“No, I get it. I wasn’t trying to have a go. I only meant that I haven’t had the chance to speak to you properly.”
“You and that guy, Rhett, seem to be getting on well,” I said, delivering her a teasing nudge to the ribs. “He seems to be taking up a lot of your time at the moment.”
She looked to me, a sparkle in her blue eyes. “He’s stupidly hot, right? It’s not just me?”
I laughed. “No, he’s definitely hot. Actually, there’s a good helping of gorgeous men around here at the moment.”
“Well, if it’s the end of the world, I guess we’ll have spent our final days in the right place.”
I gave her a smile. “It’s not the end of the world, Tara. We’ll figure out what’s going on, and we’ll do everything we can to make it right again.”
She nodded, but there was sadness in her eyes now. “You know, I never got the chance to properly thank you for coming to get me. You took a huge risk by driving across the city like that, and you could easily have left me and come here with Molly.”
“I was never going to leave you, Tara. It was hard enough leaving so many other people. I couldn’t have left my best friend, too. I’d never have been able to live with myself.”
She put her arms around my shoulders and gave me a massive squeeze. “As long as you know how much I appreciate you.”
“I know, and I appreciate you, too. Now, tell me more about Rhett.” I wiggled my eyebrows and thought of Aleandro. “Have the two of you got down and dirty yet?”
She squealed and shoved my shoulder playfully. “I’m not a total slut.” Then she gave me a wink. “I’ll make him wait at least another day.”
“You’re definitely heading that way then?”
“I think so. We might all be dead in a few days. What’s the point in waiting? We’re both adults and we know what we want.”
“Just be careful. I don’t want to see you heartbroken.”
“Hey, you can’t talk. You practically have your men following you around like a pack of horny dogs.”
“No, I don’t!”
She cocked her eyebrows at me. “Seriously, Camille. Everyone has seen it. Those men you work with are so hot for you, it’s like steam comes out of their ears every time you walk in the room. Even the geeky one looks like he’d tear off his glasses and do you over his computer desk at the first opportunity.”
“The geeky one? You mean Casey.” I snorted laughter. “He’s not geeky!”
“Well, I guess you’re all a little geektastic considering the jobs you do. Maybe it’s hard not to recognize one of your own.”
I smacked her on the arm, but not hard enough to hurt. “Hey!”
“Anyway, you should have this same chat with Molly, too. Have you seen the blond hottie she’s been flirting with?”
I rolled my eyes. “What is it about the end of the world? Seems to have made everyone horny.”
“Sex and death,” Tara replied. “Aren’t they the most important things in life?”
“I thought love was the most important thing in life.”
“And money,” she suggested.
“Not sure money is going to be of much use to us over the coming weeks and months.”
“Then it’s definitely all about the sex.”
“You’re so bad.”
But she’d lightened my mood, and I felt better for it. Sometimes the best thing in the world was just spending a little time with your best friend, even if the rest of the world had gone to shit.
I had work to do, so I made my excuses and left Tara to it. I also made a mental note to go and find Molly at some point soon. At twenty-three, Molly was far from being a child, and it wasn’t as though she hadn’t had plenty of boyfriends—hell, before she’d come to live with me, she’d been living with one of them. Even though she was my younger sister, she had more relationship experience than I did. But I still felt as though I needed to talk to her about getting caught up with a guy right now. Tara was right when she’d said life was short, or words to that effect, but we were also living in dangerous times. Those men could go out on patrol, or out to rescue others, or rebuild, or whatever the hell they were doing out there, and something might happen and they might never come back. I didn’t want Molly getting her heart broken on top of everything else that was going on. I was her big sister, and it was only natural for me to want to protect her.
Chapter Ten
I found Casey and Mike working at their computers. Both were hunched over their keyboards, furiously tapping away, and from the tension in the air, I immediately knew something was wrong. A pang of worry went through me at the possibility they’d found out about me and Aleandro and were pissed about it, but I reminded myself that far more important things were going on in the world right now.
“Hey,” I said, making my presence known. “Everything okay?”
Casey twisted in his chair to face me. “Good, you’re here. We’ve had a development.”
My stomach tumbled with nerves. “We have?”
“It might be nothing,” he continued.
Mike interrupted him. “It’s not nothing.”
Casey shot Mike a glare. “We don’t know that.”
“Would you just tell me what’s going on?” I said, interrupting both of them. They were making me nervous.”
Our communications guy spun back around to his computer. “News is coming in of women disappearing.”
I frowned at Mike. “Disappearing? Women can’t just disappear. Are they sure they’re not referring to people lost in the asteroid strikes?”
He pressed his lips together and shook his head. “No, this appears to be happening since then.”
I didn’t understand. “Are they running away?”
“We don’t know yet. There are just numerous reports of women missing—too many for it to be a coincidence. People’s sisters, daughters, friends, aunts...the list is endless.”
“How many are we talking about?”
He flipped over a sheet of paper attached to a clipboard. “As of this morning, more than one hundred from the Las Vegas area alone.”
I widened my eyes. “One hundred? Is it possible that they’re trying to return to damaged homes to retrieve lost items and are getting into danger when they’re in an unstable building?”
“It’s possible.”
“Is there anything that connects the missing women?”
He pursed his lips and scanned the information. “They all appear to be around the same age—anywhere from eighteen to about thirty.”
“Okay.” I nodded, though I didn’t know what that might mean.
“But that’s about all,” he finished up.
“Might be a coincidence,” Casey said.
Mike shook his head. “I don’t think so. Reports are coming in of the same thing happening in other cities, too.”
“Shit.”
My stomach twisted. I didn’t know what was happening yet, but I had a bad feeling about it. There was only the slimmest possibility that the disappearance of all those women wasn’t connected to the asteroid strikes. We’d all been wondering what the attack meant, and we’d been sitting on our hands, waiting for the next move of whoever was responsible, but what if they’d already actioned their next move and it was already in play—we just hadn’t noticed it happening?
“There has to be something,” I said as I slipped into my chair and fired up the computer. “We’re missing something, I’m sure of it.”
The men also took their seats.
“I agree,” Casey said. “But we’re not the only ones missing whatever it is. We’re not the only Observatory, and we’re not getting reports of any of the other astronomers seeing anything unusual either.”
“It has to be there.” The more I spoke, the more I convinced myself. “We’re just not looking hard enough, or we’re looking the wrong way.”
Mike glanced over at me. “How can we be looking the wrong way?”
I scrubbed my hand over my ey
es and sighed, suddenly exhausted. “I have no idea.”
“We should probably report this to Sergeant Byrd,” Mike said, getting to his feet. “He’s probably being given the same information, but just in case he isn’t, I think it’s important for him to watch out for this happening while he and his unit are out on patrol.”
“Good idea,” I agreed. “Thanks Mike.”
I waited until he’d left the room and then I turned back to Casey. He’d taken off his glasses and rubbed his eyes, just as I’d done earlier. We were approaching our third night since the attack, and we’d barely gotten more than a handful of hours sleep each. From the way his shoulders were hunched around his neck, I could tell he was stressed. I got up and went to stand behind him, and put both hands on his shoulders and worked the knotted muscles with thumbs and fingers. His muscles felt good beneath my palms, his skin hot under the material of his shirt.
Casey groaned and let his chin fall to his chest. “That feels incredible.”
I massaged harder. “You looked like you needed it.”
“I’m really glad you’re here, Camille.”
I gave a small smile. “Yeah? I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.”
“That’s good, ’cause we wouldn’t want you to be anywhere—none of us guys would.”
I stilled my hands on his shoulders. “I’ve been meaning to apologize for the other night. I failed you. You came to me and questioned what you’d seen, and I told you it was nothing. Maybe if I’d taken your concerns a little more seriously, we wouldn’t be in this position now.”
He half twisted to look at me. “You’re thinking crazy, Camille. This happened all over the world, and no one picked up on it. We caught a glimpse, that was all. Nothing appeared to be wrong.”
“That’s bullshit, ’cause you knew something was wrong. You came right to me and asked about it, and I dismissed you.”
“Any other person would have done exactly the same thing, Camille. This was in no way your fault. How many Observatories are there around the world? Thousands. Not a single one predicted what was about to happen or did anything to stop it.”
I bit on my lower lip, suddenly close to unexpected tears. “I just can’t help feeling responsible.”
“Hey, come here.”
He twisted the chair around and then pulled me into his lap. Automatically, my arms slid around his neck, and I buried my face into the spot between his neck and shoulder. I inhaled his masculine scent, and immediately the tension eased from my body. His hands pressed to my back, his fingers spread wide across my shoulder blades.
As we held each other, something changed in the atmosphere between us. I’d always been attracted to Casey—there was nothing not to be attracted to. With his quiet, caring manner, his tall, lean body, and the intelligent spark in his blue eyes, there were few girls who wouldn’t fall for him.
Our breathing synchronized, and he nuzzled his nose in my hair. “Oh, Camille,” he whispered.
I pressed my lips against his neck, my pulse quickening.
His muscles tensed around me, and I felt sure if I squirmed a little in his lap, he’d quickly respond to me. But I was very aware of what had happened between me and Aleandro. The last thing I’d ever want to do was hurt any of the guys.
I sat up straighter so I could look into his face. “Casey, I think the world of you, and I can feel that there’s something between us, but I don’t want to give you the wrong idea.”
He frowned. “What do you mean?”
“I mean that I don’t want you to think that you can lay any claims on me. We’re in a really high-testosterone situation here, and the last thing I need right now is for one of you guys to suddenly decide I belong to you. That isn’t how I work at all.”
His eyebrows lifted. “One of us guys?”
Nerves fluttered inside me, but I forced myself to say the words. “I’m just saying that I care about all of you, equally. Us sharing a moment together, or a kiss, or...even more, doesn’t mean that we’re automatically a couple.”
I braced myself, wondering how he was going to take it.
He stared intently into my eyes. “Look, we’re not exclusive, Camille. I get that. None of us can make commitments right now.”
Stupidly, considering our current situation, jealousy flared up inside me. “Does that mean you’ve got an eye on one of the other women in the Observatory?” I prayed he wasn’t going to mention Molly or Tara.
“No, not at all. I’ve only got eyes for you. But I just didn’t want you to feel pressured in any way. Everything is messed up at the moment, and it seems like you’re my one focal point. My one place of calm in all this chaos.”
I liked how he was describing me.
“The thing is,” I said, still feeling like I hadn’t been completely truthful with him, even though he was being great with me, “Aleandro and I spent a little time together earlier. I mean, things kind of got physical, you know?”
My cheeks heated, and I glanced away, embarrassed. I was still sitting on Casey’s lap, my arms loosely around his neck, and I was talking about getting it on with one of his work colleagues. What the hell must he think of me?
But Casey only chuckled. “I can see why you’d take a liking to Aleandro. I mean, look at the guy. I think even I would be attracted to him.”
Well, that put all kinds of thoughts into my head.
I gulped. “You would?”
“You know, if I was into that kind of thing.”
“You mean men?”
“Yeah.” He laughed. “Men, but I am most definitely into women. Especially sexy dark-haired scientists.”
I tried to hold back a smile and failed. “Is that right?”
The atmosphere changed, and he tugged me closer. “That’s right.”
I leaned in, and our lips met with a sudden hunger. Casey’s hands slid lower, cupping my ass over the top of my pants, and I shifted my weight, pulling my leg over the top of his lap so I was straddling him instead of sitting in a more childlike pose. In this position, his hard length lined up perfectly with my pussy, and I ground against him as we kissed, our tongues lashing. From what I could tell, his cock was as long and lean as the rest of him.
He pressed me in hard, his fingers digging into the fleshy globes of my ass. I wished we didn’t have the clothing between us, but there was something sexy about making out like a couple of teenagers who were about to be caught by their parents. One of Casey’s hands left my backside and slipped around to the front, pushing up under my shirt to massage one of my breasts as he kissed me. He rolled my nipple between his fingers, and I gasped and arched my back into him.
Nearby, someone cleared their throat.
We both jumped apart, me leaping from Casey’s lap and yanking my shirt back into place to make sure I was covered up.
I glanced over to find Sergeant Byrd standing in the doorway with an amused expression on his face.
“Sorry to interrupt you young folk,” he said, “but I’m taking a team out into the city, see if we can learn a bit more about the reports of these women going missing. Not sure if there’s anything in it or not, but your Observatory will be down a number of men while we’re gone.”
I waved a hand, flustered. “Oh, sure. No problem. Stay safe out there.”
He lifted his eyebrows. “I’d say stay safe in here, but I think that might have whole other connotations.”
And with that he turned and left, leaving Casey and I blushing furiously.
Chapter Eleven
Evening arrived, and I went down to the canteen to see what was for dinner. Some of the army boys had taken over the place, cooking meals up in huge batches to feed everyone at one time, rather than people coming and going and helping themselves to what were now valuable resources. From what I could see, we had some kind of meatloaf and mashed potatoes for dinner, which was fine by me.
I scanned the faces of the people already eating and spotted a table containing Molly and Tara. I smiled, pleased to see
them. I was busy with work and the guys, but I felt a little on the outside of things with them right now, and I looked forward to spending some time with them.
But as I stood there, several men slid into the empty seats at their table.
I recognized the gorgeous soldier, Dean, and my heart lurched. With him were Rhett—the government employee who Tara had taking a liking to—and the Marine, Lee, who had filled the seat closest to Molly. She didn’t seem to mind. She offered him a wide smile and twiddled the ends of her hair, her head tilted to one side as she spoke to him. Yep, I recognized that stance. She was in full flirt mode. She definitely had a thing for Lee.
Not that I blamed her. He was gorgeous. He reminded me of Casey, but a slightly tougher version. In fact, we seemed to have been blessed with a definite higher ratio of attractive men in this place, or maybe it was the fear of death thing, and I was just thinking they were all hot because I thought we all might die sometime soon.
I lined up to get my food and then crossed the room to the table where they were all sitting. There was an empty seat next to Dean, so I took it.
“Hope it’s okay if I join you?”
He glanced to me, a twinkle in his brown eyes. “You’re welcome anytime.”
“There you are,” my sister said. “I thought you might have run off or something.”
“Nowhere to run to,” I said then took a mouthful of my meal.
“True,” she agreed. “How are things going up there? Learned anything new?”
There wasn’t much I could tell her. “I’m not sure yet.”
Tara joined in. “No alien spaceship intent on destroying us all?”
I’d have laughed if it wasn’t so close to what might be the truth. “You know I can’t tell you anything.”
She rolled her eyes. “Yeah, yeah. It’s classified.”
Dean glanced over at me. “I hope there isn’t some alien spaceship about to destroy us, because that would be one hell of a waste of a beautiful woman.”
My mouth dropped open, my fork poised halfway to it. “I’d say it would be a waste of the entire human population, but okay.” My tone was drizzled in sarcasm.
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