THE OFF WORLD COLLECTION (Short, Steamy Science Fiction Romances) (Off-World Series)

by Rebecca York

  She told herself that was unlikely. Tucker Lowden didn’t know where she’d gone. And even if he did, he couldn’t get here. She prayed to the fates that was true as she snuggled against her new husband.

  He kissed her cheek and stroked his hand up and down her arm. “We could have made a baby.”

  She gulped. “No.”

  “You sound pretty sure of that. How do you know for sure? I mean, weren’t all the brides prime breeding stock?” he asked, an edge in his voice.

  She raised up and looked at him. “Yes. But the brides all got contraceptive implants. They last for six months. They didn’t tell you?”

  “No.”

  “I’m sorry. I guess they wanted to make sure the relationships were solid before they produced any children.”

  “It would have been nice of them to mention it to the husbands.”

  “They should have, but it’s probably better this way. I mean, we have time to get to know each other before we have to worry about children.”

  “Is that something that worries you?”

  “I guess that came out wrong,” she whispered. Should she say she wanted to have his children? That was part of the deal for the women coming to Palomar, of course. But she hadn’t thought too much about the future. She’d thought of her new husband, not of a family. It was a new concept to her. Always before, she had thanked the fates she’d never gotten pregnant. Now things were different, but the idea of being responsible for a child was something she’d have to get used to.

  “I don’t have to worry about your delivering a baby,” she said, hoping to change the tenor of the conversation.

  “You’re not a horse.”

  “That probably makes it easier.”

  The conversation was making her feel uncomfortable. A little while ago, he’d made her feel wonderful. Now she was worried that she’d stumbled into the wrong territory.

  She was relieved when he said, “We should both get some sleep.”

  “Yes,” she answered, ordering herself to relax.

  Chapter Eight

  Caleb lay back with his arm around his wife’s shoulder.

  His wife. The concept was still so shiny that it seemed unreal.

  The magic of making love with her had swept him away. She knew he hadn’t done it before, and she’d made it good for both of them. She’d taught him things without ordering him around, and she’d given him permission to do things that he’d only dreamed about. For a few moments, as he lay in bed beside her, he thought about what else he’d like to do with her.

  It was obvious she had a lot of experience in bed. Probably that was a good thing because one of them had known what they were doing. But now that they’d done it, he wanted to ask her questions. Like who had she been with? And how many men had she done it with?

  Did he have a right to know those things? Or was it better not to probe? Or maybe she’d tell him on her own—if she really trusted him.

  All those thoughts whirled in his head. Partly because he’d sensed that she was nervous afterwards. Or was he annoyed with her because of the contraceptive implant. That wasn’t her fault. Of course, maybe she’d really been given a choice, and now she was lying about it.

  He brought himself up short. He should be feeling closer to her after they’d done it. He shouldn’t be coming up with all these questions and suspicions. Yet he simply couldn’t stop himself.

  It took a while for him to fall asleep. But he woke at his usual time. Remembering the good parts of the night before, he turned toward the other side of the bed. Beka wasn’t there.

  He sat up quickly and looked toward the bathroom. The door was open, and she wasn’t there, either.

  Quietly he climbed out of bed and pulled on his briefs and work pants. When he padded barefoot into the front room, he found Beka had opened her comms unit and was watching the guy who told the news. When she sensed him behind her, she stiffened.

  “What are you doing?” he asked.

  “Checking the news and the weather.”

  “How is the weather?”

  “Fine.” She kept her back to him. “I’m sorry if I woke you.”

  “You didn’t. This is when I usually get up.”

  She nodded. “I’ll get breakfast while you get dressed.”

  “Good.

  He turned away and headed for the bathroom, feeling the stiffness of the conversation. Last night they’d reached a new level of physical intimacy, but that didn’t mean that they were entirely comfortable with each other.

  Really, were they less comfortable? Or was it just him?

  Was he having second thoughts about her? Because she’d been so cooperative in bed? Like she wanted to seal their relationship. Or bind him to her.

  Wouldn’t any wife want to seal the relationship with her new husband? Was he faulting her for that—or for what?

  And wouldn’t any husband be thankful for a pretty bride who was enthusiastic about making love?

  When he came back to the prep area, he saw that along with coffee, she’d fixed cured meat and eggs, with toast and butter. She looked at him anxiously as he sat down. “Is that about the right amount of food?”

  “It’s fine.”

  “You eat better here than we did on Elmen.”

  “Partly because I raise a lot of my own provisions. And partly because I have the credits to buy anything else I need.” He took several bites of his eggs. “But I’ve had some extra expenses, of course.”

  “I guess because of me?” she asked.

  “Yeah. I wanted the place to look decent.”

  “It does. More than decent.”

  He ate quickly.

  “You’re in a hurry to get to work?”

  “Yeah. I’m in the middle of an agricultural project for the government.”

  When she kept her gaze on him, he said, “They use the farmsteads to test experimental crops. I agreed to grow a new strain of genetically engineered wheat. Something that’s supposed to be perfectly adapted for Palomar. And I agreed to check it every two weeks and report in.”

  He pushed back his chair. “I’ll go out there and do it. And while I’m out, I’m going to check the force fence around number two pasture so I can put Silla and Caramel out.”

  “Okay. Do you have anything in particular you want me to do while you’re gone?”

  “Do you know how to check the chicken house for eggs?”

  “Yes.”

  “Gather them up and bring them in.” He kept his gaze on her. “And do you know how to clean out a roosting house?”

  “Yes.”

  “If you could do it too, that would be great.”

  “Okay.”

  “Actually, I’ve got a poop pit under the laying area. You can open the door in the back and get the stuff out that way. Put the droppings and the dirty straw into the fertilizer bin in back of the barn.

  “Okay,” she said again.

  “You’ll find everything you need in the cabinets. Don’t forget safety goggles and gloves.”

  “Uh huh.”

  “And I use the same clean straw that I use for the horses.”

  “Do you have any old clothes I can wear?”

  “There are coveralls in a storage locker in the barn. And the other stuff you’ll need, like the eye protectors and a mask.”

  He walked out of the house, thinking he’d like to make a call on his comms unit. To one of the other guys who’d been lucky enough to draw a bride.

  He’d like to ask, “Did all of the gals get contraceptive implants before they came here? Or did yours?” But there was no way he could make that call, because it would be too revealing. Which meant all he could do was keep on keeping on—until he found out what was really going on, one way or the other.

  oOo

  Beka watched Caleb turn and stride toward the barn. He came out riding a small tractor. A length of rope was coiled around his shoulder, and she wondered what he was planning to do. She didn’t think you needed rope to check on
wheat.

  When he was gone, she stepped into the farmyard and watched where he was going. As he disappeared from sight on the other side of a low rise, she sighed and turned back to clean up the prep area.

  Last night when they’d made love, they’d been so close. Now it felt like he was deliberately pulling away from her. Because he was worried about exposing his emotions to her? Or what?

  Once again, she wondered if she’d made a mistake in not being perfectly honest with him about her past.

  Yet every time she thought about starting that conversation, her chest tightened. Wasn’t it better to make sure he was committed to her before she told him? And then what if he was finally feeling close to her and she sprang that on him—and he pulled away.

  She took her bottom lip between her teeth as she finished up the dishes. Then she went out to the henhouse to gather the eggs.

  When she came out, she looked for Caleb, but he wasn’t back, so she went on to the next job.

  First she checked the equipment. As promised, she found gloves and safety goggles, also a face mask, a rake, a shovel, disinfectant and some other necessary items.

  The chore wasn’t as bad as it might have been because he kept the chickens in their fenced yard as much as they were in the henhouse. And the droppings inside were dry. She knew that water was what made them smell bad.

  It couldn’t have been too long since he’d mucked it out because it was relatively clean. Was this some kind of test to see if she really did know how to do farm work?

  Well, she wasn’t going to complain about it. She was going to do the job and let him know she was a team player. And really, it wasn’t hard work, just earthy.

  Again when she was finished, she looked for Caleb, and again she didn’t see him. She threw the coveralls into the dirty clothes bin, took a shower and changed her clothes.

  Caleb still wasn’t back, and now she couldn’t help worrying about him. When she tried to raise him on the comms line, she found that his unit was switched off, which worried her more.

  Well, he couldn’t be too far away. She could go out there and find him.

  She had already started off in the same direction when she remembered that he was wearing his beamer. Which meant that she should probably take hers, too.

  After retrieving the weapon from the charger, she buckled it onto her hip and took the path that Caleb had taken away from the main farmyard.

  When she got to the top of the rise, she shaded her eyes with her hand and looked around. To one side was a small stand of trees. Directly in front of her was a square wheat field. And Caleb was at the near side. He was on the tractor. Behind him, the rope was tied to a tree stump and stretched taut. As she watched, he moved the vehicle forward. The tree stump heaved but didn’t come out of the ground. He stopped and started again, and finally it came free, tumbling across the dirt at the edge of the field. Getting off, he walked back toward the stump and inspected the bared roots.

  There were about seventy meters of space between where she was standing and the wheat field. She started down the rise, her gaze fixed on him. Then a rustling in the trees made her turn toward the sound. An enormous animal lumbered out of the shadows where it must have been hiding. It stood about three meters tall on four thick, muscular legs and was covered with shaggy brown fur. As she stared at it, she realized it was the thing Caleb had called a granling. It must have been watching from the shadows and picked up speed as it made for her. She went very still, expecting that it would be stopped by the force fence that Caleb maintained.

  It did stop momentarily, then lowered its head and charged through the invisible barrier.

  But how? Hadn’t Caleb protected himself when he’d come out here?

  She screamed, and Caleb’s head jerked up. A look of horror bloomed on his features as he took in the situation.

  For a long moment, she could only stand where she was—paralyzed as the monster pelted toward her. She saw small black eyes, an elongated face, and an open mouth with long, sharp yellow teeth. And as the beast picked up speed, its long claws dug up the ground.

  She could turn and run. But she knew there was no way she could reach the safety of the farmyard before the thing brought her down and sank those wicked teeth into her neck. She heard the beast’s breath. Saw the lips curl back and the eyes turn eager, and she knew she was facing death.

  Chapter Nine

  A moment of clarity came to her as she remembered that she wasn’t defenseless prey. She was wearing a weapon. With only seconds to act, she pulled the beamer and pointed it at the animal. Clamping her finger on the trigger, she sent streak of energy toward the charging animal. At the same time, another streak came from the side, and she knew that Caleb had fired, too.

  The granling dropped less than a meter from her, a roar escaping from its mouth as it twitched on the ground.

  Caleb ran toward her, catching her in his arms, moving her away from the intruder.

  “Thank the fates you’re all right.”

  She nodded against his shoulder.

  “Good going with the beamer.”

  “You, too.”

  He held on to her tightly, but she could feel him fiddling with the comms unit.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Turning up the field. It wasn’t at full strength right here.”

  “Why?”

  “I had it at minimum to conserve energy. I would have jacked it up again when I came back that way.”

  “I didn’t know that’s how you did it.”

  She felt herself shaking in reaction. He stroked her back, ran his fingers through her hair.

  “You’re all right. Thank the universe you’re all right.”

  When she heard him curse under his breath, she said, “You’re mad at me?”

  “I’m mad at myself. I should have told you how I work things.”

  “You mean put yourself in danger?”

  “I wasn’t in danger,” he ground out. “But I should have warned you.”

  “Your unit was off.”

  “Yeah. I’m not used to having it on. For obvious reasons.”

  Right. He’d lived by himself for ten years.

  He moved her toward the farmyard.

  “I didn’t hear from you, and then you didn’t come back, and I was worried.”

  “Stupid of me. Something was wonky on the tractor. I had to fiddle with the engine to get up enough power to pull out that stump.”

  “Oh.”

  She was still shaking with emotion as they reached the house and stepped inside. She turned in his arms, raising her face as he lowered his head.

  Their mouths met in a frantic kiss that held a mixture of passion and relief.

  She could have been killed out there, but she was alive in Caleb Raider’s arms and knew she had to get closer to him, as close as she could possibly get. And he must have felt the same because when she started fumbling with the fastener at the top of his work pants, he reached for hers.

  They were in too much of a hurry to bother with niceties or finesse. He yanked down her pants along with her underwear. She tugged at his, and they fell onto the rug together. She rolled to her back and kicked off one pants leg so she could open her thighs.

  As though he had done it a million times, he came down between them, and she guided him to her, crying out as he entered her.

  His hips moved in a frantic rhythm, and she matched him stroke for stroke. They came in a burst of passion, and he collapsed on top of her, both of them breathing hard.

  He held her tightly.

  His voice was hoarse. “When I saw that granling coming toward you, my heart stopped.”

  “Mine too.”

  “But you didn’t stop thinking.”

  They stayed where they were for a long time, and she thought about finally starting to talk about her past, maybe leading up to the big secret that was weighing on her. In the end, she chickened out and simply allowed herself to enjoy being in his arms again.

>   “We’re lying on the sitting-room rug,” he finally said.

  “I guess the bed was too far away.”

  “Yeah.” He cleared his throat. “There’s stuff I do automatically because it’s the way I’ve worked it my whole life. But I have to make sure you know how to take care of yourself here. We’re going to spend the rest of today learning about the farm. Especially the safety procedures.”

  “You turned off the force field to save energy?”

  “Yeah. And I’ll still have to do that. But I’ll make sure I tell you.”

  He took her around the farm, inside the barn and around the property, telling her what he did at each location and how he did it, along with how he kept himself safe.

  By the end of the tour, she was starting to feel better about their relationship. But he seemed to withdraw again at dinner. And after they’d cleaned up together, he said, “I’ve got some things to do. You go on to bed, and I’ll join you later.”

  She nodded and got ready for bed, waiting for him to appear in the doorway. She tried to stay awake, waiting for him. But the events of the day had taken their toll, and finally she fell asleep.

  In the morning, she could tell he’d slept in the bed, but he’d gotten up early. And gone out. So was he avoiding her again? And why, exactly?

  oOo

  Caleb came in from the barn while Beka was making breakfast.

  She fried up some potatoes left over from dinner and served them along with the eggs and cured meat they hadn’t finished yesterday.

  Leaning back, he sipped from his coffee mug and said, “I didn’t show you the catborn mine yesterday.”

  “Is it close?”

  “We’ll go over there this morning, and I’ll dig some more of the stuff out.”

  He saw her gripping her fork. “You said your father was killed in the mine.”

  “Uh huh.”

  “Why do you still work it?”

  “I need the credits. Or if I had more of them, maybe I wouldn’t have to turn down the force field in an area after I go through it.”

  She looked like she wanted to question him about that, but she pressed her lips together.

  “I’m taking you with me.”