Mandrake Company- The Complete Series

by Ruby Lionsdrake

  “I’m sorry,” Val said. “As soon as he appeared at the hatch, I suspected I wasn’t going to want to hear what he had to say. I should have found a way to extricate myself from the mess before—” Before he started rubbing his crotch, she thought. “Just before,” she said aloud with a sigh.

  Gregor looked over his shoulder at her, his expression puzzled but also… hurt? Regretful? “You’re sorry? You did nothing wrong. I should have reacted much sooner. As soon as I heard…” He dropped his chin again. “I heard you speak of your brother and him offer you the bonus. I thought… It didn’t occur to me that he might have an agenda. I thought it might be an opportunity for you. And then when he said… what he said, I was so stunned. I just couldn’t believe it. That a fleet officer, someone of his rank, his fame, that he would even… I couldn’t understand it. I thought I must have heard wrong.” He shook his head back and forth slowly as he spoke. Yes, he had been stunned, and he was still stunned. She may have never known Summers as anything more than an asshole, but Gregor had idolized the man.

  “You can get away with a lot when you have that much power.” Val stepped forward to join Gregor and clasped his hand. Even if this was going to make trouble, she was glad he had overheard and that he had charged up, showing once again that he cared. It couldn’t have been easy for him, turning on a legend. “Thank you for coming up to help.”

  Raised voices sounded on the far side of the hangar. Val was certain one of them belonged to Summers.

  “You are welcome.” Gregor looked at her hand, then shifted to face her. He lifted an arm for a hug. She thought it was for a hug, anyway. He paused halfway into the motion and raised his eyebrows in a question. Did she want a hug? Did she want to be touched at all by a man right now?

  She smiled and stepped into his arms. The admiral’s assumptions might have rattled her, but she’d had crude offers before. The incident probably bothered Gregor more than it did her; maybe he needed the hug more than she did. That was fine with her. She wrapped her arms around his waist and buried her face in the side of his neck. After the fight, his skin was moist with sweat, and she blushed, reminded of her dream.

  He clasped the back of her head, his fingers rubbing her gently through her hair. “I wish I had asked about your brother,” he murmured.

  “Oh? Why? It’s nothing you should be concerned about.”

  “I wanted to know about you. I wrote it on my list of things I could discuss with you on the shuttle ride to the base, but I crossed it out because I worried you would be offended by my prying.”

  “You made a list of things we could discuss?” She smiled, having no trouble imagining him doing so by this point.

  “It was part of my pre-flight checklist.”

  “What did you actually end up writing on it? Because I know you never asked about Yarrow.”

  “Basics of Space Flight Quiz,” Gregor said.

  Val giggled. She never giggled, but something about this entire admission tickled her to the core. Of course that had been on the list.

  “You did not seem to enjoy the chance to practice mathematics as much as I had hoped.”

  Still smiling, the nastiness of the earlier encounter fading from her mind, she kissed his neck. “You must think me a terribly strange girl.”

  “A terribly appealing girl,” he said.

  “Mm.” Val had meant her kiss to be nothing more than an affectionate peck, but the salty taste of his skin and the masculine scent of him wrapping around her made her lips want to linger. She kissed him again, then slid her tongue out, tracing the tendon on the side of his throat.

  His fingers had been massaging her scalp, but they stilled at her ministrations. This wasn’t the time or place for another frenzied kissing session, but she didn’t want to pull away from him. Maybe they could sneak back to one of their rooms. Maybe they would get lucky and Summers wouldn’t say anything to anyone, and nothing would come of that fight—that beating.

  “Val?” Gregor whispered. “I should let you know…”

  “Yes?” She’d followed that tendon up to his jaw, and she stood on tiptoes to trace it to his earlobe.

  “I decided…” He cleared his throat. Yes, he did sound a tad hoarse. “I decided my feelings for you would make it impossible to judge whether or not you had displayed the skills necessary to become a permanent Mandrake Company pilot. You have, of course, but I feared that I would appear biased. I am biased. I want you to join.” His words came quickly, breathlessly. She chose to believe that had something to do with the way she was nibbling and sucking at his earlobe. The rise and fall of his chest against hers was quicker than it had been before. “I want you.” His arms tightened, and he bent his head to her throat, inhaling deeply, breathing her in.

  “Good,” she said, almost a groan, for his lips had found sensitive flesh. His tongue slipped out for a taste, and she shuddered, enjoying the contrast of damp warmth from the cool air.

  “Good that I am biased?” Gregor asked. “Or good that I want you?”

  “Yes.” She kneaded his shoulders, luxuriating in the sensation of his lips kissing a path along her throat. His teeth grazed her, and a hot shiver ran through her.

  “I intend to ask… Lieutenant Sequoia… to make the final decision.”

  Between the exquisite touch of his lips and the gentle nips of his teeth, she barely heard him, and managed only another, “Good,” in response. She was the one growing breathless now.

  “I will, of course… give him the details of… how solid you’ve been… on this mission.”

  “Glad to hear it.”

  The fingers that had been rubbing her scalp started moving again, his nails tracing their way down her neck, to her shoulder, and to the front of her blouse. The backs of his knuckles brushed the side of her breast, following its curve, and her nipples hardened in response. It occurred to her that they could simply shut and lock the door to the shuttle for privacy. No need to return to their rooms.

  “Just to be clear,” Val said, turning her head to look at his face. “There’s no question now: there’s nothing to be gained if I sleep with you?”

  Gregor paused, moving his teasing mouth from her throat. His eyes burned with an intensity, a naked lust that heated her as if they were burning her with lasers. “Not of a career or monetary nature,” he said gravely, watching her for a reaction.

  “Of another nature?”

  “You’d gain my adoration. Of course, you already have that.”

  “Good.” She was saying that a lot, wasn’t she? He was so much more articulate than she. Oh, well. She would see how articulate he was when she had her hand around his cock. “I want you too.”

  His eyes widened—had he truly not figured that out yet?—then he cupped the side of her face and kissed her hard. Deep.

  When their lips parted slightly for a breath, she gasped, “The door,” meaning they should close it, but he stopped and looked in that direction, as if he was listening for something.

  She moaned a protest and tried to pull his head back down, but he only gave her a sad look.

  “They’re coming.”

  The thumps of footsteps sounded on the cement. Fast footsteps. Several people were jogging in their direction. Gregor’s arms dropped to his sides, and the cold air engulfed Val like a prison. Reluctantly, oh so reluctantly, she let go of him and stepped back as well. She didn’t know if they managed to look normal, two people standing side by side, when the men with guns charged into view, but at least they weren’t pawing at each other like horny teenagers. Not this time.

  “Commander Thatcher,” the man in front said, “you’re under arrest.”

  12

  The walls shivered, and fine dust sifted down from a fresh crack in the ceiling. The Orenkans had either recovered quickly from their earthquake, or they had sent all of their free forces here, anyway, perhaps trying to destroy Summers before he could enact any more plans detrimental to their continent.

  Gregor paced back and fort
h in the small room, his hands clasped behind his back, wishing there were something he could do. He was in the guest quarters he had been given upon arriving at the base, but he had been searched and all of his belongings had been taken, save for his trousers, boots, shirt, and jacket. The door was locked. He didn’t know if there was a guard or not. He hadn’t heard anyone coughing or shuffling around out there, but it hardly mattered. He didn’t have any tools—or liquid nitrogen—to thwart the lock, and the sturdy metal door wasn’t anything he could kick down.

  He didn’t know how long he paced, but it was long enough to develop an appetite and to wish he had one of his model ships to work on. Then a rap at the door made him jump. As yet, he hadn’t been told a thing. The armed men who had marched him away from the shuttle had stuffed him into the room without answering his questions. In particular, he was eager to know if Val and the rest of the mercenaries had been detained. Captain Mandrake wouldn’t be pleased if Gregor’s… impetuousness resulted in several of his men being tried in Icesphere’s judicial system. Gregor didn’t even know what the judicial system here might be. Would he be assigned a lawyer? Or taken into some dark tunnel and shot?

  The lock clanked. Gregor turned toward the door, his chin up, prepared to face his fate.

  Val’s head poked around the door, her soft hair tumbling free about her shoulders. A spark of hope lightened Gregor’s chest. Her presence on the other side of the door should mean she hadn’t been incarcerated. But when she stepped inside, two armed men came into view in the hallway behind her, and he feared his assessment had been premature. Maybe she was simply being moved into his room, so both prisoners could be guarded in one spot.

  “Door open,” one of the men said.

  “I heard you the first time.” Val gave the men one of her stunningly attractive but utterly sarcastic smiles—Gregor was getting better at recognizing them.

  The men stepped out of sight, but didn’t go far—one’s sleeve was still in view. They lacked the muscled brawn one expected from security officers, and Gregor was fairly certain he had seen at least one of them walking around with the geologist the day before. The base probably didn’t have a dedicated security force. He took note, thinking he might overpower them if he chose to do so, but he did nothing for the moment. He wanted to hear what Val had to say, and until the shuttles were repaired, he wouldn’t have anywhere to flee to, anyway. Even after they were repaired, he might get himself shot trying to escape.

  Val touched Gregor’s arm, a simple action he nonetheless appreciated, and sat on the edge of the bed. She made a face he couldn’t quite read as she pushed aside the fur blankets. He thought of her earlier suggestion that they might snuggle together under one. She doubtlessly would have no interest in snuggling with him when guards were standing a few feet away.

  “So,” she said, dropping her elbows on her knees and threading her fingers together, “I’m being allowed one visit to explain things to you and urge you to accept their offer.” She twitched her eyebrows at the doorway, this expression as sarcastic as the smile had been.

  “Yes?”

  “At the moment, I’m not being held prisoner, nor is anyone from Mandrake Company, but we’ve all been warned that this will change if we attempt to break you out. The rest of the team is proceeding with repairs. Lieutenant Sparks still thinks we can have the shuttle ready to go tomorrow.”

  “Has Captain Mandrake been made aware of the situation?” Gregor cringed inwardly, imagining this news being reported to the ship. He had never thought he would be the sort of officer who got into trouble on a planet and caused the mission to be delayed or otherwise inconvenienced.

  “Yes, but I’m not sure what all was said. Lieutenant Frog called him, and Trainee Calendula wasn’t invited to listen in on important company discourse.” Her mouth twisted, and the way she’d spoken about herself in the third person made him wonder if that was a partial quote.

  The other officers hadn’t worked with her as closely as he had; they didn’t know yet how much responsibility she had taken on during this mission, how faithful she had been to the outfit and to him. Maybe he shouldn’t have been so wishy-washy about his bias; she had performed satisfactorily, as he had said. Admirably, even. Gregor should have sent a message to the captain and recommended that she be given the position along with the rank she deserved. Too late now.

  “As for your actual crime—” the word came with another displeased twist of her lips, “—from what I’ve been able to gather, the story the admiral is telling is that you assaulted him for no reason. He says you were trying to kill him, maybe because someone on the other side offered you payment to get rid of him. If anyone is suspicious of how you received this secret mission without anyone hearing about it, I haven’t been told about it. I don’t know if the base commander believes him—but you left Summers with a face so black-and-blue and swollen that his mother would have a hard time recognizing him.”

  Val looked up at him, and he couldn’t tell if there was disapproval or judgment in her eyes. He felt shame himself. When Summers’s loathsome proposition had come out, Gregor had been so enraged that he had lost control of his mind, all thoughts fleeing, as if he were some animal rather than a thinking and rational human being. He had scarcely been aware that he was pummeling the admiral. Giving into anger wasn’t like him. He was so rarely emotional in any manner, that the fury had surprised him, and he was glad Val had called his name to stop him.

  “I’m planning to talk to Anstrider,” Val said, “in case she would be willing to listen to another side of the story. It could be hard to get any of those people to believe their hero admiral would make a pest of himself with a woman.” Gregor frowned at her muted interpretation of what had appeared to be an attack, but he didn’t interrupt her. “Still, when we first landed, I got the feeling Anstrider wasn’t instantly in love with Summers. He was a prick to her. But I haven’t been able to get close to her for what would have to be a private conversation. Every time I’ve tried, I’ve smacked into Summers. It’s like he’s her new best friend. I don’t know what she thinks about that, but he’s always at her side, always heading me off. It’s almost as if…” She frowned at the floor for a long moment, then murmured, “Huh. I wonder…”

  “What?”

  “Let me tell you what the admiral wanted your punishment to be first, then I’ll run that thought by you. Since it’s wartime, almost all of their able-bodied citizens have been drafted into service. Summers suggested that you be given the option of sitting in this room for the next twenty-four months or flying for them for two years. Going out with their fighters and defending the base or wherever they need you, the same as their own pilots. Then, after those two years, they would consider that you had properly compensated them for your crime, and you would be free to go.”

  Two years here while the rest of the company went off on their next assignments? Two years while Val went off? Would either she or Mandrake welcome him back at the end of that time, or would they forget about him? Find other officers to fill their needs? Just when, after all this time, Gregor had shared how he felt with Val and she had started to reciprocate those feelings, how could they be parted?

  They couldn’t. He would have to break out of here and go back to the ship with the rest of the squadron. It wasn’t as if there weren’t other Mandrake Company mercenaries who had criminal records on the planets they had come from, or other planets whose populaces they had offended along the way.

  Gregor glanced at the open door. He would keep those thoughts to himself for now. “What were you wondering before?” he asked.

  Val looked at the hallway, too, and seemed to debate a moment whether she should answer with an audience listening. “It’s probably crazy, or attributing him with too criminal a mind, but it occurred to me that Summers might have orchestrated all of that. Maybe he knew you were coming somehow, and he thought he could time it so you’d overhear him propositioning me. Maybe, after seeing us kiss, he guessed you’d be fu
rious enough to attack him. Then he could have charges brought up against you. Oh, and it just happens that you’re a brilliant pilot and his people could use pilots, so he’d offer you that particular way to pay off your debt.”

  Someone in the hallway snorted noisily. Gregor considered Val’s musings, but it was hard to imagine Summers putting his tactical mind to something so personal and manipulative. If he’d wanted Gregor, wouldn’t he have shown interest in him at some point? Perhaps attempted to hire him? “I do not have a history of violent crimes,” Gregor pointed out. “I wouldn’t think he could have predicted how I would react in that situation. I wouldn’t have predicted it.”

  “I don’t insist on the theory,” Val said. “Especially since he wasn’t acting about wanting to, uh…” She made one of the system-wide hand gestures that indicated coitus. “It’s just something that came to mind. He’s a shifty old man.”

  “That I will agree to.”

  Val stood up, though she stuck her hands in her pockets and didn’t rush for the door. The walls shuddered again, dust shifting down from the ceiling. She looked up, noticed the crack, and eyed it for a long moment. “I guess I don’t have anything else to say right now. Don’t try anything,” she said, then mouthed an additional, “for now.”

  Gregor nodded gravely.

  “Goodnight.” She hesitated, glanced toward the guards again, then headed for the door. Had she been thinking of a kiss?

  Hoping he had guessed right, Gregor stepped forward, intercepting her. Perhaps she did not care for an audience for private moments, but in case things didn’t work out and he didn’t get another chance… He caught her hands and lowered his mouth for a kiss, though he watched her eyes, still not completely believing she might want kisses from him. Her lips quirked into a smile, and she met him halfway. That smile was delicious, and so was she. If only the guards would close the door and let her stay. As wonderful as the kisses were, they always left him aching for far more.