Sex or Suffer [Dark Colony 1] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) (17 page)

Backed up against the far wall in the conference room as if trying to meld with the surface, Penelope shook her head and started talking. Gray couldn’t hear her obviously, but he watched as she mouthed the words, “Stay away from me. I’m warning you, get back.”

Gray couldn’t see what response Cahill gave her, but he stopped moving forward. He lifted his hands into the air in a conciliatory manner likely meant to calm her down.

Seconds ticked by as Gray waited for her eyes to glaze over in lust. But she didn’t change. Instead, she squinted and tilted her head to one side with a very confused expression. She moved forward a step and sniffed the air, keeping her stare fixed on Cahill. She promptly inhaled with exaggerated gusto, and this time Cahill backed up a step. A grin appeared on her luscious mouth. She laughed, raced forward three steps and hugged a very confused Cahill around the waist and then backed off. She turned to Gray, pointed to Cahill and shook her head no.

Apparently she wasn’t attracted to Cahill. Thank the heavens above.

Gray took a relieved breath for the first time since leaving the command deck. She grinned again, and Gray thought she’d never looked so beautiful.

Cahill took another step backwards and lifted an arm to hit the sensor, which opened the door seal to the small room. The clear panel slid open exposing Gray, and more importantly, his scent, to the conference room. While Cahill didn’t send Penelope into a frenzy of lust, Gray knew that once his scent entered the room things would change drastically. Penelope’s joy ended.

Cahill turned his back on Penelope and exited the room, approaching Gray with a very perplexed expression on his features. “Captain? What are you doing here? Aren’t you on the command deck this shift?”

“Yes,” Gray answered as he watched Penelope’s expression change. She inhaled deeply and a new predatory gleam shined in her face. “I left to check on our passenger.”

Cahill’s brows furrowed. He glanced over his shoulder once. “I ran in there right when the lights came back on. She stepped on her filter and crushed it into several pieces, but when I went in there she said I didn’t carry any allergens or something.”

“Unfortunately, I do.” Gray swept past him and grabbed Penelope, who’d migrated out into the main medical lab. She’d paused in the door frame to inhale deeply once again. She looked…hungry, for lack of a better word. Gray knew what was coming, and he suspected Penelope wouldn’t want Cahill to witness it.

It was time to go.

She launched forward, threw her arms around his neck and buried her face at his throat. “You smell good enough to eat, Gray,” she purred in a low sultry voice.

“Do I? Let’s get back to your room and discuss it.”

“But my room is so far away. Let’s just stay here, shall we?” Penelope pulled his face to hers and plastered a juicy kiss across his mouth. Gray backed up another step. He felt a breeze across his chest, and noticed she’d unzipped his uniform jacket.

Cahill’s eyes fairly popped out of his head. Gray gave him a look which hopefully conveyed his panic over the impending situation. “Whatever you hear or see in the next few seconds, Ensign, do not ever disclose it to anyone for fear of your job. Am I understood?” Gray hugged Penelope to his chest and began a slow trek backward headed out of the medical lab, holding her close. She was fastened to him like bright on a star. Cahill didn’t speak. He gave a half nod and simply watched unblinking. Penelope undulated her body against Gray’s seductively and tried to undress him.

“I need you,” she fairly moaned in that smoky, fuck-me-now, voice of her illness.

He put his mouth to her ear and whispered, “Let’s go back to your room, Penelope.”

Penelope spied the medical table as they moved towards the door and pushed him in that direction. “No. The table. I need you now. This will work.”

“Don’t need an audience.” Gray’s eyes fastened on Cahill’s wide-eyed stunned expression. He’d have to take care of her and promptly schedule a conference with Cahill to explain. “Do me a favor, Cahill?”

“Sir?”

“I left command deck unmanned. Could you relieve me for a while? I’ll return within the hour to relieve you, and I’d rather not be disturbed.”

He nodded but his glances shifted to Penelope and her undulating body every other second. “Yes, sir. I’ll take care of it.”

Penelope’s hand slid below his belt and gripped his rising cock before he could stop her. Cahill’s bewildered expression turned to one of shock as Gray man-handled Penelope out of the med lab on a fast track towards her room. Her hand was securely attached to the front of his uniform with his fully erect dick clutched in her fist.

Gray raced to her quarters slowed down only by her desperate gyrations to get his clothes off along the way. The other more disturbing element of her illness was that her pain seemed to be escalating. “Now!” she screamed, “I need you to fuck me right now!” Penelope pushed him against a wall around the corner from their quarters and unzipped his uniform jacket from chest to groin.

The lust in her eyes was visceral, but he wasn’t about to consummate in a public corridor on his ship. He kissed her mouth hard in an effort to distract her, lifted her into his arms and carried her the rest of the way at a fast trot.

His room was the closest and from the pain-filled sounds now emanating from her throat she was past her limit of endurance. Gray fairly launched them into his room locking the door on the way in.

Little screams of pain came out with each breath as Penelope tore at her clothes. The excruciating pain registering on her face broke his heart. No one should have to endure this. He opened his uniform enough to get his stiffening cock out and pushed her to his bunk. Thrusting his dick deeply inside, her first sound of pleasure released a welcoming sound. He pumped inside of her hard and fast in an effort to come quickly and end her pain.

The tight slick grip of her pussy made the task easier, and five strokes later he climaxed with a growl. The instant his semen shot inside of her body, she released a long deep sigh as if the pain of a fiery internal inferno had been doused at long last.

“Ohmigod,” she whispered in a tearful sob and hugged him tight.

“It’s okay,” he managed still panting from the exertion and trying to ignore the sublime pleasure of the orgasm he’d just had.

“No, it’s not okay. That crew member in the medical lab saw me…he saw what I did to you…” She trailed off into babbling sobs as she clutched him tight.

Gray held her close as she wept murmuring reassurances until she quieted a few minutes later.

Still five days away from their destination, Gray’s wishful attitude waned and the first seed of doubt over this journey’s success grew decisively in his mind.

* * * *

Angelica, tucked behind a structural reinforcement column in the hallway outside the medical lab, wasn’t seen by Captain Wyckoff…or the distressed Dr. Drake, who clung to him with her hand gripped to the captain’s cock through the front of his trousers. She’d been so shocked at the display, she wouldn’t have been able to speak even if she
had
been able to think of something to say.

Whatever was going on with their elusive and singular passenger, Dr. Drake, it didn’t have anything to do with a delicate lung condition. Less than a minute later, Cahill exited the medical lab tucking his uniform shirt into his slacks as if he’d just gotten dressed.

Angelica’s lovelorn feelings rode along the arm crease of her uniform jacket for all the world to see. She stepped from behind the column and called out, “Cahill!” before prudence could prevent her outburst.

He turned with a wide-eyed surprise and replied, “Angelica.”

“What the fuck were you just doing, Ensign?”

His head turned first in the direction the captain had just gone before returning his puzzled gaze back to her. Eyebrows raised he said, “I was getting my quarterly physical, Lieutenant.”

“Really? It looked like something else entirely.”

“Did it?” Cahill put his hands on his waist and a sudden grin split his gorgeous face. “Are you jealous, Lieutenant Brice?”

“I…”
Shit. Yes, I’m insane with jealousy.
“I just saw…” She didn’t finish her sentence and pointed down the hall where Dr. Drake and the captain had disappeared. “Never mind. I was obviously mistaken. And no, I’m
not
jealous.”
Liar, liar, pants on fire.
“Would you like to go to the training room and spar a few rounds? I need to burn off some energy.” Angelica had been on her way to find Cahill for some sexual calisthenics when the lights went out. She knew Dr. Drake was in the medical lab working on something and had redirected her path to check on their only passenger.

“Sorry, Lieutenant, as appealing as a spar session with you to burn off
energy
would be, I’ve been ordered to the command deck to take over for the captain’s shift temporarily.” He backed up a couple of steps in the direction of the bridge.

“May I accompany you?”

He flashed his nova bright grin again and shrugged. “Sure.” He motioned her forward.

Together they marched all the way to the command deck without saying another word. Cahill slid into the captain’s chair, checked the course headings and then turned his attention to her. Angelica relished the chance to be alone with Cahill.

“What were you doing down in the medical lab hallway, Angelica? Following me?”

His tone sounded light, but Angelica hesitated to admit she’d been looking for him prior to her detour to find Dr. Drake. She’d been fairly skipping around all morning waiting for Cahill to get off duty so she could lure him back to her room for a repeat performance of the last time they were together. After waiting around for an hour, she’d gone looking for him, but didn’t relish admitting it.

Fearful that her strong and growing attachment for Cahill didn’t mirror his own feelings, she took a more dismissive tone. “No. I wasn’t following you. When the lights went out I went to see if Dr. Drake was okay.”

“Why? What’s wrong with her?”

“When she arrived here she was placed in the old quarantine cabin next to the captain’s quarters. I was told she needed to be separated from the ship’s main life support because she has a delicate lung condition.”

Cahill snorted once but apparently thought better of his expressive reaction to Angelica’s information about Dr. Drake and didn’t comment further.

Angelica approached him. “What do you know?”

“Nothing.” Cahill shifted in the captain’s seat and refused to look her in the eyes.

“Well, what happened in the medical lab earlier?”

“Nothing,” he repeated. This time the word came with a stern look as if he was through answering questions. “Let’s talk about something else.”

“Like what?”

Cahill put one elbow on the armrest and leaned forward until his face, and more importantly his mouth, was inches from hers. “I’d like to see you again, Lieutenant. Am I stepping out of line?”

Angelica swallowed hard and inched closer. “No. Not out of line.” The very scent of him being this close aroused her to the point of idiocy. With no one around, she was hard-pressed not to take advantage of his lips. Now that they’d consummated their relationship, she spent too much time thinking about not only what they’d already done, but what might possibly happen next.

He smiled, but leaned back and settled into the captain’s chair. “Once the captain comes back to relieve me, I’ll come and find you. We can chat.”

Did “chat” have anything to do with sex? “Chat about what?”

“For starters, the complications a shipboard romance has on crew members whenever they are within a few feet of each other during duty hours.”

“Shipboard romance?” Angelica sucked in a deep breath and backed up a step. “Don’t flatter yourself, Ensign Lothario. I don’t need you—”

Cahill snagged her forearm in one hand and pulled her two short steps back to where she’d been. “Relax, Lieutenant Brice. It wasn’t intended as an insult.” He loosened his grip and cleared his throat. His expression softened.

Angelica blinked once, but otherwise didn’t move a muscle. Cahill’s hand gripped her arm and she was afraid to move for fear he’d release her. “Okay. Fine. Tell me now whatever you want to say.”

“When I saw you downstairs outside the med lab, I wanted to slam you against the nearest wall and plunge my cock inside you so deeply you’d climax screaming my name with a single thrust.”

“Is that so?” Angelica whispered. “I had no idea.”

His lips formed a sardonic smile and he nodded. “It took months, but I’d finally learned to fight the blood sinking out of my brain and throbbing erections when in your immediate presence.” His voice then lowered to a whisper, “However, now that I’ve tasted you, it’s excruciating to be this close to you knowing that I can’t touch you.”

Her gaze rested on his hand still gripping her arm. “You are touching me.”

“Not in the way that I want to be touching you, Angelica.” He was so close that if she stuck her tongue out, she’d come in contact with his mouth. Cahill was right. Being this close was dangerous to both of their careers.

Pulling gently out of his grasp, Angelica smiled and replied, “Good to know because I lied. I
do
need you, Cahill. I’ll be in my quarters. Don’t make me wait too long.” His sudden laughter followed her to the door of the command deck.