Alien Overnight (26 page)

“You’d have loved it,” he murmured with a grin.

“Oh, now don’t start—”

An ear-piercing wail just about sent her through the roof, and a split-second later, a flash of yellow light dimmed the bank of flare fields. The shudder that rolled through the room made Monica’s stomach drop sickly as all the blood rushed from her head.

“Kellen!”

*

Commander
,
if you
’
re able
,
flare to the atrium at once
.
Your mate is hysterical
.

Still dizzy, Kellen frowned, keeping pressure on the gash in his arm as he surveyed the trail of demolished furniture, the bulkheads and doors left scarred and misshapen by the expanding containment field. The pad had consumed the energy with explosive results, sweeping through four decks and crushing everything in its path. The mass had blasted into the command center without warning, nearly crushing him and several of his men before they could flare to safety.

Hastion
,
recommence surface evacuation and then recall Ayerra squadron
.
Notify me when
all personnel are aboard
.
Empran
,
post an emergency meeting of all mission officers on transfer
deck at fourteen hundred
.
I
’
ll be unavailable until then
.

He flared directly to the atrium, and the field had barely dissolved when Monica flew into him.

“Kellen! Oh my God, what happened?” Her arms were around his neck, her wet cheek rubbing against his, and her legs were around his waist. “I thought you were dead!” she sobbed.

He blinked, sliding his hands down over her ass and letting his fingers meet over the damp seam between her thighs. “You found the idea arousing?”

She leaned back and smacked his shoulder, glaring at him through her tears. “No, you moron! I was terrified.”

140

Alien Overnight

“She was just winding up to give me a tongue-lashing when the alarm sounded,”

Shauss drawled.

“Monica, my love,” Kellen murmured. “What am I going to do with you?” Her thighs wrapped around him and his fingers pressed against her fragrant heat made the answer patently obvious to his cock, but he was determined to set things right between the three of them before giving in to the desire scorching him. He released her bottom, letting her slide down to the floor, and her eyes widened as she saw him fully.

“Jesus, you’re injured!” Blood was pouring freely from his wound again, dripping to the floor, and she grabbed his forearm and slapped a hand over the ragged flesh, applying considerably more pressure than he had. “What happened?”

“Our experiment was a bit more successful than we’d planned for. The pad consumed the products of reaction at such an accelerated rate, the mass tore up most of the command core before the reaction was reduced enough to flare it out.”

“You flared it outside the ship?”

“Yes—you must have seen the explosion.” He nodded toward the flare field.

“Yeah, well, it scared the shit out of me. I thought you’d blown yourself up.” She frowned as she scanned his face. No doubt he looked battered. He’d been crushed face first into the bulkhead before his escape. “You need to get to one of the infirmaries and have this taken care of. I don’t have my bag—hell, I don’t even have a Band-Aid.”

“Time enough for that, my love, after the evacuation is complete.”

She bit her lip, looking uncertain, and all he wanted to do in that moment was kiss her.

“You keep calling me
my love
.”

Brushing her bangs out of her eyes, he murmured, “Why do you suppose that is?”

Monica searched his face for a long moment. “Because you love me?”

“You don’t sound very certain of it.”

“You haven’t said it.”

“I love you.”

She blinked rapidly and then a short laugh bubbled out of her. “Wow, that was pretty impassioned.”

Though his heart pounded in his chest, he grinned back at her ruefully. “My self-control isn’t legendary without cause.”

But he pulled her to him just the same, holding her against his chest as he leaned in to claim her mouth. Their lips had barely touched when the minister spoke behind him.

“I distinctly remember forbidding you to pursue my daughter, Commander.

Circumstances forced me to rely on you for her protection and now I find you assaulting her? Empran, send a security detail to escort Commander Kellen and Lieutenant Shauss to detention.”

141

Robin L. Rotham

“No!” Monica’s free arm went around his waist and squeezed tight. “Father, please don’t send them away. This is my fault as much as anyone’s.”

“Then disentangle yourself from Commander Kellen and explain, daughter. It was my understanding that you wished no further contact with these two.”

She stepped away from his body without letting go of his wound.

“Shauss, tear the sleeves off my lab coat, would you?”

Shrugging his confusion, Shauss obeyed, tearing both sleeves off the lab coat.

Monica wiped her hands quickly on the ruined coat, then folded one of the sleeves into a rectangular pad and pressed it over the wound. Wrapping the other sleeve around his arm, she tied the pad tightly in place. “There, that ought to hold it until one of your doctors zaps it with whatever they used on Shauss when I stabbed him.”

The minister crossed his arms over his chest, his robes swirling around him. “So tell me, daughter, what has caused this change of heart? You led me to believe you were afraid of both Kellen and Shauss, that they’d hurt you.”

“I’m sorry. I just…” She shoved her hair back from her face with both hands, not looking at any of them. “God, it’s hard to explain.”

“Please try.”

She sighed deeply. “I know it sounds really stupid now, but they just had so much power over me, it was…scary. And I don’t mean brute strength,” she added.

Her eyes finally met his and Kellen’s chest squeezed tight at the tears hovering in them. “They made me feel things that I didn’t want to, things that made me so damn vulnerable and helpless, and God, there’s not much I hate more than feeling vulnerable and helpless. I’m supposed to be the strong one. I’m not supposed to need any—”

She spun around and walked over to the flare field, staring out at the endless night, her throat working convulsively. “It’s generally been my experience that loving someone is the surest way to lose them, and I loved them so much already…” A tear trickled down her cheek and she dashed it away with the back of her hand. “And then sure enough, Shauss bailed and Kellen said something about his
next
second, and it just blew me away. I mean, what the hell was I supposed to do? I’m not a fucking computer—I can’t just hit the delete button to dump my feelings for one guy and then load new feelings for the next one. I deserve better than that.”

Kellen squeezed his eyes shut as regret at his own selfish carelessness washed over him. The thought of having to find another second had appalled him, but he’d had years to become accustomed to the idea of mandatory mate sharing. He hadn’t even considered how she might feel about the situation.

When he looked at Monica once more, her eyes were filled with pain and longing.

“You say you love me, Kellen, but what if one day you decide I’m not what you wanted after all? What if I’m too bitchy or I can’t get pregnant or something and you decide to bail on me, too? Am I supposed to just let you hand me off to whoever’s in the mood for a little hybrid nookie?”

142

Alien Overnight

Not what I wanted
? His mind boggled.

“Daughter.” Cecine’s voice was gentle but firm. “I realize that you haven’t had enough time with our people to understand the nature—”

“Minister, if I may be so bold as to interrupt.”

“Yes, Commander?”

“I would like to request an emergency audience with the High Council.”

The minister’s head cocked to the side. “Now?”

“Yes, Minister. And I would request that all available senior officers be present.”

Cecine looked at him for a long moment. “You do remember that you scheduled a meeting on transfer deck in less than an hour?”

“Yes, Minister. This will not take that long.”

Sighing, the minister nodded. “Very well.”

*

The Council chambers were a disappointment. She’d expected grandeur, pomp and circumstance, a red carpet at the very least, but the main room looked pretty much like every other room on the ship. Well, except for the massive silver and black mural painted on one wall, with six gold stars scattered haphazardly across it.

Kellen stood in the otherwise empty center of the chamber, his head bowed, feet apart and hands clasped behind his back as he waited. The wild tangle of hair trailing over his shoulders made her long for a brush. The shoulders themselves made her long for something else entirely.

Her father had taken his place at the center of a long curved table, sitting with four Garathani men she’d never seen before. From where she sat in the small gallery at the back, they looked old. Really old.
Dusty
old.

The main door to her right opened and Garathani officers filed in and filled every other gallery seat. The remaining officers took positions standing around the edges of the room. There had to be at least forty of them altogether.

When the door closed, her father spoke. “Commander, you have your audience.

Speak.”

Kellen’s head went up.

“I request permission to perform the declaration ritual.”

For a moment, no one said anything and Monica looked at Shauss, who sat beside her. He just shook his head as rumbles of male chatter erupted.

One of the old men leaned forward on the table, looking annoyed. “Why do you waste our time with foolishness, Comman—”

“I will decide what is a waste of time, Luide.”

The old man hesitated before inclining his head. “Yes, Minister.”

143

Robin L. Rotham

“Commander Kellen, you realize that you are no longer required to perform the declaration ritual as a prelude to taking a mate.”

“Yes, Minister.”

“Do you think your performance of this ritual will adversely affect your command?”

“No, Minister.”

“Why not? There are many who might view such a gesture as a sign of weakness.”

“They are welcome to challenge me in field tests, Minister. I know my own strength, and performing the declaration ritual does not change that.”

Cecine watched him, nodding. “I agree. And the fact that you perform it willingly tells me your strength and wisdom have only increased with the passing years. You may proceed.”

“Thank you, Minister.” Kellen turned then and looked directly at her, his expression as inscrutable as ever. “Monica Teague, please come forward.”

Monica started, her eyes going wide. What was he doing?

Shauss took her hand and stood, so she followed suit. Then he picked up her chair with his free hand and carried it across the floor, pulling her along with him. When he set it directly in front of her father, facing Kellen, and gestured, she sat, her heart in her throat. What in the hell was going on?

Shauss returned to his chair and the room was silent. Kellen just looked at her for a long moment, and then his eyes fell away as he balanced on one foot and pulled off his right boot.

What the fuck?

The left boot was next, and then he straightened and unwound the makeshift bandage from his arm, letting it fall to the floor. Her eyes narrowed in annoyance when a fresh trickle of blood snaked down the saturated fabric covering his forearm and dripped off his elbow as he reached for his zipper…

Her eyes jerked to his face. He was looking her right in the eye as he pulled the zipper down and peeled his uniform from his shoulders, shoving it all the way to his ankles before stepping out of it altogether. The breath froze in her throat as he resumed his earlier stance, feet planted apart, hands behind his back. She hadn’t noticed anything before, but he was definitely working on an erection. All he did was stand there watching her, but his cock rose higher and higher with every pulse of blood through his body. Her blood pounded in sympathy, filling her cheeks, her breasts, the low places in her belly… She prayed all the men were too busy watching Kellen and his big bold cock to notice the arousal claiming her.

Using his uninjured arm, he grasped the swelling flesh of his scrotum, pushing it up like he had that first time in his quarters, offering it to her, and her throat went dry.

She actually had to close her eyes for a second. Jesus, it was getting hard to breathe.

144

Alien Overnight

When she opened them again, he’d taken his cock in hand and was stroking it, squeezing it over and over like he was trying to get all the blood to the head. When it looked like it was as big as it could get, he suddenly walked forward until he stood just two or three feet in front of her and assumed his parade stance again, looking straight ahead instead of down at her.

“Daughter, you are free to inspect the commander in any manner you wish.”

Monica’s eyes bugged. Did he mean…

What the hell
did
he mean? With that great big gorgeous thing right in front of her face, it was hard to think about doing anything but tasting it.

Before the thought was complete, she’d scooted forward in her chair and reached out to grab his ass, pulling the head of his cock into her mouth and sucking it deep, instigating a chorus of masculine groans. She’d barely gotten a hint of his flavor when Kellen took a step back, breathing harshly and blinking repeatedly. His expression was far from neutral, but it was also far from reassuring, an odd combination of shock, arousal and consternation that made fire scorch her cheeks.

Shit. Talk about a total lack of self-control!
Cock yummy
.
Eat now
! No doubt she’d just committed some massive mating faux pas that would haunt her until
she
was dusty old. Biting her lips and slowly leaning back in her chair, she closed her eyes and prayed for a swift death.