If she didn’t believe him, he could always make up an excuse to get the Bard in the sky and away from the Hub until Mari could talk with Ben herself. Surely it wouldn’t come to that kind of subterfuge, but Mari had been pretty upset earlier. And David would do whatever it took to keep her safe, even if she hated him for it and he lost his chance to be with her.
TWELVE
“I messed up, didn’t I?” Mari pushed the heap of clothes from Sean’s sofa onto the floor and slumped down on the worn white cushions.
“Those were clean,” Sean said.
“Really? They looked kind of wrinkled.”
Sean was about to take a bite of a sandwich, but Mari looked at it expectantly. “Is that peanut butter?”
Sean ripped the sandwich apart and gave her half.
“Thanks,” she said. “Nothing tastes as good as peanut butter, except peanut butter with some sugar sprinkled on top or dipped in syrup.”
Sean popped the rest of his sandwich in his mouth.
“Did you eat that already?” She said through the peanut butter clinging to the roof of her mouth.
“Half a sandwich takes half the time to eat,” Sean said.
She couldn’t even muster a laugh, just a small, sad smile.
“Can I have a drink of that?”
Sean passed her the bottle of water he held to his lips.
She took a big swig and offered it back, but Sean waved her off.
“I shouldn’t have lost my temper. He just made me so mad. Do you know how frustrating he can be? And did you notice he’s a little bossy?”
“All the time,” Sean said.
“But I like him.” She swirled the remaining water around in the clear bottle, watching it bubble and slosh like it was confused and crashing in on itself. That’s how she felt, like a crash was imminent. “He was my first, you know. My only.”
A long silence drifted into the room.
Sean shifted uncomfortably. “Look, I don’t really want to get involved, but things might not be as bad with David as you think.”
Her head snapped up. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, have you talked to him recently?”
“Since when?” she asked.
“Since you implied you and I were going to have sex?”
Her face flushed hot. “I wasn’t implying that.”
“Yeah, you were. You wanted to see if he’d take my head off. A little while ago I thought he might try it.”
Mari sat up in alarm. “David came here to confront you? Are you okay? I shouldn’t have put you in danger. That was irresponsible. He could have killed you or broken your arms and legs at the least.”
“Wait a minute.” Sean held up a hand to silence her. “Why do you assume he would have won?”
Mari did laugh this time, a small, reflexive giggle that jumped right out of her mouth before she could shut it again.
Sean’s look was anything but amused.
“It’s just that…”
Because I saw him take on six guys, two of whom were as big as you?
“…he’s been military trained. You’re just a scientist.”
“I’m not just a—never mind.” Sean shook his head like he wanted to say more about it, but decided not to. He took a deep breath. “Just because he looks bigger doesn’t necessarily mean he’s better in a fight.”
“I didn’t mean any offense, Sean. You’re still tougher than everyone else on this ship, including me.”
It was a compliment, but the indignant groan rumbling through Sean’s chest said he hadn’t taken it as one.
“David paid your rent and paid me back for those months I spotted you. So go thank him and put this bullshit behind you and make sure you let him know that I was the one who told you all this because I told him I wouldn’t.”
Mari’s heart thudded with the news. A million emotions passed through her at once from disbelief to embarrassment and finally to pure joy. She leaped off the couch and threw her arms around Sean. He gave her a little hug back.
“For the record,” he said. “I could take him.”
The look in his eyes made her wonder if that could be true.
“Maybe.” She kissed him on the cheek and bounded out of the room, then peeked back in to say, “But I doubt it.”
“I’m not going to take the job.” Mari stood in the entrance to the bridge, her arms and their contents tucked neatly behind her.
David spun in the nav chair to face her. Though his expression was mostly unreadable, she didn’t detect any sign of anger.
“I stopped by your suite, but you weren’t there. What are you doing in here? We aren’t in danger of crashing into the dock, are we?” she joked.
“I haven’t crashed into a dock since flight training. I have scars from that, too, but only on my ego.” He smiled at her.
She liked his good nature.
“What made you change your mind?” he asked.
“You were right,” she said. “I don’t think Dale was only looking at my resume when he wanted to hire me.” She studied the shiny black floor.
“That’s his problem, not yours. You understand that, don’t you?”
She gave a pathetic little nod.
“You’re smart, Mari, and enthusiastic, and you have drive. Look at what you’ve accomplished on your own at such a young age. And, don’t give me that I’m almost twenty line because you should be proud of doing all this by yourself as a teenager.”
“You helped. That’s why I brought this to thank you.” She pulled the bottle of Koley’s from behind her back and set it on the crash couch.
He looked at it bit suspiciously. “Not that I’m in the habit of turning down bourbon, but thank me for what?”
“For paying my rent. And reimbursing Sean. I promise to pay you back for all of it…eventually.”
“It was a gift, supposed to be an anonymous gift, so you wouldn’t have to worry about paying anyone back and just concentrate on your career for a while, but I can guess who told you.”
“Sean did. Just now.”
“Sean has a big mouth,” David said.
“Yes, he does, but it’s not as nice as yours.”
Mari put her hands on David’s shoulders and straddled him in the nav chair. He didn’t protest, even with the bridge door open wide to the commonway. She stared into his grey eyes and thought she read a hopeful expectation there.
He rested his hands on her hips, and she felt the warmth of his touch spread through the rest of her body. Leaning in, she kissed him—a little more urgently than she meant to. He responded in kind, sweeping her chest against him. She inhaled his scent and marveled at how much she missed this small intimacy. When she pulled away, it was only so she could see his face again. He had a kind and handsome face with small lines beginning to crease the corners of his eyes and mouth. That meant he had smiled a lot over his life so far. She wanted those same lines someday.
“I’m sorry, Mari.” His expression became serious.
“I’m the one here trying to apologize.” She smoothed a finger over his thick brows.
She was going to tell him more, but he stole her breath as he kissed the divot above her clavicle. All the tension left her body, replaced by the bliss of David’s touch. Mari pressed into his hips, delighting in his hardness. When he grabbed her backside and rocked her against him, waves of heat pooled between her legs.
“Can we do what we did last night?” she whispered in his ear.
“I’d like that,” he said.
“And maybe we could try something new, too.”
“New is good.” He was already sliding her little tank top up over her belly.
She heard the bridge door snap closed. He did like his privacy.
This is the first time I’ve used sex for conflict resolution.
The logical side of David was certain that a tryst was not the best way to keep peace among his crew, whether they were fleet soldiers or civilian scientists. The side that wouldn’t listen
to logic was delighted to have Mari’s attention again. Truth was he felt cold without her flirtations, the little looks she gave him, and the touching. He definitely needed her touch.
She kissed his cheek, then his temple, then his forehead, making her way around to the other side of his face. The sweet gesture, combined with her eagerness to be intimate with him again, even after their disagreement, made him more resolute to protect her innocence from guys like Dale—except it was in David’s arms where she was losing that innocence.
“I would have missed this if I had gone with Dale. There will be other clients, other projects, just like you said. I may even study cellular medicine. One of my uncles had—”
He covered her still chattering mouth, hoping to bring her concentration back to their foreplay, feeling a little guilty for cutting her off, until he came up for air and she picked up right where she left off.
“My uncle on my father’s side had a cellular practice. You would have thought he’d known about the effects of the vaccines he was dispensing, but I guess that wasn’t his fault. It was all so unexpected, you know?”
“Mari.” David ran a light finger down her nose to capture her attention. “Could we maybe talk about this later?”
“Sure,” she said, then whispered, “I’ll be quiet.”
“You don’t have to be quiet.” He remembered the delightful little groans and expressions of pleasure she’d uttered last night. “I like to know when I’m doing something good so I can do it again. And when I’m doing something wrong.”
“How about dirty talk?” She blushed, sending a jolt of desire straight to David’s groin as he thought of what could come out of that sweet, little mouth.
“That goes without saying.” He tapped a finger to his palm, telling his reporter to gently recline the nav chair.
He helped her strip off the tank and she helped him pull his t-shirt over his head. She maneuvered out of her skirt and panties.
“You still have your pants on.” She undid his belt and button. As she pulled down his zipper, he raised his hips and slid his pants and shorts down past his knees.
She ground against his hardness, stimulating them both. Her fingers slid over the head of his arousal, then lightly grasped his shaft.
“Show me how to touch you,” she said.
“Do whatever feels natural, honey. There’s no right or wrong.” He pressed his mouth against her ear to say, “I’m going to like it because it’s you.”
She shrugged against his chin as though the thought tickled her. He couldn’t keep the smile from spreading across his face.
“No, I mean I want you to show me.”
He realized this was her idea of talking dirty and it probably took a lot of nerve for her to ask him to do such a thing. The thought of touching himself was certainly not novel to him, or any guy, probably, but it was new for her.
He wanted to encourage her to experiment, to feel safe to try whatever she wanted with him, to learn about coupling and intimacy in the most enjoyable way possible, so he enclosed her small hand in his, tightening her grip on his shaft. The feeling of them stroking him together surprised him with its eroticism—no small feat for a man who had had more than his share of sex over the years. Maybe it was her innocence or that he was slowly stealing it away, but more likely it was because she was stealing his heart.
The thought made him timid in its discovery, which was why this simple act seemed so exposing. He let her touch him on her own, suddenly needing to pleasure her in return. It was a compulsion, to feel her folds, to tease his fingers inside her.
Her little gasp of pleasure undid him. He couldn’t wait any longer and lifted her so she could settle herself on top of him, putting her in control of their coupling this time.
She rocked back and forth, riding him unhurried, each movement igniting the pleasure in her coral-colored eyes. He couldn’t decide if he wanted to watch her face or kiss her. There was no way he could resist her mouth.
When her pace picked up and her breathing came in harsh little gasps, he let her pull away from the kiss so he could stare into her eyes while she came. Her fingers bit into his shoulders as she moved harder and harder against him. His heart beat faster in anticipation. He could have gone any time, but waited for her. It wasn’t long. The scream she let out as her body shuddered finished him.
She collapsed against him, and he held her close as her elated giggle danced across his chest.
THIRTEEN
Filling out reports is a waste of time.
David sent his meticulously detailed incident report to his private files via his reporter as he left the air conditioning of the contractors’ guild. He should have felt relieved, but he suspected Killian had his own motives for not including David or Mari in the official Embassy report. There was bound to be more trouble to come.
Maybe he should count them lucky. It would seem luck was in his favor recently, most of it centering on his new relationship with Mari. After their apologies on the bridge, she and David had had dinner in his suite, where they talked and laughed just like they always had. His constant caresses convinced her to stay the night.
He covered a yawn that turned into a smile. Sleep wasn’t a high priority last night, but he’d take the tiredness every day to have Mari all night, every night.
David’s reporter vibrated against his skin, signaling an incoming transmission. He eddied out of the flow of pedestrian traffic heading into the government building, hoping it was Mari saying she was on her way back already. He was hesitant for her to go to Dale’s estate alone, even if it was to tell him she wasn’t taking his project. After their argument and his behavior in Dale’s presence last time, he understood her wanting to do this on her own. Personally, he felt a nice message sent from the Bard would have sufficed, but Mari insisted she handle this in person as it was the professional way to respond. It was all over now, though, and within a few hours they’d be lifting off from Tampa Quad, on their way to pick up Geir.
An Armadan insignia flashed across the blue screen projected onto his palm with UNCLASSIFIED: CIVILIAN TRANSMISSION scrolling across Ben’s signature. It was an odd reminder of David’s new place in life.
“Hey, Ben. I thought I’d hear back from you yesterday. Big night?” David asked.
“Yes, but not in the way you think. I started following background trails for your guy Zapona. It took me a while to find out just how big a cocksucker he is.”
David didn’t like the sound of this already.
“He’s a real sleazy son of a bitch. Has ties to a suspected crime boss psychopath named Liu Stavros.” Ben paused, tension working at his jaw. “This doesn’t have anything to do with Mari, does it?”
David could tell by the worry in Ben’s expression that he wasn’t trying to make a joke.
“Why?”
“Because fleet intelligence has a special alert out for Liu Stavros. Though we can’t get past the Embassy firewalls on this one, it’s suspected in intelligence circles that Stavros is into human trafficking. Sex crimes. Mutilation. Torture. All the victims were purported to be young women, almost exclusively from Deleine, all with the same distinctive genetic mutation.”
“Coral-colored eyes.” Anger burned through David. “What is the guy still doing walking around?”
“Beats the shit out of me, except that every case against him has disappeared from public record. And so has Stavros for that matter. Guy’s a recluse.”
“Probably has an Embassy insider doing his cover-ups. Maybe using intimidation?” David asked.
“Or a payoff, but there would have to be some pretty heavy funds to keep someone, or several someones, quiet about rape and murder.”
David agreed. Especially about the rape. Sexual crimes were often dealt with more severely than murder simply because their society relied so much on the safety of sexual freedom. Not to mention the stigma attached to forcing yourself upon an unwilling partner when millions were available. Having so many choices was one of
the perks of multi-partner marriage, though many Armadans still subscribed to monogamy.
“It gets better. Eight months ago a covert fleet team pursued a lead to Stavros’ supplier in the trafficking trade, only the trail went dead when the local Embassy officials were contacted. None of the team made it back. Job got botched at an undisclosed location on Tampa Deux. Command error was the official response, but everyone following that op knows that’s bullshit. Someone leaked details to Stavros. Want to guess who the suspected supplier was?”
“Dale.” Alarms went off inside David’s head.
“I take it by that look of rage on your face this is bad news.”
“Mari’s on her way to see him right now.” The thought of her in a room alone with Dale had David’s blood boiling.
“You need any help with this fucker, fleet-sanctioned or otherwise, just say the word.”
Before Ben’s image even blinked out, David was already calling Mari’s reporter. Her messaging service picked up.
“Mari, head back to the Bard immediately. If you’re still at Dale’s, tell him there’s been an emergency. And message me when you’re on your way. I don’t want to scare you, but I believe you’re in danger.”
FOURTEEN
“Were you in the military?” Mari asked Carlos, trying to make small talk as he escorted her through the gate with that horrible tree emblazoned on it.
The question awarded her a glare, sending a shiver down her spine. This guy was as big as David, yet David’s size had never intimidated her, only made her feel secure. Carlos’ imposing frame had the exact opposite effect. She wanted to turn right around and call Dale safely from the other side of his gate.
Her finger absently touched her palm, hoping David may have left her an encouraging message, but nothing happened. When she saw her bare wrist, a sick feeling of vulnerability trickled into her chest.
“I forgot….” She had been so distracted this morning.
Carlos stopped and regarded her. “Forgot what?”
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