Greenshift (13 page)

“What’s up?” David asked.

“Besides your dick?”

Ben joked because he didn’t want
to talk about whatever was bothering him, so David let his inquiry drop.

“Anyway, what are you
willing to pay for this classified information?”
Ben leaned on his
forearms, bringing his face closer to the camera conspiratorially.

“What do you want?”
David knew it would be something absurd because Ben was all about helping out family.
He’d do anything David asked, including fly a gunship straight into a star.

“I want the operating
codes to your boat next time I have leave.”

“You have a boat.”

“I had a boat…that was in
a little accident last month.”

“I’ll send you the codes as
long as you promise there won’t be any
accidents
, little or
otherwise.”

“I only make promises I can
keep, David. I thought Mum taught you that, too.”

“Your emotional blackmail will
only get you so far,” David said.

“In this guilt-ridden
family? It gets me everything and anything.”

That was certainly a true
statement, though an ironic one considering Ben was the most susceptible to
guilt out of them all.

“I’ll get back to you as
soon as the background check comes in on your guy.”

“Thanks, Ben.”

Ben flipped him off with a laugh
before his image blinked off.

David was probably
over-reacting. If there turned out to be a problem with Dale’s background, David
would explain it to Mari. She’d drop out of the project and he’d help her find
another client. Simple.

If she didn’t believe him, he
could always make up an excuse to get the
Bard
in the sky and away from the
Hub until Mari could talk with Ben herself. Surely it wouldn’t come to that
kind of subterfuge, but Mari had been pretty upset earlier. And David would do
whatever it took to keep her safe, even if she hated him for it and he lost his
chance to be with her.

“I messed up, didn’t
I?” Mari pushed the heap of clothes from Sean’s sofa onto the floor and slumped
down on the worn white cushions.

“Those were clean,”
Sean said.

“Really? They looked kind of
wrinkled.”

Sean was about to take a bite of a
sandwich, but Mari looked at it expectantly. “Is that peanut butter?”

Sean ripped the sandwich apart
and gave her half.

“Thanks,” she said. “Nothing
tastes as good as peanut butter, except peanut butter with some sugar sprinkled
on top or dipped in syrup.”

Sean popped the rest of his sandwich
in his mouth.

“Did you eat that
already?” She said through the peanut butter clinging to the roof of her
mouth.

“Half a sandwich takes half
the time to eat,” Sean said.

She couldn’t even muster a laugh,
just a small, sad smile.

“Can I have a drink of
that?”

Sean passed her the bottle of
water he held to his lips.

She took a big swig and offered
it back, but Sean waved her off.

“I shouldn’t have lost my
temper. He just made me so mad. Do you know how frustrating he can be? And did you
notice he’s a little bossy?”

“All the time,” Sean
said.

“But I like him.” She
swirled the remaining water around in the clear bottle, watching it bubble and
slosh like it was confused and crashing in on itself. That’s how she felt, like
a crash was imminent. “He was my first, you know. My
only
.”

A long silence drifted into the
room.

Sean shifted uncomfortably. “Look,
I don’t really want to get involved, but things might not be as bad with David
as you think.”

Her head snapped up. “What do
you mean?”

“I
mean
, have you
talked to him recently?”

“Since when?” she
asked.

“Since you implied you and I
were going to have sex?”

Her face flushed hot. “I
wasn’t implying that.”

“Yeah, you were. You wanted
to see if he’d take my head off. A little while ago I thought he might try it.”

Mari sat up in alarm. “David
came here to confront you? Are you okay? I shouldn’t have put you in danger.
That was irresponsible. He could have killed you or broken your arms and legs
at the least.”

“Wait a minute.” Sean held
up a hand to silence her. “Why do you assume he would have won?”

Mari did laugh this time, a
small, reflexive giggle that jumped right out of her mouth before she could
shut it again.

Sean’s look was anything but
amused.

“It’s just that…”

Because I saw him take on six
guys, two of whom were as big as you?

“…he’s been military
trained. You’re just a scientist.”

“I’m not just a—never mind.”
Sean shook his head like he wanted to say more about it, but decided not to. He
took a deep breath. “Just because he looks bigger doesn’t necessarily mean
he’s better in a fight.”

“I didn’t mean any offense,
Sean. You’re still tougher than everyone else on this ship, including me.”

It was a compliment, but the
indignant groan rumbling through Sean’s chest said he hadn’t taken it as one.

“David paid your rent and
paid me back for those months I spotted you. So go thank him and put this
bullshit behind you and make sure you let him know that I was the one who told
you all this because I told him I wouldn’t.”

Mari’s heart thudded with the
news. A million emotions passed through her at once from disbelief to
embarrassment and finally to pure joy. She leaped off the couch and threw her
arms around Sean. He gave her a little hug back.

“For the record,” he
said. “I could take him.”

The look in his eyes made her
wonder if that could be true.

“Maybe.” She kissed him
on the cheek and bounded out of the room, then peeked back in to say, “But
I doubt it.”

“I’m not going to take the
job.” Mari stood in the entrance to the bridge, her arms and their
contents tucked neatly behind her.

David spun in the nav chair to
face her. Though his expression was mostly unreadable, she didn’t detect any
sign of anger.

“I stopped by your suite,
but you weren’t there. What are you doing in here? We aren’t in danger of
crashing into the dock, are we?” she joked.

“I haven’t crashed into a
dock since flight training. I have scars from that, too, but only on my ego.”
He smiled at her.

She liked his good nature.

“What made you change your
mind?” he asked.

“You were right,” she
said. “I don’t think Dale was only looking at my resume when he wanted to
hire me.” She studied the shiny black floor.

“That’s his problem, not
yours. You understand that, don’t you?”

She gave a pathetic little nod.

“You’re smart, Mari, and
enthusiastic, and you have drive. Look at what you’ve accomplished on your own
at such a young age. And, don’t give me that
I’m almost twenty
line
because you should be proud of doing all this by yourself as a teenager.”

“You helped. That’s why I brought
this to thank you.” She pulled the bottle of Koley’s from behind her back
and set it on the crash couch.

He looked at it bit suspiciously.
“Not that I’m in the habit of turning down bourbon, but
thank me
for what?”

“For paying my rent. And
reimbursing Sean. I promise to pay you back for all of it…eventually.”

“It was a gift, supposed to
be an
anonymous
gift, so you wouldn’t have to worry about paying anyone
back and just concentrate on your career for a while, but I can guess who told
you.”

“Sean did. Just now.”

“Sean has a big mouth,”
David said.

“Yes, he does, but it’s not
as nice as yours.”

Mari put her hands on David’s
shoulders and straddled him in the nav chair. He didn’t protest, even with the
bridge door open wide to the commonway. She stared into his grey eyes and
thought she read a hopeful expectation there.

He rested his hands on her hips,
and she felt the warmth of his touch spread through the rest of her body. Leaning
in, she kissed him—a little more urgently than she meant to. He responded in
kind, sweeping her chest against him. She inhaled his scent and marveled at how
much she missed this small intimacy. When she pulled away, it was only so she
could see his face again. He had a kind and handsome face with small lines
beginning to crease the corners of his eyes and mouth. That meant he had smiled
a lot over his life so far. She wanted those same lines someday.

“I’m sorry, Mari.” His
expression became serious.

“I’m the one here trying to
apologize.” She smoothed a finger over his thick brows.

She was going to tell him more,
but he stole her breath as he kissed the divot above her clavicle. All the
tension left her body, replaced by the bliss of David’s touch. Mari pressed
into his hips, delighting in his hardness. When he grabbed her backside and
rocked her against him, waves of heat pooled between her legs.

“Can we do what we did last
night?” she whispered in his ear.

“I’d like that,” he
said.

“And maybe we could try
something new, too.”

“New is good.” He was
already sliding her little tank top up over her belly.

She heard the bridge door snap
closed. He did like his privacy.

This is the first time I’ve
used sex for conflict resolution.

The logical side of David was
certain that a tryst was not the best way to keep peace among his crew, whether
they were fleet soldiers or civilian scientists. The side that wouldn’t listen
to logic was delighted to have Mari’s attention again. Truth was he felt cold
without her flirtations, the little looks she gave him, and the touching. He definitely
needed her touch.

She kissed his cheek, then his
temple, then his forehead, making her way around to the other side of his face.
The sweet gesture, combined with her eagerness to be intimate with him again,
even after their disagreement, made him more resolute to protect her innocence
from guys like Dale—except it was in David’s arms where she was losing that
innocence.

“I would have missed this if
I had gone with Dale. There will be other clients, other projects, just like
you said. I may even study cellular medicine. One of my uncles had—”

He covered her still chattering
mouth, hoping to bring her concentration back to their foreplay, feeling a
little guilty for cutting her off, until he came up for air and she picked up
right where she left off.

“My uncle on my father’s
side had a cellular practice. You would have thought he’d known about the
effects of the vaccines he was dispensing, but I guess that wasn’t his fault.
It was all so unexpected, you know?”

“Mari.” David ran a
light finger down her nose to capture her attention. “Could we maybe talk
about this later?”

“Sure,” she said, then
whispered, “I’ll be quiet.”

“You don’t have to be
quiet.” He remembered the delightful little groans and expressions of
pleasure she’d uttered last night. “I like to know when I’m doing
something good so I can do it again. And when I’m doing something wrong.”

“How about dirty talk?”
She blushed, sending a jolt of desire straight to David’s groin as he thought
of what could come out of that sweet, little mouth.

“That goes without
saying.” He tapped a finger to his palm, telling his reporter to gently
recline the nav chair.

He helped her strip off the tank
and she helped him pull his t-shirt over his head. She maneuvered out of her
skirt and panties.

“You still have your pants
on.” She undid his belt and button. As she pulled down his zipper, he
raised his hips and slid his pants and shorts down past his knees.

She ground against his hardness,
stimulating them both. Her fingers slid over the head of his arousal, then
lightly grasped his shaft.

“Show me how to touch
you,” she said.

“Do whatever feels natural,
honey. There’s no right or wrong.” He pressed his mouth against her ear to
say, “I’m going to like it because it’s you.”

She shrugged against his chin as
though the thought tickled her. He couldn’t keep the smile from spreading
across his face.

“No, I mean I want
you
to show me.”

He realized this was her idea of
talking dirty and it probably took a lot of nerve for her to ask him to do such
a thing. The thought of touching himself was certainly not novel to him, or any
guy, probably, but it was new for her.

He wanted to encourage her to
experiment, to feel safe to try whatever she wanted with him, to learn about
coupling and intimacy in the most enjoyable way possible, so he enclosed her
small hand in his, tightening her grip on his shaft. The feeling of them
stroking him together surprised him with its eroticism—no small feat for a man
who had had more than his share of sex over the years. Maybe it was her innocence
or that he was slowly stealing it away, but more likely it was because she was
stealing his heart.

The thought made him timid in its
discovery, which was why this simple act seemed so exposing. He let her touch
him on her own, suddenly needing to pleasure her in return. It was a
compulsion, to feel her folds, to tease his fingers inside her.

Her little gasp of pleasure undid
him. He couldn’t wait any longer and lifted her so she could settle herself on
top of him, putting her in control of their coupling this time.

She rocked back and forth, riding
him unhurried, each movement igniting the pleasure in her coral-colored eyes.
He couldn’t decide if he wanted to watch her face or kiss her. There was no way
he could resist her mouth.

When her pace picked up and her
breathing came in harsh little gasps, he let her pull away from the kiss so he
could stare into her eyes while she came. Her fingers bit into his shoulders as
she moved harder and harder against him. His heart beat faster in anticipation.
He could have gone any time, but waited for her. It wasn’t long. The scream she
let out as her body shuddered finished him.