Learning to Blush (33 page)

She blushed and bit her lip. She actually liked him this way. He had a bad-ass look to him right now, especially with the one eye covered. He would have to patch the worst of his eyes for the rest of his life, even after he was mostly healed, which would have been bad news if she didn’t think it gave him a weathered Sky-Captain-of-Tomorrow-Meets-True-Grit sort of look that was downright sexy.

“When do you think Fie will release you from his clutches?” she asked, desire blatant in her tone.

“Two weeks. I’m still regenerating muscle…” He suddenly caught that she was prying his knees apart and he grinned devilishly. “But we don’t have to wait two weeks for me to take care of my wife…” He put down his legs and reached down to scoot her body over his. He kissed her and then immediately began to fiddle with the buttons on her blouse.

She put her hands over his. “We shouldn’t,” she warned, looking behind her at the door. “A nurse or something could walk in…”

“Yeah, that’s what makes this
hot
,” he said, his firm fingers not deterred by hers. He shucked her shirt off and pushed it off of her shoulders and unclasped her bra, loving how she was already grinding herself against him through her clothing and the bed sheets. “Besides, it’s been nearly a month! What do I look like? A hemorahpod?” he asked.

He’d made the joke before, and Ellie finally knew enough Swarii to get it. A hemorahpod was supposedly a kangaroo creature that only had sex once every five years—the only reason the species had not gone extinct eons ago was because Swarii conservationists were practically comical in their resolve to not let anything go the way of the dinosaur.

They pulled her leggings and pants off, although she found herself hurrying just so if anyone did walk in, by then she’d be under the blanket. Graham, the sweet man that he was, understood that enough. As soon as she was properly naked, he laid her down in the bed under him. It had been nearly been two months since he had been captured; he was still battered, still bruised, but now he wasn’t hooked up to any regeneration-machines, at least. He could ignore the pain in his body enough to pleasure the hot moistness he was soon digging his finger into, and the moan he got in response.

He pressed his thumb against her swollen clit and watched her intake a little breath and look submissively up at him with her glassy doe eyes. God, he loved her. And he loved the way she reacted to him. She was ready for him; she was always ready for him—when they were making love they could block out the rest of the world. There was only her, and she was all his, from her silky hair to her five pink toes.

Sure, she was working again. She was “strange” compared to the rest of the Swarii women. She had power within her; something to be reckoned with. And he loved that… He especially loved that in bed. She had confidence in all of her movements, yet still submitted gracefully to his touch. Right now, she ground against his hand, panting already, whining miserably when he eventually stopped thrusting his fingers in and out of her and put himself at her hungry little entrance.

She still wasn’t quite used to his member, not even after being married to him for over a year. When he entered her, he still always felt resistance, he always had to adjust, and she always squinted in a way that made it seem like she expected pain, followed by a surprised expression when it turned out that it felt much better than she expected it to.

As for him, he did feel pain, a torturous longing pain, a pressure that he found building and building as he thrust into her. But he had to wait until he made his blissful release, a release he knew would feel more and more blissful the longer he withheld. He wanted to come with her. He could always tell when she was close—her eyes, focused on him, would suddenly dilate. She was no longer looking at him now; she was focused on the pleasure that was building within her, too.

Finally, he felt her clenching down on him, a feeling so wonderful yet it caused him to wince. He let out a groan as he felt the pressure mount to a head and then release, extracting even as she clenched against him, taking in the seed that he gave to her…

“Ah, shit. Not again!” he heard a young woman’s voice whine at the door. “Fuck!”

Graham rolled off of Ellie, much to Ellie’s annoyance, who yelped and brought the sheet up and over her breasts. They both looked towards the door and saw Penny, her hands over her eyes. “You can just go, you know. We wouldn’t have noticed you come in,” Graham informed the girl peevishly.

“Can’t. The Admiral’s freaking out because Ellie’s not picking up her communicator,” Penny replied flatly. “We’re all out looking for you before
he
finds ya.”

Graham looked at Ellie’s wrist and checked her com. It said she had missed messages, but she had been with him for the last hour, and he hadn’t heard any calls. “Did you put this on silent?” he asked her accusingly.

Ellie immediately shrugged defensively. “Had to. Tim was trolling me.”

Graham blinked. “
Trolling
you?”

“Trolling,” echoed Penny. “He wants to add a separate break system, but I didn’t want to code that because it would drain the central power grid when we need an extra boost—”

“And it would add about 99 megagrams to the ship weight—” Ellie added.

“But until he gets his way, he’s been calling us every ten minutes just to say, ‘Bitch’. It was funny the first five times or so, but now it’s getting old…” Penny rumbled, rubbing at her arm. “I asked Mike to kill him about an hour ago though, and it’s been all quiet on the Western Front since.” Penny swiped her hand through the air and then stood awkwardly. “I should go, shouldn’t I?”

Ellie rolled out of bed and searched around for her clothing. “No, I should go and see Jack. I’ll go out with you.”

Penny squinted. “Are you wearing that stupid medal while you’re having
sex
? A little too pleased with ourselves, aren’t we?”

Ellie looked down at her naked breasts. “Hot, isn’t it?” She looked over at Graham and winked, but he was frowning. “Can you call your Dad for me to make sure he doesn’t kill me?” she asked, putting her bra back on.

He tapped his bottom lip and she leaned over to kiss him. He gave her a very firm swat on the bottom. “I suppose. It’s getting late, anyway. Make sure you get back to Dad’s pronto, and make sure you eat something.” He looked over at Penny as Ellie continued to dress. “How’s Thorton doing?”

Penny shrugged.

“He called me to ask if I’d seen you earlier today,” Graham mentioned.

“Yeah. He saw me.” She rubbed her bottom, looking distracted, as if she didn’t know she was doing it. She didn’t look very excited at the prospect of continuing the conversation, and he didn’t force her.

He looked to his wife who was buttoning up her last buttons and leaning over to give him a goodbye peck on the lips. “I can’t wait until I’m going home to
our
home.”

“I’d like to bring you back to the family home on
Swaraan
, not on my ship, so make sure your gadgetry does, in fact, win us the war.” He reached over to pick up the communicator that was sitting on his bedside table to call up his father. “On your way out, tell Fie to give me a couple more pain meds.”

She saluted him. “Aye-aye,” and followed Penny out.

* * *

“Graham’s looking good. He's sort of got a bad-ass pirate thing going… I have to say, I like that in a guy,” Penny laughed as they headed out of the medical bay. Penny had avoided Fie as best as she could as Ellie went to talk to him before heading out, though, and Ellie noticed.

“So, what’s the deal with you and Thorton?”

“Thorton’s sexy, and he means well, but that being said, he’s sort of evil,” Penny replied. “I don’t know if this whole marriage-thing is gonna work out.”

Ellie rolled her eyes. Over the last month, Penny and Thorton had been a traumatic love story, full of very high ups, and very low downs. Their marriage was made like a soap opera, complete with drama and broken vases. “You need to just chill out with Thorton. He was an easy-going guy before you came along and made him nutty as a squirrel’s wet dream,” Ellie lectured, putting her hands in her pants as she strolled along.

“Yeah, yeah. I was thinking… Can I stay with you tonight?” Penny pleaded.

Ellie raised an eyebrow, hoping that Penny was joking. “
Again
? You stayed with me last week!”

“Yeah, and now it’s for a different reason! Thorton’s crazy, and he thinks this stupid thing Fie is having him do is important…”

“Fie? The doctor?” Ellie jerked her thumb towards the back of her.

“Yeah, you see—” Penny’s com rang then, where she stopped talking and followed Ellie all the way back to her apartment as she chatted back and forth with Mike about locating Ellie, walking in on quite ‘the scene’ between her and Graham, about Tim, and by the time she hung up the phone, they were at the front door of Jack’s apartment and she asked, “So what were we talking about?”

“I was telling you not to stay with me tonight, but to make nice,” Ellie reminded peevishly as they walked into the house and up the stairs to Ellie’s bedroom. Jack didn’t seem to be home; all the lights were off.

“Right. You see, Thorton—”

“Wait.” Ellie put a hand on Penny’s chest. They were in front of Ellie’s bedroom door, which was open. It wasn’t easy to see in the low light of the empty apartment. Ellie swung her door open.

Circular, yellow eyes shown through the darkness at them. Ellie nearly pushed Penny over as she tried to turn her around saying, “Run! Run!
Frians
!”

Penny ran towards the staircase, hearing Ellie squeak as she was somehow silenced. Penny had a scream stuck in her throat, but before she could even go down the first step, she was grabbed from behind.

A thick, musky fog filled her nose, and even as she wanted to cry at the feeling of a scaly hand covering her mouth, she fell asleep.

* * *

Penny knew she was dreaming; especially since she was reliving a scene she’d already lived, only this time she viewed it all like she was a fly on the wall. She was watching what had happened between herself and Thorton like it was a movie on a screen. “Stop being a baby!” he snapped at her.

He was carrying her into their apartment under his arm like she was a tantrum-throwing five-year-old… And compared to him, she somewhat looked like it. She had never quite noticed before how
young
she looked in comparison to Thornton. Not that he looked old, but he looked so much like an adult. So manly, so thick, so muscular and developed by the stubble on his chin or the small, faint little wrinkles by the side of his eyes. Besides the freckles, Penny’s face looked like something out of a face-wash commercial. Not a wrinkle. Not a line. Not a blemish. It made her look like a high-schooler… Which she technically still was!

“Stop being a tyrant!” she shrieked back at him, flailing desperately. She remembered why she had fought so hard—she really, really did not want another supplement to go up her bottom. Not for
any
reason.

But that’s what Thorton had in mind. It was time. He grabbed the medication from the kitchen counter, where he had left it, then continued into the bedroom. “Eeek!” she said as Thorton dropped her down and then pressed her down onto the bed mattress.

“You’re not going to do this every time,” Thorton informed her, his teeth gritted as he tried to unscrew a medicine bottle with only one free hand. “I’m not the one that did this to you, you know. I’m only the one trying to get you back to normal.”

“Just so you can breed me!” she hissed.

Thorton rolled his eyes, dramatically looking at the ceiling as if trying to gather up his patience. “No, because I don’t like bar-pimps putting any demi-permanent drugs up in a place which is
mine.
”

“My pussy belonged to me last time
I
checked!”

“You know what I meant,” he sighed with exasperation, and then pushed up her skirt and pulled down her leggings with one easy jerk of his hand.

Rewatching this scene was hard. Penny couldn’t stand how Thorton could see… that. Everything. Her bottom—her pale, freckled, ridiculous ass! If it was up to her, she wouldn’t have a butt at all. There was nothing redeeming about it.

But even as it squirmed about, Thorton’s eyes looked hungrily at it… Until she started swearing at him, and then he pursed his lips with resolve.

Penny was so
stupid
! They had just had this out about swearing the last week! Thorton wouldn’t stand for it, and really, he was obviously already at the end of his patience with her. He released pressure on her back so that she was able to stand up and quickly tried to bolt for the door, and she would have succeeded if he hadn’t grabbed her wrist and tugged her back as he walked over to the dresser and pulled out a pair of leather handcuffs.

Ellie’s
handcuffs. The handcuffs that Graham, in a horrible moment of lucidity, suggested to Thornton that he should borrow until he commissioned some of his own to get made. Penny used to like Graham until he'd given those to Thorton like a man handing an axe to an executioner.

“Give me your hands, Penny,” Thorton said in a firm yet very flat tone, brooking no argument from her.

Penny seemed to finally become aware that she had pushed Thorton too far. “Fine. Fine, I’ll let you do it,” she said sullenly, not wanting a spanking. Really, really not wanting a spanking.

“Of course you will. You’ll also take a spanking for calling me about five words I’m sure my mother had never heard in her entire life, and certainly would not have liked you calling her son. So hands.”

“I take back my statement,” she allowed stuffily.

“How
kind
,” he replied grimly. “Hands.” He took her wrist and clasped one of the cuffs on her as a worried expression covered up the annoyed, sullen, and admittedly bratty look she had been wearing previously.

Penny didn’t struggle when Thorton clasped the second cuff to her hand, binding them effectively together. She didn’t want to piss Thorton off any more than she had. “I’m sorry, okay?” she asked, trying to back-pedal by sticking out her bottom lip and attempting to look as pathetic as non-humanly possible.