by Kylie Scott
"No siblings, hmm?"
"No. Let me up." She made a half-assed attempt at rising. "Now, Adam."
"No. You don't want to get up. Tell me about your past boyfriends." He slid the cup of her bra down over her neglected left breast, fingers paying the warm, succulent mound due homage. Sweet, small sounds escaped Louise's lips and she buried her face in his neck, trying to hide. Her legs were clamped tight, knees rubbing restlessly together. "How wet are you, princess?"
"A couple of boyfriends. No one as difficult as you."
"Be nice. Would you like me to put my hand down your pants yet?"
"Someone could see," she hissed.
"Do you really care?"
"Adam..."
"Be honest. You know you don't."
His pretty wife scowled. "Why must you torture me?"
"If it didn't get you so hot, I swear I wouldn't do it. I'm a reasonable man," he said, thoroughly enjoying himself. In fact, he couldn't remember when he'd had more fun. Marriage was a wonderful institution--the very best. "What did you say your father did again?"
"Teacher." She whimpered and writhed in his hold, fingernails pricking his forearm. Blood would likely be drawn. "Gods, Adam. It feels so good."
"Teacher?" His hand stilled, the hard bud of a nipple caught in his firm grip. "I thought you said he was a programmer?"
Louise went rigid, her heavy breaths warming his throat. She said nothing for a long time and her answer when it came sounded off somehow. Her voice wrong in a way that had the fine hairs on the back of his neck standing to attention. "He, um...he taught programming."
Adam stopped. He just stopped. Everything. Holy shit. She'd lied to him. No doubt about it. He knew a lie when he heard one. His training had ensured it.
"Adam?"
"Yeah," he said. "Okay."
Why? What the fuck is going on?
"Umm, let's just stop," she said, and her hand tugged on his arm where it was buried beneath her clothes. Her entire demeanor had changed, all arousal gone. He knew how she felt. From one moment to the next, things between them had shifted, horribly. She turned away from him and every line in her body seemed stiff and cold. "We should stop."
"Louise."
"This has gone far enough."
"Hey. Wait. Let's talk." Because he needed to get to the bottom of this, whatever the hell it was. His mouth had dried in something like fear but his brain was working overtime. Old habits died hard.
"No," she said. One hand lay on his chest and she fluttered the other above the control panel, obviously looking for a safe place to set it down so she could lever herself off him. "This is stupid."
"I had the security turned off. No one is watching, Louise," he assured her. "You're safe with me."
But was he safe with her? That was the question.
She turned her dark eyes to him and shook her head, still caught in his lap. Anxiety filled her face, thinning her mouth and lining her eyes. Suddenly she looked tired--bone-deep weary. None of her behavior fitted. It made no sense.
"Let's go back," she said.
"Okay."
The pressure of the fingers against his chest softened and the tension in her eased. "I'm sorry. I...I got worried."
"It's all right."
She gave him another fine smile, but her eyes didn't meet his.
Adam cocked his head, bumped his nose against hers, nudging her. She understood what he wanted. Louise raised her mouth to his, gave him a soft, tentative kiss. First one, then another. He didn't deepen it, let her set the pace. Her kissing him back appeased him a little and calmed him down. It provided no answers, but whatever normally lay between them hadn't disappeared.
He would find out what was going on.
Everything had been fine. She had really seemed to enjoy it, sitting there in the dark with him. The thrill of perhaps being watched and the teasing had all worked a treat. Her skin had been hot and her body excited. Up until he had questioned her answer regarding her father. Then she'd definitely lied to him. Shut down on him completely when he'd questioned her further.
His wife wasn't a very good liar. But then, he'd been trained by the best. She hadn't stood much of a chance. Something inside him ached, in his heart or in his gut. The pain seemed variable and indistinct. It kept moving around.
Why lie to him?
When she drew back from the kiss, eyes closed and lips moist, her lovely face beginning to relax, things almost felt better. Almost but not quite.
"We'll go," he said.
"Thank you."
*
Adam sat in the corner of the bar, drinking.
Or not really drinking, because the two fingers of scotch had been sitting untouched in front of him for well over an hour. Drinking wouldn't help anything. It was time to stop that. He needed his wits about him to sort things out.
He'd left Louise in their domicile asleep because some things you needed to do alone. Such as figuring out who your wife might be and why she's lied to you. Pieces of information filled his mind but none of it fit together quite right. It didn't make sense. There were no answers, just more and more questions. He'd always been good at puzzles but this time...
Shit. There'd been tells, but he hadn't noticed them. No. He'd chosen not to notice them.
Like the moment it took before she reacted to her name. The beat before she responded. Hadn't Taka said her name repeatedly at dinner the other night, and she'd been oblivious? Yes. And that hadn't been the only occasion. He'd just been distracted. Then there was her fear, her permanent jumpiness. When he'd woken her this morning she'd looked at him as if he might be the Grim Reaper or something. For a moment she'd been terrified. His wife spent a lot of time looking over her shoulder.
Adam ignored the chief at first. Ignored the man as he bought a drink and ignored him as he sat down, intruding on his privacy.
"What's going on?" the chief asked.
"Nothing."
They'd been through a lot together. It had been the chief's idea to drag the remains of their unit out to Esther, him and Taka and Bon. The chief looked after people like a mother hen. After the war, no one had seemed to know what to do, how to settle down to something normal. Esther had seemed the perfect solution. Plus the corp paid quite well. Conditions could suck but the pay had been plentiful. Not that it meant much out in the ass-end of space.
"You fretting about your family?"
"No." Adam sighed. "That was done with a long time ago."
The chief nodded.
"I don't really feel like company," he said.
"I know. If you felt like company, Taka would be here. But he's not. Usually you two are joined at the hip." The chief rubbed his chin and sat back in his chair, sipped at his whisky. "So, if it's not about your family, you could be brooding about Rose again..."
Fucker. Trust the chief to throw it in his face. Very helpful.
"But I saw the way you looked at your wife, so I'm thinking that isn't it," the idiot said. To think he'd followed this man into fire fights, trusted him with his life. It defied logic. "You made big, liquid cow's eyes at her. I was a little embarrassed for you."
"Thanks."
"But she's cute, your wife. I like her. You know, you never looked at Rose the way you look at Louise."
Adam grunted. It didn't warrant a response. He wasn't in the mood for sharing his worries. Not yet. He had more thinking to do, a puzzle to solve.
The chief breathed deeply and gritted his teeth. "That's the problem with the lack of women out here. People wind up mooning over the ones they can't have."
"I'm not brooding about Rose and I'm not in the mood for company."
"You really don't want to talk, huh?"
"No. I really don't. So is there a point to your bullshit?"
"You have got your panties in a knot. Goodness." The chief watched him with amused eyes. The sort that made Adam want to hit him. "Of course, some men don't mind sharing their women, but those are few and far between. Unless...you wouldn't ha
ppen to be one, would you? Because when I said your wife was cute, I may have downplayed how much I like her."
"You need to shut it. Now." Adam's fingers tightened around his beer. Another man touching his wife? His princess? No matter what was going on between them, over his dead fucking body.
The chief tapped a finger on the bar. "So it's about Louise."
"Go away, Nathan. I'm not in the mood."
"That surprises me. You two were so couple-y this morning."
Adam said nothing.
"Let me guess--she just doesn't understand you. Doesn't respect you anymore. Takes you for granted?"
"You're not funny."
"'Course I am. Now, I'm guessing it's not the sex, because she looked well-ruffled this morning with her bed-hair and everything. She really is a sweet-looking thing."
Adam said nothing and pushed his glass of scotch away for safety's sake. Much more and he might smash the glass with his bare hands.
"You're really not going to talk to me about it, are you?"
"No. I'm really not."
"Okay. Okay. I give up."
Thank the gods. "Good."
"But I just have to say, your wife, she looks to me like one of those quiet types who just goes wild with the right influence. Am I right?" The fucker smacked his lips and wiggled his brows. He thought he was funny. He was wrong. "Get her in the right mood and she'd just eat you alive. I'd really love to see that."
Adam could have sworn he heard a tooth crack, he clenched them so tight. "Nathan, what the fuck is your problem?"
The chief sighed loudly. "Come on. You shouldn't keep pretty pussy all to yourself, Adam. Be a pal and share. And your wife--now, she is some pretty pussy. I can tell."
Adam smacked his fist into the bastard's jaw without further thought. Nathan and his chair both flew back and hit the floor. The sudden silence in the bar would have been deafening if not for the continued pounding in his brain. He felt well past reason. So angry he was shaking. "You don't talk about her that way."
"Well." The chief worked his jaw and looked up at him from the ground, face bland. "That was easier than I thought it would be. You still hit like a girl, Elliot. Maybe I should just go and wrestle with your wife, huh?"
With a roar, Adam launched himself at the man.
*
Bon dumped him on the cot inside the holding cell with not-so-gentle hands. A pity, because Adam hurt. Bon was huge--no doubt that was why the chief had had him waiting in the wings during the scene in the bar. He'd been set up by his supposed friends.
"Consider this your intervention," Bon said, looming over him like a mountain.
"You planned all this, you bastards." His split, swollen lip made his words slur. One side of his face throbbed and his right earlobe felt a bloody mess. Nothing too serious, just mighty damn painful. He hadn't been in a bar fight in years. Usually left such shit for the kids, with good reason. "Why?"
Even Taka was watching, leaning against the metal bars with his arms crossed. "You've been drinking too much," he said. "Ever since the accident."
"We decided next time we found you laying into it, we'd step in," Bon said.
"I lost the draw." The chief looked worse than Adam did. Or he hoped he did. The man stood in the doorway rubbing his side. "I think you cracked a rib."
"You nearly bit my ear off."
The man shrugged, then winced. "It was just a love bite."
"Whatever's going on between you and Louise, sort it out," Taka said. "She's good for you."
Adam grimaced. "She's keeping secrets."
"And you've told her everything?" asked Bon.
"Give it a chance," said Taka in his usual solemn tone. Then he turned and left, abandoning Adam in his time of need. Not that Taka wouldn't make a shit nursemaid--stoics usually did.
Damn, Adam hurt. His insides were pulverized. Never again.
"I'll come and get you out in a few hours or so. Maybe," the chief groused, blood dripping from a cut on his chin. "Use that time for thinking."
"I wasn't even drinking," he grumped.
"He's gonna need the ear stitched," said Bon in his bass voice.
The chief waved the news away and headed for the door. "Whatever. Send medical."
Bon watched the man limp away with a small smile. "He was only supposed to talk to you."
"I refused to talk back," said Adam.
Bon nodded slowly. "Yeah. That'd do it."
Chapter Six
Day Six
Louise watched Christiana perform her checking-the-time routine with the com unit again as they sat waiting.
She might kill Adam. Or at least hurt him really, really badly. Nothing permanent--just enough to make her point.
The marriage counselor cleared her throat and forced a smile. "How have things been between you two?"
Louise had woken up alone this morning, but then Adam had probably had an early start. It hadn't set any alarm bells ringing. She'd worked in the garden all day and not heard from him. But then she hadn't expected to. Everything had been fine. Except, clearly, it couldn't possibly be. She would kill him for doing this to her again. Kill. Him.
"Good," she said. "We're good."
Christiana arched one perfect brow in response.
"Very good." Louise sat and seethed. She couldn't blame the woman. The evidence regarding the state of her marriage clearly contradicted the claim. "Actually."
"All right." The counselor nodded and made a note on her com. "Have you been intimate with your husband since last we spoke?"
"Yes." Intimate enough to know she should probably go for a butcher's knife when attempting the removal of his penis. The paring knife would take too long.
"How did things go between you?"
"Well."
Christiana wet her lips and the shoulders of her smart, white suit rose and fell on a deep breath. A lot as if the woman was bracing herself to deal with a particularly exasperating child. "Louise, I'm going to require more than one-word answers from you. Can you, please, tell me how you feel about your personal interactions with Adam?"
"I feel they're exactly that--personal. Private. Unless there's a problem with our sex life, which to my knowledge there is not, then I'm not willing to discuss it with you," she said. "And I feel that sitting here with you as opposed to being out there, finding out exactly why my husband has decided not to attend this session when he promised me otherwise, is silly."
"I see."
"Until I've talked to Adam and found out what's going on, there isn't anything we can achieve here, Christiana."
The woman blinked repeatedly as if in disbelief. "So you feel this session is a waste of time?"
"Yes."
"Louise, do I need to remind you of your contractual obligations..."
The office door slid open and the chief, Nathan Hillier, strode in stiffly, fine lips set in an uncompromising line and a big, ugly bruise on his jawline. In fact he seemed to have taken a pummeling. Louise stared at him in surprise.
Then her husband ambled in behind him looking even worse. A black eye and a split lip. Various cuts and grazes. His knuckles a mess.
"Excuse me for interrupting," the chief said.
"We're in the middle of a session here, Chief Hillier." Christiana stood, com unit tight in her hand, held before her like a shield. "Mr. Elliot. Good of you to join us."
There was a vicious red mark on her husband's earlobe. It actually appeared to be...
"Is that a bite?" she asked.
"Hi." Adam raised his hand to his ear but didn't touch it. "Ah, yeah. The chief and I had words last night."
"Last night? You were asleep in bed with me last night."
Her husband studied her sneakers. "Actually, I went for a bit of a walk..."
"To the bar?" she asked, already knowing the answer. They'd been doing so well. Or she'd thought they had been. But happy husbands didn't go out drinking and fighting on the sly at night, now did they? No. Though his father had died. Shit, talk
about confused.
"Yeah, to the bar," her husband said.
"Louise, why don't we--" Christiana chimed in.
"Wait." Louise didn't even bother looking at the woman. Her husband had her full attention. "Explain this for me, Adam. Please. I really want to understand."
"I wasn't drinking. But I had some thinking to do."
"You had some thinking to do. And how did that work out for you?"
The chief sniggered. She ignored him too.
"Adam?" she prompted.
He wetted his lips. "Good, actually. The chief and I... Well, we were just mucking around."
Nathan Hillier cleared his throat and took a step closer. "If I may? These things do happen now and then, Mrs. Elliot. Men just need to blow off steam occasionally."
She stared at the man in disbelief. "You tried to bite my husband's ear off."
"To be fair, I did crack one of his ribs, princess," her husband said stupidly.
"Yes, he did," the chief concurred.
These people--no, this whole situation. None of it made sense. It hurt her head. "Where have you been, Adam? Why are you late to our session?"
"Oh I put him in lock-up so he could think about things. I only just had him released." The chief took one look at her no doubt cranky face and took a healthy step backward. "I'll leave you two to sort it out now. I think that would be best."
"And with all this thinking, did you reach any conclusions?" she asked her discomfited-looking husband. It was quite a feat. Nothing much seemed to spook Adam, but his lips were pursed and his gaze was all over the ground. "Adam?"
"Yes." His eyes met hers. "I did."
"Well?"
"I'm yours."
Louise canted her head. "What?"
"I'm yours, princess," he repeated. "A hundred and ten percent. That's what I figured out."
"Huh." Her throat felt swollen and her eyes sore. She didn't know whether to be mad or cry or what. "I see."
Adam watched her steadily, his gaze not wavering in the least. He braved a smile. It turned into a wince when he remembered his poor, cracked lip. "So whatever we need to sort out, we will. Between ourselves. What do you think?"
"I think you're going to drive me to drink."
"Let's get out of here."
He held a hand out to her and she took it. Because what else could she do? She was crazy about him. "Okay."
"But we still have--" the counselor began, and was silenced with one swift look from the chief.
"I'll handle this," Nathan assured them. "You two kids run along."