Angeli (11 page)

Her turn to be confused. “Why?”

“For
my
sanity. The way you do it isn’t calming.”

She tried to shake her wrists out of his grasp. He wouldn’t release her, so she jutted out her chin. “In my family, we hug and kiss all the time. What are you, a sociopath? You don’t like to be touched?”

“On Ship, we respect private space. We don’t press our bodies together without asking. We don’t undo somebody’s hair.” He let her go, but she didn’t move away. “We don’t offer to rub aloe all over somebody who’s not a lover.”

“You told me to rub it all over you. I was just going to put it on your burns,” she protested. “How can you say you don’t touch when you carried me across the canyon?”

“Should I have left you behind?”

“No, but…” She groped for words, her cheeks rosy. “You held my hand.”

“This isn’t hand-holding. Touching me the way you’re doing means something among my people. Yours, too, I think.”

She raised her chin. “It means I want to be helpful. You don’t know how to deal with a sunburn.”

He let out an exasperated sigh and grabbed her, bringing their bodies flush. He let his fingers slide across her rounded hips. “No, it means this.”

She went silent, standing passively against him, but he knew she could feel his erection.

“Do you understand?”

She raised an eyebrow. “You’re like a teenager. When is the last time you had sex?”

“None of your business.”

She ran her hands up his chest. “You should let go of me now.”

He might not be suave or experienced, but if she wanted him to let her go, she’d push him or hit him. “That, Adelita, is a mixed message.”

“I know.” She sighed. “I can’t help myself. It’s my imagination. I’m a sinner.”

“How can thoughts make you a sinner?” He’d never understood that about Terran religious philosophy. Actions made one wicked, not thoughts.

She smiled. “You only ask that because you don’t know what I’m thinking.”

Gregori quirked an eyebrow. “Enlighten me.”

Adelita was a mass of contradictions. A smooth, changeable mixture of sex appeal, suspicion, bravado, and canniness. She was nothing like any female—any person—he’d ever met.

Right now? Sex appeal. And canniness.

“A lady never tells,” she said.

“Do Terran men tell what they’re thinking?”

“All too frequently,” she replied.

He slid his hands around to her soft ass. “I’d like to take your clothes off you and find out what a Terran woman tastes like between her legs.”

She licked her lips, her eyes widening. “Because you’re curious about Terrans?”

“Because you keep touching me,” he said. “Because I want you.”

She inhaled softly but didn’t say anything. Nor did she shove him away.

He squeezed her buttocks and lifted her up so their bodies met intimately. “You can feel me. You know what I’m thinking.”

The warmth between her legs wrapped his cock like her hand would. Like her mouth would. Like her pussy would. Her breathing quickened; their closeness affected her. Thanks to his enhancements, he could smell a hint of her desire through the floral perfume.

“You could be thinking a number of things,” she said, her voice barely audible. “Lord knows I am.”

He lowered his face, his mouth inches from her soft lips. “I want to put my hands all over your body. Anywhere you’ll let me put them, and a few places you’re not sure about. And then I want my mouth and my cock in the same places. I want inside you.”

Her fingers tapped his collarbone—nervously, he thought. When she spoke, her lips tickled his jaw. It was all he could do not to take what she seemed to be offering. “What if I won’t let you?”

“Dammit, Adelita.” He dropped her to the ground and raised his palms. “I’m not playing games. I’ve told you what it makes me think when you touch me. If you don’t want to have sex with me, keep your hands to yourself.”

She stepped back. He tried not to stare at her shirt, where her nipples poked the thin fabric. Her lusts were awake even if the rest of her didn’t follow. “You don’t play hard to get, Gregori, that’s for sure. Is this what you say to all the women you rescue?”

“I haven’t been with a Terran woman. Celibacy is holy,” he said with a hard smile.

Her face flushed a deeper shade of pink. “Why should I believe that?”

“Does it matter? When it comes right down to it, we don’t have time to screw around.” He’d make time if she were willing, but he wasn’t going to beg. “I need food and sleep, and so do you. Then we need to relocate before more daemons show up.”

“Good point.” She nibbled her lips—the soft, red lips he hadn’t kissed. “Besides, we haven’t known each other very long.”

“That’s true.” He slipped into his patchy tunic, sealing the closures.

Adelita’s gaze flickered down his body. “We might die soon.”

“That’s also true.”

She watched him for a long moment, eyes big and dark. “I can still think about it, right?”

Gregori sighed. He’d been as clear as he knew how to be. “As long as you don’t expect me to pander to you while you’re deciding. There’s too much to do.” Many Ship women in his generation had come to expect pandering. Flattery, sweet talk, and demonstrations. Gifts and grand gestures. They were highly selective about partners, since they didn’t get much choice about being parents. It was only fair.

Her brows drew together. “Who said anything about pandering? If you’re going to be an ass, I definitely don’t want to have sex with you. The experience would be a waste of my time.”

“Likely.” His teammates who’d slept with Terrans hadn’t expressed any disappointment. From the sound of it, most of their lovers had taken to their knees at the great honor of angelic attentions. But who knew if his teammates had pleased their Terrans?

Who knew what it would take to please a Terran—to please Adelita?

He had no idea. He had no fragging idea what he was going to do about her, or his tech, or the daemons, or this planet, but he did know one thing. This will-she-won’t-she crap was not productive.

His Terran stared at him in disbelief. “You just agreed you’d be bad in bed.”

“I didn’t say that.” He wasn’t an expert in hetero bed play, but what Shipborn male in his generation was? Didn’t mean he couldn’t rise to the occasion. “I agreed it was a waste of our time. Our limited time. I did mention daemons will show up eventually?”

“Yessss,” she said, drawing it out.

“The trackers I mentioned could find me, too. I’ve avoided confronting them, but I can’t outrun them when I’m carrying you.”

“You think I’m a burden to you. You think I’m going to cramp your style.” She picked up the sack she’d dropped before this incident had begun. “You poor man.”

“Don’t put words in my mouth. I never said you were a burden.” He had, though. And she was. A burden he didn’t want to set aside. She needed his protection. He’d feel the same toward anyone, since Terrans deserved to live as much as anyone from Ship.

“You’re wrong anyway.” She didn’t seem upset—she seemed amused. “You need me.”

He wanted her. Wanted to save her and fuck her and a couple other things, but want wasn’t need. “I need several hours of sound sleep.”

“You’re not like any man I know.”

“No shit.” He kind of laughed. “I’m not from around here, remember? And you know what? You’re not like anyone I know, either.”

“No shit,” she echoed. She shook the bag toward him. “You want a Ding Dong or chips?”

“Surprise me,” he said, knowing she would regardless. This way at least she’d be doing what he told her to do.

Chapter Nine

“You shouldn’t be here,” Gregori told her again. Instead of arguing, Adelita unzipped her new binoculars from the sports and outdoors store and propped them on a rock. Not the best solution, but Gregori had refused to pack a tripod.

Beyond their vantage point was an innocent-looking ridge Gregori claimed was Ship’s Terran base of operations. Since he’d partially repaired his force field, it had only taken a couple hours to travel here from Arizona. She thought they might be in Yellowstone National Park. They’d passed a mountain range that looked like the Grand Tetons. If Gregori’s fellow aliens had had the good sense to set up shop near Old Faithful, she could have marked off bucket list item number twenty-seven.

Adelita adjusted the binoculars’ focus until she could count the ticks on the hide of the lone buffalo grazing in the field near the ridge. She and Gregori lay behind a tumble of rocks on a higher ridge across the small valley. It wasn’t a comfortable perch, but at least it wasn’t as hot as it had been near the Grand Canyon.

Random birdsong was the only thing that broke the silence. What had she expected? The horrified screams of women kidnapped for breeding purposes? No matter how Gregori denied it, it was clear that was what was going on. Clichés existed for a reason. Mars needed women.

She finished her initial inspection and turned to him. “I don’t see anything alien. Do they have a cloaking device?”

“That technology doesn’t exist on this scale. They’re just well hidden.”

“Want to look?” She offered him the binoculars, careful to stay out of his personal space. His wings were tight against his back, out of his way.

“No need.” He blinked several times before glancing at her. “My vision is enhanced.”

He had pitched his voice soft, so she followed suit. The aliens might have noise detectors. “You sound like the Terminator.”

“I know who your Terminator is. I told you already. I’m not a robot.”

“I didn’t say you were, just that you sounded like one.” She deepened her voice. “My vision is enhanced. The T-1000 is terminated. Hasta la vista, baby.”

He shot her the same puzzled glance he had the other times. Why did she keep making Earth jokes around him? Maybe jokes weren’t allowed by his code.

“Watch the base,” he said. “I need to check something.”

She smirked. Jokes were definitely allowed by her code. “No problemo.”

Gregori sat up halfway and slipped the halo out of the hidden pocket in his torso armor. Last night he’d done something to it with a soldering iron that involved a lot of muttering and cursing.

She returned her attention to the base. Toward the top, the ridge was wooded. She saw no caves, no metal glints, no crop circles, no half-dressed women trying to escape. No signs of anything out of the ordinary, which, she supposed, was a good thing if you wanted your secret alien base to remain secret.

“Dammit,” Gregori said softly.

“What’s wrong?”

“The weld didn’t hold.”

“I told you to try the duct tape.”

He squinted at his halo. “Tape wouldn’t foster an uninterrupted current.”

The tiny machine looked like a wad of translucent yarn. How he knew which wire was this broken stem he kept bitching about and which ones squiggled into his body, she had no idea. Wires infiltrating the brain sounded like an invitation for an evil sentient computer to control people. For an advanced civilization, Ship folk were certainly naive.

Which made her wonder how far Gregori’s naïveté extended. If it extended to sex, she could teach him a thing or two about what to do with his…

Bad girl.
He was off-limits, by his own request. He hadn’t tried to hold her hand again, either.

Heaving a sigh, Adelita fine-tuned the binoculars to scan the top of the ridge. A raven landed in a half-denuded pine tree with a flap of black wings. A few bighorn sheep pronged along the crest. Seems like, if aliens were coming and going on these so-called retrieval missions, animals would avoid the area.

“Are you sure this is the right place?” she whispered.

“I’m sure.”

“Do you hide here every time?” He said he’d been keeping an eye on the base in hopes of swiping a weapon to use on la boca del infierno.

“I vary my location. Cuts down on the odds of getting caught.”

Normally that would make sense. But Gregori said his halo functioned like radar crossed with a supercomputer. It told his brain everything from who people were to what his Ship said to whether or not aliens were about to jump him.

Varying his location might not be enough.

“Do you know what I think?” she asked.

He shoved the wires back into his armor and gave her a level look before responding. “I never know what you think.”

She wasn’t sure if he was referencing a prior conversation or stating a fact. Could be both. He knew nothing about women. Each morning he expected her to be ready to fly as soon as they rolled out of bed. Often on four hours’ sleep, without caffeine. Dios, did he want her to be a human or a zombie? She was no good before coffee, and if it took them a while to save the world, he’d have to learn to respect that.

After winning the caffeine argument, convincing him she needed to brush her teeth and take a daily bath had been child’s play.

“You’ve only known me a few days. You’ll get used to me,” she assured him. And if she were well-groomed and sweet-smelling during their time together, it was to his advantage. He had to carry her around.

He stared at her in that assessing way that gave her shivers. “Tell me what you think, Adelita.”

Well, if he really wanted to know… “You come here again and again and they never catch you, right?”

“Right.”

“I think,” she said, drawing it out, “your associates could find you anytime they wanted. They’re the ones with working radar in their heads.”

That earned her a brow furrow. “They’d have to be actively scanning for my bio sig, and I doubt they’ve dedicated any resources to that.”

“What about the trackers?”

“The trackers wouldn’t be looking for me here.”

“Maybe they know you’re here and don’t consider you a threat.” That would be good. They could use that. She’d found it helpful to encourage opponents to underestimate her. Then she could strike them like a snake.

“Maybe,” he muttered, and stretched out on his stomach. His shift in position brought his shoulder against hers.

The temperature at this elevation wasn’t icy, but it wasn’t hot. Yet Adelita was suddenly several degrees warmer. With their shoulders together, their bodies were inches apart, like the past three nights in the beds they’d shared. It was nearly impossible to relax. Even with the safety precautions he took. Even as exhausted as she was. Even though he’d covered his wonderful body in a T-shirt, torso armor, and khaki shorts.