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hand in front of his face, effectively dropping him back into the rover. “There’s traffic up ahead.”
    He peered into the distance. Gray-green dust hazed the horizon from the passage of other motorized terrain vehicles. “Can you get an energy reading or signature?” He gripped the wheel with both hands until his palms felt fused to the leather.
    Willa tapped her datapad’s screen. “Too much interference from the dust. Guess if you want to know so badly, you’ll just have to do some fancy driving.”
    He gritted his teeth. “Fine.” When he threw the transmission into hypergear, the vehicle surged forward, propelled by the extra afterburners. “Get whatever the hell you need to input the info at the marker, because I don’t intend to slow down if it’s not on the course.”
    “You worry about your business. I’ll be fine.” She scrambled into a standing position with her feet on her seat as she gripped the top roll bar with one hand. “Hurry! I can see them!”
    Stratton bit off the curse sitting on the tip of his tongue. Obviously, if he had the power to go faster, he would.
    “Oh, I can see them.” Willa leaned forward on her toes. “And look, one of them is Chaf! Wouldn’t it be funny if we tied with him?”
    Yeah, I’ll wet my pants laughing . He refused to acknowledge the comment. Instead, he gunned the quad rover for all it was worth. A few strained minutes later, they caught up to the other all-terrain vehicles. Sure enough, one of them contained Chaf and his partner, a six-armed Caringa. The sun highlighted the dusty sheen on its yellow, scale-covered skin. Chills trickled down Stratton’s spine. If there was anything he hated in this world or the next, it was the Caringa nation. He’d seen enough of their merciless kind; he’d rather not deal with them again.
    The three vehicles rode side by side, blocking every approach he made. This would be tricky.
    “Just ram it through the opening, Stratton.” Willa’s order preempted everything else he thought about, just as her fingers digging into this shoulder swamped his system with desire. “It’s a close fit, but you can get it in.”
    Stratton shifted in his seat as he imagined a whole different scenario for the conversation. He concentrated on anticipating how the vehicles moved. It might be feasible to wedge between them.
    “Come on, get your tip in there. Don’t be shy.” Willa bounced again. She twisted one arm around the roll bar as she clutched the datapad, and the other gripped his shoulder. “Do it!”
    Sweat broke out on his forehead. Wanting to please her, but conscious of the uneven terrain, he rammed the nose of the quad rover into one of the vehicles. Its back end fishtailed as the driver wildly tried to correct the skid. Eventually, it tapped the side of one of the other vehicles, hard enough that the opening widened.
    “Oh, that’s the way. Thrust it in again!” She accompanied the command with a jerk of her hips.
    Shit . Not only was he soaked in sweat, but he also was as hard as the clay surface of the damned moon. Every word she uttered, he envisioned doing the action to her, seeing her naked body in his mind’s eye, mirroring every moment of her pleasure with his own.
    “Come on, come on. You can do better than that—harder!”
    Practically standing on the fuel pedal, Stratton willed the rover forward. He nudged Chaf’s back end, grinning when his quarry’s vehicle spit dirt clods and edged to the right. Finally, a break. Ramming the quad into the tight space between Chaf and another racer, he snuck a glance at Willa. A flush stained her cheeks, strands of black hair flew about her face free of the restraint, and she clung to the roll bar. Damn his luck. He was way too aware of her.
    He had to keep his promise and win this leg—if only to keep his sanity.
    Willa’s fingers once again dug into his shoulder. “Doesn’t Chaf look great in his uniform?”
    “I hadn’t noticed.” If he ground his teeth any