Armageddon (17 page)

Caught completely off guard, Lena didn’t even have time to throw up defenses before she felt the pressure of Dax’s hard, demanding mouth over hers, felt the possessive thrust of his tongue as he breached the barrier of her lips and claimed her with his touch and taste. Heat and dizziness washed through her instantly, draining her of strength, will, or even the thought of protest.

She was barely even aware that he’d caught her tightly with one arm around her shoulders until she heard the sound of her suit being wrenched open and felt the brush of his other hand along her skin, and coolness as he parted the fabric.

“Never smile at me like that again--in public. I almost had a heart seizure right then and there,” he growled when he lifted his mouth from hers, shoving his hands beneath the fabric of her suit and peeling it from her body even as he explored her throat and the upper slope of her breasts.

The comment touched off a flicker of doubt, but Lena discovered she was already too far gone to be capable of anything approaching normal thought processes. It was all she could do to hold herself upright as he moved down her body, exploring her bare skin with his mouth and hands as he dragged the suit down to her ankles. When she lifted her foot to free it from the fabric, he caught her thigh, draped it over his shoulder and burrowed his face against her mound.

Her knees wobbled and gave out as his tongue delved her cleft.

He caught her, lowering her to the floor instead of rising and carrying her to the bunk. Dragging the suit from her other foot, he hooked both of her legs over his shoulders, lifted her hips clear of the floor and fastened his mouth hungrily over her mound. Lena gasped, jerked, shuddering at the ferocity of his assault that sent her spiraling so rapidly toward culmination that she couldn’t catch her breath. Her body seized as it caught her, began to quake and convulse almost painfully as he continued to lick and suckle her clit with ravenous need.

Unable to evade the maddening tease of his tongue, Lena felt her climax jolting endlessly, until she began to think she would die if he didn’t stop. “Dax!” she cried out when she felt like she was on the verge of passing out.

She thought for several moments that he was too intent even to have heard her.

Finally, he lowered her hips until they were resting on his bent knees, dragged her legs from his shoulders and planted her feet on the floor, and then grabbed her arms and jerked her upwards. She slumped weakly against him, her arms draped around his neck to keep from falling, but too limp to be of much use to her.

Lifting her hips with both hands, he spread her cleft with his fingers and pressed the head of his cock into the mouth of her sex, bearing down on her hips slowly but relentlessly until she was gasping. When he’d sunk his cock inside of her to the root, he bore down on her more tightly, grinding his groin against her nether lips as if he felt the need to go deeper still, until his cock head was butting her womb almost painfully.

She groaned, dropping her cheek against the top of his head as he held her there

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for many moments, his arms wrapped tightly around her. Her neck felt too weak even to hold her head up. Abruptly, he released her, grabbed her hips and began to lift her and press her down again until he was slamming into her. Tremors began to run through his arms, his entire body. As suddenly as he’d begun pounding into her, he stilled, uttered a choked groan and wrapped his arms tightly, almost crushingly, around her again, his body shaking so violently with tremors that they swayed precariously.

Heaving a shuttering sigh, he loosened his grip on her and finally leaned down, supporting them with one arm and easing her to the floor with the other. When she’d settled to the floor like a puddle of melted wax, the arm he’d been using to brace both of them gave way and he slumped onto his side and then rolled onto his back, gasping for breath.

Mellow in the aftermath, Lena nevertheless began to feel as if she’d just been run over by a tank as the cold hardness of the floor began to sink in--stunned, wondering if she was going to feel pain in a few moments, wondering what had just happened.

Finally, with an obvious effort, Dax got off the floor, reached down and lifted her up and carried her to the bed. Settling her on the mattress, he leaned over her, kissed the tip of each breast briefly, and then her lips before he straightened. She stared up at him in bemusement. Slowly, it sank into her mind that she was splayed naked and spread eagle to his gaze … and he hadn’t even taken off his clothes.

After staring at her for several moments, he moved to the lav, washed his genitals and stuffed them back into his suit, closing the seam. He frowned when he’d finished adjusting himself. After looking around a little absently, he grabbed the towel he’d discarded by the lav earlier and dabbed at the crotch of his suit.

Lena sat up abruptly as he headed toward the door, bracing herself on her elbows.

“You are
not
going out like that!”

He stopped, turned to look at her in surprise. “It’s not noticeable.”

“Like hell it isn’t!”

He frowned, but after a moment his lips twitched. “Language, baby girl!”

Lena felt her jaw go slack for about two seconds and then rage kicked in. “You are
not
my father!” she snarled, looking around for something to throw at him and coming up with nothing more substantial than the pillow.

He caught it. His good humor had vanished though. Anger simmered in his eyes.

“If you’re pissed off because of what just happened, then you need to think before you wave that tight little ass of yours in my face, because I want it and if you offer it I’m damned well going to take it.”

Lena gasped in outrage, feeling her face flame at his crudity, remembering abruptly that he’d lifted her up to devour her as if she’d been a sandwich and wondering indignantly if that was what he was referring to. “I did not
wave
it in your face!”

“Exactly what did you think I was going to think when you gave me that come hither smile back in the fucking mess?”

“I was just trying to be friendly,” Lena snapped angrily, more because she realized instantly that
he
hadn’t made the mistake, or misinterpreted anything. She had very purposefully gone down to the mess hall at a time when she’d thought she was likely to meet up with him.

And she
had
smiled at him, which was enough to give any man the same impression that Dax had gotten, because if she’d been pissed off about it, she wouldn’t

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have smiled at him. She would’ve given him a drop dead glare.

Balling the pillow up, he shot it back at her like a cannon ball. Instinctively, she ducked. The sound of parting fabric was the only warning she got before she felt her wrists seized. He bore her down onto her back, pinning her with his weight, manacling her wrists to the bed on either side of her head.

His expression was implacable when she blew her hair out of her face and peered up at him in stunned surprise, his eyes were narrowed and tumultuous with emotion. “I am not your friend,” he said through clenched teeth. “And I’m damned sure not your brother or your father--I’m not that damned much older than you. Maybe I’m a dumb fuck, but when a woman I’ve just fucked senseless gives me a smile instead of a drop dead look, I figure that means she didn’t mind it.”

She hadn’t realized what that ominous ripping sound was until she felt the head of his cock nudge her cleft, press the fleshy folds apart and then move down unerringly toward the mouth of her sex. She wasn’t hot, wasn’t even warm, but it didn’t matter, because her sex was still thoroughly lubricated. With little difficulty, he wedged the head of his cock into her and drove deeper. She gasped, instinctively tensing. She heard his teeth grinding together as he withdrew slightly and drove into her again even as she recovered her wits and began squirming against his hold.

Ignoring her attempts to free herself, he bore down inexorably until she was panting for breath, could feel his pelvis grinding into the tender flesh of her cleft. A mixture of pain, fear, and panic went through her as he stopped, gasping harshly, his own face twisted as if he was in pain.

Abruptly, an image flashed through her mind, of Dax above her as he was now, his face contorted with remorse, his teeth gritted.
Scream damn it. This is supposed to be
a rape.

The fear and panic vanished as abruptly as it had descended upon her.

This wasn’t about anger, and it wasn’t about power. It was about protecting her.

He was trying to drive her away, she realized, trying to make her believe he was a heartless monster so that she’d keep her distance.

Because he thought she would get hurt? Or because he was afraid he would?

He released her wrists the moment she ceased to struggle. His head dropped forward. Lifting her hands, Lena cupped his face in her hands. When he glanced up at her warily, she slipped her hands around his neck and tugged, lifting up to meet him when he resisted and brushing her lips lightly across his. He released a harsh breath that he’d been holding. Settling against her, he buried his face in the pillow beside her head.

She wrapped her arms tightly around him, holding him for several moments and finally began to stoke his back soothingly, arching her neck to kiss his shoulder, the side of his neck. She hesitated when she reached his ear and finally teased it with the tip of her tongue, rocking her hips against his.

A shudder rippled through him. Turning his face to hers, he moved his lips over hers in gentle exploration, his touch more apologetic than coaxing.

She sensed when he tensed that he would withdraw. She wasn’t about to allow it.

Slipping her hands down his back, she cupped his buttocks, arching up to meet him.

He lifted his head, studied her for a long moment and then dipped his head to kiss her, this time deeply, with growing need and hunger. She kissed him back, sucking on his tongue until he began move faster and the warmth inside of her blossomed into a

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conflagration. Her body began to convulse with release the moment she felt him tense as his own climax caught him.

They lay perfectly still for many minutes afterward. Finally, Dax stirred, lifting slightly away from her. “Lena....”

She felt her throat clog with emotion. Lifting her hand she touched a finger to his lips. “It’s all right. I know.”

She didn’t, actually. She just knew she didn’t want to hear what he was going to say. She didn’t need or want an apology, if that was what he’d had on his mind, and if he’d intended to tell her that there was nothing between them, and never would be, then she also didn’t want to hear that.

She knew she couldn’t stay with him, and he wouldn’t stay with her. As soon as he’d handed her over to Nigel, he would leave again on some other mission to save the world.

He frowned. After a moment, he moved off of her without another word. She rolled onto her side when he’d gotten off the bed, closing her eyes firmly. She didn’t open them again until she knew he’d left the room.

It was amazing, she thought glumly, how protective a person’s mind could be, dulling pain, hiding the truth, refusing to see things that were too awful to see. Only that morning she had been assuring herself that she was coming out of this unscathed. She’d had a narrow miss, but she wasn’t going to be hurt, because she’d just scratched her itch like Dax had. And there was no danger, really, of becoming emotionally wrapped up in him, because she would be home within a matter of days and it just wasn’t possible to fall for anybody that quickly.

It was though, because she’d just hit the ground after the long fall. She was pretty sure he’d sliced her right down to the quick the day he’d pulverized the men trying to rape her and told her he’d come to rescue her from that nightmarish place. She was hurting already and she hadn’t had to say goodbye yet.

* * * *

Surprise flickered through Nigel when he looked up and saw Dax striding toward him. Knowing the vids were on both of them, though, he tamped the sensation of finding himself off kilter and merely jerked his head in invitation as if he’d been waiting for him.

“How’ve you been?” Dax said, smiling in a friendly way and extending his hand.

Again a flicker of something not quite right went through Nigel. He returned the smile and the handshake mechanically, deciding finally that Dax was putting on an act for the vids. “I didn’t expect you. How’s Lena?”

Something flickered in Dax’s eyes. He hadn’t expected the question, Nigel realized, and for a moment he thought he’d really screwed up. He was not good at this cloak and dagger shit! “Never mind. Tell me later.”

Dax shrugged when he’d settled in the chair across the table from Nigel. “She’s taken care of.”

Nigel frowned into his coffee mug as the server bot rolled over. By the time Dax had ordered a full breakfast and the bot had left again, Nigel had himself well under control. “I guess it’ll be me and you, then?”

“Yeah.”

Nigel chewed his lower lip, glancing around at the other patrons at the sidewalk café. Finally, he picked his cup up, drained the last of the coffee and stood up. “Seven, at

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the rear service door.”

“We need to meet at the base.”

Nigel looked at Dax in surprise. After a moment, his expression cleared.

“Afterwards, you mean? I thought that was the plan?”

Dax nodded. “That’s what I meant.”

A cold sweat had begun to form on Nigel’s brow before he reached the entrance to Quasar Corp. The meeting he’d just had wasn’t just unexpected. It had been downright strange. His instincts were screaming at him to turn around and head in the other direction as fast as he could go without drawing attention to himself, but like a bot, he kept moving, going through the motions of his daily startup. He relaxed fractionally when he made it through the security check without incident.

Maybe he was just imagining things?

It was halfway through the morning when everything that had been tumbling around in Nigel’s mind since the morning meeting abruptly clicked together into a solid picture.

The man in the café hadn’t been Dax.

They were on to them. Cold fear washed through him again, tying his guts in knots. It took all he could do to focus on the procedure he was trying to perform, but it helped that he had been on the job so long that most of what he did was more by rote than thought. When his heart settled into a more normal rhythm and the panic receded, he began trying to think exactly what his situation was and what would be the safest move to make.

That part wasn’t any easier than gaining control of his initial fear.

Dax had been cloned.

Cloned and replaced? Before or after he’d gotten Lena, Nigel wondered?

Was
she safe? Was she dead?

He focused on those questions for a while, trying to decide what meeting up with Dax’s clone must mean besides the fact that he was fucked.

They had to think there was no chance that anyone could meet up with Dax
and
his clone, so Dax was either out of the picture all together, or they knew, or thought they knew, that he was a long way from the city.

Or this whole business was making them sloppy?

When the time for his lunch break rolled around Nigel still had no idea of what do to, so he did what he usually did. He left his lab and headed down to the company lunch room, expecting any moment to be confronted by security and escorted out of sight so that they could make him disappear permanently.

Instead, he arrived without incident. He was feeling vaguely ill with nerves, though, and it took a concentrated effort to behave as if nothing was any different from any other day. He decided after lunch, when he was on the way back to his lab, that he must have carried it off. He couldn’t remember anybody looking at him strangely, or commenting that his behavior seemed off.

His case of acute paranoia didn’t wane though.

He rarely took his afternoon break. Today, he deviated from the norm, because it had finally dawned on him that it wasn’t just paranoia. He really was in deep shit, and he had to let the people at base camp know it.

He couldn’t send the signal from inside Quasar Corp.

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Leaving the building, he crossed to the café and ordered a coffee to go. While he waited, he moved to the edge of the café, propped against one of the pillars that supported the overhead canopy and flipped his watch face back. Tapping the code in, he hung up, tapped in again, waited for a count of ten, and then repeated the code the third time.

Captured--Evacuate.

There was no response to that code--none designated as far as he knew--and he had no clue whether they’d gotten it or not, or if he’d even remembered the code correctly. Hell, he didn’t even know if they would pay it any attention coming from him.

He’d done what he could to warn them though.