what’s going on between our pilot and XO?” Harry asked, plopping down in the only other chair in the room.
        Shyla snickered. “You mean the tango those two are doing around each other? Hell, yeah. It’s better than Cortex daytime broadcasts. Why? What’s up?”
        “Thinking when we next kiss dirt, you kick those two the hell off the ship to resolve it,” Harry commented mildly.
        Now the redheaded captain put her pen down. “It’s getting serious?”
        Harry shrugged. “Not that kind of serious, I don’t think. But serious enough that it could be a distraction if they don’t get it out of their systems.”
        Pursing her lips, Shyla considered. “I don’t want to lose either of them from the ship. I’m reluctant to push them at one another like that—if it goes wrong, we’re down one or two of the best crew members we’ve ever had.”
        Harry shook her head negatively, her tone thoughtful as she opined, “I doubt it, Shyla. They can both compartmentalize. And besides, you know Connelly; he’s not the kind you stick to, he’s the kind you play with and have a good time, then walk away with no hard feelings. I think it’s just the challenge she presents that has his interest. When he finally gets a piece, it’ll be done and over.”
        “We’ll see what happens when we make planetfall,” Shyla decided.
        Harry nodded. “Beer’s still on you,” she said as she stood up, a grin on her face.
        “Yeah, I know,” Shyla replied with a chuckle. “Let’s see if we can get our reticent pilot to open up a bit, hrm?”
        Harry just laughed and let herself out of the office.