Farthest Space: The Wrath of Jan (5 page)

Steven looked at her a moment longer, perhaps studying the violet flush on her cheekbones.
 
She hoped he would attribute it to embarrassment, rather than sheer lust.
 
He was, after all, still her commanding officer.
 
She had absolutely no business giving in to lust.

Even if they were going to be trapped alone here for a long time.
 
Or possibly forever.

“Whatever,” Steven said at last, with a shrug, as if the relative size of his anatomy was of no consequence.
 
Despite his pretense at indifference, she was pretty sure it would nag at him for days, and that gave her a feeling of evil satisfaction.
 
“I do want you to get out of those wet clothes, Vaish.”

“I am fine,” she said with lofty dignity.

“That was an order, Commander.”

She sputtered with rage.
 
“You—you can’t—“

“Actually, I can.
 
You’re going to catch cold, or some odd virus floating around in the air on this planet, and then where will we be?”
 

She refrained from pointing out the obvious fact that if there were lethal viruses on this planet, she would likely contract them whether she was dry or wet.
 
She didn’t feel much like arguing at this point.
 
The fact was, she was damned cold, and her teeth were beginning to chatter.

“Fine,” she snapped.
 
“If you insist.”
 

She lifted her hand to the static zipper at her neck.
 
Steven lifted an eyebrow.

“But you will turn around,” she added hastily.

“Is that an order?”

She saw the amusement in his eyes and flushed again.
 
“It is a… request.”

Steven’s white teeth flashed in a grin.
 
“It’s ridiculous to be so modest, Vaish.
 
We’re going to be living in a space only a little bigger than a breadbox.
 
We might as well get used to seeing each other naked.”

Oh, she could definitely get used to seeing him naked.
 
That was the entire problem.
 
She lifted her chin.
 
“Nevertheless, I must insist on as much privacy as possible under the circumstances.”

Steven turned around.
 
“That’s not fair,” he grumbled.
 
“I let you look.”

“I didn’t want to look,” she lied.

“Uh-huh.
 
Yeah, I noticed that.
 
I guess all that staring was just an accident.”

“I was not staring!”

She dropped her black jumpsuit to the floor, hoping against hope that her undergarments would be dry enough for her to keep them on.
 
No such luck. She was wet all the way to the skin.
 
She muttered a heartfelt curse under her breath and stripped off her underwear.

Fred whistled.

“Fred,” Steven reproved.
 
He turned around and looked at her.
 
She felt her skin grow hot as he looked her up and down, long and thoroughly.
 
And then he let out a long whistle that echoed Fred’s.

“Told you,” Fred said.

Vaish lifted her chin in the air and turned her back on Steven.
 
She heard his low chuckle.
 
“It’s a nice view from this direction, too.”

“Captain,” she said, trying very hard to ignore the warm flush of pleasure that spread through her veins at the admiration in his voice, “we may be in this situation for a long time.
 
Could we please try to behave like grownups?”

“I’m admiring a beautiful woman,” Steven said in a reasonable tone.
 
“A woman who’s so beautiful she’d make any grown man look twice.
 
How precisely is this not behaving like a grownup?”

“You’re behaving like a hormonally charged adolescent,” she responded, hating the prissy tone in her voice but unable to squelch it.
 
“Just as you always do.”

Steven sighed.
 
“Fine.
 
I’ll try to keep my eyeballs in my head.
 
All right?”

She gave a short nod of acquiescence.

“Since our hunting expedition didn’t go too well, let’s have dinner.”

*****

Sitting next to Vaish in the crowded space and watching as she ate a small portion of emergency rations didn’t do a thing to curb Steven’s lust, even when she found a blanket, which the terrorists had kindly not removed, and wrapped it around her lovely curves.
  
He was still painfully aware that beneath the blanket, her gorgeous body was totally nude.

Odd, but the lovely blue “communications officer” hadn’t caused half as strong a reaction.
 
Except for the lack of body hair typical of Canvul women, Vaish was physically just like a human woman… and yet not like any human woman he’d ever seen.
 
Something about Vaish’s nudity ignited a fire in his blood that wouldn’t go out, no matter how many flight paths he calculated in his head.
 

Or perhaps it was just the memory of her wide, yellow eyes staring at his… anatomy that had him so turned on.

He tried to squelch his reaction, without the slightest bit of success.
 
He was as hard as the lifepod’s metal hull.
 
Fortunately she refused to look in his direction, so she hadn’t spotted his condition.
 
He thought, anyway.
 

“It’s oh-eight hundred by our time,” he said when she’d finished the last of her rations.
 
“Kind of early, but it looks like night is falling by local time.”
 
The pod door, which they’d left open to permit fresh air to circulate, showed the sky turning a deep jade green as the sunlight faded.
 
“Maybe we ought to go to sleep.”

Vaish looked dubiously at the small floor space.
 
“I’m not sure there’s room.”

“Of course there is,” he said.
 
“Like you said earlier, we’ll just have to sleep next to each other.”

“It looks as if we might have to sleep on top of each other.”

He shot her his most wicked grin.
 
“Works for me.”

She drew in an irritated hiss of breath.
 
“Do you ever think about anything besides sex?”

“There’s rarely anything more interesting to think about.”
 
Stars knew there wasn’t anything else to think about in this situation… aside from the minor matter of survival.
 
But he’d always been easily distracted.
 
That was the entire problem.
 
He was going to have to sleep with her naked form only a few centimeters from his own.
 
There was absolutely no way he could sleep.

He wondered if he could survive without sleep for the rest of his life.

They stood up to investigate the provisions further, and Steven was annoyed to discover there were only two blankets.
 
Although given the Noo’dis’ts’ attitude toward covering the body, he supposed he should be grateful there were any.
 
“One to spread out on the floor, and one to spread over us,” he suggested.

“I don’t think so, Captain.
 
I’ll just roll up in one, and you roll up in the other.”

“You’re no fun, Vaish.
 
Has anyone ever told you that?”

“Get used to it,” she said dryly.
 
“I don’t plan on providing you with any fun.
 
Ever.”

“Fine,” Steven said, although a part of his anatomy didn’t think it was fine at all.
 
“Fred, close the door.
 
Let’s go to sleep.”

*****

Sleeping, Vaish thought thirty minutes later, was a good idea… in theory.
 
The trouble was, she couldn’t sleep.
 
She was acutely aware of the heat from Steven’s body, which seemed to radiate out and pull her irresistibly toward him, like a tractor field.
 

Judging from his even breathing, he’d forgotten her proximity and gone straight to sleep.
 
Which annoyed her.
  

The stars knew she wasn’t able to forget
his
proximity that easily.
 
The memory of his body was burned into her brain.
 
Her mind was filled with the memory of his sharply hewn muscles, of sinewy muscle and bone under smooth warm skin and a dusting of golden hair.
 
It reminded her of the statues her primitive ancestors had carved out of stone, depicting gods with perfect bodies and beautiful faces.
 
Except she’d never seen a statue that was anywhere near as gorgeous as Steven.

She closed her eyes, trying to blot out the memory, but without the slightest success.
 
He was naked, sexy, and right next to her, so close she could hear every breath he took, so close she could almost hear the beating of his heart.
 
If only she hadn’t insisted on each of them wrapping up in their own blanket, she could have moved a few centimeters toward him and felt the warmth of his skin pressing against her own.

She could have him easily enough if she wanted him, she thought.
 
The only thing that had ever kept them apart was the distance required by their professional relationship, which was no longer a factor.

That wasn’t quite true, she admitted to herself.
 
There was still a possibility that they might be rescued, and then there would be a certain awkwardness between them if she gave in to her baser desires.
 
She knew Steven well enough to realize that he would never in a million years commit to her.
 
He regarded women as a sort of pleasant diversion, a hobby, and she had no reason to believe he’d think differently about her.
 
If they returned to the
Arisia
after having sex,
things would be… uncomfortable.

Besides, she reminded herself firmly, Steven was an ass.
 
Perhaps, if she were to be totally honest with herself, she did feel a tiny tug of attraction to him, but it was merely a physical reaction to a good-looking man.

Okay, an incredibly gorgeous man.
 
But still, it was only lust.

She gave a long sigh of frustration, and Steven rolled over.
 
His deep voice rumbled in the darkness.

“Having trouble sleeping?”

“Not at all,” she said stiffly.
 
“I’m marooned on a strange planet, lying in a cramped lifepod, on a cold, metal floor with nothing but a blanket for a mattress.
 
Why in the Stars would I be having trouble sleeping?”

She heard his low, sexy laughter.
 
“I’m betting that’s not the only reason you can’t sleep, Vaish.”

She heard the amusement in his voice, and it made her bristle.
 
She’d always loathed his self-confident assurance that every woman wanted to have sex with him.

Or maybe she’d just loathed the women he had sex with.
 

“I’m not lying over here thinking about you, if that’s what you’re implying,” she snapped, aware that it was totally untrue.
 
“I’m worrying about the crew of the
Arisia
.”

He sighed.
 
“Yeah,” he admitted in a more serious tone.
 
“Me too.
 
But we have to believe they’ll be all right, Vaish.”