He mulled that over as he followed her.
Terrah turned at the door. “It was nice meeting you, Ardra. I look forward to seeing you again soon.”
Ardra smiled, and he could tell she liked Terrah. “Me too. And thank you.”
His friend smiled and turned to him. “As for you.”
She lifted her face for a kiss goodbye and managed to tickle him when he bent to oblige her.
“Stop frowning,” she told him. “You know I’m right.”
“You’re not always right,” he pointed out.
Her smug grin was her only answer. She slipped away, and he watched her disappear along the road before he closed the door.
After she was gone, Jack returned his attention to Ardra and discovered she was looking at him. “What?”
“You knew Stevin was dead?” she asked.
“Terrah told you?” He couldn’t read her tone, but he didn’t think she sounded accusatory. “According to the records we uncovered, yes. It was better for you to remember on your own though.”
“But I don’t remember. Not really.” She released a sigh and hugged herself as she stood in the living room.
“I could help you,” Jack offered. “If you let me.”
Her body language screamed resistance, so he was surprised when she returned a nod. He approached her cautiously and was pleased when she let him draw her into his arms.
Jack snuggled her against his chest and silently reveled in the way she fit against him. “You’re not alone. We can confront the truth together.”
She nodded again, but she didn’t say anything.
Wrapping his influence around her like a warm blanket, he watched as her eyes slid closed. He recognized that she wasn’t all the way under yet, so he sat her in the nearest chair and waited until she leaned forward. A moment later, he had her forehead pressed against his shoulder and his arm around her back.
“Okay, Ardra,” he said. “You know I love you, don’t you? You know I love you more than anybody, right?”
Ardra lifted her head and looked around. She was cuddled against Stevin’s shoulder, and the two of them were in bed together on board the A-Star. She smiled and squeezed him more tightly.
“I love you too,” she answered.
He took a deep breath, and it occurred to her that he was trying to tell her something important. “What I mean to say is that you trust me, right?”
“Stevin.” She drawled his name.
“No, really,” he insisted. “You do trust me?”
She ran her finger across his chin. “I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t trust you. I love you, and I trust you. That’s why I married you, you dolt.”
He still appeared troubled.
“Stevin,” she said, “why don’t you just say what you want to say? You’ve obviously got something on your mind.”
She ignored the commotion beyond their door. For the moment, she was more concerned about the man next to her. Something was definitely wrong.
“Stevin, what is it?”
He released a big sigh and slid out of bed. She watched him as he began to get dressed.
“Please put something on,” he told her.
“But, Stevin—”
“Do it.”
Although he hadn’t yelled, his abrupt command startled her. She hurried to do as he said. When she was fully clothed, he drew near to her again and cupped her face in his hands.
“Ardra,” he told her, “you have to trust me. Don’t be afraid. We’re going to have a new life together, and we’re going to be very rich. I’ll give you everything you ever wanted, like that house and garden you’re always talking about. All you have to do is stick with me.”
“Stevin, I don’t understand.”
The noise from outside suddenly grew a lot louder, and she heard a bang on their door. She tried to look, but Stevin kissed her. Before she could stop him, he opened the door, and there were men with weapons standing on the other side. She stared in disbelief and let out a gasp.
“There she is,” her husband told them. “Be careful with her.”
As Stevin walked away, Ardra called his name and started screaming. The men grabbed her and pinned her to the bed, and one of them jammed a syringe into her leg. Then everything went dark.
The next thing she knew, she was lying on something cold. The room around her was dim except for a bright light over her face, and she had to squint to see. A moment of dizziness and pain swept over her.
“Come on,” she heard a woman say. “Wake up.” The stranger’s voice was muffled as she turned to talk to someone else. “How much of that stuff did you inject her with? It’s taking forever to bring her around.”
“Same as usual,” a man replied. “She’s just sensitive.”
“Of course she’s sensitive, you idiots,” a familiar voice said. “She’s from the home planet. She’s not used to taking so many meds.”
Ardra groaned. “Stevin, help.”
The light overhead swung away, and she could make out more of her surroundings. There were metal tables in the room and examination lights and needles. Where the hell was she? She tried to move, but she was strapped down. A sick feeling hit her stomach as she stared at her left arm. It was riddled with multicolored IVs. Her head was in a vise, and it felt like a sea of thick syrup bubbled up behind her eyes.
“She’s awake enough now,” Stevin said. “Hurry up and get started. I don’t want to miss our flight.”
Everything sort of faded out for a while, but Ardra remained lying on the table.
“I tell you she’s no good,” the woman insisted. “It’s not working.”
“What do you mean?” Stevin stood at her feet and pointed at her. “She’s perfect. Unattached, no family.”
“That’s not what I mean,” the woman retorted.
Ardra couldn’t see the female’s face, but she made out two mechanical arms. Was she a robot? A cyborg?
“If she won’t accept the programming,” the woman said, “she’s of no use to us.”
The guy next to Stevin—a short, stocky man with a shaved head—spoke up. “She’s seen too much. We’ll have to dispose of her.”
“Wait a minute!” Stevin yelled. “That wasn’t the deal. You program her, she comes to live with me, and I take her to Algoron once they deliver the credits. That was the plan.”
“That was the plan,” the woman agreed, “but there’s something wrong with her. If her brain won’t accept the programming, we can’t afford to let her walk out of here.”
“You heard her,” the man said. “We can’t risk it.”
Ardra saw the guy reach for an amber syringe and uncap it. The needle gleamed in the light and—
She screamed and crashed back to the reality of Jack’s house. Her head spun, and it felt like her lungs had seized, leaving her breathless to the point she was sure she was going to die.
Jack caught Ardra in his arms.
“It’s all right,” he told her. “This is a panic attack. You’re going to be all right. You’re not going to die.”
He lowered her to the floor and cradled her from behind. She was making the most horrible noise in between gasps, and she trembled so hard he felt it in his own body. With nothing else he could do for her, he used his telepathic influence to put her to sleep.
Her head bobbed, and Jack lifted her to the sofa and laid her on the soft cushions. As he straightened, he brushed a lock of hair away from her face and kissed her forehead.
“I won’t let anyone hurt you again,” he whispered. Then he confessed the most dangerous truth. “I love you.”
She didn’t hear him. He sat and watched Ardra for several minutes before she opened her eyes.
“Are you all right?” he asked once she was awake. “Do you need anything?”
“What happened?”
Jack blinked. Had she said that out loud? No, her lips hadn’t moved, but the thought had come to him clearer than ever.
“You had a panic attack,”
he told her “You’re all right now. You’re safe.”
When she didn’t respond, he tried a more intimate touch of his thoughts. “Ardra?”
“I need a minute,” she replied.
“Take all the time you need.” He lingered only long enough to place a blanket over her shoulders before he left the room.
Jack dropped down on the edge of his bed and rubbed his temples as he fought his own emotions. He had never been a violent person, but right now he wanted to kill a dead man. Stevin had thrown this wonderful woman away. It wasn’t a mistake Jack intended to make.
Ardra returned to her holding room once she had recovered. She had thought to face the past and be done with it, but there were still blank spots in her memory. Her mind kept circling back to Stevin, and something didn’t feel right.
Maybe it was because he was so heavily on her mind that she started to dream about him as soon as she fell asleep. In the dream, she was back on Earth in the honeymoon suite of the Althena Hotel—the place Stevin had taken her on their wedding night. The whole scene was a flashback to that moment, and she stood at the window just as she had before.
She looked at the moonlit garden outside and pretended it was her own. Then she half turned toward the room behind her, where Stevin was putting away their luggage.
“I feel like Eve,” she told him.
He came over and wrapped his arm around her waist as he caressed her neck. “Let me tempt you then, young virginal Eve. I’ll show you a whole new universe tonight.”
She shivered, though she felt hot and flushed. With a deep breath to steady herself, she turned around, but it was no longer Stevin standing there.
“Jack.” There was excitement in her voice she didn’t bother to hide.
“I couldn’t stay away,” he admitted. “I want you too much, Ardra.”
The way he said her name was as sweet as any endearment. She pressed her palm over his heart and felt the way it beat a little faster. He reached out and traced her face with his fingertips, both arousing and comforting her with his touch. When he bent to kiss her, she met him halfway and pressed her lips to his. He deepened the embrace, and she wound her arms around him. Jack was something sturdy to hold on to as the rest of the world seemed to fall away.
Then he ran his fingers down her arms and took her hands in his. “Not here. I don’t want you to mistake me for him.”
For Stevin? There was no way she could.
With his gaze locked on hers, Jack led her outside beneath the open sky. She looked up and saw the moons of Edalus flanked by the distant stars. They were beautiful.
A white satin divan sat in the middle of the garden. She kissed Jack as they moved toward it and felt the urgent heat of his tongue and lips. He unzipped her dress and let it fall to the ground. Once he removed her undergarments, he gazed at her naked body. Ardra tried to undo the buttons of his shirt, but her hands shook, and he had to help her. When he was as nude as she was, she let her gaze sweep past his waist. She felt her whole body blush as she saw her effect on him.
Jack continued to court her mouth even as he rubbed against her. He dipped her back and pushed her gently onto the smooth bed of satin. There were no sheets, so their skin was bare to the night breeze. He kissed his way down her chest and belly and thigh with lingering presses of his lips. Then he worked his way back up, and she began to tremble in anticipation.
“I’m nervous,” she admitted.
He looked her right in the eye. “I know you are. But you don’t have to be afraid anymore.”
He slipped a hand between her legs, making her gasp. Her lips parted on a sigh as he took his time stroking and preparing her. He planted warm kisses on every reachable inch of her body until her tremors ceased. Once she was panting, he dropped his hips between her legs and pressed inside her. She moaned as he thrust forward, but it was solely a sound of pleasure. He was tender and careful with her as he started to move.
Gradually gaining momentum, he rocked into her beneath the open stars, and she swore she could feel the celestial energy pulsing through her. Jack’s tongue was between her lips, and he grew frantic beneath her encouraging hands. She lost herself in the feel of him moving rhythmically inside her. Their bodies twined—two separate beings sharing one single, unbearable pleasure. It was love and lust, making love and sharing it. She lost track of where she ended and he began and loved that he could read her every desire.
His thrusts grew faster until they both climaxed with a moan.
“Oh!” Ardra woke with a cry and bolted upright in bed.
Her heart was pounding and her nerves still tingled, but she was alone in her confinement room. She marveled that the dream had seemed so real. Then she had to wonder. It had been a dream, hadn’t it?
She thought of Jack and immediately felt the brush of his mind against hers. A jolt of surprise hit her, though she wasn’t sure if it came from him or herself.
“Not a dream,” she said with a groan.
She buried her face in her pillow. It would have been easy to blame him since he was the precept, but somehow she knew this wasn’t his doing. Or at least not his alone. How was she supposed to face him after this mental coupling? Connecting with Jack telepathically and having dream sex with him was more intimate than a simple physical act would have been. It might not have been so embarrassing if…
Ardra sighed. What was the point? No matter how she looked at their situation, she couldn’t see things ending well for them.
“How long are we going to avoid talking about last night?” Jack asked her late the next day.
They were sitting in what had become her favorite spot on his patio, and the breeze was soft and soothing.
“It was just a dream,” she insisted, though she knew her warm cheeks betrayed her.
He wouldn’t let it drop. “Sometimes in dreams we express emotions or desires that we inhibit while we’re awake.”
“Jack.” She said his name with a plaintive groan. “You’re the only man I know who wants to talk this much.”
He returned a shrug and didn’t appear insulted. “It’s what I do.”
She could see him draw a deep breath.
“And I know you’re confused about some things,” he said, “but I don’t want you to have any doubts about us. I do want you.”
Something fluttered inside her stomach, but she still held firm. “Lust is simple.”
“Not always,” he retorted. “I think you know it’s more than lust too. I love you, Ardra.”
“You shouldn’t say that.” Those were perilous words—words he shouldn’t have spoken out loud.
“Why not?” he asked. “It’s the truth.”
She looked at the handsome planes of his face and the kindness that shone from his eyes. Jack had a sweetness to him that was incredibly rare in the universe. It was so easy to fall in love with him. She was already more than halfway there.
“Don’t ask me to say it back,” she pleaded. “The last time I fell in love didn’t work out so well.”
“I’m not Stevin,” Jack reminded her.
“No, you’re not, but you might be a worse risk.” When Ardra saw him flinch, she softened her tone. “We’re in the middle of a war here. I’m a prisoner, and you’re the one who is supposed to be interrogating me.”
“I’m thinking of getting out of the interrogation business,” he said. “And you won’t be a prisoner forever. In fact, you shouldn’t be one for much longer.”
That made her sit up straight. “What do you mean?”
“We don’t believe you’re the only carrier with the coordinates, but from what we can tell, you were going to be the first one to reach Algoron. We’ve done all we can to keep the Tetch thinking everything is fine with the Oberon. Since there was no pilot, it was only a matter of programming the computer. We followed the flight plan and sent the ship along its scheduled course. But the ruse can only last until it reaches Algoron. The Tetch are going to discover that you and Thales and Slade aren’t on b
oard, and then they’re going to do everything they can to get their hands on those coordinates as fast as possible. Once they attack, it will be a moot point. You won’t be of strategic use to our military anymore.”
“Which means what exactly? What happens to me when I’m no longer useful?” She wasn’t sure what the Roimirans did with prisoners of war.
Jack gave her an exasperated look. “If my people didn’t execute Private Thales, do you really think they’d hurt a civilian prisoner? We’re not monsters.”
“You aren’t,” she told him. “I have mixed feelings about the rest of your people.” The one guard, Arrius, came to mind. “So after the Tetch strike, then what? Your superintendent will let me go?”
“Standard procedure would be to fade your memories of your time here before shipping you to another facility for further treatment. There you’d get help healing from the strain of memory tampering and the interrogation. Then you would be free to go wherever you want.”
Ardra focused on the first part. “Fade my memories? You mean you erase a prisoner’s memories of being here? You bury them under some fake story like the Tetch?”
This time she saw a spark of temper in Jack’s eyes. “Of course not. We just make their time here seem more distant and hazy—enough that they can’t direct the Tetch right to us when they go home.”
“I’m sorry.” Ashamed of having made the accusation, she closed her eyes. “I guess I’m still having trust issues.”
The brush of his finger across her cheek made her look at him.
“Understandable,” he said gently.
“How long do I have?” she asked. “How long until I’m supposed to arrive on Algoron?”
“Two weeks.”
“That’s not much time. Then what?”
“Since you and I abandoned the standard procedure some time ago, I’d say then you’ll have the freedom to choose what’s next.” Jack gave her a hopeful look. “If you decide I’m worth the risk, you and I can transport out of here and go wherever you want.”
A Stellar Affair Page 14
