She was smiling as she pulled away from him, so charmed by the warm smile he bestowed on her that it was several moments before she realized that the red glow behind him was growing.
“Oh my God! That thing! It isn't dead! Caleb!"
Caleb whirled to look, stared, but didn't move.
“Get rid of it! Caleb, for God's sake!"
“Can't move,” Caleb ground out, but managed to force himself to take several steps toward the glowing flack vest that concealed the alien object.
Breanna felt as if she was moving through a nightmare herself. As she swung her head from left to right to see if the others had been affected, as well, she saw that they were as frozen as Caleb, more so. They looked like immovable statues.
The thing had enough strength left to focus upon them all, enough to render them helpless, even though it, apparently, no longer had the strength to control them like the puppets it had made of all the others.
With an effort, Breanna, too, began to move toward it, struggling as if she was moving through quicksand, gaining only inches at a time. It seemed to take an eternity to reach the obelisk, ten lifetimes to carry it to the disposal trap. She was exhausted by the time she'd managed to force the thing inside and wondered if she had enough energy left to jettison the thing. She saw to her relief, however, that Caleb had focused upon reaching the controls even as she had struggled to reach the hatch.
It occurred to her suddenly to wonder if she was wrong, to wonder if that thing had more control of Caleb than she'd thought. What if it made him open the main hatch, instead of the garbage hatch?
With that thought, she forced herself to move toward him. She was still moving as if in a nightmare, however, struggling as hard as she could, but making almost no progress and she saw it was hopeless even as she tried to save them all. In horror, she watched as Caleb's hand hovered over the button that would spell doom for them all for endless moments before his hand began to descend.
“Noooooooo!” she screamed, but it was too late.
His finger connected. Breanna closed her eyes as she heard the roar of escaping air, expecting any moment to feel the air being sucked from her lungs. She felt a lightening, weightlessness, gasped ... and slowly opened her eyes when she realized it wasn't weightlessness she felt, but a relief from the pressure that had held her in it's grip.
Caleb was smiling at her. “Close ... Too damn close!"
“You jettisoned the thing?"
“Oh yeah."
Breanna felt a laugh of relief rise from her chest. It felt like the most wonderful, carefree laughter in the world and she let it out, enjoyed it. She saw that the others were looking at her, stunned, but she didn't care, because Caleb was smiling back, and then laughing too.
With a cry of sheer pleasure, she rushed into his waiting arms, laughing and crying at the same time. “It's over. Finally, it's over!"
Caleb pulled a little away from her, but his arms never left her. Slowly, his own laughter died away until only a faint smile curled his lips. He shook his head. “Wrong."
Breanna felt her own laughter subside at that, but she was still smiling because she knew, finally, that the nightmare that had plagued her all of her life was finally over. “Wrong?"
Caleb pulled her close, nuzzled her neck and slowly, tantalizingly, blazed a trail from her neck to her cheek and finally touched her lips lightly with his own. “I'm thinking it's just beginning."
* * *
Epilogue
The first Breanna knew that Caleb had returned was when he caught her from behind and tumbled onto the bed with her. Rolling onto his back, he took her with him so that she was sprawled on top of him.
Bracing her arms on his chest, she looked down at him, smiling as she shook her head at him. “I almost had this bed made,” she chided him.
He grinned up at her. “I figured I was saving you from a pointless exercise."
She gave him a look. “Pointless?"
He nodded. “As pointless as you putting your clothes back on,” he murmured, tossing her onto the bed and proceeding to remove them despite her protests.
She propped her head on her hand when he sat up to skim out of his own clothing, watching him, a half smile playing around her mouth. “I love you, Caleb Sylvaine."
His head whipped around. For several moments, he merely stared at her. Finally, he dove for her, grabbing her and rolling across the bed. “Not half as much as I love you,” he said when they'd come to a halt with Breanna sprawled on top of him once more.
“At least half,” she said teasingly.
He gave her a puppy dog frown of dismay. “Only half?"
She chuckled. Leaning down, she kissed his lips lingeringly. “You know damn well I adore you, you ass, so stop fishing."
Smiling faintly, he lifted a hand to caress her cheek. “I like to hear it, though,” he murmured, spearing his fingers through her hair and tugging her down to meet his kiss.
What started as a gentle caress, quickly escalated, as it usually did with them, into a wild mating of tongues and bodies. Breanna kissed her way down his chest to his belly and caught his erect cock in her hand, watching his face as she massaged his heated flesh, feeling the heat and tension mount inside of her as she saw his face contort in pleasure.
Moving further, she opened her mouth over the head of his cock, sucked it, then ran her tongue along the sensitive ridge.
Groaning, he caught her hips. Dragging her toward him, he pushed her thighs apart and ran his tongue along her cleft, sucking her clit as she'd sucked the head of his cock. She made a sound of passion in her throat and began moving her mouth over the length of his cock, feeling her own pleasure mount as she caressed him with her mouth.
He gasped, arched up to meet her and then moved his mouth over her fervently, teasing and sucking at her clit. Within moments, she felt herself building toward culmination.
She closed her mind to it, staving off her release as she focused on bringing him to the brink of completion with her.
He groaned, jerked within her grasp as she pushed him to the limits of his endurance. Abruptly, he pulled away from her, tossing her onto her back and thrusting inside of her in almost one motion. She cried out as his first, deep penetration sent her over the edge, clinging to him. He shuddered as her climax set his own off, thrusting into her jerkily, shuddering and finally collapsing weakly on top of her.
She stroked his back lovingly, luxuriating in the warm sense of completion she felt in the aftermath of their lovemaking.
Finally, with an effort, he rolled off of her, pulling her tightly against his side and stroking her body.
She sighed shifting closer and laying her cheek against his chest. “What's going to happen now? To us, I mean? We pretty well destroyed the company—which I'm happy to say, but that leaves us both high and dry."
He nudged her chin up. “As it happens, I have the solution, Major."
She gave him a look. “You do?"
He nodded. “I just got confirmation—the jobs are ours if we want them."
Breanna frowned. “What jobs?"
He shrugged. “The colony of Tristan is in serious need of experienced officers. After reviewing the resumes I sent them, they've offered you the position of Major in the colonial militia—and me a captaincy."
“You're serious?"
“I told them we were married."
Breanna blinked at him, lifting away from him and bracing her palms on his chest. “You told them what?"
“That you and I would be serving as husband and wife—or not at all."
Breanna stared at him. She didn't know what stunned her most, the fact that the colony wanted them badly enough they were willing to accept them as a couple—a married couple—or the fact that Caleb had just proposed. “Is that a proposal?"
He studied her warily. “You don't like the idea?"
She studied him a long moment and finally shook her head. Leaning down, she kissed him soundly on the lips. “No—I love it!"
THE END
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Endless Night Page 16
