Captive Heroes (27 page)

“She was asking him if he was going to come along with us to Earth,” she replied softly.

“What do you think his answer was?” he asked as he let go of her lobe and sensuously rubbed his bearded cheek against hers, sparking erotic friction against her sensitive skin.

Kayla giggled at his innocence. Was he for real? Had he not noticed the sparks flying between Kinley and Blackie?

“Have you seen the way they look at each other when the other thinks he or she isn’t watching?”

He moaned as she rubbed her face against his. “The same way we look at each other?” he asked.

He got it. She grinned. “Yeah.”

“Good. Then Blackie will be a very happy male. Just as I am. I am sure everyone here will accept him and forgive his past as they have done with Jarod and myself.”

“Things will work out for them, you’ll see. Just like things have worked out for everybody.”

“And for us too.”

She turned her face in his and eagerly accepted his mouth as he slid his lips against hers.

Yeah, everything was going to work out just fine.

* * * * *

Four weeks later…

There was an odd buzzing in Kinley’s ears. The noise unsettled her. For a split second she wanted to slam her hand down on the snooze button, but when her palm hit something smooth, solid and cool, it dawned on her she didn’t have an alarm clock on Paradise.

The odd realization snapped through her sleep, prodding her awake.

Opening her eyes, she blinked at the dryness that made her eyelids stick. She blinked several more times, trying to orient her thoughts. Suddenly her eyes opened and a room rolled into focus.

A warm fuzzy sensation she really liked melted through her and she remembered how happy everyone had been when they’d boarded the newly constructed spacecraft. They’d checked and rechecked everything with the computers. The life support systems, thrusters, computers, replicators and stasis pods. Everything had worked to perfection. They had agreed to pick straws as to who would be allowed to awaken first once they entered their solar system and, to her excitement, she’d picked the shortest straw.

And so here she was. Waking first.

But boy, her limbs were a bit rusty as she slowly moved her arms and legs. Being asleep for a year does that.

She wished she could move faster because she really wanted to see Blackie again, but the first few minutes after awakening were the toughest. It was crucial she move slowly in order to allow her body to adjust, so she exercised her arms and legs while staring up at the ceiling through the plastic encasing of the sleep pod.

She reached for the button that would allow her to get out, but something seemed terribly wrong.

She was not in the spaceship they’d re-created. She was back in the spaceship she and Kayla and Piper had arrived on Paradise in. Correct that. She was in the spaceship they had crashed into the Fever Swamps. And the spaceship looked totally intact. As if nothing had ever happened. As if they had never crashed.

What the frig?

Unease rumbled through her like a rolling earthquake and she hesitated, pressing the open button for the pod. What was going on here?

Cripes!

In her groggy state of reawakening, she hadn’t realized the buzzing alarm had stopped or what it had meant. Her heart started pounding way too fast and waves of lightheadedness made her surroundings swirl.

Okay don’t panic, girl. Something isn’t right here
.

Suddenly she got the sense she’d been through this scenario before. Not just once, but many times. Awakening to an alarm. Smoke. And right on cue she saw a thin spiral of gray smoke that would signify the ship’s systems were failing. The computer started wailing warnings. Her gut reaction was to get them all out of their sleep pods. But she hesitated. This time she wouldn’t panic. How could she? She
knew
exactly what was supposed to happen next.

Taking a deep breath, she moved her finger off the escape button. Instead, she pressed another button. A tiny screen slid along the top of the pod right over her head, about two feet from her face. It flickered on. She tensed at the sight.

Floating in space were several other spaceships. There were no stars normally associated with space travel. Only total blackness, except for eight other spaceships that seemed to glow golden-white from some unseen light source. Her tummy hollowed out. She knew what was happening.

Kinley swore violently and closed her eyes as understanding sliced through her. Somehow during their sleep stasis, their spaceship had been tugged or somehow wandered into one of the many wormholes that littered this quadrant of the galaxy.

When they had all entered the rebuilt spaceship, they’d gone to sleep wearing sleep clothing. She was naked. Just as she had been before the crash. This wasn’t the re-created spaceship. This was the original one she’d arrived in.

If she didn’t push the “open” button and get out of this pod, then the spaceship may not crash. Her sisters wouldn’t meet their hunky guys. She wouldn’t find her brothers.

Shit!

If she was right, then she could break this cycle of whatever the hell was causing them to repeat time over and over again. Who knew how long they’d been stuck in this vortex—if that’s what it was. They could have been stranded here for years for all she knew. Her gut clenched with anguish.

What was she supposed to do?

Chapter Fifteen

Something was wrong. Blackie knew it the instant he opened his eyes. He’d been trying to awaken for quite some time, but he kept wanting to drift back to sleep. Back to dreamland. Back to
her
.

Oh man, such hot, fucking, sex dreams he’d had. Dreams of fucking Kinley over and over again. Of having his cock plunging in and out of her succulent mouth. Her silky, plump lips melting over his hard length, her mouth wrapped tightly around his cock. The things she did to his cock and balls with that lethally beautiful tongue of hers. She made him so hard he could come over and over again. Could fuck her like this forever.

Yeah, forever…

An odd buzzing snapped through his fantasy.

Shit!
He’d somehow drifted off again. This time he forced himself to open his eyes and keep them open. His stomach rolled into a sickening knot. Something was wrong. He wasn’t in the sleep pod they’d put him in. The metal on the beams holding the plastic wasn’t the same color. The lighting in here was different. From what he could see, the rest of the spaceship looked altered.

And he wasn’t some sex slave who’d been pleasuring women for years. His name was Josh Black. Captain Josh Black of the United States spaceship
Raider
. His crew called him Blackie for short.

His heart began hammering at the conflicting thoughts. Why did he think he was a sex slave? He was a captain of a spaceship, for crying out loud. They’d been sent to an unexplored part of the Section Four Quadrant when something had happened. He searched his memory, struggling for something he should know, but came up empty. His mind whirled and he bit back the swirl of panic.

Okay. Stay cool, Blackie. Stay cool.

He forced himself to take several deep, steadying breaths and his thoughts began to gather.

Kinley. Had she been a figment of his imagination? He swallowed back another round of panic. Was he in love with a woman who didn’t exist? Holy hell, if she wasn’t real then he’d rather sink back into Paradise and let himself believe she was real.

Closing his eyes, he fought back an overwhelming loss. It lodged thick in his chest. Could he survive this devastation? The odd buzzing that had awakened him from sleep stasis was the intruder alert alarm. He peered at the mini-com support screen that gave him a quick view of all life support and defense systems on the spaceship. He sharply inhaled. Someone had breached security and boarded his ship. Yet everyone on board was helpless as they lay sleeping in their pods.

He tensed as a shadow appeared just outside his pod. Held his breath. The silhouette looked familiar.

“Kinley?” he whispered.

He blinked as a hand reached out of the shadows of the darkness and a feminine palm pressed against the plastic enclosure just above his face. He recognized the bracelet with her name on it. His heart soared.

A moment later when she came into view, her sweet face looked down at him with the most awesome smile. He couldn’t help but laugh in relief. He didn’t know what the hell was going on, but as long as Kinley was here, alive and healthy, he really didn’t care.

Behind her, shadows moved. Lights flickered on and suddenly the enclosure of his pod slid open. Her sweet, sexy scent attacked him and he sat up. Her arms swept around him and she hugged him so tight his ribs ached.

“Ben thinks everything we experienced was a dream. Just a dream,” she whispered against his ear.

A dream? What the hell?

“It appears as if we all got pulled into some sort of a wormhole,” Ben Hero said from somewhere behind Kinley. “See the spaceships out there? Sensors show all the occupants of the ships are in sleep stasis. From what we can deduce, the wormhole screws with the dream centers of our brains.”

Okay, so maybe he was dreaming now? How could he tell what was real and what was fantasy?

“After your crew gives us the information on their fantasies, I’m sure it will confirm what Ben suspects. Then we can talk privately,” Kinley said as she pulled away from him and stood. She was grinning at him like a Cheshire cat who’d just caught the canary.

“Maybe you’d better get dressed. I know how much you love to sleep in the nude.”

She winked and then drifted off to meet her siblings, who were busy deactivating the other five sleep pods belonging to his crew. Heat warmed his face. If everything that had happened had been a dream, then Kinley knew some of his darkest fantasies. And if what Ben was saying was true, that would mean he and Kinley hadn’t had physical sex with each other.

Shit, he could only imagine how intense the real thing would be.

* * * * *

Kayla couldn’t keep her eyes off Taylor. Correct that. She couldn’t keep her eyes off Lt. Brian Taylor. Brian. Hmmm…nice name.

Nice ass in tight, white space pants too.

He stood at the console, inputting the latest data coordinates that would hopefully enable them to unlock their respective spaceships from the wormhole that had ensnared them.

They’d debated whether to try to break the several other ships free, but in the end the vote had been unanimous. They didn’t know what type of entity they were dealing with. More studies needed to be done and it would be too risky to go deeper into the anomaly to rescue other ships trapped there. They had to get out of here before they got sucked back in. Not that she minded going back to all that delicious sex with Taylor.

“Hey, beautiful. Thinking about us?”

Kayla blinked as Taylor suddenly stood in front of her. She’d been so deep in thought she hadn’t realized he’d caught her daydreaming. Her cheeks heated and he laughed.

“Just because everything might have been a dream, don’t think you’re off the hook, Hero. I still have the hots for you and the minute we’re alone we’re going to be making love like there’s no tomorrow.” He winked and walked away, quickly returning to his position at the console.

“Looking forward to it,” she whispered beneath her breath, all tingly and warm. She really didn’t have a reason to be shy with him. Nothing had changed regarding her love for him, especially after everything they’d been through—whether it had been real or fantasy. She still wanted him like crazy. Wanted him in her life and in her bed.

Besides, he knew so much about her. Boy did he ever. Her thoughts turned to the many sexcapades they’d had and suddenly her body was humming. She was eager. Needy.

Yes, he was right. Nothing had changed between the two of them. The attraction was still there. Strong and powerful. Without a doubt, the two of them would be okay.

She smiled. Heck, they’d be more than okay. They would be fantastic!

* * * * *

“Blackie, someone is hailing us on the translation communication line,” Jacey White, his communications expert, said from her console.

Blackie tensed and everyone suddenly fell silent, their eyes on him for guidance.

He nodded. “Put them through.”

He held his breath as the line crackled with static.

“Visual on three,” Lt. Virginia Blakely said.

Everyone turned to the main screen where an array of colorful lights similar to a rainbow splashed across the display. The colors began to dance and melt together into fantastic kaleidoscopes as a breathy female voice spoke.

“We apologize for taking so long to contact you. We were learning your language while you were in what you call the wormhole.”

“This is Captain Josh Black of the United States spaceship
Raider
. May I ask whom I am addressing?” Blackie asked.

“Our names do not translate into your language. Our apologies.”

“From which of the captured ships are you hailing us?” he asked.

“Captured?” There was a slight hesitation and the kaleidoscope of lights slowed into the rainbow again. Silence ensued for several seconds before the lights began to dance in wild colorful patterns Blackie found oddly soothing.

“We are living in the area you call the wormhole. We are everywhere here.”

Blackie frowned. These were the aliens holding the ships?

“We understand your fear now,” she said softly, almost tenderly. “No one is being harmed. We wish to thank you for your help.”

“And how have we helped you?”

“We use your brain’s energy to help us reproduce. To mate.”

Sharp inhalations and soft curses echoed from everybody who’d gathered around the screen to watch the array of lights. He should tell them not to look. The lights could be some sort of trick, but no matter how hard he tried to turn away and tell the others to do the same, he just couldn’t. The lights were fantastic and seemed to seep right into his soul, relaxing and reassuring him there was nothing to fear.

“Excuse me?” he managed to mumble, trying to get across to this woman that he didn’t quite understand.

The colors floated into the rainbow pattern again. Silence followed.

“Can you explain further? We do not understand,” Blackie prodded.

The lights did their dance. “When we detect an alien existence passing through our territory, we hold the ships and use energy from the brains of the aliens. The parts that produce sexual excitement, and thus we harvest that energy for our own sexual needs.”

Oh.

“So you create sexual fantasies and feed off this energy?” Blackie asked.

“Yes, but only if the aliens are a match.”

“A match?”

“We test everyone’s sexual chemistry to make the best matches. These produce the best and highest energy for us to harvest.”

“Kind of like a dating service.” Jarod chuckled from beside him.

Blackie elbowed him into remaining quiet. This was a serious matter.

“How long were we held? How were you able to send a spaceship back to Earth and target a specific family?” Piper Hero asked. “Our brothers were here at least two years, being held against their will. That’s kidnapping on our planet and you could be brought up on charges.”

Blackie grinned. Kinley’s twin
did
have just as much spark and fire as Kinley.

The colors flickered even more wildly, obviously picking up on Piper’s anger.

“Your time on Earth and our time here are on different planes. We were able to harvest information from the Hero brothers and realized the ‘family bond’, as you call it, is so strong in them that we could use it to lure more humans here without a danger to us. We are the ones who sent an exact spaceship replica belonging to the Hero brothers back to Earth, with a message telling Earth to stay away from the fictional planet Paradise. We worded the messages through the Hero brothers due to the aforementioned strong family bond, in hopes more humans would come out of concern for their safety. And they did. Another ship did arrive with their sisters.”

Cripes.

This anomaly could be a hell of a danger to the human race if these aliens could send such messages and material items back to Earth.

“The occupants on this last spaceship have been here a very short period of time,” she said. “As we incorporated our understanding of your Earth time we have been able to produce a much quicker timeline to get what we need before releasing you back on your way. The females from the last Earth spaceship have been in your ‘wormhole’ only several hours in comparison to our time in weeks, enhanced in your brain.”

Snare. Seduce. Release. How in hell was he going to explain to this alien force that what they are doing was wrong, no matter how much time was enhanced in their brains?

“We had a temporary malfunction. We were disconnected when the human called Kinley awakened and was able to break our bond with her. Everyone connected in her dream state, in turn, awakened also. We need everybody to fall asleep again so we can erase the sexual bonds created, and then you are free to go. You will not remember what happened. Or this conversation. Or that we even exist. We have done this to many humans and other life forms who have used this wormhole and we have not encountered any trouble in our ways.”

Trouble? He’d give her plenty of trouble. Erase the sexual bonds
they
created? His gaze flew to Kinley, who was standing beside him and frowning at the colorful array on the screen. Everyone else appeared as tense as hell, their gazes also glued to the screen.

“These sexual bonds you’ve created. They’re not real? They are artificial?” he asked.

Jesus.

This was definitely rocking his world. How the hell could he not be in love with Kinley? He wanted her. He would fight anyone, including this bitch if she dared to tell him he wasn’t in love with Kinley.

“Ah, I sense human curiosity in your question. Curiosity is an admirable trait.”

Blackie clenched his fist at the underlying amusement in her sultry voice. He didn’t dare look at Kinley again, or at the others. Didn’t want to see the devastation he, himself, experienced in their eyes.

“I also detect your impatience for my answer,” the alien purred.

Under her breath, Jacey called the alien a bitch. He understood her hostility over the way they’d been duped but threw her a stern gaze to remain silent.