Seducing the Stargazer

by Kim Carmichael

  She jumped out of his chair, crossed her arms, and waited.

  “Winnie!” he called.

  She tapped her foot and continued her wait.

  His footsteps echoed all around as he ran from room to room in search of his midnight special. “Winnie!” He ran past the office door then stopped and backed up. With a smile large enough to be the center of any solar system, he headed right toward her. “There you are.”

  When he reached out to her, she stepped back. “Aren’t you early?” she asked.

  Smile still in place, he put his laptop case on the desk, pulled the machine out and offered it to her. “I come bearing gifts.”

  “I don’t need another laptop. Actually, I prefer your desktop for getting some work done.” She didn’t move from her power stance, especially since he came in here appearing innocent and bright eyed.

  “I told you to use anything you like, but I’m not giving you my laptop, I’m showing you what’s on it.” He put the computer down and opened it. “However, if it is a true gift you’re after, I may have something else up my sleeve, or in my bag.” After giving her a wink, he reached inside his case once more and pulled out a gold chain with a pendant dangling from it.

  Speechless, she stood frozen as he walked behind her and fastened the necklace around her neck.

  “A star sapphire for my star.”

  He kissed her behind the ear, sending welcome shivers throughout her. She caressed the chain then lifted the pendant to take in the huge, gorgeous blue stone with the distinctive starburst pattern. What was going on? Was he trying to lead her off the trail?

  “Where have you been every night?” she asked.

  “I’m an astronomer. Where do you think I’ve been?” His tone teased her. “The night is our prime working hours. You’ll know that when you get your time on the Selene telescope. May I ask if I can join you then?”

  She mustered the strength to nod. “What were you doing?”

  “Why don’t you look at the computer and find out?” He wrapped his arms around her, hit the keyboard and motioned toward the screen.

  Stuck in the same position with her mouth agape and no doubt a confused, foolish expression on her face, she proceeded to watch a video about the asteroid. Her asteroid. Their asteroid. The asteroid that brought them together.

  “It’s two asteroids?” Her heart sped.

  “Something broke it. I don’t know what. There is a crack right down the middle, splitting it into two. The pieces orbit around each other, it’s like they are fighting to stay together,” he whispered.

  She faced him. The man spent the last two weeks conducting research.

  “You were meant to find it, and I was meant to see the crack.” He gave her a light kiss. “I only wanted to show you when I was sure. I did the research, now we simply need to merge our data.”

  “We need to do a journal article.” She wrapped her arms around his neck. There would be nothing grander than to publish with him, see their names together again in a peer-reviewed magazine.

  “Do you believe in me now?” He stared into her eyes.

  “I always believed in you.”

  “Then we’ll do it together.” Again, he brushed his lips over hers. “Say it.”

  Through all these years, this was what she wished for. Between Garner, and the asteroid, and the telescope time, she had the life she dreamed about. No way would she tarnish this moment and tell him about her suspicions with the launch. Maybe it didn’t matter, and she should sign off on the plan. Then she and Garner could go off together and finish their research on their asteroid.

  “Together.” She held him tight.

  Chapter Fourteen

  “All right, all you need to do is step inside.” Garner kept his hand over Wynn’s eyes. “You have to trust me.”

  “What am I stepping into?” Wynn held her hand out, caught Garner’s arm, and stepped inside something, like an oversized pair of pants.

  The muttering around her let her know several other people were present.

  Whoever was around continued to dress her, encompassing her in what felt like an extremely heavy uniform. “What are we doing?” One thing that hadn’t changed in all the years she had known Garner was his fondness for a surprise and a trip. She figured it came from his childhood being cooped up. Back in their doctorate program he couldn’t stand the days where they had to spend hours and hours in the library or the classroom. They always had to take a ride afterward. The man loved a spontaneous outing.

  This morning he woke her and told her they had to get up and hurry to catch a plane, but not to worry as Mrs. Benton already packed for her. Since his huge revelation regarding his work on the asteroid a week ago, they had truly been inseparable, sharing their work, sharing their bed.

  Like the trip to New Mexico to the observatory, she let Garner lead her off to destination unknown. Rather than blindfolding her and sticking her on a horse, he had put her in an unmarked van with no windows and they drove straight into a large warehouse.

  Thankfully, before Garner confiscated her purse and her phone, she managed to check her email, answered a message from Jim to tell him she was still looking at the flight plan, and reminded Adam that she needed to hear his thoughts on the topic. She needed to be sure about her suspicions before taking her theory further. The last thing Garner or Personal Space needed was any more drama with a launch. While part of her simply wanted to sign off, she felt it her duty to do her due diligence.

  “If I move my hand, do you promise to keep your eyes closed?” He kissed her ear. “They are going to put something over your head, but wait until I tell you can open your eyes. All right? Do you promise?”

  No sooner did she nod than Garner removed his hand and a heavy helmet was placed on her head. “Garner?” Totally encompassed in this bizarre, heavy outfit, her own voice echoed in her ears.

  “Dr. Winchester Carlsbad.”

  Wynn jumped at hearing Garner’s voice boom through a speaker in her helmet.

  “Get ready to take a trip.” He used the same low tone as when he spoke to with the media, then put his hands on her shoulders and turned her. “Look.”

  At last she opened her eyes and gasped. They were inside what appeared to be a movie set of a spaceship and both dressed in space suits. “Garner.” Like a child who just got dropped into a vat of candy and told to take a swim, she couldn’t stop smiling. She wondered if every astronomer wanted to be an astronaut deep down.

  “Wait until you discover where we’re going.” He lifted his portable camera he used for filming segments on his blog. “Open the hatch, Dr. Carlsbad, our mission has started.”

  Mission? Where were they? Two men in red uniforms saluted her then left, leaving her and Garner in a small chamber.

  “Come on. Another world is waiting,” Garner prodded.

  Her heart sped and encumbered in the space suit, she hobbled over to the huge door. She pulled the huge latch and froze on the spot at the sight before her. “Mars?” The rust red landscape greeted her. Off in the distance was a white structure which she recognized as a prototype for a Martian habitat.

  “Welcome to the MSTF. The Mars Simulation Training Facility located in Arizona. It’s an indoor warehouse designed to look like everything on the planet.” Garner came up behind her. “For the next several earth hours, we will be living as Martians. Unlike some similar sites, this is completely enclosed. The projections on the ceiling are exact replicas of the Martian sky. We’ll watch the sunrise, the moons, and live as if we are truly on the red planet.”

  How Garner pulled off such a feat was beyond her. This trip was designed completely for her and in that moment, standing in that suit overlooking the simulated Mars landscape, she knew she had fallen in love with him all over again. From the day he stood behind her in grad school, to this moment where he took her as close as he could to another planet, she loved this man. Always would.

  Without even thinking,
she turned and went to kiss him, but only succeeded in colliding their helmets together.

  “And that, Earthlings, is how you take a fellow astronomer on a date. Take note.” He held the camera up and put his arm around her. “Now we will bid adieu to our ship. Today, we’re visiting the red planet solo.”

  Even in a space helmet, the man was utterly gorgeous.

  He raised his eyebrows. “Don’t you want to take a look?”

  “Are you kidding?” Excitement surged through her and she charged through the hatch.

  The dusty ground met her feet. She reached down and scooped up a few of the small rocks, letting them fall through her glove.

  Garner followed and the hatch to the spaceship closed. “Dr. Carlsbad, let’s see you strut your stuff on the red planet.” Once more he lifted his camera.

  “Garner.” His focus on her made her blush, the camera on her made her suddenly shy and she shook her head.

  “Dr. Carlsbad.” His tone teased her. “Please play in the Martian landscape and let those on planet Earth gaze upon how utterly breathtaking you are.”

  At his words, her blush turned into a heat that radiated throughout her. “What exactly is our mission today?” She walked around the ground, her boots crunching on the gravel. The whole simulation was quite incredible, exactly what she pictured if she ever got to roam the fourth planet in their solar system.

  “We’re working on my blog and my book.” He remained a few feet behind her. “How about you take us on a little Martian tour?”

  “All right.” Even in the bulky outfit, she tried to be slightly alluring and held her arm out, sweeping it slowly in front of her, as if she were a game show host. “Here we have Mars, or at least an extremely close facsimile to the planet.”

  With Garner in tow, she continued to strut her stuff, or tried to—the suit was not the most comfortable. “Over here we have the habitat. This is where the astronauts would live.” She put her hand on her waist.

  “Sexy.” Garner chuckled.

  “How is this helping your book?” Something told her he was using their trip as an excuse not to write.

  “Can you trust me?” He stepped closer. “Let me see what you see.”

  As there was nothing but red rocks and a habitat on the surface, she motioned to the sky. “You can see the sun is much smaller on Mars than on Earth.”

  She stared up, her breath catching. “Oh, Garner.” She pointed to one of the most magnificent things she had ever experienced and couldn’t keep from jumping. “Garner.”

  “What is it?” Camera in hand, he rushed to her side.

  Mesmerized, all she could do was watch as Phobos, the larger moon of Mars, something she spent a good part of her life studying, made its way across the sky in front of the setting sun. Chills ran through her.

  Yes, it was only a simulation and yes, she had seen video before, yes, she had even viewed the moon in countless telescopes, but to be here like she was really on the planet and with the man she loved was a true gift. “Phobos.”

  “Tell me.” His voice lowered. “Not the facts, but what you really see.”

  The small satellite only created a dot over the star at the center of their solar system0 as it sped across the sky. Phobos’ unique, fast orbit meant it crossed the Martian sky more than once a day. “It’s just a rock that got caught in Mars’ gravitational pull.” She shook her head. “It’s small, misshapen, lost, but found a home. Even if it’s temporary.” The strange orbit also meant one day, tens of thousands of years from now, it would break up in the Martian atmosphere.

  “And you wonder what this has to do with our book?” He put his hand on her shoulder. “I think this is exactly what needs to go in our book. Everyone knows the planets, the stars, anyone can rehash what a black hole is or isn’t all they want.”

  She tore her focus away from the moon and stared at something much better. “Our book?”

  Garner put the camera down. “What I want to get across in our book is how, after earning a PhD in astronomy, you still look up at the stars every night with wonder, and how you still are fascinated by a tiny moon orbiting Mars. After all this, you learned to believe in me and how an asteroid that no one ever discovered brought two people that needed each other together.”

  At his words, her heart swelled. “Don’t leave me again.” Not meaning to let out her deepest fear, she turned away.

  “Wynn.” He came up behind her.

  She couldn’t stop gazing at the scene before her, and she put her hand to her chest. “Everything is so real here, it takes my breath away.”

  “Sometimes, you need your breath kicked out of you to realize what is real.” He wrapped his arms around her. “I always wondered how we would get together, but somehow I knew the universe would take care of it, and it did.”

  More times than she cared to admit, she stared out at the stars wanting an answer to why he left her. Perhaps with his words, it didn’t matter anymore. “Maybe the universe takes care of things in its own time.”

  They stared at each other, their connection tangible. Finally, the Wynn and Garner of five years ago, the best friends torn apart, merged with the Wynn and Garner of the present, and they were better than before.

  “How about we take in a different type of sunset?” He pointed up to the sky.

  They both looked up. “Thank you.”

  “This is the closest I could come to giving you the whole planet.” He held her tight. “We’re going to get Maverick up in the air, then we’re going to look at your moons in a few months, and conduct our research on the asteroid.”

  At last she had the answer to the question she had been asking for over five years. Finally, she knew what happened next, at least, she prayed this was what happened next.

  In Garner’s arms, she took in the night sky of Mars, or what it would look like on Mars. Off in the west was the planet’s second moon, Deimos, making its appearance. For the first time ever, she was home and the stars were different.

  Chapter Fifteen

  “Mrs. Benton.” Garner motioned for his butler to come closer. Yes, he had to get to work, he and Wynn had flight plans to approve, blogs to work on, worlds to conquer, but with his girl still sleeping, he decided to veer slightly off course. Since returning from their Mars excursion yesterday, he had one thing on his mind. “Would you please take a look?”

  After filling his coffee with the perfect amount of whipped cream, Mrs. Benton placed the mug on the coaster and walked around behind his desk. “Yes?”

  He glanced over to the door to ensure Wynn was nowhere in sight, then opened his top desk drawer and pulled out a blue velvet jewelry box. “Five years ago, before graduation, I bought this for Wynn.” With a bit of flourish, he opened the box to reveal the ring he designed for her all those years ago.

  “Oh my.” Mrs. Benton gasped. “You were going to propose?”

  “I was.” He stared at the jewels. Rather than one large center stone, he had the jeweler put together five triangular diamonds with one round diamond in the center creating a star, all done in a platinum setting. After he walked away from her at graduation, he wanted get rid of it, but he could never bring himself to act. Every once in a while, he opened the bedroom drawer where he stored the ring and looked at it, then stashed it away again, reminding himself that one day he would put it up for sale or auction. Since Wynn’s return he took it out several times, this time with a bit more nostalgia. Finally, while they lay together at the Mars simulation facility, he knew he found a home for the custom ring, with the person it was originally designed for, the person who said she believed in him—it would never fit anyone else.

  “If you don’t mind me asking, why didn’t you?” Mrs. Benton turned away.

  “Timing.” He held the ring up, letting it capture the sunlight.

  “Well, perhaps now the time is right.” In an unusual show of emotion, Mrs. Benton put her hand on his shoulder.

  He nodded a
nd returned the jewelry to the box. The asteroid not only brought them together in the most unusual way, but also paved the path for Wynn to see him as a true scientist and he knew they were ready for their infinity. He always loved her, from the moment she waged her protest in grad school until right now and forever. The second she barged into his life, he knew she could never leave it again. “So if you have two Dr. Knox’s on your hands, will I finally be able to get you to call me by my first name?”

  “No, the two of you having the same name will only ensure everyone listens to me.” Mrs. Benton returned to her the coffee cart and started to prepare Wynn’s cup.

  He saluted her. “Well played.” With a laugh, he put the box back in his drawer. Again, his issue was timing. Though she might not have asked yesterday, his little stargazer wanted to know what happened next and, once he had the timing down to perfection, he would finally answer her question. He already took her to a telescope and as close as they were going to get to another planet, but he had to outdo those events for a truly out-of-this-world proposal.

  As he flipped on his computer to get started for the day, the buzzer indicating someone was on the way up echoed through the penthouse, and his phone rang.

  He wrinkled his nose at Jim’s name flashing on the cell phone screen and decided to hold off on that fun until Wynn joined him. She still owed Jim the final sign off to the Personal Space flight plan, but with their little getaway, he figured she had stars in her eyes.

  “I’ll get the door.” Mrs. Benton turned.

  “Will you see what’s detaining Dr. Carlsbad as well?” He figured he wore her out the night before, but they needed to get to work. First things first, he needed to check his blog.

  His phone flashed again. Jim resorted to texting with just the words, call me now.

  Somewhere in all this, Jim should remember that Garner was an investor as well, and though he was also the spokesperson, he couldn’t simply be summoned with the snap of a finger sending a text. No doubt the man wanted the plan, and he would get it to him as soon as Mrs. Benton brought his girl.