Dawn Autumn (18 page)

Maybe he needed to be needed.

She wasn’t conscious of much, but some things a woman could sense, never better than when she was joined with her man. “Fred,” she said brokenly, threading her hands through his hair. “I love ….” The ecstasy made her cry out, stole her ability to speak.

She felt the change in him, felt the need to dominate fly as the need to share replaced it, the need to love. His body spoke it. His murmurs said it. When he arched up in climax, it was her name on his lips.

They lay there for a long time, too dazed to speak. She’d never known she could say so much by saying nothing at all.

Fred finally stirred and kissed her. “You going to stay there all day?” he teased.

“Sounds good,” she murmured back, still dazed. “I don’t think I can move.”

He laughed. “You’re tempting me to stay in bed all day. You know that, don’t you?”

She poked a finger in his chest. “Go eat. I need food.”

“How is my eating going to fill your belly?” His hand traced over her stomach, wandered teasingly lower.

She laughed breathlessly and skittered away. “It was a plan, anyway.”

“I’ll show you a plan.” He reached for her, but she slid out of bed with a giggle. “I really am hungry.”

Buck naked, he stalked after her. “How about some meat for breakfast? My treat.”

She feinted left, but he caught her easily and tickled her into submission. His hands got bolder.

Her stomach growl.

He swore, then nipped her neck. “All right, but I’m only feeding you to build up your energy for later.”

“God help me,” she said with feeling. “I’ll never be able to keep up with you.”

“I’ll find a way to motivate you,” he said with a leer.

Chapter Twelve

She really was starving by the time he escorted her to galley. To her dismay, breakfast was nothing like the fast food havens Fred delighted in. Instead she was handed a wrapped breakfast bar that tasted suspiciously like dehydrated turkey, stuffing and carrots all rolled into one. She looked at it dubiously.

“Welcome to space rations,” Nightbird said with a toothy grin.

“Interesting,” Jay said as she chewed. The process took a while, because she’d never been able to just swallow disagreeable or odd mouthfuls. This one fell firmly in the category of odd, but she wasn’t sure it merited spitting out yet.

“Here, you can try another flavor,” Fred said casually, taking the bar from her hand and sliding in his opened one.

She tasted. Crunchy ham and avocado? Bewildered by the taste, she just kept chewing, trying to keep her face blank.

Nightbird watched her with a little smirk.

Fred rifled through the box of bars with a frown, muttering under his breath. She looked at him and her face softened with amusement. Sliding her arm around him, she traded bars with him. “I think I like mine better, if you don’t mind. Reminded me of thanksgiving dinner.” She made sure to smile brightly at him as she choked the thing down.

He didn’t look happy. “Sorry about this. I know you’re not used to this kind of food, but none of us have ever been much on cooking.”

She shrugged. “I needed to lose some pounds anyway. All that fine dining was packing it on. Speaking of which, what do you do for exercise around here? I never did get that tour.”

It was so cool touring a starship. Though Jay could tell this one had been about as well kept as a bachelor pad, she didn’t care. They were cursing through space in a ride NASA would kill to get, and she couldn’t help grinning. This must all be old hat for Fred, but she found the engine room with its pulsing red beam encased in a translucent tube exciting, like something out of Hollywood. “So where are the transporter beams?” she asked, only half kidding.

Fred smiled indulgently. “They are far too big and expensive to fit on a starship of this size. I don’t know of any based on a ship.”

“So you use little ships to travel from bigger ships?”

“There’s one small emergency pod. Most often we dock. This really is a small ship.”

“I think it’s cool,” she said as she slipped her arms around his neck. “Thank you.”

He slid his hand in her hair, but made no move to kiss her. “You’re easy to please, aren’t you?” He sounded pleased.

She snuggled closer. “You seem to do it for me without effort. It’s so easy to be pleased when I’m with you.”

His arms tightened, and he didn’t move for long moments. Finally he loosened his grip and kissed her hair. “You’ve seen the cargo hold and the rec room by the galley. Why don’t we go back to the bridge and see what’s going on? I’ll set you up at a station with a language program and the video library. You might as well stay busy, because we’ll be in space for the next few days.”

“What? You’re not going to give me driving lessons? I always wanted to fly a spaceship,” she teased.

He winked. “I’ll add it to the queue. Language, flying, cooking, dragon taming...you’ve got quite a class load there, professor.”

Whatever she would have said was lost as Tayl’s voice came over the intercom. “Fred, get up here. We’ve got a galactic patrol cruiser on an intercept course, and they’re asking for you.”

Jay’s eyes were wide as she slid into her seat on the bridge, out of the way. Fred took one of the three command chairs and nodded to Tayl. The bulkhead lit up with the image of a humanoid with green hair pulled back in a queue. The man wore a dark green suit with bars on his shoulders and gold pin striping down the sleeves and around his cuffs. His face was austere, almost severely handsome, as if all unnecessary flesh had been trimmed away, and his expression was set in uncompromising lines. “Kutlazx Azair. The commissioner has sent me to ask why you’ve abandoned your post.”

Fred looked at him with arrogant boredom. “You mean he wants to know why I’m no longer his whipping boy. I resigned my post and put in for retirement. Check your records and tell that old blowhard to call me himself if he has a problem with that.”

“You’re awfully mouthy to be taunting a fully-armed battle cruiser, Azair,” the captain said disdainfully.

Fred’s mouth curled into a mocking smile. “How’s it feel to be reduced to the Commissioner’s lackey, Azor? You used to have more pride.”

“The Commissioner also wanted me to remind you that you’re still on the proscribed breeding list.” A hint of malicious humor showed in his eyes.

“Remind the commissioner that he can go to hell,” Fred said coldly, his silver eyes sparking. “Join him there if you like.” He looked at Tayl and the bulkhead returned to a view of the warship parked just outside.

Fred cursed. Jay’s eyes widened. She didn’t know what half those curses meant, but the other half was filthy dirty. He seemed very experienced with them.

He looked her way and got even more furious. Turning away, he cursed with renewed vigor.

“Red? Kok?” Tayl said calmly.

“Their weapons don’t look hot, but we’re locked on auto fire,” Red said tersely.

“We can jump in an instant,” Kok assured him.

Instead, the patrol ship powered up and took off, leaving Fred glaring at the screen.

Jay was still puzzled. Unsure if Fred wanted to discuss it, she looked at Red. “What’s the proscribed breeding list?”

Red shot a look at Tayl. Tayl looked sideways at Fred.

Fred shot a poisonous look in her direction, but said nothing.

Jay thought about it for a moment. “So it means that you’re not supposed to breed? Or your species isn’t? What exactly does that mean?” She blushed. “I mean, if it means you can’t, um, make love, you’ve already broken the law.”

His lips turned up in a small, humorless smile.

“It means he can’t have children,” Red said impatiently. “There’s a bounty on the head of any Sado young.”

Jay blinked at that. How cruel. They could really do that in this galaxy? Still, she wasn’t worried. “It’s a big universe,” she said with a shrug. “If nothing else, Earth doesn’t have rules like that.”

Red stared at her wordlessly, as if she couldn’t believe how stupid she was.

Tayl explained for her. “It’s really hard to sterilize a Sado, but the government would have done it if they could. Instead they put bounties out for any young they might find. It’s a
large
bounty, Jay.”

She frowned. “Why would they bother? What could the Sado have done to ….”

“We’re assassins, woman—the best. I told you that I was nearly indestructible, didn’t I?” Fred said coldly. “Picture a whole planet of assassins and mercenaries willing to work for whoever offered the most cash. My forbearers made some bad choices and ended up offending the wrong people.”

She still wasn’t getting the indestructible bit, but she put it aside for later. “But you said ….”

“That was also true. We were invaded.”

“But if you’re indestructible,” she pointed out, her finger circling in an open ended question.

“We can still suffocate.” His jaw flexed as his gaze turned inward. By his expression, the memories he saw weren’t pleasant.

Jay slouched in her chair and laced her fingers over her stomach. Maybe she was acting oddly, but she felt more thoughtful than anything. Where there was a will, there was a way. She suddenly laughed, knowing this was the most unlikely thing she’d ever considered in relation to her childbearing dreams.

“Why is this funny?” Fred demanded.

She looked at him calmly. “I didn’t come three trillion miles to be told I can’t have a family. I’m guessing you feel the same. So what’s the problem? Are you the best of the best, or not?”

Arrested, he stared at her. Then with a shout, he strode to her side and picked her up, twirled her in the air. “Little rebel,” he whispered against her mouth, just before he crushed it under his.

“Can’t you do something with them?” Red complained. “Honestly, Tayl, it’s like riding in a floating bordello.”

“Jealous,” Nightbird said with a grin.