by Kelly Goode
8
‘Holy shit,’ Carson cursed, and Blake immediately wrapped his arm around her waist to steady her. She felt so feminine and tiny in his embrace, almost as if he could crush her if he held her too tightly, but he knew that wasn’t true. Carson was not fragile. She could kill with her bare hands. Something he’d witnessed on many occasions.
‘Take it easy,’ he said, shaking away the image of Carson cracking a scouter’s neck like a twig. ‘Those grenades could have done some internal damage.’
‘I’m ok,’ she said with a grimace. ‘I already got the all clear from medical. I’ve been prescribed painkillers and rest.’
Blake eyed her suspiciously. ‘And you’re going to comply?’
‘Probably not.’
He smiled, knowing better than anyone, how much she hated medical intervention of any kind.
‘When was this?’ he asked. ‘I didn’t see you with Doctor Malone.’
‘Malone wasn’t here. The chief sent a replacement. A woman called Helen something or other. You can’t miss her as she has this blazing red hair. She must have arrived while you were out searching for…’
Carson’s voice died and Blake knew she was back to feeling guilty again. She normally shook off those feelings quicker than this. He wondered what was making her take this particular assignment so personally. Was it the little girls? It made his blood boil that the desquamaters fed on children, but he knew you couldn’t save them all.
‘I told you to stop blaming yourself,’ he said.
‘You know the drill as well as I do. You never let them go.’
‘You didn’t let him go, he escaped.’
‘I should’ve chased him.’
‘You were out-numbered. How you managed to tie up even one of them amazes me. For a little thing, you sure are strong.’
‘I should’ve tried harder.’
Blake heard enough and he silenced Carson by putting his hand across her mouth. His palm was hot and probably felt rough against her sore face, but he couldn’t stop himself from gliding his fingers across her lips. They were warm and wet, and he felt his cock harden at the intimacy of that slight touch. When she parted her lips, he nearly groaned aloud. Her tongue snaked out and licked his fingertip, and desire filled him like never before. He looked into her wide blue eyes and they seemed to mirror his own hunger.
Blake’s next move was on autopilot. The primal instinct that he repressed on a daily basis had him cupping her chin and tilting her face towards his. He moved his mouth closer, but she stiffened beneath his touch and he pulled away just before their lips had a chance to make contact. Disappointment cut through all the other emotions warring inside him as Carson took a step back in an attempt to regain control. She inhaled deeply and pushed her hands through her singed hair.
‘I was wrong,’ she finally said, before she shoved her hands into the torn pockets of her trousers. ‘I should have waited for you.’
Blake searched for a way to recover from his moment of insanity where he’d nearly kissed his partner in full-view of his unit, and made a show of looking around him with mock surprise.
‘Did you hear that?’ he said to no one in particular. ‘No? Then I definitely need it in writing. The legendary Carson Towers just admitted she was wrong.’
Carson smiled wryly, although her gaze remained focused on his lips.
‘Don’t push your luck,’ she replied.
Blake swallowed the sudden lump in his throat, as he once again thought back to her being cornered by that alien.
‘As long as you don’t keep pushing yours either. You’re right; you should have waited for me. I hope you’ve learned your lesson.’
‘Yes, sir.’
She gave him a mock salute and he tried to ignore the discomfort of his cock pressing against his trousers as he imagined himself in the role of her disciplinarian.
‘So what do we do now?’ she asked, and there was a breathless tone to her voice that he’d never heard before.
‘We need to wait for the cleaners to finish before we can give the chief our full report. That’ll probably be tomorrow now, so let’s go and get something to eat.’
‘Maybe we should hang around here.’
She sounded hesitant and Blake didn’t like the idea of her not wanting to be alone with him.
‘Come on, have dinner with me. It’ll take your mind off all this shit for a few hours.’
‘Are you paying?’
‘Of course.’
Carson’s smile when it came was genuine and it lit up her face.
‘Good, because those grenades charred through the last of my money.’
Blake returned her smile.
‘Ok, there’s one condition though,’ he said.
‘Name it.’
‘You get cleaned up first - you stink.’
Carson laughed and the worry lines eased from her face.
‘Ok, but I have one request too.’
‘What’s that?’
‘Nothing char-grilled. I don’t think I could stomach the aroma of cooked meat.’
9
Carson allowed Blake to open the front door, too weary to protest that she didn’t need his help. The exertion of the evening was rapidly catching up with her and she felt her eyelids flutter open and close like a butterfly flexing its wings.
Blake had a key to Carson’s house and she had one for his. As partners, there was always the chance they would need them in a crisis, so it made sense to swap. He was a frequent visitor to her home, but she was yet to visit his residence. They always seemed to come back to hers after a mission as it was closer to headquarters, but she was more than a little curious about the crumbling farmhouse he said he was in the process of restoring. They never seemed to be passing his way in order for him to extend an invitation and she wondered when he was actually finding the time to do the renovations, as he rarely took time off work.
It occurred to Carson how little she knew about the man she shared most of her waking moments with. Her mother was dead and her father was as good as, so Blake was one of the few people she listed as an emergency contact. He was strong, dependable in a fight, and had been at her side for nearly a year, but he never spoke of his own family, friends or girlfriends. He never said anything about his past or plans for the future. He was the closest thing Carson had to a friend, yet they were virtually strangers. Strangers who, if tonight was anything to go by, were obviously attracted to each other but could do nothing about.
Carson cringed, as she thought back to how she’d licked his finger. What had she been thinking? Not much if she was honest. Lust had coursed through her body and she’d desperately wanted to know what his skin tasted like against her tongue.
‘Why the frown?’ Blake asked, as they stepped through the doorway. ‘Something wrong?’
‘Nope,’ she lied.
‘Oh come on, you’ve been gawking at me for the last five minutes with a far-away look in your eyes.’
‘Have I? Sorry, I didn’t mean to stare.’
Not that he wasn’t easy to stare at. On the contrary, with his slightly too long dark-blond hair, his chin covered with shadowy stubble, and his dimpled grin, he had that bad boy edge about him. Standing there in his battered leather jacket and combats, he was more than easy on the eye.
‘What’s going on inside that head of yours, Carson Towers?’
Carson hesitated, trying to think of something that didn’t involve her lips on any more of his body parts.
‘I was just thinking that I don’t know what your favourite colour is.’
‘That’s it? You really are strange at times.’
She felt foolish and forced a laugh in reply.
‘Guess those grenades affected me more than I realised.’
Blake ran his hand lightly down Carson’s arm. As he traced one of the numerous jagged scars with his palm, she shivered. His green eyes searched hers until she could bear it no longer and looked away.
‘I need to change,
’ she said, moving slowly through the hallway towards the stairs. ‘Beer is in the fridge.’
‘Like always,’ he replied, shrugging out of his jacket and hanging it over the end of the banister. Carson resisted the urge to reprimand him and tell him to put it on the coat rack, as he knew it annoyed her and she’d long since given up taking the bait.
‘Help yourself. I won’t be long then we can grab dinner.’
‘Sure, ok.’
She inched carefully up the stairs in an attempt to mask how painful bending her legs was. She was almost to the top when she heard Blake call to her.
‘Carson, wait.’
‘Yes?’
As she turned back, her stomach constricted at seeing him standing thoughtfully at the bottom of the stairs. His tanned, muscular arm rested on the banister and he’d opened the top button on his shirt. Carson tried to ignore the tawny chest hair she could see below his collarbone, as it made her wonder how it would feel against her cheek and she knew thoughts like that led to no good.
‘It’s blue.’
‘What is?’
‘My favourite colour; blue like a night’s sky when it’s dark and inky. You?’
Carson smiled wryly. ‘Mine is orange like a roaring fire or the perfect sunset. We really are opposites, you and I.’
Blake shrugged.
‘I guess we are. Go wash - you stink remember.’
Carson waited until he’d walked towards the kitchen to release a groan of pain. Once she’d heard him get a drink and settle on the sofa, she shuffled the remaining distance to the bathroom.
10
Carson spent too much time scrutinising herself in the mirror, not happy with the sight that greeted her. Her usually pale face was red, with dustings of gunpowder and dried blood caked across her cheeks. Her functionally cropped black hair was now singed around her ears and her lips were chapped. In short, she looked a complete mess.
Carson sighed and slowly peeled off her soggy tank top and trousers. She placed them into a plastic bag for the cleaners to examine for evidence. Her arms were painfully scabbed and she winced as she unhooked her bra and pulled down her knickers. She examined her naked body, sourcing the worst of the injuries, which would need regular antiseptic treatment.
The first few times she’d been wounded during a mission she’d cried, hating the marks left on her body. Now, she barely noticed each new laceration as it eventually joined the maze of scars that covered most of her torso, arms, and legs. Some older lines were white, while others were a darker purple.
Carson struggled to sustain a normal relationship because of those scars. Most of her sexual encounters came from one-night stands and only ever in the dark. She couldn’t be truly intimate with a man when her body resembled something from a horror movie. She doubted she’d ever reach the required level of trust with someone to show them the freak beneath her clothes.
Carson left those morose thoughts there and waited for the bathtub to fill. The steam filled the room, coating her lungs and easing her breathing. After relieving herself on the toilet, she switched off the taps and slipped into the depths of the bubbly water. The heat eased the throb of her muscles and the water washed away the grime from her skin. She wallowed for a few minutes, before reaching for the bottle of shampoo to clean her hair. As she did, she felt something pop inside her shoulder. She screamed, as pain surged down her arm and then screamed again when Blake simultaneously burst through the bathroom door.
‘Get out,’ she yelled, trying to cover her naked body with the suds from the bath water.
‘I thought you were in trouble,’ he said gruffly.
‘I’m fine. Get out.’
‘I’m sorry, I’ll look away.’
Blake turned and faced the opposite wall.
‘How in the hell did you get here so quickly?’ she asked, as thoughts of him lurking outside the bathroom door made her pulse quicken.
‘I thought you were in trouble,’ he repeated, which wasn’t a good enough answer for Carson. She pulled the plug, so the water could drain away. As she stood up, she made a frantic grab for a towel but her foot slid on the wet ceramic bath floor.
Blake’s reactions were as quick as ever and his strong hands latched onto her waist and stopped her from hitting her head on the corner of the tap. Carson tried to wriggle free but that just meant his hands slipped lower. He held her for a few seconds longer than was necessary and a fire ignited deep inside her stomach. With his clothes being the only barrier between them, she felt a rush of heat between her legs and she hastily pushed him away.
‘Sorry,’ Blake said again, as his eyes fixed solely on Carson’s breasts before he realised what he was doing and looked away.
Carson reached for the towel again and this time was successful. She gritted her teeth against the pain and wrapped the soft cotton around her body.
‘What happened?’ Blake asked.
His voice took on an even deeper, gravelly timbre, which caused her traitorous body to shiver. He coughed to clear his throat and then turned around to face her once again.
‘It was my damn shoulder again,’ she replied. ‘The doctor strapped it up, but the steam from the bath has loosened the dressing.’
‘Let me see.’
Carson shook her head. ‘No.’
‘Let me see.’
‘I think you saw enough.’
Blake made a show of rolling his eyes in mock exasperation.
‘I’ve seen plenty of girls naked before, Carson. It’s no big deal.’
‘No big deal? I’m not just a girl. I’m your partner.’
‘What’s done is done,’ he said, repeating a favourite phrase of the team. ‘I can’t erase what I did or did not see, but I suppose I could take my clothes off too. You know, to even up the score a little. You show me yours and I’ll show you mine. What do you say?’
Carson opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out. Her silence seemed to say more than any words could have and Blake obviously hadn’t been expecting that reaction, as he swallowed hard. The fact she was even thinking about him like that was wrong. He was her partner.
Blake seemed as perplexed as she felt and when he took a step towards her, she knew she had to say something before she let him drag her to the floor regardless of the consequences.
11
‘I think I pulled a muscle,’ Carson blurted, forcing Blake to rethink his advance.
‘Huh?’
‘My shoulder, it still hurts.’
‘Oh yeah, right,’ he said, swiping his hand over his face and trying to focus on something other than the half-naked woman before him.
‘I think I might’ve torn something when I reached for the shampoo bottle. That’s what made me scream.’
‘I can check it for you.’
Blake silently berated himself for saying that. He should walk out of the bathroom and leave her alone, but his body was not in agreement with his brain. The crotch of his trousers grew tighter by the second, but he couldn’t adjust himself because then Carson would see how aroused he was. He never lost control like this and couldn’t understand why he was acting like a randy teenager around her all of a sudden.
‘You can?’
Carson sounded dubious, so he gave her a large, confident smile. The kind he’d used on numerous women in the past when he’d wanted something.
‘Of course, it’s one of my many talents.’
Blake saw Carson’s blue eyes widen slightly as she licked her lips. Usually he liked teasing her, enjoyed their flirty banter, but now everything sounded like an invitation. They were skirting close to the edge tonight, walking a fine line between right and wrong, but still he offered his hand and helped her out of the bathtub instead of going home and taking a cold shower.
Carson stood beside him and retied her towel, nice and tight. She pointed to her strapped up shoulder and Blake’s hand trembled ever so slightly when he examined her slick skin.
‘What’s wrong?’ he asked, as she shiv
ered beneath his touch.
‘Your hands are a little cold.’
Blake knew that was a lie, as he felt anything but cold.
‘They’ll warm up,’ he promised as he checked the cut beneath the bandage. ‘The wound is clean and dry. No blood.’
‘That’s good.’
He replaced the tape and moved onto her other shoulder. He kneaded her muscles, pushing and pulling until she finally loosened a little.
‘I’m not sure we should be doing this.’
‘It’s just a massage. Trust me, Carson.’
It was taking an exceptional amount of effort to keep his hands only on her shoulders and he swallowed deeply when her mouth formed a silent “o” shape. He wondered if that was the face she made when she climaxed and as Blake continued applying pressure, it wasn’t long before a gentle groan slipped past her lips. The sound set his blood on fire. His biceps bunched, as he battled to control the urges bombarding his senses. He wanted to kiss her. No, more than that - he wanted to fuck her.
‘Feel better?’ he whispered into her ear and she nodded.
‘Why have you never mentioned this particular skill before? I would have booked in a regular slot.’
Blake moved his hands from her shoulder to her neck, surrounding it in warmth. He pulled her closer so that her back rested fully against his chest. Her eyes slid shut as he worked his hands through her hair. The short strands were wet and felt soft against his fingertips until he reached the ends where they were singed. He searched out the pressure points he knew would get a reaction and another groan escaped her lips as he increased the force against her scalp. Her inadvertent sexy gasps and sighs proved too much for him and he felt his own breath catch in his throat. He quickly released his hold on her.
Carson’s cheeks were flushed, but as she turned to face him, her chapped lips trembled.
‘You’re shaking,’ he stated.
‘Am I?’
Her blue eyes met his and they were so full of need that he had to look away.