Cosmos' Promise: Cosmos' Gateway Book 4 (3 page)

“What are you doing?” Terra asked in a choked voice as her eyes followed the towel. “Where did you get all those scars from?”

Cosmos’ lips tightened. He didn’t need to look in a mirror to know what she was seeing. He had scars from bullets, knives, and more than one explosion marring his tanned skin. He had grown accustomed to them. He wasn’t actively participating in as many missions as he used to, only the ones that were personal, or were a huge risk for his men, those he still oversaw.

“I need to get dressed or Tilly will be back in here,” Cosmos said, tossing the towel to one side and brushing by her. “The last thing I need is for her to launch into a description of Angus in the buff again,” he said gruffly.

Terra’s eyes followed Cosmos. He was a breathtaking male. The muscles in his shoulders were deceptively hidden in the clothes he wore. His back contained at least five separate scars that she knew had not only been painful but must have come close to killing him. She had learned much from RITA over the past several months to gain a better understanding of the human anatomy in order to help Jasmine ‘Tinker’ Bell and her sister, Hannah, with their pregnancies.

A swell of heat rushed through her as he bent over and pulled a pair of tight, black boxers up over his taut buttocks. She felt her nipples harden with desire as she watched him dress. Everything inside her wanted to walk over and pull his clothing back off, throw him on his bed, and take possession of him. Her eyes widened in shock at the primitive, almost savage, need that was washing over her. She was confused by it. She had always been under the impression that the females of her race did not care for such physical contact, yet she was burning with a need that was about to drive her out of control. She remembered her mother talking recently about her feelings for their father. They hadn’t really discussed anything in detail. While she had been curious as to her mother’s recent behavior, the idea of discussing her mother and father’s sexual habits made her feel – uncomfortable for some reason. The curiosity had become so overwhelming that she had finally broken down and asked Tink and Tilly about it. She had even watched the vidcom that had been recorded of Tink on her brother J’kar’s warship. She had been giving the warriors instruction on something called ‘oral’ sex.

“Will you perform oral sex on me?” She asked out loud before she realized what she was saying.

“Will I what….?!” Cosmos choked out, right before falling face first onto the floor with a loud thud when his foot got tangled up in his pant leg as he was putting it through.

“Oh Cosmos, are you hurt?” Terra asked rushing forward where he was lying on the floor, his pants caught around his ankles. She knelt beside him and tried to gently roll him over so she could check to see if he had a head injury. “Cosmos?”

“Oh dear!” Tilly exclaimed from the doorway. “What happened? Is he alright?” She asked, rushing forward. “ANGUS! We need you, sweetheart! Cosmos has fainted.”

*.*.*

Cosmos lay perfectly still and tried to breathe deeply to calm his racing mind. A part of him was wishing he could have invented a time machine so he could go back and warn his other self
not
to create the damn Gateway. The other part couldn’t help but see the humor of the situation. At twenty-seven he was, for the first time, totally unprepared for what was happening in his life.

Cosmos let Terra roll him over onto his back. He stared up into her confused and worried eyes for a moment before he placed both of his palms on her cheeks and pulled her down, giving her a hard, possessive kiss that left her sprawled across his chest. He continued to kiss her until he was sure he could say something without making a total ass of himself.

“Well, it looks like Terra has the situation under control,” Angus said from the doorway. “Mm, Tilly sweetheart, you wouldn’t be feeling a little faint yourself would you, darling. I think you might need a little mouth to mouth yourself,” he added with a low growl.

“Oh Angus,” Tilly giggled. “I was just telling Cosmos that you still turn me on when you….”

Cosmos broke off the kiss with a loud groan. “Enough! I don’t want a picture of Angus nude stuck in my head!” He bit out before turning to glare up at Angus who was chuckling. “You need to have a talk with your wife about walking into other men’s bathrooms when they are in the shower,” he growled out.

Angus pulled a blushing Tilly into his arms and bent her over it. “It wouldn’t do any good,” Angus laughed. “She would just distract me and we’d end up making love. Isn’t that right, honey?”

“You better believe it, big guy,” Tilly whispered staring up at Angus with a soft expression. “How you can still make my heart go crazy after all these years will always amaze me,” she admitted with a deep sigh of contentment.

Angus brushed a kiss across his wife’s lips before pulling her back up so she could stand next to him. He looked at Cosmos with a grin before shrugging his shoulders. Tilly was the light of his life and he wasn’t ashamed to show it.

“Breakfast is getting cold,” Angus said. “I’d like to eat before we get any more interruptions. I don’t know about you kids, but I’m starving,” he added turning Tilly around and gently pushing her out of the room.

Cosmos looked back up at Terra who was watching with wide-eyes as Angus slapped Tilly lightly on the ass as they exited the room. Both of them could hear the giggles and low murmurs as the two older Bells headed back toward the kitchen. Cosmos waited until Terra looked back down at him with a bemused expression on her face.

“Yes,” he responded as her mouth opened. “They have always been like that since the day I met them and from what Tink says, all her life.”

“Oh,” Terra said before she pushed up on his chest so she could sit back. She watched as he sat up and pulled his pants up to his knees before he stood and pulled them the rest of the way up. “Will you?”

“Will I what?” Cosmos said as he fastened his pants.

He reached for a dark blue button-up shirt hanging on the peg near the door. He shrugged it on and began buttoning before looking at her when she didn’t reply at first. She was watching his fingers as they moved down the row of buttons.

“Perform oral sex on me?” Terra asked hesitantly from where she was still kneeling on the light bamboo-covered floor.

Cosmos looked down into her inquiring eyes. A chuckle burst from his lips as he bent down and grabbed her hands to pull her up. Once she was standing in front of him, he gripped her by the hips and pulled her against his hard length, showing her how much he was reacting to her closeness.

“With pleasure,” Cosmos murmured before he turned her toward the door and the direction of the kitchen. “With total pleasure,” he repeated as he smacked her on the ass as she walked through the door, drawing a startled squeak from her.

Chapter 3

“Can you pass the eggs?” Angus asked as he reached for a couple of slices of whole wheat toast.

Tilly reached over and handed the bowl of scrambled eggs to Angus. She pulled a couple of pieces of toast onto her plate and spread strawberry jam on them. She waited until everyone had a full plate before she broached the subject of last night.

“Cosmos,” Tilly began quietly. “Tell us what happened. Is Tansy ….?” Her voice faded as fear blossomed.

Angus reached over and squeezed her hand. Both of the older Bells were worried about their middle daughter. Tansy thought she kept what she did a secret from them but Tilly had been following her daughter’s activities for years. She knew that Tansy had to deal with her own ghosts, some of which scared Tilly half to death. She couldn’t help but be proud of her daughter’s work trying to make the world a better/safer place to live but she also couldn’t help but wish someone else would do it now. She wasn’t sure how much longer she could pretend that she was ignorant of the danger her daughter was constantly in.

Cosmos looked up from where he was pouring coffee into his cup from the carafe that Terra had placed on the table in front of him. He looked down at his cup as he thought of how much information to give her. He didn’t want her to worry but he also knew there were other dangers and that he was going to have to explain.

He set the carafe down and picked up his cup before looking at the woman who had been as much of a mother to him as his own. “Tansy will be fine. I received information that Mak was able to rescue her and has returned to his world with her.” He watched as Tilly and Angus both glanced at each other with relieved sighs before he continued. “She was injured, though. The last report I received was that she was still unconscious but the healers on Baade felt it was due more to exhaustion than the physical injuries that have already been taken care of.”

Tilly just nodded, unable to respond. “Thank you, Cosmos. For everything,” Angus said for the both of them.

Cosmos shrugged off the compliment, uncomfortable with the praise. “There are still others out there that need to be brought home safely and I lost two good men last night,” he said picking at the food on his plate.

“Which men?” Terra asked folding her hands in her lap as she waited in fear. “Derik …. My father?”

Cosmos shook his head. “No, they are safe though Derik didn’t return for a few hours. I haven’t had a chance to find out exactly what happened at the warehouse where Tansy was taken. Two of my men were killed last night in one of the fire fights. One had a sister and mother and the other didn’t have any family. I have accounts set up to take care of surviving family members should something like this happen. Merrick has disappeared. He went after some of the men who were shooting at us. Rico had some of his men retrace Merrick’s path but all they found were the dead bodies of the men who tried to kill the team members. It is as if he disappeared into thin air,” Cosmos said. “I have RITA reviewing every surveillance camera in the area for information. In addition, both Natasha and Helene are still missing as well. I have Garrett working with Rico, Lan and Brock to locate them. RITA was able to get the tag of at least one of the vehicles and possibly the other.”

“I have already relayed the information to the teams,” RITA responded in a cheerful voice. “You might want to eat little faster, guys. Your company is coming up the street.”

Cosmos froze in the process of taking a drink of his quickly cooling coffee. “What do you mean, company?” He growled out tensely.

“I was following the transmissions and decided it might be prudent to keep an eye on any new traffic coming into Calais. It would appear Mr. Avilov might want to disappear but he isn’t above sending a few of his men to visit. Can you imagine? He actually thinks to harm Tansy’s family and kill you as well from the communications I intercepted,” RITA chuckled.

Cosmos pushed away from the table, standing up and leaning forward with his hands splayed on the smooth surface. “How many and how long have you known they were in town?” Cosmos bit out in aggravation to RITA.

“Oh, she told me about an hour ago but she said we should have time for you to get a shower and eat something,” Tilly replied as she quickly stuffed a piece of toast into her mouth and shooed Terra to hurry as well. “Angus needed to eat if he was going to be fighting for our lives. He gets low blood sugar and that is never good,” she added as she scooped up a forkful of eggs.

Cosmos looked across the table at Tilly in disbelief. “You knew about this and didn’t tell me?” He demanded as he straightened up and glared at her.

Tilly waved her fork at his plate. “Of course,” she admonished. “What good would worrying about it have done? They were going to come anyway. Now, eat something. You’ll feel better if you have something in your stomach.”

“Tilly ….,” Cosmos began before he growled out in frustration. “Forget it. RITA, code Red,” he called out as he moved away from the small kitchen area and toward the living room. “Show targets on the screen. I need numbers, positions, and weapons description. NOW!” He stated as he stopped in front of the couch in the living area.

Panels on the wall rose to reveal additional screens mounted into the surface. Soon, an entire wall of images showed different sections of the small town and the area around the warehouse. Six SUV’s were pulling up further down the street. Cosmos cursed loudly. Avilov had no respect for life, that included the lives of innocent people. They would be considered collateral damage as far as the billionaire was concerned.

“How many?” Cosmos asked tersely as Terra, Tilly and Angus came to stand next to him.

“Thirteen,” RITA responded. “I guess they aren’t a superstitious lot.”

Cosmos ignored RITA’s ridiculous comment. His mind was already working on the different ways to contain what was about to happen. He didn’t want to involve the local law enforcement but if there were going to be dead bodies he might not have much of a choice. Still, he needed to minimize the possibility of an innocent bystander getting hurt.

“Angus,” Cosmos said still watching the screens as the figures began moving up along the sides and back of the warehouse. Two split off and turned the corner coming around to the front of the warehouse. “I need you three to head to the lab, use the back elevator. I want you to take the women back to Baade. RITA, unlock the front, side and back doors once Angus and the women are secure. Seal the areas once the men are inside,” he bit out.

He turned his head and frowned when he heard Angus grunt and saw him looking at him in grim silence. Tilly and Terra were standing looking at him with their arms crossed and dark frowns on their faces. His gaze shifted back to Angus and he released a dark oath.

“Cosmos,” Angus said, pushing his glasses up on his nose. “I am not leaving you here alone. The women can go but I’ll stay. I may be an author but I can help you defend your home.”

Cosmos opened his mouth to assure Angus that he and RITA were more than capable of handling the men coming when another voice interrupted him. All four of them swiveled around to look at the dark figures that were stepping from a shimmering doorway that had opened near the entrance to the kitchen. Teriff’s grim face greeted them.