“Ben did it. Took a chunk out of me with his teeth when he was four. I didn’t tell anyone about it, just let it heal on its own, then kind of forgot about it after a while.”
“You didn’t want to get Ben in trouble?” Mari asked.
“No.” David broke into one of his little smiles which always lit up his smoky eyes. “I didn’t want to have to explain to our father how a four-year-old got the drop on his eleven-year-old brother. Now, I keep it to remind Ben what a pain in my ass he has always been.”
“Is Ben your favorite brother?”
“Just the one who would never leave me alone.”
Mari could tell David was joking. Family was so important to him, and despite the fact that she felt as though she had abandoned her own to chase her dreams through the stars, family was very important to her, too.
“Did Ben give you all your scars?” she asked.
“Not this one.” David lifted his shirt to reveal a raised patch of flesh that left a dark zigzag starting only a few centimeters above his waistband and disappearing somewhere below it. Without thinking, Mari rubbed a thumb over the scar. A surge of arousal shot through her and settled right between her legs.
“What is this from?” Her words came out on a light breath as her pulse raced.
“A retractable electric whip, if you can believe it. They’re actually illegal and extremely difficult to control, but the contractors we were engaging were rogues, so didn’t care much about formal Embassy rules. If we hadn’t been ambushed, and I would have insisted the team wear their armor, the whip would have never touched my skin, instead it sizzled right through my fatigues and gave me a good zap and third degree burns. This one I kept to remember that Armadans are fitted with personal armor for a reason. So they can wear it.”
“Uh huh,” Mari said, only hearing half of what David had just said. She wanted more than anything to touch that scar again, and this time trace it all the way to its end. “How far down does it go?”
She felt her cheeks instantly flush, but curiosity had gotten the best of her.
“The scar? A couple more centimeters.” He sounded amused.
“Oh,” she busied herself applying the menders and acted as though she meant that as a clinical question. Then to push the point home, she made her voice as impersonal as possible and asked, “Would you like a stim patch for the pain?” Then remembered she had already asked him this question.
“I think I’ll be fine without one.”
He never flinched as the suture needle pierced his skin. She would have had to have a double dose of stims.
“Okay, it’s all finished. Keep the mender on for a day. The two stitches will dissolve on their own. I’ll check the cut again later.” She couldn’t wait.
“Thanks for fixing me up.” He took her hand and brought it to his lips.
Mari wanted to faint, and it must have shown on her face because David suddenly became very serious and asked, “Are you okay?”
They looked at each other for a moment. Mari broke the silence. “Do you want a drink?”
He seemed eager, then his expression changed and her heart fell even before the words came out of his mouth.
“I don’t know. I have to write up this incident for the dockmaster and the local contractors’ guild, though I’m sure my accusations will end up in a bureaucratic mound somewhere, never to be heard of again.”
“That shouldn’t take too long.” She tried to nudge him without seeming desperate.
He rubbed her shoulder. “I want to know if you’re okay after what happened tonight.”
She flirted briefly with the idea of saying, ‘No,’ to see if that would make him change his mind about the drink, but was ashamed of herself for the thought.
“I’m fine.” She fixed a smile on her face and decided to leave the night with her dignity intact. “I’m tired anyway. Thanks for a great evening, David.”
She stood on her toes to kiss his cheek. He leaned down to meet her halfway and captured her kiss with his lips instead. Yearning spread through her entire body. It took all her reserve not to run her fingers through his thick hair and rub her body against him. She wanted him badly. Every nerve in her body tingled as she thought of where this kiss could lead.
Didn’t he feel it, too? The heat? The pull of their bodies toward one another? The passion?
Her answer came when he broke away from her.
“Sleep well, Mari. I’ll see you in the morning.”
SIX
The bridge used to be a good spot to think.
David had always found solace in a nav chair, looking out upon the vastness of the system and its six planet-moons. But tonight, watching the stars from the confines of Tampa Quad instead of from the freedom of space, his mind wouldn’t quiet. Maybe because he was on a modified pleasure cruiser instead of his warship. Or maybe the set up by the contractors still replayed in the back of his head. Or maybe he was just a little lonely tonight.
On the Protector there was no real night. Soldiers and technicians and diplomats, adjusting to multiple time zones on multiple planets, allowed for activity during the entire 25 hour cycle. But he wasn’t captain of the Protector anymore, so he went to work on freeing his mind from the brawl with the dock workers by recording the events exactly as he remembered them. His mind drifted, though, to the real reason he couldn’t shake his restlessness. He wanted to be with Mari right now.
Was she still awake, thinking about what happened tonight? He could tell she was putting on a brave front, so he respected her need to show her courage and tried not to coddle her. Yet every instinct inside him screamed for him to go to her, to hold her and kiss her and whisper words of comfort.
She had invited him to continue their evening and he almost accepted. It was exactly what he wanted up until the moment she made it a reality, then he….
Then you ran away from her.
The thought pissed him off. What the hell was wrong with him? He’d led thousands of men into battle, broken countless bones, endured hellacious conditions but was now afraid of one little blonde? Ridiculous.
Maybe he should call her room to be sure she was okay. Then he could tell by her voice if she was still up for company. And if she wasn’t, he would be right back where he started, only more frustrated. He needed to stop this kind of thinking, tamp down his overactive hormones and concentrate on this damn report.
Yeah, right.
He was out of his chair before he could talk himself out of it. As he headed down the commonway, one by one he dismissed all the reasons why this wasn’t a good idea, why he should find someone his own age, why he needed to emotionally distance himself from Mari, why he shouldn’t be standing in front of her door at this hour.
He pressed the halfmoon sensor of her door chime. When he could hear it sound loudly inside, he swore under his breath, feeling certain he had woken her. For what? He didn’t have time to think of an excuse.
The door slid open.
“Hi.” Mari’s lazy smile and tiny green nightie made him want to dock her right there in the hallway.
“Hi.” He felt a tad foolish, but more than a little excited. “I was working up the incident report and thought I should get your take on what happened. You do have that photographic memory.”
Still can’t admit why you’re here, can you, Anlow?
“And to make sure you were really okay,” he added.
Mari slid her arm through David’s. “Nothing a drunken coffee won’t fix. Do you want one?”
Say no.
He’d had more than enough alcohol tonight. Another drink and his judgment might be impaired. That was one of the reasons he didn’t take the stims she offered from the med suite.
“What kind of bourbon do you have?” he asked.
“Koley’s Reserve. What else?” She winked.
“You’re kidding.” He let his skepticism show. “Do you know how difficult that is to get? It’s only made in the Koley Mountains, and in very small batches.�
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Even as an Armadan captain, he sometimes had to wait months for a bottle and he’d given his last one to the dockmaster as a bribe.
She just smiled that big smile of hers. “I wouldn’t kid an Armadan about bourbon.”
“Well, then how can I refuse a taste of home?” David took another quick survey of the strappy emerald-colored nightie draped over Mari’s curves. Or you.
Once inside, the glowing vibrancy of her living quarters bombarded him.
“That’s a lot of blue and green,” he said.
“My favorite colors. It’s a work in progress because you would not believe how much it costs to remodel one of these suites.”
Now that she mentioned it, he could see traces of the original décor peeking from around billowing curtains and beneath thick area rugs and under an abundance of shiny pillows. For a soldier used to basic quarters, or even a man used to living alone in a sizable but modestly decorated lake house, the loud, plushy world Mari lived in was overwhelming.
It smelled great, though, thanks to all the flowering plants. In one corner of the foyer several large pots spilled over with blooms in varying shapes and sizes of white and turquoise petals while a blossoming vine twisted down from a wall-length stone planter inside the living room.
“You have a way with foliage. Or do you have some kind of secret grow lights?”
“I do monitor the lighting, but it’s just the same lights you have in your suite.”
Minus the aquamarine fringed lamp shades.
“I’ve been growing plants all my life. But this was the first time I ever tried in space. You’d think with the artificial gravity and light that it would be pretty much the same, but the plants know. So they take a little extra coaxing to flourish.”
“Your coaxing is working quite well. They’re amazing. And so many different varieties.” He wanted to ask her specifics about a couple of plants on a stand nearby, but she had disappeared into the kitchen.
Being within her living space brought those waves of warmth back in a big way for David. Everything in this suite had been touched by her—bare toes on the cushy rugs, a brush of her hip as she passed by an end table, a subtle caress from her delicate hands as she cared for each bit of flora. David ran a finger down a hanging vine whose leaves looked like upside down hearts. They even had veins of red shooting through the waxy green exterior. He swore an electric tingle moved through his whole body from just this one little touch.
Get it together, soldier.
“I forgot I was out of coffee, but how about a drunken chai?” She handed him a mug.
He took a sip and almost couldn’t swallow it, but forced the cloying liquid down his throat. “You like lots of sugar in your chai, don’t you?” The sweetness nearly masked the aftertaste of alcohol.
“Like my mother always told me, everything is better with sugar.” Mari sipped her drink and made a face. So maybe she was realizing not everything was better with sugar, like expensive small batch malt.
“Sorry. Give me that.” She grabbed his mug. “I really should have tasted it first. I’ll sweeten it up a little.”
David took both mugs from her and sat them on the counter. “I think I’ve had enough to drink.”
“Really?” Her sly look burned right through him, impacting him below the belt. “Then I have something to show you.” She took his hand and pulled him toward a room in the back. His mind immediately filled with images of bare skin sliding across bare skin, running his hands through her blonde hair, kissing parts of her he had only fantasized about, and…
She flicked on the lights with her wrist reporter. “How do you like my lab?”
David laughed, glad she hadn’t been able to read his mind.
Mari’s expression said she couldn’t see what was so amusing.
He rubbed her back and tried to make the laugh seem like a natural response. “I can’t believe how great this lab is.”
Her eyes narrowed and he could tell she wasn’t buying his feint.
“I’m sorry.” He kissed the top of her head. “I wasn’t expecting a lab back here.” He looked around for the first time, taking in all the equipment and more plants. “Especially one so well-equipped. This must have cost a small fortune.”
“It did, and until Dale offered me that job, I didn’t have enough money to keep it. Look at this.” She dragged him over to a mini-hydroponics unit enclosed like a greenhouse. Three white pipes hung down from a square unit in the ceiling. Small sprays of leafy plants stuck out of the pipe on all sides at ten centimeter intervals, each one holding a different type of greenery. Mari went about identifying them for him, but David’s attention remained with her previous words.
For once, he didn’t focus so much on Dale, but on the fact that Mari was struggling to keep her livelihood, her hard-fought independence. He couldn’t imagine the pressure she had been feeling. Maybe Dale’s appearance at dinner really was lucky for her. And David needed to control his jealousy, be happy for her. It’s not like their relationship was serious. A couple of kisses and ambiguous innuendo didn’t exactly show true progress, yet tonight he thought their connection deepened. Maybe it was the alcohol.
Mari laughed, startling him out of his thoughts. “I get it,” she said.
He regarded her, wondering what he missed.
“You thought I was dragging you to bed,” she said over her shoulder as she walked toward the door.
David smiled. “Maybe.”
She waited for him in the doorway. “Well, the bedroom’s this way.” Grabbing his belt, she led him across the hall. He barely noticed the color surrounding him in this new space, just the flush of color that slid up Mari’s bare back when he ran his fingers along her arms.
She dimmed the lights with a tap to her palm, activating her wrist reporter, then slid it off and threw it on the lime green rug. David snatched her off her feet and laid her on the bed, his gaze finding those beautiful coral eyes before his mouth covered hers.
Mari couldn’t catch her breath because David stole it with each kiss. His hands were all over her—so were his mouth and his body. She hadn’t expected him to be this aggressive, but she was thrilled by every second of it. Even the feel of his weight pinning her legs and hips to the bed.
His body was solid and muscled and the hardness of his arousal pressed through his pants. He covered her small frame until she felt cocooned by him and his wonderful scent. It was unlike anything she had ever felt before. Of course, anything dealing with coupling was new to her. Realizing that she would finally be with a man sent shivers down her spine.
That her first time would be with a man like David thrilled her.
Seeing him take on the six men at the dock stirred her desire even more than the memory of that beautiful kiss they’d shared. He easily handled situations that scared her silly. None of the men from her hometown commanded that kind of presence. Thinking about David dispatching their attackers made Mari kiss him with a fierceness she didn’t know was inside her.
He responded by swirling his tongue into her mouth. Ever so slowly he slid his tongue over hers. She grabbed fistfuls of his thick, dark hair, becoming hyper-aware of certain parts of her body—her lips, her breasts, her….
“David,” she gasped his name without completely breaking away from his skilled mouth. Her fingers fumbled for the buttons on his shirt. He worked from the bottom up until they met in the middle and she shoved the soft cotton away from his chest.
She had touched his chest in greeting dozens of times, but always the boundary of clothing kept her from his skin. The smooth feel of him now beneath her fingertips sent electric bolts through her body. His was the kind of body she and her sisters fantasized about. But here she was touching him, living the fantasy. She outlined his pectoral muscles, marveling at how his soft skin could cover such hard muscle. When she reached his nipples, she ran her thumbs over the erect little nubs, but shyness got the best of her, so she moved on, outlining the tops of his abs. She’d be happy
just to touch him like this for the rest of the night.
David’s hands were busy sliding the nightie from her shoulders, his mouth covering each centimeter of skin just after the fabric exposed it. He definitely knew what he was doing. Would he notice that she didn’t? The thought suddenly bothered her. What if she disappointed him?
Determined that she wouldn’t, she feigned a confidence that dwindled by the second. Reaching for his belt—the one she had no problem taking hold of earlier in order to lead him in here—she fumbled with the buckle. Her hands shook a little, but she managed to unfasten it and worked on the button of his pants next. That’s when David’s mouth found her breast, and she forgot all about his pants.
When his teeth teased at her nipple, she almost lost it. If he kept this up, he wouldn’t need to go any further to bring her to climax. She groaned as his teeth were replaced with the tight grip of his lips.
“David, do you know how this feels?”
Then she remembered the zigzag. With light fingers she moved down his belly until she brushed against the hard scar. She traced it to his open waistband and kept going, anxious to see where her hand would end up.
He kissed a line up her neck and whispered in her ear, “Still interested in that scar?”
“Uh huh,” she mumbled, knowing full well his scar wasn’t her biggest interest.
When she ran into the waistband of his shorts, she stopped, a little nervous to go any further, but her curiosity and desire won out. She slid her hand inside, keeping a finger along the scar until she found its end just above his thigh. But that was only a detour. She skated her fingertips across him in exploration until her hand brushed against his hardness.
“Maybe you should take your pants off,” she said, gliding her fingers along his shaft.
“You first.” He tugged at the nightie piled around her waist.
He kept kissing her neck as they wiggled out of their clothes, tossing garments to the floor and across the room.
Unrestricted by clothing, David’s body was intimidating. Everything about him was so big. Granted, she was shorter than average and had a petite frame like her mother and half-sisters, but she had never felt smaller in her entire life than lying next to David.
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