She frowned. “What are you doing?”
I didn’t know exactly; I only knew I needed her close to me. I needed to soothe her, care for her, take away her pain.
Her soft skin was smudged by a coating of sweat and dust. She’d been through so much, and yet to me, she looked even more beautiful than the first time I’d seen her.
I knelt at her feet and slowly, gently rubbed the cleanser over her body. When I stood and reached for her hair, she melted into my hold, and I took my time unwinding what was left of her braid and working the cleansing agent through the long strands.
“God, yes,” she murmured. “You’re hired.”
Unable to turn away, to blink, I studied her, hypnotized by her lips, the curve of her cheek, the tender welcome on her face. This was the real Lily. My Lily. Soft. Submissive. Gentle.
The fierce, defiant fighter who had driven me half-mad on the battlefield was gone, replaced by this delicate, serene goddess.
I’d done everything in my power to keep my body from reacting to her, but as she leaned into my touch, every protective, fierce, ruthless instinct I had wanted to mark her. Claim her. Punish her for every terrifying moment I’d spent digging her out of the rubble. Fearing she was dead. Forgetting to breathe. Every cell in my body flooded with guilt and pain at the thought of losing her.
That need to mark her filled my mind and I felt my body grow hard with lust and I closed my eyes, imagined taking her here, now, her hands on the small seat, her bottom in my hands as I pounded into her from behind.
“Well, that’s interesting.”
I glanced down to find her gaze focused on my hard cock.
“Ignore it. You are not ready.”
“Says who? You?” Lifting one hand, she reached for me, wrapping her fingers around my cock and squeezing until my knees nearly buckled.
“Lily, you should not…”
“Bossy, Darius. Too bossy.” She ran her thumb along the head, and a shudder ran through my body. “You are tense. I can feel it. Let me take care of you.”
“I am taking care of—”
Her mouth closed around my cock, and she slid my length deep. The heat of her made my balls draw up in pain as I fought back an instant release. When she swirled her tongue around my tip and used one of her hot little hands to stroke my balls, I was done.
I exploded, lost control, couldn’t stop. Didn’t want to stop as I pumped my cock into her mouth, gave her everything.
The release was shattering, emotions making my face heat, my eyes burn. She’d destroyed me in seconds, shattered my control.
“Why? Why did you do that? I’m supposed to be taking care of you.” I dropped to my knees before her, ready to pleasure her in kind, but she placed a hand on my cheek and shook her head.
“I’m too tired, Darius. I hurt. I just want to go to bed.”
Unwilling, perhaps unable to deny her anything, I rinsed her hair and turned off the water. I dried her gently, then left her for a few moments to take care of her personal needs while I dried myself and pulled down the soft bedding and fluffed her pillow. I felt completely out of my element until the door slid open and she was there, the curve of her body perfectly silhouetted by the light coming from behind her. Curves everywhere. Softness. Mine.
She was mine. If I had to feed her by hand, bathe her, and carry her to bed, I would. Every damn day.
I closed the distance at once and wrapped an arm around her waist so I could lead her to the bed. Once I settled her in place and lay down next to her, I pulled her into my arms and gently placed her injured leg on top of mine. Her soft sigh of pleasure made my chest tighten.
“Oh, you’re so warm.”
She snuggled in close, and I covered us with the soft bedding. Her eyes were already closed when I gave the command that plunged the room into darkness.
Lily slept for hours. I held her and replayed every moment of the day’s failed mission, determined that next time, no matter what I had to do, I would keep her safe.
Even if she hated me for it.
9
Lily
* * *
I could get used to this. Soft bed. Even softer sheets. Darius wrapped around me, his arm tucked snuggly around my waist, his chest at my back. I’d never felt so safe, so languid. I didn’t want to move. Ever.
“How is your leg feeling?” Darius kissed the back of my head but didn’t move otherwise.
My leg. I’d completely forgotten.
Timid at first, then with growing confidence when I didn’t want to cry with pain, I moved my leg. The muscles felt sore, like I’d done a few too many squats the day before, but otherwise I felt great. The deep agony I’d suffered buried under that rock was gone. A memory.
Not one I wished to dwell on, let alone repeat, now that my leg was healed. “The doctor was right. The pain is gone. I guess the bone must be healed.”
Darius moved his hand from my waist to my thigh and explored the thin bandage that still covered the surgical site, lightly massaging the muscle. I melted. Like, puddle of hot wax melted.
“That feels good.”
“Does it?” He continued to run his hot hand up and down my thigh, massaging and squeezing the muscle, making sure I was well. When I sighed and rolled onto my back to face him, I discovered the room was too dark to make out his expression.
“What time is it?” I asked. How was a woman supposed to figure out what time of day it was in outer space? Worse, on a ship in outer space. No sunrise. No sunset. No birds singing or insects making noise. No cars or honking horns. Our room was dark and silent except for a gentle hum that seemed to be coming from the very walls, the floor itself. I assumed that had to be from something mechanical on the ship. Engines? Water pumps? I had no idea.
“Time?”
Darius spoke loudly, and the ship answered. “Ship time zero nine zero seven.”
“Is that morning?”
He smiled at me. “Yes, bonded one. Are you hungry? Do you want to go eat something?”
“Later.” I lifted my hand to his face and searched for what I wanted. His lips. “Right now I want you to kiss me.”
His hand froze in place on my leg. “I’ll want more than a kiss.”
“So do I.” I wanted him. Touching me. Inside me. Hot skin all over mine. I wanted to breathe him in and taste him and feel alive. Feel something other than fear and pain and weakness. I didn’t want to think about broken bones or battle or explosions.
When I tangled my fingers in the hair at the back of his neck and pulled him toward me in the dark, he didn’t resist. The clash of our lips, our tongues, was a frenzied claiming.
Moments later Darius had pressed my back to the bed. He tore his lips from mine and kissed my cheek. My neck. Lower. When he reached my hard nipples, my back arched off the bed. So sensitive. So alive.
He moved lower, the lightest graze of his lips over my clit, a gentle kiss before he moved to my injured leg. “Light, level four.”
The room brightened, and I closed my eyes in protest. “Hey!”
“I need to see for myself.”
Brilliant. I was naked, bared to the room, fighting the urge to cover myself, and Darius leaned close to inspect the bandaged area of my thigh.
Ready to tell him to leave it, the words caught in my throat when he leaned down and kissed the center of the bandage. “What are you doing?”
“Taking care of you.”
Closing my eyes, I turned my head away. It hurt to watch him as he placed kiss after kiss over the suddenly hypersensitive area. Other than the staff nurses at my various boarding schools, who spent half of their time bandaging a skinned knee and the other half chastising a young lady for being a tomboy, I couldn’t remember anyone ever taking care of me but me.
When I couldn’t take it anymore, I reached for him. “Darius.”
“Impatient, are we?” He grinned up at me, then moved so that his chin was poised above my wet core. “Can I kiss you here?”
“Yes.”
/>
“Are you sure?”
“Tease.”
His gaze locked to mine, and he slid two fingers inside me, the desire in his eyes holding me prisoner. “Is this what you want?”
“More.”
With a grin I could only describe as male satisfaction, he lowered his mouth to me and sucked the sensitive bits into his mouth, played me with his tongue, and fucked me with his fingers until I was begging. “Please.”
“Come for me.”
“You’re. So—”
His fingers went deep. Twisted and rubbed a sensitive place I didn't even know I had. I cried out as an orgasm ripped through me.
“Bossy!”
He didn’t stop, moving and tasting until I was spent before kissing his way up my body. I reached for him as he settled between my thighs and his hard cock sank into my wet heat with an agonizing slowness that made the sensitive inner muscles spasm again.
I gripped his shoulders. My hips rose to take more of him. Demanded more. His control was like iron, and he moved in and out of me with a slow, steady pace that pushed me higher and higher until another orgasm sent my body into spasms, taking me by surprise.
With a groan that sounded like my name, he moved. Hard. Fast. Out of control. I moved with him, taking everything he had and wanting more. Always more.
We both exploded, his body shuddering over mine with an intensity that shocked me.
He covered me when it was over, and I welcomed the warm weight of him, just enough to make me feel protected but most of his weight on his arms.
“You are dangerous,” he said.
The compliment pleased me, and I stroked his back with every ounce of emotion I wasn’t ready to name, let alone speak aloud.
For long minutes we remained entwined, neither of us ready to move until forced to abandon the few moments of bliss.
Eventually reality invaded my thoughts. Food. Shower. Mission briefing. More fighting.
Darius must have felt the tension in my limbs, because he rolled to the side, pulling me with him. When I was tucked under his shoulder, he sighed. “Can we stay here all day?”
“You know we can’t.”
“I don’t want you fighting today, Lily. It’s too soon.”
I didn’t argue. We still had time to be together, like this. I didn’t want to waste a single moment.
10
Darius, five hours later
* * *
The mission briefing room onboard Battleship Resolution was not quite as big as the room we used at Arturri, but there was ample seating for the seven Titan teams, a handful of Starfighter pilots and Lily’s friend Mia and her pair bonded, Kassius, our only full Starfighter-level mission control specialists.
Lily’s other human friend, Jamie, an Elite Starfighter pilot, sat next to us on Lily’s right with her pair bonded, Alexius.
As the women had shortened their males’ names to Kass and Alex, I’d begun thinking of them the same way. We’d all shared a meal prior to this meeting, during which Alex had told me my name should be shortened to Earth speak as well and they would all call me Dar.
Thank Vega Lily had told them all an instant no. Saved me beating the other Starfighters into giving that one up. Kass and Alex had both laughed at her protest, but I had a feeling if I were ever alone with them, they would call me Dar just to poke at me. Which was fine. I wasn’t above forgetting the K sound at the beginning of Kass’s name. I hadn’t come up with ideas for Alex yet, but I would. We were family now, as our pair-bonded females considered one another sisters, per Lily. If they were important to Lily, they were important to me.
“Starfighters, we have an unexpected opportunity before us.” General Romulus paced the front of the room as the wall behind him became a massive screen.
At that moment the meeting room door slid open and General Aryk, General Jennix, and two Elite Starfighter pilots I did not recognize entered the room. General Romulus looked at General Aryk, who gave an imperceptible nod. He, in turn, gave a silent signal to Mia and Kass, who stood.
“All right. Starfighters MCS Mia Becker and Kassius Remeas will take over from here.”
Lily’s friends walked to the front of the meeting room and pulled up a nav grid that appeared to show placements of a large fleet of Queen Raya’s forces massing just beyond the planet Xenon’s moon.
“Is that a Dark Fleet cruiser?” A voice from the back of the room brought all chatter to a halt, the room suddenly eerily silent.
“Yes.” Mia pointed to a small dot near the corner of the nav grid. “And it’s not the only one. There are three cruisers in the attack formation.”
Lily leaned forward, squinting a bit to try to make out the ship Mia was pointing to. From our seats the small image was difficult to see clearly, no more than a dot on the wall. Otherwise she seemed unaffected. Unlike me. I knew how powerful those ships were. How massive. Dangerous.
A ship like that had killed my brother.
Lily looked at Mia. “So, are we going to go take them out or what?”
My chest tightened at the idea of Lily getting anywhere near one of those ships, and I answered her question. “No, we are not.”
Lily held up her hand, elbow on the table in front of us, palm turned toward me. “I didn’t ask you, Darius. Mia?”
“We have reason to believe that Queen Raya is on the third cruiser.”
“That’s not enough reason to attack. We’ll lose too many fighters.” That same voice from the back. I glanced over my shoulder to see Elite Starfighter Pilot Ryzix and his pair-bonded partner, Gustar. They flew the Lanix. I had met them a long time ago but hadn’t seen them since my brother’s death. They were very skilled. Highly respected. Merciless in a fight.
Neither one looked at all pleased at the prospect of taking on one Dark Fleet cruiser. But three? I was in complete agreement. It was a suicide mission.
Kass waited for the mumbles of agreement to die down before speaking. “We also have reason to believe Queen Raya’s forces are amassing in preparation for a direct assault on Velerion.”
The stillness was so profound I could hear my own heartbeat.
“When?” Jamie asked.
“In two days,” Mia said.
Up to this point in the war, Queen Raya had not dared assault our planet directly. She’d struck at our former Starfighter base, but that had not been located on our planet’s surface. Velerion’s satellite defense grid was formidable. When combined with the Starfighters stationed on Moon Base Arturri, our ground-to-air forces on the surface, and the Velerion space fleet, a direct assault on the home planet was unthinkable.
“Is this a joke? Because this is not amusing.” This time it was the golden-haired Gustar who had spoken. We all waited for Kass or Mia to respond. I hoped, prayed this information, wherever they had acquired it, was wrong. But when I looked at Mia’s drawn, worried expression, my heart sank into my boots.
This was no joke. And we, all of Velerion, were in serious trouble.
Mia adjusted the nav grid, enlarging sections as she detailed their intelligence. Queen Raya’s Dark Fleet allies, disturbed by her recent defeats, first at the hex port and then on the colony planet of Xenon, had decided the incoming Starfighter trainees from Earth posed too large a threat to their war efforts. To mitigate that threat, they were choosing to launch a direct assault on Velerion now, presumably before any more Starfighters from other worlds could join the fight.
I didn’t bother to ask how Queen Raya knew about Jamie or Mia. I knew Jamie had spent time as the queen’s prisoner. And like any other ruler, she had spies everywhere. Not to mention that the success of the Starfighter Training Academy program on Earth was big news on Velerion. It wasn’t exactly a secret, not after the first two Starfighters to arrive had won such decisive victories. Jamie had been captured, escaped, and managed to save an entire planet from an IPBM attack. Mia had helped plan and coordinate the successful attack on Xenon station and disabled the Dark Fleet’s primary communication and defen
se system on that planet’s moon.
Jamie and Mia had been too fucking good.
“We believe the bunker on Xenon was a trap designed to eliminate our newest Starfighter Titan, Lily Becker of Earth,” General Romulus added from where he stood to the side of the nav grid. “They knew we would deploy the Titan teams to that location. Not only was the interior wired to blow, but the cliffs had been drilled to ensure anyone in that area would be buried under massive rockslides.”
Lily leaned forward, an angry glare on her face. “Are you telling me they set that whole thing up for me?”
Mia looked her dead in the eye. “Yes.”
“That’s insane.”
“And yet you survived,” the general pointed out. “Elite Starfighters are powerful. You are no exception.”
“But—”
I placed my hand on her thigh and gently squeezed. Lily blinked rapidly, shaking her head. To me she whispered, “I’m a librarian, Darius. This is crazy. How do they even know about me?”
“Spies.”
“Brilliant.”
“They were nearly successful in killing not only Lily, but several members of the Titan teams,” Kass added. “Three Titan fighters remain in medical. Lily, your Titan, Athena, was destroyed. They are building you a new one, but it won’t be ready for several days, and we don’t have that long.”
Was I an ass for breathing a sigh of relief at the news? I did not want my Lily in another battle so soon after I’d nearly lost her. The medics said her leg was healed, but that did nothing to calm me or my need to protect her.
My relief was short-lived.
“Elite Starfighter Titan Divi suffered severe burns during the battle on Xenon. She is still in the medical station, sedated, as her skin regenerates. Her second-tier bonded fighter, her sister Dea, spoke briefly with Divi this morning, and she has agreed to transfer her Titan, Bellator, to Lily for use in this battle.”
Elite Starfighter: Starfighter Training Academy - Game 3 Page 7