Adrift (The Sirilians Book 1) (19 page)

She screamed, and distantly he felt her nails dig into his scalp. Her hands were locked onto his head, pressing his face against her core—as if he needed any encouragement—until her spasms began to ease.

Her fingers loosened their hold on his head as her muscles began to go limp. He slowly pulled away from her and looked up the expanse of her body. She was flush, breathing rapidly, and looking at him with wide eyes. Amazement shone in their depths.

A wave of pride went through him: he had done this to her. He had pleasured his woman.

“Don’t think for a second that I’m done with you,” he told her.

Her eyes went wide, and a sly smile curved her lips. “Good. Because I’m not done with you either. Lose the pants. Now.”

It was his turn to grin. He loved when she got bossy.

He stood and shucked his pants, then dove back atop her just as she threw her shirt aside. Her breasts pressed into his bare chest, beaded nipples searing paths on him.

Need to taste.

He bent his head low and latched his lips around one of the erect buds, as his tongue rolled over the tip. He heard her swift intake of breath, and felt her palms lock around his head, once again meshing his mouth against her.

If she wanted more pressure, he’d happily give it to her. He sucked on the tip, flattening it against the roof of his mouth.

She cried out, and encompassed him with her legs—ankles locked around his hips. He fell against the core of her, and his cock rode her valley. He was already slick with her juices.

He switched his mouth to her other breast, needing to pay homage to that peak as well, and he couldn’t stop his hips from thrusting against her. His shaft slid effortlessly over her folds, and he quaked with the rush of sensation.

He had to be inside her—couldn’t wait another moment without knowing how her sheath would feel around him.

He pulled his hips back, and the tip slid into place as if it knew exactly where to go. Her voice cut through the haze of his passion.

“No. Not like this.”

No?
Would she deny him? It was the worst thing she could have said at that moment.

Karo took several deep breaths in an attempt to regain control over his arousal. If she didn’t want his penetration, he’d stop. He’d find the will to stop—even if it killed him.
Maybe she’d allow him to keep tonguing her nipples?
Maybe he could convince himself that that’d be enough.

Yeah, right.
He’d never get enough of this woman.

He looked into her eyes afraid that he’d see refusal, or worse, fear. Instead he saw mischief.

What the hell?

She pushed at his chest gently, and he obligingly pulled back. Even if they didn’t go any further he still didn’t want to leave the paradise of her body.

She squirmed and rolled herself until she was on her knees. She smiled at him from over her shoulder and wiggled her butt.

“I want you like this—I’ve been fantasizing about it.”

He nearly came at her words.

His hard length rode her crease and his eyes crossed. She arched her back and pressed her breasts into the mattress.

His palms roamed along the plane of her back, over the wide flare of her hips, to her ass. His hands fell to her cheeks and he kneaded the muscles, thumbs reaching to slide through her juices. She was arched so far that he could see the lips of her pussy and her core.

Suddenly he could think of nothing else but having her this way too.

He gripped his shaft with one hand. It was stone-hard, pre-cum leaking from the tip, even though he’d already blown once.

Didn’t matter.
He’d always get hard for her.

He slid the head along her cleft and they both moaned. She rocked back onto him, encouraging him to slide into her sheath, but he pulled back. She whimpered and trembled against him.

Again he slid the head of his erection through her juices concentrating on circling it around her bud of nerves. She moaned and clenched at the sheets on the bed, her nails digging deep.

He felt perspiration bead his brow with the need to take her.

The torture was exquisite.

Finally, he couldn’t hold himself back any longer. He notched the tip at her core and rocked forward, ever so slightly.

“Oh yes!” she cried out. “More, Karo. Give me more!”

Hell yeah he would.
He gripped her hips with both hands, holding her steady as he inched inside of her.

His head fell back, and he groaned at the sensation of her walls enclosing around him. He moved slowly, not wanting to hurt her, but she had other ideas. Her hips suddenly slammed back, and he slid into her to the root. His thighs hit her ass and they both groaned.

His hips surged forward, locking them even tighter, before pulling back, almost all of the way out, and then slamming back home. The last of his resistance shattered.

He brought his chest down onto her back and began an unrelenting rhythm. She took every stroke of his passion, rocking back to meet his thrusts. His hand skimmed over every part of her he could reach, but it wasn’t enough. He needed his hands
everywhere!

Locking one arm around her torso, he straitened them both upright onto their knees. The change of angle allowed him to penetrate her even deeper than before.

He bent his knees and surged into her, while his hands locked onto the swell of her breasts. Her head fell back onto his shoulder, and she reached up to lock her fingers behind his neck. Her entire body was open to him.

“More!” she cried out, lost in pleasure. “Harder.”

He was happy to oblige, and pinched her nipples, rolling them between his thumb and forefinger. Her sheath tightened around him, and Karo knew from her breathing that she was close. The thought of her coming on his cock was addicting. He wanted to feel her—
needed to feel her.

One hand slid down her body to where they were joined. He quickly found her nub and rubbed it. She cried out with abandon before he felt her muscles begin to convulse around his cock, milking him. She was so tight that he could only manage shallow thrusts, but they were enough to send him over the edge.

He held her tightly to his chest as he emptied into her. She milked him for everything. He was happy to oblige until the convulsions ebbed, and his thighs gave out. They fell forward but Karo caught himself before he smashed her into the mattress, rolling them onto their sides, his shaft still locked inside her.

He held her tightly, their labored breaths mingling together. He closed his eyes and nuzzled her hair. The silken strands caressed him, and he shivered with the contact. He hugged her closer, never wanting to let go.

Karo’s eyes suddenly flew open. He was alone. The woman was gone.

No!
His mind screamed as his eyes scanned the room looking for her, but he wasn’t in her bedroom any longer; he was in his new room onboard the Arathian battlecruiser. She wasn’t here. It’d been a dream.

Karo felt the sheets next to him anyway. They were cold, as he’d expected, but his heart still sank.

He’d never had such a vivid dream in his life. The woman had been so real. He’d felt her, smelled her. He
knew
her.

“Only a dream,” he told himself. “She’s not real. It was just a dream.”

He looked down and saw that he was covered in sweat, a massive erection tenting his loose-fitting pants. It throbbed with unspent arousal. He could still smell her fragrance, taste her pleasure on his tongue.
She was just a dream,
he repeated.
She’s not real.

Instead of making him feel better, those thoughts caused an ache to blossom inside his chest. He pressed his palm against his sternum, certain his heart was going to beat itself out of his body in grief.

She wasn’t real.
Why would he dream that vividly about a woman? Why torture himself with love that could never be?

I have to stop this!
he told himself.

He jumped out of bed, ignored the tangled bedding, and headed straight for the cleansing stall. He stepped out of his pants, braced his forearms on the wall, and hung his head while the tech cleaned his body.

The only consolation was that the grief had killed his erection.

After showering and dressing Karo heard the sound of his door’s alert. Someone was visiting.
Thank goodness
, he thought. It was a welcomed distraction from the lingering effects of his dream.

“Enter.”

Doors slid open to reveal Deian waiting on the other side. “You busy?” he asked.

Busy?
Would Deian count having erotic dreams as being busy? Or maybe the self-loathing Karo was getting to be a master at?
No?
Well then, he wasn’t busy at all.

“No, please come in.”

Deian entered and looked around. “Nice room.”

“Thanks.”
Please ignore the chaos on the bed.

Karo looked closely at his friend. Something was wrong. He didn’t have his usual smile or air of optimism. “What’s the matter?”

Deian plunked into one of the chairs in the sitting area, and ran a hand through his hair in agitation, causing the curls to stand out from his head.

“I need your help.”

Karo sat across from him. “Of course, what can I do?”

“It’s your ship. I’m having problems with one of the systems: no matter what I do I can’t get the damn thing to power down.” He stood and began pacing back and forth in front of Karo, speaking rapidly and gesturing with his hands.

“I can’t figure it out! My team’s been able to access all other systems without problem, but no matter what we do we can’t override the protocols and get into your cargo hold.

“There’s a system running in there that we need to shut down before we can repair the conduits. We’ve been working on it since you left.” He stopped the pacing. “What do you keep in there?”

For a moment Karo worried that he was referring to LINK, but immediately dismissed the notion. The AI was part of the ship’s mainframe; he didn’t occupy physical space on the ship. He thought about the small room and shook his head in confusion. What
was
in there?

“I haven’t been inside it for years. I honestly thought it was empty.”

Deian’s pacing continued. “Well it’s not. There are clear energy readings coming from inside, but we can’t figure out where they connect with the rest of the ship. It’s almost as if whatever is in there runs on its own independent power source, and believe me, it’s sucking a lot of power!”

“What do you propose?”

“I need you to come see if you can help me access it.”

“Of course. I’ll do anything I can to help.”

Deian looked relieved. “Good, let’s go.”

Karo followed him out of his room and down the hall, thankful to have a task to occupy his time. He hated sitting idle.

He’d thankfully been given a room that wasn’t far from the quarantine bay, so it didn’t take them long to enter the large space. Karo nearly stopped in his tracks.
Damn!
Arathians had one hell of a work ethic.

Nearly the entire outer hull of his ship had been removed, and people were positioned on scaffolding around the exterior repairing internal parts. At the rear of the craft sat new propulsion engines, waiting to be installed. He didn’t recognize the compact design, but hoped that they were going to be faster than the ones he had previously.

“You’ve accomplished all this in two days?!”

“Sure did,” Deian replied cheerfully. “Keep in mind that we’re onboard a battlecruiser that’s assigned to Arath space with several hundred people onboard. Since there’s currently no threat to the planet, all of them are looking for projects.”

That’s a lot of helping hands.
He admired the work, and was dismayed to see how deteriorated the hull had become. He hadn’t realized.
Guess that’s what eight-thousand years will do.

The inside was in the same condition as the out. Most of the panels were gone, and crewmembers were changing out any old components that didn’t regenerate on their own.

“Greetings Deian, Karo.”

Karo stopped in his tracks as he heard LINK’s voice over the ship’s speakers. Anger and panic competed for dominance inside him: anger at LINK’s betrayal (never mind that
he
may have been the one to program the AI to alter his timeline), and panic that the Arathians would know his secret. How had he been discovered?

“Hey LINK,” Deian greeted.

How does he know his name?
The answer rolled over Karo: Deian must have uncovered LINK’s matrix while he, Karo, had been away with the Grays. The anger and panic turned into
guilt
and panic. Would they be mad that he’d kept LINK a secret? Would they refuse to help him? Would they take LINK from him?

Karo wasn’t happy with the AI at the moment, but that didn’t mean he wanted to lose his friend. He was the only connection Karo had to his homeworld.

“Would you like to continue work on installing the new console?” LINK asked.

“In a minute,” Deian answered.

Karo couldn’t look the man in his eyes, afraid that he’d see censure.

“You’ve made amazing progress,” Karo lamely commented, sweeping his hand to encompass the interior of the ship. He finally looked at Deian, who was studying him with alarming acuity. He seemed to make up his mind about something because he broke into a smile. A wave of relief surged over Karo.

“Yeah, we had some free time on our hands while you were away. I was able to build you a new console, and even had time to find LINK tucked away in your main computer matrix.”

Deian raised his eyebrows and gave him a dubious look. Karo’s guilt intensified. Deian was a lighthearted man but he was also fiercely protective of his race, and his mates. He wouldn’t take kindly to Karo keeping something as important as LINK a secret.

It was time to grovel and hope that they forgave him.

“I sincerely apologize for not making you aware of LINK.” Deian remained silent and Karo babbled. “When I was first brought onboard, I instructed him to hide his program in case you were a malicious race. Afterward, I got so caught-up with learning about my homeworld that I forgot to tell you about him until last night. But you have my word—I
was
going to tell you.”

The corner of Deian’s mouth quirked into a half smile, and Karo knew that he was in the clear.
Thank the universe.

“I understand,” Deian replied. “But is there anything else we should know about?”

Actually…

Karo nodded. “There’s one more thing. Last night I accessed LINK’s matrix. I knew that in order to successfully trap me in my stasis unit without my knowledge, someone would have had to manipulate LINK to keep up the pretense.”

Why was it so hard to confess this?
Spit it out!

“It was me. I’m the one who reprogrammed LINK, but I can’t remember doing it.” There: all of his secrets were bared. The Arathians knew everything, good and bad.

Deian’s eyebrows shot up to his hairline, his eyes wide in surprise. “Why would you do that?”

“I don’t know.” Karo ran his palm over his head in agitation. “I put layer upon layer of encryption over the changes, but I’m hoping that once I unravel it, I’ll find out why.”

Deian nodded, then raised an eyebrow. “Perhaps the answers lie in the mysterious, locked cargo room?”

Karo shrugged. That guess was as good as any.

“I have no idea what we’re going to find in there—it may be nothing—but I’ll get to work on it right away.”

Deian’s signature smile was back in place.

He followed Deian towards the small cargo area in question at the rear of the vessel, careful to walk on the few floor panels that were left. The area looked different than it had before, and it took Karo a moment to remember that large cargo crates had been stacked in front of the door.

Karo hadn’t thought about the small storage area in years. Actually, he didn’t know why he’d ignored it for so long. As far as he knew, it was empty. So then why was it giving off an energy reading?

“Here lies trouble,” Deian commented as they stopped in front of the door. He waved his hand towards the adjacent console, and Karo stepped forward. Right away it was clear that there was something wrong with this part of the ship. He entered his command codes, but they were overridden with security measures.

“I don’t understand,” Karo muttered. “There’s no reason for the system to be acting like this.”

Karo was completely intrigued, and somewhat nervous about what he was seeing. This ship was his home. He knew every inch of its hull and bulkheads. Why would he be locked out of this particular cargo room? How had he not noticed?

“It’s not letting you into it?” Deian asked from over his shoulder.

Karo shook his head. “LINK, can you access this cargo room?”

“I cannot. The door’s console is the only point of access.”

Damn.
Looked like they were going to have to go at this the hard way.

“Can you decrypt it?” Deian asked.

“I think so, but it’ll take me a while to break down these security barriers.”

Deian patted him on the back. “I’ll leave you to it then. LINK and I are going to keep installing this fancy piece of hardware, but you let me know if you find anything, okay?”

Karo nodded, and Deian headed towards the new console. He shimmied underneath on his back and reached for the tools he’d left scattered around. When he spoke his voice was muffled.

“LINK, let’s start at ten percent power, just in case I screwed up. I’d rather not meet my mates for lunch with energy burns on my face.”

“Indeed, that would be unfortunate,” LINK replied. “Ten percent power beginning now.”

Karo shook his head. It was weird to hear LINK talking—joking—with anyone but himself. He wanted to keep listening, but the mystery in front of him quickly captured his attention.

He spent the entire day standing in front of the console attempting to get the doors open, but the encryption was intense. Just when he thought he was going to break through, the system rerouted him. It had clearly taken someone a very long time to write all of this code, but why was it even here? Who had gone to all this trouble to keep him out of an insignificant room?

He was deeply concerned about the entire situation, but as the hours wore on, there was one thing in particular that worried him the most: every code had a signature, and just like before, this signature was clearly his.

He had written the security code to keep everyone out… including himself.

Why?! Why would I have locked myself out of the cargo room, and why can’t I remember doing it? Did I do it at the same time I manipulated LINK’s programming?

He wracked his memories, but only succeeding in igniting pain—pain that usually preluded his hallucinations. He fought through the pressure, but the harder he tried to remember, the more pain he felt. He didn’t let it stop him. The answers must lie in this room.
They had to!

Why would I have created a security program like this? Why would I purposefully leap through time? What am I hiding?

The pain intensified, and he pressed his palms to his head.

Why can’t I remember?!

Voices rang in his ears. Were they coming from the present? The past? He couldn’t tell the difference. The pain reached a crescendo, and Karo’s legs gave out as agony and blackness engulfed him.