Parallel Fire Read Free

does not talk to me. Nada. Stuck in the aircraft, pitch black dark, he won’t say a thing.” Anna threw both hands in the air, frustrated and…feeling something she didn’t care to examine too closely. “Oh, Medshki !”
    Her sister placed a firm hand on her shoulder. “Can’t you just tune out and think about something else?”
    Anna made an exasperated cry. “Not when I’m that close to him. Gods, no.”
    Her sister gave a sly, knowing smile. “Uh-huh.”
    â€œIt will be my own personal hell, that’s what I’m saying.”
    â€œReally? And here I was thinking you’d be shrieking with joy just to have another assignment with the fine lieutenant.”
    â€œOh, please shut up.” Anna ducked out of her twin’s grasp. “Ever since Riley moved onto base, you’ve been insufferable.”
    â€œBecause I want my sister happy? To know what it’s like to have a bondmate?”
    Anna cringed. “You do realize you’re talking about one of our most superior officers, right?”
    Her sister’s warm eyes lit with mischief. “The same officer you’ve been interested in for months?”
    Make that years , she wanted to add, but only shook her head. “Based on what? A glance across a meeting table?”
    Anika gazed across the hangar, watching as Nevin looked over a flight check list. “Doesn’t it seem odd to you that he’d be requesting you, over and over,” her sister asked, “on these routine assignments?”
    â€œWait a minute.” Anna poked at the air between them significantly. “You said the commander was pairing me up with Daniels.”
    Anika shrugged. “I’m not sure how it’s coming down exactly; I just know it keeps happening and it didn’t used to before that meeting room”—Anika formed quotation marks in the air with her fingers—“incident.”
    Anna sighed, glancing across the hangar deck to where the devil himself stood inspecting the small, stealth aircraft that would carry them to the mitres location some time after nightfall. “He’s too serious, never laughs,” she complained. “Plus, he’s not even nice.”
    Anika’s gaze tracked across the hangar once again, lingering on the lieutenant, and she laughed. “He certainly looks nice.”
    â€œFrom this far away, sure.” Anna snorted.
    â€œWell, you’d know—you’ve been looking at him from this distance for long enough.”
    Anna glared at her twin, who only grinned back at her, and had the distinct impression that it wasn’t the commander who’d even issued this particular assignment—but her own damned sister.
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    The helmet would leave her hair mashed and her face imprinted. Ridiculous, but that was pretty much the level of Anna’s thoughts as Nevin launched them out of the hangar and into the inky mountainside nighttime. They would be completely undetectable in this small, sleek craft—their test pilots had taken these Phoenix models all around the earth in order to test their stealth capabilities. None of the planes had ever popped up on the humans’ radar.
    At least she knew she was in good hands, she thought wryly, listening to the heavy sound of her own breathing inside the oxygen mask. What if he thinks I’m breathing heavier than normal? What if he knows that he’s got my heart beating like crazy?
    She watched over Nevin’s shoulder as he worked the controls. Damn, even his hands turned her on, what with the black gloves fitting like a second skin, making him seem all fighter pilot. She couldn’t help it—pilots in general had always, always turned her on—and Nevin’s taking her on these sorties had done absolutely nothing to dampen her enthusiasm for him in particular.
    He startled her when he cut right over the mountains, and with his left hand, rapped on