by S. E. Smith
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Characters’ Relationships:
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Cosmos’ Promise:
Cosmos’ Gateway Book 4
By S. E. Smith
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank my husband Steve for believing in me and being proud enough of me to give me the courage to follow my dream. I would also like to give a special thank you to my sister and best friend Linda who not only encouraged me to write but who also read the manuscript. Also to my other friends who believe in me: Julie, Jackie, Lisa, Sally and Narelle. The girls that keep me going!
—S. E. Smith
Science Fiction Romance
COSMOS’ PROMISE: COSMOS’ GATEWAY BOOK 4
Copyright © 2013 by Susan E. Smith
First E-Book Publication July 2013
Cover Design by Melody Simmons
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission from the author.
All characters, places, and events in this book are fictitious or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is strictly coincidental.
Synopsis
Cosmos Raines is considered to be one of the most brilliant inventors in the world. A prodigy, he is a self-made billionaire who would rather be in his lab than jet-setting around the world. Things change when his latest experiment literally opens a Gateway into a whole new world. Now, not only has his best friend and her family moved to a new star system through the Gateway he has opened but he finds himself with a warehouse full of alien guests, including one very aggravating female that has turned him inside out.
Terra ‘Tag Krell Manok has spent her life in the shadows of her three older brothers. Her home world of Baade is a male dominated world where females are few in numbers and protected to the point of captivity. Terra’s father is the high chancellor of the Prime and considered to be the fiercest warrior of their world next to her brothers. No one defies him and lives. Terra is surprised when her father suddenly sends her through the Gateway into hiding to protect her from a clan insisting that she be mated for political purposes. The last thing she expects to find there is her bond mate - in the form of a human male!
Cosmos may not have been expecting to find the woman of his dreams on the other side of the Gateway he built. He knows one thing for sure - no one is going to take her away from him - not the clan who wants to use her nor her father who thinks all human males are worthless.
When she is taken from him, he will use every bit of his intelligence and ingenuity to not only track her down but steal her back. He will prove that human males are just as much a warrior as a Prime one, especially when it involves the woman he loves.
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Characters’ Relationships:
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chapter 1
“RITA, run those numbers again for me and send it to my tablet,” Cosmos said distractedly as he reached up for the cup of coffee he had set on top of the file cabinet.
He took a huge gulp before he grimaced. It was not only ice cold, it tasted like shit. He must have forgotten to make a new batch last night - or was it this morning? He gave a blurry-eyed look at the watch on his wrist before he gave a command for it to just tell him the time. His eyes were so tired he couldn’t even read the damn thing anymore.
“RITA, on second thought, just tell me what it says,” Cosmos called out to the computer system he and Tilly Bell, the mom of his best friend, Tink, had designed.
Well, he had designed the super-computer but Tilly had hacked into it one weekend when she was visiting her youngest daughter, Jasmine ‘Tinker’ Bell. Tilly had uploaded an experimental artificial intelligence program she had designed into his NOVAD computer system. The program named RITA soon took over his entire system, learning and developing at an exponential rate to the point he just thought of it as another pain in his ass when she gave him attitude. RITA stood for Really Intelligent Technical Assistant. Cosmos had called her a few other things. After taking cold showers for almost a month in the middle of a Maine winter, he had learned to keep his less than ideal thoughts to himself.
Tink’s parents, Tilly and Angus Bell, had practically adopted him when he and Tink met a little over four years ago while they were all camping at a campground not far from Calais, Maine. He and Tink had clicked, their minds and personalities made for the perfect balance of acceptance and respect. While he had hoped at one point that it might develop into something else, he realized that he would always see Tink as the little sister he never had. She had become not only the sister figure but his best friend. He found he could talk to her about anything. Her knowledge and ingenuity with motors and power generators blew him away and she loved to listen to his newest crazy ideas. When Tilly and Angus decided to move on when Tink was eighteen, she decided to stay. She moved into the third floor of the warehouse and a comfortable companionship had developed.
All of that changed a few months back when he needed help with his current project – a Gateway portal. He had been working on opening a doorway between two places on Earth, not two places between star systems! He had asked Tink to work on the generators. He needed more power. He had planned to be there but was called away to Chicago to meet up with his parents. A shudder went through him as he remembered that morning when he arrived back unexpectedly. Fortunately for Tink and him, his parents cancelled out on him at the last minute. He didn’t even want to think what could have happened if they hadn’t.
Hell, he thought, who am I kidding? Look at what still happened!
The Gateway had been a huge success, at least from a scientific viewpoint. From a personal one, it was a disaster! His once quiet home was now crawling with aliens from another world.
Correction, Prime Warriors from Baade, he silently corrected himself.
Now, one of them was missing, two of them were out there somewhere looking for their ‘mates’ and another one was about to drive him out of his mind. The male that was missing and the two warriors running loose he could handle. The female who
was currently sleeping in Tink’s former bedroom was totally another matter. He briefly closed his eyes and breathed deeply, trying to drive the image of the beautiful alien female out of his mind. None of the techniques he used to help him remain focused were working – at least not with her.
Grumbling under his breath, Cosmos walked over to the small kitchenette area he had built into his lab and poured the remaining brew of coffee down the drain. He didn’t care what anyone said, Cowboy Coffee tasted like shit. He quickly made another pot, breathing in the fragrant aroma as it ground the fresh Kopi Luwak beans he special ordered. He didn’t give a damn about the origin of the beans, it was the jolt from these particular beans that he needed to stay alert.
I definitely need to be alert now that my latest project is a success, he thought wearily.
“Cosmos dear,” RITA’s voice hummed out in a voice that was an exact duplicate of Tilly Bell’s husky tones. “Your guest is awake.”
Cosmos bit back a curse and looked down at his left palm. In the center of it was a series of intricate circles. The damn things pulsed with life, pulling a smothered groan of pain from him as his body reacted to it. A wave of heat flooded him, rolling over his hypersensitive flesh until a light film of sweat coated his body as he fought against reacting to it. It was almost like she was stroking his skin with her long, delicate fingers.
What the hell have I gotten myself into? Cosmos muttered through clenched teeth as he felt her running her fingers over and over the mark.
His head fell forward and he tried to breath in deep calming breaths to fight the reaction his body was having to her gentle strokes but his damn cock was too busy pulsing to listen to him. With a loud curse, he pulled away from the counter and strode toward the doors leading out of his lab. He called out a short command to RITA to open them, bypassing the keypad. There was no way in hell he would have been able to push the damn buttons to exit the lab with the way his hands were shaking.
Who the hell needs to push buttons when they have an alien female doing it? He thought savagely. The aggravating female upstairs was doing enough of it to last me a lifetime. His whole body was trembling now with suppressed hunger, all thought of fatigue disappearing as the urgent need to claim the female upstairs took over.
Cosmos strode through the heavy metal doors that opened and took the stairs leading up to the second floor of the converted warehouse two at a time. He had purchased the old warehouse along the river when he was eighteen and spent millions upgrading and securing it. It had become his main living and research center. At almost twenty-seven, he was a multi-billionaire in his own right. His defense and security systems made up almost fifty percent of his inventions but his other inventions and systems’ developments in the medical, environmental, and space research fields made up the rest. Both of his parents were world-renowned scientists though he seldom saw them. They were currently in Asia working on different projects.
“RITA, where is she?” Cosmos gritted out as he reached the top of the stairs leading into his living quarters. His eyes flashed to the set of stairs leading up to the third floor that used to belong to Tink.
“Cosmos,” a soft, startled voice said. “Is something wrong?”
Cosmos’ eyes drank in the slender figure of the female hesitating on the bottom step. She was absent-mindedly stroking the palm of her left hand. Each delicate stroke caused the flames burning inside him to burst even hotter. Like a moth drawn to a light, Cosmos jerked forward closing the space between him and the dark haired beauty looking at him in innocent confusion.
“Yes, damn you. There is something wrong,” he said hoarsely as he slid his large hands around her smaller ones in an effort to get her to stop the torture she was inflicting.
“What….?”
Cosmos didn’t give the beautiful, silver-eyed female a chance to say another word. His lips crushed hers in a savage, burning kiss. His hands let go of hers as he slid them around her narrow waist, pulling her closer to his throbbing length.
“Terra,” he groaned softly. “You are killing me with your touch. I promised your brother I would protect you with my life but I swear if you don’t stop I’ll take you right here and now.”
Terra ‘Tag Krell Manok’s soft gasp died on her lips as Cosmos once again claimed them with his own. Her body melted into his as his fingers gently kneaded her hips. Her hands slowly crept up until she could bury them in the silky brown strands of hair touching the back of his collar, pulling him even closer.
How could I have ever thought of human males as being weak? She wondered vaguely as his strong arms pulled her close.
*.*.*
Cosmos was lost in the sensations coursing through his body. Everything in him was focused on the slender female standing in the circle of his arms. She was only a couple of inches shorter than his six feet two inches. Her long black hair hung down her back like a silky waterfall. The temptation to wind it around his fingers so he could hold her to him was too tempting to resist. He shuddered as her hands rose up to grasp his broad shoulders, her fingernails curling into his hard flesh before moving to entwine with his shaggy hair.
A soft moan escaped him as he pulled back far enough to gaze down into her dark silver eyes. His hazel eyes glittered with frustration, annoyance and desire as unfamiliar emotions crashed through the defenses he had carefully erected over a lifetime of being different.
He had created a very elaborate picture of himself to the outer world. While considered a bit of a playboy nerd to those who read the newspapers, gossip magazines, and tabloids, he was just the opposite. He might have been born with a silver spoon in his mouth but it didn’t show. His parents had made a mint off of the different patents they developed and he was just like them in that regard. He had also earned his doctorate by the time he was twenty-two. He modified the warehouse he was living in near the river and designed it as a combination lab/home so he would have a nondescript place to live that would draw little attention as he followed his true passion. The image he created fit in with what he wanted the world to believe. Even Tink, his best friend and former roommate, was unaware of ninety percent of what he did. It was safer for her or it had been before she got swept off her feet by a huge Prime warrior from Baade.
He used the carefully conceived misconception of Cosmos Raines to hide the work he did. He had begun building the outer shell he needed as a cover when he was sixteen. Now, his billion dollar companies were run by some of the smartest, deadliest men and women in the world. He had carefully selected each of them with the help of RITA over the past six years. His desire to make a difference in the world had not come from comic book heroes but from seeing the damage being done through his own experiences. He had been the target of kidnappers since he was little more than a toddler. First, by governments and madmen around the world who wanted to use his parents then later because of his own abilities. He had surpassed his parents long ago.
News and academic institutions claimed he was smarter than Einstein. Cosmos could care less if he was or not. He only knew he had been given a special gift that he planned to use for good. He was careful about the military contracts he approved. He had a top notch group of men and women overseeing that division of his corporation. Each and every one of them owed him for their life or the life of a loved one. He never asked for payment, those that he helped out volunteered. Most he accepted, a few he had declined based on the information he had about them. He swore them to loyalty and confidentiality. In return, they would never have to worry about their financial security ever again.
Cosmos pulled in a deep breath as he felt the soft hands caressing his neck. “We….,” he began before closing his eyes in frustration when he was interrupted by the only person in the world he swore was smarter than even him.
“Oh good, you’re out of your hole,” a cheerful voice chirped out in a voice way too full of merriment. “Morning, Terra, sweetheart. Did you sleep well?” The voice asked with a slightly amused tone that pulled on Cosmos’ l
ast nerve.
Terra took a step back from Cosmos and let her hands drop to her sides before she turned to look at the tiny figure with an amused smile of her own. “Pleasant morning to you, Tilly. Is Angus awake?”
“Oh heavens, yes. He should be back from his walk any minute now. How about I fix us some breakfast? Angus loves a good breakfast in the morning. He says it gives him the energy to make it through a day with me,” Tilly said with a knowing grin. “Cosmos, go take a shower, dear. You look like you have been up all night.”
Cosmos opened his eyes and glared at Tilly with a dark frown. “I have been. I got home late and had some work to do in the lab. We had a slight problem last night. What the hell are you and Angus doing here? I thought you were on Baade still,” he growled out before flushing when Tilly raised her eyebrow at him. “Sorry,” he muttered, running his hand over the back of his neck. He glanced at Terra’s pale cheeks. “Your family is fine,” he assured her hesitantly when she looked at him with worry reflected in her eyes.
Tilly came over and placed her hand on his arm. “We were. I wanted to be here to hear about what happened. No one was telling us anything back on Baade. Go take your shower,” she urged gently. “I’ll fix us something to eat and you can tell us what happened when you get out. Angus will be back by then,” she added before turning and heading toward the small kitchen area.
Cosmos watched as Tilly disappeared into the kitchen. He turned and started walking across the spacious living area. He paused at the entrance to the hallway leading to his bedroom. He turned slightly and looked at Terra who was standing in the same spot, staring down at her left hand. With a muttered oath, he walked back to her.
Gently reaching out, he cupped her hand in his and ran his thumb over the intricate circles that were visible on her palm. He looked down at it for a moment before he cupped her lowered chin in his other hand and tilted it until she was forced to look at him. He smiled down at her before he brushed a light kiss across her lips.
