by Elle Harper
“Why do you react like that?”
“I’m not brilliant.”
“You are, though. Your remedies, things long lost, kept your small settlement on Earth healthy when many communities were wiped out by sickness.”
She looked at him in surprise, and he smiled lazily. He moved his thumbs to her nipples, pressing and rubbing, and she bit her lip, holding in a moan of pleasure.
“We are able to get some of the Earthen news here. We began gathering it more carefully when you and your friends arrived and Aavi began to suspect that you might be able to help us. Aavi and I did a bit of research. I tend to be very thorough.”
“I noticed,” she said with a blush, and he rewarded her by lowering his face and taking one aching peak between his lips, sucking and licking softly as she gasped and trembled on his lap.
“Remember.. Quiet now,” he warned. And then he not-entirely-gently nipped her already aching nipple, and she pressed her lips together hard to keep from crying out. He chuckled against her skin and then did the same thing to her other breast, forcing her to pant and tremble and take the delicous torture, reminding her softly to stay quiet as he continued to have his fun with her, making her breasts ache with his teasing bites and pinches. By the time he lifted his mouth to hers and kissed her again, her breasts felt heavy, aching from his attentions. He devoured her mouth for a while before slowly pulling away, eyes staying on hers as he clasped her bra again before he buttoned her blouse.
“As much as I want to keep staring at you and touching you, your majesty, I’m on the edge of control here.”
“Oh? So I maybe shouldn’t do this?” she asked innocently, moving her hips, lightly grinding her body against the hardness at the front of his pants. He froze in the act of buttoning one of her buttons, fingers flexing on her top as if he was tempted to rip it off of her.
“Careful, majesty…”
She stilled, and he gave her a small, cocky smile, then continued buttoning her top. “You should rest. We didn’t sleep much last night and we walked much further today than we usually do.”
“Okay… do you think these are wide enough for us to sleep together?”
“Don’t want to have your own sleeping space, your majesty? There is a whole other seat over there,” he said, gesturing teasingly toward the one on the other side of the compartment. He had no intention of letting her go. But he was curious to see what she’d do.
“I want to sleep next to you… I mean. If you want to! You don’t have t—”
He cut her off with a deep, affectionate kiss, then smiled at her as he pulled away.
“If you wouldn’t have asked me to sleep with you, I would have settled next to you anyway, hoping you wouldn’t shoo me away,” he said with a grin, and she chuckled, kissing him again before climbing off of him and stretching out, laying on her side facing the wall, using her arm as a pillow. He moved beside her, pressing up against her back. Unlike the previous night, he did as he wished, wrapping an arm around her waist and drawing her back against his chest as they relaxed. He pressed soft kisses to the back of her neck, smiling to himself when she shivered. “Sleep, majesty. I’ll try to behave myself.”
“That sounds awful,” she joked, and he laughed.
She did that. Made the tight coils of control and seriousness within him unwind. Made him laugh and smile and act a fool, happily.
He was fucked. He knew it. She’d break him someday.
But she was here with him now. He held her close, nuzzling his face into her dark hair, falling asleep surrounded by her scent.
Chapter Six
The desert was not Harper’s favorite.
Luckily, they were only planning for two days there for her to study plants in one of the oases and the surrounding desert.The first night, she’d fallen onto her bed in their tent— they’d stopped bothering with two tents, it seemed— and slept like the dead, not even aware that Rassan had taken her boots and socks off and had massaged her aching feet with some of the salve she’d made and packed in her bags for exactly this purpose.
The second day was just as hot and miserable as the first. She felt like she’d melt, and her feet burned like she was walking through coals. She was covered head to toe in soft, lightweight fabric to keep the glaring heat of two suns off of her. Her eyes burned and she had a headache from squinting against the suns, even in spite of the eye covering Rassan had given her, like very lightweight swim goggles with a film that dimmed the intense sunlight.
But she was a professional, damn it. Brilliant, according to Rassan. She didn’t buy that for a moment, but she was determined to help his people however she could, to be of use here the same way she’d found a way to be of use on Earth. She doubted she could create anything they hadn’t already. But it was her secret hope that by combining some of her Earth samples with their own, she could create something new, something helpful.
She was already making plans to keep herself busy when they returned and Rassan undoubtedly returned to his usual life. She would set up a small area to grow her earth plants out from seed, as many as she could. She had plenty of dried herbs of the most common and useful ones she’d kept from Earth, and to her delight Rassan had managed to save the bags containing them when he’d saved her.
She busied herself collecting a sample from a fleshy, spiny plant, not all that different from an Earth cactus, along with a few of its flower petals, placing them into small vials and labeling them carefully before moving onto the next plant. For his part, Rassan was being a saint, holding something similar to an Earth umbrella over her while she was working, passing her the large water bottle they were sharing often, reminding her to drink.
They were finally done, at least for this expedition to the desert, a couple hours before sunset, she guessed.
Rassan took the pack off of his back and strapped it to his chest. “Come here,” he said, and she looked at him unsurely. Though he was unlikely to be able to see her expression, between the fabric wrapped around her face and the goggle things over her eyes. Sexy as hell, Harper, she thought to herself. “On my back. I’ll carry you back to camp,” he added.
“You don’t need to carry me!” Harper said, giving a snort of a laugh.
“I know I don’t need to. But you’re dead on your feet and I can do this easily for you, especially now that we don’t need to stop every few minutes for you to take notes and samples.”
“You’re tired too. This heat can’t be easy on you, either,” she argued.
“I can handle it better than you can. And you’ve handled it better than most males I know. Let me help you get some rest.”
She didn’t answer. “You promise you’ll put me down if you get tired?” she asked. She knew refusing outright would only make him argue more, and saying no might hurt his feelings. Plus, she really, really was dying to get off of her feet. But not if it wore him out or hurt him.
“I promise. Come. You’re smaller than some of the packs I’ve had to wear out into the field, especially on long missions.”
She pulled the fabric covering her nose and mouth down and pressed a kiss to his cheek, and saw his eyes crinkle at the corners in that way they did when he smiled. She climbed on his back, the way a child would for a piggyback ride, and held on to his shoulders as he started walking, not exactly slowly, in the direction of their campsite.
“Oh, this is much better,” she said, kissing the back of his neck.
“Enjoy riding me, do you?” he asked, and she blushed and smacked his shoulder.
“That wasn’t what I meant!”
She earned a laugh in response, and she hugged his back as he kept moving.
Their small camp came into view in almost no time, and once they were there, she slid off of his back, then pulled him into the tent. Just as they had the previous day, they both started shedding clothing the instant they could, until he was down to his underwear, which looked very similar to the boxer shorts worn by men on Earth, and she was down to her bra and pant
ies. He gestured her over to the corner of the tent he stood in as he took a bottle out of his pack. It was one of the Izothian miracle toiletries that she was determined to learn to mimic for herself. In this case, the thin lotion, which Rassan poured into his palm and then started slowly slathering along her arms and shoulders, was both cooling and cleansing, removing the insistent sense of being overheated and abraded by sand, all at the same time. He’d done the same thing for her the day before, and she’d nearly fallen asleep standing there, pure relief as her body was cooled and soothed. She felt much the same today. There was nothing sexual in this, just him taking care of her, and once he’d smoothed it along her arms and shoulders and back, she did the same for him before they each slathered some of the lotion along their own legs and stomachs, the areas they could reach.
She was rubbing some of the cooling lotion onto her neck when she looked up to see him watching her. She smiled, and he gave her the smallest of smiles back.
“You’re amazing, you know that, right?” she asked him softly.
There it was again. A look almost of alarm when she complimented him. She’d done the same thing yesterday, said something similar, and he’d had that same look.
“I’m not,” he said, stepping forward and kissing her forehead.
“You are,” she insisted. “And you don’t like it when I say so. Why?”
“Because I don’t deserve it, Harper. People who heal others are amazing, those who give comfort or find ways to make the world better. They’re amazing. You’re amazing. I’m a soldier. Nothing more.” He sat on the mattress tiredly, and she climbed on him, straddling his lap. He raised an eyebrow, looking at her as he rested his hands on her hips.
“You’re tired,” he reminded her.
“I am, but sitting on you like this seems to be the only guaranteed way to get your complete attention at times.”
“It would be very easy for you to lose my attention sitting like that,” he pointed out.
“Oh? How?”
He flicked the front of her bra open, and her breasts spilled free. “That’s how…” he murmured, making no secret of ogling her breasts.
“You’re changing the subject,” she said.
“Definitely,” he agreed.
She placed her hands over her breasts, blocking them from his view, and he growled in annoyance.
“You can stare all you want, after you hear me.”
He sighed. “Very well, majesty. What is it?”
“You are amazing. You devote your life to protecting your people, your world, and have spent the past several days protecting me. Not everyone is willing to do that. Yet you do. I’ve read your military records. You’ve put yourself in danger time and time again for your people, saved the men under your command more than once, fought when others would have given up.” He opened his mouth to argue, and she shushed him. He smirked and clamped his mouth shut. “Aside from that, you’ve taken such good care of me on this trip. Not just… not just because we really like kissing and touching each other, either. It’s just how you are. It’s why Laalia loves you so much. It’s why you’re trusted and respected.”
He looked at her in silence for a while. “You say that, but there’s another side to it, Harper. Spending the time fighting and helping and taking care of things means I’m usually busy. My life usually isn’t like this, where I’m around to take care of anyone the way I’ve taken care of you. I’ve only been able to do so because this was the only thing I am focused on doing right now. When normal life resumes, and I’m fighting and training and planning, I’m not like this, if only because I’m simply not around.”
She let go of her breasts and brought her hands to his face, gently caressing his face as he brought his hands to her breasts, touching her gently, carefully.
“You can’t convince me you’re not amazing, Rassan,” she said softly, and he shook his head, pressing a kiss to her shoulder before he stood up, still holding her, then turned and set her down on the bed.
“I’m not, but I’m able to be caring with you for a few more days. Let’s make the most of it, yes?”
She nodded, the sense of resignation in his tone making her stomach knot. She hadn’t been wrong. This would be the end of whatever this was between them. When they returned to the base, she wouldn’t have this with him anymore.
“Rest, majesty, and I’ll get dinner. I have more of that vegetable stew you liked.”
“I can help.”
“I know you can. But your feet deserve a rest, and we have to pack up and reach the transport in the morning to get to the shore. I’d feel better if you rested now.”
She nodded, watching him. He bent down and kissed her shoulder again before ducking out of the tent.
She rested as he wanted, her mind turning over what he’d said. It was better not to think about what the end of this research trip would mean. If she did, she’d spend the next several days depressed instead of enjoying what time she had left with him.
Because she already recognized that it was going to be hard to let him go. To go back to greeting him in passing in the corridors, to seeing him across the dining hall and waving hello as she talked to her crew. None of it would be the same, and she tried to ignore the emptiness in her gut when she thought of going back to that type of relationship with him. She’d already thought he was attractive before they’d left for this trip. But time together, working together, joking and eating and solving problems together, had made him so much more to her than just an acquaintance. And that was before you even brought the kissing and touching and the way he’d worshipped her with his mouth into it.
She sighed and flipped onto her back, pulling the thin sheet up over her bare breasts. She sensed that he felt guilty about the fact that this would change when they were back. She didn’t want that for him. He’d told her he didn’t have time for a relationship, basically. She wouldn’t make him feel guilty for that. She would do her damnedest to enjoy what time they had left, and if she was hurting, she didn't want him to see it. He deserved better.
A few minutes later he walked back into the tent, and she sat up in bed, sheet still draped over her body. He passed her a bowl of stew and set her water bottle on the floor next to her before he sat down across from her. She thanked him and he smiled and they ate in tired silence.
“The seashore will be much better for many reasons,” he said thoughtfully before he took another bite of food. “Better climate, in general. Less tiring. We’ll be able to find fresh game and even fish easily. And there is a market near where the transport will drop us off. We can stock up on fresh food again. It will be a nice, restful few days here at the end of our trip. And you’ll find the flora quite diverse, especially where we’re going.”
She smiled at him. “I can’t wait.”
“Me neither. Plus we’ve both been too exhausted since arriving here for me to properly worship you… or for you to worship me. I intend to get plenty of that in when we get settled. As long as that’s still agreeable to you, majesty?”
She smiled, feeling a blush rise to her cheeks.
“I am going to worship you so hard, Rassan…” she murmured, and he went still and stared at her.
She took another bite of her stew, still feeling him looking at her.
“You shouldn't plan on working much our first full day there,” he finally said.
“Oh? Why’s that?”
“Because if I do my job right the first night we’re together after we get out of here, you won’t be able to walk right the next day.”
Now it was her turn to stare. He took a deep breath, and then smirked at her.
“That excites you,” he murmured, and she blushed deeply.
“What… how do you know that?” she demanded.
“We have very adept sense of smell, majesty. Surely you’ve read that.”
“Well yes, but…”
“I can smell it when you get aroused. It’s addictive. I’ve lived with that scent in my nose, smelli
ng it at times when you’re close to me, when you look at me. Don’t do that,” he said when she looked away in embarrassment. He gently took her chin in his hand and made her look at him. “No hiding, no shame. All you have to do is look at me to see how often and how desperately I want you. And I know you’ve noticed.”
“I—”
“We’re two people almost desperate to let go with each other. Tomorrow night, we finally will.”
She swallowed hard, nodding, unable to speak. She knew she was blushing deeply. She knew he could probably tell she was even more aroused now. She forced herself to take another bite of her stew, then sip some of her water. She looked up at him, admiring him as she often had over the past several days. When she’d first met him, and had thoughts of him, at the base, it had been all about his muscles and size, his commanding nature. And there was still that lust there, but now she’d felt his mouth on her, experienced, at length, how good he was at kissing, felt his hands all over her body. She’d worked with him and laughed with him and found that he was warm and funny and…
Shit.
She set her bowl down on her knee.
“Is it all right, Harper?” he asked, looking at her in concern. “Sometimes it doesn’t all rehydrate..”
“No, no. It’s fine. Just thought of something, that’s all,” she answered.
He nodded, and she picked her bowl back up to reassure him. She took a bite, hoping she could keep it all down with the way her stomach was twisting and fluttering.
She was falling in love with him. Hard. She’d sworn to never be dumb enough to feel that for a man again. And worse, the feelings she had for Rassan were so intense, so overwhelming, they made everything before him pale in comparison.
Shit, shit, shit.
No.
He was still watching her, so she did her best to stay expressionless as she finished eating. When she was done, he took her bowl, shaking his head when she started to get up to help him clean.
