by S. E. Smith
There was only one person he trusted to protect her the way he would. One person in the universe who was as deadly as he was. It was time that he introduced himself to Skeeter’s illustrious father – Bulldog Ti’Death.
Chapter 21
The next morning, Skeeter sat in the chair in the medical unit waiting for Krac. She had woken up feeling much better physically. Emotionally, she was still a wreck. Toolas told her that she was being given the all clear to return to the Lulu Belle. Every time she thought about the freighter, she thought about Frog and her eyes would fill with tears.
Poor Toolas had sat with her for nearly an hour and talked with her about her grief, explaining that it was natural and healthy to cry for someone she cared about. She had listened carefully to what the healer was saying. Even though she had dealt with her parents dying, she had been very young. This was really the first time that someone she had really cared about since she was grown had died. The fact that Frog died protecting her and Violet only made the pain ten-times worse. Toolas explained she might be feeling something called ‘survivor’s guilt’.
“It is perfectly natural, but you have to understand, your friend would not want you to remember him with sadness. Focus on the good times you had with him. It will help if you celebrate the time you spent with him,” Toolas said gently.
“Can’t you make her sadness go away?” Krac demanded, glaring at Toolas after he returned from his meeting. “You have medication. It takes away pain.”
“Medication is merely a band aid,” Toolas replied in exasperation. “What Skeeter is feeling will lessen with time. Eventually, she will be able to think of her friend without tears but with a smile. Skeeter, can you remember a special time with your friend?”
“Well, there was the time I backed into the pirate ship,” Skeeter said with a small, shaky smile. “He was hopping up and down so much when the alarms went off that I thought he was going to hit his head on the ceiling.” She gave a watery chuckle. “He could hop really, really high when he was mad.”
Toolas laughed and nodded her head. “That is what I am talking about. Remember the good times.”
Krac scowled at Toolas. “Almost getting hijacked by pirates is not something to laugh at,” he retorted as he thought of what could have happened to Skeeter if the pirates had boarded the freighter.
Toolas crossed her arms and stared in exasperation at Krac. “That is not the point,” she replied with a shake of her head.
“He… he… was always trying to get me to pay more attention to the controls,” Skeeter whispered, her eyes filling with tears again. “I… should have… listened to him better.”
Krac bent down and pulled Skeeter into his arms when she started sobbing again. He looked accusingly at Toolas and narrowed his eyes in warning. He was shocked when the healer just shook her head again and stood up.
“Where are you going?” Krac demanded as Toolas walked across the room toward her office. “Her eyes are still leaking.”
“Yes, they are and they will continue to ‘leak’. It is natural for most species to cry when they are sad or upset. Humans are especially susceptible to it,” Toolas replied.
“But, how can I make her stop?” Krac asked desperately when he realized that the healer really was going to leave.
“Give her something else to think about,” Toolas suggested with a raised eyebrow. “Something… more pleasant.”
“Like what?” He called out in frustration.
Toolas’ exasperated chuckle echoed as she walked out of the room. “Use your imagination!” She suggested, closing her office door behind her.
Krac stood still wondering what in the hell that was supposed to mean. Use his imagination? He did not have an imagination. He thought logically. He mapped out the best possible solution to a situation and conducted a very decisive attack. Skeeter was the one with the imagination. She saw life in color while he saw it in black and white. She was twinkling lights and pink freighters. He was… shadows.
“I do not have an imagination,” he whispered, holding Skeeter securely in his arms.
Skeeter shook her head and sniffed. “Everyone has an imagination,” she whispered as she laid her cheek against his broad chest, feeling safe and warm. “You just haven’t discovered yours yet.”
“Are your eyes still leaking?” He asked gruffly.
She bit her lip and shook her head. “No,” she choked out, pressing her wet face into the opening of his shirt.
Krac released a heavy sigh. “We need to leave. There is much to be done. We have a long trip ahead of us,” he murmured, ignoring her lie.
“Where are we going?” She sniffed.
“We are going to Sallas,” he replied.
Skeeter frowned and stiffened before pulling back to stare up at him. “Why? I don’t have any orders for there. The cargo I have is for Newport. Besides, daddy is on Sallas,” she said nervously.
“I know,” he said, bending and picking her up in his arms. “That is why we are going there.”
“But,” she whispered. “I don’t want to go to Sallas.”
“Why?” Krac asked, striding out of the medical unit. They would take his starship back to the freighter. He could dock it in the lower bay for the journey to Sallas. “It is the most logical place to take you. You will be safe there.”
Skeeter ignored the last part. It was not her safety she was worried about, it was his. “Daddy will see you,” she said, biting her lip. “He’ll know that I… that we… that I…”
Krac paused to look down into her worried eyes. He breathed a sigh of relief that while her eyes were still red and puffy, they no longer leaked. Toolas had been right about giving Skeeter something else to think about.
“Yes,” he said with a satisfied nod.
“Yes? Yes? Do you have any idea of what my father will do if he knows that I… that we… He’s going to kill you,” she replied with a deep sigh and her eyes filled with tears again.
Krac frowned in frustration. He would NOT let her leak again. He stepped into the lift when it opened and turned. The moment the doors closed, he pressed his hand to the control panel and halted it.
“No, he will not kill me,” he murmured, setting her down so he could cup her face with his hands. “I will tell him you belong to me now. He will accept it.”
Skeeter’s mouth dropped open as she stared up at him. Krac noted that at least it cleared her eyes again. He would just have to keep her occupied. That seemed to fix the problem of her tears.
“You’re going to tell him I belong to you? Just like that. And you think he’ll just accept it. Just like that,” she said.
“Yes,” he replied confidently.
“Just like that,” she repeated.
“Yes, just like that,” he replied with a frown at the sound of doubt in her voice.
Skeeter slowly shook her head back and forth. “He’s going to kill you,” she replied heavily. “Dead. Completely. Totally. Without mercy, dead.”
Krac lifted her chin, forcing her to look into his determined eyes. “No, he will accept it,” he whispered huskily before he pressed his lips to hers.
Skeeter melted the moment their lips touched. Her hands moved up to his broad shoulders before curling around his neck. She sighed as he parted his lips for her. Warmth filled her as he opened for her. Her hands tightened in his hair when she felt the hardness pressed against her stomach, making her gasp as he pushed her back against the wall of the lift. His lips began moving along her jaw with a desperate urgency that left a burning path that left her hungry.
“Every time I get near you I begin to ache,” he muttered as ran his lips back along her jaw to the corner of her mouth. “Feel me! I can shut my body down with a single command, except when I am near you. When you touched me with your lips the other day….” He closed his eyes and released a low hissing breath as he pressed his hips more firmly against her. “I have never experienced anything like that before. No female has ever touched me like that befor
e.”
Skeeter tilted her head to the side as his lips slid back down in a fiery path that had her wriggling as the heat exploded between her legs. It took a moment for his words to sink in. She closed her eyes when he opened his mouth and latched onto her throat in a hot wet kiss that pulled a long, low moan from her.
“Oh Krac,” she whispered as her fingers frantically pulled at him as she lifted her leg to wind around his. “You make me ache too.”
Krac pulled back far enough to look down at her with eyes blazing with desire. He reached down and wrapped his hand around the thigh of the leg pulling him forward. He lifted her slightly so he could press into her more firmly. He groaned as his cock fitted tightly against her. A shudder wracked his body as an almost primitive need flared to life inside him. He slid both of his hands under her ass, forcing her to lift her legs until they were wound around his waist.
“This feels right,” he muttered. “I don’t understand, but this feels right.”
Skeeter’s head dropped forward as he rocked against her. Her breathing turned to pants. She couldn’t believe this would be her second time with him and she was about to climax in her pants again.
“I need more,” Krac growled in frustration as he pushed into her. “Make the ache go away. Like you did before.”
“Ah, Krac,” an amused male voice interrupted over the comlink in the lift. “I hate to tell you this, but we need the lift. Can you finish this later?”
Skeeter gasped and turned bright red. “They can hear us?”
“Just the last part,” the voice chuckled.
Krac closed his eyes and gritted his teeth before opening them again in frustration. “Cooraan, you are a dead man the next time I see you.”
Cooraan’s laughter echoed in the small compartment. “Just be thankful I was the one that was informed of the malfunction to the lift and not the regular maintenance crew. You might have had more of an audience.”
Skeeter tilted her head and frowned. “Do I know you? Your voice sounds awfully familiar.”
Cooraan’s choked cough covered his muttered curse. “I’ve reactivated the lift. Safe travels to Sallas.”
Krac’s eyes flashed at the reminder of the private dance that Skeeter had given the Zion warrior. He released a frustrated sigh and leaned his forehead against Skeeter’s when the lift began moving again. He still ached.
“I swear I know him from somewhere,” Skeeter murmured in confusion.
“You will forget about him,” Krac said, slowly releasing her legs and stepping back. “I want you to tell me how to stop this constant ache. I have never had it before I met you. It is beginning to drive me insane.”
Skeeter’s mouth dropped open for the second time in astonishment as Krac stepped out of the lift onto the departure bay. Her eyes shimmered in wonder as he pulled her along beside him. She shook her head in disbelief before a mischievous smile lit up her face.
Chapter 22
Skeeter settled back in the co-pilot’s seat of Krac’s starship. It was much fancier than the freighter’s bridge. There were so many lights and panels and screens that it made her head hurt to think about trying to figure out what they all did much less how to fly the damn thing. She knew she should be impressed and ask questions about it, but all she could think about was his softly growled demand in the lift.
She twirled a strand of her thick red hair around her finger and bit her lip. She listened as he received clearance from the Conqueror to depart. She glanced out the front viewport as the starship rose before shooting forward out of the side of the Zion Warship.
Darkness surrounded them as they left the brightly lit interior of the warship. The starship tilted slightly as it turned toward the Lulu Belle. Skeeter sat forward and stared at her freighter as it came into sight.
She looked at it with a critical eye. It was hard to tell that it was pink in space. It was funny how it ended up that way. It had been a dull dark gray before the explosion that took out almost seven meters of the upper cargo bay on the port side.
“I can’t believe I landed that by myself,” she murmured.
“I can’t either,” Krac responded darkly. “If your father had not killed your co-pilot, I would have.”
Skeeter shook her head and sighed. “Druss wasn’t a very nice man. I caught him stealing from some of the merchants and he… he almost killed a man on one of our stops. He was mean when he was drunk, which was most of the time.”
“Why did you keep him on?” He asked with a frown.
She shrugged. “I was going to replace him when we got back to Sallas. He had smuggled illegal cargo aboard that I didn’t know about until I found it when I went to scan the inventory for our arrival. He threatened to kill me if I said anything. I guess he planned on moving the canisters, but got drunk halfway through. One broke loose. When it hit the side, the Lulu Belle shook like crazy. I issued a mayday and requested emergency planet side assistance as I was losing pressure from the structural damage and had lost my starboard stabilizers. It was too dangerous to try to dock with the Space station as I didn’t have enough control.”
“Froget said Druss took your escape pod,” Krac said before silently wishing he had kept his statement to himself when he saw the flash of pain and sadness reappear in Skeeter’s eyes.
Skeeter gave him a sad smile. “Yes. I guess he figured if he escaped and I crashed the Lulu Belle there would be no evidence of what happened and no one to point their finger at him. He would take care of both problems at once.”
“But you didn’t crash,” Krac said with a nod.
“No, I didn’t crash. I don’t know how I made it down in one piece. I think it was the simulator daddy made me do over and over. I liked it. It was like a game. Daddy was on the other end, talking to me the whole time. I focused on what he was saying. He promised to always keep me safe and he has,” she replied softly, looking at the Lulu Belle with a smile as they got closer.
“Why pink?” Krac asked suddenly, staring at the freighter with a look of horrid fascination.
Skeeter’s delighted laughter echoed as she gazed ahead. “There was a mix up with the maintenance crew that was doing the repairs. One brother wanted it painted white. The other wanted it red. They found out they didn’t have enough of either to paint the entire thing so they had the bright idea to mix the paint together. Of course, daddy was horrified, but I loved it. There was just enough red paint left over for me to paint the Phoenix on the side as a symbol for surviving my first almost crash.”
“He should have killed the brothers as well,” Krac reflected before tilting his head to the side. “Maybe not, it does look like you.”
“Mm, why do you say that?” She asked, looking at him in surprise.
“It is colorful, like you. The bird on the side is vivid and strong, like you. It is… different, like you,” he finished in a husky voice. “I am aching again.”
“I know how to take the ache away,” Skeeter whispered.
Krac’s eyes flashed to hers. The warmth in them sent a shiver through him. The look in her eyes was the same as what he saw in Gracie’s when she looked at Kordon. It was a look that he never thought to see from a female, at least not when they looked at him.
His throat tightened as he turned back to open the lower cargo bay doors on the Lulu Belle. He entered the opening smoothly and landed. His hands skimmed over the controls, shutting everything down and securing it before he turned in his seat in determination.
“Show me,” he demanded in a husky voice. “Show me how you can take the ache away.”
“Here?” Skeeter asked, looking at the cramped space before shaking her head. “What I’m planning is going to take a lot more space and you in the horizontal position.”
“Horizontal position,” he repeated with a frown. “You took the ache away in the vertical position before.”
Skeeter’s eyes danced with delight. “Krac, can I ask you something personal?”
“Will answering you get you to take t
he ache away faster?” He asked in frustration as his eyes kept straying to her lips and images of them wrapped around him.
“Oh, definitely,” she replied with a shy smile.
“Then yes,” he grunted out as she bit her lip again, pulling a low moan from him. “But hurry. I do not like this ache. It is getting worse.”
“Have you ever made love to a woman before?” She blurted out, unable to think of a better way to ask him.
“You mean have sex with one?” He asked, cautiously.
Skeeter gave a nervous chuckle. “Sex, made love, got down and dirty, you know,” she muttered, blushing.
Krac stiffened before he remembered his promise. “No. My… past,” he broke off and looked away. “There was only one time that I had the opportunity to experience sex with a female. My body did not react to her. She was very unpleasant.”
*.*.*
Skeeter rose out of her seat so she could cup his strong face between her hands. It broke her heart to see the flash of doubt in his eyes before he turned away from her. She gently traced his face as he turned back to look at her.
She didn’t say anything at first. He was the most unique, most incredible male she had ever met besides Bulldog. Her fingers gently skimmed his brow before tracing over his high cheekbones and down to his jaw.
“I’m glad,” she whispered, sliding her hands down so she could entwine her fingers with his. “Do you have a sleeping compartment on-board?”
“Yes, but….” He stood up as she pulled on him. “I like your sleeping quarters better. It is more pleasing.”
“Then, my quarters it is. Can you set the auto-pilot?” She asked, pulling him toward the exit.
“I already did,” he replied sheepishly. “As soon as we boarded the starship I connected with the Lulu Belle. I told you I ache.”
She giggled as he stepped down and reached up for her. Instead of setting her down on her feet, he cradled her in his arms as he turned to stride down the corridor toward her room.