Anstractor (The New Phase Book 1) (10 page)

Aurora gulped down her mixture of Vestalian brandy and Geralese gin and then cocked her head to the side and smiled at him. “OK, Rafian, first of all, thank you. I’ve never gotten that sort of compliment from you before…brother.” She said the “brother” in such a way to remind him of their relationship, but his eyes assured her that he had meant nothing of it.

She smiled at him to let him know that she got it and continued. “But second of all, Vani is in love with you. That isn’t something you get over easily.”

Rafian waved her off with his hand and continued to pace the apartment. “I refuse to feel guilty for her,” he finally said, and then
he made himself another drink.

Tall and slender, with hair like golden rays of sunlight—Camille YAN was a fighter pilot who had made a name for herself on Star Base Alpha, during the often-forgotten Twilight Wars. Like Rafian, she had gone the classical route of star cadet turned ace, but the two had never met until today, when he walked onto the deck to start his custom of cleaning his ship.

“Nice ship!” Rafian remarked as he regarded her smooth-nosed
Vestalian Classic
with the triple-winged design (which made it look like an asterisk from the rear). It had been ages since he had seen this model, but Camille’s was in good shape due to her meticulous maintenance, which mirrored his own. Camille was buffing the surface when he walked onto the deck and didn’t stop as she nodded to him.

“Name’s Rafian VCA,” he said. He took her greasy paw within his and shook it.

“Everyone knows who you are, Rafian. I’m Camille.”

“YAN,” he finished, to make sure she knew that he knew of her too. “Is this the ship you burnt through the Relethan motherbase with last year?”

“Same one!” she replied, and the two began to speak of missions, ranks, and the love they shared for space. Camille YAN turned out to be the sort of military brat Rafian used to make fun of back when he was a cadet. Children of her background were often teased for having never stepped foot on a planet, and Rafian would call them “spacers”—a nasty term that would normally lead to a fight. But Camille was an interesting spacer, as she seemed to have huge ambitions when it came to flying and military service. They spoke about the first-grade advancement and their respective missions to attain it, and Rafian grew to respect her even more when she told him how she had managed to get off of Geral without any casualties. She had rigged up a broken-down alliance vessel that was in the forest and flew it off the world without encountering a single lizard. His story also impressed her, and he could sense the admiration she had for him, facing the enemy and surviving to stand before her to talk about it. He found out that she had been personally trained by Hellgate and had been on another mission when the taking of Meruda had occurred.

Camille was a mirror version of him in terms of military accomplishments, and the two spoke at length about their lives, lovers, and ambitions. After a couple hours of talking and cleaning their ships, the pair said their good-byes. Rafian assured her that in a future mission, they would fly together, and he would finally be able to see the legendary Camille YAN light up the sky.

“Somehow I feel that it is going to be me looking up to you soon, Captain,” she said as she bounced away for the exit, and Rafian found himself watching her hips sway rhythmically as she exited the deck.

Something had happened to Rafian when he met Camille, because she would not leave his mind for many days. It was something beyond her looks—even though she had the most exotic light-gray eyes he had ever seen—and her lips had a shape that looked as if she smirked at the world unimpressed. She was nothing like the girls he had grown up with on the
Helysian
. She was very much a soldier. Still, her face would not go away, and he found himself finding every excuse to talk with her beside her ship.

The pair developed a friendship and a kinship that they couldn’t understand, and the days of talking turned into weeks before Rafian admitted to himself that he was in love with her. The ship’s deck was the ultimate spot for them to talk and hang out, since they were both introverts and the only two pilots who loved to clean their own ships. Rafian found himself looking forward to it from the time he awoke till the time that he was landing his vessel after his recon rounds. Camille was always there, waiting for him in the same location.

“Have you ever been to Vagnar Centures?” Rafian asked one day as he crouched next to her while she worked on the underside of her ship, the
Gorgon
.

“Can’t say I’ve ever been there, Raf. You heading there on a mission?”

“Well, I was going to go and investigate something in that quadrant, and wanted to see if you’d like to go with me.” He said it in a shy, soft-spoken sort of way, as if he expected her to say no. But Camille had always wanted to go to VC and would never pass up the opportunity to do so.

The real reason for Rafian’s need to visit the quadrant was to rendezvous with the battle cruiser
Elegance
to do some mercenary work to bolster his credits. He had burnt through his entire savings when he bought the officer-styled home to serve as his living quarters—and to get over what had happened between Vani and him—but he found himself low on funds for his daily activities.

Camille would be excellent company, he thought, and she could actually help him on those missions, seeing that two pilots could make short work of what needed to be done a lot faster than one could; plus, she had such a sexy, slender shape that stuck in his mind like Merudian slime. She was the only woman to occupy his mind more than the delicious Meluvian Minister Suwle, and she was a beautiful woman, a warrior—and on top of it all, he could not stop thinking about her.

A few days later, they rendezvoused on the deck to leave, and Rafian made sure to get clearance with his commanding officers so as to not cause any issues such as had had when he flew out to rescue Aurora. When they finally got onboard the Reaper transport vessel, Camille immediately took the controls and began pressing buttons and sliding diagrams.

“I love flying these things!” she exclaimed, and Rafian rocked back on his heels, smiling.

“You’re so cute!” he said before catching himself.

She looked over at him then slid a lock of her golden hair behind her ear and smiled. “So you don’t mind me driving, Captain?” she asked after the uncomfortable silence had gone on for several forevers.

Rafian replied, “Please do.” Mentally, he began kicking himself for the awkward faux pas, and he felt like keeping his mouth shut for the entire trip for fear of another stupid slip. The engines of the Reaper screamed loud and fearsome as Camille pulled it out of the dock and into open space, pushing the speed dangerously past five waves, which made the vessel feel as though it was going to tear itself apart.

“Sorry to scare ya, Raf, but at this speed, we can make it to
Elegance
in three days, being that this bucket of bolts lacks a jump drive.”

“I’m not scared, Cammy. You are one of the best pilots on the
Helysian
. If I can’t trust you, who can I trust?”

The first day of the trip gave them time to talk even further and without the chance of someone walking in to eavesdrop. They touched on more personal details of each other’s lives. Camille was divorced. Her husband had married her illegally, and the wedding was annulled when she found out that he was using her to smuggle a bomb aboard her starship carrier. She laughed at the stories Rafian told of Vani and seemed genuinely concerned when he spoke of Kim and the baby incident with his friend.

On the second day, they studied the star map together, speaking about places they would investigate as a team when they were finished with this chore and back on the
Helysian
.

As Camille was intently talking about the Feoton star cluster, Rafian snuck his hand on top of hers, and she didn’t pull it away even though she knew that he had done it on purpose. The sexual tension between the two was as thick as swamp air, but neither of them dared push the issue out of fear of hurting the magical chemistry that they had as friends. In the late hours of the day, they sat together in the kitchen and watched an old Vestalian romance movie to try to make themselves tired enough to sleep.

“This was a very productive day, wasn’t it?” Camille said as she let her hair down and kicked off her boots to relax. When Rafian didn’t reply, she looked over at him to see if he was asleep and then jumped back, startled to find him staring intently at her and moving towards her slowly, like a man possessed or crazed.

“Raf…what are you doing?” Camille whispered as if they could be heard by anyone outside of the walls enclosing them.

“Something I should have done a long time ago, Cammy,” he said to her softly, his eyes locked into her silver orbs as the surprise slowly crept away from them. She had put her hand up to cover his mouth, but he noticed that her other hand had taken hold of his 3B belt tightly, as if she wanted to pull him closer.

“Are you married, Rafian? Is there anything you haven’t told me in our talks?”

He could barely breathe as he struggled for the words, but managed to say no as he regained his composure.

“OK…well…do you have a girlfriend?” She kept pressing, but by the time she finished, he had pushed past her hand to take her bottom lip into his mouth and sucked it gently before moving into a passionate kiss with their tongues finally touching. It was as if lightning went up and down her spine as Rafian kissed her, and she surrendered to his touch, letting herself melt into his arms. Camille tasted like heaven to him, and he felt relief when her stiffened body relaxed to allow him to truly embrace her.

As the suits, pants, and boots fell to the floor, Camille took matters into her own hands and straddled him on the bench. They made love for what seemed like forever, and when they both had had their fill, she pushed him to the floor, undid the remainder of her hair, and mounted him for another round. Spent and exhausted, Camille lay on top of Rafian, and the sweat that had come from their heat just moments before caused her to shiver from the cold. She breathed deeply, trying to slow down her pounding heart. But it was beyond passionate, and she felt as if she would die.

“I feel silly!” she managed to say as Rafian pulled his cloak from off the bench to cover them.

“Why do you feel silly, sweetheart?” he asked.

“I…well…” she managed before she started to giggle. “Well, I can’t feel my feet!” She laughed, and Rafian could do nothing but kiss her because she was very cute at that moment.

The remainder of the trip was delightful once the lovemaking was introduced, and Rafian found it odd that even after their tryst, he still could not stop thinking about her.

“Can I admit something to you, Cammy?” he said as she decreased their speed a bit and looked over at him in the other pilot’s seat. Expecting negativity, she grabbed a tuft of her long blond hair and brushed it back in an almost violent way.

“I think that I’m in love with you.”

Camille met his words with a mysterious stare, and when it got to be too much, Rafian tried to fix the odd air by continuing.

“It’s just that I think about you all of the time.…I have never had that happen with anybody before.”

Camille kept staring, and it made him uncomfortable until eventually she caught herself and finally admitted the words, “I love you too.”

She had said it in her standard, neutral but nasally cute way, but it was as if the bells of true love and happiness had begun their toll on the pair. She had said the one thing that Rafian VCA did not expect her to say.

“You know, you don’t have to agree with me, Cammy. I just wanted to let you know,” he said, suddenly embarrassed at how vulnerable he was.

“What are you talking about? Do you think I would wait on the docks for just anybody, Raf? Had I not fallen for you, I would have hidden from you every day until you got the hint. But I waited. I waited every day, looking forward to hearing your voice, your war stories, and to seeing the way you looked at me. I am here, Captain, on this ship, with you, a man whom I am in love with. I am here…for you.”

By the time they made it to the
Elegance
, Rafian was no longer interested in doing mercenary work for credits. He took over the controls and piloted them to the nearest mystery void they had plotted on the star map and stopped the ship.

“What about the credits you need, Raf?” Camille asked.

“I have things I can sell. When I made the deal to come here, I did so because I wanted to get away from Vani more than anything else.
Helysian
can feel like a prison sometimes, and this was the perfect excuse.”

“So, what are we going to do out here?”

“Well, I was thinking we could actually watch that movie from a couple nights ago, and I can find a way to persuade you to move in with me on the
Helysian
so that I don’t have to burn so much brain power imagining that you are there whenever I go home.”

“Ha! Someone sure moves fast. Slow down, Captain, we just started this thing. What makes you think I would be a good roommate?”

“Well, if you trash the place, I would be happy to clean it up for you, every time, Cammy.”

“I won’t trash your place, silly.”

He sat looking at her, happy to have taken the gamble of pushing things when he did, and she smiled back at him and winked.

“OK, Rafian. I will move in with you.”