Escape Velocity

by Jess Anastasi

  “I’m taking you to the wash facilities over there”— she nodded toward the far corner where a drain in the floor sat under a gleaming steel shower nozzle—“and doing something about this caveman look you’re rocking.”

  She straightened and then moved down to slide the BMC off his leg. The absence of tingling, itching heat helped him breathe a little easier, though a dull ache throbbed through the limb. A damn side better than the excruciating pain he’d endured ever since the bone had been broken.

  Once he got free of all the bits and pieces, he shuffled his ass forward and swung his legs off the side of the bed with Sacha bracing a hand against his shoulder to keep him steady. But she needn’t have bothered. Though an underlying sensation of fatigue and weariness dragged at him, overall he felt pretty good.

  She took his elbow as he straightened to his feet and put his full weight on his bad leg. He could stand upright and not have to endure sparks of shooting pain spasming up into his back. Thank the damn good Lord.

  Kai took a confident step, ignoring the spin of exhausted dizziness through his head. Tired he could deal with. It was a far cry from half-dead. But Sacha set herself against him to support his weight as they walked slowly toward the wash facilities in the corner.

  He clenched his jaw over the urge to snap at her. He could have walked just fine; he wasn’t a damn invalid. But the feel of her soft curves pressed along the length of his side made him feel good in a way he hadn’t for a long, long time. So he swallowed the words and concentrated on getting to the bench seat on the wall, under the shower nozzle.

  Once he’d sat down, Sacha grabbed a remote from a nearby trolley, stuffed to overflowing with medical paraphernalia. He watched as one button lowered a screen over the pane in the door, giving the room total privacy, while another button made an opaque divider slide out and section off the wash facilities into a stall. With one last button, a stream of warm water whooshed out of the shower nozzle, causing steam to start frothing into the air.

  While she busied herself with something else on the trolley, he leaned forward and stuck his head under the gentle jet of water. Oh man, nothing had ever felt so good. He sluiced his hair from his eyes and groaned as warm water trickled down his neck and over his bare chest.

  The pajama-type pants he’d been given earlier started getting soaked. More than anything, he wanted to strip off and stand under the spray, letting it cover him all over. He looked at Sacha, who was setting out a row of tools on a tray. Hmm. She didn’t look like she planned on going anywhere in the next few minutes.

  So did he stay in his sopping pants, or get naked in front of her? She was a doctor, she’d seen it all before. But she was also his oldest friend and she hadn’t seen all of him before. Actually. Scrap that. She had seen all of him before. When they’d gone skinny-dipping with a couple of other friends one sultry midnight on a holiday resort planet years ago.

  But this was different. Closed together in the small wash facilities, it seemed more intimate.

  Sacha turned to him with a pair of scissors in her hand. “What do you want to start on first, the beard or hair?”

  He cleared his throat, a heated, humming awareness of her as a woman setting him on edge as she took two steps to close the distance between them. Jesus. He’d escaped from hell a little over twelve hours ago…yet here he sat with his blood pumping hard through his body as his thoughts started straying into sex-territory and his cock stirred in a way that told him just how alive he was.

  Ignore it.

  “Whichever you want.”

  She tilted her head, biting her lip between her teeth with a thoughtful expression. “I’m going to opt for the hair first. Okay, keep in mind, I’m not a hairdresser, but I’m sure I can neaten you to the point of respectability.”

  A deep sigh escaped him as she touched his hair, causing a ripple of sensation along his spine. “Whatever you do will be fine.”

  As her hand stroked through the tangles, Kai closed his eyes and let his head drop forward, relaxing under her touch in a way he hadn’t been able to do since the day the CSS had nabbed him.

  The warmth from the billowing steam and rhythmic snip-snip while Sacha worked lulled him and he let his mind drift into comfortable nothingness. The profound relief of being able to do something so simple hammered him, making his chest ache. With every slight tug of his hair, every time her nails scraped lightly over his scalp, small electrified tingles shot through his veins, yet the repetitive movements soothed him into a tranquil state.

  The steam enhanced the acacia-summer scent of her skin until every breath he took was infused with her. Their earlier life together drifted through his mind, memories and moments he’d all but forgotten. Friends. He’d thought that’s all they ever were, but the pounding in his chest told him a different story.

  “I’m done with your hair. Can you lift your head so I can tackle the beard?”

  Her words roused him from the light trance he’d fallen into. He caught the bemused expression on her face when he looked up and met her gaze.

  “Were you sleeping, Commander?”

  “So what if I was? It’s almost oh-two-thirty and none of your people have let me shut my eyes for a minute.”

  “Ouch. Point taken, sir.” She crouched down in front of him, leaning against his left thigh, and then set the scissors to his thick beard.

  As she methodically cut away the long whiskers, he watched her face. His heart skipped a couple of beats, hiccupping behind his ribs. God, she’d always been so adorable when she concentrated hard. His fingers itched to trace the smoothness of her skin.

  Neither of them spoke as she cut away what she could and then lathered up his face with shaving cream. Her fingers soothed and massaged flesh that had only known pain for too long. The constant hissing of the shower saved the silence from getting too loud and created an extra layer to the cocooning sensation of being in the stall.

  Sacha paused with the razor in her hand and he looked down to catch her smoky gaze. The steam had pinked her skin, giving her a damp, healthy glow. Her clothes were rumpled and splotched with water. Tendrils of bronze-spun hair had started curling at her neck and near her temples. He clenched his fist on the edge of the bench seat as his body tightened up all over, blood rushing through his limbs in a burning surge. Christ. This time he couldn’t ignore the sensations she roused within him. What an epically bad time to be hit with a massive surge of lust. He’d almost forgotten what that felt like…

  “Something wrong?” His voice came out scratchy, so he cleared his throat.

  “I was just wondering if you wanted to do this part yourself. Honestly, I haven’t got the first clue about shaving a guy. The best experience I’ve got is when we shave people for surgery and even then they’re unconscious…” A small, awkward smile kicked up her lips and the sight overloaded his brain. Images of hauling her into his lap and losing himself in her sweetness jammed up his mind until he couldn’t think of anything else.

  With ruthless will, he forced the fantasy away. She was married to one of his closest friends. No. Not married anymore. Goddamn Elliot had gotten himself killed. But she wasn’t here as his friend, she was acting as his doctor. He dampened the raging impulses and made his mind focus on the mundane task of shaving.

  “Didn’t you ever do this for Elliot?”

  She dropped her gaze to the razor in her hand. “No, I guess I never thought about wanting to and he never asked. It was just one of a whole mess of things we never did with each other.”

  Damned if the idea of doing something with her that she’d never shared with her husband didn’t strike him low in the guts and send the heat surging harder.

  You’re a bastard, Kai. She was probably still mourning. Not to mention she’d thought him dead for over a year. If there was a medal on inappropriate times and places for getting jacked up over a woman, he’d just taken the grand prize.

  But whatever small shred of honor he had over the improper feelings didn’t st
op him from opening his mouth. “I’d like it if you finished.”

  She stared at him for a long moment and for half a second he thought she’d refuse. But then she leaned closer to him. When her soft fingers touched his chin, a shudder ripped down his spine, turning his insides to mush.

  He closed his eyes as she started carefully shaving off the trimmed whiskers, because if he looked at her any longer, the thin threads of his control would snap and he’d end up doing something they’d both regret. Doctor and friend, he repeated again and again. Nothing else to it.

  Maybe he could blame the surge of hot desire over the fact he’d been in prison with only men for company the past year and a half. Or the need to reaffirm he was alive by doing something base that came natural to all human beings. Whatever the reason, he still had enough brains to know acting on the carnal longing wouldn’t help either of them.

  Chapter Four

  Sacha made herself focus on the patch of skin she was shaving, not giving in to the impulse to look at Kai’s face, gradually revealed under her ministrations. Her gaze strayed upward and a flutter started in her stomach.

  Damn it. So much for not looking.

  Without the thick covering of hair, and despite a new leanness to his physique, Kai was just as masculine and gorgeous as he’d always been. His thick, sooty lashes hid his topaz eyes and his now-trimmed midnight-black hair framed the strong angles of his face.

  She couldn’t quite draw a full breath in the thick steam of the shower, making her heartbeat irregular. Or maybe her erratic pulse had something to do with the fact she was touching a man she’d thought dead for the past year and a half. Oh, and her rampaging hormones had some serious ideas about what she should be doing with a half naked, dripping, damn sexy man in the shower.

  Get a grip, woman.

  Kai had just come out of hell. He no doubt had a million other more important things on his mind. And even if she’d always felt a spark of something with him, they’d been friends for sixteen years. Crossing the line to anything else just wouldn’t happen.

  She groped in her mind for some professional detachment, but couldn’t find even a speck. All right, new game plan. Finish shaving him as quick as possible and get the hell out of the shower.

  With smooth, swift strokes, she managed to concentrate on the task well enough to get it done and not nick his skin. He turned his head this way and that at her murmured commands, but he didn’t open his eyes. Part of her was relieved over that; it made the task less intense without him watching her.

  It also made it easier for her forbidden thoughts to run rampant, because without him staring at her, she didn’t need to hide her thoughts as she let her gaze roam over the new leanness of his chest. While he had definitely lost the bulkier muscles he’d once had, his physique still appeared to be healthy enough. The CSS might not have fed him properly, but at least they hadn’t starved him into a walking skeleton. A flush of heat bloomed within her that had nothing to do with the steam billowing around them.

  She stood in a rush once she’d scraped the last of his whiskers away. “There, all done. I’ll give you a few minutes of privacy to finish washing up.”

  He blinked open his eyes and stared up at her. The sparking gleam in his golden gaze made her lungs constrict. Water dripped from his now-short hair, down the strong column of his throat and over the compact muscles of his chest. She clenched her fists so hard, fingernails bit into her palms.

  Leaving… Leaving right now.

  She spun away from him and reached for the screen latch.

  “Wait.”

  Though he hadn’t touched her and the word had been a quiet murmur, she jolted to a stop as though he’d physically yanked her back. With breath held, she didn’t dare move a muscle, unsure of what she might do if she let go of what little sanity she had left.

  A warm, heavy hand landed on her shoulder and at the slight pressure, she found herself turning to face him.

  “I haven’t had a shower since I got captured. I need to be clean all over.” He pressed his lips together, a muscle flexing in his jaw as he took a deep breath. “Please, help me?”

  Holy hell. Commander Yang actually asking for help. No one would believe it if she ever told them. The commander she could deny, but her oldest friend, Kai, asking…? Well, that she could never say no to, despite her mind telling her it was a bad, bad idea. She nodded, groping for her professional mask, but unable to find it. Instead she felt her cheeks warming as her imagination supplied her with the picture of Kai stripping out of the PJ pants. At least with all of the steam, she could blame her flushed face on that.

  He let out a relieved-sounding breath and limped back to the seat. “I need to scrub the grime of that place off every inch.”

  When he sat back down and glanced up at her, she saw the shadows of lingering horror in his eyes and her heart squeezed painfully. Oh, Kai. She’d been so wrapped up in her own hormones, and there he sat, needing her help.

  With renewed determination to help him forget, she went to the trolley and grabbed a washcloth and a bottle of liquid soap. By the time she turned back to him, he had shifted enough to take off his pants. They lay in a sodden heap by his feet. He had his head tilted back against the tiled wall, his eyes closed. No doubt he was getting tired. She needed to get him into bed and hooked back up so he could finish his recovery.

  She kicked the pants out of the way and then crouched in front of him, keeping her eyes on his feet, because right then, she couldn’t consider all the places she would have to wash him without her heart going into palpitations.

  With a gentle touch, she cleaned and rinsed his feet, ankles and calves, right up to his knees. Every so often he’d shift, or make a slight noise, or she’d look up to find an expression of fierce concentration on his face, though he kept his eyes closed. Was his bad leg hurting? She didn’t dare pause to ask.

  She gentled her touch even more, lightly massaging as she lathered the soap, and then passing long, slow strokes over his skin as she washed the suds away, revealing clean, though pale, flesh. As she got higher, past his knees to the thick muscles of his thigh, she determinedly kept her gaze attached to her hand. But she couldn’t do anything about the increasing pound of her heart, or the shortening of her breath. No matter how she tried to hold onto her professional morals, where Kai was concerned, the line blurred too easily, and she was definitely enjoying this far more than she had any right to.

  She stood, her thighs burning slightly from crouching for so long. “Do you think you’ll be able to stand long enough for me to do the rest of you?”

  He stood and turned his back to her, not meeting her gaze. Did he feel uncomfortable about having her do this for him? She swallowed and studied the muscled expanse of his back. Adding more soap and water to the cloth, she started at his shoulders and rubbed down over the blades, along his spine, and into his lower back. She couldn’t have said how much time passed. Maybe it was a few minutes, maybe it was much longer, she had become so absorbed in running the cloth over his firm skin.

  “All done. Turn around and I’ll finish up for you.” Her voice came out a little husky, and she cleared her throat as she stepped back so he could turn toward her. When he faced her, she caught his eyes, and a fire burned in their depths. Automatically, she reached up to feel his skin for a fever, but he caught her wrist before she made contact.

  With a slow movement, he shifted forward until he towered above her, never taking his smoldering gaze from hers. Comprehension dawned and brought a tingling surge of sparkling elation from the depths of her bruised heart. She swallowed and tried to take a step back, but he simply matched her pace, keeping them too close together.

  Rest. Medication. Sleep. Those were the things he needed to heal. She took another step away from him, but the wall came up against her back and he kept coming until she was trapped.

  Electrifying heat rushed through her as his damp body came up against hers. Her fingers went limp and the washcloth dropped from
her hand to land with a splat on the tiles.

  “Kai—” She couldn’t get the word out past a whisper, but it wouldn’t have mattered what she said in that moment—she could see he’d gone far beyond any sense of reasoning. And more than anything, she wanted to go there with him.

  Rational thought abandoned her as she surged up, winding an arm around his neck and closing her mouth over his. She shocked herself, because she hadn’t realized what she was going to do until she was already doing it. Kai groaned, the sound guttural, rising from deep within his chest, and he wrapped both his arms around her as he shoved her up against the wall.

  Her head spun, and every muscle in her body clenched in a heated, rippling wave, whipping up a twisting storm of rapture within her. She couldn’t grab onto any one thought clearly with the way Kai’s mouth melded against hers, his tongue crossing her lips and making her shudder all the way to her toes.

  He devoured her like a starving man, the kiss so carnal and full of desperate yearning she felt it in every cell of her body, like ice meeting flame and erupting into steam.

  And then the truth of the situation struck her right in the middle of the chest and she had to pull away from him to gulp in a mouthful of air.

  He had been starved, for companionship, for basic human interaction and compassion. As his doctor and friend, kissing him was about the worst thing she could do; the psychological fallout could be horrible for both of them.

  “Kai, you’ve been through a lot, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have—”

  He grinned at her and stepped back into the spray of the shower. With that spark in his gaze, he looked more like his old self. And the smile he sent her was the one he always used when he thought she was talking crap. Maybe kissing hadn’t been all bad? It certainly hadn’t been for her.

  She found herself taking a step toward him as her attention dropped down his body. He bent to pick up the washcloth and ran it across himself, leaving soapy trails over the lean, sculpted muscles of his chest. Her gaze slid farther down and stopped at the junction of his thighs. She flushed hot at the sight of his erection and automatically spun to put him at her back as though she were some flighty schoolgirl.