Jake raised his hands in mock surrender. “Okay. Okay. Charley had a full body scan recently.”
“Yeah. We went to Base Ten to check Liston’s files. You know what security is like there. Why?”
“Her scan showed exposure to Illysium.”
“What?” How the hell had Charley become exposed to a weapons grade isotope?
“It gets worse, Pete. It’s the same stuff that Chris Kendall was caught smuggling five years ago.”
“You mean that Charley was on that ship? But she wasn’t among the hostages we rescued. I would have remembered someone like her.” Chris Kendall’s smuggling operation had almost started a war between two rival factions on the planet. Kendall had died in prison while awaiting trial. Their friend Strom had lost an arm while he was trying to rescue the hostages and they were lucky to get off Tarsus Four alive.
“When General Homes got the report about the isotope, he insisted on a DNA check. Charley is Kendall’s daughter.”
Pete’s heart flipped as everything fell into place—Charley’s fear of getting involved, her reluctance to speak about her family. She had survived three years of the toughest training imaginable to become a Fleet Command officer and all that time she had been lying to everyone.
“I’m sorry, Pete, but I’m under orders to take Charley back to Earth for questioning.”
Pete rocked back in his chair. “They can’t lock her up for being Kendall’s daughter.”
“But they can lock her up for being his pilot. Witness reports said Kendall had a copilot—a teenage boy. Holmes suspects that it might have been Charley.”
Pete remembered Charley landing the ship on Baxar Nine. She had taken the ferocious weather conditions in her stride. That wasn’t something she learned at the Academy. How could Chris Kendall endanger his kid’s life like that? Charley could have ended up in a Tarsian prison. “Damn it, Jake. Give me a chance to talk to her first. You owe me that much.”
Jake shot him a sympathetic glance. “You have until tomorrow morning.” He pressed the com badge on his uniform. “This is Captain Svenson. I need a pilot and shuttle to take a passenger to the Pegasus.”
Charley was waiting for him when he arrived in the shuttle bay. She looked nervous as hell. Jake had obviously told her that he was coming. That was hardly a promising start.
“Shouldn’t you be in sickbay?” she snapped.
“Probably, but I need to get some stuff from the coms room.”
Muttering some excuse about Marc, Charley fled to the bridge. Pete wandered to the coms room and started to pack his things. The mattresses lay together on the floor. He wondered if Charley missed him at night as much as he missed her. Picking up his kit bag, he made his way to the bridge. She was lying in the com chair with the visor on. He could just walk out of here now and let Jake do the dirty work tomorrow, but Charley deserved better than that.
“Charley.” He stroked her arm gently. “We need to talk.”
The visor rolled back slowly. She’d been crying. Pete rubbed his thumb along her cheekbone, brushing the moisture away.
A tear rolled down her face, hovering for a moment on her jaw before dropping into her hair. “I hate you, Pete Olafson.”
“I know, sweetheart.”
He bent his head and slid his lips over her mouth. She opened her mouth to him, parrying her tongue against his, deepening the kiss. She obviously hated him a lot. Pete dropped the bag on the floor and threaded his fingers through the soft strands of her hair. As much as he wanted this, they had to talk first. If they were ever to have a future together, Charley had to learn to trust him. He pulled away reluctantly. “No more kissing until you talk to me. Now tell me what’s wrong.”
“You want to know what’s wrong?” Her gray eyes were silver with unspent tears. “I hate it that I can’t be with you. I hate it that we’re going back to Earth and that I won’t see you anymore.”
She slid off the chair, trying to put some distance between them. “But most of all I hate you because you make me feel like this. Now leave me alone.”
Charley felt a stab of pain as she looked at Pete’s hurt expression. He knew, everyone knew. The moment Captain Svenson had mentioned the Tarsus Four Inquiry, her dreams of escaping her past and becoming a Fleet Command officer had turned to dust. The last three years had all been for nothing. God knew what was facing her when she got back to Earth. Pete shook his head in disbelief, picked up his kit bag and stormed out of the room.
She had really messed up this time. Charley closed her eyes. Memories of the past week flooded back. Pete biting her neck to mark her as his. A blood-covered Pete standing in a circle of Vashtar mercenaries, taking a vicious beating to protect them. Pete pushing her out of the way when Kirez tried to kill her. He knew who she really was and yet he had still come back for her. How could she have been so stupid?
Charley let the visor fall. Marc would have to wait. Springing off the chair, she raced toward the shuttle bay. Her footsteps echoed along the empty corridors. She could feel her heart pounding and the air rushing through her lungs. She stopped at the entrance, trying to catch her breath before she opened the door.
The shuttle was gone.
Charley felt hollow, empty. She couldn’t blame her dad for this one. She had done a great job of sabotaging this relationship all on her own. She made her way back to the coms room. There was a low hiss as the door opened. The room was in darkness. She stumbled toward the bed. As her eyes became accustomed to the gloom, she realized that she wasn’t alone. A dark form lay on the mattress.
“What took you so long?”
She flung herself onto the bed. “Oh Pete, I thought you were gone.”
A low rumble of laughter came from his chest. “I thought about it, for all of ten seconds. But then I’d just have to hijack a shuttle and come back to you.”
“They know, don’t they?”
Pete nodded. His eyes were full of sympathy. “Sorry, Charley, General Holmes requested a DNA check when Base Ten found Illysium in your scan.”
Charley sighed. It was over. For the last three years she had been waiting for the tap on her shoulder that would tell her that she had been found out. Now that it had finally come, she didn’t know what to do. She was going to prison for sure, but somehow, none of that mattered now, only Pete. “So you’ve come here to…”
A flicker of shock crossed his face. “Arrest you? Hell no. I love you, Charley. I don’t care about the other stuff.”
He loved her. Pete loved her. She didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Charley rained frantic kisses on his face.
Pete’s strong hands slid down along her shoulders and he pushed her away gently. “Charley, I’m not very good at this, but I think this is where you’re supposed to say something to me.”
The words welled up inside her. “I love you. I think I’ve loved you from the moment you carried me out of the fountain.”
Relief washed across his face. “I’m going to do whatever it takes to make sure that you don’t end up in prison, but you’ve got to tell me everything, and I mean everything.”
Out if came, in fits and starts—her dad, her mom, moving from planet to planet when her dad lost one job after another and learning to fly.
“How old were you?”
“I was almost nine when I flew solo for the first time. Dad used to pack the pilot’s chair with the jacket of his flight suit so that I could reach the controls.”
She heard Pete’s swift indrawn breath. “And after that?”
“We moved around a lot. I was registered with the Interstellar Education Program. I don’t think I saw the inside of a real classroom until I was twelve. I hated it. By then, I was too tall and I knew too much. When I refused to go back, Dad got me a fake ID and I got my copilot’s license. I worked with him after that.”
“What happened on the last flight?”
“One of the passengers was sick all the time. I had to clean his cabin almost every day. I tried to get my dad to take u
s to a medi-station.” Her voice faltered. “Tarsus Four wasn’t on the flight plan. Dad said it was to let the sick passenger off, but then the soldiers came. Oh Pete, I was so scared. I hid in the service chute, but I could still hear them. They shot the man who was sick and they took my dad.”
Pete’s arms tightened around her. “What did you do then?”
“I was afraid to go home, so I commed my grandparents. They wired me enough credits so that I could get to their place and I stayed there until I passed the entrance exam for Fleet Academy.”
Pete stared at the unfinished ceiling of the coms room. He couldn’t get the image of the little girl who was too small to reach the ship’s controls out of his mind. If Chris Kendall wasn’t dead, he would have hunted him down and killed him. His mind raced furiously, there had to be a way out of this. He dropped a light kiss on her forehead. “Let’s go back to the bridge. I need to talk to Tin Man.”
Charley was annoyed when he wouldn’t let her speak to Marc, and even more annoyed when he wouldn’t tell her what was going on. He couldn’t tell anyone yet—not even her. “Sorry, Charley, it’s classified.”
She flashed him a warning glance. “You expect me to tell you everything about my life and then you shut me out. Are you turning caveman again, Olafson?”
He advanced toward Charley until her legs were pinned against the com chair. “Do you want me to? I seem to remember that you punched me the last time.” Two pink spots appeared on her cheeks. He liked making her blush.
“That was different,” she protested. “You bit me—”
He silenced her protests with a searing kiss. This would be their last night together for a while and he wasn’t going to waste it. “Ensign Maxwell, I believe you’re wearing far too many clothes.”
His tongue delved between her lips again, stroking against hers, demanding a response. Pete heard a helpless sigh as she conceded. He opened the top buttons of her tunic with deft fingers. He lifted Charley up and dropped her gently into the com chair. Colors played on the walls of the bridge when her fingers made accidental contact with the visor. “Offline, Marc,” he ordered in a gruff tone. “Unless you want to see something that you shouldn’t.”
Pete wrestled with the fastenings on her pants and tossed them onto the floor. His arms caged her, pinning her against the soft leather of the chair as he kissed her again. In the muted glow of the lights on the bridge, her gray eyes looked silver. Her pale skin contrasted with the dark leather of the chair. Charley was beautiful, and it had been far too long since the last time they were together. His tongue traced a path along her neck, moving slowly downward to lave one rosy peak. Charley gave a little moan that sent the blood rushing to his cock. “*Put your hands behind your head, Ensign Maxwell.”
Charley giggled. For a moment he though she would object. But she folded her hands behind her head obediently. “Pete, what are you—”
“Shhh.” He silenced her with another kiss. “Close your eyes.”
Pete nuzzled her breast again and her breath caught. His fingers traced a path along the pale skin of her abdomen, pausing when he reached her mound. Charley shivered in anticipation. When his calloused thumb brushed the tiny nub, she let out a soft whimper. He traced a slow, soft circle.
She squirmed against his hand, seeking more pressure. “Please, Pete—”
“Quiet, or I’ll stop.”
Charley bit her lip, trying not to moan. Still teasing her with his thumb, Pete pushed two fingers inside her, meeting her silky wetness. God she was hot. He pumped his fingers in and out with maddening slowness, while her inner muscles clenched, trying to hold him prisoner. Bending his head, he took the tiny nub into his hot mouth, sucking and laving as she moved her hips against his face. The scent and taste of her maddened him. He wanted to drag his clothes off and thrust into her sweetness. He increased the speed of his pumping fingers, tongue lapping against her clit. When his teeth replaced his tongue, raking lightly across the sensitive tip, Charley cried out. A thin film of sweat covered her brow. She shook her head from side to side, trying not to speak, trying to hold still. She was close. He inserted a third finger into her while continuing his merciless assault on her clit.
Keeping his fingers in place, he traced a path along her abdomen with his mouth and along the underside of her breasts, taking each hard peak into his mouth in turn until she whimpered. He bit gently on the fading bruises on her neck before taking her mouth again in a hot possessive kiss. Charley release a throaty moan, bucking against him. “Come for me, Charley.”
Charley fell apart, her tight sheath squeezing his fingers as she cried out her release. His cock felt as if it could drill a hole in the bulkhead. Every vein, every ridge was swollen with desire. He withdrew his fingers slowly and licked them, tasting her. He had to have her now.
Tossing his shirt over his head, he hurried to the end of the com chair. The colored lights on the bridge played over her still trembling body. Tin Guy was still online. Pete was past caring. He fumbled with the fastening of his pants and withdrew his rock-hard shaft. Pete lifted Charley’s legs and pulled her toward him, resting her pale smooth limbs against his shoulders. He entered her in a long slow thrust. He could feel her sheath squeezing him, still trembling from her last orgasm. Pete gave a guttural groan. He wasn’t going to last long.
Charley gasped with pleasure at the sudden invasion. She raised her hips to meet his in eager counter thrust. Pete twisted his hips, driving deeper. His fingers sought her swollen clit again and she made a helpless whimpering sound, her breath came in heady gasps. He was almost there. His thrusts increased in momentum, driving into her with punishing force. Charley cried out—a high-pitched keening sound that sent him over the edge. Her inner muscles clasped around him, tight as a vise. With a final thrust, he spent himself, pumping his semen deep inside her before collapsing against her in a sweating heap.
They lay panting against each other until his racing heart calmed. Charley spoke first. “That was amazing, but you do realize that we’ve probably broken about a hundred Fleet Command regulations?”
Pete raised his head, pressing a wet kiss against her mouth. “I won’t tell if you don’t.”
Charley pulled him closer and he felt a soft giggle rising in her chest. “Is that an order, Sir?”
“Absolutely, Ensign Maxwell.” Pete sighed. The next few weeks without her were going to be hell.
Chapter Twelve
Smile. The class posed on the main staircase for yet another image for the family databases. Parents clustered in groups around the lobby, waiting to go into the hall for the graduation ceremony. Charley looked around the crowds. Until last night, she didn’t know if they would let her graduate. Even now, her heart filled up with happiness when she thought of the people who had come forward to support her over the past few weeks—Pete, Jake Svenson, Karl Hayes and General Holmes. One session of the inquiry had taken place on the Pegasusso that Marc could give evidence.
The verdict was issued late last night. Fleet Command had agreed to seal the record of her juvenile crimes. They didn’t want her locked up. She would face a penalty for using a fake ID to get into the Academy and she had no idea where her first posting would be, but it was over.
While she was confined to base, Pete had his hands full trying to mediate between an overbearing mother-in-law and an independent Cyraelian girl who didn’t care about Earth wedding customs. Jake had caved in and they had eloped last night to marry under the stars in a traditional Cyraelian ceremony. Late this afternoon, they would get married again in the garden of Jake’s family home. Two weddings in less than twenty-four hours—trust the techie to think that one up.
Her mom had sent a message to say that it would be a while before she could make the long journey back to Earth to see her. It had been hard on her, having the past raked up again. Charley sighed. One of the most important days of her life, and no one was here to share it. She joined her classmates at the front of the hall and silence fell as General Holm
es approached the podium. As their names were called out, Charley could hear the clapping and cheering of proud families. Finally, the roll call was complete.
“Before I bring this ceremony to a close, I have one further announcement to make.” The general looked around the hall until his eyes found hers.
The hall fell silent again as the general spoke. “It’s not often that I am privileged to present a Fleet Command Medal of Honor, and rarer still do I get an opportunity to award it to someone who has yet to be assigned her first posting.”
As an excited murmur swept around the hall, Misha reached over and squeezed her hand. Charley’s heart fluttered like a wild bird. She was going to be sick.
The general continued. “For extraordinary heroism, at the risk of life and above the call of duty, I have great pleasure in awarding the Fleet Command Cross to Ensign Charley Maxwell.”
Someone slid into the seat behind her. “Well, aren’t you going to collect it?”
Charley turned in her chair to find Pete behind her. “You said you couldn’t make it.”
“I lied.” Pete grinned shamelessly. “You didn’t really think I’d miss your graduation?”
She made her way to the front of the hall and shook the general’s hand. He flipped open a flat wooden box and pinned the medal on her uniform. Charley heard Misha shout and a cheer rang out around the hall.
“Congratulations, Ensign Maxwell.”
Her classmates rushed forward and Charley found herself being hoisted up and carried the length of the hall. She managed to wriggle free and her eyes searched the crowd for Pete. He was in close conversation with the general and they were both looking in her direction. The men shook hands and she watched as Pete made his way through the crowd. “Let’s get out of here.”
Hand in hand, they raced down the steps and out onto the concourse. Pete looked at the fountain. “Are you sure you don’t want to hop in for old time’s sake? It might be a while before you see it again.”
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