The Bond That Heals Us (8 page)

They stayed that way for several minutes, only the sounds of their breathing and heartbeats echoing in the room. Davin rolled to the side, pulling Sara as he went so she lay half draped over his body. Every nerve in her seemed to hum with satisfied pleasure.

“Wow,” she managed after swallowing hard.

He dipped his head and licked her neck where he’d bitten her. “Sorry. When you bit me I couldn’t stop myself. It’s a part of our…it doesn’t matter. I’m sorry.”

He placed the gentlest kiss on her lips as he laced his fingers through her hair.

Sara’s mind began to wander and she had to struggle to keep from falling asleep.

“Don’t fight it. You deserve a rest.” His words were soft against her temple.

“No, I wanna talk.”

“You do too much talking. Sleep.”

“Biting?”

“Sleep.”

Yawning, she flipped onto her other side, pressing her bottom against his belly and let the sexually induced exhaustion take her over.

* * * * *

Davin lay wide awake while Sara snored lightly as she slept. His heart hadn’t stopped pounding since he’d spilled his seed inside the feisty doctor. When she’d bit him, every instinct in him yelled out that this was a woman who was worthy to be his mate. He’d spent so many years running from the ways of his people. To find such a basic need, basic drive bundled up in this little human both scared and confused him.

She’d never stay with him.

Rolling away carefully, he stood and walked away to the shower. The steam from the water filled the room within a matter of minutes. Davin stepped into the shower, the hot water hit his skin, instantly relaxing his tired muscles. He’d lived most of his adult life aboard spaceships and couldn’t afford the luxury of a shower whenever he’d been planet side.

Small rivers of water trickled down his hair and skin, easing the tension of his muscles. A small bar of soap was tucked into the corner of the stall, which he grabbed and quickly lathered up. Rubbing the suds over his body and into his hair felt wonderful. For the first time in months, he felt like he could breathe.

43

Somehow over the hiss of the shower, he heard the quiet click of the door open.

Davin looked up to see Sara standing there naked, biting her bottom lip. She smiled, shrugged and stepped into the shower with him.

“Let me wash your back,” she said taking the bar of soap from his hand.

“Not a lot of room in here.” He smiled and turned around.

When her hands touched his skin, Davin sighed. Her fingers began to rub small circles into his tired muscles, working the tension out of them. Sara began to move down his spine to his buttocks, where she continued to massage with gentle strokes.

“When I woke up, I thought you’d left.” She placed a kiss in the middle of his spine.

“Then I heard the shower.”

“A shower is almost as big a temptation as you are,” he said over his shoulder.

When she reached around to rub soap on his chest, Davin had to fight himself to stand still.

“I guess you don’t get many of these on your ship, do you?”

“None.”

“I guess I better make this as memorable as possible then.”

Sara slid her hands down his chest to his cock, rubbing soap over his balls as she cupped them. His shaft instantly hardened as she began to stroke him. Davin grabbed the wall with his hands and tried to hold on.

“I can’t believe how big you are,” she said, adding some more lather to her hands.

“I’m sure you say that to all your lovers.”

He hissed when she pulled her hands back, stroking his hips and thighs.

“There hasn’t been a man in a long time. Not since coming to Eurus.”

“Then I’m honored to have been your first choice.”

“You should be.”

He felt her laugh as her hands continued to explore his body. Her fingers found the scar on his side. It didn’t hurt as much as it had a few years ago, but the skin was still sensitive. A constant reminder never to do stupid things again—like help people.

“Don’t ask.” The words were out of him just as he felt her draw in a deep breath.

“I was going to say this is sexy.”

“No, you weren’t. You were going to ask. They all do.”

She lightly smacked his ass and the water made a loud sucking sound. “Play nice.”

“I don’t play
nice
.”

Davin turned around in the small shower and pressed Sara hard against the wall.

He could feel her tight nipples pressing against his chest as she breathed hard. His erection was trapped against her stomach and he ground it against her.

“I don’t think you would be attracted to me if I was a
nice
man.”

“There’s nothing wrong with nice. Kamran is nice.”

44

“Married.”

“Taber is nice.”

“Distant. You want bad, don’t you, Doctor?” He thrust his cock against her stomach. “You need bad to chase away the evil you see every day.”

Sara’s gasp quickly turned into a moan when he pushed the head of his cock between her legs. Her damp hair clung to her neck, making her large blue eyes look even bigger. More innocent than the woman he knew she was. But it made him want her all the more.

“I’m going to show you. Show you how much you like bad.” Davin pushed inside her with a single thrust. “I want to hear you scream.”

Unlike earlier, he had absolute control over his body. This was about testing himself, testing her. He needed to know that nothing would ever work between them beyond a quick fuck on a layover.

Sara clutched his shoulders, her eyes shut tight. The soft mewling sounds she made were like a string to his cock. He grew even harder, pulled her closer, wanting to fill even the tiniest space that kept them apart.

“Davin, please.”

He knew what she wanted and dipped his head to her breast, flicking her nipple with his tongue. Her fingers curled in his hair and a shiver passed through him when she tugged him closer. Each thrust of his cock brought him one step away from control and closer to chaos.

“Sara,” he murmured her name against her slick skin.

“Make me come. I want to come so badly.”

Lifting her leg, he thrust even deeper into her body, letting him grind against her swollen clit. She cried out, her body tense, but still didn’t tumble into bliss. It wasn’t until he slipped his hand between them to stroke her that she shattered around him with a scream.

Her cunt tightened around his shaft, choking him with pleasure. He felt his balls tighten as he began to pound into her uncontrollably. With every jut of his seed inside her, Davin knew he was in trouble.

Finally, they slipped in a heap to the floor. The water from the shower spilled over them, soothing his once more tired muscles.

“Water,” she muttered against his shoulder.

Davin reached over and turned it off. Looking back at her, he couldn’t help but chuckle.

“You look like a drowned
lenact
.”

She opened her mouth to say something but stopped and gave her head a shake. “A what?”

“I believe you call it a rat.”

45

“Well, you look like a…” She rolled her eyes. “Wet Greek god doesn’t seem to have the sort of sting I’m looking for.”

“Unless a Greek god is a horrible beast. Then perhaps it would be a perfect description. Seeing as I have no idea what you are referencing, I’ll take it as a compliment. “

That comment brought the smile back to her face. “Shit, I’ve probably used up my water allowance for the week.”

“Two weeks.”

“Maybe a month. Kamran will have to cut me off.”

“You can always use the steam shower on my ship.”

Sara smiled, caressing his arm with her hands. “I didn’t think you’d be around that long.”

A sudden awkwardness passed between them. Sara shivered and pushed her hair away from her face. “I better get dressed. I don’t even know what time it is.”

Davin ground his teeth together but stood up and helped Sara to her feet. When they got out of the shower, she found them two towels to dry off. He managed to avoid looking directly at her while they got dressed.

“I need to get back to my ship,” he said when she finally came out of the back room.

Inwardly, he cursed when she winced before fixing a too bright smile on her face.

“Hey, no worries. I need to get back to med bay anyway. I’m sure they’re going nuts not knowing where I’m at anyway.”

“Sara—”

“Look, I don’t want you going all possessive alien on me. We didn’t have any promises beyond enjoying ourselves. We had some of the best sex I can remember in forever. I had a great night’s sleep and now it’s time to go.”

She tried to move past him toward the door, but Davin caught her arm. Beyond that he didn’t know what to do. How in
Joural’s
name had he let himself get so caught up with a woman? A woman he’d just met. He let his gaze travel over her body once more, memorizing every detail. When she didn’t pull her arm away, he reached up and tried to tug her shirt over the exposed part of her shoulder.

“I left a mark.” He said the words with a mixture of possessiveness and regret.

“You wouldn’t be the first.”

When she pulled away this time, he let her go.

46

Sara sat behind her desk and stared at the wall. She wasn’t even going to pretend to work—no point really. Everyone seemed to know about her wild night with Davin. The guys who had walked into the hall on them must have recognized her after all. Shit, it had been three days ago and Rachael still was teasing her about him. Thank god he’d avoided her since then.

“Stupid idiot.”

She had no idea if she was cursing him or herself. Despite her playful image, she didn’t sleep around. Sure, she liked to have fun and, admittedly, was a terrible flirt. But when it came to sex there’d been very few conquests. It wasn’t worth the inevitable heartache that came the next day.

Pushing away from the desk, Sara stood, grabbed her lab coat and turned the collar up. The bruise on her neck was mostly healed now, but she didn’t want to bring any undo attention to it. Haylie’s freak-out session the day after she’d slept with Davin had been hard enough. It was only after she’d assured her it came as part of the best sex of her life that Haylie had backed down and promised not to arrest him.

Having someone notice and say something at the weekly department meeting would be just painful. Slipping out of her office and past the few people in med bay, pausing only to adjust a sling of one of the miners, she made her way into the corridor.

Where she ran straight into Davin.

He was leaning against the wall opposite med bay, wearing a heavy scowl.

“Your face will stick that way if you don’t stop,” she said and walked past him.

His body heat was a comfort when he fell into step beside her, though she’d be damned if she let him know that.

“Might be an improvement,” he muttered.

She couldn’t help but chuckle. “How’s your ship, Captain? Repairs well underway, I assume.”

“Progressing.”

Sara let the silence carry on between them for half a corridor length before she stopped and turned on him.

“So what can I do for you? Or did you just feel like stalking me? Because if that’s the case, I do believe Haylie or Taber would be happy to show you to the brig again.”

“I’ve been asked by your charming administrator to accompany you to a meeting.”

From the look on his face, he was less than happy about it.

“Why the hell would he want you to come? It’s nothing but updates.”

47

Davin shrugged, his eyes skimming over her body, lingering at the spot where he’d bitten her.

“I’ll have to show up to find out.”

“So why come here?”

Sara tried not to react to the nearness of his body, the erotic scent that rolled off him, teasing her when he stepped close.

“I didn’t know where the meeting was.”

“You could have asked someone.” She swallowed hard but kept her eyes locked on his.

“I didn’t want to ask someone. I wanted to follow you.”

“So we’re back to you being a stalker.” As much as she’d never admit it to him, she was glad to see him again. Sara rolled her eyes. “Come on or we’ll be late.”

They continued their journey to the meeting room and Sara did her best to ignore the sensations in her body. The corridor had very few people, partially because this section of the station was primarily for administration, but mostly because this was the wing where the explosion that had almost killed Kamran had taken place. If given a choice, most of the Briel didn’t come this way. And the humans on the station were just as superstitious.

Despite the fact they’d lost a large portion of the Briel Elder Council, Kamran had insisted they rebuild and reuse this room as a meeting area. Sara had always admired him for his strength. God, she didn’t think she’d have been able to do it if it had been
her
life that had almost ended here. But he’d been the first one to walk in this wing after the reconstruction, Haylie by his side.

“So what do you normally do in these meetings?” Davin asked, looking around the hall. “Doesn’t seem like there would be many relevant updates for you.”

“I make sure the rest of the bureaucrats don’t do stupid things. Like set up triple shifts for the miners.”

“They’ll have a revolt if they try something that stupid.”

She looked over at him. “And what do you know of miners and shift schedules?”

“I run supplies to rebel forces. People who are fighting against that type of thing.

They can only be pushed so far and then they break. Or kill people.”

“That’s what I tried to tell them. But there’s this guy, Grant something-or-other, who thought it was a
brilliant
idea.”

Sara had to shake her head. Yesterday the man in question had the gall to come into her office and try to convince her to change her stance on the miners. He was relentless in his persistence, which made no sense. Haylie had told her the reserves of ore weren’t as low as Grant had first led them to believe. Sara couldn’t belive that one man could be that much of an ass, but Grant had tested that theory with his unreasonable request.

Thankfully, Rachael was there to step in before Sara punched him.

“I pity the man who would try to go against you.”

48

Looking up at him, Sara could see he was laughing at her. The golden twinkle in his eyes brightened his face, making him look less severe than he had a few minutes earlier.

He was wearing a shirt that had short sleeves, covering a portion of his tattoos. His gloves were still in place and this time he had on a wide utility belt. Hooked on the side was a phase pistol. Davin looked as sexy and dangerous as ever. But there was something else. Something she hadn’t noticed right away.

“You look tired,” she said, averting her gaze. “I hope you’ve been resting well.”

“Any idea what the topic of this meeting will be?” He didn’t look at her and gave no indication he’d heard her question. “I’ve been trying to guess why your administrator would want me there.”

Sara’s chest tightened, but she did her best to ignore it. If he didn’t want to talk to her, then she wasn’t going to push him. “Not sure. It’s not our normal meeting time.

Something important must have come up for Kamran to call this on such short notice.”

“I guess I’ll find out soon enough.”

They turned the corner to see Taber standing outside the door, arms crossed over his chest.

“There is a man in need of a good fuck,” Davin whispered to her.

Sara let out a surprised laugh that she tried to cover up with her hand.

“Doctor Fergus, Captain Jagt.” Taber nodded to both of them as they approached.

“They are expecting you inside.”

Taber kept his gaze locked on Davin as they entered the meeting room. Taber had a hard time trusting people he didn’t know and Davin seemed to take great pleasure in pushing every button Taber had. Almost like he didn’t want Taber to trust him at all.

But Sara did. There was something about him, the way he was around her that made her have absolute confidence in him. She couldn’t have slept with him otherwise.

Though with his sexy body, she would have been tempted to regardless.

“Good, I’m glad you were both able to make it.” Kamran stood up.

Haylie was tapping away on a data pad, frowning furiously as she made notes. She didn’t notice them and Sara smiled. When Haylie had a puzzle to figure out, nothing short of the world exploding could distract her. Not even Kamran.

“Not to sound ungrateful, but why am I here?” Davin was first to speak once Taber triggered the door closed.

Kamran waited for Taber to sit before looking around the room at the five of them.

“We have a problem.”

Those four words sent shivers down Sara’s spine. The last time they’d
had a problem
, the entire colony had almost been overrun with aliens intent on killing them all.

“It’s not the Ecada?” She had to know, even though the words were painful to say.

Haylie looked up and gave her a weak smile. “No, hon, nothing that immediate, thankfully.”

49

“Captain Jagt.” Kamran turned and leveled Davin with a look that made Sara want to squirm. “What is the purpose of your trip to Eurus?”

Davin frowned. “I had no intention of coming here at all. We sustained damage and crashed. What the fuck is going on?”

“See, I told you they were trying to take advantage of the situation,” Haylie said, returning her attention back to the data pad.

“Forgive me. Haylie intercepted a communication from someone in the underground market here. Your name was mentioned.”

Davin sat back in his chair, crossing his ankle over his knee. “You think someone is going to get in touch with me? Smuggling opportunity?”

“Possibly. But I think this would be one smuggling job you’d want to pass on.”

Haylie handed Kamran the data pad. He quickly read over the contents. With a snort, Kamran slid it across the table to Davin. He sighed before picking it up to read.

Slowly, his foot dropped to the floor and he began to lean forward.

“Is this legitimate? They don’t honestly expect someone to be stupid enough to do this?”

This time, Taber spoke. “We’ve checked both our Briel and human sources. It seems they are that foolish.”

“What?” Sara asked, knocking on the table for attention. “What the hell is going on?”

Haylie and Kamran looked at each other for a moment before Haylie straightened up. “They are looking to trade for stocolran gel.”

Sara was on her feet, her mouth open in silent outrage, staring at her friend.

“I wouldn’t touch that deal no matter how much they offered,” Davin said quietly.

“I didn’t think so. But I’m happy to hear it from you all the same,” Kamran said and sat back in his seat. “But the fact remains that someone on this planet is trying to get their hands on a bio weapon.”

In all her years as a doctor, the fear someone would use a bio weapon on her planet wasn’t one she’d had to face. In some ways, it was more terrifying than facing an entire army of Ecada.

“They’ll try others if they don’t get what they want from me,” she heard Davin say.

“What do you suggest?” This time it was Taber talking.

“Sara, hon, are you okay?” Haylie began to stand.

“Please sit. I’m sorry.” She took her own chair again, rubbing her hand along the back of her neck. “What are we going to do about this?”

Kamran leaned forward, resting his forearms on the table. “I was hoping
we
could hire you instead, Captain. I don’t like the idea of having a bunch of saboteurs on my colony.”

“A setup?” Davin grinned. “This might be amusing.”

50

“We’ll let them come to you, make the offer and then we can catch them in the act.

Once they are in possession with the gel, then we can safely arrest them,” Haylie’s own grin was just as mischievous.

“
We
won’t be doing anything.” Kamran frowned at Haylie.

“I’m perfectly capable—”

“Taber and the captain will head this up. Sara, I wanted you here in case things get out of hand and we can’t catch them. I want worse-case-disaster scenarios worked up in case, goddess forbid, they find what they are looking for from another source and release the gel on the station.”

“Of course. I’ll get on it as soon as I get back to med bay.”

“How did you find out about this?” Davin slid the data pad over to Taber. “If I’m going to stick my neck out, I want to make sure the source is trustworthy.”

“We have a man in the mines who intercepted the message. I trust him,” Kamran said and laced his hand with Haylie’s.

Sara knew there were very few people Kamran trusted that well. Most of them were in this room. “Sean?”

Davin shivered beside her. “The man from med bay the other night?”

“He saved our lives. Despite what he’s been going through the past year, the fact he brought this to our attention lets me know how serious it is.” Kamran stood. “For now, I’ll keep you apprised of information as soon as I get it. I want to keep this in as tight a circle as possible. The last thing this colony needs is another panic. Especially with it being so close to the anniversary of the attack.”

Sara stayed seated while the others left the room. She smiled at Haylie when she passed by. “I expect to see you later.”

“Yes, Doc.”

Finally she was alone. She dropped her head to the table and sighed. One of the things she was aware of when she agreed to be a colonist was the potential for danger.

Sara just didn’t think it would be happening with such frequency.

“There you are,” Davin said from the doorway behind her.

“I’d like to be alone if that’s okay.”

“I don’t think so.”

The next thing she knew, she felt his hands on her back, massaging her muscles.

When he reached her neck, Sara sighed and felt her body relax.