Whispers in the Dawn (17 page)

“Hard to imagine parents can leave their kids behind like that.” Harley shook his head in disgust. “You’re really lucky to have an uncle like that.”

“Uncle Peter doesn’t talk about it. The few times I asked him about them, he said if they had forgotten about me, then it was best to forget about them too.”

“Wise advice.”

“What about
your
parents?”

“I don’t remember them at all,” he said, as if she was trying to pull the information from him as painfully as a dentist who didn’t use sedation when trying to pull a rotten tooth.

“Who raised you?” she asked out of curiosity.

“My big brother and his wife did. I was a latecomer, and I guess my parents figured they could do without an additional mouth to feed so they passed me onto my brother.”

“How sad. Mmm,” Odessa murmured, closing her eyes and revelling in being out of her shoes. “That feels so good.”

Harley scooted down and carefully lifted her leg, as if it were delicate crystal.

Odessa immediately blinked her eyes open.

“Relax. Sometimes it feels that much better when someone else is doing the rubbing.”

“Mmm,” she said again, luxuriating in his deft touch. The movements of his hands caused the stifling air to move around her, creating a wispy but humid breeze. “It wouldn’t be hard to convince me to relax right now,” she whispered. His big hands easily took in a larger portion of her foot than she could manage herself. An overwhelming heat in the pit of her belly began to make her wish for more, that he would caress her ankle, then move up to her thigh and inwards to her feminine core. There he would rub her clit and she would shear off into ecstasy.

Harley began to talk to her, amazed he could tell her about his past, something he had never been able to do before except with Abby. “My brother was a pretty neat guy.”

“Was?”

“He died in a hang-gliding accident when I was eighteen. His wife told me I was old enough to get out on my own. I’d been working odd jobs since I was sixteen to help him out. That didn’t count with her, though.”

“Maybe she was afraid of something. Like another man in the house.” He hit a sensitive spot under her big toe.

“Yeah. I suppose you’re right, although I wouldn’t have called it that. I was just a kid trying to get along in the world.”

“Where did you go after your sister-in-law kicked you out?” She clapped her hand over her mouth. “Oops. I didn’t mean to sound so callous.”

He grimaced. “I didn’t take it that way. I joined the police force in Texas. I had always wanted to be a Texas Ranger, but I thought there was plenty of time to work my way around.”

“But you went somewhere else?” she prompted, watching his hands with an expression of longing.

“Yeah. I wanted more adventure than I was getting, patrolling the streets day after day.”

“You’d think there would be plenty of adventure in a job like that.”

Her bare foot was so small and delicate. He didn’t want to talk, but to make love, to pleasure her, to give her a sense of protection. How could he do that if he didn’t feel safe himself? He resisted the urge to circle his hands around the circumference of her ankle. Her eyes had gone dreamy, a misty blue. Her lips fell apart slightly. He had to get his mind off raw sex and back to finding a way to get them off the station, to safety.

“It was predictable adventure of sorts,” he continued with difficulty. He felt as if a fur-ball had lodged deep in his throat. “I’d go out in the morning and chase the bad guys, who ultimately surrendered. End of story.”

“And then you turned to drug dealing?” she asked.

He swallowed hard, unable to get angry with her. She had planted her index finger in her mouth and was lightly sucking on it. The motion was sexy, with the naivety of a child in a woman’s body, or a woman unconsciously luring a man. His body tightened and his pants felt tight as his cock swelled with desire. He wouldn’t mind touching her everywhere along her body, but he had to get away from this kind of thinking, which usually led to trouble. He concluded her action was meant to drive him past the brink of insanity. He allowed for her comment. She didn’t know that he was Pardua’s man for only one reason.

“I don’t deal drugs,” he said calmly, his voice much too hoarse for his liking.

She shrugged. “If you say so. If you don’t, then why do you work for Pardua?” She inclined her head, noticed his eyes narrowed to slits of anger. She slipped her finger from her mouth, wondering how on earth the digit had got there. She yearned for more of Harley’s touch, yearned for his big hands stroking her bare, sensitised flesh, teasing and kissing her in erotic places.

“I only appear to work for him.”

Her head shot up in a query. “You said you were going to turn me in to him. Why didn’t you?”

“It’s not in my best interests.”

Her back stiffened. “That’s good. Are you a double agent then?” She frowned, uncomfortable with the idea that this man could be an agent for both Pardua and perhaps the government of Earth.

“I’m not a double agent in the way you perceive it,” he muttered. “I came to exact justice, to catch Pardua in the act of exchanging Gr’iis with people who came here from Earth. Nobody knew how vast his operation was. It was only after I got here and insinuated myself into his organisation that I saw he had to be shut down, had to be prevented from killing more people of all races.”

She sighed. Her eyes blurred with tears. “Is that drug similar to what killed Eyani’s people?”

“It’s the same thing, but more potent now. Once the drug is introduced into the general population, it creates a dependency that goes deeper than the person taking the drug. Children can develop the drug dependency in the womb and so far, it’s impossible to treat the compulsion, both for those who take it and those who are born addicted to it. And in some cases, there are those populations who can’t handle the drug in their system at all. Like the Ashtaris.”

Revolted, she said, “That’s mass extermination.”

Harley nodded, placing his hand on his upper thigh. Odessa gazed upon his strong hand and his muscular thigh and wet her lips. He could easily tweak her nipples and she would simply lie back and allow him to do with her what he wanted. With an effort, she looked away. Her clit pulsed. The man was scandalously sexy. It should be a crime to allow such a man to be alone with a woman who craved his body so badly.

“That’s exactly it. Mass populations can be wiped out in a matter of years. It’s all part of Pardua’s plan to rule the known galaxy. If he exterminates some of the people, then there won’t be much opposition when he marches his armies in to take control of what’s left.”

“Not to mention the people who are on this drug won’t be able to fight back, because they won’t have the strength, and they will want more of the drug and all their time will be consumed with getting it.”

Harley’s eyes widened. Was he surprised by her perception? “That’s right.”

“I don’t understand one thing, though. If the people Pardua rules are all addicted to this drug and they’re dying off, who will he rule over?”

Harley sucked in a long breath. “That’s something we don’t know just yet. We figure he’s delving into genetic manipulation.”

“What’s that?” Despite her uncle’s protests, she had dropped out of high school, finding the curriculum uninspiring. She’d known she had a gift with children, and that had been enough for her—she hadn’t wanted to be a rocket scientist.

“It’s when one particular gene is altered to make it stronger than it previously was. It’s much like the cancer gene was twenty years ago. Cancer rages through the body, but with genetic manipulation and testing before birth, the gene can be eradicated. Thus, no cancer later in life.”

“I see.” Odessa’s attention wandered back to the hand straddling his thigh. Strong, broad fingers which could make love to her. She would delight in the sight of them against her skin and in his mere touch. She took a deep breath and let the air out slowly, unable to concentrate on genetic manipulation or whatever Pardua was trying to accomplish, even though her life might depend on the knowledge.

Her action did nothing to calm her unsteady nerves. Mentally, she shook herself to attempt to clear her thoughts and leant forward, her face mere inches from Harley’s rugged jaw. She sensed her lips trembling with need. “Kiss me,” she whispered, keeping her gaze on his eyes.

He blinked several times before he bent towards her and brushed a stray strand of hair from her cheek. “I want to make love to you,” he said, so softly she barely heard him.

Elation swept through her. She nodded. Even though they were in danger, he wanted her. Her eyes misted with tears. Roland had never touched her like Harley did.

“I want the same thing,” she murmured, a rush of pure lust spiralling through her.

His eyes widened before they narrowed into dream-hazed slits. His quivering lips touched hers tentatively, as if he wasn’t sure it was the right thing to do. He bent his head and drew in a deep breath, then lifted his face, and delved his tongue in between her lips as if he’d done so a hundred times before. She surrendered completely at the sureness with which he captivated her. Her mind no longer seemed capable of thought. The kiss captured her soul. She would have done anything, in that moment, for Harley Dakoda.

Even as his lips seared hers, he reached to her waist and gently began to roll her T-shirt up. The soft fabric bunched just below her breasts. For the first time she could remember, Odessa acted brazenly and leant back against the wall, away from his lingering mouth.

Harley didn’t seem surprised, but gave a huge grin. “From the first moment I laid eyes on you, I knew there was something special about you,” he said, his voice barely above a choked whisper. Ever so tenderly, he slipped the T-shirt over her head, threw the material on the floor and cupped her small breasts in each hand as he weighed them through the lacy fabric of her black bra. “They’re just as I imagined they would be.”

She said nothing, but wantonly pressed her breasts against his palms. The nipples strained against his warm skin. She squirmed, the heat between her legs rising ever higher with arousal. Her grin had vanished, replaced by an intense look. As he tweaked her nipples, he lowered his head and skimmed light kisses down the side of her throat, licking and teasing and driving her to the far side of torment. She had never dreamt a man could possibly begin to make her feel as Harley did.

“Please,” she murmured in a saucy tone. “I want more of you.”

He chuckled, a man sure of himself and the outcome of his actions. “All in time.” He continued to pleasurably torture her.

She sighed. Each of her nerve endings was on fire. Her whole body hummed with need. “You’re an aggravating man.” Not knowing what else to do, Odessa stroked the fuzzy hairs at the nape of his neck with the sensitive pads of her fingers.

“You’re not telling me anything I don’t already know,” he said, pausing in the pleasurable torment and gazing into her eyes with rapt fascination.

“I’ve rarely seen you smile before.” The space station, with its noise and motley assembly of people from around the galaxy, seemed terribly far away. All that mattered were Harley’s hands and his magnificent body.

He grunted something unintelligible.  The twinkle in his whisky-coloured eyes remained. A man on a mission, he returned to his ministrations and used his teeth to pull her bra down from the tip of her left breast. A waft of hot air blew over the nipple, curling it into a tight bud. His warm mouth and part of his lightly bearded cheek grazed her smooth globe.

She dropped the bra on top of the T-shirt. She moaned as he took her areola between his moist lips and gently kneaded the other with his thumb. She wanted more of the pleasure, but he pulled back and shimmied out of his jacket and dragged his sweatshirt over his head. His nipples were erect. She smoothed her hands over the fuzzy hairs on his chest before he nestled his head between her bare breasts. His questing fingers played lower, at the waistband of her pants, stretching and relaxing against the fabric. She wanted him more than ever now, and imagined his cock sliding deep inside her. Her panties dampened. Groaning, she tugged the offending material down one leg, then the other and quickly discarded the pants, which left her wearing only a pair of black lace panties.

He paused to admire her with shining eyes. She drank in the sensation of being near-naked in front of him

“You’re beautiful,” he murmured. He was so focused on her, and trailed light kisses down her tender throat while he probed between her stomach and the elastic of her panties, down to the curls nestled between her legs. He edged further towards her clit.

“Oh…” She breathed a frustrated sigh. “I want more.” He pleasured her cleft with his fingers, teasing and circling until she began to ride a crest from which she knew it was far too late to free herself, even if she’d had the willpower.

“You’ll have more soon enough,” he responded stoically, and pressed his finger harder against her sensitive clit.

Odessa gritted her teeth before the world exploded in a dazzling display of plummeting, whirling stars. Her chest rose and fell with her laboured breathing. How could a man make a woman feel as if she had been born only to please him?

“Would you like more of that?” he teased with an endearing smile.

She nodded, shaken by her rapture. In a daze, she watched as he crouched, peeled away his pants and his underwear, leaving him gloriously naked, hard and throbbing.

“Oh my,” she whispered, lying down on the bare floor, and parting her legs as he settled his weight across her thighs. He touched her pulsing nub. Softly, she cried out again.

He laughed, the sound low but genuinely cheerful. Gently, he slid his cock between her legs, to the entrance of her willing sheath. She prepared to be taken to dizzying heights. Slowly, he filled her with his throbbing shaft as if he belonged there, deep within. Deliberately he began to thrust, leisurely at first, then picking up the pace. Odessa rocked with him as he plunged in and out. A sense of urgency soon overcame her. She pressed her fingers along his spine, kneading, urging him to hurry. Nothing mattered but her writhing and his passionate grunts, thrusting into the stifling air.