Last Flight of the Ark (3 page)

“Wait a second, sir. Did you say we’re home? As in Terra II—in orbit?”

“Yeah, I did.” He rose to his feet and reached down to offer Jessica a hand. “Come on, we’ve got work to do. We need to check the cells.”

Jessica eyed his hand and climbed to her feet without his assistance. “Not until we put some antibiotics and a clean bandage that arm.”

Kaleb wiggled his fingers again. “I told you. It feels fine.”

“A canine bite might be cleaner than a human’s, but it’s still dirty and could get infected. You’re not doing anything until we clean it up, regardless if the bioscan said it was fine.”

“Who’s running this mission?”

“Doctor’s orders.”

“You’re a biologist.” But she would make a cute nurse. God, better not go there.

“I’m still a doctor.” Jessica pinned him with a look that said she wasn’t backing down. “I was good enough to help you when you got the hives.”

“I don’t have hives.”

Jessica crossed her arms and stared.

“You’re not giving up, are you?”

“What do you think, sir?”

“All right, but you’re soaking that bandage off. Don’t even think about ripping it away.”

“Party pooper.” Jessica tugged his arm. “Come on. I promise to be gentle.”

God, he could only hope so. Another part of his body sprang to life at the thought.
Down, boy
. They climbed onto the lift. Kaleb watched Jessica. She bit her lip and glanced around.

“Something wrong?”

“I don’t like heights.”

“I hate to tell you this, but you’re in space.”

She nodded. “Nowhere to fall out there.” The lift lurched. She lost her balance and stumbled forward. Kaleb caught her and inhaled. The lemon scent of her soap and something else assaulted his senses. He inhaled deeper.
Not fear
.

“Your arm should be killing you, especially when you caught me. You really are okay, aren’t you?”

“Yeah. Better than okay. I feel…good.”
Extraordinary. Horny
. Turning his nose into her hair, he froze midsnort. What the hell was wrong with him? He shouldn’t be sniffing Jessica like a hound. Somewhere, in some manual, it had to be against regulations, but damn, she smelled good.
Screw regulations
. He inhaled again and was certain he knew that smell.

Jessica tipped her face back and looked into his eyes. Her heartbeat picked up, thrumming through his body as though it was on a loudspeaker. Her pupils dilated and the temperature in her body increased. He could see it and feel it with such clarity. Clarity he’d never had before. Kaleb furrowed his brow. Why hadn’t he seen it before?

“Sorry, sir. I lost my balance.” She licked her bottom lip but didn’t step back.

Liar
. His dick began to beg for a cabin visit, threatening to bust out of his uniform and all because she hadn’t really stumbled.
Liar, liar, panties on fire
.

And he knew this how? For some reason, since they’d passed through the cloud, his senses seemed heightened. Her heart wasn’t beating crazy from fear and the smell coming off her wasn’t soap. His cock grew harder and it took all his willpower not to yank the zipper on her jumpsuit down and have her right there on the lift.

Hell, who had willpower? Kaleb reached over and shoved the control lever up, bringing the lift to a stop.

“Why’d you do that?”

He stared at her, hungry, inhibitions gone. Did he really need to tell her?

Her eyes widened and a small gasp escaped her lips. “Oh.”

Good, a quick study. He shouldn’t have to explain. He tightened his arm around her and lowered his mouth, seizing her lips as he’d dreamed of doing for the past eight months. She sighed and collapsed against him, kissing him back with a wildness he’d never suspected she’d possessed. It all seemed—unnatural, and he knew he should stop, but he couldn’t gather enough sense to end it. This wasn’t the way Jessica normally acted, nor had he ever been so close to losing control. The radiation had definitely done something, even if the scan said it hadn’t. She laced her fingers into his hair, holding him to her as he feasted. She tasted sweet, clean. The smell of her arousal increased. He backed her across the lift while she kissed him and pinned her against the side, grinding his erection into her. One hand went to her zipper while the other went to her breast. He brushed his thumb over her nipple, feeling it pucker through the thick fabric of her jumpsuit. His nostrils flared.
Fertile. Ready. Receptive
.

“Fuck.” Kaleb slammed both palms against the metal panel on either side of her head. Jessica squeaked and jumped. “No.” With a growl, he pushed away. He couldn’t do this. “God, what was I thinking?”

“I think maybe we should go to the med-bay. Something isn’t right here,” she said, and reached over to pull the lever down.

“Something.” He could see her blush, even in the dim light. She was wet, hot, and damn if he couldn’t smell it. She didn’t want to go to the med-bay.

Liar
. “Yes. The med-bay.” He nodded even though his brain screamed “no.” The lift began to rise again. Kaleb stepped back, putting as much distance as he could between them and leaned against the opposite wall. Yeah, he could feel it, but it was what he wasn’t feeling that confused him. His arm should be junk. Inflamed. Raw, burning pain. It wasn’t, and lust seemed to override all their cognitive thought. It had been a long time since he’d been this randy and out of control.

When they were in med, he’d locate a Geiger counter and find out how much radiation they’d absorbed. Something wasn’t right. He didn’t want to just fuck her, he wanted to bite her, taste her, and the scariest of all, impregnate her. Even more frightening, he knew if he had her now, he would. It was almost as if he could hear the
tick-tock
of her biological clock.

“Sir?” She eyed him, keeping her distance. “What’s going on here?” Instinct told him she knew he was dangerously close to losing control. Her scent told him it wasn’t objectionable. She wanted him to take her. He could feel it, smell it, fucking taste it, and it made him more ravenous.

“I don’t know. Shock?”
Who cares?
He stared back. What could he say? Apologize for being seconds away from ripping her clothes off and fucking her on the lift? Hell, no. She’d wanted it. He closed his eyes and inhaled again. She still wanted it. He needed to get off this lift. There were a lot of things going on that weren’t right. His need to rut appeared to be just one of them. A predominant urge, but not the only weird thing.

“Don’t worry, I won’t say anything.” She looked down at the floor. “Of course you didn’t need to stop.”

“Yes, I did.” Could the steel trap move any slower? Kaleb flexed and unflexed his hands. Why didn’t his arm hurt? Until he knew exactly why, he needed to put as much space between him and Jessica as he could.

Jessica pushed off the wall, stepped toward the exit, coming closer. He glanced at the zipper on her flight suit. It appeared to have slipped an inch or two when he’d groped her during their kiss and now it exposed more than a fair portion of cleavage. With the top missing underneath, it was a temptation almost impossible to pass. He growled. One more step, one inch closer…. His control only went so far.

The lift bumped and the door opened. “Come on. I need to fix that arm.” Jessica caught where his gaze had landed and blushed again. “I had to use my shirt—”

“I know.” No explanation necessary.

“Let’s get you a proper bandage.”

Let’s get you out of those clothes
. His knuckles cracked from having his hands balled so tight.

She stepped off the lift, turned to him, and waited. He must be out of his mind. What man would pass up an opportunity like that? He drew in a deep breath and shoved the lever down. The door slammed shut in a surprised Jessica’s face.

Oh, he wanted to get off. Bad. But every instinct told him it would be a big mistake. Until he knew what was going on, it was better to play it safe. To his room first for a cold shower, and then he’d attend to the injury himself and try to figure why the fuck his arm didn’t hurt.

***

Damned man
. Jessica stared at the closed doors and curled her hands into fists. There was something there. He wanted her. That kiss was as far from chaste as it could get. Just when she thought he was going to finally make all her deep-space wet dreams come true, he’d let the damn doors slam shut in her face.

It wasn’t like she hadn’t tried to get him to notice. The last couple of months had been pretty desperate and she’d pushed as far as she could without just coming out and saying it.

They’d worked together for more than four years before the trip. Over time, the feelings she had for him morphed into something deeper than need. Then the six months of preflight training punched a hole in her remaining control. His smiles. They way he joked and made her laugh.

He wasn’t perfect. He did have that coarse way of expressing himself. Perhaps he never had a mother who’d cared to teach him differently. Or it could be a defense mechanism to put distance between him and anyone who might get too close. It was another piece of the puzzle that made up Kaleb Titan and kept him from being that perfect specimen so many women thought they wanted.

Not Jessica. She didn’t want perfect. He was a bad boy, a tasty, dangerous rebel and his mouth had worked fine when he’d kissed her. Actually, more than fine. The galaxy fell away during that kiss and everything but their bodies and the heat between them had ceased to exist. It wasn’t a schoolgirl crush and it sure as hell wasn’t missing-daddy syndrome, even though he had at least ten years on her. She didn’t need a daddy. She’d made it this far without one. And if what she’d felt in that kiss was real, his feelings were anything but fatherly.

Jessica sniffed and her pulse jumped. That damned cologne he wore all over the place. Every time she caught a whiff, she creamed herself, but then again, that didn’t take much where he was concerned. One look would do it.

Once, she’d walked up on him stripping off his shirt in the bay after he’d fixed the lift. He’d gotten hydraulic fluid down the front of his uniform. He held a damp sponge and was washing the mess away from his shoulders and chest, cussing and bitching the whole time.

She couldn’t remember much of what he’d said, nor did she really care. She’d been too busy watching water droplets make little trails down his chest to his stomach. An image she’d never forget.

It was a miracle she didn’t jump him there. Good Lord, were scientists supposed to look like that? She’d known he looked good in uniform, but her imagination had never done him justice. Without the clothes, he was a sin waiting to happen. It took all her self-control not to help him lose the rest of his uniform.

She collapsed against the doors and stared at the metal panel.
So close
. Heat still flooded her body and her knees continued to tremble. She banged her forehead into the panel. “Damn.” She hadn’t been kidding when she’d joked about sleeping together during the jump through the debris field. When she’d woken up and found him next to her, her head on his shoulder and his delicious body warming her, her heart had forgotten to beat and all she could think about was how it would be if they were both naked.

From the moment she’d laid eyes on the man, she’d wanted him. But she wasn’t the only one. Melissa had told her, that first night they’d been on board together, she wanted him, too. She didn’t just want him, she wanted him with Jessica. A threesome. When Melissa had first mentioned it, Jessica had been angry. She didn’t want to share. She’d been dreaming about him for years. But the more she was with Melissa, the more she cared about her and realized a third in their bed-play might not be a bad thing. It might make an already great relationship better. And the sex would have to be unbelievable.

Now she was completely obsessed with the idea. She’d been unable to get it out of her head, and the possible ménage seemed to occupy a vast measure of her random thoughts at any given time.
What would it be like?

She’d never been in a threesome. Sure, she’d had both men and women, but never together. The thought of sharing her body with both the people she loved seemed like a dream—or it had until Kaleb had kissed her. Now she knew it was possible. He wasn’t immune to her. Far from it.

One night, about a month ago, they’d played Scrabble. It started innocent enough, but quickly changed when Melissa had spelled
masturbate
. Jessica followed it up with
stroke
. He kept it clean with
planet
and any nonsexual word he could think of. He was the last one she’d expected not to come out with a dirty word or two, but he’d kept it safe, way too safe, and that in itself felt like a challenge.

So they’d pushed a little more. Before the game was over, Melissa and Jessica had hit about every dirty word in the English dictionary. Kaleb’s face had gone white, and perspiration clung to his forehead. He’d gripped the edge of the table so hard the tips of his fingers turned blue. Melissa shot her a victorious look and Jessica was certain they’d broken him.

One more push.

Then Jessica dropped the word
suck
and Melissa followed up with
fuck
. He’d jumped up and excused himself for his shift, rushing from the room. She’d sworn he’d a hard-on, but it was difficult to tell with how fast he’d fled.

From that point on, she and Melissa had been relentless. They’d tried to lure him in. They used every weapon at their disposal. Jessica lost her bra and walked around with her nipples sticking out. She’d taken every opportunity to brush up against him. He didn’t seem to notice. He always had reports to go over in his room, some study or another that he had to work on in that damned lab.

She’d thought he was blind until he’d made the bra comment. She’d gotten to him, but he’d been resisting. Ethics? Who knew? But before this mission was over, Jessica swore she’d break him and they’d have their threesome.

Threesome?
She reached up and rubbed her head. What the hell was going on? That should be the last thing on her mind, even if it had dominated her every thought for the last few months. They’d just jumped through a cloud of radiation, and though the scanner said good to go, she wasn’t feeling that way. She’d all but ripped his clothes off on the lift. And his arm? She could swear it had been worse than it appeared. Everything seemed unnatural and despite how dangerous their situation was, she couldn’t seem to pull out of obsessing about him. This was not like her, and she wasn’t alone. Kaleb wasn’t behaving like Kaleb.