by Christy,Dena
If he could lure her away from the door, she would have a hard time out running him in those shoes. The red dress she wore showed off every curve, but it wasn’t meant for swift movement. He wanted to let his eyes linger on her full breasts and hips shown to advantage in that dress, but he couldn’t indulge in drinking her in. He clamped down on the attraction she stirred inside him and forced his mind to focus. If she was some instrument they intended to torture him with, the scientist had chosen well. He needed to resist the allure that poured out of every inch of her body and focus on getting out of this room.
She took a small step forward. He held still. He didn’t want to startle her and make her leave the room. She didn’t feel threatening to him, and if he was going to grab her, he needed her closer. And he liked looking at her, and he didn’t want her to turn away from him. There was an open curiosity in her eyes that posed no threat to him, and she took another step forward.
“Will you not speak to me?” Her shoes made a soft sound on the floor as she walked closer to him. If he’d met her at another time and in another place, he would love to close his eyes and listen to her speak. Her voice was like a caress, stroking up and down his skin, and he could listen to it for hours.
The closer she stepped toward him, the more he could see the fine texture of her skin. What would it feel like? Would it be as soft as it looked? His finger tips tingled to find out, but he kept them by his side. She was almost close enough to touch, but still needed to take a few more steps. He would hold himself still until she was too close to escape.
Her eyes were large and fringed with dark lashes as she stepped in front of him. If he was going to plow through her to use her as a shield, he needed to do it now.
Her scent filled his nostrils, and she smelled sweet, lush and female. Do it now. Grab her!
His body tensed, but he couldn’t make it move. Perhaps if she’d come in here like a hard ass, if she had hurt him, he might have been able to do it. To grab her and make his escape. His brain said to do it, but his body had other ideas. It was telling him to do things too, but grabbing her and using her as a human shield wasn’t on the list.
He’d have to find another way to escape, one that didn’t involve her.
Fuck.
He didn’t have in him. He couldn’t hurt her. There had to be another way, and he’d think about it as soon as he stopped enjoying her presence in his room.
She maintained eye contact with him and didn’t look away from his face. Good thing, since she would have seen proof of what being this close to her did to him. Her scent was heady, her body close enough to touch, and his body was already ready for something more than a few glances to happen. The scientists on the other side of the window were getting an eyeful, but he didn’t care. They were on the other side of a piece of glass and she was right here, in front of him. He could stand there for hours, just drinking in the sight and smell of her.
She lifted her hand and put it on his chest, over his heart. It pounded underneath the white cotton shirt they’d given him to wear as soon as she’d touched him. He stood still, curled his hands inward, and dug his fingers into his palms.
He wanted to put her hand under his shirt, so he could feel her against his bare skin. He swallowed hard. Would she like it? Caressing him, gliding her palm over the skin of his chest. Or would his desire for her touch frighten her? It was one thing to explore him through the safe barrier of a cotton shirt, but the intimacy of skin to skin touch might be more than she was ready for. There was an intensity to the urges inside him that he hadn’t felt before, and he swallowed hard. He had to remember that they weren’t alone.
Why did he have to meet her here? Why not somewhere they could be alone? What would it be like to be in a room alone with her, with no prying eyes watching. Would she be touching him like this, or would she hold herself away from him at a safe distance? It didn’t matter, since they were not in a room alone, and he was a prisoner. He couldn’t do anything about the feelings churning inside him unless he got out of this room.
Her eyes darted down to his mouth. Could she be thinking about kissing him? Her lips were full, and would be a soft pillow for his mouth. He would only have to lean forward ever so slightly and he would know the taste of her.
You’re not in private. Was this what the men on the other side of the room wanted him to do? Did they want him to use her to give them a show?
He gritted his teeth. He couldn’t kiss her, or touch her or do any of the things his body was urging him to do. Not with an audience watching. He took a step away from her. Was she in on their plans? Was that why she had shown only the minimal of hesitation about coming close to him and touching him?
Her hand dropped off his chest and back down to her side. He felt the loss of her touch as if he’d been feeling it his entire life. As soon as it was gone, he wanted to step back toward her so he could feel it again. He stayed where he was because he wouldn't let his idiotic urges get him into any more trouble than he was already in.
A sharp banging on the glass made her jump, and Synn jerked his head toward the window. It was the older man, Dr. Avery, and his face was drawn in angry lines. Whatever the other scientist had planned for her, Dr. Avery wasn’t privy to it.
Synn looked at Miranda, whose skin had turned as pale as the walls in his room. A connection clicked inside his head, one that seeing her juxtaposed with Dr. Avery brought to his attention. It was a little nugget he’d gleaned from Dr. Avery’s mind when the man had touched him.
The older scientist wanted Miranda for himself. He couldn’t fault the old man’s taste, since less than five minutes in a room with her had him wanting her too. A glance at her expression when she looked at Dr. Avery said that the older man’s desire was not reciprocated.
It explained the anger on his face when he walked in the door. Would the doctor’s feelings for her, which had carried a hint of obsession when Synn had seen them in his head, make him hurt her? Synn took a step toward her. He couldn’t hurt her and apparently wanted no one else to either.
His forward movement made her shake her head. “It will be all right.”
Her voice was soft and meant only for his ears. She turned away to face Dr. Avery in his place by the door.
He stood in the middle of the room. The pad strapped to his back made him impotent, and he could do nothing. He couldn’t follow her, couldn’t reach out to her. He couldn’t even speak to her since he needed to keep his knowledge of their language a secret. The muscle in his jaw tightened and flexed as he kept his mouth shut.
Don’t go.
He watched the soft sway of her hips as she walked to the door that would take her out of his life as quickly as it had brought her in. You need to forget her.
He couldn’t watch her walk away, so he turned and went back to his spot on the other side of the room. He sank down on to the floor and rested his back against the wall. The door closed softly behind her, but it sounded like a boom ushering her out of his life.
He had to find a way out of this room. Maybe if he behaved himself, they would relax their guard. Then he would be out of here and he could put this whole experience behind him like a bad dream that had never happened.
He put his hand up to his chest where she’d touched him. She wouldn’t be so easily forgotten. When he got out of here, he would look for her, if only to see her one more time. And he would tell her his name so he could hear it on her lips at least once.
Chapter Four
John stood on the threshold of the observation room door while he waited for Miranda to get out of the room. His juniors watched him so he didn’t dare go in there and drag her away from that creature, no matter how much he wanted to. No one needed to know that she was his and that seeing her touch the alien had nearly undone his normal composure. Let them think that he was angry that she was in here without clearance, and not because seeing her hand on the alien had sent shards of jealousy stabbing through him.
He’d foolishly thought sh
e was taking a break when he’d come out of his office to use the washroom and hadn’t seen her at her desk. If he hadn’t used the opportunity of a break in his focus to come and see how the juniors were progressing with their study of the alien, he would never have known that she was in the room with him. How could they have just stood there, watching her touching and arousing the alien?
What had she said to him? How could she have put her hand on that abomination? He was a perfect specimen, and she probably like the hard muscles the clothes the alien wore failed to hide. How far would she have gone if he hadn’t come in when he had? How far would the other scientist have let her go? Only a whisper of space had existed between her and the alien. The creature had managed in a few minutes what John failed to accomplish in three months.
She didn’t move away from the door fast enough for his liking, and he grabbed her by the arm and yanked her away. The door shut with a soft click that seemed at odds with what was churning inside him. His grip was tighter than necessary, and he steered her toward the exit to the lab and let her go. Her face was white, and she looked scared to death before her eyes dropped away from his. She should be scared. She didn’t have proper clearance to be in here, and that was grounds for firing, at the very least.
She bit her lip and reached up to rub the spot where his hand had been. The action shamed him for a moment, but he hardened his heart. He couldn’t let his feelings for her interfere with the reprimanding she deserved. Anything could have happened to her in the room with that creature, and it was for her own safety that he needed to discipline her. But not here. He would do her the courtesy of giving her a dressing down in private.
“Go to my office, Citizen Reynaud.” She bowed her head, and walked toward the door, her heels clicking rapidly on the industrial floor. He waited until the door closed behind her before he turned to the junior scientists.
He knew who was to blame for this. It had to be Neil. “What the hell were you thinking, putting her in there, Dr. Stuart?”
Neil’s face was just as white as Miranda’s had been, and the other two juniors looked down at their hands. They wouldn’t make eye contact with him, and he knew they were just as much to blame as Neil. While he may have masterminded this little stunt, the others had done nothing to stop him. All it would have taken was for one of them to come and get him, but they’d let him discover Miranda practically pressed against the alien all on his own.
“You said to expose him to various stimuli. I thought it would be an interesting experiment to see how he would react to a human female. You have to admit that it was a telling bit of data, that he was aroused by her.”
He didn’t need a reminder of the alien’s impressive erection, and heat crept up from his chest to cover his cheeks.
“How far would you have taken the experiment Neil? Would you have stripped them both and let the alien mount her for your own twisted amusement?” An image flashed in John’s head of Miranda and the alien laying in a naked tangle of limbs, and he ruthlessly suppressed it. He’d found them out before it had gone that far.
“Of course not. I thought—”
John made a slashing movement with his hand. “The problem with you Neil is that you don’t think. You never think. This breach will go on your record and you will never get past your current level. I will make it my mission to ensure that happens. I want you out of my laboratory, and once I get back to my office I’m going to arrange for your transfer.”
Neil opened his mouth. John held up his hand to stop any form of protest that would come out of him. “Not only did you breach security, you endangered Citizen Reynaud. What if the alien had hurt her before you could react? Consider yourself very lucky that I don’t fire you.”
It was a bluff because despite how much he wished he could fire Neil, it was an impossibility. His father was a high-ranking officer in the military, and he was used to paving the way for his son. John would be committing career suicide if he went up against Neil’s father. The best he could do was arrange for a transfer for Neil, and at least that would get him out of his lab where the sloppy scientist could be someone else’s problem.
Neil bowed his head.
Good. There would be no further arguments from him. He turned to the other two scientists.
“As for you two, you will be docked today’s wages for your part in this little stunt.”
He didn’t give them any time to respond and turned on his heel. It was time they learned who was boss and did their jobs properly. He pulled open the door to the observation lab and strode down the hall toward his office.
Miranda had followed his instructions, and stood waiting for him outside his door, with her hands clasped in front of her and her head bowed. He took a deep breath. He needed to handle this carefully. Their future together as man and wife would go much smoother if he didn’t wound her too much with his words now.
He would keep things cool and professional. Once he married her, he could legally force her to leave her job and he could control who she saw and what she did.
Once she was his wife, this episode would be behind him, and the only person she would put her hands on would be him.
* * *
Miranda pressed her hand to her stomach as she fought the nausea churning inside her that threatened to come up. That would be exactly what she needed, to puke on the carpet outside Dr. Avery’s door. That would go over real well. She moved her hands in front of her and clasped them together, clenching them to keep the panic that wanted to come up with the nausea at bay.
Why had she done it? Why had she believed Neil when he said that it would be fine, and that Dr. Avery wouldn’t notice that she was gone? If only she hadn’t listened, she wouldn’t be standing here now waiting for Dr. Avery to deliver the firing that was sure to be imminent. How could it not be?
He’d been so mad when he’d caught her in the room with that man. Perhaps there had been a danger to her, despite the man’s gentleness toward her. He hadn’t made any inappropriate moves toward her, and she’d been close enough to touch him. But why else would Dr. Avery have grabbed her so hard when he’d pulled her away from the door?
She straightened when she heard the sharp clip of his shoes as he walked down the corridor. His face was neutral when he approached her and inclined his head toward his open office door. She walked inside, and her stomach cramped so hard that she struggled to keep herself out of the fetal position.
“Citizen Reynaud.” He closed the door, and she turned toward him. She pressed her trembling lips together to keep the apprehension churning her guts from showing on her face. He would expect her to be professional and dissolving into a blubbering mess would only embarrass them both. “I think you can appreciate the seriousness of the situation you find yourself in.”
“Am I going to be fired?” She bit her bottom lip.
That sounded so much weaker than she’d intended for it to come out. In all likelihood it was a rhetorical question. She deserved a firing for what she’d done, and she would accept it with no fuss. It would be a blemish on her work record, and the government wouldn’t look favorably on her for her next work assignment. It wouldn't be a place as nice as here.
Dr. Avery looked at her and sighed. What did that sigh mean? She couldn’t read anything in his face as she waited for the hammer to fall. This was it. He was going to fire her.
“You will not be fired. You should look at this as a learning experience.”
“I’ll know not to listen to Neil again.” She said it under her breath, her relief at his words overriding her common sense. Of course he heard her that’s just showed how well her day was going.
“You should have known that already.” He crossed his arms over his chest, and a hardness came into his voice that match the look on his face. “I have never found fault with your work and had considered you to be my most reliable employee. Why did you go to the observation lab without checking with me first?”
“Dr. Stuart made it sound like you wouldn�
��t have a problem with it, and you said that you didn’t want to be disturbed.” Which was a flimsy excuse, and he would see that. But she couldn’t tell him that her curiosity had gotten the better of her. That she’d gone with Neil because the work he gave her to do bored her to tears.
He wouldn’t understand if she told him that something happened to her when she’d gone into the room with that man. The only thing in this whole affair that she regretted was that she’d been taken away from him. She hadn’t been ready to leave when Dr. Avery had caught her.
If she asked, would he tell her why the man was in the observation lab? Her curiosity had already gotten her into a heap of trouble, but she had to know.
“I know you don’t have to tell me sir, but why was the man in the observation lab in the first place?”
A dull flush crept up Dr. Avery’s face. Had she gone too far? Although he wouldn't fire her, she was still on shaky ground with him and she needed to remember that.
“I will only tell you this so you will understand why you need to put him from your mind. He’s not human, he’s an alien.”
“An alien?” That didn’t make any sense. Confusion drew her brows together, and she couldn’t let it go. “But he looks—”
“I know what he looks like.” Miranda jumped as Dr. Avery shouted at her. His expression was thunderous, and a gasp escaped her. There was something in his eyes that had a small kernel of fear unfurling inside her. It was like seeing a different man from the one who interacted so professionally with her every day. She raised her hands up so her palms faced out at chest level and took a small step back.
His face cleared, and he sighed.
“Miranda.” He took a step toward her, reached out and put his hand on her arm. She looked at his hand on her body and recoiled.
