by Lolita Lopez
When it was over, she sagged against the bed, her legs limp and open, her hands curled loosely and dangling from the cuffs. Cipher kissed her inner thighs and petted her abdomen as she came down from the best high of her life. He finally moved to a kneeling position and reached across her body to the bedside table. He grabbed something from the drawer and sat back on his heels. He flipped the cap on the tube and squeezed a dollop of something clear onto his palm.
“What is that?”
“Lubricant,” he explained and tossed the tube aside. He slathered the gel on his ruddy shaft and then pressed the excess into her. She gasped at the sensation of the cool gel coating her inner walls and squirmed when his fingers withdrew. “It will make this easier for you.”
Fascinated, she watched him stroke his cock and then take it in hand. He dragged the tip through her folds, swirling it around her ultra-sensitive clit before sliding it down to her opening. She drew in a breath as he breached her entrance, the thick head of his shaft filling her in a way that she had never known was possible. Keeping her eyes glued to his, she let her legs fall apart as he pressed deeper inside of her.
There was none of the pain she had been told to expect. It was different and strange, but good. So very good. He was so big she felt impaled on his cock. It was obscene to think about how deep he had reached inside her. As if sharing her thought, he put his huge hand on her lower belly to feel the movement of their now joined bodies. He groaned as he bottomed out inside her, reaching as far as he could go, and she mewled, her inner muscles squeezing him and drawing another groan from his throat. “Your little cunt is going to kill me.”
The dirty words left her lightheaded and aching. He started to thrust into her, using steady strokes to ease her into the new experience of being fucked. She hooked her ankles behind his backside, anchoring herself to him. Cipher leaned down to kiss her, claiming her mouth in a way that mimicked what he was doing with his cock. His tongue thrusted against hers, and she whimpered at he overwhelming sensuality of the moment.
“You feel so good, Brook.” He kissed her cheek and then her jaw. “You’re so hot and wet.” He punctuated his words with a harder thrust, and she cried out, shocked by the sensations he evoked. “Do you like that? Do you want me to fuck you? Hard? Fast?”
“Yes,” she answered breathlessly. “Yes. Please.”
“Please what?” He nipped at her neck and soothed the bite with his tongue. “Beg me, Brook.”
“Please, sir,” she pleaded, her gaze clashing with his. “Please fuck me, sir.”
He growled and gripped the front of her collar. With her hands restrained overhead and his hand on her collar, she was trapped right where he wanted her—and that was exactly where she wanted to be. It felt perfect. It felt right to be completely at his mercy as he thrust into her again and again, driving them both toward the promise of a climax that would leave them dizzy.
His other hand moved between their bodies, and the first flick of his fingers on her clit had her screaming. Stretched around his cock, her pussy was on fire. She felt sensations in places she hadn’t known existed until that moment, places she committed to memory because she wanted to feel them again and again.
“I’m going to come, sir.” The words tumbled out of her mouth unbidden. She clenched her thighs around his waist as he picked up the pace, pounding her into the bed.
“Let me feel it,” he urged, still gripping the front of her collar. “Let me feel your tight little pussy milking me for every last drop.”
His deep, rumbling voice pushed her over the edge. She cried out with pure joy as her climax exploded from her core. What she had experienced earlier was nothing compared to the utter elation of being filled and stretched as she orgasmed. It was another level of pleasure, and it rocked her whole world.
“Brook,” he groaned. “Brook. Brook. Brook.” He slid deep, knocking the air from her lungs, and his hips stuttered. She could feel him throbbing inside her, could feel the heat of him filling her. She kept her legs around his waist, holding him inside her as he rocked and shuddered.
When he was spent, he unfurled the fingers holding her collar and captured her mouth. His kisses were gentle but passionate. He rode the aftershocks with her, reaching up to release her wrists while they exchanged slow and easy kisses. He wrapped his arms around her, rolling onto his back and bringing her with him. He stayed buried inside her as he cradled her to his chest and combed his fingers through her hair.
Closing her eyes, she snuggled in closer. There was so much she wanted to discuss with him, but she was so totally overwhelmed by what she had experienced she needed to rest. He didn’t seem to mind. In fact, he seemed to need exactly what she did. Safe in his arms, she drifted off to sleep.
Hours later, she woke to the smell of something delicious and the ticklish sensation of Cipher’s fingertips gliding up and down her spine. She had rolled onto her belly at some point during her nap, and now he was behind her, kissing her neck and shoulders and waking her with soft caresses. She mewled and wiggled back against him, feeling the heat of his bare chest and the stiff fabric of his pants. “Is it late?”
“Almost dinner time,” he said, tracing the shell of her ear with his fingertip.
“I don’t know how you can tell time up here,” she lamented with a sigh. “There is no sunlight. It’s the one thing I miss about life down there.”
“We have engineered sunlight,” he reminded her. “The ship’s lighting mimics a day and night cycle. The climate does the same. We can adjust the screens on the windows so you have a similar view to what you had in your cabin. It will help you adjust.”
“Do you ever miss it? Real sunshine and fresh air and the smells of nature?”
He shook his head. “I’ve been in ships so much of my life that I start to miss the comfort of climate control when I’m on the surface.”
“I can see that. Having cool air all the time is nice. It sure beats sweating through a sticky, hot night in my cabin.”
“Well,” he nuzzled her cheek, “you’ll probably still have plenty of hot, sticky nights here in these quarters.”
She giggled and hid her face. “You’re terrible.”
“You didn’t think so earlier.” He nibbled her ear lobe. “You have enough time for a bath before dinner is ready.”
A hot soak sounded really good. Wondering how sore she was after making love to Cipher, she tested the situation by moving her legs. Surprisingly, she felt only a slight ache. It was more of a throbbing feeling, similar to the way her hands sometimes felt after a long day of working in the mines.
“Are you in pain?” He gently rolled her over and studied her face. “There are pills you can take or creams to apply.”
“I’m a little sore, but it’s not bad.” She drew her finger along the outline of one of his tattoos. Her earlier shyness had all but vanished. After the way Cipher had enjoyed her body, she no longer felt embarrassed by her slim figure and small breasts. More importantly, now that she had gotten a taste of how good sex felt, she wanted more of it.
“Later,” he said as if reading her mind. “Bath first and then some food.” He nuzzled her cheek. “Then we can play.”
She nodded in acceptance of his schedule and let him help her out of the bed. Her hand in his, she followed him into the adjacent bathroom. Like the rest of their quarters, it was done in muted grays and whites. He sat on the edge of the tub and activated the faucet with a wave of his hand. As he tested the temperature of the water, a thought struck her. “How do you get freshwater up here?”
Cipher looked at her and smiled. “I wondered how long it would take you to ask questions like that.” He hesitated. “Are you sure you want to know?”
“Yes.”
“It’s manufactured and recycled. Mostly,” he added and reached for a bottle on a small built-in shelf. As he twisted off the lid and poured some of liquid inside into the bath water, he explained, “The ships are loaded with freshwater when they set out on their mai
den voyages. Every drop used on the ship goes through a series of filtration systems that cleans and reclaims it. Our environmental systems extract water vapor from the air to keep the humidity on the ship at the correct value. The extracted water is condensed, cleaned and reclaimed.”
As she watched the pink bubbles form in the water, she wrinkled her nose at the idea of drinking reclaimed bath water but then decided it was no different than drinking water filtered through layers of rock and sand. It was likely cleaner and safer to drink reclaimed water than to sip straight out of her well back home.
“The sewage too?” She suspected it was also reclaimed and filtered.
“Yes.”
She made a face but not for the reason he was likely thinking. “I would hate to have that job!”
Cipher laughed. “It’s mostly automated. Engineers keep an eye on the processes. It’s rare that plumbing engineers have to get their hands dirty.”
“But what happens as you lose water in the cleaning system? Wouldn’t the levels eventually drop so low that you wouldn’t be able to sustain the loop?”
“Yes. We receive shipments of water to replenish what can’t be cleaned or reclaimed. It’s only a fraction of what we recycle, though.”
“The weight of all that water must be an incredible burden on the ship’s engines,” she murmured, thinking of how hard it was to carry a bucket or two from the well to her house.
“The physics of all that is something we can talk about later,” he offered. “I can show you the models and systems.”
“I’d like that.” Others might find it boring, but she was excited by the prospect of learning something new from Cipher.
“Come here.”
She stepped between his legs, and he gently turned her around to face the sink and mirror. He combed his fingers through her unruly hair and separated it into three sections. Surprising her with his skill, he braided her hair and then coiled it into a bun at the back of her head. He secured it with clips he pulled from the pocket of his pants.
“I’m impressed.” She glanced over her shoulder at him. “Where did you learn that?”
“My older sister,” he said quietly. “She got hurt as a young kid and had problems with her hands, even after surgery. I helped her with things like her hair when I was on leave from school.”
It hadn’t even occurred to her that he had family somewhere. Feeling terrible for not asking before, she turned to face him. “I’m so sorry I didn’t ask about your family. I just…well…I sort of assumed you didn’t have anyone.”
“You weren’t wrong.” His hands settled on her hips. “My dad died in battle when i was eleven. My mother and sister were killed in a Splinter attack on our home planet seven years ago.”
“Cipher,” she whispered sympathetically. Cupping his jaw in her small hands, she said, “I’m sorry about your family.”
“Thank you.” He kissed her palm and sent a frisson of heat through her arm. “My family would have loved you. My mother was from a planet where women were equal to men and worked outside the home. She was a mechanical engineer. That’s how she met my dad. My sister studied mathematics at a university on our planet.” He traced her collarbone. “Someday, I’ll take you to my home world. You’ll love it.”
“I’ve never traveled anywhere.” She glanced around the bathroom and shrugged. “This is the farthest I’ve ever been from home.”
“We can go anywhere you want, Brook. I have months of saved leave. I’d like to travel the universe with you.”
She grinned. “That sounds incredible.”
“Doesn’t it?”
She nodded and then worried her bottom lip. “What does your future look like? Our future, I mean. Do you serve in the military forever? Do you retire?”
“I can do either. I’ll have enough points to retire in a few years. If I choose to separate from service, I’ll be strongly encouraged to remain here and settle on Calyx. We intend to colonize your planet.”
She perked up at that revelation. “I own a chunk of land on the mountain. Not just the cabin,” she explained. “I own the twenty-one acres around it. I have the deed in my pack. We could build a bigger, nicer cabin someday.”
His eyes brightened at that thought. “I think I’d like that.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.” He rubbed circles on her hipbones. “We can look at some plans later. Daydream a little.”
She grinned. “I haven’t daydreamed like that since I was little.”
“Me either, but maybe it’s time we let ourselves dream of a different future.”
She leaned in to kiss him. “Together?”
“Together.”
Their lingering kiss filled her with so much hope. She wasn’t foolish enough to think it would always be this easy and simple. At some point, they would butt heads and argue, but she was determined to try to make it work with him. This wasn’t the way she had envisioned her life, being claimed by an alien sky warrior she barely knew, but it felt so right.
“Let me help you in,” he said, standing and guiding her over the ledge and into the rectangular tub. It was clearly designed for a big man like him, and she could practically swim in it.
“Do you want to join me?” She waved her hand through the hot water, scooping up the pink bubbles and watching them slide between her fingers.
He wavered, his gaze darting from her to the open door. “Let me take dinner out of the oven.”
While he was gone, she enjoyed the luxurious feel of the water and the delightful sugary sweet scent of the bubbles. She closed her eyes and inhaled and felt as is she were standing in a bakery crammed with the most delicious cakes and pastries. She had only been in a bakery once, on a trip to Connor’s Run with her father. He had let her buy a cupcake, and they had shared it under the shade of a nearby tree. It had been so sweet that it gave her a tummy ache, but it was still one of her fondest memories.
“You okay?” Cipher frowned with concern as he shucked his pants, revealing he wore nothing underneath them.
“Just reliving a memory,” she said, smiling up at him from her nest of bubbles.
“A good one?”
“Very good,” she confirmed and scooted forward to make room for him. He stepped in and lowered himself behind her. When his strong arms embraced her, she leaned back into him and sighed with utter contentment. It felt so good to be held by him. The last few days with Cipher had forced her to acknowledge that she had been starving for companionship and touch. The way he seemed to always want to be close to her, to sleep next to her in the hospital bed and hold her hand, convinced her he felt the same way.
The unexpected blare of an alarm startled her, and she yelped, sloshing water out of the tub and onto the floor. “What is that?”
“Easy,” Cipher said, hugging her close. “It’s a drill.” He shifted her forward a few inches. “We need to get out.”
The shockingly loud klaxon made her head hurt. She scrambled out of the tub as a stern male voice ordered them to evacuate the ship. She grabbed the towel Cipher thrust at her and hurriedly dried her body. Had this been a real situation and not a drill, she would have left their quarters soaking wet. As it was, she was still damp when Cipher tossed her yellow dress at her and a clean pair of underwear he grabbed from a drawer.
“Shoes,” he said, fastening his belt and gathering his gear. Dazed by how quickly he had gotten dressed, she hurried to comply with his order. He snatched her hand and tugged her close. “Stay right next to me. Pay attention to the route we take. Someday, this drill will save your life.”
Not might. Will.
As she scurried along behind Cipher, she had a sinking feeling her life in space was about to get very, very scary.
Chapter Twelve
Fucking drills. It was normal to have a series of drills after a Grab. Orion wanted all of the new brides to understand how to navigate the ship and evacuate in the event of an emergency. There were regular drills between Grabs, most of them simple an
d routine fire or evacuation exercises. This one, however, was different. There wasn’t a Grab scheduled for another month, and there was nothing routine about what awaited them in their pods.
As he held tight to Brook’s hand and guided her along the pathway illuminated with blinking green lights, he wondered how many of the other men guiding their mates to escape pods were aware of the true threat. The gas still hadn’t been located on the planet’s surface, and there was no indication that it had ever made it to space. Until Shadow Force was able to find the gas and secure it, life on the Valiant was under serious threat. One drop of gas, and thousands would die.
While Brook had been recovering in the infirmary, he had been busy at work with the environmental engineers and Pierce to put together a network of modified sensors. They were being deployed as quickly as possible, but the robots required to place most of them in tight quarters were impeding the workflow. Orion had maintained his decision that the family sectors be protected first, then critical sectors like the bridge, engineering and medical. The other portions of the ship would have to wait which left a huge chunk of enlisted and unmated men vulnerable.
Rounding the corner to the evacuation staging area, Cipher pulled Brook in front of him and slid his arm around her shoulders, mirroring the stance of many of his fellow officers. He spotted Menace and Raze in the crowd first. Dizzy and Venom caught his eye next. His friends kept their wives close as he did, ready to defend and protect them.
The pod doors opened and the automated system ordered them to file into their places. They moved quickly but calmly into their assigned pods and into their specific seats. He and Brook were at the very end of the first row. Raze and Ella were next to him with Dizzy and Venom on the other side of them. Menace and Naya capped off the front row, and he stood at the doorway, counting and recounting as the rest of their floor took their seats. When they were all buckled in, Menace shut the door and activated the launch sequence. Instead of the usual simulated launch on the communication screen at the front of the pod, they were greeted with a recorded message delivered by the admiral.
