I cleared my throat and got back to business. “So, you guys can coordinate from here. I’ll get someone from IT up to get the computers running, if you need them. There’s a cafeteria in the basement, in case you need to eat. Otherwise, if there’s anything else, just shout.”
“Thanks,” he said. “And if I need to find you, where are you located?”
The way he’d asked sent my heart racing, and my cheeks heated. “Oh, I’m up in the top of the Observatory—the part with the glass ceiling.”
“I hope we’ll get to see some more of each other, Camille.”
“Me, too.”
I forced myself to turn and leave. There were new people everywhere, everyone seeming important and busy. Men called orders to one another, and I suddenly felt out of place. I wanted to get back to my part of the Observatory and be surrounded by the men I knew. I spotted Tara walking side by side with another of the army men, this one also gorgeous, and she caught my eye and threw me a wink. She appeared to have set the trauma of what we’d gone through behind her for the moment, and put on a brave face for our new arrivals.
OVER THE COURSE OF the day, people from different positions trickled in. It worried me that a number of them didn’t have IDs, but we didn’t have much choice other than to trust them. Most of them had been destroyed or lost in the destruction or chaos of the attacks.
But it was impossible to keep track of all the comings and goings, so I stayed at my desk and kept my head down. We had the news reports running in the background, not wanting to miss something important, should it come up. Both Molly and Tara had taken it upon themselves to feed and water the new arrivals. I’d told them to be careful, but they were both grown women and could do as they pleased. I figured that at least it kept them busy, and that was better than sitting around worrying about what was going on, both across the rest of the world and in the skies above us. I’d caught glimpses of Dean Lambert as we’d moved around the building and exchanged a couple of smiles with him, but our paths hadn’t managed to bring us together again. I couldn’t help wishing for it, though. Perhaps I was just being greedy—after all, I was already surrounded by three handsome men—but something about Dean Lambert drew me in.
When night finally fell, I wasn’t sure if I should be relieved or more anxious. I lifted my head to look through the glass dome of the Observatory at the millions of stars overhead. I couldn’t help but feel there was something or someone above us now, planning their next move. Everything about the asteroid strike made me think it had been intentional, but we were still without any answers.
Chapter Eight
We took it in turns throughout the night watching the radar satellite for signs of anything else coming, alternating watching with taking a couple of hours of power naps and then swapping over.
I hadn’t seen much of Aleandro, and I figured he must have had his work cut out for him with all the new arrivals. It must be difficult being head of security when so many people were without identification, and he didn’t really know who was supposed to be here or not. He’d also needed to sleep, having been on duty the whole of the previous night as well. We were each surviving on a handful of hours rest, but we couldn’t go on for much longer this way. We’d end up collapsing from exhaustion and then we’d be no good to anyone.
Casey was taking his turn sleeping, so I left Mike watching the computer screens. “I’m going to check that Aleandro is okay,” I told him. “It’s been a while since we saw him.”
“Sure. Be careful down there.” Mike gave me a wink. “No talking to strange men,” he teased.
I poked my tongue out at him, and he gave me a cheeky grin. I could always rely on Mike to lighten up a situation, no matter how bad it felt. While Casey was the studious one, Mike took life a little less seriously.
I went down to the ground floor. There were plenty of people working, even though it was the middle of the night. The men and few women I passed nodded at me, and I offered them tight smiles in return. It was strange being in a situation with a bunch of strangers. The danger meant we were all bonded and united somehow, even though I didn’t know their names.
I rounded a corridor and stopped short. Several men stood in a huddle, their heads together as they discussed something in a low tone. I could tell from their voices that whatever they were discussing was important and I pulled up short, hoping they hadn’t seen me, as I didn’t want to interrupt. Then I noticed one of the men was Dean Lambert, and I recognized a couple of the others, too. One of them was a government official with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, who seemed to have taken a liking to Tara, who I thought was called Rhett something, and another, young blond man called Lee, who’d come in with the Marines
I backed away, not wanting to interrupt. It might be government business, and while I worked for the government, it definitely wasn’t on the military side of things. Whatever they were talking about wasn’t any of my business, and besides, I’d come down here to find Aleandro, not listen in on other people’s conversations.
I turned and headed the other way and smiled as I recognized a set of broad shoulders and a strong neck, with his dark hair clipped close to the nape.
“Hey, Aleandro,” I called out. “I was looking for you.”
He glanced over his shoulder and grinned at me, exposing straight white teeth. “That sounds ominous.”
I laughed, and it felt good—like it had been a while. “Nothing to worry about. I just hadn’t seen you for ages.”
“Did you miss me, Camille?” He pressed a smile between his lips, but his cheeks tweaked.
He was teasing me and enjoying it, and honestly, so was I.
“Maybe a little,” I replied, smiling back. He was tall, handsome, powerfully built, and sweet to match. What was not to miss? “So, what are you up to?”
“Just about to do a patrol of the perimeter. You want to join me? I’d appreciate the company.”
I shrugged. “Sure.”
We walked side by side, my shoulder barely meeting his biceps. We exited the foyer through a door into one of the side corridors. I tensed up, half-expecting to bump into Dean and the others again, but there was no sign of them, or anyone else for that matter.
“How are you finding it with all these strange people around?” he asked, looking down at me.
“I’d prefer it if they weren’t here,” I said honestly, “but it’s good to see that our country isn’t in total chaos. We still have some order and control.”
“Yeah, you’re right. I feel the same way. The constant in and out of all the different people is making my job almost impossible, but there’s nothing I can do about it. I’m telling myself that I’m keeping an eye open for any bad behavior, but it seems as though everyone is getting along.”
I paused for a moment, wondering if I should mention seeing the three men talking in the corridor, but then I realized there was nothing I could really tell Aleandro. I hadn’t witnessed them doing anything wrong. They were allowed to have a private conversation, and with this many people around, there weren’t a huge number of private spaces.
Aleandro stopped and turned to me. “I’m really happy you made it back here, Camille. I’ve been wanting to say that to you. I know we didn’t know each other too well before this all blew up, but the last forty-eight hours would have been a lot harder if you hadn’t been around.”
His words warmed me and made me forget about the other men. “Me, too, Aleandro. You always made arriving and leaving work that little bit more exciting.”
“Exciting, huh?” He’d leaned in toward me, and suddenly my heart beat harder.
I nodded. When I spoke, my voice was breathy. “Definitely.”
He closed the gap between us and brushed his lips softly against mine.
My chest hitched with surprise, though it wasn’t as though I hadn’t seen this coming. Aleandro and I had been flirting for some time now, and I guessed the usual rule of no fraternizing with the staff no longer applied. We could be
facing the end of the world, and I wasn’t going to let some stupid little rule hold me back.
My eyes slipped shut, and eagerly, I opened my mouth to him and pressed myself closer. He was so big, just a wall of muscle I wanted to engulf myself in. Our tongues touched, and excitement fired through me. My nipples crinkled beneath my shirt, and I pushed my breasts against his wide chest, wanting the stimulation. I wrapped my hands around his neck, lacing my fingers in the short soft strands at his nape. His hands were around me, too, spanning my lower back and slipping lower to my ass. He held me tight as we kissed, and I ground up on him, feeling how he wanted me.
Both our breathing had quickened, and our kiss grew hungry.
I ran my hands down from his neck and across the bulky muscle of his back and shoulders. He felt so strong, and I wished I could tear off his shirt and run my tongue over every plane and curve. But we were in a corridor where someone might walk down at any minute, and it wasn’t as though we had bedrooms we could drag each other back to.
Aleandro broke the kiss. “God, Camille, I want you so bad.”
I was breathing heavily, my breasts rising and falling. “Me, too.” I looked around. “But we can’t...not here.”
“Come, this way.”
He took me by the hand and pulled me along the corridor. Before long, we reached a door with a security code pad on the outside. Aleandro quickly hit a number of buttons, and the pad turned green to let us inside. He pushed through the door, still holding my hand, and tugged me in with him. I took a moment to look around. We were in a room that contained a number of security screens, and I realized the views were of different places within the Observatory. The view switched, showing a different corridor, or a different room, and I wondered if the kiss we’d shared had been caught on camera.
But Aleandro didn’t give me the chance to ask. He turned to face me, and suddenly his hands were in my hair and his tongue was in my mouth. He stepped forward, pushing me back, and the rear of my thighs hit the desk behind. His hands left my hair and hooked under my thighs, lifting me to sit on the desk.
“Lie back,” he told me.
“What—”
But he grabbed one of my feet and yanked off my sneaker before doing the same to the other one. With that done, he went straight to the button of my jeans, kissing me again, his teeth nipping my lower lip as he worked my zipper.
“Fuck,” he said, staring down at me with dark hunger in his eyes. “I’ve been thinking about how sweet your pussy must taste ever since I first saw you.”
I widened my eyes. “You have?”
“Absolutely.” His deep tone turned into a sexy growl. “You ever had a man eat you out, Camille? I mean, really eat you—none of that dainty licking shit.”
“I... I...”
But once again I was lost for words. He yanked my pants away, pulling them out from under me so I lay flat on my back on the desk, my bottom right at the edge. Then he dropped to his knees, his head between my thighs, and hooked my feet over his shoulders.
Oh God.
I was already wet from the kissing, but when his entire mouth closed over my pussy, encasing me with hot, wet heat, I just about gushed.
“Oh!” Involuntarily, my hips lifted off the table, pressing against his mouth. He hadn’t been exaggerating when he’d said he was going to eat me. His tongue was thick and long, and dragged up my pussy, right from the base, near my asshole, across my slit, and up to my clit. There he lapped at me, his tongue flat and firm.
My arousal level shot from around a three to a full-blown ten, in zero to ten seconds. He circled my clit with his tongue and then moved back down again, licking me with the enthusiasm of a man starving. From the way he was groaning, I figured he was enjoying himself, too, and I imagined how long and hard his dick must be, straining against the front of his pants.
He held me still, his hands clutching the outsides of my naked thighs. His teeth grated over the top of my swollen clit, and I gave a yelp, fireworks exploding behind my eyes. Then he speared his tongue inside me, probing so deep it felt as though he was licking the inside walls of my pussy. His saliva mixed with my juices, and I was impossibly wet.
My stomach and thigh muscles tightened and trembled, and I knew I was close. Little sparks of electricity fired through me, and my entire body became one coiled spring of pleasure. I wanted to tell him it was his turn, and I’d return the favor, but I couldn’t break free from what he was doing to my body, unable to speak except in little moans.
I climbed higher and higher, and suddenly I was there, hovering on the precipice, and then I exploded over the other side. My back arched from the table, and I cried out, even though I was trying to be quiet.
Aleandro continued to lick me even as I came down, but with softer, gentler laps, until I finally fell still.
He lifted his face from between my thighs and wiped away the slick wetness on his chin with the back of his hand.
“Oh my God.” I sank back on the desk, my hands over my face. “That was incredible.”
He grinned at me. “What can I say? I like pussy. Especially your pussy”
I reached for him. “Now it’s your turn.”
But he shook his head. “I’ve got work to do. I’m on patrol, remember?”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah, let’s just say you owe me one.” He picked up my discarded clothing and handed them to me.
Suddenly self-conscious, I pulled on my underwear and jeans, and shoved my feet into the sneakers. I sneaked in a glimpse of him at waist height. The line of his erection was clearly visible through his pants. He definitely wanted me, but maybe I’d given him enough to keep him going.
Or maybe this was his plan to make sure I came back for more.
Chapter Nine
In a regular world, we would have taken the time to cuddle or maybe even arrange a date, but as we both knew exactly where the other person was going to be most of the time, and we’d been lucky not to get interrupted, we simply gave each other a final kiss and slipped out in opposite directions as though nothing had happened.
I was in need of a shower, so I went down to the basement, where, as well as the cafeteria, there were changing rooms, lockers, and showers. We also had a gym on site, and so I kept a change of clothes in my locker, just in case. It occurred to me that if we were here for any length of time, I would end up needing to break open the lockers of the colleagues who didn’t appear to be coming back in order to find supplies for Molly and Tara, too. Or perhaps I could ask one of the military guys if they could return with some changes of clothes for us. I knew it wasn’t in their job description, but if they happened to pass a store during one of their sweeps of the city, it would be appreciated. Maybe Molly could ask the Marine she’d been getting friendly with—Lee. I was sure he wouldn’t mind if it won him a few Brownie points.
I put in the code for the lock and opened the door to pull out my bag. I had a towel and toiletries as well—everything I needed to freshen up. I could certainly use it. Memories of Aleandro’s tongue buried deep between my thighs filled my head, and my body reacted. If that was how the end of the world was going to go down, I wasn’t sure I minded so much. I immediately felt bad as a wave of guilt washed over me. This wasn’t something I should make light of. People had died.
Quickly, I stripped off my clothes and then went to one of the shower cubicles and switched on the faucet. At least we still had hot water and power, though I didn’t know how much longer it would last. If the asteroid strikes were the last we’d seen of the attack, and there was no follow-up, then we’d be okay, but I had the feeling that wasn’t what was going to happen.
Knowing they still might need me upstairs, and feeling like I’d been gone long enough, I soaped my skin and rinsed off. I hesitated before washing my hair, worried that it would take too long, but then I figured that if this was going to be our new normal, I couldn’t put off doing simple things like washing my hair.
The shower revitalized me, and
I rubbed myself dry and redressed in clean pants and a shirt. The outfit was far smarter than the jeans and t-shirt I’d arrived in, but it was all I had.
I wondered how things would be when I bumped into Aleandro again. Would it be awkward between us? I didn’t think they would be. He’d always seemed pretty easygoing, and I hoped he wasn’t going to suddenly turn into the possessive, overbearing type just because we’d shared a moment together. We were all living in close quarters right now, and under pressure, and I didn’t want any of the other guys to think I was favoring Aleandro over them at all.
I paused at the thought. I definitely liked Aleandro, but did I like him more than the others? I didn’t think so, which made me wonder how I’d feel if I was placed in the same situation with Casey or Mike? Would I push them away now that I’d been with Aleandro? I wouldn’t want to, but what would they make of that? It wasn’t as though we were in a normal situation here.
Would they be happy to share?
Excitement raced through me at the possibility, but I was jumping ahead of myself. I didn’t even know if Casey or Mike even thought that way about me. Sure, we’d grown close lately, and of course there was a little flirting going on, but that didn’t mean either of them felt anything for me.
Pushing my crazy ideas out of my head, I left the basement to head back up to the top level of the Observatory.
“Camille! Wait up!”
I turned at the female voice to see Tara bounding toward me. I felt bad that I’d not spent much time with either my friend or my sister, but everyone had been busy. Besides, they were both adults, and they didn’t need me holding their hands.
“Hey, bestie.” Tara caught up with me and looped her arm through mine. “I feel like I’ve barely seen you since everything...happened.”
“Yeah, I know. I was just thinking the same thing. I’m sorry. Things have been crazy.”
Their Invasion- Planet Athion Page 6
