Striker

by Charmaine Ross

  There was an edge of steel to the set of her chin. Her mouth had flatlined, and she hadn't looked him in the eye.

  “Tell me what's wrong.”

  For a moment, her lips trembled and pain washed over her face, but only for a fleeting second before she schooled her features into perfect neutrality. A well-practised move. If he hadn't been watching her closely, he would have missed it.

  “Bandages?” She went to stand. He caught her wrist before she had a chance to walk away.

  “As you said, soldier, what is good for the gander is good for the goose. I need you as much as you need me. This isn’t the time or place to shut down. We communicate. You were perfectly fine up until a few moments ago. What's wrong?”

  “It's the other way around.”

  “What?”

  “What's good for the goose is good for the gander. That's how you say it.”

  “I'm glad you agree. Tell me. Communicate… soldier.” To prove his point, he kept her wrist when she tried to tug it free. He stood, ignoring the twinge in his thigh so he could talk without having to look up at her.

  Her features were so heavily guarded now, they seemed almost set in plasti-steel. That was, until the muscle at her temple started to tick. The sign of anger was better than the mask.

  “It's nothing.”

  “This reaction isn't nothing. It isn't normal either,” he said.

  “But I'm not… whatever you are. I'm human, and you can't tell me we react the same way, so how would you know if anything's wrong with me?”

  Her voice was thin. Distressed. He frowned, not liking to see her like this. Still holding her wrist, he tucked his knuckle beneath her chin and lifted her head so she was forced to look at him. As he suspected, a toxic blend of emotions clouded her face.

  “We are not so unlike, our two species.”

  “And how would you know that?”

  He paused, weighing how much to tell her, wanting to tell her everything, knowing she deserved it hear it all. “I have been down to your planet on numerous occasions.”

  Her whole body stilled. Even her breath. “You have? When?”

  “On occasion. Whenever we can take leave. Guard duty can get a bit mundane. The commander allowed selected personnel to the surface for a short time.”

  “People would know. The government would have known. You would have been seen,” she said.

  “We camouflaged our faces, wore a cap and slouched shoulders. Your race don’t really look at others that closely.” He didn’t want to say exactly what he'd done while on R&R. Didn't want her to think less of him. Didn’t want to tell her that her planet's defence system was centuries behind their technology. “And we came at night.”

  Her gaze racked his face. “I would have known.”

  He returned her gaze, watching the intelligence behind her features, the way she took him in, the way her thoughts bounced from logic to logic. “I believe you would have.”

  Her stance softened, but it was clear she didn’t believe him. He wondered if she doubted her abilities. “And how do you know that?”

  “Because you're still functioning after having your world ripped away from you. Not many people would be able to do that. It tells me a lot about you.”

  She blinked, her eyes becoming bright. She tugged her wrist again, but he wasn't finished with her. Instead, he stepped closer. So close that her body heat washed over him. Her feminine scent. Her warm breath as she expelled, her breathing becoming faster. He ran the pad of his thumb along her jaw line. Her mouth fell open, her lips glistening soft and wet and so tempting.

  “Like what?”

  It was a challenge. One he was up to. If it got her to open up, he'd use whatever tactic he could.

  He couldn’t really understand why he was tempted to push her. He'd never wanted to understand a woman quite like this before. But with Vivien, hell, it mattered. She was a mystery he couldn't quite decide why he wanted to crack.

  “It tells me you're brave and tough, but there's something more going on in your head, and I have to decide if you're a liability or a risk. For the safety of both of us. Such a strong reaction to such a simple offer. You could have simply said yes, but you didn't. You reacted on a far greater scale than normal. So, I'll ask one more time, and I will keep pressing until I get an answer. What is going on in your mind?”

  A tear traced down her cheek. She gasped and slashed it away with her free hand, horror playing out on her features. “That's none of your business, soldier.”

  He pinched her chin between his knuckle and thumb and brought his lips down to hers. He wanted to kiss the answers out of her. He also knew it was an entirely wrong thing to do, but he couldn't help himself.

  If he was being truthful with himself, he'd wanted to kiss her again from that first time in the forest, a temptation he was powerless to deny. She uttered a sound, stiffened in his arms. Before she could pull away, he tugged her wrist behind him. The step she took crushed her breasts to his chest. At the same time, he plunged his fingers into the hair at the back of her head to keep her in place.

  His mouth played over hers, massaging, teasing. He traced the tip of his tongue between the seam of her lips, as though he was tasting the most exquisite food. Her flavour exploded on his tongue, and it was all he could do to keep himself in some semblance of control.

  He suckled her lips into his mouth before tilting his head and massaging his lips to seat more fully over hers.

  The moment of her surrender was sublime. She softened, coming against him and using him as a support. She relaxed her neck, tilting her head back just to the side at the right angle before opening, accepting his lips and opening her mouth to his.

  With a heady groan that sounded deep in his chest, he accepted her gift and swept his tongue against hers, diving into that hot, honeyed centre, revelling in her taste. The hot, slick feel of her. Lips. Tongue. Acquiescence.

  To the Gods and back, he'd never experienced a kiss quite like this one. Where such capitulation was so sweet. Protected and guarded, yet given without restraint.

  She breathed in deep, her chest expanding, her breasts swelling against his bare skin, with only the thin material of her shirt between them. He knew what they looked like beneath that black little lacy bra she wore, and the thought made his skin come alive.

  He dropped her wrist, his hand finding its way to the small of her back. Her arms wound around his neck, fingers tentatively threading in his hair. His nerves came alive, awareness to the parts of his body that touched her.

  His hand on her back trailed lower to palm a delicious lobe of her backside. Her arms tightened around him, locking around his neck. Her tongue duelled with his. Lips suckling. She made a little mewling sound. A tiny, desperate, heartbreaking noise that slid into his heart.

  Such agony. Such desperation. Such pain.

  She clawed at him, hanging on to his shoulders as though she was struggling in a storm, fingers ravaging his hair, tugging and jerking. The kiss had morphed into something more desperate. Her teeth clashed against his as her movements became more pronounced. Almost frantic. She mewled again, a thigh slipping around his. He couldn't help feeling the hot core of her centre opening against his turgid shaft.

  His hips tilted of their own accord, and the sound that came out of her mouth was even more desperate. He swallowed her cry before drawing back, holding her face between his palms.

  She opened dazed eyes, filled with unshed tears. Pure pain was etched into their beautiful depths. He shouldn't have pushed her so hard. She'd endured more than what most should have of an innocent species, and this was how he'd showed his care. He'd pushed her so far, and now she was caught in a waking nightmare.

  Frek, he was an utter bastard!

  Guilt hammered its way through the sexual haze, and through the fogginess cut clarity. He shouldn't have let this get so far. He would roast alive in the centre of all Hells for eternity. Nothing he didn't deserve.

  “Vivien.”

 
She blinked, her lips wet and swollen from their devastating kiss. She moved to kiss him, and he leaned away. The hardest thing he'd ever had to do. She was soft, willing and pliant in his arms, and he knew she'd do anything to forget the nightmare in her head.

  He wanted to kiss her again. Kiss her until they were naked and writhing and joining as one on the sandy floor.

  But she'd hate him when lucidity returned.

  And that was something he could not live with.

  Instead, he folded her in his arms, uttered soothing sounds and rubbed her back until he knew the moment when she returned back to herself and stiffened in his hold. Her arms fell to her side, her spine grew straight and her breath hitched.

  “You can let me go now.”

  Slowly, he stepped back, placing his hands on her shoulders so she had to look at him. It took her a long moment before she notched her chin in that move he'd come to recognize and turned up a face carefully devoid of emotion. The only way he knew she felt anything at all was her red-rimmed eyes and delectable bottom lip that trembled unconsciously.

  “This hasn't ended.” Hells, he didn't want this to end. He wanted this - whatever was happening between them - to happen anywhere else but here.

  “That’s where you're wrong, soldier. This never even started.”

  She wore her soldiers mask, and that was OK. If it got her through, then who was he to judge? Didn't he have his own mask? Maybe it had been a mistake even to get her to talk about herself. He shouldn't have expected she would have opened up. It was just something he had to work on.

  “Excuse my behaviour. If you wish to bathe, I will give you some privacy.”

  Stepping away was the hardest thing he had to do. One step. Two. He turned and went back to the pallet, sitting with his back to her. The cave rung with silence, but after a while he heard the rustle of clothing and a splash of water. He'd care for her whatever way he could. Even it if meant not being around her.

  Even it was the hardest thing he'd ever had to do. Intellectually, he knew he shouldn't have kissed her. His gut, though… his gut wanted to follow her into the stream and ravish both of them senseless. Plunge himself into her heated depths and take away the pain.

  For both of them.

  Chapter Ten

  She watched him stalk away. A part of her, a good part, wanted to tell him to stop. To come back and kiss her again. And more. So much more.

  She'd never felt so…aroused. Her past relationships, if she could call them that, seemed like a dull prelude to the pulse of desire than ran through her veins. He'd not just kissed her. He’d ravished her mouth, and she'd been absolutely powerless to stop him. Not that she'd wanted him to stop. She'd wanted to keep going. Her body had cried out for more. Her brain hadn't even kicked in to tell her how much of a wrong move it was.

  No, her brain had been on an island having a summer holiday, overpowered just as much as her body was. Her brain - the part of her that always stopped stupid decisions - simply had failed to function. Short-circuited with the need to keep kissing him.

  If he hadn't stopped when he did, she was sure her brain would have used all her frequent flyer points and only returned once her body had enjoyed a damn good holiday at the expense of her vagina. Her ignored and long forgotten vagina.

  It had taken her a good while to understand what was going on after he'd ended the kiss. He'd ended the kiss. Embarrassment swamped through her, lighting like a solar flare right in the middle of her chest.

  Fool. She was an absolute fool.

  A slobbering, emotional, useless idiot.

  She was a captain in the SAS, for god's sake. She'd worked damn hard to get to where she had. It'd been through gritted teeth, a one-tracked mind set on her goal, steadfast commitment, nights spent alone and lonely because she couldn't afford to let anyone in because working towards her goal was more important.

  Which was a good plan until her life had completely unwound.

  She grit her teeth and found herself peering at the stream. Maybe washing her body would also wash away her downward spiralling thoughts. Besides, her skin itched with the feel of Reptile claws, and the stream was beyond tempting. If nothing else, feeling clean would be a godsend.

  She glanced in the direction of her angst. He appeared to be studying the vines at the rear of the cave, his broad back stretching the shoulders of his jacket to perfection. Annoyed she'd even noticed it, she drove her attention back to her crawling skin.

  It felt better. Less agonising.

  Also, the thought of bathing was so tempting, it outweighed having to strip to get into the water. She wouldn't take long in any case. She couldn’t be. The stream cut right through the middle of the cave. There was no shelter to hide behind and she didn’t want Striker to be staring at the wall for any longer than he had to. There wasn't even an outcropping of rock to hide behind.

  One more glance at Striker, and she quickly divested her clothing, taking off her underwear with only slight hesitation before quickly stepping into the warm water. The water was only knee deep in the deepest section, but she lay down, closed her eyes, took a deep breath and plunged beneath the surface.

  She ran her fingers through her hair, wincing when she caught knots, trying to work out the grit and dirt from god knew what. She scrubbed her face with her palms, wishing she had soap, before breaking above the surface and drawing a breath.

  The water tingled as though she sat in effervescent mineral water. She glanced around her, but there were no tell-tale bubbles that would illustrate the feeling. It ran as clear around her as it did away from her. She scooped some water and let it run from her palm back into the stream. It poured like thick, almost viscous fluid, thicker than Earth water. Confusing.

  She rubbed her palms over her body, wiping away the worst of the grime and dirt as much as she could. She cupped her palms and sipped water, abating some of her thirst. It tingled in her mouth and down her throat. She could swear she drank soda water. It was all very strange, but then again, she was on an alien planet and drank god knew what.

  The tingling was even more evident at the wound at the back of her neck. She gently pressed her fingers to the cut, easing the soreness as she probed. It wasn't too bad, considering the device Striker had taken out. A mind-slave device, he'd said. She shuddered just at the thought. Having no say about what you said, or did. That was a fate worse than death.

  She wondered why these Reptiles would even go to such lengths. They must be one evil son-of-a-race to have done that to millions.

  She also realized she didn't know a thing about these Reptiles, other than the fact that they went from planet to planet turning the inhabitants into slaves. It was time she found out a little more about these creatures. Know thy enemy was a good philosophy.

  She took a deep breath, held it for a moment steeling herself, then stood, determined to speak to Striker about everything - resist her baser urges. She was still on a mission. Even though she appeared to have made the missing persons list herself, it was her duty to understand what had happened to those other women.

  Just at that moment, Striker turned. Didn't even pretend he didn't see her. His eyes bore into hers, burning. His jaw tightened, the muscles banding on his neck. His fists clenched. Unclenched.

  Her body went on high alert. Her nipples pebbled, her abdomen pulsed, arousal stirred. The very air seemed to caress every inch of her naked skin. She went to hide herself, then stopped before she covered herself, her hands dropping back to her sides.

  She liked him watching her.

  She was seriously turned on. Again.

  So quickly.

  She tried to care, to drag back any sense of self-control. But she couldn’t.

  It wasn't just the fact that he stared at her like he was a staving man and she was the main course. It was the fact that she liked it. She'd picked up exactly where they'd left off, and she couldn’t think of one reason why they’d stopped at all.

  She wanted him. He wanted her. That was all that
mattered.

  A deep growl cut through her sexual haze. She belatedly realized it came from him. The sound liquefied her insides. It was a sound of desperation, bordering on frustration. He stepped, shook his head as though to shake free a thought, bringing a palm to his forehead. With that movement, their eye contact broke.

  The spell snapped. The world came back, and she was able to breathe again.

  She glanced at the confusion on his face before he strode away and disappeared into a crack on the cave wall she hadn't noticed before. Cool air prickled her skin, bringing her attention to the pile of clothes on the sandy ground.

  She crossed her arms over herself and rubbed her arms while she waded through the stream and safety of clothing, struggling into them over wet skin. All around her, lights twinkled like stars on steroids. She wasn't sure if it was her imagination, but they seemed to be more active. Brighter.

  And the feeling of being watched more pronounced.

  Now she didn't even suspect. She knew.

  She was losing it.

  Suddenly feeling exhausted, she made her way to the pallet on lead-weight legs and collapsed onto the soft leaves. The fizzing in her stomach was getting worse. She wasn't nauseous, just uncomfortable, as though there was a bath bomb exploding in her stomach.

  Closing her eyes, she gave in to the sleep that called to her, not feeling the slightest twinge of guilt that she hadn't worked out any of the questions that plagued her mind, or her mission, or that fact that she was stranded on an alien planet with the sexiest alien alive. There was blessed darkness behind the veil of sleep, and right now it was a temptation she didn't deny.

  * * *

  He couldn't think straight, and he didn’t know why. Erotic images of Vivien passed through his mind like a sensual caress. When he'd seen her stand and saw the water sluice off her body, he knew if he didn't get away, he would have given in to temptation.

  And what temptation she was.

  The thing was, he wasn't a virgin. He'd had intimacies before, and they'd been fun on both sides. But he'd been able to leave when the affair finished - they both had - on mutual terms. Even if he was attracted to a certain female, he'd never been so obsessed that he felt his skin tingle with awareness even with just a thought.