A Titan for Christmas (3 page)

BOOK: A Titan for Christmas
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Grayson's face filled her vision – and what a vision it was. Now that he was closer and not moving so much, she could see the dusting of freckles on his nose and cheeks. The little dots served to soften the hard, angular lines of his cheekbones and jaw line. She used the cover of half-closed sleepy eyes to mentally trace that jawline to just below his ear, down the smooth lines of his neck, to the muscles flexing around his collar bone.

He smirked, probably at her prolonged ogling.

Slow to recover from the grogginess of being woken up too soon, her brain finally clicked all the gears into place and she realized something else about Grayson. He was floating, weightless in the cabin. And so was his long mess of curls.

"What happened to your grav drive?"

He shrugged. "It's been broken for a few weeks, not a top priority right now."

Grayson motioned to the short hallway leading back to the galley. Jenna let her eyes linger on his extended bicep before looking at what he meant her to see.
Get a grip, Jenna. He's hot, so what? He's also aloof and kind of a jerk.

Evenly spaced along the interior metal walls of the ship, small handles she hadn't noticed on the quick walk-through tour were screwed into place.

"You can make your way around with those."

He pulled himself through the hallway to the galley and Jenna followed.

Jenna yawned. Even in weightlessness, her body felt weary. "I think I'm going to grab some sleep, if it's OK with you."

Grayson nodded and went to one of the cabinets in the galley, pulling the magnetic clasp open with a tiny snapping sound.

"My bunk has an attached sleeping bag. You'll have to zip it up so you don't bounce around the ship in your sleep."

So much for sleeping on top of the covers.

He pulled a small bundle of cloth out of the cabinet and stuffed it into the arm she wasn't holding on to the ship with. Jenna looked down at the bundle, curious. There was a towel, some kind of navy blue garment, a washcloth, and a packet of powdered soap.

"I thought you might like to clean up. You can't take a shower with the grav drive broken, but if you press the washcloth up to the faucet, you can rub down."

Jenna stared at him, speechless. That didn't happen to her too often. As a female engineer on a mining colony, she really needed to speak up to make sure her voice was heard. But the last thing she expected on this flight was unprompted hospitality.

Grayson cleared his throat and broke the awkward, gawking eye contact. "The coveralls will be a little big on you, but they're clean."

"Thank you." Jenna looked him straight in the eyes, making sure he knew how much she meant it. He floated a few feet above her and she looked up at him through her eyelashes, smiling.

"Yeah, well." Grayson let go of the cabinet to reach up with both hands and pull his unruly curls into a short ponytail. He pulled an elastic band off his right wrist with his teeth and secured his hair. "Can't have you stinking up the ship for the next few days."

Oh. Right. "Of course not." Jenna grabbed one of the handles and pulled hard, jettisoning off toward the bedroom quarters without another word.

 

 

Chapter 4

 

 

A washcloth, lukewarm water, and powdered soap wasn't exactly as luxurious or as relaxing as a hot shower, but it felt great to get the grime and grease off. Jenna scrubbed until every inch of her skin was light pink. Now that she was clean, she
could
smell a slight funk wafting from her work clothes so she took her best go at washing them in the small bathroom and clipped them to the towel rack with some old-fashioned wooden clothespins like her grandma used to use.

Raising the coveralls reluctantly to her face, she sniffed and found them baby-powder fresh. She couldn't help but smile. It was like Grayson was
trying
to keep her on her toes.

The guy was an enigma wrapped in an incredibly hot package, topped with adorable chestnut curls.

An enigma who was totally not into her.

Jenna shook her head as she pulled on the coveralls.

Why did she let this guy get to her? So what if he did save her from missing out on Christmas with her family for the first time ever? He wasn't even nice. She told herself it was just because he was the first man she had seen in almost a year who wasn't totally off limits. After all, she knew better than to get involved with any TEP employee –  more than one woman's career had been ruined that way – so that left her with exactly zero options while she was on Titan.

But she wasn't on Titan anymore and he sure as hell wasn't a TEP employee.

No.
Stop being ridiculous.

Jenna took a long look in the mirror. The short-sleeved coveralls hung loose on her body. The sponge bath had gotten rid of the grease, but the black circles still hung below her eyes. It was time to get some real sleep.

Jenna slipped out into the bedroom and pressed a blue button she could only assume controlled the lights. When she unzipped the sleeping bag, she realized the light from the galley was on and the light escaping through the hatchway sliced across the pillow of the bed. That wouldn't work. Even as tired as she was, light shining directly into her eyes would keep her awake.

Kicking off the bed, she glided across the room and into the galley. She found and hit the same blue button for this room. The light clicked off. Just before she floated back to bed, Grayson's muffled voice sounded from the cockpit. Jenna grabbed one of the handles and kept still, knowing eavesdropping was wrong even as she did it.

"I'll see you on Christmas Day, honey. I promise. Nothing will keep me away after I deliver this shipment. Don't open presents without me. Don't even peek!" His voice was warm and full to the brim with love. He laughed softly. "I love you, Stacy."

Well, that was that. The enigma had a girlfriend waiting for him back on Earth. Jenna didn't know why she was surprised; a man that good looking would always have someone waiting for him. Plus, it's not like she cared, right?

Right.

"End of message." His voice returned to the brisk tenor Jenna was much more familiar with. "Send as soon as communication range is reached."

The answering beep of the communications computer jolted Jenna into action. She slipped carefully back into the bedroom quarters and zipped herself tightly into the bed, letting exhaustion wash over her and drown her in sleep.

 

**

 

One of Jenna's least favorite parts about living off-planet was how completely it messed up Circadian rhythms. Waking up in the dark, unfamiliar quarters with no clock and no way of knowing how long she had slept, Jenna's brain ramped up to fully functional in seconds.

She freed her arms from the sleeping bag and stretched them up and around. They bumped into something clipped on to the outside of the bed frame – a magnetic tray with a vacuum sealed thermos and an aluminum packet labeled "Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal Bar."

Had Grayson really made her breakfast in bed? Kind of.

Grinning like a fool, she flipped the top on the thermos and the nutty, earthy smell of coffee greeted her. Drinking warm (not hot) coffee from a negative pressure straw was something you only got used to after many long nights off-planet.

Jenna swore the first sip of the rich coffee transmitted the caffeine straight from her tongue to her brain. Synapses fired.

The dry, crumbly oatmeal bar left crumbs floating in the air, but the fiber, sugar, and protein did wonders for her tired body. Jenna sat up in the bed, the sleeping bag keeping her strapped down at the waist.

She watched the crumbs swirl in the air. They would eventually make their way to the air filter and be gathered for disposal, but maybe there was something more she could do.

In the bathroom, she smoothed her hair into the best ponytail she could manage and ran a damp washcloth over her face. Time to get to work.

 

 

Chapter 5

 

 

Half of the disassembled grav drive clung to a metallic parts board Jenna had found in the back of the engine room and clamped to some piping when the door squeaked open. Grayson's head popped in through the opening, a knowing smile plastered on his face.

Smiling transformed him. He was still every bit as handsome, but now he looked like someone who might not completely resent her presence.

"I knew I'd find you in here."

"Hey! Oh, hi! Oh!" Jenna looked at the parts scattered around her. "I'm sorry, I should have asked. I was just going to glance at it, but then I found some frayed fiber optics and replaced them, but it still wouldn't work so I wanted to check the secondary coupling because they tend to get mucked up in these older models so I -"

Grayson held up a hand to stop her chatter, laughing. "I'm just a knuckle-dragger pilot, remember? I'm lucky I can fuel the thing."

Jenna tossed her head back and laughed. "I'm sure you're just being modest. Here, look. I'll show you."

She waved him over and he used the handles to float in next to her, the two of them hovering just above the floor, their heads close together to look deep into the grav drive's frame.

She snaked her arm through the manifold and pointed. "See, this is where the cooling system was blocked, causing the system to overheat."

"I'm with you so far."

Jenna moved her arm to point at another spot and she bumped against the frame. Physics 101 flashback: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. The frame pushed back against her and she slid slowly into Grayson's side.

"Whoa there." Grayson braced his left arm against the wall and wrapped his right arm around the back of her waist, keeping them both from sliding away from the grav drive.

Jenna expected Grayson to remove his arm as soon as she stabilized, but it remained there, sending tingles up her spine. She turned her head to the side and his green eyes caught her gaze.

"You've already managed to get more grease on you" Grayson reached his left hand to her face and rubbed his thumb gently across her cheek.

How was it possible for such a small, simple touch to send thrills through her chest, through her stomach, and down even further? Gratitude for the broken grav drive filled Jenna as she realized she probably wouldn't be able to support her own weight at that moment. She had always thought weak knees was a romantic myth.

The feel of his hip pressed against hers, coupled with the playful smirk on his face, made her forget everything she knew about ground faults and insulation-degrading temperatures.

Heat rushed from where they touched to engulf her entire body.

Grayson cleared his throat. "So, it got hot?"

Jenna suddenly found it very hard to swallow. Or breathe. "Very."

A chuckle vibrated through Grayson's chest, setting her body to humming. He released her gaze and loosened his grip around her back, turning his attention back to the grav drive. "What happened next?"

Right. With the grav drive.

Jenna wrapped her hand around the frame and squeezed, focusing on the feel of the sharp corners pressing into her skin. And not the feel of Grayson's body, gently bumping against hers in the zero-G.

"The insulation here was the first to degrade, causing the current to jump through the secondary coupling and short out the whole electrical system."

Grayson pursed his lips and nodded. Jenna knew that look; it was the same one she got from TEP management all the time.

"You just want to know if I can fix it."

"Yep," Grayson said, a grin lighting up his face.

 

**

 

"You sitting down?" Jenna called through the open door.

"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.

BOOK: A Titan for Christmas
4.69Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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