Home in the Stars Box Set

by Mason, Jolie

  He stood a moment staring, fully aroused. Ari almost faltered in her new found aggressiveness. Caden must have felt it. He stepped into her and put one hand behind her neck to pull her into a frenzied kiss, the kind that stole your breath. Tongues searching, noses bumping, she felt his hands sliding up her side and over her fitted strapless bra searching for the closure. She moaned as his fingers brushed over her right nipple almost incidentally.

  “How do we get this off?”, he asked brusquely, tugging gently at the top. She smiled into the kiss while reaching for the hidden closing at her back. He could always make her feel this way, like she was the single most beautiful thing he’d ever seen. She felt that thrill to her toes. Her bra fell away, and he wasted no time. His hands shook, she noticed. Where he touched her skin, his fingers trembled. He brushed the panties down her legs in seconds.

  He stood up awkwardly after peeling her naked, and Ari took charge. She grabbed his chin.

  “Stop”, she said. “Let me.”

  His hands gripped each of her slim shoulders. Ari leaned into him, taking his mouth. This time, she decided it would not be goodbye. Opening her mouth, she put forever in the kiss, even as she pushed him back onto her bed. She used each movement of her body, each lick of his lips to tell him there was time.

  Straddling his hips, she let him sit up so he could wrap her body around his. The hard pulsing evidence of how much he’d missed her sought between her legs for a place to hide. His mouth gave way beneath hers as she lifted herself to take him, inch by sweet inch. It wasn’t difficult. He slid right into her body as if she’d been waiting for him to come home. Her head fell backward as she let herself just feel him working in her.

  He buried his face in her neck and chest, tasting the smooth skin there and sending those tiny tingles straight to her core. Her breaths quickened. She moaned and found a tempo for her movements like music in her head, only the notes were love, pleasure and healing.

  He wrapped his big hand around the back of her neck and tried to stop her mid glide. She saw his face twist in pleasure, almost tortured. “Aricka, stop. Stop, love.”

  “No”, she said, pushing him back down on the bed. His tan skin looking even darker against the white bedding. Her hips took on a life of their own as she read his mind. It had been a while, and he wasn’t going to be able to control the orgasm. He would try if he could to be the gentleman, make her come first. That’s not what she wanted.

  She wanted to feel him jerk inside her. She wanted to live in that place where he gave her himself physically and emotionally, and she wanted to be there forever. She wanted him to be hers again.

  He opened his dark eyes to plead with her; to help him last or make him come. She would bet even he didn’t know which one he wanted more. She leaned over his ear. “This is mine. Give it to me.”

  She rose and fell like the ocean that graced her wall above the bed, until she felt him break with a shout and he flooded her body. She closed her eyes to savor it. So long, she thought. She hadn’t felt it in so long. Her nails dug slightly into his hard hip as she pressed in to feel every second of his ejaculation within her. She rode him softly until he wasn’t hard any longer.

  Her heart still pounded, but not from her own orgasm. She was a live wire still. Tangled electrical sensations raced unsatisfied through her body. Ari was lost in the power of his body beneath her, never wanting to surrender it.

  He flipped her to the mattress, and she arched sensitive nipples toward him, begging for him to touch them, to touch anything. He did. Between torturing sucks and bites at her distended breasts, he murmured sweet words, dirty words. She laughed when she heard him complain, “So stubborn”. Then gasped when he bit her shoulder sharply.

  His right hand dipped to her thigh where he grasped her flesh and pulled her open. He spread her legs wide and bent her knee whispering “Stay”. His fingers, suddenly, played in the slick mess he’d made between her thighs. It felt like he was everywhere at once. His mouth moved hypnotically over her breasts. His hand toyed with her center, until she thought she’d come apart. He did too, apparently, because he would back off a moment till she begged for him to continue. Vaguely, she realized his mouth drifted down her torso headed for the spot his hand occupied. She made a small sound of protest and pleasure at the same. Her hand reached for him.

  He caught it in his own. “Hush”, he whispered with his mouth a breath from her. She felt the tickle of the word against her inner thigh, then a light kiss. Her mind just blanked in the next second because he put his mouth on her, his tongue inside her licking like she was his favorite lollipop. She cried out on a short breath. It felt so very good.

  He’d told her once that it was a primitive instinct to smell himself on her, know that she was his. He loved it. The fact that he wanted that touched her more intimately than his tongue was doing now. She yelped as she arched into his mouth. Her hands fisted above her head. His mouth devoured her, drove her higher than she could ever remember being. His tongue darted in and out of her, until she hovered on edge, wound like a spring. Then he whispered against her, “Come for me, Ari”. She obeyed him without question on a sob. This was what she'd lost, and it was back. Ari prayed on a whisper of his name that this time it was hers for good.

  *****#*****

  Caden lay on his side watching her sleep beneath the expanse of the seashore above her bed. Of course, when they’d been young, all their moments like this had been stolen moments, hidden from the families, picnics in secluded places. He didn’t recall her ever sleeping beside him. This was something new, something mysterious. He wanted her right here every morning, every night, but it wasn’t time to have that talk. He wasn’t sure she wouldn’t still run.

  His hands slid over her body in gentle caresses, stopping at the fine lines at her waist. Stretch marks. The mark of his child growing within her while she was alone and afraid webbed in silver along her skin. He understood her reaction to his own scars now that he was looking at these. Had he been there, had she not been forced to give up her son, these scars would have been joyful signposts. Instead, they were painful reminders. He leaned down to kiss one. Beneath his mouth, she stretched, turning her body into his arms. Caden let his hands whisper over her skin.

  “Mmm.. . Morning.” She pulled her hands up over her head and ran a leg high over Caden’s hip, affording him a magnificent view.

  “Sleep well?”, he asked into her belly button.

  “The best. You outperformed brandy by miles.”

  “What time is it?”

  “We’re docking in Starfall in three hours.”

  “Time to get up then.”

  “Hey,” he said. “I need to say something.” Caden rearranged himself around her in the bed, so she could look him in the eye and know he meant this.

  “What’s on your mind?” She said it suggestively making his body twitch.

  “That too, but I need to tell you that I’m over it. I knew my father better than you think. He was a threat you had to face by yourself. You did everything you could, and I love you for it. I’m only sorry I wasn’t there to help you face it.”

  Her smile fell away at the reminder of their mutual secrets, and he hated to see it go. “How long were you tortured?”

  He looked away. He probably should have expected it, but it wasn’t pleasant conversation for pillow talk. He felt his teeth clench. “It took the team about two weeks to find me, and it took me months to recover.”

  “None of us ever knew a thing. How could he keep that so quiet?”

  “My father was the master of the cover up and the media black out. You would have never known, and he did his best to keep me occupied and away from Taarken. It wasn’t hard right after... I heard about your father’s death when I came home to take over the business. You were gone by then.”

  “I was gone a lot before then. I shipped out on several ships to earn enough for Jace. After Da... It was worse. We. . . Arden and I knew I had to disappear. Most everybody believed th
at Jace belonged to my brother’s wife anyway. I felt like a fugitive on Taarken. When Jace started to forget me, I . . . couldn’t take it. I found reasons to stay away, one trip at a time. It happened so slowly, then, one day, this was my life.”

  “I should have fought harder.”

  She shook her head. “Fought what? The world would have won. We both have the scars to prove it.”

  His hand stretched out over her abdomen. “I know.”

  “We’re here now.”

  He curved his hand over her backside and hooked her knee over him. “I know”, he said.

  “We should probably hurry. I’m on watch in an hour anyway.”

  “Noted”, he said twisting her on top of him and making her giggle like a girl again. If he could do that a million times more, he thought, it might all be worth it.

  *****#*****

  Starfall was a mining colony much like Taarken, except where Taarken was wild desert and rolling prairie lands, Starfall was a thriving agriculture planet with forest timber for miles and miles. The man Ari called one of her few friends ran his business out of the second largest city on the planet, Stratland. The city split almost in half by a massive river that stretched more than five miles wide in places. Adrick operated out of several large warehouse blocks down by the Strat River.

  She and Caden made their way slowly along a crowded downtown thoroughfare. Trees stretched almost as tall as the smallest of the buildings along a modern complex of shopping centers and entertainment venues leading to an upscale plaza that charmed pedestrians beneath its arched walkways of trees trained to create leafy, shaded tunnels along the path. She let herself enjoy the momentary comfort of walking beside Caden holding hands.

  Caden explained as they left the dock-way that timing was everything today. He had a plan to retrieve her friend, he’d said, but it required being in position at exactly the right moment. Ari had merely agreed. It wasn’t like this was her area. Caden had lived a different kind of life than she had in the years of apart.

  “Were we able to get information on who exactly we’re meeting today?”Ari asked.

  Caden nodded casually looking around the plaza. Ari cuddled into his strong arm around her back and his firm chest beneath her cheek as they stood beneath a flowering tree. His mouth lowered intimately to her ear. “We think it’s the Triad, a grandiose merc group that’s pretty much given up any pretense at being legitimate businessmen.” Caden tensed a bit in her arms as he explained.

  “What else?” She whispered back the same way he had. She knew it was to avoid surveillance from picking up too much and drawing police into the business, but it was also a part of what they’d done last night, a continuation. They were trying each other on, seeing how they fit.

  “It’s a group that’s targeted Carnes before.”

  Ari grew still with her hand curled in his over his chest. “Before. Are they.. . ?” She swallowed hard. Her hand uncurled and touched his chest lovingly, tracing the scars beneath his shirt. “Was that the group that hurt you?”

  He smiled tightly as a breeze blew the smell of flowers and food at them. “Part of it. Not the same ones, I’m sure. Abernathy didn’t leave many of those standing.”

  Ari was nervous now. She wouldn’t have dragged him into this had she known this group was the same one that had put scars on him so long ago. He squeezed her shoulder, and caught her ear lobe in his teeth teasingly. “Come on. I’m over it.”

  “You keep saying that”, she whispered skeptically.

  “Because it’s true”, he said happily. “Today, I find myself very, very over it.”

  His soft kiss effectively stopped her doubts for the moment.

  The delicious aroma of a coffee shop as they headed for the shipping center seeped onto the street. He looked at his watch. “We’re too early”, he said.

  Caden pulled her in and bought her an exotic coffee in a small cup. She drank deeply as they continued to the warehouse district. She savored his thumb rubbing hypnotically over her knuckles where he held her hand.

  The city shops and government buildings began to melt away into industrial complexes, and they soon found themselves entering a large building marked Srurman Enterprises. The receptionist directed them out to a transport dock where they were invited into a small simple cart, as though the complex was too big to walk, and driven back several streets past shipping centers and warehouses to a bland white building that claimed to be an administrative office.

  They waited in a lobby for a long time. She felt herself growing restless. After a good long while, Ari stared at the big, ugly painting of flowers on the wall, hating it. Caden sat calmly reading an old magazine. He looked exactly like a saintly man waiting on a woman, and Ari wondered, one more time, if he was deliberately playing a role for cameras.

  “You think they’re ever going to show themselves”, she whispered to Caden after she sank into the chair next to him. He leaned into her ear and nuzzled her neck sending a shiver up her spine. He’d always been able to hit just the right spot.

  “Be patient. We have a plan,” he told her.

  “We do? I have heard no such plan.”

  He nodded and bit his full lower lip. So cute, she thought.

  “Patience”, he said again.

  He checked his watch quickly. They fell into silence again while she peeked over his shoulder. The ancient article on the new design of liberty class convoy ships which had been replaced nine months before by the Starfield design must have been fascinating. He stared at it like it was the most interesting, innovative article in the galaxy. Ari hmmed in his ear as she pretended to read along with him.

  Eventually, she suspected he might just be enjoying the press of her breast against his shoulder or the sensation of her breath on his neck, so she ran her forefinger around his ear while she asked him questions about the article, making him fight to keep his face straight. At least, she wasn’t bored anymore. Watching Caden squirm had some entertainment value.

  About forty minutes into the wait, Caden got tired of waiting, or decided it was time to hurry this along as he kept one eye on the clock. He walked up to the receptionist’s desk and told her to please inform Mr. Srurman they had a schedule to keep and would have to arrange another time. He took Ari’s arm and led her toward the door and back out into the mild spring day. They hadn’t gotten very far before two large men appeared at a fast walk.

  “Mr. Carnes, Rick apologized for keeping you. He’s in a meeting and asked if you would mind waiting for him just a bit longer.”

  “I’m afraid I have another appointment, gentlemen.” Caden smiled pleasantly and continued walking until one of the men pulled him to a stop by grabbing his arm roughly. Caden responded by pulling the man off his center and twisting his arm while using his right hand to punch the man hard in the gut.

  “So, we’re done pretending, good.” He shoved the man he’d just injured at his companion. “Perhaps, you’d like to take me to the boss now, please, or we could just dance some more?”

  Caden clearly wanted to “dance”. She wasn’t sold on the whole over it thing, as she watched the hard glint in his eye as he squared off with the second man. There was quality rage in there.

  The man on the ground glared but nodded. She watched both just decide to drop the subterfuge. After all, what was the use now? There would be no more pretend pleasantries or smiles. She pressed closer to Caden to whisper. “What was all this about?”

  “We needed to hurry them up. Schedule to keep. I have no idea why they made us wait”

  They were lead back through the hated lobby and up a flight of stairs to a drab second floor office. It had to be Rick’s. She thought she recognized the desk, solid and antique, centered at the end of the room prominently.

  It was his office. There was a comfortable sitting area she’d never seen in the vid, pictures of his wife and the kids and no sign of Rick, only some smarmy little man with no chin in black leather sitting in his seat. He turned theatrically wit
h his arms outspread saying, “Welcome.”

  Ari tossed a look at Caden that clearly said, Is he serious?

  “Tallon”, Caden said in mild shock. She looked to Caden in surprise. A stranger wouldn’t read his fear, but she saw it, the faint change, a tension under the skin. Why would Caden fear this weird little man? The two didn’t even compare they were such opposites. Caden outweighed the man in presence and stature.

  “You know this guy?” she asked.

  “Does anyone ever really know Tallon?”, he asked sarcastically. “We’ve been hunting his ass for some time now. He likes to pretend to be a pirate in his spare time and hit the mining convoys on the rim.”

  Ari followed his lead, keeping one eye suspiciously on the annoyed little man in his prancy leather pants. She really hoped Caden knew what he was doing poking this particular bear. “What does he do the rest of the time?”

  Caden looked around the small office. “Apparently, he tries to take over the world.”

  She chuckled, then stopped herself in front of the small, now, furious pirate. “Good for you”, she said approvingly to the small man. “Everyone should have a dream.”

  Tallon stood dramatically with both hands on the desk. “This is no joke, Carnes. My employer needs money, lots of it. I told him I just happen to hate this guy who has lots of it.” He spoke, somewhat flamboyantly, with his hands as he strolled out from behind the desk. Everything about the man was extreme from his weaknesses to his affectations.

  “And here we are”, Caden said.

  “And here we are.” Tallon walked briskly forward and hit Caden in the solar plexus. Ari lunged at the pirate, furious herself now. Caden put himself in front of her and choked out, “It’s fine. We’re fine.” His eyes begged her to do nothing.