by Nora Lane
I sobbed.
Not the pretty girl at a sappy movie cry. All cute and endearing.
I did the not-pretty cry.
Snot flew out of my nose like it was a loaded canon. I wiped the goo leaking from my face on my thermals.
The green and blue aching beauty resonated inside me. It echoed through my throat, and heart, and mind. It spiraled lower and settled between my legs.
Life was precious.
So unimaginably sacred.
It needed to be honored. To be regarded for what it was.
I needed life.
My life.
More than ever in the month since I’d gotten the crushing news, I knew I wanted to live. Forget the cigarettes—I’d only started smoking less than a month ago to piss off the doctors. Forget the soda—you could never drink the whole thing before it got warm. Forget the cheeseburger and fries.
Okay, don’t forget those. They could stay.
Still, life required celebration. A rejoicing in the simple truth of being.
Noah squeezed my shoulder. His scent, pheromone, or whatever made my head swim.
I needed him. I longed for his connection.
To be honest, I wanted to ride him like a pony at a county fair. All day long. No rest for the weary.
Our mother slowly wheeled out of view. We stood in rapt silence as bleak space—the fabric I thought so lustrous moments ago—wiped the window into awful darkness.
My sobbing, guffawing, remotely hog-sounding crying finally subsided.
Thank God.
He must think I was a crazy person. He’d probably load me right back into the capsule and jettison me back to earth.
Pull it together, Coraline.
I sniffed and a gurgle of wet snot rattled in my nose. So much for being a professional. I pulled away. I couldn’t take anymore. Not him. Not my home that was entirely too far away.
“I need to get cleaned up,” I said. It came out harsher than I meant. My spiraling emotions made my voice unpredictable.
“Of course,” he said. “You must be wrecked. Let’s get you situated in my quarters.”
My eyes snapped wide.
Did he expect me to bed him the minute I arrived?
My blood boiled.
The very same blood that seconds ago was hot for an entirely different reason.
He thought he could tell me to sleep with him? Like it wasn’t even a request? Like it was a given that someone like me would obviously do anything to sleep with someone like him?
He was totally right.
And that pissed me off even more!
“Mr. Sinclair, I won’t be sharing your bed. I’m not one of the vacuous bimbos you left behind ten years ago.”
My cheeks burned. If I wasn’t certain I’d fall flat on my face, I would’ve taken a swing at him.
News headline:
Rich, Gorgeous Billionaire Gets Everything He Wants! All the Time!
I hated the news.
My News Headline:
Not This Time You Ego Maniac!
He smiled at me. A gently mocking curve to his lips. “Ms. Gabarro, you’ll be sleeping in my quarters because they are the nicest available on this regrettably rather spartan station. I will be staying in the guest quarters that, frankly, aren’t much nicer than a utility closet.”
I almost fainted from the blood rushing out of my heart and burning my skin pink.
What an idiot I was!
“Oh, uh, sorry about that.”
“You’ve had a long trip. You need some rest. Follow me.”
He was right about that. I didn’t trust my mouth enough to open it again. There were only two outcomes if that happened. One, I’d make a total ass of myself. Or two, and way worse, I’d say something to betray the effect he was having on me. He’d see through me and know I was just another clingy bimbo, begging to be added to his harem.
I was for sure not saying another damn thing.
At least until I could muster the dignity to request a spot in his harem, rather than beg for it.
CHAPTER SEVEN
We arrived at his door, more like spacey slidey door thing. I assumed anyway. It had no doorknob and a pad the size of my phone glowed blue on the wall at chest level. Closer to waist level for him.
He was so effing big. Did space make you enormous? Did he just have exceptional genes? He certainly started with something good in the batter.
He swiped a keycard over the pad. It beeped and turned green. The door slid into the wall with a swish.
I knew it!
Spacey slidey door. It was almost too obvious. Swinging knobby doors just weren’t the fashion in space.
Noah held the key out.
Where did he pull that from? I flitted my eyes across his body, tried not to linger on his bulging arms or the bulge between his legs. Seriously. Where did he hide that thing? I didn’t see a likely spot.
He clipped it to my sleeve.
“Keeps it from floating off if you’re in one of the solar array corridors. Try not to lose it. If you do and get stuck somewhere, ask Cosmo to help out. You’d help her out, right Cos?”
“I am programmed to do my utmost to assist any human in need,” his voice echoed in the hall.
“Is he everywhere?” I asked.
“Pretty much. He keeps an eye on everything so I don’t have to. He’s the reason I’m still here ten years later.”
His eyes clouded over for a moment.
“Partially the reason.”
He joined me again, back in the now. Back from wherever he slipped off to for an instant.
“There are several areas of the station that are off-limits. Neither the keycard or Cosmo will gain you entrance in those areas.”
I definitely didn’t like being told I couldn’t go here or there.
“That sounds positively mysterious, Mr. Sinclair,” I said. “Almost like you’re trying to hide something from me.”
“It does, doesn’t it?”
His eyes mocked me. Measured me. Called to me.
Fuck this!
I had to get away before he turned me into a wobbly pile of wet need. Before I dropped to my knees and got to the bottom of what was making the giant bulge between his legs.
I snapped the card out of his hand.
“Do you have clothes with you?” he asked.
“You know I wasn’t allowed to bring anything with me.”
“Director Chu can be such a stickler for the rules.”
“Yea, it’s her fault.”
He continued without missing a beat.
“You’ll find clothing in the closet and items for personal hygiene in the bathroom. No need for a stool sample.”
“I’m glad to hear that turned out to be a joke.”
“No joke. The station will collect matter from your flushing and analyze it for pathogens.”
Cosmo was going to study my shit? That was uncomfortably close to a probing.
“Is there anything else you need right now?”
“You’re too generous,” I said. “Your attention to detail is laudable.”
“You deserve all my attention, Ms. Gabarro. Every thought.”
I wanted to be mad at him. To be pissed about making me leave everything behind. Especially my phone. But it was hard when he said such sweet things.
“I’m sure you say that to all your ladies, and just to remind you, I’m not one of them.”
“You are my special guest,” he said. “I meant nothing more. Please allow me to be excited. I haven’t had a single human visitor in ten long years.”
Single human visitor?
What was that supposed to mean? Did he get visitors of other kinds?
“Get some rest and wash up,” he said. “I’ll have dinner ready in two hours. A bit early, but I’m sure you’re famished.”
Was that a comment?
On my physique? On my generous portions?
He smiled.
“After all, you left your breakfast in the c
apsule.”
“Thanks for reminding me. Real gentleman, Mr. Sinclair.”
“Astro will retrieve you when it’s time,” he said.
“Is that thing going to attack me?”
“She will do no such thing,” he said, “as long as you don’t provoke her.”
“What? Like stealing the attention of the only man it, she’s, ever known?”
“You don’t have to steal my attention, Ms. Gabarro. I’ll freely give you as much as you can take.”
Did his hips just wink at me?
“I’m sure you’d like that.”
Did my hips just wink at him?
He looked me over. His eyes trailed fire on my skin as his gaze stroked me top to bottom.
“I know I would.”
“Goodbye, Mr. Sinclair,” I said and swiped the key on the interior pad. The green light shifted blue and the door slid closed with a swish.
The tether of tension tugging on my chest released. I could breathe again.
Lord Almighty in the great blue sky. Or maybe the great black, velvet blanket that was beyond the blue. Wherever that Lord was, thank him a hundred times.
I took a deep breath and steadied myself.
I had no idea Noah was going to be so hot. That this was going to be so hard. And we were barely passed hello.
I lumbered over to the bed and collapsed on my back. I jerked as the mattress didn’t bounce like I expected. Instead, a gel-like material molded around me. It filled in the crevice of my lower back. It oozed around me. For a moment, I panicked thinking it would suck me under. It didn’t.
I floated in a warm sea. It was like being weightless again. You didn’t buy mattresses like this at Bed, Bath, and Beyond. This was beyond the Beyond.
It reminded me of swimming. An overwhelming urge to be naked in the water swept through me. To be a dolphin spearing through the waves.
I rolled up and the gel supported me, resisted under my hand as I pushed up.
I stripped out of the sweaty thermals and kicked them into a corner. They needed to be nuked from orbit.
I slid back into bed like a spaghetti noodle into a pot of warm sauce. It was delicious. Not the spaghetti, though it was my favorite. The bed.
I stretched out and floated on an ocean. I waved my arms and legs doing my best impersonation of a seven-year-old in Christmas snow. I wondered what else the bed might be good for.
He slept here. Every night. I could almost smell him. His huge form made a nightly imprint right where I floated.
What would it feel like to have his imprint on me? Inside me?
I had to get a hold of myself. It was like every waypoint in my new world had one constant point of reference.
Him.
Lord.
I was in big trouble.
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About the Author
Nora Lane dreams of exploring beyond the wonderful home we call Earth. For now she lives on our planet, and shares a home with her wonderful husband, children, and two dogs that act more like alien overlords than obedient mutts.
She writes science fiction romance about what could, and likely will, happen as humanity continues to push beyond the confines of our ancestral home. If she's not writing, she can usually be found reading or dreaming of other worlds, usually ones with hot alien races that love human women!
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