Page 98 of Smuggler's Beauty

The butterflies in her stomach turned to lead.Shit.Had she harmed his psychic makeup when she’d run so much power through him? Nodding, she unfocused her eyes and took inAiden’s energy. The familiar wave of comfort crashed over her as she focused on him, warm blankets and old books and freshly baked bread. She reveled in it, wanted to roll around like a happy puppy in a field of clover, but that wasn’t what she needed to look for.

Concentrating, she looked for the golden light that she associated with Amplification energy. The light had shone around him when she’d peeked at him in the shower, and it still emanated from him, shining off of his person in waves. But now that she wasn’t gazing up at him through a haze of lust, Evelyn realized that it didn’t look as concentrated as it should. It was more . . . She squinted, focusing on the shining light around his shoulder. The light that shone around Aiden was bright, but instead of a solid glow, it was thousands of small pinpricks of light; diluted energy that had coalesced around him.

Evelyn blinked her eyes rapidly and refocused on reality. Aiden was looking at her with an expression of such unadulterated adoration it made her chest ache.

“You do still have some Amplification clinging to you. It looks different than I’ve noticed it looking before. It could be residual,” she said, biting her lower lip.

“I’m sensing an ‘or’ in my future,” Aiden said.

She snorted.

Always best to rip the bandage off, right?

“Or,” she said, “I could have, um, accidentally done something to alter your psychic ability.”

He arched an eyebrow. “Permanently?”

Evelyn shrugged. “Maybe? I don’t know. Amplifiers don’t usually run the potential of the universe through other people until their ears bleed.”

“Hmm.” Aiden went back to quietly staring at the bookcase. Evelyn’s heart sank. She knew it was too good to last. She’d assumed the siphoning was going to be the thing to drive himaway. She’d never imagined that she could scramble his psychic makeup via Amplification. The corruption of someone’s psychic energy felt so wrong to her Tanalian ideals. She was changing him, and wouldn’t blame him if he hated her for it in the end. She shifted to get off his lap, but his hand snaked around her waist before she could move.

“Don’t run. I’m just thinking,” he said. He tucked her head under his chin and hugged her to his chest like a giant teddy bear. Her heart raced as she tried to calm herself. It shouldn’t come as a surprise to her that he could read her so well. He’d spent entire days cataloging what made her tick. She felt her cheeks burning. Imagining rejection at every turn was probably an unhealthy coping mechanism.

She watched the objects whirl in the air while he worked through this new information. Egg timer followed music player. Music player followed can opener. Can opener followed nose hair trimmer.

What fucking garage sale did Corrie raid for this collection of junk?

She felt him place a gentle kiss on the top of her head, and when she turned to look at him, he was smiling.

“What?” she asked, not bothering to hide her confusion. “You look pretty happy for someone whose molecular structure might have just got scrambled.”

“This” — he directed his eyes to the spinning objects — “is taking no effort. I feel stronger, like I’ve suddenly gotten useful to this venture. I want to run some tests, see what I can do without you having to boost me at all.”

Evelyn drew her eyebrows together. “It could still be temporary, Aiden.”

And it could be so much worse than a power boost.

He nodded. “Hence, tests.”

Aiden had headed straightto the bridge to pull up Cairn’s star chart. He was looking for an underdeveloped planet, maybe an abandoned colony they could touch down on. He wanted space to throw things around without worrying about damaging Lillian’s paint.

It would also probably be a good idea for Evelyn to have a larger pool of energy to draw from than the now-empty lobby planters. Practicing with gadgets seemed pointless now, like doing reps with pencils when you were used to weights.

Cairn had his feet up on the console as he watched the news scroll by on the view screen. He paused the stream to help Aiden sift through the possibilities, ruling out planets that would burn too much fuel to travel to and from in an expedient amount of time.

“Learn anything worth knowing about the state of the galaxy?” Aiden asked. He pulled three more possibilities onto the screen for Carin to approve or veto.

“The pundits have moved on from Bauder’s increased patrols. Shows of force from that lot are expected.” Cairn moved one of the planets into the possibility stack and trashed the rest. “I did see a brief piece about unrest on Tanalia.”

Aiden smiled and added a few more planets into consideration. Cairn eliminated all but one.

“This one’s closest,” Cairn said. “Antopolet. There’s a small gem mine on one side of the planet, and a few dozen scattered colonies, but the rest of the surface is relatively untouched. Six hours to get there. Minor detour out of the way to pick up the arms shipment.” Cairn sifted through images, searching for the optimal place to set theDawndown. “Some of these plantvarieties look interesting. Maybe I’ll hop off the ship and take some clippings.”

As far as Aiden could tell, the population of the planet was largely focused around the mining operation. The rest of the world seemed to be full of lush, untamed forests. A perfect place to experiment.

To discover if he really had something to offer Evelyn now.

Aiden knew she wasn’t shallow. The woman lived in ancient T-shirts and battered sneakers. She cringed whenever someone mentioned her royal lineage. Evelyn hadn’t batted an eye when she discovered that the man who had rescued her was a thief, a smuggler, an occasional con. She seemed to like him as he was just fine. But Aiden would feel better if he could offer her something more than a condo in Orlando, a crash course on lock picking, an unused marketing degree, and his heart.