by Ann Gimpel
Her body stiffened where it rested against his, but she didn’t pull away. “I suppose you could come into the backcountry and visit me,” she ventured after a long silence.
“I could, but I want more than just visiting you.” He paused long enough for a measured breath. “We’re far from kids. I’ve been searching for a woman who loves what I do for a long time. We could be really good together, Sara. I know it.”
She twisted out from under his arm and looked at him. The rays from the setting sun illuminated her face, giving her an otherworldly look that transcended beauty. “I’ve thought the same thing, and told myself I was being ridiculous. That we don’t know each other well enough.” Something like hope flared from the depths of her blue-gray eyes.
He laid his hand along her jawline, and she angled her face against it. “We may not know each other well yet, but we know ourselves. You understand why you’re still alone, and so do I. If you think we might have a chance as a couple, and I believe the same thing, I’d say that’s a really strong start.”
“But how—”
“Anyway we want to. You can keep working. I could hire on as a doc with the Park Service during the summers. We could split the year up. Surely you’re not manning McClure through the winter.”
“No. I’m at Park Headquarters in Three Rivers then.”
“See. Easy. I could move a branch of my lab there. Or I could move the whole thing. Depends how my staff feel about switching locations.” He took a breath. God, she was the most beautiful creature. The bones in her face would’ve done a goddess proud. “Please say yes, Sara.”
A smile split her face, making her even more stunning. “Just what am I saying yes to?”
“To giving us a chance.”
She placed her hand over his, her fingers cold since she wasn’t wearing gloves. “How could I not? I want to get to know who you are too.”
He drew her into his arms and kissed her, soft and tender at first, but need raced through him, heating his blood with desire for the woman in his arms. She kissed him back as if her life depended on maintaining contact with his mouth. He recognized that level of intensity, twin to his own. It was how he approached everything in his life. Full steam ahead, throttle wide open.
He wove his hands into her hair and plumbed her mouth with his tongue. She opened for him, tasting of tea and scotch and Sara. She teased his tongue with hers and nibbled and bit his lips. He teased back, and she wrapped her arms around him. A chill wind tossed the last of the season’s leaves from aspen trees growing by the creek, but he burned with an inner fire that consumed everything in its path.
Cupping a hand over a breast, he rubbed her nipple through multiple layers of clothing, and she moaned into his mouth. He broke their kiss. “I want to make love with you.”
“Me too.” She laughed, and color lent a rosy cast to her tanned skin. “I want you too.”
“Should we go inside?”
“Do you want to?” She glanced at the top of the canyon walls where the sunset painted the sky in teal and violet and pink. “We’ll miss the sunset.”
“If you’re sure you won’t be cold, we can have it all. Each other and the sunset.”
“Cold isn’t much of a possibility with you next to me.” She laughed again. “We can get fancier later, but this rock’s looking like a pretty promising surface all of a sudden.”
“We did warm it up sitting on it.”
“See. The backcountry is full of possibilities.” She grinned coquettishly, unzipped her jacket and drew his hand inside, atop her breasts, but still with fabric in between.
He took her hardened nipples between his fingers and tweaked them, using her moans as a roadmap for what to do more of. She snaked a hand out, settling it on his erection, and he pushed his free hand between her legs. Hunger snared him, and he wanted to sink inside of her with a desperation that turned even his live-on-the-edge world upside down.
Her boots would have to go, so he reached for one, but she said, “I have a better idea.” Breathlessly jackknifing out of his grasp, she twisted away and undid her pants, letting them fall partway down her legs as she bent over the flat rock he still sat on. The perfect globes of her ass framed her sex in the rays of the dying sun, dark curls spiky with moisture.
He touched her folds almost reverently, tickling, teasing, rubbing until she gasped with delight, hips rocking against his fingers. Meantime, his cock swelled almost to a point of pain where it was trapped between his shorts and pants. She bucked her hips in clear invitation, and he stood and unzipped his pants, freeing himself.
Wrapping a hand around his erection, he guided it to the entrance to her body and steadied them with a hand on her hip. Slowly, ever so slowly, he sank inside her. Feeling the scorching heat of her surround him was ecstasy, and he clung to a ragged edge of control. She clenched her muscles around him, and he groaned with delight. Being inside her was amazing, incredible.
When he felt like he could move without pushing himself into an orgasm, he withdrew almost all the way, and then slid back inside. Reaching around, he rubbed her clit, while he continued his long, slow strokes into her molten core. She dissolved around him in a flood of liquid heat, and he felt the rhythmic contractions of her climax around his shaft.
It was tempting, so tempting to move up his tempo, to drive into her until he exploded, but he held back. He wanted to make her come again before he reached his peak, but wasn’t certain his body would cooperate. In an effort to up the odds, he withdrew, missing the warmth of her vault immediately.
“Come back here.” She twisted so she could look at him over a shoulder. “We’re not done. Specifically, you’re not.”
“You had it right the first time.”
Kneeling behind her, he bent so he could lick her pussy. The angle was awkward, and he tongue-fucked her while rolling her clit between his fingers. The tempo of her breathing escalated and she thrust her hips against his mouth and fingers, writhing beneath his touch. Her juices streaked his face, and her scent was intoxicating. When he was certain she was close, he straightened and pressed his cock back inside her.
She screamed her delight and shoved against him, forcing him into a rhythm that would topple him into release. The slow, cadenced lovemaking from earlier fled like chaff in a stiff wind and he slammed into her, hands on her hips, wanting nothing more than to take her, brand her, make her his.
Her pussy muscles milked him, clenching in spasms signaling her orgasm. He let himself go and felt semen judder out of him so hard a feral cry burst from his mouth. He gripped her so tightly, he prayed he didn’t hurt her, but he needed intense contact with all of her.
They remained like that, her bent over the flat rock and him standing behind her until their breathing moved from gasps and pants to something slower. He pulled out of her and drew her to her feet, turning her to face him.
“Sara, darling. That was one of the most powerful experiences I’ve ever had.”
“Glad it wasn’t just me.” She closed fingers over his exposed, still-erect cock, tucking him back inside his pants.
He tugged her trousers up her legs and helped her set herself to rights. Kleenex materialized from one of their pockets, and she blotted herself with it.
“Imagine what we could do with a double bed,” he murmured.
“We had a bed inside,” she reminded him. “We would’ve missed the sunset.”
He glanced at the sky, still streaked with pink. “It sounds hokey, but it’s like nature was smiling on us.”
“She was. I’m sure of it. Every ancient religion held outdoor ceremonies where they blessed the earth by making love on it.”
Jared pulled her close and kissed her forehead, her eyelids, her cheeks, and her lips. When he was done, he said, “Speaking of Earth, I wonder how things are going up in the Muir Hut.”
“Well, we haven’t heard anything...unusual, so maybe it’s not premature to hope for the best.”
Jake bounded out of some nearby b
ushes with something clamped in his jaws.
“Guess he burned up the time we were making love hunting.” Sara laughed and leaned into Jared.
He loved how she laughed, wanted her to be happy for the rest of her days. “Ready to go inside?”
She nodded. “Yeah. We should check on Christine. I really don’t feel right leaving her on that mat outside the cabin.”
He latched an arm around her waist, and they walked back to the ranger cabin together, hips bumping against one another. Jake ran ahead, and began growling and snarling at something.
“Damn! What could it possibly be now?” Sara ducked from beneath his embrace and broke into a lope.
Jared ran behind her, ready for anything, and cursed having left his weapon in the cabin. In what was left of the daylight, he saw Sara stoop over the pallet where he’d laid Christine.
“Shit, aw shit.” Sara turned to him, gesturing at Christine’s inert form behind her.
“What?” Jared hastened forward, and stopped cold.
Where Christine had lain was...something else. He knelt and folded his fingers around what might have been a wrist, hunting for a pulse, but the thing before them was clearly dead.
“What the fuck is it?” Sara’s voice took on a shrill note. “It doesn’t look anything like Lonnie or Stuart.”
“No. This looks like something out of Close Encounters. It’s dead. It can’t hurt us.”
“I don’t care about that. Why’d it change from Christine to this?”
“I have no idea.”
“Did you notice anything odd while you worked on her?”
“No. Mangled tissue appears pretty much the same across species, though. Radius and ulna looked close enough to human, they didn’t alert me.” He stared at the body with a clinical detachment honed by long years in the lab. The humanoid was built rather like Christine, but with elongated limbs and almost elven facial features. He tugged an eyelid open and was met with a vertical slit pupil.
In the meantime, Sara was looking closely at the ground around the body. “No one’s come or gone since we went to the river,” she noted, “but I’m guessing that entire group probably aren’t NASA scientists any more than I am.”
Jared straightened slowly. “You believe the whole mess of them are some other kind of alien?”
Sara nodded. “Yup. I think we were played. No reason two groups of those fuckers couldn’t have tag-teamed showing up on Earth. The only part that makes any kind of sense is that whoever the fake-NASA group is, they’re on our side. And they needed our help getting rid of the other ones.”
“Say more.”
“Not sure there’s more to say. I’ve read enough science fiction. If the human Christine required energy to maintain her illusory form, that energy would’ve dissipated after she died. Jesus! Can this whole mess get any more convoluted? I’m going inside.”
“Sure. I’ll be there in a few.”
Clucking to Jake, she walked up the steps and into the cabin.
Jared stood staring at the corpse for a long time, trying to make sense of any of it and not doing a very good job. Sara’s theory was logical, but there had to be more to it. Wondering if they’d ever get enough details to fill in the blank spots, he finally trudged up the steps to join Sara.
Chapter Ten
Sara fell into an uneasy doze cradled against Jared in the narrow bunk. Not exactly asleep, she wasn’t truly awake, either. They’d tried to talk over possibilities, but ended up chasing their tails. Jake slept on the floor near the door, as if he sensed the need to keep watch.
A whine from the dog slammed her back to wakefulness. Running on instincts which rarely failed her, she bolted from the bed. Since she hadn’t bothered to undress, all she had to do was zip her parka and stuff her feet into her boots, not bothering with the laces. Sara crossed the small space and pulled the door open, grabbing her gun off the table as she passed by.
Jake bolted through the door the second it opened, and his whines turned to full-fledged barks.
Sara recognized the bark pattern. It was the one that told whoever he’d cornered to stop in their tracks. She flicked the gun’s safety off and barreled down the steps.
“Freeze,” she yelled.
“What is it?” Jared joined her. Sleep fuzzed his question, but he had his gun in hand too.
Sara rounded the corner of the cabin in time to see three of the fake NASA group with Christine’s body slung between. “Stop or I’ll shoot.”
“And what exactly would that accomplish?” The bald man turned to face her, motioning to the others to set Christine’s body down.
“We need answers,” Jared said.
“We sure as hell do,” Sara seconded. “What are you? Why are you here?”
The tall, thin woman stepped from shadows. “It doesn’t matter. You never saw us. No one would believe you anyway.”
Jared blew out a weary breath. “I understand you came to get Christine—or whatever her name really is. You fucked up, though. She died—and transformed—before you returned for her.”
“It was a miscalculation on our part,” the bald man conceded. He exchanged glances with the dark-haired woman.
She nodded and moved a little closer. “We could wipe your memories, but you helped us, so we’ll tell you a little. Probably not enough to satisfy you, but it will have to do. The deal is this. I’ll talk. You listen. No questions. Not while I’m talking, and not when I’m done.”
“Fair enough,” Sara said. Figuring she wouldn’t need her weapon, she clicked on the safety and stuffed it into a pocket. “But I do have one before you start. Were the rest of you successful at interrupting the harmonic that supported the other...” She stumbled over what word to use, but the woman saved her the trouble of questing about for something other than aliens.
“Yes. The ones who appeared to be large reptiles won’t bother you any further. Last warning, though. One more question, and we’ll simply leave.”
“Got it,” Sara said through tight lips.
“Me too,” Jared seconded.
Jake stood between her and the group who’d come for Christine, hackles raised, still growling. Sara called him to her side.
“Do you want to take this?” the woman asked the bald man.
He shook his head. “Your idea. Your party. If it would’ve been my call, I’d just have left. I never believed they’d shoot us in the back in cold blood.”
The woman crossed her arms over her chest. “There are more varieties of intelligent life than you can imagine. The ones who wished to storm Earth for its mineral wealth were one. We’re another, but don’t make the mistake of believing what you likely learned about in school about there only being six of us.”
Questions bubbled through Sara’s mind. She wanted to ask if they really worked for NASA. If they’d infiltrated Earth so thoroughly they could blend in with humans, but she bit her tongue.
“I can read your mind,” the woman said. “It’s really quite useful. And yes, we do work for NASA, and we do live here. Have for generations. We were the ones who suggested the trade agreement, mostly because we wanted to study that particular species. We had no idea they’d would take it upon themselves to breach your boundaries, intent on establishing dominion. Once they did, we were the logical line of defense.
“If we’d established corrective measures sooner, we could’ve stopped them cold, but we argued among ourselves far too long. By the time we understood action was imperative, it was almost too late.”
“Are there more like you?” Jared asked, followed by, “Sorry. Forget I asked.”
“The less you know, the better,” the woman said. “For now, it’s enough to understand Earth is safe again. You’ll return to some fallout, some destruction, but it could’ve been so much worse.”
“Your best bet,” the bald man spoke, surprising Sara, “would be to go through whatever process you usually follow and close up the ranger cabins for winter. By the time you return to civilization, the
authorities will have things well in hand.”
Sara nodded. “One thing I do need to know is if your colleagues are still at the Muir Hut. They had such a hard time getting up there, will they need assistance exiting the backcountry?”
“It’s a fair question,” the bald man said. “You don’t have to worry about them. They’re at the hut, but we’re in contact with them. Remember, they needed to transmit for twenty-four to thirty-six hours. They’ll leave once their task is done. We’ve dispatched a ship to pick them up. The atmosphere is difficult for us at altitude, but they’ll be fine.”
“A ship?” Jared said in a strangled-sounding voice. “You have spaceships too?”
The woman laughed. “Why wouldn’t we? Our technology is lightyears ahead of theirs.”
“Never mind. I really will keep my mouth shut,” Jared muttered.
“We’re leaving now,” the bald man said. “Don’t try to find us at NASA or anywhere else.”
“Why not?” Sara asked. “There’s still a whole lot I want to know.”
The woman rounded on her. “Because some things need to remain secret. What would’ve happened to your precious planet if we weren’t here, behind the scenes, ready to pick up the banner and fight for you?”
“You had a closer call than you realize,” the bald man said. “Leave it at that. I would commit you both to secrecy, though. If you can’t make a promise I trust, we’ll erase your memory of us.”
“You have my word.” Jared squared his shoulders. “Look into my mind, or however you verify things.”
“Mine too.” Sara said. Life was full of unsolved mysteries. At least this one had a few answers.
“That was why Christine wanted to be outside,” Jared blurted. “So you could retrieve her.”
“Smart man.” The woman bent and picked up one of Christine’s legs. The others gathered more of their fallen companion and faded into the still, black night with her body suspended between them.
Jake sent a parting bark after them, looking pleased with himself. And why not? In his doggy brain, he’d chased off the intruders and kept his mistress safe from harm—again.