“Are you sure that’s not it,” Haley asked. “Because, this is the way you get when you’re pining away for him. If you need some moral support we could share some popcorn and a movie. That always seems to help when you’re in this state. Li’s playing poker tonight and I don’t have any plans.”
“Thanks for the offer, but no.” Russo was relieved Haley hadn’t picked up on her slip. She quickly changed the subject. “How have you and Li been getting along, anyway?”
“I doubt Li is ‘the one’, but we’re having a real good time. There’s something to be said for a shipboard romance. Maybe you should consider it. There are a bunch of eligible officers on this boat. It might be just the thing to snap you out of your funk. All work and no play makes Jane a dull girl.”
Russo heard a call-waiting alert on Haley’s end.
“Give me just a second, Major,” Haley said. “It’s Morning Grass. She was worried about you, too.”
“Tell her I’m alright.”
The locator was silent for a moment while Haley took Morning Grass’ call. Russo took the time to unbox the take out meal that was starting to get cold. Russo had almost forgotten the locator channel was open and it startled her when Haley returned.
“I told Morning Grass you were fine and just wanted to spend the evening alone,” Haley said. “She told me she understood, but I would expect her to call and check up on you, anyway. She said she has some news about Teacher she’s dying to share with you.”
Before she could keep herself from it, Russo blurted out a harsh sounding reply. “I wonder if Morning Grass understands she doesn’t need to share every little thing that goes on between the two of them with me.”
The link was silent for a few seconds before Haley spoke up. “Oh, okay.” A fresh concern for Russo’s wellbeing was evident in her voice. “I could mention it to her, if you’re uncomfortable doing it, Dawn Marie.”
“No, Kathy. Please don’t say anything. I’m just a little edgy right now. I didn’t mean it to sound that way.”
“I promise I won’t bring it up,” Haley replied, “but maybe you should.”
“What is there to say,” Russo asked.
“I’m sure there’s plenty that’s been left unsaid,” Haley replied. “You’ve never told her, have you?”
“Again,” Russo asked, “what is there to say and why mention it after all this time? I imagined I saw something that was never there and made a complete fool of myself.”
“You need to clear the air, Major. You have unresolved feelings and they’re causing you to be resentful.”
“Have I really been that obvious, Kathy?”
“Yes. Now that you mention it. Are you sure you don’t need to discuss this over popcorn and a movie?”
Chapter 51
Russo rolled onto her side from her back. She reached out to place her hand upon the belly of the man who slept next to her in the darkness. She smiled and moved her fingertips in a slow circle around his navel. He didn’t stir.
Her curious hand moved from the tightly muscled abdomen to the heavily armored ribs and then on up to the breastbone she found was also covered by a mass of solid muscle. What she had discovered with her hands demanded she open her eyes, but the room was too dark to see anything.
Russo moved herself closer to take in as much of her sleeping companion as she could absorb through her remaining physical senses. She had no memory of what occurred before she woke beside him, but somehow she instinctively knew he was there when she reached out for him. There was no indication she had recently exerted herself, but she assumed she and her unseen partner had made love because his skin was wet and hot to the touch. The scent of musk wafted from his sleeping body like incense.
Russo reached for the bed linens and pulled them up around her face. They were also quite warm and damp. As she expected they smelled like the man who slept next to her. She took in a deep breath and immediately felt the skin on her breasts tighten and tingle. They suddenly felt uncomfortable against the bedclothes covering her. She noticed she also had gooseflesh and the hair on the back of her neck was standing straight up. The room began to spin and she felt warm all over as if she had just downed a shot of strong liquor.
The scent of her bedmate chased everything from Russo’s conscious mind except the urge to explore his body more fully, even though she had no idea where she was, how she ended up there, or who he could possibly be. She rose to her knees, bent down and gently placed her lips on his firm chest. She felt the hair on his skin stand up as he uttered a soft moan.
“Some gooseflesh for you, too,” Russo whispered. “You’re welcome.”
She pressed her mouth against him more firmly and parted her lips slightly. The unseen companion’s taste was every bit as heady as his scent.
Russo lay her head down on his chest and allowed her hands to move about freely. Wherever they roamed, they found nothing but solid muscle covered with taut skin. She could tell he was much taller than she was. She listened to him breathe and felt his heartbeat against her cheek. The rhythm was soothing, but before she could fall to sleep, she was once more goaded to her senses by the realization she had no idea where she was.
Russo rose back up to her knees and rested on her heels. She allowed her hands to drop to her thighs. It was at that moment she gave serious thought to her own nakedness.
A feeling of self-consciousness hit her like a bolt of lightning. It further cleared her head and sent her mind in search of clues to how she ended up in her current situation and what the ramifications might be. She cursed the darkness under her breath, but was afraid of what she might find if the room was suddenly illuminated.
Russo took another deep breath and her concerns faded once more as her body reacted subconsciously to the scent of animal passion filling the room like smoke from a censer.
The urge to explore again overwhelmed Russo completely. It wasn’t only curiosity this time, but burning lust.
She made an attempt to climb atop the unknown man sleeping next to her and straddle his hips. Before she could get her balance he rolled onto his side facing away from her and bucked her off. She lay there in the dark, disappointed, but determined. She nestled against his back and allowed her hands to do some more exploring. She lightly ran them over her bedfellow’s shoulders, and he shook her off again.
Not to be denied, Russo moved her lusty hands purposefully down to his buttocks. She massaged them firmly hoping it would fill him with the desire to awaken and make love to her.
Instead, a clawed hand grabbed her by the wrist. Then, as if startled, it released her when she gasped.
A familiar voice, also with a start, asked, “Major?”
The shocked Russo sat straight up in the darkness and became deathly still. She prayed he would think he only dreamed she was there and go back to sleep. She fought to keep from screaming as a hand probing the darkness made contact with her trembling body.
Another familiar voice called out from the other side of the bed, “Lights. Fifty percent.”
Russo closed her eyes. Even though the room lighting was only at half intensity it made them burn and caused her head to throb. She put her hand over her brow. As her eyes adjusted to the light; the shadowy forms in front of her slowly transformed into Morning Grass and Teacher.
Russo was mortified. She was perched on the edge of the bed, buck naked. Teacher and Morning Grass, both with a healthy afterglow, stared at her with expressions of puzzlement on their faces.
“That would explain why he’s a sweaty mess and I’m not,” Russo thought to herself.
Russo glanced around, half expecting to see a surrogate, but there wasn’t one to be found. She was lost in the confusion of what had occurred and how she found herself there when Morning Grass spoke once more.
“Dawn Marie, are you alright? You don’t look well. Is there something we can do for you? Is there something you need?”
Neither Morning Grass nor Teacher seemed to be bothered in the least at discov
ering Russo in their bedroom without reason or warning, or that she was currently gawking open-mouthed at the both of them. They made no attempts to cover themselves and showed no embarrassment at being seen without a stitch on.
Russo, however, was greatly upset that the pair of felines could see her unclothed. Her face reddened as she covered as much of herself as possible with her arms and hands. Her eyes darted about the room looking for her clothes, but they remained unseen. In a flash of desperate thinking, she attempted to pull the bed sheet up around her but it wouldn’t budge. She jerked it with all her might, lost her grasp and fell backward—
Chapter 52
15-June-2210
The sensation of falling woke Russo with a start. The violent jerk she instinctively made to catch herself almost threw her out of bed.
Russo opened her eyes. She found herself once more in total darkness, but now she was certain of her whereabouts.
“Not again.” “Lights. Thirty percent.”
Russo was soaked to the skin. She got up from her bunk and pulled off the dampened sheets and blanket before removing her wet underclothes. She then pulled some new linen from a drawer and remade the bunk, but lay back down without putting on a new set of undergarments.
Russo looked at the chronometer on her desk. The numbers 2210|06|15|01|23|13 lit up the display. She called for the computer to make the room completely dark again. The bed linen was warming up, but Russo still felt a chill from the damp hair and body that became cold while she was out of bed.
Russo had a sudden fit of violent shivering. Partly because of her chill, but mostly due to the upset and confusion she was feeling over the dream she just woke up from.
This was the third night in barely a week Russo had dreamt of Teacher.
Teacher had visited Russo’s dreams, and occasionally her daydreams, since the first time she saw him. The daydreams were quite lurid, but he rarely did or said anything while she slept that impressed her enough to remember he’d been there once she awoke. Lately though, he was becoming a much more commanding presence whenever she lay down at night.
Russo couldn’t remember her dreams ever being this vivid before these phantasms of Teacher began waking her regularly in the middle of the night. His scent, familiar to her, but which she had never experienced so intensely, and the feel of his body, or what she imagined it to be, stayed with her long after waking.
Russo wanted to believe the desire she felt for Teacher in these dreams, shouldn’t be taken as a subconscious admission of want, although the want was there. She struggled to find an innocent interpretation, but, the more she thought about it, the more she lost herself in the experience.
Russo’s body responded to the memory of Teacher’s scent. She gave in to her desire to imagine she was running her hands over his perfect form once more. She tried to conjure up a vision of him to focus on as she remembered the physical sensations of her dream, but could not. It was almost as if her conscious mind forbade it.
She put her right hand on her abdomen and let the palm rest on top of her navel. The palm felt hot. She lifted it slightly from her belly without removing her fingers. The sensation of the sudden coolness along with the slight brush of her fingertips over her skin tickled and caused all the hair on her body to stand up.
She moaned as she lifted her left arm over her head and rested it on her pillow. She moved her right hand down to the inside of her right thigh. It felt like it was on fire. She turned her head slightly to the left and noticed another scent. It was not as strong as the scent Teacher gave off in her dream but it was also reminiscent of musk.
The smell of her own arousal frightened Russo. She became angry with herself to the point of disgust.
The jolt brought Russo fully back to her senses, but not before her insides were churning with the helplessness and hopelessness of desperately desiring something it was certain she would, or could, never possess. With the burning also came tears of confusion.
“Oh my God. This is ridiculous. I’m an adult, not an adolescent school girl in heat, damn it. I need to get up and shower.”
Russo tried to make herself roll out of the bunk but could not get herself to move.
Russo then made an attempt to pull her right hand from her burning thigh but, as if with a mind of its own, it went directly to the last place she wanted it to go at that moment.
In Russo’s fevered mind, she found herself next to Teacher again. This time she was determined to mount him. Lost in the moment, she rolled onto her stomach and buried her face in her newly dampened pillow. It was only seconds before she moaned loudly into it and shook violently until the last bit of tension left her body.
Once Russo’s errant right hand finished having its way with her against her wishes, it attempted to make amends by caressing her until the tingle from her climax subsided. She tried to pull it from underneath her, but she was too weak to move. She made an attempt to roll from her belly to her back or at least to her side, but failed miserably there, also.
Russo searched for the blanket and bed sheet with her free hand and attempted to throw them over her, but only managed to cover her feet and lower legs with them. The sensation of the cool air on her damp, naked body was not enough to keep her from drifting back to sleep until morning. It was a calm, restful sleep.
If Russo dreamt any more that night, she couldn’t remember doing so upon waking.
Chapter 53
Russo walked off the lift onto the hospital deck twenty minutes late for her shift. She headed straight to the coffee pot and passed both Haley and Morning Grass without uttering a word, even though both greeted her cheerfully.
Once she had a full cup, Russo grabbed her smock from a hook on the wall behind the nurse’s station, headed for an empty consultation alcove and pulled the privacy barrier shut; once again, without acknowledging anyone’s greetings or saying a word.
Morning Grass turned to Haley and asked, “Did we do something wrong?”
“Of course not,” Haley replied. “We didn’t get the chance.”
“Last night, and now this,” Morning Grass said. “There’s something bothering her. I’m going to find out what it is.”
“I’ve known her longer than you have,” Haley replied. “There are times when she just needs to stew. She’ll snap out of it soon enough. You’ll see.”
“Nonsense, Kathy,” Morning Grass replied. “I think she needs to talk about something and is either too afraid or too proud to ask for somebody’s ear.”
Haley shifted uncomfortably from foot to foot. “You’re absolutely correct, Morning Grass, but pardon me for saying I don’t think you’re the right one to approach her.”
“Why would you say such a thing?” Morning Grass tried hard not to appear offended. “Is there something no one is telling me?”
“I just know the major, and I think she needs her space.” Haley shrugged her shoulders. “Honestly. That’s all I’m saying.”
Morning Grass passed off Haley’s warning. She walked to the alcove and called softly through the barrier. “Major Russo, is there something wrong?”
“No.”
“Then, may I come in?”
“It will be at your own peril.” Russo barely allowed Morning Grass to make it inside before she asked, “What is it,” without looking up from the coffee cup she was contemplating like a divining bowl.
“I don’t think you’ll find the answer in there, Major,” Morning Grass quipped in an attempt to ease the tension. “Unless, of course, you’ve poured in some Irish whiskey. That’s what Colonel Stiles tells me, anyway.”
“Either tell me what it is you want or get the hell out and leave me alone.” Russo still didn’t look up, but lifted the cup to her lips and sipped tentatively.
By the time Russo sat the cup back down; Morning Grass had planted herself in the chair across from her. The feline didn’t say a word. She just sat there and stared at Russo.
After a few seconds, Russo could no longer stand the feeling of
being watched. “It’s nothing, Morning Grass.” She looked up from her coffee cup. “I just had a rough night. I didn’t feel like getting up this morning and I couldn’t decide if I’d be happier confined to my cabin for the day until ten minutes before my shift. I would like to think I did the mature thing by reporting for duty but, so far, nothing has happened to convince me of that.”
“Colonel Stiles hasn’t shown up yet,” Morning Grass said. “You have that going for you. As long as she doesn’t have any reason to pull locator records for this shift, maybe nobody will notice you were late. Of course, blowing through the place like a thunderstorm may not have made you any friends.”
“I’m sorry.” Russo’s eyes were wet. She ran the sleeve of her smock over them.
“If you want to talk, I’m all ears,” Morning Grass said. “Or, maybe you should go see Colonel Stiles.”
“It isn’t anything either of you can help me with. Talking about it will only make me feel worse.”
“I’ll leave you alone, then,” Morning Grass said. “I really hate to see you like this, though.” She stood up to leave.
“Wait,” Russo said. “Thank you for your concern. I appreciate it. Really.”
“It’s nothing, Dawn Marie. I owe you a thousand times more.”
Russo went back to gazing at her coffee cup, her expression still dark. She said nothing in reply.
Morning Grass lingered, even after Russo indicated non-verbally she was free to leave. “Will you be coming out of the closet soon,” she asked.
“What,” Russo exclaimed. She looked up and gave Morning Grass her full attention.
“Will you be coming out of this closet, soon,” Morning Grass asked. “We need you on the floor.”
Russo laughed. “I think you meant to say alcove.”
War Orphans (The Terra Nova Chronicles) Page 23