Camille's Capture Read Online Free Page B

next target.
    “The enemy flies within my scope,” Aegis snarled. His copilot’s harsh words were punctuated by muffled plops as the tail blaster fired.
    From the edge of his vision, Jaxon saw the Baldorean craft’s hull ripple before the ship shattered in a flare of energized particles.
    Three more fighters, one of theirs and two of the enemy’s, met the same fate before the Baldoreans retreated.
    The squad leader issued the order for them to fall back, which meant they were out of the fighting for the next hour.
    Jaxon took his time unsnapping his harness and levering out of the weapon chair. The loss of one of their fighters soured the sweet taste of victory. Autopilot had the con when he stepped into the main cabin. The occupied light glowed above the santizer’s door. Good. Jaxon didn’t need to spend more time eyeballing his best bud’s tight ass and mooning over a hopeless fantasy of sharing a mate with the warrior.
    The stubborn dream had sprung to life the first he’d heard of a tri-bond, and it refused to die. He’d sought out all the information on the sole instance of an officially sanctioned mating between two men and one woman. Each new account had given him more hope. Surely something that had happened once could happen again. If the gods favored him with a miracle, the impossible—his forbidden craving for Aegis—became possible. Or it would as long as he ignored the small problem of the big guy’s alien status. His bud’s Hakanese ancestry hadn’t kept him out of the Space Corps maybe it wouldn’t be an issue.
    T he tri-bond had always been his personal fantasy, so he got to make the rules. Aegis’s naturalized citizenship definitely didn’t qualify as a problem.
    After the last dogfight, he ought to be thanking the gods they’d been spared , instead he longed for another skirmish. He lived to fight the stinking Baldoreans. The downside always came when the battle ended. High on the adrenaline rush and hornier than a spiny Anluvian in heat, he had no distraction from Aegis.
    The sanitizer opened. Jaxon got busy, pretending to check his comlink for messages.
    “I asked whatever gods may be to grant safe passage to Buck and Hex,” Aegis finished zipping up his jumpsuit.
    Jaxon kept his peepers glued to the comlink, though he couldn’t remember a single message he’d scanned. “Their fighter added to the cosmic dust?”
    “Correct. This was their first rotation.”
    “Damn, we only met them at last week’s briefing. They were babes, barely out of the academy.” He turned away, suddenly too aware of the big guy and too aware of the thin the line between life and death.
    “Such is too often the way.” Aegis made minute adjustments to the energy distribution. “How many of the enemy’s Eagles did you down, three or four?”
    “Yeah, something like that. You laid down some serious firepower yourself, bud. Doesn’t help those poor dead space jocks.”
    Aegis pressed his sensuous lips tighter and raked strong fingers through still-damp curls. Typical marks of his frustration.
    Jaxon balled his hands into to fists to keep from reaching for his friend. Manly warriors didn’t cuddle their co-pilots. Cradling the big guy’s head and forcing him to accept some comfort would just punch his sissy card. Still his fingers twitched, imagining the texture of his bud’s locks—wet silk over strong bones.
    The tops of Jaxon’s ears burned, and he jerked back from the surge of forbidden images. He cleared his throat, swallowed, and still sounded too damn raw. “If you’re done with your primpin’—”
    The other warrior didn’t rise to the bait. He just stood there, a picture of rugged male beauty and stoicism as he crossed his arms in front of an impressive chest and stared into the middle distance. Not for the first time, Jaxon wished he could read the big guy’s thoughts the way he did anyone else’s—a secret he’d never told.
    Differences weren’t prized in the corps. Perfect