Farthest Space: The Wrath of Jan (6 page)

“There is no reason to assume that.
 
They may have been thrown out an airlock, for all we know.”

“Stars, you’re just full of positive thoughts.
 
The truth is, Vaish, we don’t know what happened to them.
 
We don’t have any way of finding out,
 
But lying here awake isn’t going to help them any.
 
If you don’t get some sleep, you won’t be alert tomorrow, and you might wind up as kitty chow.”

“As if you’d care.”

There was a long silence.
 
“Oh, I’d care,” he said at last, very softly.
 
“Trust me, Vaish.
 
I’d care.”

She swallowed, unreasonably flattered by the solemn tone in his voice.
 
Naturally, she thought, he would care.
 
If she died, he’d be alone on this planet, with only Fred for company.
 
That was what he meant.
 
It wasn’t that she was anything special as far as he was concerned; it was simply that she was the only female available to him.
 
Besides, he must realize that two people had better odds of survival than one person alone.

He shifted in the dark, and she started violently as his arm slid around her.

“What are you doing?” she demanded.

He chuckled.
 
His warm breath tickled the pointed tip of her ear, and she shivered.

“Just thought I’d help you get to sleep,” he answered softly.

“I thought I told you—“

“Take it easy, Vaish.
 
I promise not to do anything you don’t want me to do.”
 
His big hand splayed out over her abdomen, warm and slightly rough, and she shivered again.

She balled her fists up in the dark, trying her best to ignore his touch.
 
But it wasn’t easy.
 
She’d longed for him to touch her for so long.
 
And yet she didn’t want it to be like this, him touching her because she was literally the only woman on the planet.

She didn’t want him to desire her simply because she was the only available warm body, but because he truly admired her.

He pulled her toward him till her back pressed up against the warm expanse of his chest and abdomen, and she felt his erection nudging her bottom.
 
It was hard and hot, magnificent even through two layers of fabric.
 
She let out her breath in a sigh as his lips nuzzled the back of her neck.

His hand slipped upward, cupping her breast, and desire bloomed in her long-arid body like a brilliantly hued flower blooming in the desert sand.
 
The Canvul believed sex was as natural as breathing, but when she’d left Canvulia, she’d turned her back on her people’s ways.
 

She thought of sex as a nuisance, something that got in the way more often than not, an unnecessary frill.
 
A luxury rather than a necessity.

She hadn’t let herself want sex in a long time, and suddenly her body was rebelling violently against her sexless existence.
 
Warmth and heat trickled between her legs, and she tingled in spots she’d forgotten she had.
 
Her nipples stood erect, practically begging for Steven’s touch.

In fact, her whole body ached with the need for him to touch her nipples.
 
But his fingers only stroked the bottom half of her breast, slowly and deliberately, until she was ready to scream with frustration.
 

“Tell me that you want me,” Steven said in her ear.

I want you.

She bit down on the words and spoke between her teeth.
 
“When fire freezes.”

“That’s sort of the opposite of what seems to be happening here,” Steven observed, his fingers still slipping over the sensitive skin of her breast.
 
“This is more like ice melting.”

Oh, yes, her body was definitely melting, but she wasn’t about to admit it to him.
 
She kept her body still, despite her desire to dissolve against him and writhe with pleasure, kept her breathing even by sheer force of will.

And then his hand slid up and brushed over her nipple.

Her nipple went rigid.
 
Her whole body went rigid.
 
She barely bit back a moan.

“You like that?” he whispered.

Oh, Stars, yes.

“You’re interfering with my sleep period,” she said, doing her utmost to keep her voice steady.
 

“Your sleep period,” he repeated, amusement plain in his voice.

“Yes.
 
I like to get a full night’s sleep.”

“You’ll sleep better once you get rid of some of this tension.”

“Tension?
 
I am not currently experiencing tension.”

He made a scoffing noise and pinched her nipple gently between thumb and forefinger.
 
She jerked.
 
“If that’s not tension, I don’t know what it is.”

“It is merely a normal physiological reaction.
 
A response to a stimulus.
 
It means nothing.”

“Resistance is futile, Vaish.
 
You’re turned on.
 
Admit it.”

She locked her jaws together and said nothing, made no sound, even as his hand trailed down her abdomen.
 
Canvul women had hairless bodies, and unlike a human woman, there was nothing to protect her most sensitive flesh from the invasion of his fingers.
 
She stiffened as his big, callused fingers stroked across her smooth mound.

“Want me to stop?” he said in her ear.

She wanted him to stop approximately as much as she wanted to be stranded on this planet for all of eternity, but she wasn’t about to say so.
 
She wouldn’t admit to the yearnings of her body.
 
Not for him.
 

But she couldn’t bring herself to tell him to stop, either.

His hard erection nudged against the cheek of her butt, so hot he all but branded her skin, and a gush of warm liquid surged between her thighs.
 
Her body wanted him, regardless of what her brain thought.

And then his hand slid lower, his finger delving into her folds, exploring her until he was slick with moisture, and then moving upward slightly.

She shuddered.

“You’re so hot,” he said in her ear.
 
“And you smell so good.”

Considering she hadn’t had a shower in over twenty-four hours, she sincerely doubted that, but his words sent a heated rush of pleasure through her anyway.
 
Although his fingers were already doing a good job of that.
 

He stroked her, slowly and carefully, bringing her to the edge of a precipice she hadn’t looked over in a long time.
 
Her breath caught in her throat, and she shook with mingled pleasure and fear.
 

She wasn’t sure she wanted to go over that precipice, wasn’t sure she wanted to admit that she was a sexual creature, as sensual as any Canvul woman.
 
The thought that she was really no different from any of her people terrified her.
 
She’d built her life on the premise that she was different.
 
More serious.
 
More staid.
 
Totally asexual.

And yet she thought she’d die if she didn’t find fulfillment.

And then he moved his finger just a little faster, and she fell over the edge.
 
Ecstasy exploded within her, warmth radiating from her womb through her body in waves.
 

She gritted her teeth, managing to keep herself from moaning, but her body was beyond her control.
 
She writhed in spasms of unleashed pleasure.
 
At last the heat ebbed, and she fell back against the floor with a stifled gasp.

His hand splayed possessively over her belly.
 
“You’re a lot sexier than I ever realized,” he said softly, his mouth against her hair.
 

She hadn’t realized the depth of her own longing for sex, but now she ached for more.
 
Even after the incredibly satisfying orgasm he’d given her, she couldn’t stop herself from thinking what it would be like to have him inside her, moving hard and fast.
 
Another shiver ran through her.

But he pulled his hand away.

“Well,” he said, “I guess I’ve interfered with your sleep period enough for one evening.”

Are you out of your mind?
she almost said, but managed to stifle her indignation just in time.
 
What the hell?
 
She’d expected him to seduce her into sex, and instead he’d simply satisfied her and was now going to sleep.
 
It was baffling.
 
Steven had never struck her as the type to care more for a woman’s pleasure than for his own.

But he rolled over.
 
She cracked an eye open and saw the big wall of his back, lit by the faint glow from the instruments.
 

“Good night,” he mumbled.

And within moments he was asleep.

Despite the intense relaxation of her muscles, sleep didn’t come as easily to her.
 
And when it did, her dreams were haunted by a chiseled statue come to life.
 
A statue that touched her and turned her from marble to flesh as well.
 

“We need to come up with a plan,” Steven said the next morning, wincing as he downed a cup of truly atrocious coffee.
 

“A plan?” Vaish echoed.
 
She had opted for Canvulian tea, which must be as awful as the coffee, judging from her pained grimaces as she swallowed it.
 
Emergency rations, Steven thought, were hell.
 
“What sort of plan?”

“A plan to get us off this godforsaken rock, obviously.”

“It’s not a rock,” Fred said.
 
“It’s a very lovely place.
 
You should see the second planet.
 
Now
that’s
a rock.”

Steven sighed.
 
“Yes, Fred, it’s a very lovely planet.
 
But I don’t want to live here the rest of my life.”

“The second planet doesn’t even have a breathable atmosphere,” Fred said.
 
“Did I mention it’s methane?
 
You wouldn’t want to be breathing methane, would you?”

Steven closed his eyes and counted to ten.
 
“Yes, Fred,” he said at last, in what he thought was a commendably even tone.
 
“You did a good job making sure we landed here safely.
 
Neither of us wants to breathe methane.
 
But we still need to get out of here.”

“I’ve already done everything I can,” Fred said.
 
“I engaged the emergency beacon, as you ordered, and I’m constantly scanning the system for vessels.
 
But there haven’t been any.”
 

“There aren’t likely to be any just passing through,” Vaish said.
 
She had knotted up her long lavender hair, scraping it tightly against her skull, and the stiff science officer persona had returned along with the hairdo.
 
She didn’t look at all like the woman who’d shuddered in his arms last night as he brought her to orgasm.