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

by Rebecca York

  Caleb emerged from the tunnel entrance, his weapon in his hand.

  He walked toward Tucker, stood over the man and drilled him again.

  Then he pulled his comms unit out of his pocket and moved his fingers over it.

  “What is the nature of your emergency?” a voice asked.

  “This is Caleb Raider. I am at my catborn mine. Someone came to try and invade the property. I believe he’s from off world. He has explosives in his hauler. I drilled him. You’ll find him just outside the mine entrance. I’m leaving for my homestead. You can come and get him.”

  “Got it,” the voice said.

  Through the dispassionate speech, Beka stood in stunned silence. Caleb had said nothing about Tucker’s real reason for being here.

  When he was finished with the call, he turned to her.

  “Come on,” he said in a tight voice.

  “Where?”

  “Back to the homestead.”

  She swallowed hard and walked to the hauler. When she was inside, he used the controller to close the door to the mine. Then he climbed into the other side of the hauler, took the controls and lifted off quickly.

  She cut him a sidewise glance as they lifted off and headed for home, seeing the stony expression on his face.

  “I’m sorry,” she whispered.

  “Yeah, I’ll bet.”

  The words and the tone of his voice made her feel sick. Sicker than she’d felt when Tucker Lowden had held her at gunpoint. As she huddled in the seat, she fought not to start shaking.

  They were back at the farmyard only a few minutes later. Without looking at Caleb, she got out and walked stiff-legged into the house, into the bedroom, where she started opening drawers and taking her clothing out.

  She piled them on the bed and then found the crate that she’d put into the storage bay. As she began to stow her things, she blinked back tears. Against all odds, she’d found the right man. Now that she’d lost him, she knew she should have been honest with him from the first.

  When the light in the doorway changed she brushed the tears out of her eyes and looked up. Caleb was standing there watching her.

  “What are you doing?” he asked.

  “Packing my things.”

  “You want to leave?”

  She took her bottom lip between her teeth. She hadn’t been honest with him, but now she knew that she had to be—no matter what it cost her.

  Raising her chin, she said, “No.”

  “Then why are you packing?”

  “Because I figured you’d want me out of here.”

  Instead of agreeing, he said, “Maybe you should tell me the stuff you didn’t say.”

  “Can I sit down?”

  “Yeah. In the front room.”

  He moved aside, and she walked into the sitting area, where she lowered herself into one of the armchairs.

  Maybe the worst had already happened, and it wouldn’t make any difference if she spouted everything.

  “I told you I grew up on a farm,” she said in a flat voice. “Not a very prosperous farm because my father drank up a lot of the profits. But he figured out a way to make extra money. When I was fifteen, he invited a guy out to the house to take my virginity. It was a very successful transaction for him, and he repeated the experience several times. Well, not the virginity part. He didn’t want to eat up his profits with an operation to make it seem like I was still intact.”

  She couldn’t look him in the face as she spoke. Instead she kept her gaze on the hands that were twisted together in her lap.

  “After the fifth guy, I stole the money I knew he was hiding in the barn and ran away—to Mitchell City. I didn’t know much about the city. I suppose I could have gotten in worse trouble than on the farm. But actually, I was lucky. Do-gooders found me, and I got into this kind of workhouse where they took in kids living on the streets. I got to go to school and work to earn my keep—in their laundry and the food prep area. That was the best time of my life. Pathetic, isn’t it?”

  She rushed ahead, anxious to get the story over with now that she’d started. “But then I got too old to live there. They had to make room for new kids, and I had to move out. They gave me a month’s rent and found me a little room and a job like I’d had there, but it didn’t pay enough credits to live on. I didn’t have a lot of options, and I went looking for someone who could help me out. I met this guy named Eddie Platman who seemed decent. And he was, more or less. I thought that maybe the two of us were making a life together. I tried to be a good partner to him, and I thought it was working out okay. Only it turned out he wasn’t seeing our relationship in the same terms. For him it was just a convenience. He had someone at home who could cook for him and do what he wanted in bed. He was a man who liked his creature comforts. But he also liked to gamble, and one night he didn’t have anything to put up—except me. He lost me in a pounders game—to Tucker Lowden. He’d been watching me for weeks, and I was sure he wanted to take me away from Eddie.”

  She made a strangled sound. “I guess you could tell Tucker was very taken with me. Very possessive. Very controlling. Very cruel. I knew I had to get away from him before he killed me—or I killed him. But I was sure he’d do something awful if he found me. So I started making arrangements to join a bride shipment. I did it in secret. And I thought I’d gotten away with it. Only he must have figured it out and sent that guy to get me at the spaceport.”

  She swallowed hard and forced herself to keep going. “No relationship had ever worked out for me before, so I was nervous the whole way to Palomar. Then I met my new husband, and it was you. You proved you’d fight for me. And when you got me off alone, I started getting to know you. I liked you right away, and I could tell you were decent, better than any other man I’d ever been with. But it was hard for me to completely trust anyone. I thought that if I made it good in bed for you, you’d . . .” She raised one shoulder. “I don’t know, maybe you’d bond with me. Making love with you was freeing. It made me feel wonderful. And I was sure you liked it, too. But then I realized that it wasn’t working the way I wanted. You could tell I was hiding something, and that was pushing you away from me.” She kept her head down. “And yes, you were right. Not all the brides got a contraceptive implant. We had the option, and I took it because I hadn’t met you yet, and I was afraid that I’d end up with a guy who wouldn’t be any better than Eddie Platman. And I knew I’d have enough trouble on my own on Palomar. I was afraid to have a child to be responsible for, too.”

  When he said nothing, she forced herself to raise her head and looked at him, startled to see tears in his eyes. No man she had ever met would have let a woman see him so vulnerable. That knowledge made her throat close. What had she thrown away by not trusting him?

  He spoke for the first time since they’d been sitting opposite each other.

  “Who broke your wrist?”

  “Tucker.” She dragged in a breath and let it out.

  “And back on the farm, what about your mother?”

  “I told you, women aren’t equal to men where I come from. Mom was too afraid of Dad to go against him in anything. So she let those men rape me, then gave me a pill that would keep me from getting pregnant after.” She closed her eyes for a moment, then opened them before saying the hardest part. “You can give me a ride back to Listerville, and I’ll be out of your life. I hope you have better luck next time.”

  When she stood, he did too.

  “Do you want to leave me?” he asked in a gritty voice.

  Her answer was immediate. “Of course not.”

  “Then don’t.”

  “You want me?” she asked, hardly daring to hope that she hadn’t cocked up everything between them.

  He crossed to her and pulled her into his arms. For a moment she couldn’t unbend. Then she let her body mold itself to his and brought her arms up to cling to him.

  “Beka, I thought I’d had a rough life, being dumped on this homestead with my father and with almo
st nothing. It was a luxury vacation compared to what you went through.”

  “You’re not disgusted by what I told you?” she managed to ask.

  “Of course not. It made me understand a lot.”

  “I was afraid you’d be sickened by my story.”

  “No. Never that.” He swallowed hard. “Well, yeah, sickened by all the things that were done to you.”

  She squeezed her eyes closed and struggled not to start crying, but she finally lost the battle.

  He scooped her up and carried her to the sofa where he sat down with her in his lap. She clung to him, her shoulders shaking. He stroked his hands over her back and into her hair, murmuring soft words that she couldn’t quite catch, but they soothed. Finally she brought herself under control.

  When he pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket and handed it to her, she blew her nose.

  “You kept him talking so he wouldn’t set off explosives at the mine entrance and kill me, didn’t you?” he asked in a thick voice.

  “Yes. And you heard the whole conversation?”

  “Yes.”

  She gulped. “I couldn’t let him kill you. I had to save you.”

  “And I knew I had to save you from him.”

  “Thank the universe that they paired me with you. I’ll never keep anything from you again.”

  “And I’ll never go all sullen on you and not explain what’s eating at me.”

  She rested her head against his shoulder, loving the strength of his arms around her.

  “You make me feel safer than I ever have in my life.”

  “And you made me understand how much I’ve missed—not having anyone to share my life with. Only I was afraid to open myself to you.”

  “I understand why.”

  When she raised her head, he brought his mouth to hers for a long, passionate kiss.

  oOo

  As the kiss finally broke, Caleb squeezed his wife’s hand. “Come back to the bedroom.”

  She answered with a little nod and stood.

  When they returned to where he’d found her, he looked down at the piles of clothing he’d forgotten about. “Your stuff’s on the bed.”

  “Oh, right.” She scooped everything up and dumped it on the floor. “I guess I can get to it later.”

  He liked the way she’d done that, liked the look in her eyes when she turned back to him.

  “I’ll help you—later.”

  He raised his hands to the front of her shirt, undoing the fastening down the front, then reaching under the back, only fumbling a little with the hook of her bra. He swept the shirt off her shoulders and pulled the bra away, sending both of them to join the rest of the clothing on the floor.

  She was naked to the waist, and the trusting look in her eyes made his heart squeeze. She was watching him as he reached out his hands, lifting her breasts, loving the soft weight of them in his hands and loving the way her nipples had hardened for him. He stroked his thumbs across them, listening to her indrawn breath.

  He bent to suck one taut peak into his mouth, drawing on her as he fumbled for the fastener at the top of her pants, opened it and pushed the pants down, along with her panties.

  When she swayed beside the bed, he murmured, “Lie down.

  As she did, he got rid of his own clothes before coming down beside her, propping himself on one arm so he could look down at her.

  When she started to reach for him, he shook his head. “Let me love you.”

  She went very still as he began to kiss her face, the column of her neck, her collarbones, then kissed his way down her body, pausing to suck on each breast and dip into her navel before sliding lower to press his cheek against her.

  Raising his face, he saw her watching him. “Would it feel good if I kissed you there?”

  “Very good.”

  He moved between her legs, bending to part the edges of her furrow and look at that secret part of her, seeing her plump, slick flesh and knowing she was aroused for him. Bending, he stroked his tongue into that hidden channel, down to her vagina and up to her clit. The taste of her was intoxicating. So was her reaction as she moaned and raised her hips.

  He let himself enjoy exploring her with his mouth, finding out what she seemed to like best. And when she came undone for him, he felt her orgasm against his tongue and lips. That intimacy almost overwhelmed him. He flopped to his back, finding her hand and clasping his fingers with hers.

  She’d lain on the bed, letting him do anything he liked to her. Now she asked, “How do you want to finish this? Do you want me to do that for you?”

  “Do you want to?”

  “Yes.”

  She raised up, and leaned over him, running her tongue around the head of his cock, then capturing the bead of moisture at the very tip.

  He fought to lie still as she stroked her tongue down his length, then up again, before taking him into her mouth, sucking on him, making him ache with the need for release.

  “You’re going to make me come in your mouth,” he gasped.

  “Uh huh,” she answered without moving away. She kept up what she was doing, and he exploded inside her, his body convulsing.

  She climbed off the bed and disappeared into the bathroom, and he heard water running in the sink. Then she was back.

  When he gave her a questioning look, she said, “Are you angry that I didn’t swallow it?”

  The edge in her voice cut into him like a knife. “Come here,” he said, holding out his arms. She came down beside him, and he held her close.

  “Did he make you do that?”

  She dragged in a breath and let it out. “Yes. And he did stuff to me that I hated.”

  “I’ll never make you do anything you don’t enjoy—or do anything you don’t want.”

  “You mean like muck out the chicken house?”

  “Did you hate that?”

  “Not really. It was honest work, and I could tell how pleased the chickens were to have it all nice and clean.”

  He raised up and turned so he could look at her. “The reason I was so upset yesterday and this morning was that I was afraid I was falling in love with you. And at the same time, I was feeling like that would give you too much of an advantage over me. I mean, because I couldn’t trust you.”

  “Oh, Caleb. I’m so, so sorry.” She reached for him, and they clung together. “I was afraid, too. I knew you were a man I could love, but I thought that if I told you everything, you’d . . .” She gulped. “That you’d send me away.”

  “Beka, I understand why. But now we each know how to be honest with the other.”

  She settled down beside him, and he turned to kiss her cheek.

  “I could have the implant taken out,” she murmured.

  “Let’s not, if you don’t mind. I’d like to have you to myself for a while.”

  “I’d like that, too.” She cleared her throat. “You know I’m still worried about the mine.”

  “I made it a lot safer than it was when my dad worked it.”

  “I hope so.”

  “And I’ll be careful. I want to have a long, happy life with you.”

  “Fates, yes.”

  “I didn’t know how lonely I was before you came here.”

  “I was lonely too, in a different way. I never trusted anyone besides myself. And now I know everything’s different because of you.”

  He hugged her to him, rejoicing at how much better the rest of his life was going to be with this warm and giving woman by his side.

  The End

  Afterword

  Thank you for purchasing Conquest, Hero’s Welcome, and Nightfall. I hope you enjoyed reading them as much as I loved writing them.

  If you enjoyed my books, do me a huge favor. Go back to www.amazon.com, and please leave an honest review. Authors live and die by their reviews. The few extra seconds it takes are really appreciated. Thank you!

  About the Author

  A USA Today Best-Selling Author, Rebecca York is a 2011 recipi
ent of the Romance Writers of America Centennial Award. Her career has focused on romantic suspense, often with paranormal elements.

  Her 16 Berkley books and novellas include her nine-book werewolf “Moon” series. KILLING MOON was a launch book for the Berkley Sensation imprint. She has written over 50 books for Harlequin Intrigue, many in her popular 43 Light Street series. Her recent releases include BAD NIGHTS for Sourcebooks and DESPERATE MAGIC for Carina Press. Rebecca has written for Harlequin, Berkley, Sourcebooks, Dell, Tor, Carina Press, and Pageant Books.

  Her many awards include two Rita finalist books. She has two Career Achievement awards from Romantic Times: for Series Romantic Suspense and for Series Romantic Mystery. And her Peregrine Connection series won a Lifetime Achievement Award for Romantic Suspense Series.

  Many of her novels have been nominated for or won RT Reviewers Choice awards. In addition, she has won a Prism Award, several New Jersey Romance Writers Golden Leaf awards and numerous other chapter awards.

  If you liked the stories in THE OFF WORLD series, you might also like

  Rebecca York’s DECORAH SECURITY series:

  #1 On Edge - Paranormal romantic-suspense novella

  #2 Dark Moon - Paranormal romantic-suspense novel

  #3 Chained - Paranormal romantic-suspense novella

  #4 Ambushed - Paranormal romantic-suspense short story

  #5 Dark Powers - Paranormal romantic-suspense novel

  #6 Hot and Dangerous - Paranormal romantic-suspense short story

  #7 At Risk -Paranormal romantic-suspense novel

  #8 Christmas Captive - Paranormal romantic-suspense novella

  **The Decorah Security Collection is an anthology containing Chained, Dark Powers, Hot and Dangerous, and Ambushed.

  Check Out Dark Moon, the first sexy paranormal full-length novel in the

  Rebecca York Decorah Security series.

  To purchase Dark Moon, simply click here.

  Return to Main Menu

  Contact Information