by Susan Kelley
She ran her hands through his silky hair and down over his shoulders. Vin twisted and pressed her onto her back. His lips never left her breasts until she tugged on his hair. She needed him to kiss her again. His eagerness overcame some of his gentle caution. Their hands tangled as they shed the remainder of their clothing. Vin kicked their pants and boots off the end of the cot and then pressed his heated body against her side.
She wanted to explore his body and savor his pleasure. But her own body outvoted her. He touched her between her legs, his hands no longer hesitant. Her insides melted, bathing his fingers. She lifted her hips and asked for more.
He lifted his lips from hers and looked down at her. Even if she’d wanted to prolong the anticipation, she couldn’t deny the aching longing in his beautiful eyes. She opened her legs further and he moved between them. Though she was a tiny person, his slim hips fit perfectly. He entered her with more insistence than her body had prepared for. She gasped in surprise.
Vin froze, his body poised above her. He stared at her with stark dismay in his wide eyes, and his mouth pressed tight.
She wrapped one hand behind his neck and grabbed his butt with her other. At the same time as she joined her lips to his again she pulled his hips tight to hers. He filled her completely, eliciting matching sighs. He guided her into a slow rhythm, unbroken even when he kissed her. She recognized the tension building inside her but not the bounds by which it grew. Urging him with both hands on his behind, she increased the pace of their lovemaking and worked toward her release. But the pleasure tightened, spiraling higher and higher. Then it burst, grabbing Vin’s cock and holding it deep inside her. His groan accompanied the pouring of his seed.
All remnants of energy drained from Emma’s body. Vin must have felt the same as he melted down to sprawl half on top of her. His chest rose and fell as fast as her own. She smiled with the satisfaction of having pleased her man. And smiled again as she contemplated the concept of having a man to call her own. And what a man.
Vin recovered enough to roll off of her and reach for the blanket. He pulled it over them and lay back. He drew Emma up against him.
She sprawled half on him and half off with her head resting on his shoulder. They should talk but already Vin’s breathing slowed into a sleeping pattern. As her eyes drifted closed, she noted the barely healed wounds on his torso. His injuries hadn’t impeded his performance and neither had their mutual exhaustion. Pleasant thoughts meandered through her groggy brain, most of them involving Vin. She’d forgotten to tell him that her stepfather might be on his way. When he woke up, she would explain. After they made love again.
Chapter Eleven
Emma found Vin working in his shop when she woke up. She might have called it puttering around if it had been anyone else. His AI unit sat on one table, awake and working on something. Vin turned a cylindrical object in front of him at another table.
She walked up behind him and wrapped his arms around her waist. After a brief hesitation, he turned into her hug and returned it. He dipped his head and kissed her, gentle and so sweet her limps curved into a smile beneath his. His body reacted in a pleasing way to her hips pressed against his.
Vin sighed and stepped back from her. He stared at her with something like suspicion in his gaze and then turned back to his work.
“What are you working on?” The morning sun shone outside the windows and she realized she’d slept nearly an entire day. She should go start the bread for the evening meal. Moe’s customers hadn’t had any fresh rolls for a while now. But instead she rounded Vin’s work table and faced him across it.
The device looked strange with mirrors angled to reflect toward one another in a cascading spiral down to a concave base. Vin used a small laser welder to secure a last mirror, calling Emma’s attention to his strong, lean fingers and their ease with the finely detailed work. “Those viral balls still need to be neutralized. Some alien viruses are resistant to cold and heat or able to go dormant in order to survive extreme conditions. Regular burning could create toxic smoke or make the virus airborne.”
Emma reached out and touched the clever invention. “Medical facilities had high heat ovens to destroy such organisms. You’ve created one.”
Vin set aside the welder. “I think I have. I’ll leave the pellets cook in it until the next rain day. Then we’ll bury the entire oven in a container of salt.”
“Sounds like it will do the job. What do you have the AI doing?”
Vin hefted the oven and carried it over to the other table. “I saw the type of cyber data device they were using in the mining office. I have a program running to find their interstellar signal and follow it back to its source.”
Emma followed him, seeing nothing but confusing lines of code shifting about the screen. “You can spy on their communications?”
“More than that I hope.” Vin looked over her head toward the door and a moment later it opened to admit Moe.
“Hey, there you are, Emma. I just checked the surgery for you, expecting to find you still sleeping.” Moe’s eyes narrowed. “Your bed didn’t look slept in, and I’m pretty sure you’re wearing the same thing you wore the last time I saw you.”
Emma touched Vin’s arm but there was no need. He didn’t even glance at Moe, instead frowned down at the AI screen.
“I slept here last night, Moe.” Emma hoped her tone conveyed the idea that it really was none of Moe’s business. “I was about to join you in preparing dinner.”
“You go ahead, lass. I just need a word here with Vin.”
Emma intercepted Moe as he stalked toward Vin, wrapping her arm around his. “I have an idea for a new moose gravy.”
“Sounds lovely,” Moe growled. “Get it started and give me a taste. I’ll be right there.”
“Vin has work to do, including taking care of those poisoned pellets before someone else gets sick.”
Vin looked up from the AI screen. “We still don’t know exactly what the virus was, but it could be contagious. A close watch should be kept on anyone who had contact with the little girl. Who can lead me around to the other pellets that were found?”
Moe looked indecisive for a moment and then huffed out an angry breath. “Vannie can show you. He’s outside right now.”
Emma led Moe toward the door and looked back at Vin as she opened it. He stared at her with a hungry intensity that sent her stomach to quivering. She wanted to take him back upstairs to his bed and keep him there all day. But it would have to wait. Hovel Port needed him.
* * * *
Vin wondered what Emma’s look meant. He’d watched her sleep until the gray dawn leaked in the windows. With great reluctance, he’d left her side and started on the two important tasks he needed to get to as soon as possible. He’d wanted to say and wait for her to wake, but more than his desire had been his fear.
His short time with Yalo had taught him that women sharing a deep emotion with a man often became amorous. The emotion could be joy, sorrow or the thrill of victory. Emma’s eyes had shone with joy and the fierce victory of beating death when she had entered his shop. Though Vin had been trained to suppress such distracting feelings, he understood them. He’d feared Emma would wake and regret falling into his bed while those emotions drove her desires.
Regret didn’t enter his memories of her sweet body and tender hands. But guilt cursed his warm thoughts. Should he have enjoyed being with Emma so much? Already images of her soft feminine body painted themselves over his memories of Yalo. Could a man have loved one woman with all his soul and barely half a year later be drawn to a completely different type of woman with a fierceness that might outshine what he’d felt for the first woman?
Vin absently played with the encryption breaking code, entering older directives that hadn’t been used for at least a year. This outpost in space might not have the latest security updates. He let the program to work on its own and took the oven outside. He wasn’t going to figure Emma out or his feelings by sitting still and
thinking about it. The only thing he was sure of was how to be a soldier.
Vannie talked to couple of miners in the middle of the street. All the men had weapons slung over their shoulders or strapped to their waists. Outdated guns but a good idea.
“Vin.” Vannie waved him over to join them. He slapped Vin on the shoulder hard enough to remind him of his recent wounds. “How can we thank you enough? I don’t know how you got that serum and returned so quickly, but you saved little Julie and probably lots of others.”
The other two murmured their agreement, offering Vin their rough hands to shake. He shifted the oven to one arm, the civilian custom starting to feel natural.
“What’s that you have then?” Vannie asked.
Vin explained the function and asked Vannie to lead him to the bio-warfare pellets.
Vannie walked with him toward the end of town. “We found them all on this side of the street, couple of dozen scattered right on the other side of the fence as if they’d been tossed over. How are you going to put them in your little heater there without touching them? And aren’t you worried about catching it?”
“Unless it’s something brand new, which I doubt they would have access to, I’ve been inoculated against everything out there.” Vin pulled a tiny metal spoon out of his pocket. “I’ll pick them up with this and drop them into the cylinder. After I get the last one, I’ll drop the spoon in with them so it gets sterilized too. After they cook for a few days, I’ll encase the entire oven in salt and bury it in the deep jungle.”
It took them two hours to find all the pellets. Vin found a dozen more the searchers had missed in their caution.
“Where are you going to put that thing so it’s safe?” Vannie asked.
Vin gestured with his chin. “On the roof of my shop. It’s high enough to get good sun exposure and no one should blunder into it. I’ll let it there until the next rain day.”
Vannie put his hand on Vin’s shoulder. “Lad, I don’t know what brought you here, but we’d be hurting without your help this last month. I don’t have the proper words to thank you but come to dinner with me at the café tonight and I’ll try to find them.”
Vin didn’t quite follow Vannie’s meaning but he was hungry. “I’ll be there for dinner.”
After he set the oven on the roof, Vin took a shower in his small bathing room. He hadn’t slept for more than a few hours all together for over two days. He fell into bed, thinking he wouldn’t be able to sleep with Emma’s scent on his bedding. Instead, his body relaxed and his mind slipped eagerly into dreams of her soft kisses and warm eyes.
* * * *
Vin woke exactly one hour before dark as he had planned. After dressing, he checked the AI. It still searched for a way into the mining information systems. Disappointing but not unexpected. He should have taken the time to look closer at their system but then he might have been too late getting back for Julie. Civilian life had more complicated choices than serving in the military had. But civilian life also had better food, especially Emma’s food.
Most of the tables in the café already held two or more customers. Vannie sat by himself at the table closest to the curtained kitchen entrance. He beckoned for Vin to join him. Warm scents of roasted meat and fresh bread drifted from beyond the curtain.
Before Vin settled into the hard wooden chair, the other men in the room started coming over to him. Many spoke words of thanks, some shook his hand and others only nodded. After the last one returned to his meal, Vin looked to Vannie. “Why did they do that?”
Vannie guffawed. “You saved Julie’s life and Billy’s before that.”
“It wasn’t that difficult.”
“Maybe not to you, but you’re military. These guys are good, strong men, and they work hard for their livings. But they’re not the fighting type. They wouldn’t know how to sneak into an enemy camp and steal something away.” Vannie leaned forward and lowered his voice. “Did you have to kill anyone? I know those bastards have armed guards to protect the fortune they’re digging out of the ground.”
“I infiltrated without being spotted, and they only caught a glimpse of me when I exited their perimeter.”
“Infiltrated?” Vannie leaned back.
Vin sensed a question behind the single word but what was it? Emma saved him from answering as she swept out through the curtain carrying two steaming plates. She set one in front of Vannie and the other in front of Vin. “I thought I heard you out here. I’ll bring you some water, Vin.”
She returned immediately and set the mug in front of Vin. She smiled, brushing against his arm before returning to the kitchen.
Vin watched the curtain, listening to the clanging of pots and dishes and the running of water. What did the smile mean?
Vannie frowned. “I think she gave you my plate.”
Vin looked down at the plate steaming in front of him. A large slice of roast moose swam in dark gravy with a dozen potatoes. Alongside sat a generous serving of green vegetables sprinkled with crushed nuts. His stomach growled with need.
“Switch me then, lad.” Vannie’s plate held a serving half the size of Vin’s.
Vin picked up his knife and fork. The meat tasted as delicious as it smelled.
After a bit more grumbling, Vannie attacked his meal. Emma appeared with a plate of warm, sliced bread, already covered with a sweet, fruity spread. She whisked away to deliver a similar plate to another table.
Vin took his time, relishing the rich flavor of the gravy and the tender juiciness of the steak. The potatoes had absorbed the hearty broth and melted in his mouth. What would it be like to eat meals like this one every day for the rest of his life? The bread topped the meal off, filling the last empty space in his belly.
But the time Vannie and Vin finished off the bread, the café had emptied. Moe stalked out through the curtain, allowing Vin a quick glimpse of Emma elbow deep in flour. Vin wondered, but only for a moment, about the glare Moe sent his way before slamming out through the door and into the night.
Swallowing the last of his bread, Vin considered taking the empty plates back to the kitchen, a very clever excuse to see Emma alone. Or should he wait in his seat for her to come out to him? Vannie’s presence would destroy any chance at an intimate moment. Before he could decide, Vannie gathered up the plates and carried them all in one of his big paws through the curtain. He murmured something to Emma before rejoining Vin.
Vin’s thoughts scattered as he tried to think of another excuse to linger behind and speak with Emma. Speaking be damned, he wanted to make sure she intended to spend the night in his bed again. He would even share more of his revenge plans if it drew her into his arms. She seemed determined to understand him though he believed it was a simple matter. He was a wronged man set on vengeance, but he could be distracted by her attentions for as long as she wanted to give them to him.
“I hear you have more inventions underway in your shop,” Vannie said. “Come show me what you’re cooking up.”
“I don’t cook anything in the shop.” Vin searched desperately through his limited knowledge of civilians and women in particular for another strategy to wait in the café for Emma.
Vannie laughed, the sound a little odd, and wrapped his hand around Vin’s arm. He tugged Vin to his feet. “Let’s have a look at what you have over there.”
Vin let himself be led out the door not because he wanted to show Vannie any of his work but because no logical reason came to him to remain. The night had cooled but had taken on the humidity of the surrounding jungle as it did on the last few days leading up to the rain. They walked side by side to Vin’s dark shop.
As soon as Vin stepped through his door, he sensed the presence waiting to his left. He heard the man breathing and smelled … food? Though nothing but a faint glow from the AI lit the room, Vin saw the fist coming his way. He ducked and moved further into the room so he had space to maneuver.
Moe stumbled as the momentum of his missed blow carried him forward. Vannie bu
mped into him as he walked into the room and slammed the door shut behind him. Both men cursed, using some profanity Vin had never heard before, and he had no idea of its meaning.
One of the men swept his hand along the wall beside the door and turned on the overhead light. They fixed unfriendly glares at Vin.
What had he done? Only moments ago Vannie had been heaping thanks upon Vin and praising his contributions to Hovel Port. Had he completely missed the real intentions of these men toward him?
“She’s not for you, soldier boy,” Moe spat, balling his hands into fists twice the size of some men. “We don’t ask many questions of those that settle here, but now you’re taking advantage of our girl. You answer to us or we’ll throw you out the gates into the dark.”
Vin kept his hands at his side, trying for cooperative and nonthreatening. Despite Moe’s vow, the two men couldn’t defeat Vin in a contest of hand to hand combat. And even if they could throw him out, they couldn’t keep him out unless he wanted to stay out. Silence stretched, the two men growing tenser with each passing minute.
Vannie finally growled a question. “Well, give us your answers.”
“You’ve asked no questions.”
“Don’t start the dumb act.” Moe took a step forward.
“I’m not dumb.” Vin thought they might want long answers. Civilians often rambled on in conversations. “I have an above average intelligence quotient.”
“Son of a bitch,” Vannie said. “Don’t play with words. You’ve tricked me up until now.”
The confusing conversation opened a well of ache for his brothers. With them at his side, he wouldn’t be so alone in this world that made so little sense. He asked a question of his own. “How does one play with words?”
Moe cursed and leveled a punch at Vin’s face at the same time. Avoiding it took little effort, a small step back and a bit of a lean.
