Waking Dream [Tales of the Citadel 23] by Viola Grace Page B

contract stipulated at this date and time, contingent upon retrieving my body.
    Burin laughed and repeated it all word for word. When he was done, he sealed the file, attached it to the contract and ordered a shuttle to be prepared for immediate departure.
    “Well, Wiyra, where were your people last seen?”
    Jelikni quadrant. The asteroid field of Pars.
    “Then, that is where we will start. Stay inside me as long as you like. I am rather enjoying the sensation.” Burin headed out of his quarters and down for a meal.
    Inside him, Wiyra could only think one thing. Pervert.
    He chuckled all the way through his breakfast.
     
     

 
     
     
    Chapter Two
     
     
    Wiyra stuck her hand into his skull again. “Here, it was right here. Even with drift, it should have remained in sight.”
    Burin nodded and brought the sensors of the sleek tracker shuttle online. “Be quiet for a moment, Wiyra. There is something strange here.”
    His pretty eyes went white as he looked out and saw trails that no computer could spot in the tumble of the asteroid field. This talent was what made him a Master Tracker. Nothing escaped his notice, and he could find a sliver in a pile of shattered debris. It was the reason that he had been her first thought when she needed help.
    Well, there was also the matter of his gorgeous eyes and his determined flirtation. He found her attractive, and he made no secret of it. He wanted her as a partner, but more than that, he simply wanted her. That was a very heady thing for a woman who was always surrounded by a very protective family group.
    “I have the trail. Something grabbed the platform and physically hauled it away. The track is still strong.” He blinked and his pretty eyes returned.
    “Can you find it?”
    “Me, find your body? Oh, Wiyra, I can find you across the universe.” He followed the trail made fourteen hours earlier.
    The trail should have been obscured by the tumbling masses of mineral that filled the area. If they had been using a digital scan, the trail would have been lost, but with Burin’s eyes, his shuttle moved swift and sure through space, following the path that would lead to her body.
    “How far do you think they are?” She needed to nest in him again, but she was putting it off. It was far too intimate.
    “We will catch them in four hours. Hauling a mining platform slows them down considerably.”
    She shivered and finally had to ask. “May I come inside again?”
    “Of course. Anytime you need to.” He turned to face her, and she faced away from him, backing into his body. He shuddered a little. “You are not as depleted as you were the first time.”
    I am sorry. I didn’t want to get too weak again. I have never been away from myself for this long before.
    “Don’t worry, Wiyra. I will get you back in your curves, and then, you are going to have to start paying me back for my heroic efforts on your behalf.” He chuckled.
    She didn’t know what to say to that. Her body had more than the average breast and hip for a space-born woman, his notice of it was one of the things that kept her from dealing with him as she would an indifferent man. Everything she said, he turned into something flirtatious, and it was hard for her to deal with him on that level, no one on her platform would dare to try something as crass as flirting with the Waking Dream.
    “No comment?”
    I am thinking. I want to be back in my body, but I have no idea what has been done to it in my absence.
    “I am guessing that your family hid you. They were very protective when I came calling with my offer.”
    Your offer would have had direct financial impact on the family. They react with their wallets first. She tried not to think of how many times that her life had been shoved back because the family needed one more mineral hit to afford an increase in equipment or send one of her brothers or sister off on a trip to a far-off station.
    “What was that? I felt something grey in your normally