Stardust Dreams (26 page)

He shrugged. "Mar-Dot
has
given you a lot of attention. I think it's only fair that you prove
yourself."

She wondered exactly what
he meant by that. Did it cross his mind—as it had hers—that if given the chance
she would plot a course back to Earth? Was this a test of her newly acquired
navigational skills, or a test of her loyalty? With a nod of acceptance, she
turned back to the panel and monitor, determined to show off for all of them.

The last two and a half
days had been the most fun she'd had in ages. Her truce with Gallant had
brought about several positive changes. The constant tension between them had
vanished, and the atmosphere on the bridge lightened tremendously, much to
Mar-Dot's relief, and everyone's entertainment.

Without the fear of
accidentally revealing his ability, Gallant quit wearing the eye patch, and
found that, in spite of the emotional state Cherry kept him in, he was able to
control his talent… except when they coupled. Then Cherry never knew what to
expect. Anything from balloons and flowers to tidal waves and volcanoes might
suddenly appear in the room around them.

What she did know was that
she was happy… and extremely relaxed. She had lost count of the number of times
he had given her a release, and after each encounter she was certain she
wouldn't find the energy for another round. Until he touched her again, and the
energy flooded back tenfold.

The only criticism, and it
was a weak one at that, was that they had yet to go slowly. Oh, they may have
thought about it, but every time their lips met, they were suddenly desperate
to couple. Before this journey was over, Cherry was determined that they would
enjoy each other like two people, instead of a pair of wild animals in heat.

She completed the task Mar
set for her in about fifteen minutes, but took an extra quarter hour to
re-check her work before letting him "grade" her. It only took him
fifteen seconds to confirm that she had passed.

To Gallant, Mar said,
"We are back on course to Lore, Captain."

Gallant bit his cheek to
keep from smiling. "And what does our apprentice navigator predict will be
our time of arrival?"

Cherry straightened her
shoulders as if standing at attention. "At our present speed, we should
dock on Lore in eight hours, forty-five minutes, Captain, sir."

"Well done,
apprentice," he replied, and held out his hand to congratulate her. As
soon as she gave him her hand, he stood up and pulled her along with him. "Now
let's see how well you can navigate your way out of here. Our rest period
should have begun an hour ago."

"Mar," Dot said
with a smile. "Do you remember the captain ever before requiring so much
rest? Perhaps he is ill."

"Or getting on in
age," Mar offered helpfully. "He should probably have this constant
state of fatigue checked by a physician."

Cherry giggled at the
half-hearted glare Gallant gave the both of them before they left the bridge. The
moment they were out of Mar-Dot's sight, he pulled her into his embrace. Remembering
her decision to try to slow them down, instead of kissing his mouth, she
pressed her lips to his chest, and got a surprise. "What's this?" she
asked, brushing her fingertips over the spot she had just kissed. "It
feels like stubble."

He made a groaning sound
and captured her hand. "I'll take care of it. You go on in the room. I'll
only be a few minutes."

"Gallant Voyager! You
know better than to say something that cryptic to me. Explain."

With a shake of his head,
he said, "Will you allow me no secrets from you at all?"

"What do you
think?" she asked with a sly smile.

"I think that if I
don't explain, we'll be standing in this corridor for our entire rest period. All
right, you win again." He took a breath and made his confession. "I
have an excessive amount of hair on my chest."

She wrinkled her nose at
him. "So?"

"So, I was too…
self-conscious, to have it permanently removed like my beard. I have to do it
myself."

"Why?"

He took another deep breath
before answering. "Because it makes me look like the primitive being that
I am."

"Oh phooey! That has
to be the single most assinine statement you've ever made. I happen to be crazy
about chest hair on a man."

Gallant couldn't help but
grin. "Yes, my pet, but we've already come to the conclusion that you're a
barbarian at heart, so your opinion doesn't count."

"Hmmph. Flattery won't
get you anywhere. Well, if you insist on removing it, let me do it for
you."

"I might if I used a
depilatory, but I haven't found one that doesn't irritate my skin. I have to
shave, the old-fashioned way… with a razor."

Her eyes lit up and she
wiggled her eyebrows at him. "Ooh. What a wonderful way to show how much
you trust me." She ignored the look of horror on his face as she pulled
him into the facility chamber and over to the sink. "Okay, where do you
keep your stuff? I've been in and out of the storage drawers a hundred times
and I've never seen a razor.

The worried look seemed to
be frozen on his face, but he opened a cabinet beneath the sink and withdrew a
small cedar box from behind the supply of linens. Opening it, he revealed a
brass, double-edged razor, shaving mug, soap, brush, and a supply of razors. "It
was a gift from my mother—an antique actually. I was able to find someone who
could make the razors. Are you sure you want to do this?"

She took the box from him
and set it on the counter beside the sink. "Absolutely. I think it will be
very erotic. And I'll do my best not to draw blood."

He rolled his eyes, but
removed his vest for her.

"You have got the most
beautiful body," Cherry told him, not able to resist stroking his skin. She
smiled when his nipples instantly tightened for her. Her fingers followed a
line of stubble down to his waist. "You'll have to take the pants off so I
can get this, too." He groaned and she added, "Don't worry, I know
where to stop."

As he shed his boots and
slacks, she got out two fluffy white towels and a hand cloth and covered the
counter with one of the towels. "You sit on this, and I'll cover your
essentials
with the other." When he turned around and she saw the condition he was
al-ready in, her smile broadened. This was going to be great fun!

First, she filled the sink
with hot water and dropped in the hand cloth. Then, after adding a few drops of
water to the soap in the mug, she used the brush to work up a lather. Her
actions apparently convinced him she had some idea of what she was doing,
because he sat down as instructed.

She stepped in between his
knees and draped the towel over his lap, as if she didn't notice the obvious
protrusion. To prepare his skin, she partially wrung out the heated cloth and
wet the areas she would be shaving. With the mug in one hand and the brush in
her other, she began lathering up his chest. "Does this tickle?"

"Yes," he hissed.

"Then why aren't you
gigging?"

"I don't giggle."

"No, you growl." She
teased his nipple with the brush and he couldn't hold back the grin any longer.

"If you don't get on
with it, you're going to get more than growling," he threatened, but
couldn't quite erase that grin.

She worked the lather down
the center of his abdomen and laughed again when those muscles automatically
contracted. "Now, be nice. There's something I wanted to talk to you
about." She exchanged the brush and mug for the razor. "You know I
like having sex with you."

His chest rose with the
deep breath her words made him take.

"Don't do that. You
have to stay very still." With a smooth stroke, she scraped the razor down
the center of his broad chest, lightly ran it back up the same line using the
other side of the blade, then dipped it in the sink to rinse off the lather. As
she repeated the procedure on another strip, she got back to the subject she
wanted to discuss. "Anyway, I want you to know that I'm not really
complaining, but I have noticed a decided lack of foreplay in our
relationship."

Only the fact that the
razor was skimming the edge of his nipple kept him from proving her wrong
immediately. Each stroke of the blade reminded him not to move while it teased
him to do just that. "Cherry, don't you think this particular subject
could be discussed
after
you put down the razor."

She noted the twitching
movement beneath the towel on his lap. "No. This is the perfect time to
discuss it. Sit up straight so I can get your stomach." He did as he was
told and she added a little more lather. The feathery swipes of the brush
caused him to suck in his muscles even more than he already had. Careful not to
touch that part of him that was making a tent of the lap towel, she ran the
razor over his navel.

"You see, this is a
perfect example of what I'm trying to say. I know how much you want me right
now, and that's very exciting. In fact, I'm so hot, I could get off just by
rubbing against your leg a few times, but I won't. Fighting the temptation to
do something can be more erotic than the act itself. That's why I covered you. I
like to look at you, but when I do, I have to touch and taste." Her gaze
caressed him, and she was rewarded with the sight of dampness on the peak of
his mountain.

His hands balled into
fists, yet he kept them at his sides.

"There," she
said, rinsing the razor for the last time. "First part's done. Don't move
yet, though." She drained the sink and wet the cloth again. As she wiped
away the remains of the soap, she taunted, "Are you counting the seconds,
Gallant? Are you sitting here imagining yourself plunging into me? Are you
thinking about how tight and slick I'm going to be around you?"

His only answer was a low
growl as he devoured her with his eyes.

She set aside the cloth and
got a bottle of moisturizing oil out of the drawer. "Imagining and
thinking are good. I just want to postpone the inevitable a little
longer." Holding one end of the lap towel, she dragged it slowly away from
him, causing him to inhale with an audible gasp. "Everything is better
when you have to wait for it."

Pouring some oil into her
palm, she prepared to add more fuel to the fire. The moment she placed her
oiled hands on his chest, she knew her case for waiting would soon be lost. His
flesh sizzled beneath her touch, and the crazy tingling burst up her robotic
arm. Through sheer willpower, she forced herself to massage every inch of his
chest and stomach before giving in to the ultimate temptation. Adding a little
more oil, she brought her hands closer and closer to the heart of his fire,
until finally, as slowly as she could, she wrapped her fingers around it.

His eyes closed and his jaw
clenched as she slid her hand along his length, drawing his foreskin upward,
then back again. Regardless of her manipulations, he kept his hands at his
sides, proving to them both that he could indeed control his primitive urges as
well as, if not better than, any civilized man.

Until her tongue teased his
lips and he tasted the essence that was Cherry's alone. With a growl that rose
from deep within his chest, he came off the counter and pulled her to him. In a
heartbeat he assaulted her mouth with savage intent, and she willingly met him
on their private field of battle.

Suddenly he broke the kiss
and twisted her around so that she was facing the mirror over the sink and he
was behind her. His hands grasped her hips and moved upward to capture her
breasts. Dipping his head, he nipped her ear and murmured in a voice heavy with
urgent need.

"You want
foreplay?" His hands roamed over her jumpsuit, from her breasts to her
hips, massaged her stomach, and eased between her thighs. "I thought that
was what we were doing every time we looked at each other. Every word out of
your mouth, every breath you take, arouses me. It doesn't have to be planned or
discussed.

"You're the one who
insists on the truth. Be honest with me now, Cherry. When we're on the bridge,
talking with Mar-Dot or playing cubit, when you're eating a meal, or washing
your face, aren't you really thinking about how long it will be until I'm
inside of you again?"

She watched his fingers
find her nerve center and press and rotate until the only reason she was still
standing was because he was holding her so tightly. "Yes," she
whispered, barely able to breathe let alone talk. "All the time. I can't
stop thinking about you and your body. No matter what you give me, I want
more."

"And I want to give it
to you, whenever and wherever you want it. You seem to be under the mistaken
impression that I'm a sheep in wolf's clothing. I'm not. The clothes I wear
suit me perfectly. And like the wolf, when I'm cornered, I bite." Remaining
behind her, he stripped her naked and, in seconds, recommenced his stroking and
kneading, all the while making her feel him, hard and swollen against her back.

Clinging to his thighs, she
rode the waves of desire higher and faster until she crashed to the shore, and
still he would not release her.