Captain's Choice: A Romance (3 page)

CHAPTER FOUR

     Eventually though they did fall asleep, if only briefly. In the morning, when she woke, Jillian didn’t mind the lack of sleep or the hand she felt caressing her. She turned to look at Damian, and he said one word to her, “Yes?”

     “Yes,” she murmured. 

     Damian, she quickly realized, had awoken ready to go and shifted her to be on top of him. “Told you I like a woman on top.”

     “Yes, you did.”
Jillian began moving up and down.

     “By the way you have great tits, Captain.
”

      She giggled. “I like your cock, too.”

     Damian gave a bawdy laugh. “Well, that’s direct. There’s a lots of things I like about you.”

     Jillian’s face scrunched up.  “Then why were you so mean to me?”

     “You are such a turn on, I’d say things just to stop myself from attacking you right there on the bridge in front of all the crew. But if I knew this was going to happen I‘d have said the hell with it and taken you right there and then. ” Damian stopped moving and held her still; a change came over his face. 

     Looking at his serious expression, Jillian’s brow furrowed, “what‘s wrong
? “

     “I told you something last night and I never got a response.”

     “Um, can’t this wait a few minutes?” She felt the desire to move, an aching need to bring a completion to their lovemaking.

     “No.” He shook his head, smiling.

     The bastard had her captive. “All right. What did you say last night?”

     “I said I love you. Twice. What
do you say to that?”

     “I say … I love you too,” she smiled. 

     Damian grabbed her and rolled over to be on top of her. He entered her again and she laughed in delight as he began making love to her with renewed passion bringing her to a scintillatingly crushing orgasm.

      His own climax was as swift and powerful. They lay in an exhausted bundle tangled in the sheets. “She loves me,” Damian whispered bringing a smile to her lips.

     A voice came over the intercom, “Captain you are needed in sickbay. It’s urgent.”

    Jillian pressed a knob above her head and said, “I’ll be right there.” She reluctantly got up, took a quick shower and pulled on a fresh jumpsuit.

     “I’ll come with you,” Damien said rising from the bed.

     “No stay, we both know it’s not good news. I’ve got to handle this on my own. But,” she smiled as she pulled her hair into a ponytail, “don’t go far.”

CHAPTER F
IVE

      In the hallway, Jillian paused a moment and tried to prepare h
erself. She needed to be strong and not give in to emotions. The door to sickbay slid silently open and Jillian took a deep breath. Doctor Malloy’s beaming face met hers and she thought: he’s looking straight at me, that’s good. Then the doctor’s arm swept towards the patient’s bed.

     Jillian stood
there stunned. Nothing had prepared her for this. The Antarean was awake. Not only awake, but sitting up. When he caught sight of her, his eyes sparkled in recognition, “There you are,” he said. “I wondered where you were.”

     After several rapid breaths Jillian weakly muttered, “you’re alive.”

     “Oh, is that why you were away from me, were you grieving?”

     Jillian’s
face registered confusion, not exactly, she thought.

     The doctor seemed to sneeze or
perhaps covering a chuckle. “Yeah, well, he needs to talk to you, Captain,” Doctor Malloy grinned, “he has a real interesting story to tell.” 

     Jillian eyed
the doctor quizzically and would swear the doctor was trying not to laugh as he exited the sickbay leaving her and the patient alone.

     The Antarean’s smile was bright and genuine as he gestured for her to sit on the bed beside him. He looked - healthy- so much more so than yesterday. And gorgeous sitting up on the side
of the bed, those catlike, golden eyes fascinated her.

     “What is your name?” Jillian asked him.

     “Shultae, friends call me Tae, but mere formalities such as names do not separate us, my love.” He reached for her hand, familiar and eager.

    
Ut oh, she thought, “I am Captain Jillian Ames. You were found unconscious and we are bringing you to Antares.”

     “I know, the good doctor explained everything
, even though he needn’t have.”

     Jillian pulled her hand away. “What exactly did the doctor tell you about me?”

     “Nothing really, but why are you acting so strangely?”

     “Why did you call me ‘my love
’? Is that maybe what you call all women on Antares?”

     “Hardly. Antareans mate for life
, they have only one partner in a lifetime - and you are mine.”

     Jillian really didn’t know what to say to that.

     Tae leaned in and spoke softly, “are you not the one who made love to me last night? And the same one who kissed me as a tear ran down your cheek and spoke of a love so strong you wished me to be well so we could be together forever?”

     A hand flew to her lips. Okay, those weren’t exactly her words. “How do you know all that? You were unconscious.”

     “All Antareans are aware of what goes on around them at all times. Even though I couldn’t wake because of my head injury, I was aware of everything, how you came and sat with me every day. I could see your worried expression and your urgent wish for me not to die. At first I did not understand why you were so concerned, then last night, what a surprise for me! I never thought as an Antarean my soul mate could be a human, but it is you my love.”

     “Haven’t you had sex with other female Antareans?”

     “No,” he said in a shocked tone. “Antareans only have relations with their one true love. Only one true love per person per lifetime, that’s just the way it is.”

     “But we had heard Antareans need sex to survive.”

     “Oh, well, yes technically, that is correct.”

     “Then how were you surviving without your one true love,
err … I mean your mate?”

     “Once fully matured, males have the space of one year to find a mate.
”

     “So, you’re like, what - nineteen?”  Never mind she had
apparently taken his virginity, how close to jailbait was he? Jillian was feeling sicker by the moment.

     He laughed.  “I am one hundred years old.”

     “How do you count years?”

     “The same way you do. But time
parameters exist differently within Antares, most of its citizens live thousands of years.”

     “With just one mate?”

     “Yes, isn’t it wonderful?” Tae grabbed her hand again.

     “Oh, dandy. I have to go.”
Jillian stood up.

    
Tae pulled her to sit next to him. “No, we will be together forever. Remember when you placed my hands upon you?”  He leaned in.  “You knew then I felt it, your desire for me, and your wish for me to wake and be your one true love.”

     He really needed to cut
out the one true love bit. Maybe it would have sounded flattering if only last night with Damian hadn’t happened.  “So, you have to have sex, but only with your one true love it would work?”

     “Of course, did you think it would work with just anyone?” He could
see by her face she did.

     “Things are different with humans. Humans often have several loves in a lifetime.”

     Tae’s face showed his dejection. “Oh, how sad, no one true life mate.”

     “Well, it’s not all that bad.”

     “You have had lovers?” His tone became tremulous.

     “Yes,” Jillian admitted, thinking this will put an end to this nonsense of soul mates.

     “Oh, well, that is all right,” he said perking up and taking her hand again, “as long as now there is only us two now pledged to each other.”

     “I’m sorry, but I don’t think I can make that commitment.”

     “You have another?”

     She looked down, “yes.”

     Tae lifted her chin, “I do not want you to be sad.” He lightly kissed her lips. “But you must at least give me the chance to fight for your heart, you remember it how it was when we were together, it can be even greater.”  He caressed small circles in her palm.

     Even greater for thousands of years? That’s hard to turn down. “Please give me some time to think and please don’t speak of this to anyone.”

     “Of course.”

     Jillian extricated her hand. “Get some rest,” she said.

     “Yes, I will need my strength,” he said with excitement.

     W
alking back to her quarters, where she knew Damian lay in her bed waiting for her, Jillian wondered what the hell she was going to do now.

CHAPTER
SIX

     “So, you did sleep with him?” Damian said, hands on his hips looking cross.

     Jillian had returned to her room to find him finishing dressing and felt there was nothing she could do but tell him what had just transpired. “Yes,” she said. She willed herself to keep her hands at her side and not wring them as she was tempted to. On the walk back she had prepared herself for his anger and expected he would no doubt walk out on her without giving her a chance to explain.

     “Your lovemaking is so powerful it brings men back from the brink of death?” Damian’s sarcasm leaked through every syllable.

     “Apparently,” she said weakly.

      “So what’s the problem?”

      “Now it seems he thinks he is my soul mate.”

     “Ouch, tell him there’s someone else.” Damian sat on the bed tying his boots.

     “I did.”

     Damian looked up in surprise, “You
did? Did you say you love this other person?”

     “I did.” Jillian enjoyed the obvious happiness that glowed on his face and hated to spoil the moment.  “But he wants a chance to fight for my love.  I couldn’t talk him out of that idea.”

     “I’ll talk him out of it.” Damian pounded a fist into one hand.

     “No, no violence on my ship.”

     “I don’t want to be pitted against someone else, if you love me, then be with me, no games.”

     “I agree, and in a week this will all blow over when he
is back in Antares with his own kind.” Jillian cocked her head to one side. “But out of curiosity are you saying you wouldn’t fight for me?”

     “I’m saying I shouldn’t have to. You shouldn’t make the man you love jump through hoops.”

     Jillian understood Damian’s point. “I am going to politely discourage him to avoid any diplomatic issues. But I don’t think we should sleep together until he’s gone. We should keep professional around each other and him. It’s just six days,” she said quickly when she saw him objecting, “then he’ll be returned to his world and we can resume our -” she struggled for a word, “fun.”

     “Are you sure?”

     “Yes.”

     Damian walked over to her and stood very close. He played with a strand of her hair. “Don’t break my heart,
Blondie.”

     “I don’t want to.”
Jillian felt her heart racing faster as it always did with Damian’s close proximity.

     Damian gave her one
last long, fiery kiss before heading back to work.

     Tae, since he was feeling better, took to walking around the ship. At first this was disconcerting to the crew, but since he looked something like a golden Greek Adonis, half the woman on the ship were in love with him. But the look of devotion in his puppy dog eyes was strictly reserved for Jillian, following her every move, which in turn was making Damian crazy.

     Although the Antarean was large and muscular with hard features
, Jillian found him to be an elegant man with refined manners. They spent a great deal of time together talking about themselves, their past and their families. Tae explained to her that he had been on a scouting mission, but had been attacked by some of the inhabitants of Titan, the largest moon of Saturn. Antareans, he explained to her, were pacifists and would never fight back. His people did not even possess any weaponry; believing there was just no need for it.

     But
Jillian was most fascinated to hear about life within Antares. Tae explained his people’s longevity was due to the fact that time passed much more slowly inside of Antares compared to the rest of the universe. It was almost like time travel, he explained, that they could spend a year within Antares and upon returning to the outside world only a few weeks would have passed.

     Tae reached for her hand. “Let me take you home with me to my planet and show you how our life could be.”

     Jillian pulled her hand away. “No, I couldn’t possibly-”

     “One time. You promised to give me a chance.”

     She was desperately curious and she would be the first human to ever set foot within Antares.

    
Tae leaned in and spoke in a low tone, “And you must let me make love to you when I can be an active participant. Give me the opportunity to show you what it could be like, then you make your choice.  That is all I ask.”

     Jillian was amused at the offer but had no intention of having sex with Tae again. No matter how adorable he had become to her. She felt sure once he returned to his own world he’d get over this infatuation.

     Still, Damian and she had only had that one night together. And now the flyboy had done nothing but scowl at her for the last two days.  What was the likelihood things would work out for them in the long run? Damian being so volatile, there was no guarantee the two of them would last for very long. He might go back to his hostile ways, or find himself another woman. The two of them really were different, almost as different as Tae and her.