by Cara Bristol
No one would guess she was anything but Terran; however, he wasn’t sure how she would react. “You can pass if people don’t look closely.” He sidestepped and gestured to the hut. “Let’s check out our accommodations.”
Mariska hung back and eyed the sand longingly. “Would it be appropriate if I took my shoes off?”
He grinned. “I would say it’s de rigueur.” She looked at him with a blank expression, so he slipped off his boots.
A gleeful smile lit her face as she tore off her shoes and dug her feet into the sand. “It feels different from the dunes I knew, more powdery, but it’s nice.”
“Do you miss your planet?”
She wiggled her toes and nodded. “Sometimes. I was young when we left, but I remember the dunes, walking with my nahnah, the woman who took care of me. She was not allowed to accompany us when we traveled to my father’s space station, and I didn’t realize until later how much she had protected me. It seems like a long time ago.”
He wished he could promise the future would be brighter than her past, but many uncertainties still existed.
He stretched out his hand, and she stared at it before clasping it. “This gesture. This is something Terrans do?”
“Lamis-Odg don’t hold hands?” he guessed.
“No. Is there a purpose to it?”
“To show affection.” He tightened his fingers, and she squeezed back. “I…like you, Mariska.” Dammit, but he did. Too much.
“I like you, too, Kai.”
They smiled stupidly at each other, but it was a pleasant kind of awkwardness. Then he tugged on her hand, and they kicked through the mineral powder to their hut. Though constructed of synthetic materials, the faux wooden walls and thatched roof appeared authentic, as if the structure had been transported through a worm hole from nineteenth century Polynesia—or at least a twenty-first century holiday resort. However, the palm scanner outside the hut was pure twenty-fifth century.
He flattened his hand against the screen, the scanner beeped, and the door swung open. Belatedly, he wondered if his scan left a traceable imprint, but, hell, he’d already registered. All anyone had to do was ask guest services to discover he’d checked in. If anyone was going to leave a sign, better him than Mariska. Obido didn’t know his real identity.
“Whenever we need to scan in or out, let me do it,” he told her.
As they entered the room, a robotic green lizard clinging to the wall scurried out of sight. Darius 4 thought of everything. He eyed the netting around the large bed and hoped the resort developer had stopped short of creating mosquito bots.
A fan swished overhead even though the resort controlled temperature and humidity of the entire biodome for optimal comfort. Through the large windows, the ocean gave the illusion of stretching out to a far horizon—in reality, one kilometer. He marveled at the creativity—and cost—of creating such an authentic appearing playground. This setting was more than a cyberoperative could afford. Fortunately, he’d been able to hack into an off-planet account and transfer funds to pay for this jaunt. The planetary raider wouldn’t miss the credits.
* * * *
Mariska buried her toes into the wet sand and squealed as the tepid waves rolled over her ankles. As the tide ebbed, it pulled at her feet. “I’m moving!” she cried.
“It only feels like you are.” Kai chuckled. He wore short, form-fitting pants provided by the resort and nothing else. He waded into the water up to his knees, showing no self-consciousness even though he bared more skin than she did in her thigh-skimming sarong. She did not intend to immerse herself. The way the waves crashed and churned into white froth looked dangerous. She could be swallowed by the ocean. From the safety of the cabana, the water had appeared much more placid. Kai’s boyish grin of delight, as much as his coaxing and cajoling, had convinced her to inch into the shallows.
Despite her nervousness, she appreciated his body, broad in shoulder and chest, narrow in waist and hips. The way his biceps bulged, his back, his thighs, caused her stomach to curl and her womanhood to grow damp. The brevity of his shorts accentuated rather than covered his masculine appeal.
Waves lapped at his thighs. He flashed a grin over his shoulder then dove head first and disappeared! She ventured several steps forward. “Kai!” Water swirled around her shins. With relief, she spotted him beneath the surface. He moved like a fish, using his feet as a tail fin, cutting a clean streak away from the shore. Not a fish, she adjusted her estimation. The man moved like an…underwater attack missile. His feet came up as he flip turned and streaked straight for her.
He’ll stand up.
But he didn’t.
He got closer and closer, like a predator stalking its prey, and though it was Kai, she fled, racing for the dubious safety of the cabana. He charged out of the surf and caught up with her before she reached dry sand.
He shook himself, flinging droplets. “Where are you headed, sweetheart?” He grinned wickedly.
“Back to the hut.” She sidled away, but he grabbed her hand, tugged her near, and swung her up into his arms. Water from his body soaked through her sarong. “You’re getting me wet!” She kicked her feet in protest.
“That’s the plan.” He strode toward the sea.
“Stop! What are you doing?”
“Taking you for a dip.”
“No! I can’t move like a fish like you.”
“You don’t need to swim. It’s not deep, and I won’t let anything happen to you,” he said. Up to his hips in the ocean, he plunked her onto her feet. Much shorter than he, Mariska found herself up to her waist, with swells lapping at her breasts. She shrieked, and clutched at his arms. He never broke his hold but steadied her with his hands around her midsection.
“You’ve observed life from sidelines long enough,” Kai said. “I’m not going to let you watch the ocean from the beach.”
Nervousness receded. The deeper water was actually calmer than it was at the shore. Feeling braver, she released her grip on his arms. He smiled. She licked her lips and got another surprise. “It’s salty!”
He nodded. “Oceans are. Darius 4 did a good job recreating the sea. It’s pretty close to real.”
“You like the water,” she noted.
“Growing up on Terra, I lived near the beach. I swam and surfed every day.”
“That’s why you chose this venue.”
“I wanted to show you something you hadn’t seen.”
She’d marveled at the foreignness of the sea, but now she looked at it with new eyes. Kai had come from a place like this! Warmth blossomed in her chest at the glimpse into his world. “We don’t have oceans on Lamis-Odg. There is water, but it’s not salty, and it’s located deep beneath the surface. We drill wells to extract it. Sometimes, it will bubble up and form an oasis.” She glanced at the shore. “We have plenty of sand, though. Rolling dunes that change with the wind storms. It is not safe to be outside then. One has to be careful anyway because iwani—what you would call sand demons—live under the hills of sand and can attack without warning.
“Eons ago, the iwani were Lamis-Odg, but they challenged the Great One. He cursed and banished them to live beneath the sand.
“Have you ever seen an iwani?”
“No, thank the Great One.”
“Why do you thank him?”
“Because He has protected us.”
“But didn’t he create the iwani in the first place? And exile them? Why not eliminate them and save your people from the threat?”
“That is not for me to comprehend.” She did not like his questions—or the discomfort they aroused.
“Has anyone seen the iwani, or is everyone going on what they’ve been told?”
“You mock me.” She jerked angrily and would have toppled over as a small swell hit her, but he grabbed her arm. “One does not need to see evil to know it exists.”
“No, that’s true,” he replied, and she caught the drift.
Like tidal waves, ambivalence crashed
and broke within her. She ached to believe her people were as she had been taught: moral, valiant followers of the Great One. But her own mother had been put to death for a circumstance she could not have prevented. Mariska had been vilified for a facial deformity out of her control. Her father had attempted to kill her. And everyone else in the galaxy considered her people to be terrorists—iwani who struck without warning. Her people had become what they feared.
She wasn’t stupid. The facts ran contrary to what she’d been taught, what she’d secretly felt in her gut every day of her life. But she couldn’t let go. Dogma formed the bedrock beneath…everything. If she accepted her people as evil, what did that mean for everything else she believed?
Was anything true?
If I dare to doubt the Great One, I could awaken as a sand demon.
“I do not wish to talk about this.” She turned away, but he sighed audibly and caught her arm.
“Hey, I’m sorry. I had no right to question those things.”
She glowered at his hand on her arm. How could his touch feel so warm, so inviting, when he’d infuriated her? She peered up at him. “Then why did you?” She savored her anger, a luxury denied before Kai had rescued her. She’d had to suppress displeasure or face punitive consequences.
“Your beliefs are foreign to me,” he said. “That does not excuse my rudeness.” He raked a hand over his wet hair. “It seems like I am always apologizing. My Terran ways are strange, yet you have been far more open-minded than I have been. I’m no diplomat.” He gave a self-deprecating bark of laughter. “Far from it. But I have traveled throughout the galaxy and met many people with different points of view. I have no right to judge yours. I’d planned to show you a good time today, and I blew it. Do you want to go back to the hut?”
Fury dissipated in the face of his sincere remorse. She could not stay mad at the man who had saved her life, treated her like she was normal, shown her sexual delights she’d never dreamed she’d experience, shared the ocean with her, and given her the right to express outrage. How ironic he would be the target of her latest gift.
I feel safe with him. Kai has protected me. “No. Um, perhaps you could teach me how to move like a fish?” Perhaps because she could fight with him, she didn’t want to.
He blinked. “You want to learn to swim?”
“Is it difficult?”
“No.” He pulled her into his embrace and kissed her. Mariska parted her lips, eager to join with him in this way. He tasted like the salty water, but beneath that exuded his own masculine essence. His mouth caressed hers with a thoroughness that ignited a hum of arousal in her core. Nor was he immune to desire, because he’d grown hard, and his length nudged her.
But he set her away from him. Learning to move like a fish would be a tremendous accomplishment, but maybe the lesson could occur later?
“Take this off.” He tugged at the sarong. “It will be an encumbrance to have the wet fabric dragging on you.” He unwrapped her dress and flung it onto the beach.
* * * *
“I’m swimming! I’m swimming!” Mariska paddled parallel to the shore and giggled like a gleeful kid.
“I knew you could do it!” Kai flashed her two thumbs up. His erection saluted her achievement as well. He’d taught her to float first. The water was tepid but cold enough to tighten her nipples to hard points. Her nakedness enticed him to cancel the lesson and seek out more selfish pleasures. She wouldn’t have objected. But her burgeoning confidence as she learned a new skill made him postpone his needs.
He allowed himself one quick kiss to reward her for passing the floating segment of the course, then demonstrated how to breathe and how to move her arms and legs. The breast stroke. Of course his mind taunted him with double entendres.
Mariska swam to him and found her footing. Water streamed off her hair and her naked body as she stood, an enticing siren emerging from the sea. She already had lured him from his mission. And when he thought of their inevitable parting, he missed her already.
This rogue detour notwithstanding, he was committed to Cyber Operations. He was a cyborg with a license to kill who was assigned to the anti Lamis-Odg task force. He couldn’t take a Lamis-Odg wife! And keeping her as his mistress was out of the question.
He was a pathetic fuck, torn between desire and duty, instigation and reparation. Who was to say iwani didn’t exist? Why did he require proof of everything? He’d been right about one thing: he was always apologizing to her—because he continued to stick his foot in his mouth. Why? Was he unconsciously trying to drive a wedge between them?
They were growing closer and closer, which would make the inevitable parting that much harder. A little distance between them would ease the pain later. Hurt her now or hurt her later. What a choice.
How betrayed would she feel when he dumped her at some safe haven without a backward glance?
He already knew he would feel like shit. He’d like to say infiltrating Lamis-Odg had been his most dangerous assignment, but it wasn’t. He’d barely escaped with his life a couple of times. One day, his luck would run out. He had no future to offer, but leaving would be the hardest thing he’d ever done. For her happiness and security, he had to.
“Thank you for teaching me!” She hugged him, and his arms automatically claimed her, his body registering the softness of her breasts, the hard jab of her nipples. His head acted on its own accord to dive and capture her mouth in a searing kiss.
She uttered a satisfied moan, and he lifted her so that her feet dangled in the water. He raised her higher and drew one of those taunting nipples into his mouth and sucked. She arched in his arms. Mariska rubbed her leg against his erection, shooting jolts of hot lust into his abdomen.
A forearm barred beneath her curvy butt provided the leverage to hold her while he wedged his other hand between their bodies and homed in on her mound. Pressing against it, he curved his fingers to find her clit. An awkward twist of his wrist, but worth it. She purred.
Kai staggered out of the surf and lowered her onto the sand then lifted her bottom and positioned the backs of her knees on his shoulders. He lowered his head to her pussy. Her sultry gaze widened with shock, and he guessed that the men of her race did not practice cunnilingus. Okay for the women to be trained in fellatio, but the men weren’t about to return the favor. Stupid bastards. Perhaps he ought to thank them for allowing him to be Mariska’s first.
But not her last after this.
Don’t go there! He called on his cyberbrain to blank out the jealousy then took a deep breath to flood his senses with the scent of her—the sea and musky, sexy woman. With gentle fingers, he parted the folds of her pussy to expose her clit and vaginal entrance. He flicked the tip of his tongue over the sensitive bud. Mariska let out a keening cry.
He watched her as he licked, enjoying her pleasure, her thrashing. Her moisture ran down his chin, and he sought the source, curling his tongue into her channel. The taste of her exploded in his mouth.
Her knees squeezed his head, and she grabbed handfuls of sand. He alternated between fluttering his tongue to excite her and dipping into her pussy to feed his need. Her legs on his shoulders did most of the lifting for him, freeing him to slip a finger into her passage.
She moaned and tightened her internal muscles. Slowly, he pumped, fucking her as he continued to stroke. He felt a flutter seconds before she gasped then her beautiful face contorted as her pussy convulsed in orgasm around his fingers. When the tremors subsided, he picked her up, leaped to his feet, and charged back into the surf.
“Wrap your legs around my hips,” he said.
Her first experience with beach sex should not result in sand wedged in private places. When he was waist deep in the water and certain they’d washed off the sand, he positioned her over his erection and pushed in.
“Okay?” he gritted out. Her tight, wet passage welcomed him home, but perhaps he should have been gentler.
“Yes.” She kicked her heels against his buttocks. “Mo
re.”
He gave her more, and everything else he could offer, trying to claim a future where none could be. He raised and lowered her on his cock. The outgoing tide pushed at their bodies; the incoming threatened to pull them in. Eddies swirled at his feet, and maybe his head, too.
His mind wrapped around the scent, taste, and sensation of her. He adjusted his thrusts to drag at her clit, and, after she exploded again in his arms, he followed her in a blazing orgasm that sucked the air from his lungs and the strength from his knees.
He fell, and they crashed into the surf.
They staggered upright, sputtering, choking, laughing.
“I’m glad I learned to swim,” Mariska said.
Captured by the Cyborg
Cy-Ops Sci-fi Romance, Book 3
Genre: science fiction romance
On the run from an ex-husband who tried to kill her, Illumina fakes an identity and credentials to get hired on at a spacecraft manufacturing plant beneath the barren surface of the moon Deceptio. The shop owner, cyborg Dale Homme, knows her background and name are lies, but senses she need help. He’s attracted to her in a big way. One evening, he seeks her out.
Illumina’s hair crackled with life—or perhaps her revelations of its properties had influenced Dale’s assessment. She sparkled like the constellations overhead. Her eyes radiated desire complicated by ambivalence, and if he had been a gentleman, he’d pay more attention to the latter and less to the former.
No one ever had accused a cyborg of being a gentleman.
Bringing her to his private observatory had been a whim he shouldn’t have indulged. Could he trust her? Small clues pointed to no. Except, didn’t everyone tell little lies? Make tiny omissions? He’d kept the observatory secret from his employees, who did not see sun or starlight for months at a time. Moonbeam bought stolen spacecraft; often sold remanufactured ships to individuals on the sketchy side of their planet’s laws. His spacecraft had helped topple more than one planetary government.
So he broke a lot of rules. But, until he’d met Illumina, not personal ones.