Business or Pleasure (The Department of Homeworld Security Book 3)

by Cassandra Chandler

  Her body had a different opinion.

  The pleasure he stoked in her built to critical mass as he slid a third finger deep, drawing on her clit more strongly, pumping her mercilessly.

  Explosions of stimuli radiated out from where he worked her, pleasure racking her body. She felt her core clench around him, wanting more, wanting all of him. She wanted him to take down his pants and plunge into her. She had never wanted someone so badly.

  The ecstasy kept on as he didn’t let up, the room blacking out around them. Finally, he slowed and pulled away, leaving her panting, her body pulsing…

  She swallowed a few times before she could say, “Are the lights off, or is it just me?”

  “It isn’t just you.”

  He stood, pulling her panties and jeans up. She fumbled with the fasteners, then reached for him in the pitch blackness.

  “It’s the Tau Ceti,” he said.

  Chapter Eight

  Khel had never hated anyone before. He was fairly certain he was feeling hatred for the Tau Ceti. They had interrupted a beautiful moment between him and Paige. They were threatening her life.

  For that, if nothing else, they would die.

  “We have to warn Harry,” she said.

  Harry? The security guard. Her concern was admirable, but Khel didn’t think the Tau Ceti would bother with the Earthling. They had undoubtedly taken out the cameras when they shut down the building’s power and wouldn’t see the guard as a threat.

  The total silence was eerie. No ventilation, no somewhat familiar hum of machinery built into the structure maintaining the environment. He had noticed the alien stillness the moment the lights went out.

  Darkness would aid the Tau Ceti. He needed to get Paige back outside into the sun. He picked up her bag and handed it to her, then grabbed her other hand and led her from her office. Dim light filtered in from windows on the exterior wall.

  “What about Harry?”

  “He’ll be fine,” Khel whispered. “They’re only interested in you.”

  “How do they even know I’m here? I mean, wouldn’t they think that you’d already taken me to your ship?”

  That was a good point. The Tau Ceti soldier that attacked her at the gym most likely followed her there from her apartment. But Khel doubted it had followed them to her office. It made more sense that the Tau Ceti were making a move on her workplace, trying to destroy the data she had collected without realizing they were too late. Well, too late if Paige and Khel could make it back to the Arbiter with what they had learned.

  “We need to get outside,” he said. “Is there another route besides the elevator?”

  “The stairs.” She pulled on his hand, leading him in a different direction. “Please tell me you have a stunner or something you can use against these guys.”

  “I had to leave everything behind. Coalition technology would show up too easily on their scans.”

  “And you brainiacs haven’t found a way to address that?”

  “The Coalition doesn’t want technology to be easily hidden. We’ve had peace for tens of thousands of years. We aren’t used to citizens…rebelling.”

  “It looks to me like the Tau Ceti are taking advantage of that.”

  They reached the door to the stairwell. Khel opened it and glanced into the small space. Emergency lighting cast a washed out blue glow over the steps, leaving thick shadows in corners and alcoves large enough for a Tau Ceti to hide.

  “I don’t like the thought of being trapped in the stairwell with vampire space frogs clinging to the ceiling,” she said.

  “Neither do I. But I see no other options.”

  “Well, let’s give ourselves the best chance.”

  She reached toward a small box on the wall near the stairs. It read, FIRE ALARM PULL DOWN.

  “This will make a huge noise and cause lights to flash all over the building.”

  Brilliant. She looked at him briefly, smirking when he smiled and nodded.

  “I hope it’s on the same circuit as the emergency lighting so it still works.” She pulled the lever.

  Blazingly bright lights began flashing, accompanied by an ear-splitting alarm. The Tau Ceti were certain to be disoriented by it for a few moments.

  “We need to move quickly,” he said.

  She nodded and followed him into the stairwell, both keeping their footsteps as light and soundless as possible. They started out on the fifth floor and managed to make it down three levels before Khel heard stomping steps coming toward them.

  Paige pulled on his hand, leading him through the exit to that level. She closed the door behind them as quietly and quickly as possible, then opened a small cabinet set into the wall. It held a red canister with a nozzle at its top. She made some adjustments to it as they waited for the Tau Ceti to get farther away—or come closer.

  The doorknob turned. Khel tried to get in front of her, but she darted under his arm, holding the canister up between them and the door. The device must be some sort of weapon.

  When the door opened, she only waited a moment before attacking. She pulled the trigger and vapor and a fluffy white substance sprayed from the nozzle. He could feel the cold emanating from the chemicals. It was a perfect offense against the Tau Ceti.

  The cyborg screamed and flailed its arms, the substance making the ground beneath its feet slippery. Khel didn’t waste the opportunity. He grabbed the Tau Ceti’s disintegrator.

  Footsteps were already coming toward them from above. He aimed the weapon at the blinded enemy and pulled the trigger. Death was instant and painless. Its body vaporized in a quick yellow burst of energy.

  “What the hell was that? Did you just kill that guy?” Paige shouted.

  Two other Tau Ceti appeared on the stairs above them. Khel aimed and fired again, hitting one. The other managed to duck out of sight.

  Khel grabbed the canister from Paige and flung it across the hall, angling it so that it would clatter down the stairs. Hopefully, the remaining Tau Ceti would think it was them and follow the sound.

  He pushed Paige back out of the line of sight and let the door close. She looked like she was about to say something, so he did the first thing that came to mind. He pressed her up against the wall and kissed her.

  Stars, she tasted good. He struggled to keep his attention on his environment, listening for the one Tau Ceti that was left. Only seconds passed before the cyborg took the bait, following the sound of the canister’s descent. Khel waited another second before breaking off the kiss and opening the door, aiming the disintegrator at the Tau Ceti just as it raised its own weapon and fired.

  Khel’s shot hit the cyborg in the chest, vaporizing it. The Tau Ceti hit the wall to Khel’s left. The wall protecting Paige.

  Panic, stark and piercing, shot through Khel’s mind making it impossible to breathe. He couldn’t turn his head toward her. If the wall hadn’t been enough to protect her… If he looked and she wasn’t there…

  He felt her hands on him, pushing as if she was trying to knock him over. His breath rushed from his chest and his innards settled somewhat. When he looked down at her, the fury on her features made him light-headed with relief.

  “You killed them!”

  He didn’t understand her anger.

  “They would have done the same and worse to you.”

  “Couldn’t you have—”

  “What? Taken them into custody? There were three of them and we were unarmed until you helped me secure a weapon.”

  Temporarily, anyway. He needed to set it to self-destruct as soon as they were out of the building. He couldn’t bring himself to part with it before then, but the only thing easier for the Tau Ceti to track than Coalition technology would be their own equipment.

  “They are feeding on your people,” he said. “Remember that. They killed everyone who was on the plane with Senator Conroy just to eradicate one target. What do you think they’d do to get what they want from you?”

  Her rage faded, but she continued to s
cowl at him. “I don’t like loss of life. Any life.”

  “Sometimes it can’t be avoided. We have to make the best choices we can.”

  “Fine. But we’re warning Harry.”

  He sighed, but nodded.

  They ran down the stairs, careful of the slickness left by the weapon she had used. He would need to ask her about that eventually. After she was safely in his ship.

  True to her word, when they reached the front exit she tracked down the security guard. He was standing in front of the building.

  “Miss Sloan! I’m so glad you and your friend are okay,” he said.

  Odd that he would already care about Khel’s safety. And yet, it was strangely comforting.

  “The fire department should be here any second,” Harry said. “You were the only ones inside.”

  “That’s great, Harry.” Paige put her hand on the man’s arm. “I can’t be here when they arrive, but I need you to call this in. Listen, this isn’t—”

  A deafening boom sounded, the shockwave striking Khel’s body as the windows in the top three floors of the building exploded. He threw himself on Paige to shield her from the glass that rained down around them.

  “Shit!” Paige yelled. She looked above as flames licked out of the empty spaces, hungry for more oxygen to burn.

  “Are you all right?” Khel grabbed her arms and shook her to get her attention. “Assess yourself.”

  “I’m fine,” she said. “Harry?”

  The guard’s eyes were wide, but he nodded.

  “We have to leave,” Khel said.

  She nodded. “Harry, whatever you do, don’t go back in the building.”

  “I’m not an idiot. It looks like a gas main blew. We should all get away from the building in case there are more explosions.”

  “That’s wise,” Khel said. He released one of Paige’s arms but held the other tight, leading her in the opposite direction. The guard seemed too stunned by the event to notice.

  “They blew up the building to destroy my notes. My group was only using one floor,” she said. “We were in this building because the work we’re doing is considered harmless. There’s a community college that sometimes has weekend classes here. Businesses, a charity.”

  “The Tau Ceti don’t care what sort of casualties they cause as long as they aren’t found out. Your authorities will find that this looks like an accident.”

  Her pace increased. “We need to get to the Arbiter and let your people know what’s going on.”

  Finally. He knew better than to speak his thought aloud. Instead, he nodded.

  Chapter Nine

  Paige shifted closer to Khel as they rode the bus toward his ship. They had used her phone so he could give her a general idea of where it was located and they could find the best route to get there. He reached over and held her hand. He had disposed of the disintegrator already, trying to make sure they weren’t tracked.

  She didn’t want to think about what he had done with it. Or that she sort of wished they had kept it with them.

  “I still don’t get it,” she said. “Why does the Coalition want their technology to be so traceable?”

  “They don’t want our technology to fall into the wrong hands. It could be reverse-engineered, or used to upset the balance of power on a planet not ready for that level of advancement. That’s one of the reasons I wasn’t allowed to bring anything out of my ship. If I were to have an accident or an Earthling managed to get their hands on my equipment somehow, it could have catastrophic results.”

  She snorted, a joke coming out reflexively. “I managed to get my hands on your equipment, and I’d say things went rather well.”

  His face turned pink. “I haven’t had a chance to thank you for that. I appreciate your help.”

  “Yeah, they all do.” She looked away, not wanting to ask her next question, but being unable to stop herself. “Is that why you reciprocated? To balance out the scales?”

  “Of course not.” He squeezed her hand a little tighter. “I did it because…I wanted to share that with you.”

  “Curiosity.”

  “Intimacy. I told you, I could have explored…physical interactions many times. I chose to do so with you.”

  Lucky me.

  She might have been his first, but she doubted she would be his last. The amount of passion he had shown wasn’t something he could put a lid back on. Hell, he’d probably go back to his ship and start a new trend of sex without that drug.

  The thought of her lovers going on to other partners had never bothered her before. She wasn’t sure why it would do so now. It wasn’t like she could leave Earth to be with Khel or he could stay. She wasn’t even sure she wanted that. Right?

  And they weren’t even lovers yet. Not really.

  Yet.

  “How far to your ship?” She kept her face turned toward the window.

  “Not very. It’s attached to the bottom of one of your highways in a section of the city that is sparsely inhabited.”

  “It’s on the underside of an overpass in a crappy section of town. Fun.” At least it was the middle of the day.

  Had she really only met Khel a couple of hours ago? It seemed like so much longer. Being attacked by space frogs, having some pretty serious foreplay, and watching a building basically blow up made the time seem to dilate. That and the three people he had killed.

  One had almost killed her. She would never forget seeing the wall in front of her just disappear, the Tau Ceti pointing his ray gun at her. Either he had been panicking or capturing her alive wasn’t that important after all. Neither thought was reassuring.

  They had killed Senator Conroy and everyone else on the plane with him. She would have died then, if it hadn’t been for her micro-managing nature that kept her out in the field making sure the cleanup crew had accomplished their goals. There were always more samples to study, like the ones she had thought were off—contaminated somehow. Now she knew they weren’t. The Tau Ceti were destroying Earth’s ecosystems and feeding on humans.

  She still couldn’t wrap herself around the notion of killing them, though.

  “When you tell your people what’s going on here, are they going to kill all the Tau Ceti involved?” she asked.

  “Only if necessary. The objective will be to take them into custody and send them through our tribunal process.”

  “That’s nice I guess. How will you apprehend them?”

  “Sorca, the head of security on the Arbiter, will come down with several teams on interceptors. They’ll be armed with stunners. Her people will only use lethal force if necessary to defend themselves and others.”

  Paige let out a little breath of relief. “Do you have any of those ‘stunners’ on your ship?”

  “I have two, plus a phase rifle. I was sent in a skimmer. It’s a small ship with only the most basic levels of technology possible, designed for quick expeditions. I was supposed to pick you up and take you to the Arbiter before the Tau Ceti knew I was planetside.”

  “Guess I screwed that up.”

  “Our detour provided us with invaluable information.”

  “Only if we live long enough to share it.”

  He gently touched her cheek, turning her to face him. “We’re going to make it, Paige. I won’t let anything happen to you.”

  Then he leaned forward and kissed her again.

  Heat welled up deep within her instantly. He left his hand on her cheek, his thumb lightly dusting her skin. She opened her mouth to him as his tongue slid inside, stroking her, savoring her, exploring the sensations.

  She shifted closer to let as much of their bodies press together as she could manage. His free arm held her tight. She wanted to crawl into his lap and straddle him, but that would call more attention to them than was wise. At least, while they were on the bus. Once they reached his ship, everything was fair game.

  “Hey, kissyfaces back there. Didn’t you say you need me to stop at Third Avenue and Grand? That’s coming up, an
d I ain’t sticking around longer than it takes you to jump off the bus.”

  They broke off the kiss, both glaring at the driver. He glanced at them in the mirror and shook his head. A few other passengers were looking their way, grinning or scowling. Paige might have said something if the circumstances were different. As they were, she let it slide.

  The bus pulled to the curb and she and Khel quickly made their way to the exit. She really hoped they had the location right. Even with his intimidating presence, she didn’t want to be walking around in this neighborhood for long.

  “This way.” He interlaced their fingers and headed down the littered sidewalk.

  His ship wasn’t far, and the few people they encountered seemed put off enough by Khel’s bulk to leave them alone. He led her through a torn up chain link fence toward the cement pillars that held up an overpass. Traffic whizzed by above them.

  “The cloak will disengage automatically when we’re close enough,” he said. “I couldn’t leave the ship on the ground without running the risk of someone bumping into it within the city.”

  “How are we going to get into it?”

  He smiled down at her and her heart sort of skipped a bit.

  How embarrassing.

  “You’ll see.”

  He stopped, his smile deepening. Then he looked up. She followed his gaze and gasped.

  “Oh, wow.”

  A black ship with a crescent moon shape hung above them, clinging to the highway like a bat. It had curved wings that arced up away from them.

  Though she never let herself own a car, she did indulge in admiring them. She’d always had a particularly soft spot for shiny muscle cars with sleek lines. This vehicle was even better—a masterpiece. Its lines sang like a symphony, entrancing her gaze. A hatch opened near the center of its mass, and a ladder slowly descended toward them.

  “Okay, I’m pretty sure I would do you just for your ride. Wait, that didn’t come out right.”

  Khel grinned as he guided her onto the ladder. He climbed on behind her, wrapping his arms around her and caging her against its metal rungs, presumably to keep her safe. Then again, as his hips pressed against her ass, she wondered.