Yolanda Sfetsos - Alex Wales - Promise

Well, no one but Ulric. Suddenly, she saw an advantage to his newfound affection for her.

Promise jolted. The control panels were all buzzing like annoying insects.

As she put all of her strength into trying to keep the ship steady, the rounded edge of a moon appeared from out of nowhere, right in front of her. So close that it threatened to consume her. What the hell was going on? How could a moon magically pop up?

She checked the map. It showed nothing but clear space in this area. The closest habitable places listed were Anteris and the planet Lark, which is where she was headed.

Steering to the right, she managed to swerve enough to avoid being dragged by the gravitational pull of the moon.

Alex sighed in relief, her pulse beating a tattoo inside her head. Her relief was short-lived, though. As soon as she’d cleared the bluish tinge of the moon, a planet appeared before her. It had been hiding behind the moon. No matter how hard she tried to manually steer her way around, she wasn’t heading anywhere but straight for it.

The steering lever was jammed in the one position-forward.

The engine droned out, and the ship took a nose-dive.

“My ship is failing, and I’m going down. I repeat, I’m going down!” she yelled into her comm-unit.

She was falling into the planet, and there wasn’t a damn thing she could do to stop it. She peered out the window. What the hell? There it was-a green and brown globe.

I’m plunging into a planet that doesn’t show up on my navigation charts.

Alex tried to adjust the steering lever, but her effort was in vain. The ship continued its downward trajectory. She wasn’t sure how she’d managed to get herself into this situation, but this unfamiliar planet was sucking Promise in.

The dash in front of her sparked. All the competing noises suddenly stopped as smoke and flames ignited simultaneously. The emergency siren echoed around her, adding to the panic already gripping her.

She reached forward and pressed the extinguisher button. At least that worked. The white spray killed the flames but probably ruined every control panel on her dash.

Her grip on the manual control lever slipped from her clammy hands. Her heart beat so rapidly, she thought she might be having a heart attack.

She tightened the belt around her stomach and chest. There was nothing else she could do. Flames shone brightly outside the window in front of her, indicating Promise had entered the foreign planet’s atmosphere.

I hope I make it alive.

Alex managed to wrap her shaky fingers around the oxygen mask she kept above her and pulled it over her face seconds before darkness washed over her vision.

Ulric intended to surprise her.

There was no way Alex would ever expect him to do something this crazy. He never left the space station. There was no need to. Until now, he hadn’t seen any reason for doing so. Why would he? He had everything he needed within reach, and if it wasn’t there, he could order someone to get it for him. Everything was delivered, given to him. He could afford all of life’s desires, and sometimes people even gave them away to impress him.

After the way things had ended inside his room with Alex, he hadn’t seen any other choice but to follow her. Make her realize he meant what he’d said.

When he eventually showed himself, and they were too far out in space for her to return to Anteris, she’d have to spend more time alone with him. That’s all he wanted-to be with her.

Just when he’d stripped off every stitch of clothing and was about to make his entrance, the ship tilted dangerously forward. He lost his balance and smacked his forehead hard against some of the metal framing.

“Fuck!” It was almost impossible to find a safe spot in this blasted ship, without adding this stroke of bad luck. Some of the barrels around him shook, but none moved an inch. They were strapped in with chains. Where the hell was she delivering these?

His bare spine pressed painfully against the metal wall, scalding his skin.

He wrapped his right hand tighter around the only token he’d ever given her. The one she’d called her good luck charm. She didn’t think he took notice, but he always heard everything she said and knew she carried two good luck charms wherever she went. The one he’d given her and what he clutched in his left hand.

One way or another, he would give both back to her. Just as he would make sure she eventually saw things his way. He wanted Alex more than he’d ever wanted anything else in his life, and he wasn’t about to let her slip from his grasp. No other woman could satisfy him physically or intellectually, anymore. He’d tried to amuse himself when she was gone, just as he’d done at the beginning of their casual relationship, but something had changed.

Sex didn’t mean anything anymore, unless it was with her.

Alex Wales had gotten under his skin, deep enough to make him nuts when she wasn’t around. He started to worry about her. So much that he’d sent his most trusted bodyguard to follow her on several occasions, to ensure she returned to him safely. This time, he’d decided he would be the best man for the job.

She’s going to be mine. No other man would ever lay a hand on her again. The thought of someone else touching her made his blood boil with jealousy.

As the ship’s temperature rose around him and oxygen failed his lungs, every bit of him burned, as if his skin was literally seeping from his body. Almost as if something was shifting beneath his skin. Something hidden so deep, he hadn’t even known it was there.

Alex. I hope Alex is okay.

He made a move toward the cockpit but collapsed on his hands and knees. Ignoring the cramping of his fingers, as he curled them around the two tokens belonging to the one woman he hadn’t been able to shake since the day they’d met, was bearable. Yet, what struck next wasn’t.

Ulric roared as his skin rippled, and a world of pain tore through his body.

Alex lifted her head slowly. A kink of pain shot through the back of her neck. How long had she been out? At least she hoped she’d just been unconscious and was now waking up, instead of dead and soon to be facing the afterlife.

She turned her face to one side, then the other. She appeared to still be strapped inside the safety of her ship. There wasn’t a single light left blinking on the dashboard. It was dark, with some places melted from the fire that had ignited before everything went black. Most of the damage on the actual dash looked cosmetic. She prayed she was right.

As her eyes adjusted and focused on the large window in front of her, she noticed the tangle of shrubbery the ship rested on. She took a small breath and released it. It hurt to do so. Her ribs felt achy, maybe bruised, but she was sure they weren’t broken. She patted herself down. Nothing seemed to be broken.

Okay, so she was still alive. Surely, she wouldn’t take Promise with her into the afterlife. Then again, it was the only constant in her life.

She pulled the oxygen mask off her face and let it bounce back into its holder above her head, where it dangled uselessly.

Alex pressed the button on the seatbelt still strapped tightly around her, but it refused to come undone. This meant that every single circuit controlling every facet of the ship had fried, and now she was trapped inside her own ship.

“Great,” she whispered. Not only had she crash-landed somewhere she didn’t recognize and wasn’t on any map, but the cargo Sackor hired her to deliver wouldn’t make it in time.