“My only request is to pay attention to where you wander. There are sections down there marked clearly you must avoid, little one. They are extremely dangerous, and only those properly trained should ever enter them. Please take care,” he said softly.
“I will, honey, thank you for worrying about me. But you have taught me the signs that I need to be careful of, well, you and your people.” His men and women were practically always trying to teach her new signs that she needed to look out for.
“We have,” he said. Pulling her in close, Petr hugged her to him. “A cruiser is not the place for a civilian, but we make exceptions for the most important woman in the commanding officer’s life. That would be you, in case you were at all confused.”
“Well, you know, I am blonde.” She was teasing him, hugging and laughing as she did so. “Besides, I’ve made friends inside of your crew as well. Not just because I’m your girl, I hope, right?” Because she looked forward to having the friends she had made liking her for her and not because of her relationship to Petr.
“My people are not the sort to like you only because of who you know, Samantha. While we are all taught to be polite to even those we don’t like or approve of, you must admit the crew would not be able to hide any dislike for long. Gossip around here moves faster than even you or I can run. They are still trying to figure out who you are, but they like you for you, Samantha. Continue to be the woman I love. That is all you ever need to do.”
“Don’t worry, I will be the only person that I know how to be, and you love her, so I have to be doing something right. Okay, well that didn’t even make sense to my own ears.”
“You are doing everything right, to my way of thinking, Samantha. Never change for anyone,” he said. Resting his cheek to her hair, he gave her a squeeze when they reached their floor. Petr stepped back, took her hand, and led her along the corridor.
She didn’t say anything for a long time. Finally, she nodded. “Good thing that you like me as I am because I’m way too darn old to change now, you know.” She laughed as she spoke.
His lips were twitching no matter how hard he was trying to control the movement. “You don’t look a day over your thirty-six human years, so that must bring you some peace of mind.”
“Thirty-six?” She squeaked a small yelp with that word and reached out to swat at him. “Take that back. I don’t look a day over thirty-four, right?” It was the whole over thirty-five that got her. “Silly man, you never tell a woman she looks that old. Well, at least me. How’s that?” She didn’t know how Imarian women felt about their age, but she knew how she felt about it.
Petr’s shoulders were shaking, and he had to brace a hand to a nearby wall while attempting to compose himself. “You forget, little one, I’ve read your file. There is no hiding from the reality of things permanently etched into a data system.”
“Oh, you are so bad.” She was snickering and shaking her head. “You are so bad.” She liked that he made her forget everything by teasing with her. It was something she needed to do, just simply forget everything for a little while. Especially since they were now at his home world.
With an arm around her waist, he hauled her in close to him and nibbled on her jaw. “I apologize for making such an error with your age. You did say forty, correct?” She felt his lips curving against her skin at the same time he squeezed her even closer.
“You are so rotten. Good thing that I love you as much as I do,” she said with a grin.
“Let’s get through everything quickly so that we can get back to our quarters. Come the dawn it will be time to disembark to go down to Imara.”
She took a deep breath, serious once more. “Okay. Here is me being serious.” She closed her eyes and centered herself, then looked back at him. “And you are sure that your people won’t try to take me away from you, right?” That was really her only worry.
“They attempt such a foolish thing and it will be the last thing they do in this life,” he told her. His tone was calm, his voice soft, but she caught the glint of promise for a bloody death in his gaze. No, her man wouldn’t let anyone part them.
“So do you have a home that you keep on your home world? Or do you live in a country home or something like that?” Some of the ways that people acted reminded Samantha of English royalty on Earth.
“I have an apartment in the city, close to the port when I need to be prepared to depart quickly. The family estate is still in my name. I was considering selling it off since it’s such a large dwelling, and I never use it. Now that I have you in my life I see the appeal of it being far removed from the city proper. We won’t be able to go there on this visit, but I’ll arrange to take some time off soon. Remind me later and I’ll pull out the vid that Adira created some cycles back. She made it to show off to one of her friends at the time who was too ill to ever visit us. She is extremely detail oriented, so there is not much she missed in it.” Putting his hand to the scanner outside of the large bulkhead doors, Petr waited for the scan to complete before inputting a code that had those large doors sliding open.
“I’d like that. To go and visit your home.” She took a deep breath and watched the doors sliding open. Petr nodded to the crew, who all snapped to attention. Pressing a kiss to her forehead, he waved her off. “Go and look around. We should not be too long, so if we’re done before you return, I’ll come find you.”
“Thank you.” She gave him a quick kiss on his cheek, which she noticed raised more than one eyebrow. She walked away from him so that she could go and look at the different parts of engineering, moving from station to station so that she could see what they were doing and learn more. She would turn and look for Petr from time to time but, for the most part, she was happy to simply learn from the people who answered her questions with the patience of Job.
The meeting he was a part of broke up a few minutes later and everyone went their separate ways. Sam watched Petr stride toward her with purpose. The look in his eyes made her body start to hum in reply. “Have you seen everything?” he asked when he was close enough.
“I have and it’s so cool. Thank you for letting me ask them questions.”
He nodded, then said, “Come on, we need to get some sleep, little one. We both need to be alert for our meeting.”
“True.” She didn’t want to be yawning when she met his ruling body. “I need to be on the top of my game when I meet them.” She waved goodbye to the people in engineering and let him lead her out of the area.
Wrapping an arm around her neck, he pulled her close when they were inside the lift. “We’ll need to be awake earlier than we have been before.”
“I won’t keep you up long, I promise. I just want to view a couple of things that Adira had said before and then I promise that I’ll let us both sleep.” He held her close for the rest of the ride. When they reached their floor, he loosened his hold so they could walk comfortably side by side to their rooms. He let them in and let her loose so she could walk ahead of him to the bedroom.
Once she was inside of their room she walked to the bathroom first. She knew she took longer than he did in there and as long as she was able to get cleaned up quickly she could get into their bed and wait for him, naked.
He was waiting outside the door for her when she stepped out. “I left the data pad on the bed with the vid keyed up. All you need to do is start it for the tour of the house.” He brushed a finger to her cheek before moving away from her. The door shut behind him and she could hear him moving around getting ready for bed.
Quickly she climbed up onto the bed to scoop up the data pad to start the video. Once she had the video keyed up, she got under the covers and got naked. She watched the video that Adira created and was amazed. It was more than a home. The place looked like a medieval castle. When he walked out she didn’t look up, just asked, “Is this place drafty?” It was beautiful, beyond compare, but it was massive and made of stone.
“Hardly,” he said. Slipping onto the bed, Petr wrapped his arms around h
er and rested his cheek to her hair. “We don’t have the dramatic seasonal changes like your world did, but it does get cooler for a while, then much warmer. What you would call the winter and summer. There are no drafts, and it’s all temperature controlled inside. It may look old, but it has all the latest technology carefully hidden behind the various facades.”
“It’s amazing,” she told him and shifted so he could watch the end of the vid with her. “It’s a large home, made for a family.” She wanted that, one day, with him. “I would like to have a large family. Nothing silly like six kids, but I would love to be able to have two or four children. Maybe a couple years between the kids. That way they can still play together, but they will each have their time of being the baby, so to speak.”
“Whatever you want, little one.” The last few minutes of the video showed some of the upper rooms, with Adira providing the information on who they belonged to. The one she identified as her own had a feminine flair to it while Petr’s was very spartan. The master bedroom had a massive bed, a sitting area, and flowed out onto a huge balcony with more seating. From that, Samantha got her first look at the land surrounding the house.
She paused the video and looked at him. “This is your home? This is spectacular.” She was stunned by the lay of the land. “This bedroom is gorgeous. Yes, it needs some work to make it our home, but I love it, Petr. So much.” She looked forward to making the place their home, one day in the future. Right now their home was here and now.
“We’ll take some time in the future for an extended stay. It will allow you to see it for yourself and make a decision based on your own experience there. Now, if you’re done.” He took the data pad from her when she nodded, then set it aside before he turned the lights off. Wrapping her up in his arms when they both slid down in the bed, he pressed a kiss to her shoulder. “Sleep well, little one.”
She hugged him right back and shifted so that her body was wrapped around his. “As long as you’re here with me.” Because, with him holding her, life was good. Her cheek rested against his shoulder, her arm over his chest, and she smiled. “Rest well, Petr. Tomorrow will be a new day.” Sam felt herself relaxing, the sound of his breath a steady rhythm that eased her slowly into sleep.
Chapter Nine
Petr reached out to stop her fidgeting. Lacing his fingers through hers, he squeezed. “Breathe, Samantha. You are working yourself up for no reason. We are not yet on the ground, which means we have plenty of time before our meeting. You can see a little of the planet on our trip, and then we will be in and out in no time at all. Relax, little one.”
“I’m trying to relax. This is how I relax.” She couldn’t stop herself from fidgeting. It was something she had always done on Earth when on a plane. She would fidget and move as she was trying to calm her body from the knowledge that they were landing. “It’s a coping mechanism.”
“You don’t like to fly? Or is it the landing that upsets you enough to this twitchy state?” he asked. Shifting in his seat, he wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “Talk to me.”
“It’s the landing and the taking off. Once I’m in the air, I’m fine, but for some reason it’s the landing and taking off that bugs me.”
“I would say not to worry, but I know you will anyway. So maybe I should kiss you instead, help distract you. You can even climb into my lap. I doubt any of the crew would mind a little show.”
“Oh, I love how you think.” She was always willing to climb into his lap and kiss him. She shifted and moved so that she was in his lap. “I love being in your arms.”
His warm hands on her back pressed her in closer to him, one stroking slowly up and down. Petr tipped his head to take the kiss deeper, slipping his tongue into her mouth to stroke over hers when she gave him access.
Wrapping her arms around his neck, Sam let him lead the kiss, following him wherever he might take them.
A soft bump followed by the sound of those around them moving had her drawing back. Petr lifted a hand to brush his fingertips to her cheek. “We’re on the ground,” he told her. “Let the others leave first. Hopefully, it will be enough time that I might be able to walk without issues.”
“Yes, sorry, not sorry.” The proof of his desire pressed against her thigh. God, she loved that she affected him like that. “So how long until they’re all off the deck so that we can at least stand and wait for our turn to disembark?”
“Not long at all. Unlike on the cruiser, the crawlers are much faster to clear out. You can stand up now, little one. They’re almost all out, so it will be our turn next. The pilots won’t leave until we do, and I’d rather not keep them from their families any longer than they have been.”
“Oh yes, same here.” She stood and held her hand out to him. She didn’t want to keep anyone from their family, especially not since she had her family there with her now. Petr, he was her family.
With his fingers tangled with hers Petr walked out of the crawler at her side. Sam’s first look at Imara wasn’t what she would term impressive, since it was a shipyard. Lots of concrete, squat buildings, and men and women in uniform. All of whom stopped to salute Petr when someone spotted his uniform. Petr occasionally paused their progress through the area to speak to a few of the officers and enlisted. He asked about family, how their careers were progressing, and told them to pass on his regards to people they all knew.
Sam watched Petr carefully. He was an interesting person and what struck her was the fact that he knew everyone that stopped or saluted him. He truly knew them, not just their name but he knew their families. Sam was stunned that he even knew if one was a new father or a child had gotten married. It utterly amazed her. “You are incredible, do you know that?” she asked him when they were alone once more.
“How so?” he asked while they walked. He was stopped by another young officer, and they were both shown a newborn baby. Petr gave the young man’s hand a shake and wished him and his new family well.
“That,” she said when the officer and his family walked away. “You know every single person you meet by name. You know their lives. You are truly one of a kind and I’m beyond blessed to know that you’re mine. Even on Earth I don’t think that the commanders knew as much about their men as you seem to know about your men and women, and your vessel is so much larger than anything that was in the ocean or land back on Earth. It’s, wow. You. It’s just you.” He was really everything that a woman could ever want or need in her life.
“I have a photographic memory, little one. And I want to know these men, and women, well. It makes them feel more like a family. It also fosters greater team structure if they know that even those in the uniforms with all the extra decoration know who they are. I’m truly interested in my people and will follow up with them even after they depart from my command.”
“I love the idea that your people are your family. I like the idea that we’ll all be family. Hopefully, they are starting to accept me as well.” She certainly talked to the men and women often. She actually spent time with some of the women working out and learning new ways to work out while teaching them things such as yoga.
Petr let out a sigh and shook his head. “No matter how many times I say it you still don’t believe me. You will have to make it up to me later when we’re alone in the apartment. Come, we need to take transportation into the city proper.” He waved toward a row of vehicles that looked to be taxis but were oddly shaped. Petr put a hand on the skin of one, and a door popped open, lifting into the air. She slid in to find they were completely alone, no driver.
She reached out and took his hand in hers and squeezed. “When I learn all of their names and know as much about them as you do I will know that I’m their family as well.” Even if she knew she was already accepted by them, she wanted to be part of their family just as Petr was. “I have found so many friends already and I’m very happy that they told me that they’ll be on board when we have to leave again.”
He typed in some commands on a board t
hat had appeared, and they were soon merging smoothly out into traffic. “There are only a small number of crew that will be moving onto other posts. Mostly for further education, and for a few others they finally have a spot in the line of the military they wish to follow. We’ll have a few new faces, but the majority will be those we have traveled with thus far. I know they’re all looking forward to having more time with you. If only to learn more of your language, so they can confuse me with it.”
That did have her laughing out loud. “Oh goodness, no kidding. I think the first time one of them asked you what had crawled up your butt you about lost your mind.” It had been during a gaming night when Petr was so intense and into the game. “I also look forward to them telling me all about this new exercise some of the women are doing. It’s a lot like the yoga that I’ve taught them, but with a twist.” It was more of a dancing yoga sort of thing.
“You are not to teach them any more of your Earth sayings, little one. I strictly forbid it,” he told her in a firm tone.
“Okay.” She grinned, then looked around. “I can’t believe the car is driving itself.”
“It’s part of the automated system. There are no accidents this way. For a while back in our history we were the ones in control, but the number of deaths was unacceptable. When the AI was finally a proven technology, a young woman came up with the system that ran from the main AI to small cells to control the vehicles, the lights, and everything else. We are a highly monitored society out in public. This helps the AI learn and adapt to ever-changing situations as our population grows. In some of the smaller communities the in-road system isn’t in place yet, so they’re still manually operating their vehicles, but soon it will change.”
“I don’t know, I like the idea that there are some places that still have it where you can take control of your own driving. Helps teach people, I’m sure.”
“We all know how to operate one should there ever be need,” he told her. “It’s a rare occurrence that the AI is down, but it can happen from time to time. Plus with some outlying areas not yet wired for the new system if we travel there it’s a necessity.” The vehicle slowed, then pulled into a spot at the curb. The door popped open, and Petr slid out before holding out a hand to help her exit the vehicle.
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