THE OFF WORLD COLLECTION (Short, Steamy Science Fiction Romances) (Off-World Series) (14 page)

Chapter Eight

Caleb lay back with his arm around his wife’s shoulder.

His wife. The concept was still so shiny that it seemed unreal.

The magic of making love with her had swept him away. She knew he hadn’t done it before, and she’d made it good for both of them. She’d taught him things without ordering him around, and she’d given him permission to do things that he’d only dreamed about. For a few moments, as he lay in bed beside her, he thought about what else he’d like to do with her.

It was obvious she had a lot of experience in bed. Probably that was a good thing because one of them had known what they were doing. But now that they’d done it, he wanted to ask her questions. Like who had she been with? And how many men had she done it with?

Did he have a right to know those things? Or was it better not to probe? Or maybe she’d tell him on her own—if she really trusted him.

All those thoughts whirled in his head. Partly because he’d sensed that she was nervous afterwards. Or was he annoyed with her because of the contraceptive implant. That wasn’t her fault. Of course, maybe she’d really been given a choice, and now she was lying about it.

He brought himself up short. He should be feeling closer to her after they’d done it. He shouldn’t be coming up with all these questions and suspicions. Yet he simply couldn’t stop himself.

It took a while for him to fall asleep. But he woke at his usual time. Remembering the good parts of the night before, he turned toward the other side of the bed. Beka wasn’t there.

He sat up quickly and looked toward the bathroom. The door was open, and she wasn’t there, either.

Quietly he climbed out of bed and pulled on his briefs and work pants. When he padded barefoot into the front room, he found Beka had opened her comms unit and was watching the guy who told the news. When she sensed him behind her, she stiffened.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“Checking the news and the weather.”

“How is the weather?”

“Fine.” She kept her back to him. “I’m sorry if I woke you.”

“You didn’t. This is when I usually get up.”

She nodded. “I’ll get breakfast while you get dressed.”

“Good.

He turned away and headed for the bathroom, feeling the stiffness of the conversation. Last night they’d reached a new level of physical intimacy, but that didn’t mean that they were entirely comfortable with each other.

Really, were they less comfortable? Or was it just him?

Was he having second thoughts about her? Because she’d been so cooperative in bed? Like she wanted to seal their relationship. Or bind him to her.

Wouldn’t any wife want to seal the relationship with her new husband? Was he faulting her for that—or for what?

And wouldn’t any husband be thankful for a pretty bride who was enthusiastic about making love?

When he came back to the prep area, he saw that along with coffee, she’d fixed cured meat and eggs, with toast and butter. She looked at him anxiously as he sat down. “Is that about the right amount of food?”

“It’s fine.”

“You eat better here than we did on
Elmen.”

“Partly because I raise a lot of my own provisions. And partly because I have the credits to buy anything else I need.” He took several bites of his eggs. “But I’ve had some extra expenses, of course.”

“I guess because of me?” she asked.

“Yeah. I wanted the place to look decent.”

“It does. More than decent.”

He ate quickly.

“You’re in a hurry to get to work?”

“Yeah. I’m in the middle of an agricultural project for the government.”

When she kept her gaze on him, he said, “They use the farmsteads to test experimental crops. I agreed to grow a new strain of genetically engineered wheat. Something that’s supposed to be perfectly adapted for Palomar. And I agreed to check it every two weeks and report in.”

He pushed back his chair. “I’ll go out there and do it. And while I’m out, I’m going to check the force fence around number two pasture so I can put Silla and Caramel out.”

“Okay. Do you have anything in particular you want me to do while you’re gone?”

“Do you know how to check the chicken house for eggs?”

“Yes.”

“Gather them up and bring them in.” He kept his gaze on her. “And do you know how to clean out a roosting house?”

“Yes.”

“If you could do it too, that would be great.”

“Okay.”

“Actually, I’ve got a poop pit under the laying area. You can open the door in the back and get the stuff out that way. Put the droppings and the dirty straw into the fertilizer bin in back of the barn.

“Okay,” she said again.

“You’ll find everything you need in the cabinets. Don’t forget safety goggles and gloves.”

“Uh huh.”

“And I use the same clean straw that I use for the horses.”

“Do you have any old clothes I can wear?”

“There are coveralls in a storage locker in the barn. And the other stuff you’ll need, like the eye protectors and a mask.”

He walked out of the house, thinking he’d like to make a call on his comms unit. To one of the other guys who’d been lucky enough to draw a bride.

He’d like to ask, “Did all of the gals get contraceptive implants before they came here? Or did yours?” But there was no way he could make that call, because it would be too revealing. Which meant all he could do was keep on keeping on—until he found out what was really going on, one way or the other.

oOo

Beka
watched Caleb turn and stride toward the barn. He came out riding a small tractor. A length of rope was coiled around his shoulder, and she wondered what he was planning to do. She didn’t think you needed rope to check on wheat.

When he was gone, she stepped into the farmyard and watched where he was going. As he disappeared from sight on the other side of a low rise, she sighed and turned back to clean up the prep area.

Last night when they’d made love, they’d been so close. Now it felt like he was deliberately pulling away from her. Because he was worried about exposing his emotions to her? Or what?

Once again, she wondered if she’d made a mistake in not being perfectly honest with him about her past.

Yet every time she thought about starting that conversation, her chest tightened. Wasn’t it better to make sure he was committed to her before she told him? And then what if he was finally feeling close to her and she sprang
that
on him—and he pulled away.

She took her bottom lip between her teeth as she finished up the dishes. Then she went out to the henhouse to gather the eggs.

When she came out, she looked for Caleb, but he wasn’t back, so she went on to the next job.

First she checked the equipment. As promised, she found gloves and safety goggles, also a face mask, a rake, a shovel, disinfectant and some other necessary items.

The chore wasn’t as bad as it might have been because he kept the chickens in their fenced yard as much as they were in the henhouse. And the droppings inside were dry. She knew that water was what made them smell bad.

It couldn’t have been too long since he’d mucked it out because it was relatively clean. Was this some kind of test to see if she really did know how to do farm work?

Well, she wasn’t going to complain about it. She was going to do the job and let him know she was a team player. And really, it wasn’t hard work, just earthy.

Again when she was finished, she looked for Caleb, and again she didn’t see him. She threw the coveralls into the dirty clothes bin, took a shower and changed her clothes.

Caleb still wasn’t back, and now she couldn’t help worrying about him. When she tried to raise him on the comms line, she found that his unit was switched off, which worried her more.

Well, he couldn’t be too far away. She could go out there and find him.

She had already started off in the same direction when she remembered that he was wearing his beamer. Which meant that she should probably take hers, too.

After retrieving the weapon from the charger, she buckled it onto her hip and took the path that Caleb had taken away from the main farmyard.

When she got to the top of the rise, she shaded her eyes with her hand and looked around. To one side was a small stand of trees. Directly in front of her was a square wheat field. And Caleb was at the near side. He was on the tractor. Behind him, the rope was tied to a tree stump and stretched taut. As she watched, he moved the vehicle forward. The tree stump heaved but didn’t come out of the ground. He stopped and started again, and finally it came free, tumbling across the dirt at the edge of the field. Getting off, he walked back toward the stump and inspected the bared roots.

There were about seventy meters of space between where she was standing and the wheat field. She started down the rise, her gaze fixed on him. Then a rustling in the trees made her turn toward the sound. An enormous animal lumbered out of the shadows where it must have been hiding. It stood about three meters tall on four thick, muscular legs and was covered with shaggy brown fur. As she stared at it, she realized it was the thing Caleb had called a
granling. It must have been watching from the shadows and picked up speed as it made for her. She went very still, expecting that it would be stopped by the force fence that Caleb maintained.

It did stop momentarily, then lowered its head and charged through the invisible barrier.

But how? Hadn’t Caleb protected himself when he’d come out here?

She screamed, and Caleb’s head jerked up. A look of horror bloomed on his features as he took in the situation.

For a long moment, she could only stand where she was—paralyzed as the monster pelted toward her. She saw small black eyes, an elongated face, and an open mouth with long, sharp yellow teeth. And as the beast picked up speed, its long claws dug up the ground.

She could turn and run. But she knew there was no way she could reach the safety of the farmyard before the thing brought her down and sank those wicked teeth into her neck. She heard the beast’s breath. Saw the lips curl back and the eyes turn eager, and she knew she was facing death.

Chapter Nine

A moment of clarity came to her as she remembered that she wasn’t defenseless prey. She was wearing a weapon. With only seconds to act, she pulled the beamer and pointed it at the animal. Clamping her finger on the trigger, she sent streak of energy toward the charging animal. At the same time, another streak came from the side, and she knew that Caleb had fired, too.

The granling dropped less than a meter from her, a roar escaping from its mouth as it twitched on the ground.

Caleb ran toward her, catching her in his arms, moving her away from the intruder.

“Thank the fates you’re all right.”

She nodded against his shoulder.

“Good going with the beamer.”

“You, too.”

He held on to her tightly, but she could feel him fiddling with the comms unit.

“What are you doing?”

“Turning up the field. It wasn’t at full strength right here.”

“Why?”

“I had it at minimum to conserve energy. I would have jacked it up again when I came back that way.”

“I didn’t know that’s how you did it.”

She felt herself shaking in reaction. He stroked her back, ran his fingers through her hair.

“You’re all right. Thank the universe you’re all right.”

When she heard him curse under his breath, she said, “You’re mad at me?”

“I’m mad at myself. I should have told you how I work things.”

“You mean put yourself in danger?”

“I wasn’t in danger,” he ground out. “But I should have warned you.”

“Your unit was off.”

“Yeah. I’m not used to having it on. For obvious reasons.”

Right. He’d lived by himself for ten years.

He moved her toward the farmyard.

“I didn’t hear from you, and then you didn’t come back, and I was worried.”

“Stupid of me. Something was wonky on the tractor. I had to fiddle with the engine to get up enough power to pull out that stump.”

“Oh.”

She was still shaking with emotion as they reached the house and stepped inside. She turned in his arms, raising her face as he lowered his head.

Their mouths met in a frantic kiss that held a mixture of passion and relief.

She could have been killed out there, but she was alive in Caleb Raider’s arms and knew she had to get closer to him, as close as she could possibly get. And he must have felt the same because when she started fumbling with the fastener at the top of his work pants, he reached for hers.

They were in too much of a hurry to bother with niceties or finesse. He yanked down her pants along with her underwear. She tugged at his, and they fell onto the rug together. She rolled to her back and kicked off one pants leg so she could open her thighs.

As though he had done it a million times, he came down between them, and she guided him to her, crying out as he entered her.

His hips moved in a frantic rhythm, and she matched him stroke for stroke. They came in a burst of passion, and he collapsed on top of her, both of them breathing hard.

He held her tightly.

His voice was hoarse. “When I saw that granling coming toward you, my heart stopped.”

“Mine too.”

“But you didn’t stop thinking.”

They stayed where they were for a long time, and she thought about finally starting to talk about her past, maybe leading up to the big secret that was weighing on her. In the end, she chickened out and simply allowed herself to enjoy being in his arms again.

“We’re lying on the sitting-room rug,” he finally said.

“I guess the bed was too far away.”

“Yeah.” He cleared his throat. “There’s stuff I do automatically because it’s the way I’ve worked it my whole life. But I have to make sure you know how to take care of yourself here. We’re going to spend the rest of today learning about the farm. Especially the safety procedures.”

“You turned off the force field to save energy?”

“Yeah. And I’ll still have to do that. But I’ll make sure I tell you.”

He took her around the farm, inside the barn and around the property, telling her what he did at each location and how he did it, along with how he kept himself safe.

By the end of the tour, she was starting to feel better about their relationship. But he seemed to withdraw again at dinner. And after they’d cleaned up together, he said, “I’ve got some things to do. You go on to bed, and I’ll join you later.”

She nodded and got ready for bed, waiting for him to appear in the doorway. She tried to stay awake, waiting for him. But the events of the day had taken their toll, and finally she fell asleep.

In the morning, she could tell he’d slept in the bed, but he’d gotten up early. And gone out. So was he avoiding her again? And why, exactly?

oOo

Caleb came in from the barn while Beka was making breakfast.

She fried up some potatoes left over from dinner and served them along with the eggs and cured meat they hadn’t finished yesterday.

Leaning back, he sipped from his coffee mug and said, “I didn’t show you the catborn mine yesterday.”

“Is it close?”

“We’ll go over there this morning, and I’ll dig some more of the stuff out.”

He saw her gripping her fork. “You said your father was killed in the mine.”

“Uh huh.”

“Why do you still work it?”

“I need the credits. Or if I had more of them, maybe I wouldn’t have to turn down the force field in an area after I go through it.”

She looked like she wanted to question him about that, but she pressed her lips together.

“I’m taking you with me.”

“And you’re going to tell me exactly what I need to do, in case you run into trouble?”

He answered with a tight nod, thinking that if Dad hadn’t gone out there alone, maybe he’d still be alive.

“We’ll go after I get that
granling into the field and make sure everything around here is running smoothly.”

She pushed away from the table. “I’m going to get dressed.”

As he watched her hurry into the bedroom, he wanted to call after her, “And before you do, why don’t you tell me what you’re hiding from me?”

But he didn’t say it. Maybe she wasn’t actually hiding anything. And if she was, would his question make any difference? It was clear she was trying to be a good wife to him. In bed, and on the farm. But then why did he feel a gulf between them?

He went out to make his usual rounds. When he came back, he found that Beka had done the dishes, put away the uneaten food and dressed for work in heavy pants, jacket and boots.

“Before we go, I need to warn you that the mine entrance is outside the main fence. It’s in the area where the field’s not up unless I need it.”

“Are there granlings out there?”

“Probably. But we’ll keep the fence at high power.”

She nodded. “Tell me about the mining.”

“Let me give you a little background first. When the colonists came to Palomar, the land was parceled out to them. Nobody had a choice about what plot they got. We were all given a grant by the Palomar Corporation and some company help setting up a minimal spread. A small barn. An even smaller house. What you see represents considerable improvements.”

“It looks like you did all right.”

“Yeah, but some guys failed because the conditions were wrong on the property they’d drawn. Too wet or too rocky. Or it turned out they had landed in a big patch of devil weed.”

“Which does what?”

“Burns the hell out of your skin.”

“What happened to them?”

“If the failure was because of a crappy location, they got a second chance. But of course, that set them back as far as making a success of their spread. We were lucky. We got good farming land. And also it turned out we and a few other homesteads had a
catborn deposit. Some guys were angry that we got it.”

“Do they give you trouble?”

“Once a raiding party tried to take over the homestead.”

She sucked in a sharp breath. “What happened?”

“Dad and I held them off until the storm troopers came.” He looked toward the door. “Let me load up some equipment, and we’ll go out to the mine.”

“How?”

“In the hauler. I’ll have catborn to bring back.”

“And you said it’s not a mineral?”

“No. It’s an organic deposit laid down over hundreds of years in an ancient forest that disappeared when the climate changed in this area. I think back on Earth they had something similar called peat. They used that for heating their homes. Catborn is combustible, but it’s too expensive to burn for heat. It brings a good price off world for medical use.”

“And how do you get it out?”

“It’s underground. We tunneled in to a deposit and use mechanical equipment to scoop it out.”

She kept her gaze on him. “Why did the mine collapse?”

“Well, catborn is soft. Which means the ground’s not perfectly stable. Dad thought he could get to another deposit that was nearby. The tunnel structure shifted and collapsed.”

“And how do you know that won’t happen to you?”

“I’m careful. And I reinforced the tunnels.”

“But you’ve done this on your own, with no backup.”

“Yeah.”

“Why?”

“Because nobody wants to help me dig my windfall out of the ground.”

“Even for a cut of the profits?”

“On Palomar, a real man works for himself. You only get a job if you’re desperate. Like that plaguer, Jerry, who tried to kidnap you.”

She shuddered.

“Probably a lot of guys are hoping the mine will get me like it did my father. Then the corporation can move in and take over the site.”

She winced. “Nice.”

“The sooner we get out there, the sooner we get back,” he said.

“All right.”

“This time we’ll both wear comms units. And beamers.”

“Okay.”

“I’m going to get the hauler. See if you can get me on our private line.”

She did as he asked, and he answered quickly. He kept the picture on, and she saw him loading some empty bins into the hauler. Then he drove along the farmyard to where she was waiting. When she’d climbed aboard and buckled her harness, he took off, heading away from town. It was a very short flight, to an area of his property that was hidden by low hills. As he dropped down, she saw that the ground had a greenish cast that didn’t look like vegetation.

“The color’s from the catborn?”

“Right.” He was hovering over the area.

“Why aren’t you landing?”

“In a minute.” Still in the air, he got out the
comms unit again and did some more fiddling with his fingers.

“I’ve got explosive charges set around the mine. If anybody tries to land without turning them off, they’ll get a nasty surprise.”

“Okay.” She held her breath as they landed, but the hauler didn’t blow up with them in it.

Caleb jumped out and started unloading the bins and the equipment.

When he was finished, he turned to her. “I’d better tell you where I’ve set the close-in charges, because if you step on one, it’s like a land mine.”

“Nice.”

He took her in a circle around the mine entrance, pointing out places where there were depressions in the soil. “And you need to know how to set them off manually,” he said.

“Why?”

“It would take care of a borgan or a granling that got through the force fence.

A good idea, since she’d already tangled with a
granling and knew what it could do.

“Which of them is worse?” she asked.

“About the same, in their own way. Both are highly dangerous when they’re hungry and they think you’re unprotected.”

“I won’t be able to get those hand signals for the explosives right,” she blurted.

“I’ll set it for voice activation. For safety, you’ll have to press the red button on the controller. Then you can just say set off number one, set off number two, and so on.” She looked down at the unit and located the red button.

“Which is number one?”

He pointed to his right. “There’s the first one, and they go clockwise around the mine.”

“How many in all?”

“Fifteen.”

“And you’ll keep your unit on?”

“Yeah.”

“How long will you be gone?”

“It shouldn’t be more than three hours.”

oOo

Three hours. A lifetime, Beka thought as she looked at the entrance to the mine which was blocked off by a stout metal barrier. Around it, the doorway was surrounded by a darker shade of the green tinge.

Caleb strode forward, worked his hands over the
comms unit and the metal door creaked open. Behind it was what looked like nothing more than a large hole in the side of a hill. Beyond the opening was blackness.