A Titan for Christmas

by Aria Kane

  "Ready!" Grayson answered.

  Jenna laced her fingers through the grate that made up the floor of the engine room and pulled herself to a sitting position. A flip of a switch and Jenna gained 130 pounds.

  Grayson's gruff cheer congratulated her from the next room over. She leapt to her feet and skipped into the bedroom quarters, smiling with pride.

  And stopped cold.

  Grayson sat on his bed, leaning back on his elbows.

  Wearing nothing but a towel.

  His hair hung loose, brushing his shoulders. A glow from the galley lit up the contours of his bare chest and Greek-God-statue-esque abs. He was torturing her. Or baiting her. She wasn’t sure which she preferred.

  Jenna tried to swallow, but her mouth had gone dry. "You going to take a shower?"

  Grayson winked at her. "I wanted to be ready as soon as the grav drive went back on-line."

  "Well." Jenna shrugged lamely. "It's back on-line."

  Jenna's heart echoed every flex of Grayson's muscles as he slowly stood and stalked towards her. She didn't remember his walk being this sensual, this predatory when he was loading the ship back on the Titan docks. His green eyes locked on hers, the corners crinkling with his smirk.

  He stopped a few inches in front of her, close enough that he probably heard her breath quicken when he reached out with one hand and traced the inside of her wrist. His fingers danced up her arms, circling spots of grease and coolant splattered there. Goosebumps sprang up in the wake of his touch.

  "It looks like you need a shower more than I do," Grayson said, voice low.

  The beginnings of a low moan tickled her throat, but she didn't dare make a sound. He had a girlfriend. He was just flirting. Even if every hint of his touch set her entire body on fire.

  Jenna bit her lip to keep all the sounds she wanted to make trapped inside and settled on a nod.

  She watched the path of his fingers, up her arm underneath the sleeve to tickle her shoulders. He tilted his head to the side and peered at her neck. Could he see her pulse pounding under her skin there?

  One finger put a gentle pressure on her neck and gently wiped. He displayed his finger, now covered with a black oily substance.

  "You may need help to make sure you don't miss any spots."

  An image flashed in her head of both of them in the small shower, his strong arms wrapped around her and the hot water pouring down on both of them. Had the grav drive just shut off again? Because there was no way her jellied legs were supporting her own weight now.

  He brought his other hand up slowly to her face. Was he going to point out another spot of grease? That could take all day.

  The gentle pressure of his palm cupping her cheek surprised her, but it was the gentle stroke of his thumb across her lips that undid her. Her traitorous lips parted. She wrapped her arms around his waist and pressed her fingers into his bare back; half to pull him closer, half to steady herself.

  His lips caressed hers softly. Once. Twice. Three times.

  "Let me wash your hair?"

  **

  The tender, caring quality of his voice struck a match in her brain, lighting up the memory of his voice sending the communication last night. I love you, he had said.

  Jenna pulled her hands into fists and they flew to his chest, shoving him. Grayson stumbled back until he hit the bed and fell into it.

  "Did I do something wrong?"

  Jenna watched him closely. She thought she was pretty good at judging men's intentions, but he looked sincerely concerned. Not guilty. Not angry. Just concerned. And a little bit confused.

  "You have a girlfriend." The statement didn't come out as nearly as accusatory as she had wanted it to be.

  "Why do you -"

  "I heard you!" There, that sounded a little closer to what she was aiming for. "You promised her you'd be home for Christmas Day."

  His surprise and concern melted, giving way to a slowly-growing smile. Then a laugh that filled the small bedroom quarters from wall to wall.

  "Why is that funny?" Jenna asked, getting more angry. If he thought it was funny to cheat on his girlfriend, she couldn't wait for this trip to be over.

  "The com … was for my ... little sister," he said between eruptions of laughter. "I am definitely available."

  "Oh." Jenna's hands flew to her face, covering the hot blush that flooded her cheeks. "Oh God, I'm so sorry." She moved towards him, a small step punctuating each syllable of her apology until her toes were pressed against the frame of the bed.

  He gazed at her and raised an eyebrow, but an amused smile still played on his lips. "I guess that's what you get for eavesdropping."

  Only now did she realize that his stumble to the bed had made the towel come untucked. It still lay draped across the important bits, but was in terrible danger of revealing too much. Or just enough.

  A wicked grin lit his face when he caught her staring at his... towel.

  Suddenly, her hands didn't know where to go and she fumbled with the sagging pockets of the coveralls. His warm hands caught hers and tugged gently until she sat on the bed next to him.

  He leaned closer to her, their breaths mingling in the small space between their lips. His hands trailed up her arms, then down her sides to rest on her hips. The blood that had been coloring her cheeks in embarrassment found somewhere much further south to rush to.

  "You're not mad at me?" she asked.

  He leaned to the side and placed a lingering kiss on her neck. "If I pretended I was, would you make it up to me?"

  Another kiss landed on the sensitive skin of her collarbone, testing the edges of the coveralls.

  "Um," Jenna stammered. "No."

  "No?" He leveled his eyes with hers. They sparkled with amusement.

  She tried to think, but her body had apparently decided her brain was a nonessential system and shut it down. "Yes?"

  Grayson bit his lower lip to muffle a chuckle. Her eyes locked on those lips and she licked her own.

  "Are you going to shove me if I kiss you again?" Grayson whispered.

  Jenna shook her head. "I've wanted to kiss you since before I even stepped foot on this ship."

  "In that case..." Grayson cut his own words off by pressing his lips to Jenna's. The gentleness and caution of his first kisses were replaced by a need that swept her up and set her head spinning.

  A low groan vibrated in Jenna's throat. It was echoed in Grayson's. His fingers reached for the coveralls zipper without fumbling and he pulled it open. He leaned back to watch as he slid the coveralls from her shoulders and pulled them down to her waist. His hands slid around her waist and pressed against the small of her back. His eyes seemed to take in every inch of her before their mouths crashed together once more.

  The towel that had covered him was nowhere to be found, but they still sat next to each other on the small bed in an awkward, twisted position. She felt the tip of his erection press against the outside of her thigh and she gasped.

  Her desire for him filled her entire body. She wanted all of him. Inside her, on top of her, all around her.

  Jenna's breath stopped short when he cupped her breasts in his hands, rubbing frenzied circles around her nipples with his thumbs. He pulled away from their kiss with a groan and flashed her a wicked grin.

  His tongue traced the outer contours of her left ear, sending shivers down to her toes. Leaving a trail of kisses from her ear, he moved slowly to her chest. A smile flashed across his lips before they surrounded her taut nipple.

  Jenna threw her head back and moaned.

  A minute of teasing licks and nibbles and she had had enough. She grasped his chin and pulled him back to her mouth. Without breaking the kiss, she stood and shimmied the rest of the way out of the coveralls.

  Grayson's hands slid down her sides to her hips and it was his turn to gasp. "You're not wearing any underwear under my clothes," he murmured against her lips.

  She gave him a little shrug. "They were dirty, along with everything e
lse."

  That thought made her glance to her grease-spotted arms. "I thought we were going to take a shower."

  He wrapped his arms firmly around her waist and lifted her onto his lap so that she straddled him. The length of his erection pressed against her wetness. The constant pressure on her clit quickened her pulse.

  "We'll just need to take another one afterward."

  Jenna reached to the back of his head and pulled out the elastic holding his hair. Once the dark curls were free, she dug her hands into them and tugged ever so slightly. A deep guttural sound spilled from his lips. Grayson gripped her hips and lifted her, shifting his body underneath her.

  He lowered her slowly, sliding into her wetness inch by inch until he filled her. Her muscles clenched around him and they floated in the near-ecstasy of that first wave of pleasure for a long moment.

  Jenna wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him close. She trailed her tongue around the outside of his ear, until she reached his earlobe, where she bit down. With a growl, Grayson raised his hips and pushed even further into her. Jenna gripped his hair with her left hand and dug the fingers of her right hand into his back, rocking against him.

  "Please," she begged.

  Grayson's body tensed as he took her firmly in his embrace – one arm around her waist, the other pressed against her back with her head cradled in his hands – and flipped both of them so that Jenna laid on her back.

  He kissed her deeply as he began to move in and out of her, steady and strong. The rest of the universe ceased to exist. Jenna raised her legs and wrapped them around his waist, letting Grayson drive her to a climax that sent explosions of color across her vision.

  Grayson's movements slowed and he watched her, smiling with satisfaction as the aftershocks ripped through her body. He placed one gentle kiss on her lips and buried his face in her neck.

  He thrust into her again, but this time it was more primal. Less controlled. Jenna found her insides tightening again, responding to Grayson's passion.

  He gently bit down on her shoulder as he grew even harder inside of her, readying for release. Jenna came again. Hard. She bucked her hips in time with the waves of ravishment that rolled through her body. Grayson let out a sound half way between a growl and a groan and thrust deep inside of her one more time.

  Chapter 6

  Jenna woke up not long after they had fallen asleep on their sides, her back pressed firmly to Grayson's chest. She had already enjoyed a full night's rest not too long ago, but Grayson was knocked out cold.

  A rumble sounded from her stomach, reminding her she hadn't eaten anything since the oatmeal bar. She tiptoed to the kitchen and wolfed down a turkey sandwich she found in the fridge.

  Sitting still at the galley table, not sure what else to do, thoughts began to race through her head. Sleeping with a guy the day after meeting him was not something Jenna usually did. Ever, actually.

  She wasn't sure where it would go from here. Should she try to salvage a relationship from this? Or play it cool and see how Grayson acted? This was one complicated system she didn't know her way around.

  Sitting there, waiting for Grayson to wake up was not an option. She yearned for something to fix, but since nothing else was broken, she needed to move. The small spaces mandated by space travel had never bothered her before, but right now she needed somewhere to stretch out – and there was only one place on this ship that fit that description.

  Jenna made her way quietly by Grayson's sleeping form to the cargo bay. She sighed when the door shut behind her. The shotgun layout of this ship was definitely not built for more than one person. Grayson had warned her not to go in the cargo storage, but that was before he had known her. Biblically or otherwise. Surely he wouldn't begrudge her a simple workout now.

  Surveying the cargo bay, she realized this wasn't ideal, but it would work. And if Jenna knew about anything, it was making things work.

  The metal floor wasn't ideal for yoga, but the diamond texture should keep her bare feet from slipping in the dry air of a spaceship.

  Jenna worked through a few warm-up poses and luxuriated in the feel of her lengthening muscles.

  She wasn't too confident with her balance yet, having just picked up yoga a few months ago when she realized her regular workout routines were too difficult for the confined spaces of Titan. So she moved to the wall to assist her with the Scorpion pose. Bending forward to place her elbows and forearms on the cargo bay floor in between two pallets, she focused on her breathing. Then kicked into a modified hand stand and bent her legs slowly back until they contacted the wall. She walked her feet down the wall, stretching her stomach and back.

  Jenna took deep breaths and closed her eyes. Coming down from this pose was always much less graceful. She opened her eyes and they fell on the neatly-stacked pallet of small white plastic boxes next to her. Their size captured her interest. Just big enough to hold a soup bowl, they were much too small to hold the items usually exported from Titan: hydrocarbons, hard minerals, high-density polymers that could only be manufactured in Low-G. What could be in them?

  She crawled closer to get a better look.

  Well, that was strange. There were no labels. No identifying markings at all. She couldn't even see a manufacturer's logo on the boxes. Jenna was pretty sure customs laws required interplanetary shipments to be labeled clearly. She even had to declare a candy bar the last time she flew from Titan to Earth.

  Her fingers traced the outside of one of the boxes and she jerked her hand back. The box was ice cold. Colder than ice, actually. They all looked to be sealed tight with a visible black rubber o-ring pressed between the lid and the container.

  Overcome with curiosity, Jenna pushed her thumb against the lid of one of the boxes. It didn't budge. She raised her other hand to push hard with both thumbs.

  The top of the box popped open.

  Inside, test tubes lay in three rows of three, each sealed with a black rubber cork. A sticker was stuck to the side of each test tube, but Jenna couldn't read them. She wrapped her fingers around the top of one of the tubes

  "What are you doing?"

  Grayson's voice startled her so completely that she fell back from the pallet and her ass hit the metal floor. Jenna imagined what she must look like – buck naked, awkwardly sprawled in the cargo bay – and burst into laughter.

  Grayson, on the other hand, was not laughing. His dark eyebrows scrunched together as he squinted against the fluorescent light. "I told you not to go in here."

  Jenna made a clumsy attempt at trying to fold her body into something a little closer to graceful. "I just needed to stretch out a little."

  The muscles of his jaw flexed. He pointed at the open box. "Find what you were looking for?"

  Jenna fumbled with the top of the box but couldn’t get it closed. "Oh, I was just -"

  "You were just snooping in a room I specifically told you not to enter!"

  Opening the box had been a simple curiosity, but now, Jenna wondered what Grayson was up to that would make him so protective. Transporting unmarked boxes was illegal in itself, but was what they held illegal too?

  “What’s in the tubes?”

  “None of your business.”

  Well, if that wasn’t defensive… Anger blossomed in her chest. “You brought me on this ship. You made it my business! If you’re caught, there’s no way the police are going to believe I wasn’t involved.”

  Grayson had been ready with another comment, but his mouth stopped before he made a sound. The thought of getting caught probably hadn’t even occurred to him until then.

  “What’s in the tubes?” She asked the question this time with more compassion, a touch of begging in her tone.

  “It doesn’t matter,” Grayson said. “You shouldn’t be in here.”

  He moved toward her, but she was closer to the boxes than he was to her. She snatched one of the tubes from the box, noticing a brownish sludge inside of it. She read the label.

  Metha
nocaldococcus titanae

  Ice flooded her veins. She knew more about pumps and gear ratios than taxonomy, but she recognized a species name when she saw it. “It’s biological.”

  He yanked the tube from her hand and placed it back in the box, securing it closed. “You shouldn’t wave that around. It’s dangerous.”

  “No shit, Grayson! You think it’s dangerous here in this hermetic ship sealed inside neat little boxes thousands of miles from any planet? What about when it gets to Earth?”

  “They assured me all precautions would be taken.”

  “It won’t matter how careful they are.” Jenna’s heart thudded in her ears, fueled by a combination of fear and rage. She had been a fool to trust any man so quickly; the universe was proving that to her. “There’s a damn good reason transporting biologics from Titan to Earth is expressly forbidden by every single government and private entity. They still can’t agree on whether slavery is wrong, but they agree on this – doesn’t that tell you anything?”

  An epic weight pulled down his shoulders and darkened his eyes. “I don’t have a choice.”

  The sadness she saw in his expression did very little to abate her temper. “Why the hell not?”

  He grabbed her arm and led her to the cargo bay door. His anger was returning. “I need the money, OK?”

  Jenna jerked out of his grip and stomped down the hallway to the bedroom quarters. How could she have been so stupid as to sleep with a man who would risk Earth’s entire ecosystem for money? A year of not dating had apparently destroyed her judgment when it came to men.

  Chapter 7

  They didn’t say a word to each other for twenty hours. Jenna used the quiet time to figure out what she should do. Reporting him to the authorities was a no-brainer, but should she try to do it before they entered Earth’s atmosphere or wait until they landed? The former would be safer for Earth, but she had no idea how far Grayson would go to keep her from turning him in. He didn’t really seem like the violent type, but she had already been wrong about him once.