Alien Overnight (25 page)

The US has scrambled stealth bombers for a retaliatory strike against the compound
.

“Mother of Peserin!” He jumped to his feet. “Empran, dispatch Ayerra squadron to fly defensive maneuvers over the compound. Target Terran weapons systems only.”

“Affirmative.”

Monica stood up, too. “Kellen, what’s going on?”

“Your government is taking the bait,” he bit out. “Empran, estimate time to containment burndown.”

“Three days, twenty-three minutes, nine seconds, Sol time.”

“Establish communications with President Landon.”

“There is no response.”

By all the Powers! What else could go wrong?

“How many Garathani and Terrans are left at the compound?”

“Four hundred fifteen.”

He closed his eyes for an instant, then looked around.

“I require options, men. We need to gather sufficient power for three wide-array flares. Now.”

“Kellen, tell me what’s going on! Is my father in danger?”

Jamming his hands through his hair, he looked at her. “They’re going to try to bomb the compound, and we can’t use the wide-array flares to finish the evacuation or maintain a defensive shield over the compound. Containing the reaction in that flare 134

Alien Overnight

field next door is creating a severe drain on our power and the reaction won’t burn itself out fast enough for us to assist those still at the compound.”

She blinked at him. “Well, can’t you just…beam it out into space?”

“As our power reserves stand, we couldn’t flare it far enough from the ship. We’d still have to maintain the field to prevent the explosion from breaching our hull.”

“Well, fuck!”

“Empran, estimate power savings if all personnel evacuated to Tarkan sector of the ship and all life support systems were taken off-line in the remaining sectors.”

“Negligible.”

“Goddamn it!” Monica looked furious. “I just found my father. I’m not going to lose him now. What else can we do?”

We
. His heart warmed at the sound of it.

“I’m not hearing any ideas, gentlemen.”

“Shutting down all propulsion systems might provide the necessary power,” one of the men suggested.

“No.” Shauss leaned back against the bulkhead and crossed his arms, shaking his head. “We’re orbiting too low. We couldn’t get them reinitialized in time to keep from hitting the atmosphere.”

“Aaargh!” Monica dropped into the chair and banged her head on the table. “Let’s think outside the box here, guys—there’s got to be something we can do to get rid of that fireball. Don’t you have a fire extinguisher you can squirt in there? Some kind of chemical foam or something?”

Kellen slipped his fingers into the hair at her nape and clasped her warm, slender neck. “No, my love, the reaction must burn itself—” He stood up straight. “Empran, flare Doctors Ketrok and Tysan to tactical three.”

Ketrok appeared at once. Tysan arrived in the next instant. “Yes, Commander?”

Kellen walked up to the door and it slid open.

“There’s a flare convergence reaction contained in that field, and it’s critical that we reduce it quickly. Is there any substance on this ship we can flare into the field to absorb that amount of energy? An element or a chemical compound, anything at all?”

Tysan frowned thoughtfully. “Let me return to my station and research—”

“Tysan.” Shauss took a page from Monica’s book, rolling his eyes and letting his head fall back against the wall repeatedly, though it made no sound because of the biologic pad. “There’s no time for research.”

It made no sound
…

“The biologic pad. Ketrok, would the pad absorb that energy?”

“Not without killing us all first.”

“No, no! If we flared masses of the pad into the field, would it consume the energy?

Could we get enough
in
there to consume the energy?”

135

Robin L. Rotham

Tysan held up one hand, his gaze unfocused for a few moments, and then

excitement dawned on his face.

“This might work. No matter how small a sample of the pad we inject into the reaction, it will multiply exponentially, in direct proportion to the amount of energy it consumes. But the more we inject, the faster the products of reaction will be consumed.”

Then he frowned. “Although the field will expand to accommodate an almost infinite amount of matter, the same cannot be said of this ship. Except for the command center, we should evacuate this level and the levels directly above and below it, and leave all doors and tranlifts between those levels open to allow for the expansion of the solid matter. We must also recalibrate the field to allow the escape of non-lethal gases and reconfigure venting systems for their forced expulsion to equalize the air pressure or risk a hull breach—and later, decompression and recompression issues.”

Kellen nodded sharply as the door slid shut beside him. “Gather your best men and make it happen with all due haste.”

When the herd of men had thundered out the door, presumably to make things happen, Kellen’s midnight eyes focused on her and Monica felt her breath leave her like she’d taken a punch. Looking away, she reached up to tuck her hair behind her ear and was dismayed by the fine tremor in her fingers. She couldn’t see him, but she knew Shauss still stood at her back.

She was alone with them. The knowledge sent thrills of awareness skittering down her spine.

“I must confess I am of two minds at the moment, my love.”

She plastered her eyes to chest and kept them there as Kellen wandered toward her.

“Oh, yeah? Which two?”

“The one that wants Shauss to escort you to the safest part of the ship until—”

“No fucking way.”

“—this crisis has passed.” He stopped directly in front of her. When she didn’t look up, his fingers curled under her chin and tugged. Her instinctive resistance made him tug harder and Monica let her eyes slide shut as he forced her face upward. His thumb brushing her lower lip drew a gasp from her. “And the one that wants to take what’s mine.”

He waited until she opened her eyes to promise in a grating growl, “I’m not letting you go again, Monica.”

Shit
! He looked absolutely ruthless and she began to shake in earnest as his expression darkened even further.

“Kellen…”

“Your father may try to strip me of my commission and exile me to the Barren Quadrant for claiming you again.” His eyes dropped briefly to her breasts and the sensuality of his smile was terrifying. Heat blasted through her, soaking her panties in 136

Alien Overnight

one clenching pass. “He may even go so far as to have me assassinated. But do not think for a moment that the prospect is enough to make me give you up before I have drawn my last breath, before my heart has ceased to pump, before the last ounce of strength has drained from my fist.”

He struck with blinding speed, yanking her up out of the chair, driving his mouth onto hers. Their teeth clashed for a split second and then she opened to his tongue with a high-pitched moan. Anxiety and arousal whipped her into a frenzy as she plunged her hands into the crackling fall of his hair and used it as an anchor for scaling his body.

I want
.
I need
.
I love
.
I hurt
. She returned Kellen’s grunt with a cry of desperation as he grabbed her ass with both hands and ground her against his bulging cock.

And then he was prying her arms from around his neck.

“No!” she sobbed. “Kellen, please!”

Another set of strong arms closed around her, swinging her up like a child as Kellen stepped back, gasping for air, his face deep red with arousal.

“I can’t let the need to claim you here, now, in front of a dozen men, take precedence over your safety.”

Even as her pussy clenched in reaction to his imagery, Monica’s eyes widened. Sure as shit, some of the men had returned and stood at attention in a half-circle around the table. Jesus, she hadn’t noticed a thing! Heat poured into her face as she hid against Shauss’ chest.

A heavy hand stroked down the back of her neck. “Keep her safe, my friend.”

137

Robin L. Rotham

“What the fuck is taking so long?”

She paced like a caged tigress in the ship’s atrium, her white athletic shoes making annoying squishing squeaks on the biologic pad. All the pacing was probably wearing a rut in it.

“Monica, it’s been seventeen minutes. What’s the expression? Rome wasn’t built in a day?”

Sighing, she took a breather, propping her hands on her hips. Although she’d shed her lab coat, she was sticky and hot.

Shauss stood there watching her, his arms crossed and his shoulders against the wall. The sympathy in his eyes made hers prickle. “Yeah, well, they’re not trying to build Rome, are they? They’re trying to keep it from being blown to smither—” A sob choked her for a second and she had to swipe away a tear with the heel of her hand.

“Goddamn it! Why didn’t he let me stay with him?”

“Because it’s hard to save the day when you’re fucking the heroine’s brains out?”

Her startled laugh sounded more like another sob as she started pacing again.

“Some heroine I am, stuck down here with my thumb up my ass. I should be doing something to help.”

“Now there’s something I’d like to see.”

She stopped again. “What?”

“You with your thumb up your ass. Can you reach that far down with your

thumb?” His tone was casual and, as usual, his expression gave nothing away.

“Shauss…” Monica stared at him. “I don’t understand you. Are you trying to piss me off or are you trying to get in my pants?”

He stared back without moving. “I’ve already been in your pants, sweet thing. I just thought it would be interesting to see you in such a position.”

“Bullshit.” She braced her fists on her hips again. “You still want to fuck me.”

“Monica, with the exception of the minister, there’s not a Garathani soldier in this sector who doesn’t want to fuck you.”

“Yeah, well, you seem to be the only one pitching a tent in his uniform at the moment.”

A tic appeared in his jaw. “Do not pick a fight with me. Drop it. Now.”

“
Do not pick a fight with me
,” she mimicked. His growl of annoyance made her laugh. “You started this, Shauss. What I want to know is
why
? If you’re trying to 138

Alien Overnight

distract me from Kellen and the big bang up there, you could have picked a hell of a lot better way to go about it.”

Looking away, he said stiffly, “I apologize. Now drop this before you piss me off.”

“Before
I
piss
you
off?” Her eyes bugged. “Shauss, I’m not the one who kicked you to the curb without so much as asking what you wanted, without giving you a chance to make things work.
You
left
me
, remember?”

Finally looking at her again, he opened his mouth.

“I’m not done yet,” she barked, getting right in his face. “I’m not the one who acted like you weren’t even worth the five minutes it would have taken to talk things out, and you know what, Shauss? That really pissed me off, because I
am
worth it, goddamn it!”

“I know you—”

“Still talking here!”

He narrowed his eyes but shut his mouth.

“Now, I don’t have any idea why you wound up as my secondary mate when you obviously feel the need to be primary—is it your rank or your social status? I just don’t know, and whatever it is, it’s apparently not anything I can change. But the fact that you could bug out so easily over a misunderstanding really made me feel like shit. I was already feeling kind of like a booby prize…” Tears clogged her throat and she had to swallow before going on. “And like a total idiot because I’d managed to fall in love and it turned out you guys only wanted me because I was my father’s daughter.”

Jaw set, Shauss grabbed her and pulled her face against his chest, squeezing the back of her neck. “I’m sorry,” he said roughly. “You must know that’s not true, sweet one. I have…very intense feelings for you that have nothing to do with your bloodline.”

“Then why? Why didn’t you even
try
?”

“Monica…” His chin moved against her hair. “You love Kellen.”

Monica drew back. “So? I love you, too, and I can’t stand for things to be like this between us.”

He smiled grimly. “You love me,
too
. I’m an afterthought, Monica.” She opened her mouth to deny it, but he squeezed her tight. “It’s Kellen who holds pride of place in your heart, Kellen whose name makes your pulse race, Kellen you would probably die for, and that’s as it should be, since he feels the same for you. Now that I’ve seen it, I’m just not capable of settling for anything less than what he has with you.”

Her eyes widened as she waited, letting his words sink in, and he shook his head, frowning. “Don’t start feeling guilty for loving him more than you love me. That’s not the only issue I’m dealing with here. Since coming to Earth, I’ve discovered certain things about myself that…” He bit his lip.

“What?”

His naughty grin took her by surprise. “Surely you’ve noticed I make…unusual demands.”

139

Robin L. Rotham

Monica blinked. “And Kellen doesn’t? Oh, you mean—” The burn started in her cheeks and she pulled out of his embrace, crossing her arms over her chest. Shit, just the thought of what he’d tried to do to her was enough to send her blood pressure skyrocketing. What it did between her legs didn’t bear thinking about.

Swallowing hard, she forged ahead, “Well, if you’d waited around long enough for me to get that gag off, I’d have told you to go find some lubricant before you tried to…do that to me.”

It was Shauss’ turn to blink. Tipping his head to the side, he said in a disbelieving voice, “You’d have let me fuck your ass?” The words almost pulled a moan out of her.

When she could only nod, he pressed on, “With my cock?”

Monica rolled her eyes. “What, do you want it notarized? Yes, Shauss, I’d have had anal sex with you—although there’s no guarantee I would have liked it.”