HeartStorm (HeartFast Series Book 3) (17 page)

            Presently, he brought them down, landing on the front lawn. He dropped the shield and reluctantly released her. Hunter hesitated, eliciting a question from her. In the light of the hovering security lamp, he reminded her of a lost soul who desperately wanted something but was uncertain how to ask.

            "How do you want to do this?"

            "Umm..." He gave an indecisive chuckle. "I honestly don't know."

            "Let me go first and break the news to them," she suggested.

            "Yeah. That would probably be the best way. Otherwise, they might have a heart attack if we just appeared out of thin air without advance notice. I'll be watching from the kitchen," he said, and vanished. Star grinned. She knew about that special little corner behind the refrigerant where he would always pop in and out of the house when he was growing up. Cara had told her she often would stick her head in there to call him to come eat, knowing he would hear her, even if she couldn't see him.

            The night air was cool after the warmth they'd shared along the way. Funny, how she'd become more sensitive to the coldness of space since being pregnant.

            Wrapping her arms around her upper chest, she walked up to the front door and put her hand on the entry tablet. Within seconds, the door swung open, and Vall Vosstien stared at her with pleasant surprise. Quickly, he stepped aside and gestured for her to enter.

            "Terrin! Don't keep standing out there. Come in, come in. Cara, Terrin's here!"

            Cara Vosstien emerged from the kitchen, a dishtowel in her hands. She hurried over to give Star a quick hug and a kiss on each cheek. "What a wonderful surprise! You look in wonderful health! How have you been feeling?"

            "I'm fine. In fact, I'm feeling...wonderful!" She laughed lightly, knowing the blush on her cheeks wasn't entirely due to the cold weather.

            "Were you in the neighborhood and decided to drop by? Or..." Vall's voice tapered off, leaving the rest of his question understood but unspoken. Was this an official visit?

            Cara stepped back and stared intently at her daughter-in-law's face. Her brows knitted together. "Something's up. Terrin, forgive me for saying this, but I've never seen you this happy and excited since...since..."

            She couldn't help herself. There was no way to tell them the truth except to do so with blunt honesty. "Udo's returned."

            The couple stared at her with undisguised shock. It was Vall who stammered, "H-how? Wh-when?"

            "It's a long story, and I can't begin to explain how, but
Transport Two
managed to emerge from a wormhole, whole and intact, and with everyone safely on board."

            Tears were already rolling down Cara's cheeks. "Wh-where is he? Is he well?" Vall had similar tears filling his eyes as his chin trembled, his face echoing his wife's questions.

            "I'm very well, Mom, Dad." Hunter stood behind them. He was still disheveled, unshaven, and wearing the same uniform he'd been wearing when he initially disappeared days ago, along with Commander, Seeker, and Disaster. Days when measured in his time, but months when measured in hers, Star corrected herself. But none of that mattered anymore.

            Cara gave a little cry of surprise, whirled, and ran over to embrace her son. Vall quickly joined the pair and wrapped them both within his long arms. Long, strong arms his firstborn son had inherited. Star remained to the side, watching with tears hitching in her chest.

            Udo was home. Her love had returned, she would finally bear their child, and they had so much to be thankful for.

Chapter Twenty-One

Opaque

            "Are you hungry? We had bor brithin for supper. There's plenty left. Let me warm some up for you," Cara insisted. Pulling herself away from the men, she hurried into the kitchen as she wiped her eyes with the dishtowel she still clutched.

            Hunter glanced at Star, and the hunger she saw in his eyes wasn't for food, although she knew his last meal may have been days ago.

            "Actually, Mom, if it would be all right with you and Dad, Star and I were wanting to stay here for the night before continuing on to Synaria."

            "You know you can stay anytime," Vall gently derided him.

            Hunter gave a lopsided grin as his father tousled his hair, a gesture she had seen both parents do with affection. She was often guilty of doing it, too.

            "Terrin, I'm going to take a shower and change into something less grungy." Giving her a slight nod, he vanished for the back bedroom that would always be exclusively his...theirs. She remained standing and staring at the spot where he'd vanished, lost in her own thoughts, when Vall's question interrupted.

            "You look exhausted. Why don't you sit down? Would you like something to drink?"

            She looked exhausted? Now that he mentioned it, she realized how tired she really was. But for some reason, Hunter's return made her weariness insignificant, until she remembered she had to think of the baby first.

            At the thought of the baby, the initial hunger that manifested itself between her thighs began to beat with a growing intensity. They were spending their first night together here, and she wondered if they'd be able to make it through the dark hours without consummating their passion.

            "A glass of water would be nice, thanks, but let me get it." She quirked a smile at him. "Remember, I'm not a guest here. I'm family."

            Chuckling, Vall waved her away and dropped back into his favorite chair to resume watching whatever was on the vid. Star strolled into the kitchen to find Cara sending the dishes through the cleaner. The woman stopped what she was doing to fetch a glass from a cabinet, and handed it to her.

            "The nightmare appears to be over," Hunter's mother whispered, and sniffed. Her eyes were pink from crying.

            "Yeah, I hope so," Star confessed. She glanced around the kitchen as she realized something. "Where's Dallin?"

            "On a field trip to the Biro Farsta nebula. They're spending the weekend on Mars Hebris Two...or is it Taris Hebron Two?" Cara shook her head. "I can't keep track anymore," she admitted with a giggle. Casting another look at Star, she narrowed her eyes again. "Terrin, why do I get the impression there's still something wrong? You're glowing with happiness, but I would swear something's holding you back."

            Star set the empty glass down on the counter. The woman could almost read her as well as Hunter did, and maybe it was a blessing. Maybe she didn't have to wait to ask Doctor Perlakian.

            "I..." She took a deep breath and lowered her voice. "Can I ask you a very personal question?"

            "Terrin, you can ask me anything. You know that."

            "How... Is it possible to make love when I'm pregnant?"

            Cara's gaze went immediately to her throat, and the woman's hand flew to her own HeartCrystal embedded in the same location as Star's. Her eyes then dropped to Star's rounded tummy before looking her in the face. A compassionate smile curved her lips.

           
"Yes, Terrin. You can make love without hurting the child, up until your eighth month," she softly informed her. Smiling warmly, she added, "At least, that's what my doctor told me."

            "And when we make love, will it bring back our crystal?" Star asked.

            More tears welled up in the older woman's eyes, forcing her to nod. Cara cleared her throat to continue. "Go. Go love my son. Fulfill your happiness and his. I promise, after you do, your worlds will tilt back on their axes, and your lives can resume." She gave a little shooing motion, similar to the way her husband had done earlier. "Go on! You can raid the pantry later. By then, you'll both be starving."

            Giving the woman a quick buss on the cheek, Star hurried for the back bedroom.

            Hunter was still in the shower when she closed and locked the door behind her. His grimy uniform lay on the floor by the closet, a habit she'd never been able to break him of doing. The closet panel was open to where she could see the spare uniforms they kept at the house for those times when they wanted to use the bedroom as a quick layover.

           
Strolling into the bathroom, she could see Hunter's blurry outline on the other side of the cleansing chamber door. Decontamination rays bounced off the hard plastite portal like tiny white exploding fireworks. She caught a glimpse of herself on the shower's reflective outer surface. A woman with the slightly rounded belly stared back, a silly grin on her flushed face, her eyes twinkling with expectation. Quickly, she shed her own uniform before knocking on the chamber.

            "Any room in there for a pregnant woman?"

            The rays were turned away, and the door slid to the side. Hunter raked his eyes over her, and his erection began to stiffen, lengthen, and rise. He hesitated.

            "Terrin, do you think that's wise?"

            She gave him a slow, sexy smile. "I have it on the best authority," she murmured in that sultry tone she knew always turned him on, and stepped inside.

            He wrapped his arms around her as he drew her under the purifying rays with him. Taking her mouth, he kissed her deeply, and with growing enthusiasm as his member prodded her inner thighs.

           
"Terrin."

            "Love me, Udo. Don't hold back any longer. Love me. I've missed you so much." She mouthed the stubble on his cheek, not caring if it abraded or not, then moved to his neck and bare shoulder. "Oh, gods, I've missed you."

            "Let's move to the bed—"

            "No!" she urgently whispered, taking his face between her palms to kiss him again. To let her tongue invade his mouth where he would suckle on it the way she enjoyed.

           
He lifted her off her feet, and the sensation of her rounded belly sliding up his abdomen made him chuckle. "Star, do you remember that time when you floated horizontally for me?"

            There were many times they had floated above the bed, the floor, or wherever, she recalled, but she knew the very first time he was referring to. Letting go of his face, she locked her feet behind him and leaned backwards until she lay perpendicular to his body. Grasping her legs, Hunter pulled her toward him, adjusting her height to where their groins met. The head of his erection nestled against her lower lips with a promising pressure. Within the large, oval-shaped interior, there was plenty of room for her to stretch out.

            "I didn't think you could ever be more beautiful than you already were," he murmured. His hands grasped her swelling breasts to lightly pinch the tips. Star gasped, and he immediately withdrew them.

           
"Did I—"

            "No. You didn't hurt me," she reassured him. Reaching for his hands, she brought them back to her breasts. "Trust me, my love. Read me. You'll know if I feel any pain."

            His fingers playfully batted her tight nipples, rolling them like dials on a comm board. With every touch, she could feel her need growing more and more voracious, almost like a physical plea to him to enter her. And when he ran his nails lightly across her skin, ice and fire crawled under her skin.

She shivered.            "Take me, Udo. Please!"

            Instead, he lowered his face over her abdomen and kissed it. "Our baby. Our love made another child. I'm still trying to wrap my head around this miracle." His lips traveled downward toward her mons as his fingers continued to make swirling patterns over her hips and thighs. "When I was inside the wormhole, I didn't allow myself to dream of this, of loving you again like this. I couldn't. Being taken away from you like that... I couldn't think past the present. I couldn't dream of the future."

            Neither could she. But that nightmare was over. They were together again, and it was all she could do to keep herself elevated. The heady sensations racing through her were intoxicating.

            She felt his hand at her entrance, spreading her lower lips, which his other hand released its grip above her knee. Carefully, he placed the head of his erection at her entrance, moving it slowly, agonizingly, around and over her clit. She jerked her legs impatiently and started to reach down to grab him when he stopped her.

            "Let me take my time, Terrin. It will make the outcome all the sweeter."

            Clenching her hands, she pressed them to her hips, when Hunter removed his member. A moment later, his mouth replaced it to lick her hard little bud, and she nearly soared. Throwing her arms out to her sides and turning her palms face down, she was able to steady herself, but she was rapidly losing touch as his tongue probed her inner chamber, plunging past the entrance as his unshaven cheeks and jaw rasped over her sensitive flesh. When he took her clit into his mouth and suckled it, she felt herself rising toward her peak. Her hips bucked uncontrollably against his assault, but his hands kept her firmly in place.

           
"Udo!"

            She was gasping, trying to stay aloft, as fiery need consumed her. She couldn't stop him, she couldn't beg him to take her fully to feel herself being filled with his hard length. Her mind went blank as her body drank from this world of pleasure.

            At no time was she aware of him removing his mouth until he slowly sank himself deep within her. Pushing his quivering erection all the way inside before withdrawing it an inch at a time. Letting her juices coat him, scald him, force him back within her.

            Their ragged breathing echoed within the chamber. Hunter clutched her thighs as he pumped himself, using long, smooth strokes that gradually became shorter and rougher. She sensed him leaning over her, his breath puffing over her tummy. Their moans echoed within the chamber, until he reached between her legs, edged his thumb down to where they were joined, and manipulated her clit.