Her Commander: The Orion, Book 2

by Cathryn Cade

  As the door slammed behind her, she realized how small the open space left by the huge bed and the other furniture. She was close enough to catch his scent, warm, musky and male. Those pheromones again. Close enough to see the dilation of his pupils, the flare of his nostrils. The firm set of his mouth, although she knew how soft that mouth was on hers. She wanted to taste it now. To twine herself around him like a vine and kiss him until all he could do was make love to her.

  Trying to ignore her own response, she narrowed her eyes at him. “Must you treat me as a common suspect, Steven Craig? Neither I, nor any of the others, appreciate having our minds invaded.”

  He returned her gaze steadily. “What would you have me do, Tessa? I’m responsible for the lives of all the innocent beings on this ship, as well as the Orion herself. Would you have me ignore any possible means of protecting them?”

  She found herself flushing. “No, of course not.”

  “There is nothing to fear from Commander Navos,” he said. “He is not interested in private emotions and thoughts. Only harmful ones. Angry ones.”

  Tessa scowled up at him, her flush deepening. “He’ll find angry thoughts in my mind. Is that what you are intimating?”

  “You’re angry. At me?”

  “Of course, at you!” she said indignantly. “Who else would I be angry at?”

  His mouth twitched. “Who else indeed?”

  She watched him suspiciously, even as warmth unfurled at the beguiling humor in his deep voice. Part of her wanted to go to him, share a smile at the push and pull of their relationship. But anger and hurt held her back.

  He looked down, his lips pursing in grim acceptance. “Very well,” he said. “I’ll let you get on with your duties. Here, let me get the door for you.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  Astonished by his abrupt dismissal, Tessa hesitated, and then turned to precede him out of the room. She felt let down.

  The lights winked out, leaving them in utter blackness, even as he moved, trapping her between his large, hard body and the closed door.

  “You!” she hissed, stiffening in his grip. “I should have known you’d play a trick!”

  She felt his face against her cheek, his mouth curving up in a grin. “Yes,” he said into her ear. “You really should have.”

  He trapped her feet between his as she tried to kick at him, and grasped her wrists in his hands, holding them against the cool metal of the door.

  “Now,” he said against her throat, his face nuzzling her sensitive skin, making her shiver with instant reaction. “You can probably do me damage if you wish, Tessa mine. Or…you can let me pleasure you. All you have to do…is nothing.”

  His hands moved over her in the dark, drawing down the zipper of her jacket, smoothing up her light undershirt, cupping her breasts, fondling them into peaked arousal before sliding down to push her tights down to her knees.

  “No one has to know,” he went on, his deep voice hushed, his hands relentless. He cupped her mons with one large, hot hand, calloused fingertips delving into her labia as with the other he plucked at her nipples, first one breast, then the other. “It’s our secret, sweet Tessa.”

  And her hands remained where he had planted them, flat against the cool door, as was her cheek, as he drove his fingers gently up into her pussy, drawing sleek wetness forth with every caress of her eager, quivering flesh.

  In the blackness, and without being able to touch him, she could concentrate only on his touch, and the scent of her own arousal, and the soft, uneven sound of her breath, the wet squelch of his fingers priming her, and his deep voice in her ear.

  “I want you,” he said. “I want you when I lie in my bed, alone. I want you when I take myself in hand in the shower. And when I come, it’s your face I see, your pussy I imagine, holding me like a hot, wet little fist.”

  As he spoke, he urged her bare bottom back against him with a big hand on her belly. She whimpered with helpless joy as she felt his cock in the furrow of her ass, like a hot, silken brand. She lifted up on her toes, fighting the stretchy tights about her knees to part her legs as far as she could, arching to press back against him.

  He laughed, a low wicked sound in her ear.

  “Steven,” she gasped. “Please—I’m ready.”

  “But I’m not,” he said and smacked her on her bare bottom. “Come here, sweetheart.”

  She turned, frowning at him, and covering herself with her hands as the lights came up a little. He sat on the edge of his bed, his uniform unfastened so that a swathe of his powerful torso was bared from throat to groin. His cock thrust out, quivering with eagerness.

  “You look ready to me,” she blurted, and then blushed as he smiled at her. It was a wolf’s grin, all white teeth and ferocious intent.

  He palmed his cock, stroking up, then down the turgid length. She pressed her thighs together, wanting it inside her so badly she throbbed.

  “Undress for me,” he told her.

  Tessa hesitated, and then let her unfastened jacket fall back off her arms. She pulled her camisole over her head and bent to tug her tights the rest of the way down, stepping out of them. Craig watched intently, and she straightened, her shoulders back, head high.

  “Do I please you?” she asked, her voice just above a whisper, her heart thumping with excitement.

  “If you pleased me any more, I’d be coming right now.”

  He held out his hand, and she took it, then let him guide her to kneel between his legs. He bent, holding her face between his hands, and kissed her deeply, then gently pressed her face against his bare chest.

  Tessa kissed him, inhaling the special musky scent of his body. She slipped her hands inside his uniform and pushed it open wider, caressing him with her hands as well.

  His hands cupping her head guided her to one of his small, flat nipples. Experimentally, she licked it. She felt him shudder and smiled to herself.

  “Use your teeth,” he urged. “Gently.”

  She followed the gentle tug of his hands, kissing her way down his belly, until his penis thwacked her under the chin. She gasped, but let him pull her further.

  “Tessa…” he said. “I want your mouth. Use that sweet butterfly tongue on me.”

  She knew about this, had heard other females in the guard laughing about it together. Males loved it, they said. It seemed a strange thing to love, but then she recalled his mouth on her. The thought of pleasing him that much aroused her so she had to press her thighs together again.

  He was hot and silky in her mouth. She was surprised by how he quivered at her touch, then pleased, realizing the power she held over this strong male. She experimented, teasing him with flicks and swirls of her tongue. He shuddered, his fingers tangled in her hair.

  “Suck on it,” he said. “That’s it…take me as deep as you can. Ah, Tessa! Great god beyond!”

  She could take him very deep, it transpired. Serpentians did not have a gag reflex. She stretched her mouth and throat around him, the broad head bumping against the back of her throat. And his response was so thrilling that she found herself reaching down to cup her mons as she pleasured him.

  “Ah, you like it,” he said. She looked up to find him watching her. His eyes were heavy and hot, his face and throat flushed. “Mmm, another time I’ll stay,” he said, “but now I want in your tight little pussy. I want to watch you go wild on me.”

  He watched as his wet cock slid out of her mouth. Then he lifted her up, holding her by the waist.

  “You’re wet for me,” he said, cupping her mons.

  “I touched myself while I…I kissed you,” she told him, her cheeks flaming as he grinned that wolf’s grin.

  “Like this?” He pulled her astride him, stroking his fingers up into her wet petals of flesh and watching as she rocked her hips, rubbing herself against his fingers. He grazed her swollen clitoris, and she whimpered, seeking the rough heat of his touch again. He gave it to her.

  “Look at me while you take me insid
e you,” he commanded. Tessa forced her eyes open, and he positioned the head of his cock in the furrow of her labia, then looked up into her eyes.

  “Now, Tessa.”

  She flexed her hips, working to envelop him in her sleek depths. He watched, his nostrils flared, jaw clenched, his gaze flicking up to hers and back again.

  Excited beyond reasoning by his piercing gaze holding hers while she gave herself to him, Tessa whimpered, small sounds of need and sensation. At last he was deep in her, filling her, stretching her.

  He pulled her against him, her breasts pressed against his chest, and kissed her. She kissed him back, wrapping her arms around his neck and teasing his tongue into her mouth where she could suck on it. She began to move, riding him with tiny undulations of her hips.

  Craig groaned, deep in his chest, his arms tightening on her.

  “Little tease,” he said against her mouth. “You know just how to drive me mad, don’t you? Ride me harder, sweetheart. Drive us both wild.”

  With his hands on her hips, he showed her how to ride up and down on his shaft.

  “Oh!” She was delighted to realize that she was in control. She could ride him as fast and hard as she wanted. “I—I am having you, this time.”

  He laughed breathlessly. “Yes, you are, little warrior. And very well, too.”

  He slid one hand down over her mound, finding her clitoris. She pressed her hand over his, holding it to her with complete unselfconsciousness so that he was caressing her within and without, feeling pleasure grow and grow.

  She heard a wild little cry build in her throat and escape.

  “That’s it,” he said roughly. “It’s good, isn’t it, sweetheart?”

  “Yes,” she cried, gazing into his eyes as it began.

  He threw back his head, and arched under her, his hands digging into her thighs.

  “Ahh!” he cried. “I can feel you milking me. So good—so…good!”

  In that moment, Tessa would have killed or died to keep him inside her. The pleasure burst in that awesome culmination only he could produce in her, and she screamed helplessly.

  His voice rasped into a hoarse groan of utter ecstasy, and he slammed into her, flooding her with his hot seed.

  Craig fell backwards, taking Tessa with him. She lay there, gasping for breath as if she had been fighting, feeling his body relaxed under her, his chest working like a bellows, his breath gusting.

  “Oh,” she sighed, toes curling. “Oh, Steven—it’s so perfect, when we have each other.”

  “Mmm, I told you it would be good,” he murmured, his voice husky. He pressed a kiss to the top of her head, cupping his hand around the nape of her neck. She gave a little hunch of pleasure at the tender caress, and rolled over as he urged her, feeling the soft covers under her bare bottom and back.

  “Now, what did you want to speak with me about?” he asked, fastening his uniform with one hand as he leaned over her.

  The lights came on again, bathing them in a soft glow. Looking up at his handsome face, flushed with sexual satisfaction, Tessa was unable to recall anything other than what they had just done together. She liked the possessive gleam in his blue eyes as he surveyed her naked curves. She wanted to pull him down into her arms and hold him.

  Then the worry pricked at her again. She reached up to lay a hand on his chest, warm and strong. His heart beat beneath her palm.

  “There are two things. First, I—I’m worried about the mind scan. I don’t want anyone to look into my thoughts.”

  Craig’s gaze cooled as if he had pulled a shield down over his eyes.

  “Tessa, I cannot and will not assist you in avoiding the mind scan. Go and see Commander Navos first thing in the morning. Then you and I can talk.”

  She stared up at him, an unpleasant chill snaking through her. He had done it again—withdrawn from her behind his uniform.

  She pushed at him.

  “Let me up.”

  He moved, and she shot to her feet, grabbing her clothing and dressing with swift, jerky movements on her way to the door.

  “Tessa—”

  She turned with one hand on the door. “Captain, you were correct. You and I have nothing to say to one another.”

  He slapped one hand on the door, preventing her from opening it.

  “Tessa, I can’t treat you any differently than the rest of the crew,” he said, his eyes flashing blue ice. “There’s nothing out there but the cold, dark void of space, and there’s no way off this ship—no escape if anything goes wrong. I am the captain. I’m responsible for every being on this ship—maybe the last one standing between them and death. And as a guard, so are you. Your shipmates must have utter confidence in you, and so must I.”

  She saw his point, but she was infuriated by his refusal to see hers. Even if she was unsure she had expressed it clearly. Rattled by the swift change from utter intimacy to discord, she simply wanted out.

  “I didn’t come here to try to get out of the testing,” she said through her teeth. “I will do my duty to our ship. But you—you don’t listen to me!”

  He set his jaw impatiently, tugging at his collar. “What, then?”

  She glowered at him. “Nothing. I’ll handle it myself.”

  She wasn’t sure, but she thought he rolled his eyes as she stormed out.

  “We land on Bartis in only a few hours. I think we should go and make sure the female Scala is doing her task as agreed.” Ggee paced back and forth in the Orion’s arboretum. “If she doesn’t plant it before we land…”

  Hha looked around nervously. “Keep your voice down,” he muttered.

  “No one can hear us over the waterfall,” Ggee said, but he stopped near Hha to speak again.

  “We must go to the stateroom where they plan to disperse the gas. It’s the only way to know if they are doing their job. If we screw this one up—”

  They stared at each other. If they screwed up, Rra would be very angry—and they both feared the consequences of that. He had given them very unpleasant orders to follow if they were discovered.

  As one, they turned and hurried out of the arboretum.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Tessa’s anger carried her down the elevator and straight to the quadrant of the ship that had been set aside for the guards’ quarters. She was furious at Steven Craig. How dare he cozen her into doing those things, and then treat her like a member of his crew. She might be in love with him, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t an overbearing bastard!

  She tossed her head. Perhaps she needed to be more like a male. There was something freeing about this having a quick sexual encounter and then going off to do what she pleased. She would not be the captain’s flavor of the voyage—he would be hers. She shied away from the idea of this being their only time together. She couldn’t think about that now. She would deal with it later.

  For now, before any gathering of the guard, she wanted it clear to Scala and her sly friends that she would no longer be the butt of their jokes. She would fight them if necessary. She was as good as Scala, and better than Tuala.

  She strode out of the elevator and along the passageway to Tuala’s stateroom. It was at the far end of a curving section of hallway, where the passage hooked around a ventilation shaft. The design of the ship made use of every possible inch of space. Elevators as well as narrow spiral stairs led up to the main passenger quarters in case of emergency.

  A trio of the guard passed her, going the other way.

  “Going the wrong way, Cadet,” one of them grinned. “Barillian concert in the mess hall. Don’t want to miss those pipes.”

  “I’ve heard nothing, but I’ll be there in a moment.”

  She checked her com-link and realized why she had heard nothing—she had turned her link off before entering Craig’s quarters. She certainly hadn’t wanted a communiqué coming through while she was with him. There was indeed a stored message announcing the impromptu concert.

  She scowled at her com-link. She would activa
te it in a few moments, after she confronted whoever was at Tuala’s party. She had better make it quick, or they would be going to the concert as well. Barillians were temperamental passengers, but the music of their skull pipes was hauntingly lovely.

  She neared the end of the passageway. It was very quiet—even the ceiling lights were dim. She looked up, uneasy when they did not brighten at her passing as they were supposed to. Perhaps she should call that in to Halix’s crew.

  Then she heard voices ahead—staccato, not the soft, liquid vowels of Serpentia. What were Pangaeans doing back here? It was nowhere near the arboretum. Suddenly the dim lights took on a sinister meaning.

  Tessa opened the door to a storage closet and ducked inside—leaving the door open a crack. No sooner had she concealed herself than two Pangaeans appeared around the curve in the passage. In the dimness, their hair and skin glowed with a faint green light. They wore the expensive expedition-wear often affected by tourists.

  They looked familiar—she was sure she had noticed them before. Weren’t they the two who had boarded at Chanticleer?

  The taller one pointed toward her, and she poised herself, adrenaline surging through her veins, ready to attack. But then she realized he was pointing at the door next to the closet where she was concealed. Tuala’s room. She heard a soft knock, and then they disappeared into the room.

  She relaxed her stance, but her mind raced. A Pangaean had been the saboteur on the Orion’s first voyage. Could these two be his replacements? But what were they doing in Tuala’s room? Could the other woman be in on their plot?

  She shook her head. The easygoing Tuala hardly seemed the type to betray her ship. Tessa would sooner suspect Scala.

  Tessa frowned at the thought of Scala. Lately there had been a bitter edge to her tongue. She had not only mocked Tessa’s feelings for Craig, it was she who had suggested others were mocking her also. How far did Scala’s malice go? What if her friend Tuala was the Serpentian for whom Navos was searching? Would she be angry, or sympathize?

  His mind scans would continue in the morning. If any Serpentians were in on the plot, they would be discovered by Navos soon. If anything were to happen, it would have to be tonight.