Angeli (12 page)

Every night she huddled beside him, curled as tightly as a cat, and thought about his muscles.

This was absurd. He carried her for hours whenever they relocated. Why was his shoulder against hers making her tense?

He didn’t seem to notice. She should ignore it, too. Adelita continued their conversation. “Let’s make a plan for what to do if they spot us.”

“They won’t.” He blinked rapidly as he peered at the base. He’d told her the blinking had to do with vision adjustments and didn’t mean he was about to cry, so please stop asking.

“There’s no guarantee of that.” Stubby grass prickled her midriff where her shirt had ridden up. “Do they have guards outside the base?”

“Occasionally.” His eyebrows drew together. “I can’t tell without my array.”

“Good thing I’m here to watch your back.” She checked the other ridges. If they were being watched, the alien guards could hide like chameleons. “I mean, should I watch our backs instead of the base?”

“You’re fine.” In a slightly peevish tone, he said, “I need to fix this damned array. I feel like I’ve lost half my brain.”

She knew it was hypocritical to bring it up while using expensive binoculars, but she didn’t want to lose an opportunity to point out how technology—like, say, sentient computers—wasn’t always beneficial.

“That’s a danger in relying on a machine. You forget how to function without it.”

“I’m aware of that,” he snapped.

Adelita had the urge to pat him sympathetically, but that fell under the category of non-incidental contact. As he’d made oh so clear, they had a world to save and her prick-teasing was a complication they didn’t need.

If it was teasing. Seducing him was either a rotten idea or an excellent one, and until she decided which, she had to keep her hands to herself.

Mostly.

He hadn’t complained about their shoulder-to-shoulder arrangement, had he? A little bodily contact was reassuring. And he’d started it. It didn’t have to veer toward sexual.

“Back to what we should do if they notice us,” she said, satisfied she wasn’t crossing his line in the sand. “I vote we take them down. Keep them from reporting back.”

His jaw tightened. “I’m not fighting my own people. We run.”

“This is war. You need a halo and batteries and I need a laser gun, and we need bombs to blow up la boca. What better way to get them?”

“You don’t need a gun. And they won’t be carrying munitions.”

She did need a gun, but his people probably thought women couldn’t shoot or something. “Then we find some other way to get bombs.”

He grunted. Not even Gregori the burro could argue with that.

Adelita let her boot nudge his calf before tilting it the other way. “Here’s an idea. Let’s get their attention. When they come, we take them hostage and trade them for bombs.”

“Not gonna happen. I told you, I’m not fighting my own people.”

Like a lightbulb snicking on in a dark room, Adelita realized pacifism might not be Gregori’s motivation. “You’re afraid you’d lose. You don’t have batteries in your gun and—”

“I wouldn’t lose,” he growled.

Sensitive, was he? She dug her toes into the ground and wriggled away from the annoying grass at her waist. Now the sides of their hips were touching, too. Khaki shorts to khaki shorts. “What if they shoot us with lasers? I would call that losing.”

“They won’t shoot us.”

“What will they do, and how can we counter it?” Planning was crucial. Aside from lotto winners, successful people didn’t dumb-luck into victory. “We need to prepare ourselves.”

He sighed. “This is a stakeout, not an attack. Once I figure out where they are in the retrieval process, we’ll go. I’ve done a lot to slow the horde, and they haven’t been using crisis protocol.”

“I don’t want them capturing me to make their babies. I’m not anyone’s handmaid.” She enjoyed the young people in her extended family in limited quantities. Children of her own were not on her bucket list.

Nor was being an alien broodmare.

“It’s not like that on Ship, Adelita. No one would force you to have child after child.”

They’d discussed this. Since he hadn’t come around to her point of view, it required further discussion. “You told me you hardly ever lose a planet to the horde, so how do you know what will happen to the new women?”

“The code.”

“Uh-huh. I wonder what those poor women think of the white light now.” He claimed the women and children were being cleansed of germs before being transported to Ship. They had her complete sympathy, even if they were the only earthlings safe from the apocalypse. “Do you tell them they’re in heaven?”

“What they’re told varies.”

“You’d better not be lying to them. They’re giving up everything for you.”

Gregori dropped his pretense of watching the base to glare at her. “Do you think they’d rather be eaten by shades?”

“Like we will be?” She held his gaze steadily, daring him to deny it.

Aaaand he denied it. “We won’t be.”

“Because our planet isn’t going to die.” Otherwise, why were they here when they could be living their last days to the fullest? Starting with Old Faithful and ending in a bed—only this time, no sleeping.

The
things
she could teach him.

“We’re going to think of something,” he stated firmly.

Business before pleasure. “On that we’re agreed, but I have to ask. After we save the world, will Ship put the women back?”

Gregori’s eyebrows arched. “Of course.”

“I think you’re wrong.”

“You think a lot of crazy things.”

“Don’t call me crazy. It’s logic.” Adelita rolled onto her side so she could read him better. “This whole thing is a plot to get women.”

“Give me a break.” He switched to his side as well, his voice low but hard. “You think we devote our lives to saving planets from the horde because it’s a great time? Because we want to get laid? That’s insane.”

“I told you not to call me crazy,” she warned. Having her good sense questioned never failed to get a rise out of her. “Call me crazy one more time and see what happens. I dare you. Try it and see.”

“You drive me crazy, then. Can I say that?” His response was louder, too, and he hadn’t budged an inch. Not in his argument, not with his body. They were toe to toe and chest to chest. Adelita wasn’t about to be silenced by a raised voice.

“You can, but…” She poked him in the arm between bands, since poking him in the chest with his six-packed armor would hurt her finger. When his eyes narrowed, she poked him again. And again. There wasn’t much give in his muscles. “You. Drive. Me. Crazier.”

He grabbed her hand. “Cut it out.”

“Don’t bully me.” She jerked her arm, but he tightened his fingers. Undaunted, she booted him in the shin. Not hard, but enough that he’d know she wouldn’t put up with this macho crap. “There’s something in this whole savior shtick for your people or you wouldn’t be doing it. You’re after the women.”

“We’re not after the damn…” His jaw clenched and he breathed in and out for a minute. When he spoke again, he was quieter. “Do you understand the losses we experience in our line of work? Our lives. Entire Ships. It’s always a risk. We don’t have to get involved in your problems. If the horde eats a few planets, big deal. There are millions more.”

“Eventually the horde will eat all the planets. It’s like pollution.”

“Not in countless lifetimes.”

He sounded like every politician who wanted to gulp down natural resources and poison the earth. Nobody cared what would happen once they were gone. She and Gregori glowered at each other until she thought of what to say next.

“Advanced society, my ass.” She pushed him with her forearm and a knee at the same time, hoping to unsettle him enough that he let her go. Instead he twisted her arm behind her, trapping her hand at the small of her back. Their legs remained tangled. “Why don’t you stop fighting the horde, since you don’t get anything out of it?”

“Because saving people is the right thing to do. Because it’s code.”

His gaze finally tore away from hers, dropping lower. Ha! She’d outstared him. It wouldn’t be long before he gave up.

“If your people were going to die out,” she said carefully, “maybe you would sacrifice one planet among millions.”

That brought his attention back to her face. What had he been looking at down there? “What kind of person do you think I am? Do you honestly think I’d sacrifice you—your planet?”

“Ship isn’t a person.” She nodded her head toward the sky, where clouds scudded across the blue. “Ship is a machine.”

“You know what?” He brought his face so close to hers their foreheads almost bumped. “I’m sick of hearing that. How about you quit saying it?”

“Sick of the truth? Typical.” She wouldn’t allow him to intimidate her with his broad shoulders and his wings and his cleft chin and his blue eyes. His perfect lips. She tried to hold his gaze but kept glancing at his lips. “I’m…I’m going to keep telling you the truth whether you want to hear it or not, and you can’t do anything about it.”

“I can—”

Adelita leaned forward and kissed him. Then she pulled back, horrified. “I don’t know why I did that.”

“Not. Helpful,” he said, his voice tight.

“Dios.” Her blood, already hot from their argument, thrummed inside her. “I don’t suppose it was.”

His palm slid up her arm until he held her shoulder. He neither pushed her away nor crushed her against him. “It’s not true.”

“What isn’t true? I really don’t know why I kissed…”

Her protest trailed off when he licked one corner of his mouth. God forgive her, she couldn’t resist. She lifted her chin until their lips were centimeters apart, hesitated, and kissed him again. She parted her lips and let her tongue taste him.

He remained frozen except for the faint shush of his breath, the slight tightening of his fingers on her shoulder.

When she drew back this time, she said, “That was your own fault.”

“No.” Gregori released her shoulder, only to seize the back of her head.

Something hot and liquid spread through her. “What are you doing?”

He fisted his hand in her hair, pulling at her scalp. “Stopping you. We had an agreement.”

“You’re overreacting. I barely kissed you.” She was amazed she could speak words. Inside her was a flashing whirlwind of desire and anger and fear. How did he feel? His grip anchored her in place as if her kiss were a dire threat. His expression was stern and icy, but his hips against hers told a different story.

“Don’t do it again.”

Oh, she did not like to be ordered around. She did not like to be restrained. She didn’t, she didn’t like this. She didn’t want him to push her onto her back and teach her not to cross his line.

“It was an accident.” She’d fallen into his mouth. With her mouth.

“Twice?”

She wanted to touch his skin, but if she did… So she reached behind her head and pried one of his fingers loose. “I’d like to keep my hair.”

“I’d like you to quit playing games.”

She clamped her fist around his finger. “I know how to protect myself. If I twist this a certain way, it will break.”

How far could she bend him?
She rubbed his finger up and down several times, before she twisted it away from her head.

“Go ahead. I heal quick.” He exhaled slowly. She felt the pressure on her head change, from pulling her away to neutral. She covered his hand with hers. Laced her fingers between his.

The pressure on her head shifted from neutral to urging her toward him.

Almost broken. Almost there.

God, she should stop. He’d asked her not to do this. She’d agreed. She hadn’t baited him, much, in two days. If their positions were reversed, she’d kick his tail.

Instead she drew her leg up, her knee parting his knees, and he let her. He let her press her thigh against his hard cock and vulnerable balls while he stared at her with hot blue eyes.

“Would this heal quick, too?” she whispered.

“Don’t.”

“I can’t help it.” She closed her eyes against the accusation in that stare and pictured him naked. Beautifully naked and hovering between her legs, ready to slide home. “I get close to you and my imagination goes into overdrive.”

“Try harder.” He tugged her forward until his breath sighed across her cheek. “Try very, very hard. This is not the time or place.”

“I’m trying.”

His fingertips trailed along her jaw, traced her bottom lip, and slipped under her chin. “I won’t pander to you.”

“What does that even mean?” Adelita trembled. Had she decided? Was she going to have sex with Gregori here, now? Ridiculous. But to have him put his hands and mouth and cock everywhere she’d let him and a few places she wasn’t sure about…

She wasn’t sure about anything except her yearning for him.

His knuckles eased down her chest. So gradually she could have counted to one hundred, he spread his fingers over one full breast. Her nipple hardened in his palm.

“Last chance.” He dropped slow kisses on her brows. Her cheek. Beside her mouth. His lips were as soft as his feathers were not. He eased her onto her back, and the sunlight turned her eyelids red. “Stop me. Tell me no. Tell me not now.”

What if there was no later? She shook her head, unable to speak. His hand squeezed her breast, rubbing her nipple to an ache. His huge shadow blotted out the sun. His hips settled between hers, his cock in the loose shorts iron against her softness.

She spread her legs for him gladly. Her imagination would have its way with them both.

“By the Mother,” he groaned into her neck, “tell me not now.”

If his head was at her neck and his wings were folded, what had blocked the sun?

She opened her eyes.

And screamed.

Chapter Ten

Gregori jumped up as fast as he could without gutting Adelita, but Nikolas had the drop on him.

“Unhand that woman!” Nikolas declared. His sensor array glowed at full power, highlighting his striking features. His wings glistened in the sun.

For a moment nobody twitched. Then Adelita cried out, “Holy angeli, you must save me!”

Gregori stiffened. She didn’t call him angeli anymore, so she must be talking to—