by Merry Farmer
Danny’s crooked mouth twitched to argue with her, but he kept it shut. Splotches of red had been growing progressively brighter on his face.
After a pregnant pause, he answered, “For now.”
He shifted forward in his seat and leaned his elbows against his knees.
“It’s only logical sense to redistribute the sexes between the camps. Especially if nature is taking its course.” His voice hardened at his last statement. He cleared his throat. “I do think you’re setting yourself up for a fool’s errand, though.”
“I know.” She sighed and leaned back in her seat, un-crossing her legs and letting her back relax. “Well, maybe,” she reconsidered. “All we really know about Brian is what the rumors on the Argo told us. He might not be such a loose cannon.”
Danny raised an eyebrow at her statement. He took a breath before saying. “Whether he is or is not is irrelevant. We both saw what he thinks of Kinn. I don’t think he would give the man a penny to buy a coffee, just on principle.”
“And clearly he is a man of his principles.”
She stared at the arm of Danny’s chair, focused on the problem, chewing her nail. It was a relief to concentrate on her strengths, on problem-solving. Her eyes flickered to meet his.
“You don’t suppose he’d be open to a well-reasoned, expertly presented argument?” She managed a faint smirk.
“Not when he holds all the cards and when they’re all queens.” He returned her smile.
She felt that smile through her body to the tips of her toes, more potent than any embrace. It wasn’t just the men who were feeling the teeth of this moon’s aggression. How they could get anything done with so many hormones in the air was beyond her.
“Hey, Danny.” They were interrupted as Jonah jogged into Danny’s workspace.
“Jonah,” Danny nodded.
Jonah held out a clump of fuzzy greenery with blue flowers on top and dirt-caked roots on the bottom. “I found this near the river. I wondered if you’d seen it yet.”
Danny moved to take the plant from Jonah. His eyes lit up. “No, I haven’t. Thanks.” He set it on his table.
Grace expected him to ask more questions. Instead he merely glanced from the plant to her to Jonah with a smile that Grace could have sworn was an order for Jonah to go away.
Jonah shifted his weight. “I’ve finished setting traps for the hamsters. Do you want me to check the ones on the north side of the camp?”
Danny rubbed his forehead. “No, we just set them this morning. Why don’t you see if Dave needs any help chopping wood?”
“Yeah, sure.”
Jonah jogged off. Grace watched him go.
“Why is he asking you what to do?” she wondered aloud.
Danny shrugged and picked up the plant Jonah had brought him. He studied it, then reached for his notebook.
Grace drew in a breath and leaned back. She listened to the wind in the trees above them, the singing of the birds and shifting of unknown animals in the undergrowth. It was a comfort to sense life all around her, to have a part in it. It felt like the other side of a storm.
“What we need is to discover something that Brian wants badly enough to negotiate. Kinn thinks food, but I don’t know.” She let her logical mind wander back to the issue at hand. One awkward incident wasn’t going to destroy her goals, for her people or for herself.
Danny put down the new plant and watched her for a few seconds as she lost herself in the problem. She met his stare with a smile, and he picked up his clipboard and pen to return to his original work. Ideas poured into her mind as she sat by his side. She fought the urge to prop her feet up on the arm of his chair. It was almost like being back in his cabin on the Argo. Almost.
Unbidden, her thoughts drifted to Sean and Kinn. It had been more of an effort to wrestle her pride back from their predatory eyes than she wanted to admit. How far would primal instinct cause them to go?
“Danny?” She shifted in her seat, apprehension creeping through her. He raised his eyebrows to let her know that he was listening, but continued to write. “Why haven’t you tried to sleep with me yet?”
His eyebrows rose further and he turned his head slowly to meet her eyes. Her breath caught in her throat at his crooked smile.
“Because, Grace.” His voice was full of tenderness and his eyes shone. “I don’t have to try to sleep with you.”
Apprehension swirled in the warm pool of emotion that raged through her, making her tremble. “But…do you want to?”
“Grace.” His laugh was seductive. He paused, weighing his response. “I can’t sleep at night. I can’t concentrate on work during the day.” He set his pen down and shifted his body to face her. “If you knew half the things I thought, a fraction of the things I imagine when I look at you, when I watch the way you move, hear the sound of your voice, the sunlight in your hair, you would shudder in your boots. Maybe in the good way.”
Her heart thundered in her chest. Her body thrummed with prickles of inconvenient heat. She wanted to do things that she never could have imagined in her carefully controlled Project world before, things her grandmother would never have approved of. She was certain from the wicked glint in his eyes that Danny knew exactly what those things were.
“Why don’t you do something about it?” she whispered, her voice thick.
The air between them sizzled. He hesitated, the lines around his eyes tightening and then softening as he slid to the edge of his chair, his knees brushing hers.
“Because I love you.” He slipped his hands along her legs to take hers.
Grace caught her breath. “No one believes in love anymore.”
“No one?” He leaned closer to her, sending her thoughts flying.
“Everyone knows that love and the Consistory are a myth.” She cursed herself for sounding like a child in the schoolyard.
“Are they?” He answered her with a cagey flicker of his eyebrow.
A sudden swell of emotion crushed the air from Grace’s lungs and unexpected tears prickled at the back of her eyes.
“Danny….” She stared at his hand encompassing hers, then raised her eyes to meet his. “I love you too, you know.”
His smile burst into laughter like a summer breeze. “I know.” His hands tightened over hers. He drew her forward as he shifted from the chair to kneel in the dirt in front of her. “I’m glad you finally figured that out.”
He slid his arms up her sides and pulled her to the edge of her seat to kiss her before she could begin to worry about who might be watching or what they might think.
He kissed her softly at first, his mouth warm and inviting against her unpracticed lips. She tightened her arms around his back, loving the feeling of their bodies pressed together, heartbeat to heartbeat. He threaded his fingers up through her hair to cradle the back of her head.
His kiss deepened, tongue teasing hers. She wished she’d spent more time with men learning to kiss rather than studying and working and impressing her superiors. All she could do was give in to Danny and let him show her the way, mouth caressing, tongue exploring. Her heart refused to be still. His hand curled up to cradle her breast and she caught her breath. It didn’t feel wrong when he touched her like that. She could have forgotten her duty and lost herself in him forever.
With a jolt he stopped and set her at arm’s length, sucking in a deep breath and jumping back into his seat.
“Keep that up and I’ll forget I said I’d suffer in silence.” He blew out a breath and pulled in another, turning away from her and picking up his pen. “Don’t you have a settlement to run?”
She leaned back against her seat, mouth still tingling with the taste of him, basic and masculine and vaguely minty from the tea.
It took a few more seconds of blinking silence to pull herself together. She cleared her throat and stood.
“As a matter of fact I do.”
A wave of light-headed possibility splashed through her. She stood and shifted to his side, bending
down to kiss him again quickly before hurrying off away.
“I have an expedition into enemy territory to plan,” she said. “For some reason I’m suddenly highly motivated to make sure that all of the settlers on this moon have their needs provided for and their peace maintained as soon as humanly possible.” She couldn’t keep the smile from her face.
As she hurried off to find Carrie to explain their mission, Danny’s warm, rich laughter followed her.
Chapter Eight – The Mission
Grace wasn’t surprised when she emerged from her cave early the next morning to find Danny already hard at work in his lab by the light of a tallow lantern. They still had a few solar lamps from ES5, but he was adamant about adapting to low-technology as quickly as possible. He had the right idea. He glanced up at her as she crossed down into the tents, sending a rush of awkwardness through her. She’d hoped to fetch Carrie and make her way out to Kutrosky’s camp before anyone asked about the mission. Leave it to Danny to catch her sneaking out.
She smiled at him with lips that remembered his kiss as she approached Carrie’s tent. She was doing this for him, doing it for them. The sooner everyone else was settled, the sooner they could focus on permanence. He smiled back, his expression telling her he knew full well what she was up to. He made no moves to stop her as he continued preparing his latest concoction to test on one of the hamsters. It was a colossal effort for Grace not to switch course, to switch plans, and go to him, but she had a mission to accomplish first.
As careful as Grace was, Carrie still heard her approach. She emerged from her tent, ready to go, before Grace could announce herself. Her hair was tied back in a ponytail and she already had a pack on her back.
“Come on, let’s go.” She rushed past Grace.
“Since when are you a morning person?” Grace began, but Carrie shushed her with a finger to her lips.
She motioned for Grace to keep it down and hurried her to the edge of the camp.
Prickles of discomfort zipped down Grace’s back. “You’ve got company?”
Carrie nodded, her smile bursting wide. “It came out of the blue, Grace, I’m telling you.” Carrie raised her voice above a hush, glancing over her shoulder as they passed out of earshot of the camp. “I mean, I know he’s had a thing for you and all.”
“Sean?” Grace’s stomach lurched.
“Yes, Sean.” Carrie laughed, her giddiness a sharp contrast to the awkward clench in Grace’s gut. “I kind of got the feeling that the time was right last night and I was going to do like you suggested and seduce him. But then, bam! There he was, ready to go. Whatever Danny said to him must have worked.”
“Danny?” Grace’s cheeks burned bright. She hadn’t seen it, but from the way both Danny and Sean had acted over dinner, the two men had had words.
“I know.” Carrie bounced on, showing no indication she knew what Sean had done to deserve his talking to. “I’ve never really liked that creep, but you have to admit he gets stuff done.”
They stepped out of the forest and into the field that stretched beside it. Tall grass swayed in the crisp morning air. A few large birds that they had yet to name circled near the tops of the trees. Carrie took a deep, contented breath and rolled her shoulders.
“If Danny is responsible for Sean suddenly noticing I exist, then I am ready to support whatever he wants to do one hundred percent,” Carrie continued.
“Oh yeah?” Grace relaxed. This was progress.
Carrie hummed deep in her throat. “Whatever it was, Sean was completely different last night. No hesitation, no carefully weighing his options and obligations. Just bam, hello, where’ve you been all my life, that’s the spot right there, thank you very much.” She laughed. “Twice. Like a soldier with orders to carry out.”
Grace blanched at the metaphor. “Good for him.”
“Good for me.” Carrie indulged in a self-satisfied grin. “And it’s about damn time. But what about you and Danny? I know you’re both busy with logistics and planning and all that, but when are you two going to— Whoa, shit!”
Carrie grabbed Grace and jerked her to the side, standing between her and the tree line. Grace yelped and lost her balance.
“I knew I should have brought a weapon, I knew it,” Carrie cursed. Her arms were outstretched to protect Grace. She crouched in a battle-ready stance.
Heart thumping to her throat, Grace scrambled around her friend to see the threat. Her panic vanished at the sight of Scruffy standing between the scrubby trees at the edge of the woods. The cat was only a few yards away from them. It blended into the undergrowth so well that it was no wonder they hadn’t seen it until they were on top of it.
Carrie panted. She was twice as tense as Scruffy.
“It’s all right.” Grace had to use all of her will power not to laugh. She put a hand on Carrie’s shoulder and stepped forward. “It’s just Scruffy.”
“Scruffy?” Carrie balked. “You’ve got to be kidding me. Grace, don’t!”
Grace ignored the warning and approached the cat with slow, measured steps.
“Good morning, sweetheart.” She spoke to it like she had talked to her barn cat. “How are you?”
Scruffy watched her, tilting its head as she drew near.
“I swear to God, Grace. If that thing bites your arm off….”
“Scruffy would never bite my arm off, would you, sweetheart?”
The cat made a deep rumbling sound between a purr and a growl. Its head bobbed lower as Grace drew near enough to touch it. The thrill of victory sizzled through Grace as her hand touched the soft fur between the cat’s ears. It lifted its head into her touch and purred. Grace let out a shaking breath and stroked the cat’s head freely.
“See?” She turned to Carrie, leaning into Scruffy so that her thigh brushed its neck. “She’s, or he’s, not going to hurt me.”
In fact, Scruffy rubbed its head against Grace’s side just like any other cat a fraction of its size.
“Jesus, Grace,” Carrie exclaimed, pale and shaking. “How the hell am I supposed to protect you if you make friends with the wildlife?”
Grace laughed, rubbing Scruffy’s ears freely. “Who says you’re supposed to protect me in the first place?”
She smiled and stroked Scruffy with both hands. The cat responded with loud purring. Grace glanced to Carrie only to find her looking twice as nervous and shifty as before.
“The wild animals here have never seen humans,” she explained. “They don’t know we’re a threat.”
“They don’t know we’re not lunch either,” Carrie argued.
Grace made a face at her. “I’ve been running into Scruffy here since the day after we crashed. I think he’s inclined to be domesticated, like those sheep we found, at least to a certain degree. And why not? I think I could use a good guard-cat.”
Carrie cleared her throat, shifted her stance. “Yeah.” She forced a laugh. “Guard-cat.”
Grace gave Scruffy one final rub and stepped away from her, back over to Carrie.
“Can you imagine how useful it would be to domesticate large cats like this? The way big dogs were eventually domesticated on Earth? The survival book doesn’t say anything about it, but I swear I remember reading that certain animal species on Earth have a natural inclination to live and work with humans. The possibilities are endless.” She reached Carrie and tapped her arm, continuing across the field. “Come on. We’ve still got a mission to take care of.”
“Yeah, right.”
As they walked on, Carrie checked over her shoulder every few steps. Scruffy left her place in the undergrowth and loped alongside them. Having the big cat tag along encouraged Grace. As much as she could see it made Carrie nervous. Having something that big and potentially ferocious might come in handy.
They walked on, making good time as the sun traveled up a cloudless sky. When Carrie stopped checking in with Scruffy every three steps, Grace struck up a light conversation. Carrie let her suspicions go and even laughed. Fina
lly, things were beginning to feel normal.
They were deep in discussion about how much they missed chocolate and whether the cacao seeds that had been in the treasure chests would actually grow in this climate as they rounded the hill that led into the valley closest to their wreck. Gil’s ring of posts stood out in the middle of a patch that had been mown with one of the machetes from the chests. In the center of the ring something that looked like a pile of skins and blankets from the wreck was writhing.
“Don’t look.” Grace grabbed the arm of Carrie’s shirt, trying to pull her away from what she assumed was Gil and Stacey.
“Oh, it’s too good not to look,” Carrie laughed. She raised her fingers to her mouth and blew a shrill whistle of appreciation. Scruffy tore off down the hill and into the woods at the sharp sound.
“Carrie.” Grace shook her head, mortified. “Let them be.”
“Are you kidding?” She whistled again and barked like a dog.
The blankets jerked quickly and one end threw back to reveal two disheveled heads.
“It’s Gil and Stacey. That’s like…that’s like you and that Kinn in reverse…only worse.”
“Don’t ever mention my name and Kinn’s in that kind of sentence again.” Grace laughed at the joke for Carrie’s sake, but a rock of hard anxiety dropped into her stomach.
If Carrie caught Grace’s distress she didn’t let on. She jogged toward the circle of posts as Gil and Stacey scrambled to untangle themselves and pull on some clothes. Grace jumped forward to stop her too late and ended up being dragged along. She tried her best to look everywhere but at Gil and Stacey.
“Hey Boss, what’s up?” Stacey tugged her shirt over her head as if they were meeting at the communal breakfast table.
“Sorry, Stacey, we didn’t mean to intrude. Really.”
Grace focused on Stacey to avoid the way Gil was flushed red, struggling to climb into his tee shirt as if he was a three-year-old learning to dress himself.
“Eh.” Stacey shrugged, crossing her arms and resting her weight on one hip. “We were just foolin’ around anyhow.” She traded self-satisfied grins with Carrie, then glanced back to Grace. “What are you doing all the way out here so early?”
