He dunked his head, ostensibly to rinse the shampoo from his hair, but also to give himself a moment to think. His arm brushed her calf, and he would have liked to stroke it, to follow its sleek line higher up her leg, but he doubted she would appreciate that now.
When he rose and wiped the water from his eyes, Tamryn hadn’t moved. She was gazing toward the wall, her expression thoughtful. Or perhaps pensive.
“I’m sorry,” Makkon said softly. He seemed to say that a lot to her. Did it mean anything to her, or was it pointless babble? “Not that I fought for my people—I can’t be—but that it meant fighting against you.”
“I know.” She smiled sadly and extended an arm toward him.
Surprised she accepted his apology, he slid through the water to sit on the stone bench on her side of the tub. His knee rested against her thigh as he faced her. She looped her arm around his shoulders. The sad expression remained on her face, and he lamented it, wishing they could at least have the night without worries of the wider world, the wider system.
“Do you want your hair washed?” he asked. Perhaps some small ministrations might lighten her mood again.
“Are you offering?”
“Yes.”
“Does it need it? Do I still smell like floor cleaner?”
“Your hair never did. Just your wrist.”
She lifted her wrist to her nose.
He smiled and leaned past her, reaching for the shampoo bottle. His chest brushed her breast, and he was tempted to reach for it instead, to bend down and slide his tongue across her sweet mound. He restrained himself. She clearly wanted to discuss something greater than shampooing and sex. Though a part of him wouldn’t have minded distracting her from the more political topic, since it would only hurt them both when he had to reject her wishes. Even if he wanted to grant what she requested, he doubted he had the power to do so. He might have been one of the mission leaders on the station, but down here, he was just another citizen. A hunt leader with no animals left to hunt.
As he poured shampoo into his hand, she dunked herself and slipped off the bench. He was missing the touch of her thigh when her hands came to rest on both of his thighs. She came up facing him and settled onto his lap. A surge of warmth went through him at the touch of her bare bottom against his skin—and against something else that, judging from her raised eyebrows, she hadn’t been expecting to be erect again.
“Thinking of more than shampooing hair, are we?” She smiled and linked her hands behind his neck.
“I get excited by shampoo. Or more precisely by the chance to rub you.” He slathered his hands, then worked them into her hair, massaging her scalp with his fingers.
She closed her eyes, tilting her head back. “With your hands, right?”
“Maybe.”
He swallowed, having trouble concentrating on the task for some reason. Perhaps it was her soft, round cheeks resting in his lap, or the way her breasts had come out of the water, gooseflesh pebbling them and the nipples tightening. He licked his lips and told himself that the soap dripping down her neck and chest wouldn’t taste that good.
“Do you think your people would consider letting me negotiate on their behalf?” Tamryn asked. “Instead of tying me up and taping my mouth shut when they talk to the Fleet? If you showed me more of this compound, specifically parts where there might be any interesting remnants of the alien civilization, we could record some images. I think your leaders were right in that I’m not going to be quite the bargaining chip you were thinking, but those ruins might be, especially if they hold some clues to help Captain Porter with her translations.” His fingers had stilled as she spoke, and she pouted and leaned her head into his hand. “That feels wonderful, Makk. Don’t stop… please.”
“Sorry, you’re distracting me.” He poured another dollop of shampoo into his hand and resumed lathering, though her hair was probably squeaky clean by now.
“With my words or my breasts?” Her eyes opened slightly, enough to peep through her lashes and catch him admiring her chest.
“Both.”
She chuckled and, after he had worked her scalp over, tilted her head back and arched her spine to dip her hair. The sight of all that sleek flesh on display sent a massive surge of blood to his groin, and his breath caught. He couldn’t help himself. He slid his hands from her waist to cup her breasts. She finished squeezing the water out of her hair, and stood in front of him, the water lapping around her bellybutton.
“Maybe you should be negotiating,” he said, letting his hands roam, since she didn’t seem to mind. “I can’t even remember what you just said, but I find myself wanting to agree to it. Are you attempting to seduce me?”
“Seduce you into helping your own people in the most logical manner?” She climbed back onto his lap, her legs spread, her sweet flesh pressed against him.
A few more seconds like this, and he would be bending her over the edge, taking her like an animal. His already swollen shaft hardened further at the mere thought. He groped to remember what they had been talking about.
“Do you truly want to help my people? Honestly, I can’t see why, after...” He sighed, not wanting to remind her of lost comrades again. Instead, he slid one hand from her waist to scrape through her curls. He wanted her again but intended to make sure she was ready for him.
“Mostly I want to help you.” The way she looked at him through her lashes nearly undid him, and thoughts of animalistic ravishing leaped into his mind again. “But from my recent history lessons, and from what you’ve told me, it hardly seems that the system has treated your people well.”
“No,” he murmured, “it hasn’t.”
“It’s time to do something about that, don’t you think?”
He lowered his head to take her nipple in his mouth, rolling his tongue around it, feeling it harden to a point under his touch. He slipped a finger into her slick depths, rubbing her lightly.
“Makkon,” she groaned, pushing against his hand, arching her back again. “I was talking about... uhm.”
He smiled, glad to know he wasn’t the only one being distracted. He pulled her head down for a kiss, further aroused by her eagerness in returning it. She not only wanted him; she wanted to help him. It seemed impossible, and he did not know if anything could come of it, but it pleased him beyond belief that she had come to care for him and could see his side. Though a tangle of emotions flooded over him, some he wanted to examine more closely later, it was lust that came out on top. With her writhing against his hand, bumping against his erection, he lost the capacity to think of anything more than his desire—and satisfying that desire.
“You can’t leave after this, no matter what happens,” he found himself saying against her lips, the words more of an order than a request. “I want more than a night with you. I want to be with you, hunt with you.”
“Not hunt me?” she breathed, sliding her hands over his shoulders, squeezing and rubbing as her lower body responded to his probing touch. The expression of ecstasy on her face made him more eager than ever to satisfy her.
“We can do that too.” He shifted his lips from her mouth to her throat, grazing her skin with his teeth, nipping at her. “I do love chasing worthy prey. The exhilaration of the hunt, of catching you. Thrusting you against the wall and tearing off your clothes. Taking you without mercy.”
She shuddered and groaned, either from his words or more likely from what his hand was doing. She sank her nails into his scalp and took his earlobe in her mouth, sucking him. “Take me now, Makkon,” she ordered. “No mercy.”
He slipped his finger out of her and pulled her down onto his lap. She helped position herself atop him. This time, he eased into her, knowing the water would have stolen some of her slickness. But having those exquisite breasts right before him made him forget his thought to take it slow. She slid up and down easily enough, her eyes closed as she rode him. He curled his arm around her back, keeping close as he matched her, thrusting into her depths. With
his other hand, he cupped the back of her head while he kissed her, taking her lips, her mouth, all of her.
She came before him, crying his name with such pure gratification that it almost crazed him. His whole being coursed with lust, and he could barely think, barely see. He surged to his feet, water sloshing about them as he drove into her, his body shaking as he took her to her fullest. She hung on, legs wrapping around him, her mouth finding his throat as he threw back his head and nearly howled his release.
In the aftermath, with his legs weak, he sank back onto the seat. Feeling chagrined by his ferocity, he cuddled her into his lap and looked at her face, worried he had hurt her or failed to satisfy her. The slow grin that sprawled across her face reassured him that she had, indeed, enjoyed herself.
She stroked the side of his face. “Will you talk to your people? Convince them I want to help?”
“I’ll talk to them. I don’t know how I’ll convince them of that.”
“Just tell them the truth. That your perseverance on the hunt won you your prey.”
He chuckled. That sounded exactly like something he would say. Funny how she’d come to know him so well so quickly. Not that he was a complicated man. There was so much about her and her world that he didn’t know about. “Does that mean you’ll stay with me if we can keep your government from eradicating my world?”
He hadn’t truly meant to bombard her with propositions of spending the rest of her life with him, not so soon, but that image of stalking through the tunnels with her on some hunt had never fully left his mind.
“Stay here?” Her face crinkled. “What if we kept this as a backup option, and you joined me in my world?”
“Your world? That space station?”
“Well... I’m not sure what world I’ll have after everything is resolved here.” She dropped her gaze to his collarbone. “Or if I’ll have a career or station to go back to.”
Makkon sighed. Even if she had stopped seeing him as an enemy, that didn’t mean the rest of the system had, or that he could stroll side by side with her on some populated planet. Even if he were able to dress as the normal humans did, there would still be the tattoo, and the genes that might upset some doctor during a checkup someday. He could imagine her fitting into his world easily, but what was there here for her? The terraforming, if they could arrange for it, would take decades. She wouldn’t have her career, and her family would be on the other side of the system. Would they even talk to her again if she left to join him?
“Perhaps we should just worry about tomorrow,” Makkon suggested. It hurt too much to think that there might not be a place where they could be together.
“That seems logical,” Tamryn said. “You mentioned something about a cozy blanket you wanted to show me.”
“Yes, are you tired?”
“Maybe not quite yet.” She smiled and kissed him.
Chapter 25
Tamryn woke up, feeling muzzy, content, and sore, as if she’d been working out for hours in the gym. She grinned at the memory of why. After the bath, she and Makkon had found the bed, but it was a long time before they used it for sleep. She wondered if all of the Glacians were as horny and insatiable as he was, or if he was special. She hadn’t minded, since he’d made certain she found satisfaction even more often than he had, but she had been exhausted when he finally gathered her in his arms under the blanket, and they snuggled in to sleep.
She reached for the electrolyte drink he had made up during the night and took a swallow while trying to decide what had woken her. Not Makkon and his randy self, not this time. He’d left to meet with his people, kissing her goodbye and telling her to go back to sleep since it was quite early. The dark, windowless room gave no hint as to what time of day it might be, and if he had a clock somewhere, she hadn’t noticed it. Eventually, she was going to have to wrangle her tablet back from him, so she could tell the time and take the video footage she had mentioned. She doubted Glaciem had any satellites and was connected to the system-wide network, and communication would be out of the question, so he shouldn’t object to her having the device. She wished she could talk with her father, though, to find out what was happening up above and how her disappearance appeared to everyone else.
A faint, muffled voice drifted to her ear. Nobody was in the room, but she thought someone might be talking in the hallway outside. Makkon?
Tamryn sat up, gathering the blanket to her naked chest. Though the soft wool was as warm as he had promised, she could still feel the chill of the air nipping at any body part that was exposed. She had barely noticed it with Makkon spooned around her, but the bed wasn’t as cozy with him gone.
Before she had finished debating whether she wanted to get up and find her clothes, the door opened. Soft yellow light spilled in from the hallway, and a figure stood in the doorway, features in shadow. Right away, she knew it wasn’t Makkon. The hair was gray, the man’s build shorter and stockier.
Aware that she didn’t have a weapon, she shrank back toward the wall, her shoulders brushing the cold stone. She thought of the guns, daggers, and the bow on the wall. It was too dark to see them, but some had been above the bed. Perhaps she could slip one down without the stranger noticing. But that would be hard. Whoever he was, he was staring right at her, and there was probably enough light that he would see if she moved.
“Either you’re not as much of an unwilling prisoner as we were told,” the man said, “or Makkon is not the noble man I thought he was.”
Tamryn glared at the figure. She recognized the voice from that first meeting in the hangar. It was one of the men who had spoken to Makkon, berating him. Not the engineer, she thought, but the other one. The military officer. None of them had bothered introducing themselves to her, but she had been paying enough attention to get his name. Commodore Arkt.
He glanced up and down the hallway, then stepped inside, bringing a lantern with him. He wore fur-lined boots, carried a rifle, and heavy layers of furs shrouded his clothing—he hadn’t been wearing all of that back at the meeting. He held a bundle of furs under one arm.
“What do you want?” Tamryn asked, her nudity and her lack of a weapon making her feel vulnerable. She hoped all he wanted was to pick her up for that meeting. Maybe Makkon had succeeded in convincing his president and the others that she should negotiate on their behalf.
“I’m taking you back to your people.” Arkt tossed the bundle of furs into the room. They landed on the floor beside the bed. “Get dressed, and put those on. It’s cold upside.”
It was cold in here. Tamryn’s breaths fogged the air between her and Arkt.
“Why would you do that? Where’s Makkon?” A part of her told her not to ask questions and to jump at this man’s offer. She couldn’t trust him, nor did she understand why he would do this, but he clearly meant to go to the surface. Did he have some beacon that might let her father’s crew find her? But what would happen to Makkon and the rest of the people down here if she wasn’t on the moon anymore? There would be nothing to keep Fleet from attacking, especially now that they knew people still lived down here.
“I’m trading you for a pile of gold and a ride off this ice ball.” Arkt pointed at the furs. “Now, get dressed. There’s a very small window where I can get away with this. Once the meeting is over, there will be more people in the halls.”
Nobody knew he was here, Tamryn realized. “Who’s offering the gold? And are you saying that someone is going to pay you to give me up?”
“I’m willing to take you up there for a lot less than terraforming equipment costs.” Arkt snorted. “Those fools think your corrupt, dicks-for-brains government would actually let them live out there, quietly changing this moon from a glacier to a forest. As if your people haven’t been trying to rid the galaxy of us for centuries. Even if they gave us the equipment, they’d have no problem turning around and nuking us again. Fools.” His voice had grown agitated the more he spoke, and he stepped further into the room. “Get dressed, and quit ask
ing so many questions.”
“And if I don’t?”
He gave her a hard smile. “I’ll carry you up there naked if I have to. The man I spoke to just said you had better be alive. He said nothing about frostbitten limbs.”
“All right. But give me some privacy to dress, will you?” She made a shooing motion, not sure if it would work.
His eyes narrowed to slits. “Why aren’t you jumping at this opportunity?”
“I’ve been trying to think of a way to help keep your people from being nuked.” Sensing the irritation and impatience radiating from him, Tamryn slipped out of bed with the blanket wrapped around her, as if she meant to comply. She didn’t know yet what she meant to do, but he had the weapons and ought to have the same superior strength and speed that Makkon possessed. She believed his threat to carry her out naked, and she also believed that she wouldn’t have the power to fight him off, not unless she could arm herself with a weapon and fire it point-blank at his head. An appealing notion, considering he was willing to backstab his own people for money, but she didn’t know how much trouble she would get in with the Glacians if she managed to pull it off. It was probably nothing more than a fantasy, anyway. After all, she had been trying to kill Makkon since she met him, and that hadn’t worked.
“Yes, I’m sure you’re terribly concerned about the plight of my people.” Arkt looked her up and down, curled a lip, then turned his back.
It took her a moment to realize that was as much “privacy” as she was going to get. “My clothes are in the lavatory,” she said, watching him out of the corner of her eye as she headed in that direction. If he didn’t follow her, maybe she could find her opportunity to grab a weapon. Not that Makkon had pistols hanging on the wall above the tub. Unfortunately.
She did not dawdle in putting on her clothes—the cold made her want to hurry into them as soon as she dropped the blanket—but she didn’t rush, either. If she could delay this man, Makkon might return and settle the problem for her.
“What keeps Fleet from dropping bombs on this moon as soon as they have me?” Tamryn asked. Maybe if she could point out the logic holes in his plan, he wouldn’t be so eager to kidnap her.
Frost Station Alpha 1-6: The Complete Series Page 29
