Moonstruck (14 page)

Tango’s hand inched over her knee as he sensed her looking at him. He’d finished the second bottle of beer and put it aside. The sweetish scent of alcohol scented his breath. “Ah, you smell so good. What are you thinking about, pretty girl?”

Laps. Kisses. Things like that.
Blushing, she looked down at her Coke.

“You are so sweet.” He took the glass from her hands then leaned over her. She wondered if he could hear her heart beating. It was pounding that hard. “That mouth of yours looks so delicious, I’m gonna have to taste it.”

She gulped as his face loomed closer. She gulped again as he reached behind her head and undid her chignon. Her hair spilled around her jaw. “I’ve wanted to kiss you since the first day I saw you,” he said.

She let out a sigh. Hearing his confession, she couldn’t help it.

“So sweet…Come here, my little apple.”

Warm, dry lips brushed over hers. She felt the answering thrill in her belly. They touched mouths again, tasting each other. The tip of his tongue ran along the seam of her lips, parting them, allowing his tongue to push inside. Her hands closed over his shoulders in surprise. This was what she’d read about but missed experiencing for herself. Reading about love and sex was one thing; feeling it was another.

Tango pressed her into the crunchy cushions. Oh, to have a smart couch supporting her back. He was making soft groans as he kissed her. The tongue digging in her mouth was supposed to feel good, wasn’t it? Except she remained all too conscious of it—that it was a
tongue,
and that it belonged to Tango—to enjoy the sensation as she suspected she was supposed to.

She wasn’t quite sure what to do while he was kissing her other than keep her mouth open. He came up on an elbow. His other hand slid up her left thigh to her hip, hesitated, then traveled up her rib cage. He groaned again, and his thumb brushed over her breast. A flicker of sensation radiated outward from her nipple.

Her eyes were wide-open now. Now she was conscious of both sensations—that of his tongue, and that of his hand kneading her left breast. He’d clearly forgotten about the movie, she thought as she glanced back at the glowing screen.

Her attention snapped to Tango the instant he settled himself between her thighs. She clearly felt the length of his erection outlined under the fabric of his trousers. He was aroused.
She’d
aroused him. An oddly exhilarating sense of power came over her that she conjured this reaction in him.

He felt for her what she felt for him! He pulled his mouth from hers. “Baby,” he breathed on her neck. “Sweet girl.” His hand fumbled with her collar. Her hands were flat on his shoulders; she wasn’t sure what to do with them. In the shadows, the mood ring glinted.

It was as black-brown as burned toast.

He unfastened the seam at her collar and tugged it open all the way to her navel. Hadley sucked in a shocked breath as cool air hit her bare skin. It was like getting doused with ice water; it woke her from her stupor. “Excuse me.” She shoved on his shoulders, moving him to the side, and squeezed out from under his body.

Gathering her uniform closed, she got her feet under her. “I’m not ready for that.”
Coward!
Now that she finally had her chance—her chance at everything—fear had overtaken her.

Tango came up on his elbow. His lips looked reddened, puffier. “Aw, baby. That’s okay.” His brown eyes were intent on her. Despite his gentle, slightly amused tone, she felt as if she were in the sights of a weapon. “We don’t have to do anything you don’t want to.” He patted the cushion. The pebbles inside rattled. “I’m so lonely. Come back. We’ll just cuddle.”

Cuddling was fine, she decided. She smiled, and snuggled close. She liked the way his arms felt around her. He kissed her hair so sweetly as his hand circled over her back, her hip, her thigh. And then her rear end. “You’ve got the sweetest little butt, you know that?” Before she realized what was happening, he’d rolled her onto her back and was kissing her again—with more force and intent than before. She squeezed her eyes shut and concentrated, waiting to be swept away. How else would you feel comfortable enough about stripping naked and having someone look at you with no clothes on? To have them touching you…everywhere? Swept away was definitely a prerequisite, and all she detected was the faintest of undertows.

“Ooh, baby.” Tango swayed his hips, grinding himself against her as they kissed. His movements had increased in intensity. He lifted his head, his handsome face so close to hers. “Girl, have mercy. You’re torturing me here. You gotta let me out of my misery. I’m your slave. Your love slave. Set me free.”

She giggled, and he slipped his hand inside her uniform, yanking down her bra and exposing her breasts. His mouth locked on one of them before she had a chance to protest. A suckling sensation on her tender nipple made her gasp; his mouth was warm and wet. She wasn’t sure what she thought of the sensation, but she wasn’t staying around long enough to process it. Everything was happening too fast.

She wriggled out from under him and bounded away. Pulling up her bra, she closed her uniform seam. “It was great, Tango. I had a good time. Thanks for the Coke. It’s better than beer. But I’ve got to go.”

She started for the door.

“Hadley. Wait.” He was there in an instant. He loomed over her, his hair messy, his eyes dark and almost scary. She felt a flicker of fear. He might be a crew member, but she didn’t really know him.

He shook his head at her, his hand sliding over her cheek so tenderly that it released a wave of relief. His voice was so gentle it made her heart ache. “Baby, you haven’t done this before, have you?”

“Done this?”

He chuckled softly. “Miss Answer-a-Question-With-a-Question.
Made love,
” he murmured, kissing her on the side of her throat.

It was that obvious she was a virgin? Mortified, she blushed deeply. “Oh, that. I’ve done it lots of times.”

“Yeah? What did those lucky gentlemen have that I don’t?”

No words came to her.

He nibbled her ear. “You sure you want to leave?”

“Yes,” she said quietly. She wanted to run back to her quarters and hide.

“Let me leave you with this for now.” His hands landed on both sides of her red-hot face. “May I?”

She nodded, her heart racing again. He lowered his head and kissed her. This time, it was sweet, tender-sweet, and gentle. She trembled. He sighed in approval as he pulled away. “When we’re together, it will be like that, Hadley. I promise.”

Gentle and sweet. That wouldn’t be so frightening.

“Okay,” she said.

He took her hand, tipping his head toward the bed. “So, would you like to try again?”

The urgency was back in his demeanor again. He thought he’d hidden it under his amiable nature, but she saw it and lost her courage. “Maybe next time.”

“Yeah? Don’t be teasing me like that, girl.”

“No, I mean it.”
Do you, Hadley?
Yes, her virginity had to go. The sooner the better!

She pressed the door release. She flashed what she hoped was a flirtatious smile, flipping her hair around her neck as she stepped outside. “All good things are worth the wait.” Where did
that
come from?

The door closed, ending the moment. She leaned against the wall to catch her breath. Gods. She was in over her head. It was frightening and wonderful. And yet it was relief that swamped her now, not disappointment, not unrequited lust. She was probably still too inexperienced for lust. For
passion.
That would come later when she knew what she was doing.

She took a deep and trembling breath and hurried back to her quarters, feeling older but not at all wiser.

F
INN WOKE
,
alone. The lighting in Brit’s quarters was set to a dim, amber glow, something she must have adjusted after he’d fallen asleep. The last thing he remembered after making love was her head resting on his chest, her arm and leg thrown over his body to hold him close.

Now, that was the way to settle into slumber, he thought: Brit clinging to his body as if she never wanted to let him go. Sighing heartily, he grinned. Now where was she?

He lifted his head and found her sitting in a chair facing the window. Her bare feet were propped on the window frame, her expression melancholy as she sipped from a glass of wine. The bottle on the table was half-empty. It was clear she’d been up for some time. How could someone who seemed to enjoy the sex as much as she did feel so low afterward?

Someone had hurt her in the past, and badly. Any heart that took this long to heal must have been broken beyond recognition. He’d like to find the bastard who did this to her. Aye, and flay him alive. In the meantime, Finn intended to do everything in his power to make her forget the grains-for-brains idiot who didn’t realize the value of what he’d had. Maybe it was because Finn had started out with nothing, but he never took anything for granted.

He swung his feet off the bed and went to her. Brit’s silk robe, cinched around her waist, split where her long legs emerged. His cock twitched at the thought of running his lips from her knee up the warm length of her inner thigh, and not stopping there. No, not stopping there. She liked it when he pleasured her, which made him want to do it all the more. The reward was always rich.

She barely glanced up as he crouched down by the chair. “You’ve graduated from hiding in the bathroom to being pensive and drinking,” he said. “We’re making progress, sweetheart.”

He smoothed his hand up her thigh, parting the robe even more. Her flesh was blazing hot but he held back from a more intimate caress. Her eyelids dipped a fraction, telling him his touch aroused her, and that she craved more. Aye, he’d learned to read his Brit well in their hours together. He slid his hand the rest of the way, cupping her, possessing her.

“Finn…” she protested, a tremble running through her graceful body.

“Fire goddess,” he whispered in her ear.

“Damn it,” she said, and blushed.
Blushed!
She seemed an odd mix of embarrassment, desire and surrender.

On one knee, he took the wineglass from her hand and set it on the table. “Come back to bed, sweetheart. There’s a little more time, and I aim to maximize our use of it. That is, if you’re willin’….”

She turned in the chair and reached across the short distance between them, holding his cheek in her warm, soft hand. She didn’t have to speak. Her expression was gentle, almost relieved, and told him everything he needed to know.

He scooped her out of the chair and carried her to bed. Before they even fell to the mattress, they were pressed together in the kind of feverish, scorching kiss that made him crazy for wanting her.

T
HE BRIDGE BUSTLED
with activity as the
Unity
prepared to exit light-speed at the outskirts of the region of space where the outpost of Cupezikan lay in silence.

Hadley’s blood sang with adrenaline as she entered the shuttle airlock dressed in expeditionary gear: a black, all-condition one-piece suit, and thick boots. She carried her gloves and a data-vis in her arms. The weight of the weapons on her belt was unfamiliar—a light, a variety of tools and a pistol. It had been one blur of a crazy day since yesterday: her first real kiss and her first real mission.

Tango, Odin, Rothberg and Bolivarr joined her. “Come on, my motley crew,” Warleader Rorkken sang out. “We’ve places to be.”

The Drakken acted positively buoyant this morning. What put Rorkken in such a good mood? He must love the idea of getting off the ship as much as she did.

“Move, move!” he ordered, though Hadley saw he was clearly having fun. Yep, he must have had a really good day.

Or a really good night.

Tango brought his mouth close to her ear. “He sounds like my old drill instructor. Talk about an ass-leap initiator. He always had his boxers in a twist.”

Finn grabbed the pilot out of ranks and pushed him up against the wall. “You got something to say about me, Major, you say it
to me
. Got that?”

Tango’s dark brown eyes flashed with humiliation and anger. He looked as if he were about to strike back. Did he not respect the Drakken? The warleader’s leadership style contrasted sharply with Admiral Bandar’s but it was no less effective. He’d long since won Hadley’s respect.

“Go ahead, I dare you,” Rorkken snarled softly.

Hadley held her breath during the charged silence as everyone looked on. Then Tango mellowed, his shoulders sagging. “Sorry. Sorry,
sir.
My bad.”

Rorkken let him go but kept one hand flat on the wall to the side of Tango’s head. His voice was steady, quiet. “As routine as it may seem, this is a mission, Barrientes. This is real. People have gotten killed on missions no different from this one. If you feel the need to show off in front of a girl, do so back on the ship.”

Suddenly, Hadley shivered, as if a shadow had passed over her on a sunny day. Cloud shadows, she thought, shifting her attention to Bolivarr. Decked out in black expeditionary gear, very much resembling the assassin he used to be, he watched her quietly, keenly, as if he could see all the way through her—including (and maybe especially) her awkwardness at not knowing as much as she should about men at this stage in her life. Bolivarr didn’t need to kiss her to figure out her utter lack of experience. She wore it like a badge. No wonder none of the men on the
Vengeance
had ever sought her out for sex. Forcing her eyes from his, she wanted to melt into a puddle of embarrassment.

“Or I’ll replace you with Rakkelle,” Warleader Rorkken threatened. “Got that, Major? Say the word and I’ll call her down here. She’ll be happy to take your spot.”

And flirt with every man aboard the shuttle? Hadley narrowed her eyes.

“Hell, don’t do that,” Tango said. At least they were on the same page where Rakkelle was concerned. Maybe not for the same reasons, though.

“All right, then.” Rorkken slapped the pilot on the shoulder and pushed him on ahead. “Fly us down there, and do me proud.”

“Yes, sir.”

Seeming meeker now, Tango didn’t make eye contact with her. She, on the other hand, didn’t make further eye contact with Bolivarr. No one was looking at anyone. It was going to be an interesting expedition.

The interior of the shuttle was snug and brand-new. “New shuttle smell,” Tango said as he strapped in.

The Earthling said the strangest things.

Warleader Rorkken secured himself into a forward seat near Tango. “Initiate separation sequence,” he ordered.

Tango ran through a checklist. “Auxiliary boosters. Check. Weapons systems…”

“Online,” Rorkken confirmed.

“Life support systems,” Tango finished.

“Check,” the entire crew chorused.

“Tell them we’re ready, Major.”

“Shuttle One’s good to go,” Tango commed to a space controller sitting at the bridge.

“Cleared to launch,” the controller replied.

“Separation initiated.” The shuttle broke free of the enormous battleship. “Separation complete.”

As they fell away into the silence of space, Hadley could see Admiral Bandar watching them, framed in the forward windows on the bridge of the huge ship. A proud, lonely shadow in Triad uniform, hands behind her back.

Who owned a box with a pair of baby shoes hidden inside.
There was so much more to her hero than Hadley knew, so many layers hidden beneath that calm, capable exterior. If only there was a way to learn more. Hadley’s curiosity was driven by compassion more than anything else, although she suspected that showing concern regarding anything remotely emotional would not sit well with the admiral.

When Hadley brought her attention back to the interior of the shuttle, she found the warleader watching Admiral Bandar, too, with the oddest mix of confusion, yearning and tenderness. What was this? Her breath caught in her throat. She might not have much hands-on experience with men, but she knew what a man looked like when he had feelings for a woman. Powerful feelings.
Moonstruck,
the people on her homeworld, Talo, would have called it. Much was told and sung about the magic of such a glance.

Which isn’t at all how Tango looks at you.

Yet, she thought.

Her attention shifted back to the warleader. No, she wasn’t mistaken. He was moonstruck. She expected to be horrified on Admiral Bandar’s behalf but as a true Taloan she found herself wishing crazily and probably futilely that there was something romantic brewing between the pair. The admiral deserved to have someone look at her that way, even if he was a Drakken.

Hadley let out a silent sigh and settled in for the ride down to the surface.

“R
EADY, SIR
?
I’m going to juice it,” Tango said, dragging Finn’s attention from Brit’s silhouette to the mission at hand. Try as he might, he couldn’t get last night—or her—off his mind, but he had to. Duty first.

Finn double-checked his safety straps, a reminder that he had more reason than ever to want to return to the ship in one piece.
Someone to come home to.
Aye, he liked the sound of that. Plans had already been made for a lightball match later. As much as he enjoyed the game, he liked her more. He’d use his pirate wiles to convince her to skip the match and play with him instead.

His mouth slid into a smile he directed to his team. “Ready for some fresh air, my motley crew? Wantin’ to stretch yer legs planetside?”

A roar of enthusiastic “ayes” came in response. Finn chuckled. A pirate’s crew they weren’t, but they sounded damn convincing. “Aye, juice it, Major.”

Lowering his black visor over his face, Tango gave Finn a thumbs-up. “Course heading, Captain?” he asked.

“Are you blind? The planet’s right there.”

“You’re supposed to say, ‘Second star to the right and straight on ’til morning.’”

It grew silent in the shuttle as everyone stared at the Earthling. Only Rothberg snickered. “You’re an f-ing idiot, Tango.”

The shuttle flipped over on a stubby wing and soared down to the mist-swathed planet below.

Within moments, they’d hit the atmosphere. The air was rough. Anything not tied down bounced around. Tango had his hands full with the flying. Rothberg and Odin looked a bit green. Keyren glowed with excitement. Bolivarr, ever watchful, sat so still and silent that he almost blended into the shadows of the instrument panels above his head—everything but his black, intense eyes, that was. If the former wraith remembered anything yet about the five-year gap in his memory, he’d made no indication of it. The man rarely spoke, and only when necessary. No wasted words, unlike the Earthling.

Tango maneuvered the shuttle to within touching distance of enormous towering cloud formations. They soared over an immense sparkling sea in clear skies, searching for a massive, finger-shaped island, the only land on the planet, and where the settlement was located. Finn had a repeat of what Tango saw on his nav-display on his data-vis. He studied the general layout of the encampment. “It will be on the western shore…between the hillside and the beach.”

He squinted in the sunshine, looking for arrays of antennae and equipment and habitation domes. Nothing yet. They were too far out to acquire anything visually. “Attempt comm contact.” While their deep-space comm might be out, local comm would be working.

“Cupezikan, this is Shuttle One,” Tango tried. “Do you read?”

They’d made similar attempts all through the night and when entering orbit.

“Still no reply, sir.”

Below, the landscape was idyllic: turquoise water, wide beaches and lush trees. With peace having taken away the dangers of living so close to the Horde-lands, this planet would be an ideal location to start a new life. Not that the dangers had often mattered during the war; land-grabbers were fiercely independent, and were known to ignore warnings when it came to their safety if it meant abandoning their land.

Lieutenant Keyren was half out of her chair, using eye-tubes to scan manually through the window while Tango continued trying comm contact. As they flew over the northern tip of the island, the habitation domes, a few roads and some cultivated areas came into view. The mechanic, Odin, scanned for heat signatures. “I’ve got the amplification at max. It’s weird, sir. No one’s around. There’s nothing here but the creatures in the forest.”

The scientists should be showing up as heat sigs, too. Faint unease washed over Finn. He knew never to discount his gut. Silver domes were scattered like pebbles along the beach, and not one human to be seen, inside or out. Where were they?

The back of his neck prickled as he commed the
Unity.
“Rorkken to Admiral Bandar.”

After a moment, he heard Brit’s reply, and something shifted inside him, something soft and out of place in the middle of a mission. He tamped it down and focused. There was a reason you didn’t sleep with someone on the crew, and this was it. Somehow he had to keep what he had with Brit special and separate. He didn’t want to give her up. Gods, not yet. He knew how to hold on to something good, the rare times something good came his way. “The outpost appears to be empty. Are we in the right location?”

“Stand by,” she said curtly.

The
Unity
streamed new coordinates to the shuttle. Tango downloaded the data to his nav-display. “We’re in the right place, Warleader,” the pilot said. He snap-rolled the shuttle up on a wingtip, circling hard as they descended to allow a better look. Odin made a strangled noise. A few seconds later, she was puking into a sick-sac.

Land-folk,
Finn thought. That’s what his crew would call her. Rothberg didn’t look too good, either, but he was a man used to the sea, a different domain from the air.

Lower now, they blazed over the hillside. Hadley twisted around in her seat. “Look at that. There’s debris on the beach.”

Finn cursed and tossed aside the damned data-vis. Useless thing. The lieutenant had seen with eye-tubes and human eyes what hi-tech means could not. He threw off his straps to peer alongside her out her window, glad he’d brought Keyren along. She’d more than filled her role as observer.

An antenna array was down, most of it washed back up on the beach. “That explains the lack of comm,” he said.

“A killer wave?” Rothberg suggested.

“Hmm. Possible, but the sand’s not washed away…and the tree line is intact.”

“Goddess…” Keyren’s voice had changed tone. “Bodies, Warleader.”

“Are you sure they’re…?”
Dead,
he was about to ask. One glance eliminated the question. Quite clearly dead, all seventeen scientists were sprawled facedown in the sand, unmoving, some with their limbs at awkward angles.

“Freepin’ hells,” he snarled. No wonder no one had answered their calls. The entire population of Cupezikan had been wiped out.

B
RIT CIRCLED
the holo-vis, pacing incessantly. To her annoyance, the virtual journalist trailed her, asking too many questions: “Do you expect more search-and-rescue missions like this?” “Will there be more land-grab opportunities in the Borderlands now that the war is over?” “What does that light indicate, and that one over there?” “Do you miss your old post?”

Brit summoned patience, formulating and dispensing safe answers while she waited anxiously to hear back from Rorkken. She hated the silences between his reports. She hated that she hated the silences.

Damn him.
Damn Rorkken for making her give a care whether he lived or died. She wanted him out of her skin, out of her head. She didn’t want him getting near her heart.

Last night had made that a little more difficult.

What was happening to her? Her entire body reacted to thoughts of him—not just the sex, but the feel of his arms holding her. She’d felt utterly safe. Happy. She’d fled the sensation, yes, even tried using wine to numb her reaction to him; but he’d dragged her back into the refuge that was his embrace. She’d gone willingly, too! He was an addiction. A drug.

Forgive me my weakness.

She closed one fist. Time spent with him wasn’t making her obsession better; it was making it worse. Her extracurricular activities were to blame. He was supposed to be a sexual partner, not a friend.

No lightball later; they were going directly to bed. Their only interaction outside work from now on would be of a sexual nature. She’d get him out of her system no matter how long it took. Then once more she’d be able to focus on meting out the justice denied her family on Arrayar. The war may have ended but her crusade had not.

Smiling softly, she turned to the journalist. “Yes, I do think of my old posting from time to time. I miss it. However, I am honored and proud to be serving the Triad Alliance in a diplomatic capacity so critical to advancing peace.”