In response to that she gives a bounce, compressing his chest and knocking the wind out of him. As she stands up, she pulls him to his feet. Having no wind left in his lungs, he collapses into her arms and holds on so as not to fall backward into the rushing stream. Liking the feel of her in his arms and the smell of her hair, he lingers even after he catches his breath.
“Ahh give over you big baby. We haven’t done ‘that’ yet, so you have no reason to be panting,” she chides him without releasing him from her return hug.
“You bruised all my internal organs… I’m not sure if I’d be up for it anyway.”
“You calling me fat?” she asks, pushing him away so they can look in each other’s eyes. But before he can give a response, she grabs her things from the rock and pulls him off into the trees. Somehow she manages to get her shoes back on before they leave the moss-covered cavern floor.
Instead of leaving by the path he came in on, they take the main tunnel out and, after a few turns, are once more in the bustle of the underground city. People pushing carts hustle by, too busy to notice the couple holding hands and slinking along the walls, and certainly too busy to notice that one of the pair is their superior officer, even though she is carrying her uniform jacket, complete with insignia, and her shirt proclaims “Drill Instructor” in block lettering across the back.
When they reach an exceptionally narrow portion of the tunnel, they are forced into a small cutout to clear the way for a train of large mining equipment to pass by.
Finding himself in such a tight place with her pressed against him, he slides his arms around her waist and then down under her buttocks, so that each check rests firmly in a hand.
Turning her eyes up to meet his she asks, “So I guess you’ve forgiven me for sitting on you?”
“I guess so,” he replies. “You still might have to work hard to keep me from holding a grudge though.”
She smiles and pulls herself closer into his embrace, but before their moment can go any further, an awkward throat clearing alerts them to the presence of another in their hiding hole.
“Ma’am!” an embarrassed private stammers.
She turns to him, suddenly cold as ice, and returns his salute:
“Excuse me private, I did not see you there. Dismissed!”
The last piece of equipment rumbles by, painting the scene with its twirling yellow light and giving the bright red solider a chance to escape. The private vanishes. Turning back to Gavitte, her whole demeanor shifts.
“I like where that was going…” she says, grabbing his hand and leading him back out into the stream of traffic. “I think I know a place on the way to the first airlock with a few less bystanders to witness your total disregard of military protocols.”
“I have a few protocols in particular I’m thinking of disregarding,” he responds, giving her hand a squeeze.
Picking up the pace, she drags him at a sprint into a side tunnel and up a long flight of stairs. Reaching the top, she slows, then raises her hand to tell him to be quiet while she scans the room. With no intention of letting her get away this time or leading him off on any more wild dashes, he moves up behind her, sliding his hands along her hips and into the front pockets of her fatigues.
She gives up trying to focus on scanning the room and turns her head around so that he, who has been planting kisses on her neck, can plant them on her lips.
Despite her scanning, however, they are soon to be interrupted yet again, even though they are the only living souls in the room. A computer voice that has not uttered a word in over two-thousand years is beginning to stir itself.
It begins as a slow rumbling, almost too low to hear, then slowly raises its pitch. Upon reaching a level reasonably approximating the human baritone, it holds for a second before stopping. The tone is ignored completely by the two humans locked in each other’s embrace, both assuming it’s just some machinery somewhere turning on. But the voice that follows it is not to be ignored.
“Specimen found worthy. Begin launch sequence in ten. Welcome aboard.”
Startled from their romance, Gavitte realizes where he is: standing ten feet before the orb that was the focus of the presentation yesterday. The structure, which had been so dark when they’d entered the chamber that it blended into the shadows behind it, is now beginning to glow, with lines of white fire spreading across it. Somewhere deep in the bowels of the mountain, a low rumbling begins, causing the entire mountain to shake and resulting in the automatic lockdown of the entire base. The voice is not done:
“Living areas secure. Launch sequence begun.” It begins counting down, leaving both Gavitte and Angelina to stare dumbfounded into the dancing flames covering the orb’s surface. They hang on to each other a little bit tighter.
Feeling like the plot is unresolved?
Seeds to the Wind, part two of the Medicean Stars Saga is out now.
Land Fall, part three of the Medicean Stars Saga is coming soon.
Want the latest info on the Medicean Stars?
Follow me and my books on Facebook at:
facebook.com/McCullough.Crawford
Dedication (The Medicean Stars Saga Book 1) Page 21