“As in chairman of the board?” Benny asked.
“Exactly,” she said.
“So we would remain here, helping here, working together?” Benny asked.
“We would,” she said.
“And how would you feel about that?” he asked.
She pushed her naked body into his and kissed his cheek.
“Besides the sex,” he said, trying not to laugh.
She stopped and chuckled. “Honestly, I think we could be a fantastic team and help a lot more people together than we ever could apart. And I like the idea of working with you a great deal.”
“Seriously?” he asked.
“Seriously,” she said. “Right from the first moment I saw you, I had a hunch we would be a good team. And I hoped beyond hope that you learning about me and Seeders wouldn’t mess all that up. It didn’t, did it?”
He could hear the worry suddenly in her voice. And that relaxed him even more.
“I got a lot of things to figure out,” he said, turning and kissing her. Then he said, “But wanting to work with you isn’t one of those things.”
“Good,” she said, kissing him again, this time with more passion.
She could feel his penis starting to stir again under her leg and she liked the idea of that.
“Hold on,” he said, pulling back from the kiss. “One more question. Is there an easy way for me to learn all about Seeders? Some sort of brain meld or something?”
She laughed. “We have high-speed education systems that can help you learn something quickly, if that’s what you mean.”
“Perfect,” he said. “I want to do that so I really understand before I agree to anything.”
“Very smart thinking,” she said.
Then he kissed her again and pulled her over on top of him.
A moment later he was back inside of her and time ended and all the problems she faced flew away for her for the moment as all she wanted was to make love to this fantastic man.
And she did.
For longer than she ever thought possible.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
JUST OVER AN hour later, they had managed to get untangled and get dressed and head down the stairs for some dinner. Outside the windows, the sun was still pretty high in the evening sky and he could tell it was a hot day out there.
Thankfully, with the two generators running air-conditioning, the floor had stayed cool.
Benny felt stunned at how good it had felt to make love to Gina. Perfect in more ways than he could even imagine.
And her body was stunning. Her skin was smooth, her hair soft, her muscles hard and firm. He doubted she had an extra ounce of fat on her. He would have to ask her later what she did for exercise. He had brought up to his floor a treadmill and some free weights, and he figured on decent days, he could run around the observation balcony a few floors up.
If he had ever thought to imagine his perfect woman, he wouldn’t have done that good a job in his imagination to even come close to Gina in reality.
She only had a few problems. She was from space and she was two hundred years old. But he was fairly certain he could deal with both of those.
They walked down the stairs hand-in-hand, like two kids on a first date, which he guessed this actually was.
Then just outside the door to the floor where the professor and the three kids lived, he turned and kissed her again.
“What’s that for?” she asked, smiling at him.
“Because it feels good,” he said, grinning like a kid in high school at her.
She kissed him then.
“What was that for?” he asked when she pulled away.
“Because it feels good and a promise for more later.”
“Now that I like,” he said.
He turned and pulled the stairway door open.
The professor and David were working on dinner at the kitchen counter they had moved in from a nearby furniture store. Freddy and Candice were sitting at the big wooden conference table they used as a kitchen table.
Candice was dressed in a blue blouse and jeans and she had her blonde hair combed and pulled back. She smiled at him when they entered.
He couldn’t believe how really thrilled it made him feel to see Candice sitting there like that.
“Wow,” Benny said, smiling back at Candice. “Wonderful to see you feeling better.”
“Exhausted still,” Candice said, “but I needed to get up and move around again.”
Benny indicated Gina and introduced her.
“Thank you,” Candice said, smiling at Gina. “The professor tells me you were carrying me here. I don’t remember at all, other than thinking a beautiful angel had come to rescue me.”
Benny agreed with both the beautiful and the angel part.
“You are more than welcome,” Gina said. “And trust me, I’m really glad we met. You were the one that directed me here to this wonderful place and these great people. So I need to thank you for saving me.”
Benny smiled at that fib. It was a perfect one. Gina really had a great way with making people feel right about themselves.
“I did?” Candice asked, looking surprised.
“When I met you on the street,” Gina said, “you mumbled something about needing to get to the Empire State Building and then collapsed. So I brought you here.”
Candice shook her head. “I don’t remember any of that. But thank you for getting me here and getting me cleaned up.”
“You would have done the same for me,” Gina said, sitting down at the table across from Candice.
Benny took the seat across from Gina and nodded.
Candice was smiling, clearly feeling better. Benny figured that with one small lie, Gina just might have saved a life.
“So you like the apartment we set up?” Freddy asked.
“I do,” Gina said, her voice enthusiastic. “It’s wonderful. Thank you all for allowing me to stay here. I promise I’ll carry my weight.”
“Before you two came in,” Candice said, “we were talking about how Benny thinks there will be more people joining us. Do you think so as well?”
“I do,” Gina said. “That’s part of what Benny and I were talking about upstairs.”
Benny nodded, really, really appreciating how smooth Gina was. “She has information about where some other groups are located, and where some single people are holed up.”
“Some will see our lights,” the professor said. “Others, I think we need to go talk to.”
“I agree,” Benny said. Then he looked at Gina. “Can you tell us which ones you met that might be good candidates for this building and if they would want to come here?”
“I met some of them,” she said, nodding, “and saw a lot of lights at night after the power went out. I think I can find them again.”
“This building is clearly large enough for more people,” the professor said.
Benny couldn’t agree more. And from what he remembered of some of those people while they were all in the spaceship, they needed a better place to stay and some of them would need help and a direction and a feeling there might be a future to just survive.
Gina changed the subject by asking Freddy what he had been studying in school.
Benny watched her be sociable, smiling easily, keeping the mood light and the questions away from the tragedy.
He flat wanted to spend a lot of time with her. As much as possible, actually. He knew that without a doubt.
Tonight, after dinner, Benny would ask Gina what benefits there would be for him being a Seeder as well in the coming years. If being able to jump around from place to place like she did was one of the things he would learn to do, that would be enough.
And a chance to be with her for a long time would be even more worth it.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
GINA ENJOYED HER dinner with the professor, his three charges, and Benny. The conversation was light and about survival. She knew that all of them had a lot of trauma to get th
rough, but with time they would work through it.
And Gina had decided about halfway through dinner that she would help Candice. The girl had a real brain and if she could get past the next few weeks, she would be a real asset to the future of this planet.
After dinner, all of them showed Gina the other floors they had set up for more survivors. Each floor had once been offices, but now were set up to handle five or six people living comfortably in lots of room. Each floor had a number of bathrooms, had private bedrooms for everyone, and a community living area with kitchen and couches and big screens for movies.
They had done the work on eight different floors. Gina was flat impressed.
Then they went down a few more floors to offices that had not been set up.
“We have room here and in the three floors below this one for more people. Each floor would hold six or seven more people.”
“I honestly don’t want to go back out into that smell right now,” Candice said.
Gina moved over and put her arm around the young girl. “I have a hunch we can wait until things calm into the fall before worrying about these rooms.”
“I agree,” Benny said. “Candice, I don’t see you needing to go back out there anytime soon, to be honest with you.”
“Thank you,” she said softly.
Gina kept her arm around the young girl and together they went to an elevator.
“Working on a generator?” Gina asked.
“Starts up when the button is pushed,” Benny said. “And only this one elevator works. As we go up I’ll tell you how to get out of one if it stops or gets stuck.”
“Thank you,” Gina said, suddenly realizing she hadn’t even given that any thought since she could teleport anywhere if she needed to.
When they got back to the main floor, Gina asked Candice how she was doing.
“Tired,” Candice said.
Gina led the young girl into her bedroom and closed the door behind her.
Candice dropped on the bed. “I’m so glad I’m back here.”
“I think everyone is glad you are as well,” Gina said, smiling, “in case you can’t tell.”
“I can,” she said, her voice quivering a little. “They are my new family, aren’t they?”
“They are,” Gina said. “And you couldn’t ask for a better group. We all are family now, and we all have to work together.”
Candice nodded, clearly getting more tired by the moment.
“Crawl in and get some sleep,” Gina said. You are safe here. And if you need something, I’ll be here. Us girls got to stick together, you know.”
Candice smiled at that and nodded. “Thank you for carrying me here.”
“Thank you for getting me to this wonderful group of people,” Gina said.
Then she stood and headed for the door. “Sleep well.”
“I think tonight I will,” Candice said.
Gina went back out into the main area and pulled the door closed behind her.
Benny was cooking something in the kitchen and he glanced up at her and she nodded.
She could hear the professor and the two boys talking in the living room area about movies. Benny was working on making them some popcorn.
“She going to be all right?” Benny asked, indicating Candice’s room.
“I think she might be now,” Gina said, moving over and leaning against a counter so she could see Benny.
“Great work with her,” Benny said.
Gina nodded. “She’s going to have some rough patches, as everyone will. The key is for us to help them through the bad times as much as possible.”
Benny glanced over at the living room area to make sure he couldn’t be heard, then turned back to her. “Knowing there is a larger world out there and that we are getting support helps me more than I can tell you.”
She nodded. “Too bad we can’t tell everyone, but most would not believe it and many it would hurt instead of help.”
“Found that out the hard way, huh?”
“On a lot of different worlds in a lot of different ways,” she said. “It was why I had to have permission to even talk with you, even though you remembered the ship.”
“Makes sense,” he said as the wonderful-smelling popcorn started to pop.
“Are we joining them for a movie?” she asked.
He smiled at her. “I was kind of hoping you could give me a quick lesson on the Seeders.”
She felt a huge feeling of relief wash over her. “That I would be glad to do.”
“Then if we feel up for it, we can watch a movie and have popcorn upstairs.”
“Perfect,” she said. “Just perfect.”
FORMING A TEAM
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
AFTER THEY DELIVERED the popcorn to the guys in the living room, Benny both said goodnight to them and Gina thanked them again for allowing her in their building. Then they headed for the staircase. The sun was just setting to the west, the sky a beautiful orange with the sunset.
A few lights were shining through the dark city, but very few. Benny felt they needed to get out there, start trying to help people, but he was going to need to depend on Gina to guide them in the best way of doing that.
And who to even approach without getting shot on sight.
“You ready to get some information,” Gina asked as they closed the door to the apartment and stopped on the landing outside the door.
“We need to lock up this staircase door at our floor,” Benny said, suddenly realizing what she was intending. “Just in case someone comes up to find us for some reason or another.”
“Good thinking,” she said.
An instant later they were inside the door on their floor.
It took him a second to get his bearings, but not long.
“Wow,” Benny said. “I could get used to doing that.”
“Can’t ever let anyone see you do it, though,” she said.
He showed her how to lock up, then turned to her.
His stomach was doing flip-flops and he had a hunch he was sweating slightly.
“You trust me?” she asked.
“I do,” he said. “But keep in mind all this space stuff is not anything I ever once thought about before meeting you.”
She stepped up and kissed him hard. Then she stepped back and looked at him.
He honestly had to admit her kiss calmed him some, in some ways, and excited him in others.
“I honestly do remember what that feels like,” she said. “I was twenty-eight, working with relief groups on a major flooding disaster on my planet. My planet had been in space for a hundred years or so, but I sure never thought of going. My job was in the mud helping people survive and rebuild.”
“Recruited?” Benny asked.
She nodded. “One of the women working beside me asked me if I would be interested in helping out on a much larger scale. I said sure. But let me tell you, I didn’t handle learning about Seeders anyway near as well as you are.”
“Oh, I’m screaming and running in my mind,” Benny said. “Just never learned how to do that in real life.”
“Lucky for me,” she said, kissing him again.
She turned to the air. “Captain Carson, Benny Slade and I would like to talk with you for a moment.”
She nodded. “Thank you, chairman.”
Then Benny watched as she said into thin air, “Two transporting aboard.”
She nodded a moment later and turned to Benny. “Here we go.”
The next moment they were standing in the same position in a large office.
The place had a few soft chairs, a tan couch, and a huge wooden desk. The carpet under Benny’s feet was soft and the air smelled fresh.
Pictures of children hung on one wall, while the other white walls were decorated in photos of beautiful scenes of waterfalls and sand dunes.
The man who had spoken to everyone in the big room was coming around the desk, his hand out, smiling.
Benny shook his hand.
“Chairman Carson, this is Benny Slade,” Gina said.
“Great meeting you,” the chairman said, shaking Benny’s hand with a firm handshake.
The man had dark eyes and the smile on his face was also in his eyes.
“Great meeting you as well, sir,” Benny said.
“No sir on these ships,” the chairman said. “Just chairman is fine.”
Benny nodded, looking around at the large and comfortable office. “I’m back on the ship I presume?”
“You are,” the chairman said. “Are you interested in joining us, I hope?”
“Benny wants to know more about Seeders history and what we do and why,” Gina said. “Before he makes up his mind.”
Benny nodded to that.
“Sensible,” the chairman said. “But I do hope you decide to join us. We can use all the help we can get in the mess below.”
“I’m going to help with that,” Benny said, “even if I don’t join your people.”
“Of that I have no doubt,” the chairman said. “But we need help in the long-term planning to get the survivors back into full civilization as soon as possible, and that’s what we really need the help with.”
“You’re thinking years down the road already?” Benny asked, kind of stunned.
“Decades and centuries,” the chairman said.
Benny didn’t even know what to think about that.
Then the chairman turned to Gina. “You thinking basic overall lesson?”
“I am,” Gina said. “Won’t take more than an hour, but will give Benny all the information he needs to decide without me trying to explain it all.”
“You have my permission,” he said.
He reached out and shook Benny’s hand again. “I hope we can talk soon.”
“Thank you, Chairman,” Gina said.
“Yes, thank you,” Benny said.
A moment later they were standing in a very comfortable apartment. A thin blanket lay scattered on a couch, paperwork covered a coffee table along with some dirty dishes.
High Edge: A Seeders Universe Novel Page 10
