Alien Fighter's Baby (Captured Science Fiction Romance) (6 page)

S
tarling felt
as if one moment she was immersed in blackness, and the next she was in jarring light. Her body rolled as if it was without tension, and then her temple thumped against something, which made her yelp and stiffen her limbs. That brought her consciousness into focus, and she realized the jarring movements hadn’t stopped, so she quickly grabbed at anything to keep from rolling.

She found a bar to clutch that was on one of the racks in the rear of the Zach. She curled her fingers around the coolness of the bar and held on. The dull ache in her left buttock rose into a sharp sting every time she tried to move it. Then she remembered why.

It had to be over. Bran must have gotten the bug out, she thought, while she held on through another pitching roll of the vehicle under her. She realized Bran was trying to get away from the Grubs, and she was afraid to rise and look out the back, where she might see the Grubs bearing down on them. Another lurch nearly took her to the other side of the small space, but she braced herself with her heels.

She must have made a sound, because Bran said, “Starling?”

“I’m trying to hold on,” she exclaimed through another shaking roll of the vehicle. “Are they close?” she asked, and fear laced her voice.

“Too close,” he muttered. Her heartbeat hammered. “But we’re further away from them than we were. You need to get up here and strap in.”

Then he amazed her when he came around the seat toward her.

“Steering!” she cried.

“On auto,” he growled, as he grabbed her and lifted, then pulled her into the passenger seat next to him.

They had to hug for a moment, and she didn’t want to let go. It seemed for a second that he didn’t want to let go either, but then he released her and moved to the driver’s seat.

“Strap in,” he ordered. He didn’t look her way, as she saw his jaw was set and his lips were in a grim line.

She’d seen that focused and unrelenting look on his face before. They were in trouble. Quickly, she secured her strap and looked ahead as she grabbed the bar in front of her and another one on the door. When she braced her arms, it helped keep the strap from pulling so hard against her torso, and it helped keep the spot where Bran had removed the bug from stinging.

Immediately, she saw the view outside was an alien wilderness so thick, she couldn’t believe the vehicle was able to crash through it.

“There are mountains ahead; maybe we can lose them in the rocks or crevices. Anything,” Bran said tightly.

Starling’s mouth opened in disbelief. How could there be a mountain ahead in the overgrowth? How could Bran know that, when all she saw was choked with alien plant life?

“They must want you bad,” he said, with a severe tone.

She cringed, unwilling to go there. She knew it had something to do with the baby, and she’d been afraid to think about the what or why of it.

“They could want you,” she snapped, knowing she sounded sharp. “They can’t want an Alpha-Force lieutenant wandering around.”

“Wandering,” he said, glancing at her with sparks of anger in his silver eyes.

She pursed her lips with defiance, but held her tongue. Then suddenly, she yelped and pointed her finger out in front of them.

“A big rock!” she cried.

Bran cussed foully and his gaze snapped back to the front, instead of glaring at her.

“Hang on,” he ordered.

Starling braced herself, as best as she could, while the vehicle swerved. They just missed a massive boulder, instead going around it, while the sky overhead seemed to clear of strangely shaped branches and foliage. There was a mountain ahead of them. She could see the crags and crevices.

Abruptly, the clearer light above them went black.

“Damn it,” Bran swore. “One of their ships is over us.” He slammed his fist into the control panel. “I don’t think the invisibility shield will work with them that close.”

Starling held her breath, certain at any second they’d be blown to pieces.

“There!” she cried, pointing to a cave entrance.

There were many of them dotting different angles of the stretch of rock faces. Somehow, hiding in a cave seemed like a brilliant idea, but she glanced at Bran to see what he thought.

“Damn bad place to get caught in. Easier to defend, though, and it should keep them from drilling us from overhead any second now.”

Twenty minutes later, Bran looked at the radar matrix, which showed the enemy was moving away from their position. Maybe the invisibility shield had held long enough for them to hide, or possibly there was some alien mineral inside the mountain that threw off the enemy’s ability to track them. He’d seen that before, and if it was the case, they were damn lucky.

He looked around the large cavern, which was illuminated by the Zach’s headlights, and he felt Starling looking at him. He turned to see that her eyes were large with worry. Realizing he should have told her earlier, he grasped her hand.

“They’re moving away.” He only lied a little, because they were pretty far away by then. Still, he wanted to have eyes on how far and track their departure from the immediate area. “I’m going out to the entrance and check the perimeter. You hang here.”

She nodded, squeezing his hand back. Man, did that feel good. He knew he wasn’t completely off her black list, because of his manhandling, but that hand squeeze meant he was on the road.

Bran let go of her hand, then he jumped out of the Zach, loaded with a few weapons, and he jogged back to the cavern entrance. When he approached the darkness of the cave sliding to lightness, he crouched and moved forward cautiously. He reconnoitered out of the cavern in a methodical way, until he’d checked the perimeter, then he tapped his hover-mic.

“Starling, it’s clear out here. I’m going up the mountain to get an overview.”

“Yes, Bran.”

That was the nicest sound tingling in his ear he’d heard in a long time.

“Okay, I won’t be gone longer than an hour. You stay in the Zach and lock the doors.”

Starling came awake with Bran breathing in her ear. She must have fallen asleep while she waited for him, and he’d come back, and then what—

She yawned and stretched.

He must have carried her into the back of the Zach, and then lain down beside her. She felt the length of him next to her, but when she turned to look, she couldn’t really see him. The cavern was very dark, and she decided that it had to be night outside. The more she thought about it, she wondered where the Zach’s inner control lights were.

Well, everything had to be safe or Bran wouldn’t be breathing hot air across her face, as if he were asleep. What she wouldn’t give to cuddle up to him. She’d basically forgiven him for treating her like a Neanderthal earlier. He’d done it to save them, and she could see his point that there hadn’t been a lot of time to explain it all to her.

She sighed, trying not to think about their last kiss, but in the dark, the thought relentlessly stalked her. He’d felt so good when he’d crushed her against his hard, muscular body. She began to wonder what it might feel like if he ran his big hands over her. Like the way he had when he’d been trying to find that bug on her.

She’d been very mad about the treatment, yet she couldn’t deny there were moments when what he’d done had been arousing her. Another sigh escaped her.

“You all right?”

Startled, Starling huffed at hearing Bran’s voice expel out of the darkness. Then some dim blue lights inside the Zach came on, and she saw him lying on his side as he faced her.

“Answer me,” he demanded, and she felt his hand grasp her waist.

The heat of his hand imprinted through her shirt into her flesh, as she nodded, while she looked between his lips and his eyes. Irises that looked pewter-colored in the dim light. He looked down where he held her waist as if he’d just realized his hand was there. She didn’t tell him to move it. Instead, she inched closer.

“It’s cold.”

His incredible eyes flared, as she shivered, and then she found herself hauled up against him. Her hands pressed into his chest as her legs sought heat along his legs. He grabbed the blanket she’d been using and pulled it over both of them.

“Is it safe?” she asked into his neck.

“Yes. The mountain must have mineral deposits that throw off their tracking devices, and they lost sight of us.”

“Do you think they will come back?”

He nodded against her, and she felt his hand playing with her hair.

“If it was my team, we’d strategically search all the caves. But with as many caves in this mountain, it will take them time, so we don’t have to run yet, without thinking it through.”

“Oh,” she muttered, disappointed they would have to run again. “What I wouldn’t give for a shower,” she said with a sigh.

“Seriously?” he asked, and she could feel his warm breath where he’d turned down to look at her. “I can arrange that.”

That brought her gaze up and their mouths nearly touched.

“Really?”

His nod brushed their lips together lightly, and her eyelids lowered in pleasure.

“Starling?” he asked against her mouth, as if giving her a moment to stop him. Then his lips pressed and he began kissing her.

She sighed into his mouth and accepted the kiss. She thought she’d just kiss him for a moment, then stop. But her lips kept moving irresistibly against his mouth, while he used his hand to cup the back of her head. His other hand scooted under her and he drew her tighter against his long hard body.

Her arms would have been crushed, except she’d lifted them over his shoulders, and she felt her breasts soften into his strong chest. Jupiter, they’d gone from a tentative kiss into quick meltdown, and her thoughts kept straying back to his warm, slightly roughened hands when they’d caressed her naked bottom as he searched for that bug.

“I’ve never really kissed before,” Bran murmured, against her heated lips.

“You haven’t?” she whispered, finding it hard to believe.

“Been too busy being a soldier,” he said, then traced her lips lightly with the tip of his tongue. It felt so good that she moaned lightly. “You want to try more?” he asked. She nodded, pressing against him to kiss more, but he leaned back a bit. “Let’s try our tongues.”

She blinked as a slow heat built in her body and centered between her legs. His big tongue slid partway into her mouth and her eyes widened. The heat inside her turned up to searing.

Bran moved his mouth against Starling’s soft lips and slowly dipped his tongue in the warm, welcoming heat. His body stiffened at the arousing pleasure, and he had to tamp down on his response. He let it simmer, but not blast away, and then laced his tongue along the delicate texture of Starling’s, feeling the smooth, wet slide. A groan rolled from his chest and he danced his tongue along hers again.

He’d told her the truth. You didn’t kiss sex bots—you just screwed them, and they yelled and gyrated as if you were the best lay they’d ever had. So he’d never touched anything as soft and desirable as Starling’s mouth before, and he became lost in the sensations, while their tongues danced over and over. She moved against him and moaned small sounds of pleasure that sparked his desire higher.

He learned to kiss in the semidarkness with Starling’s curvy body pressed against him, and they had to have kissed, nibbled, and tongued each other for well over an hour. Until all he wanted to do was to get into her panties. The ones she didn’t have on, his lustful mind reminded him. But he also couldn’t break the tenderness they’d built.

Their lips broke for a moment of small, panted breaths.

“I’ll go further if you want,” she whispered.

His heart seized for a moment, his erection banging through the steely hardness. The shouted word “Yes” was on his lips, but the back of his brain said “No.” He shook his head slightly and wondered at the contradiction. Maybe the first was his erection and the last was his feelings.

“Soon,” he said, regretting it the second it was out of his mouth. “You’re going to have to jump me, if you want me.”

He loosened his embrace and untangled the covers, turning away from Starling’s completely confused look. Yeah, he was confused too. Nevertheless, he continued to roll out of the cocoon they’d made and rotated until he could slip into the driver’s seat. It was lighter in the cavern, announcing the arriving daylight hours.

He tried to clear his tangled mind so he could get to work, but an inner devil reminded him that he’d just turned down hot sex with an incredibly sexy woman.

He’d lost it.

S
tarling chewed
on a fingernail as she stared at the ceiling in the Zach. Bran had left the vehicle a while ago, after what he said had shocked her into silence.

Jump his body.

He’d left after he kissed her until she was a puddle and she’d blatantly offered herself to him, then he refused the offer and told her she had to initiate it. She was awed, and she had to admit she’d thought he would jump her after the intense bout of kissing. She touched her lips where she still felt his mouth. They felt puffy and soft. All she could think about was Bran doing more … maybe stroking her.

Jump me.

He was leaving her the choice. It felt confusing, but good. She wasn’t certain she really believed he would stay away from her, if she didn’t eventually initiate something. However, her desire for him intensified, because he was allowing her the choice. Giving her time. Maybe kind of wooing her. That brought a pleased sound to her lips.

Click.

Starling heard the sound and rose on her elbows to see the hatch-gate opening, then she watched Bran come into view.

“If you’re awake, it will take me about ten minutes and I’ll have a shower set up,” he told her.

He looked at her as if they were going through a normal, everyday occurrence, and not as if they hadn’t just mauled each other’s lips for hours. She slowly blinked at him, not knowing what else to do but nod.

Her brain couldn’t wrap around the fact that he could produce a shower. Nevertheless, she wiggled out from under the retiring bag, and scooted to the end of the lowered hatch-gate, while Bran watched her bare legs move. She blushed a little, because she guessed he could probably see a lot. But part of her was somewhat happy tempting him.

When she reached the end, he had a sizzling look in his silver irises as he grasped her waist and lifted her. She thought he was helping her down, but his strong arms went up, and her head lifted to find her lips covered by his mouth. Their kiss was long, deep, and hot. Then he slowly broke their pressed lips apart.

“Morning,” he murmured, as he looked over her face.

Jupiter, he was just going to keep kissing her. That made her happy. It was as if they were trading kissing privileges.

“Morning,” she offered back.

He began to lower her, helping her out of the Zach.

“It’s a steam shower—besides cleaning, it will warm you up,” he said.

Starling held on to his shoulders until he’d lowered her to the ground. “I have to say, it’s hard to believe you can have something like that here,” she said.

Bran’s hands lingered around her waist, but his head tilted toward the vehicle. “The Zach is a fully equipped survival vehicle, besides its other capabilities.”

She watched him move to the side of the Zach, thinking she’d have to ask him what the other capabilities were. He began to rotate parts of the vehicle, and moments later, she was amazed because he’d built a small room. It was tall and wide enough for him to stand in. Sections of it were still attached to the Zach, but the last piece slid out completely and he lifted it, and somehow fastened it, until he had a room.

“It’s like a puzzle,” she said, appreciating the cleverness, while she started to become excited about the idea of having a shower. Something she’d thought impossible to do under their current circumstances.

Bran nodded as he worked on more parts, and then glanced at her. “It will wash and dry clothes in fifteen minutes.” Her mouth made an O, and he smiled. “I thought you’d like that.”

She blushed a little, pleased over his consideration. He was definitely trying to court her. Into bed. She was still hesitant over going all the way with him, except when she was lip-locked with him. His mouth had superpowers, because when they kissed, she ended up throwing her body at him, every time.

Ten minutes later, Bran watched Starling close the hatch to the steam shower. He’d taught her how everything worked, so he just needed to wait and guard her. He looked down at his recon-tablet and quickly scanned through all the surveillance grids he’d set up in areas on all sides of the cavern entrance. The readings came back clear.

He heard the steam shower start, and the thought that Starling was naked behind that thin alloy wall nagged him. He knew if he’d turned his bi-optic eye lenses to z-ray, he could see her as if the wall wasn’t there.

“Damn it.”

He turned away from the temptation. One peek. He gritted his teeth at the inner taunt, then forced himself to scan the upper grids he’d placed higher, to receive a more panoramic view of the entire valley outside the cavern and down the mountain. He would teach Starling how to watch the surveillance grids when she was done, then he could catch a quick shower too.

After that, they had to get moving, so he kept an eye on the grids while he grabbed some energy bars and compound juice to eat on the move. He put them in the console in the Zach, and then stopped to look at the seats, thinking Starling had asked him for material. Considering it, he looked at the ceiling of the military vehicle.

There was equipment and panels everywhere, except in the middle of it, which was an area that dropped down, so a man could go aloft and use the auto fifty-caliber Taser gun up top. However, soft material covered the back of the hatch door.

Bran unsheathed his knife.

A few minutes later, he wadded up the material that he’d cut away and he turned to rummage through a compartment, until he found a Tigs multi-use tool that could tack, infuse, glue, or stitch. He jumped out of the rear of the vehicle and checked his scans again, but as he was doing that, the steam shower made a thumping sound.

He turned toward it with a questioning look and saw the hatch open a sliver.

“Bran, it just rattled and stopped working,” Starling called from inside.

Without thinking about it, Bran walked over and pulled the hatch open, to hear Starling’s distressed cry. She flashed in front of him as she hurried to hide her nose into the opposite wall, and his gaze jumped over her naked behind.

“Damn, it’s not a big deal in the military,” he muttered.

However, it was a big deal to him, looking over her naked curves. She had the most womanly figure he’d ever seen, and the slope of her bare back was begging him to touch it.

To hell with trying to live up to her expectations and be some kind of gentleman.

He nearly stepped toward her. To do what? Grab her as he had when the Grubs forced them? That thought cooled his ardor, and he gritted his teeth and leaned in to look at the controls.

He tried to sound unaffected. “Sometimes a swift kick on the controls helps.” He banged them, and instantly steam blasted out in a fog over him. “Whoa. Okay, you’re good, sweetheart.”

He backed out of the cubicle and then firmly shut the hatch, after a last glance at the wet sheen painted over the cheeks of Starling’s perfectly round behind.

He turned away with a growl, while he thought he might have to fist his own hard erection before it was over. Instead, he checked the grids again, and then sat down on the hatch-gate and began to undo his boots.

He’d meant what he’d said to Starling—she was going to have to initiate sex if she wanted it. If she wanted him. Bran set his boots down and began to peel off his socks. He was betting that she did want him. It was crazy to leave it up to her, but after that first time … he had too.

So he would wait as patiently as he could. However, that didn’t mean he couldn’t help her long with passionate kiss-fests and whatever other temptations he could come up with along the way.

Like showing off his body.

The thought sprang into his mind out of nowhere, and he glanced up at the steam shower.

He was getting ready to use it, so the fact he could be waiting undressed was not unreasonable. He thought civilian women liked to look at men, and he flexed his bicep with that thought. A couple of times, he’d caught Starling looking at him as if she liked what she saw. It couldn’t hurt.

Starling tugged the tee shirt down as far as it would go. It was still damp and clung to her body, but she couldn’t wait for it to dry. Her yanking had only gotten the tee shirt pulled down past her butt, and that was it. If anything, the cleansing part of the steam shower had shrunk her only piece of clothing.

“Just great,” she muttered, trying to make her heated cheeks cool, from Bran seeing her naked.

Not as if he hasn’t seen you before.

So what was it with her … she liked his kisses, but she didn’t want him to see her naked? She was crazy. But unless she was in a hot and bothered mood … she didn’t want to just stand around nude in front of him. She had to admit that he’d acted okay about it. And she thought about all the times she’d expected him to jump her and he hadn’t.

“I should believe him by now,” she mumbled, as she tried to comb long, wet strands of her hair with her fingers. “Okay, I do believe him.”

She even sounded convinced, and if she did believe him, then she was going to have to initiate them making love. Finally believing all of that, for some reason, it felt as if a huge weight had been lifted off her, and she sighed.

Starling looked in the foggy mirror on the door of the cubicle, and could hardly believe it was her reflection. She looked older and leaner than the last time she’d seen herself in a mirror. Well, what did she expect? It had been, as best as she could guess, over a year since she’d been forcefully kidnapped from her planet.

So long that she was actually contemplating having sex with the father of her baby.

Didn’t that sound right?

Muttering, Starling turned the lever to open the cubicle door, but once it opened, her eyes flew wide at the sight before her. Actually, at the sight of the broad, bare back before her. It was Bran, only dressed in some skintight boxers, which did nothing to hide the contours of his carved butt.

More heat instantly hit her cheeks and spread over her as her gaze jumped over the muscles of his back, his butt, and the back of his legs. The thought flashed through her mind that if she had to have sex, wasn’t it wonderful to have such a hunk to do it with?

She was dressed in only a wet tee shirt, he was dressed in only clinging boxers, and arousal simply rushed through her. That fast. She ached deep and hard. What to do, what to do? Maybe if she just walked up to him and hugged him from behind, it would be enough to get him to—

Her thoughts stuttered to a halt there, because she was inexperienced. It was as if she was a child, and Bran was obviously, looking at him, all grown-up man. Maybe she should admit to him that she didn’t know quite what to do—that she didn’t know how to approach him to help her with the ache that was jumping from her breasts to her core.

When Bran slowly turned to face her, she watched his powerful body moving and flexing, and she became more infatuated with him. As her gaze traced over his defined muscles, it slowly lowered to see the outlined ridge of a hard length beneath his clinging boxers. She could see every distinct edge of it, and it looked really hard and thick.

Inwardly she gulped, while outwardly her body flushed hotter, and things she’d never felt before ached deep inside her. He was so hot.

She wasn’t sure why she’d never realized it before. She’d noticed parts of him attracting her. But head to toe, with his deep silver eyes and a thick erection straining in front of her, he was magnificent.

He also held something toward her, and she finally thought about listening to what he was saying over the rush of arousal ringing in her ears.

“—could use this to make something to wear,” he said, and she thought she’d only caught part of what he’d been saying.

Starling tried to make her brain work past finding him hot enough to want to lick him all over.

“Ah—” She paused and tried to catch her thoughts. He dipped the cloth in his raised hand, as if trying to get her attention toward it, and she finally thought to raise her hand and take it.

“Th-thank you,” she stuttered.

Then a brilliant idea hit her. They should kiss about his gift. She was more comfortable with his kisses, and the thought of it brought her forward to lift up and lean toward him. The heat from his unclothed body was incredible, and she saw his silver irises flare, right before he bent to touch her lips.

She loved the fact that only her motion toward him had gotten a return motion from him, as if they were in tune.

“Thank you,” she said, so he’d know what the kiss was for, and she said it nearly against his mouth as she dared to press her body fully into his. Because if she did, she could feel his hard, nearly bare body touching her.

Bran’s mouth was more aggressive than it had been during their first kissing session. This time he fed on her lips as if he could barely control his response, and it made her moan into his mouth. Then, suddenly, she was hauled even tighter against him, and a groan of appreciation heated her throat, while she dropped the things he’d handed her.

He did feel amazingly better pressed into her than looking at him had felt. He was so solid and strong and he ground his thick erection against her in an exciting way that was so essentially male.

“Hell, you smell so good,” he said, running kisses down her jaw and throat as her head fell back. “This better be you jumping me. Or—”

“Or what?” she asked breathlessly, as she stroked his strong biceps.

“Or I’ll go fist myself off, and try not to cry like a baby,” he said against her throat.

He made her smile, even while the hunger she felt for him was making her crazy.

“This is me kind of jumping you.”

She rose on her toes, and it helped his hand lifting her against him to raise her body higher. That put his lips over the top slope of her breasts. His other hand seared an imprint over the bare skin of her outer thigh as he urged her to lift her leg. She was nearly climbing him.

“Kind of?” he asked, with a rasped voice pressed to her cleavage.

What he was doing to her was making her mind swirl with intense pleasure.

“I don’t know quite what to do,” she admitted, then realized that she’d said it aloud.