Domestic Duet: Domestic Alliance & Asset (7 page)

“None,” he said, then clenched his teeth. The muscle under his tattoo flexed, making it appear to move above his ear. What the hell just happened?

Her stomached twisted into a knot, the sensation leaving her with her jaw gone slack. Did her captor, Captain Farkus, place her on his personal protection list of people never to touch?

Montage drew a hand over his ponytail at the back of his head, stroking it repeatedly. He brought it over his shoulder, resting it over his chest. The tension in his shoulders eased, then he reached under the edge of his vest to massage the patch of hair, oddly to her, grew on his shoulder. The three-inch wide patch of hair, she’d witnessed him rubbing back in his home while he thought she was asleep when the doctor examined her. Did that provide the same relief as rubbing one’s temple? Their eyes met and he caught her staring. Heat snaked up her throat.

“The pelt,” he said, “is a sign of a fully matured male, Sadie. Would you care to know its purpose, why we rub it?”

She nodded, knowing good and well if he said it was sexually stimulating, her panties would be drenched in under sixty seconds.

“It represses arousal.” The first drop of moisture slipped from her body. “When a female’s blood pressure is up, it triggers arousal in a male, mated or not. Never argue with a male you’re not mated to, unless you’re doing it to gain his attention. I suggest you wait until you know you can handle a karuntee, before teasing a full grown male.”

Her mouth went slack. The two aliens were getting a hard-on listening to her argue.

“I appreciate the warning, Captain. I had no idea. It wasn’t my intention… flirting. I have a tendency to speak my mind when I feel I’m being challenged.”

He turned back to the control panel, his movements jerky and tight as he worked the buttons and keys. “You have much to learn.”

“Keep that in mind,” she added to his warning, “I’m learning. First offense shouldn’t count against me.”

Montage’s tight body visibly relaxed, the vein in his neck no longer held an erratic pulse.

“Sadie, Ms. Alexander, it’s said a child can sense a cruel person, avoiding them in a room.” Montage gestured toward Norese asleep in her arms. “Norese is selective in who she allows to touch her. And my captain has never threatened my life for anyone. You must be special.”

“I must be,” she drawled thick and southern, uncertain how to take what just happened. She held the captain’s world in her arms.

***

An hour passed. The shuttle pulled into what Sadie thought was a replica of the other space station until they were inside exiting the bay. Warm air and lush trees surrounded the clearest water she’d ever seen, mimicking the exotic islands she’d watched on TV. The difference was it boasted red sand and white palm trees with thick tree frons that swept down to the ground under the weight of the afternoon breeze. Vacationing with an alien may prove an adventure she could handle. Theresa would never believe her if she made it back home alive.

The scent of warm cinnamon filled the clean air as they crossed to a blue glass wall on what appeared to be a contemporary apartment building. Montage slid back one side of the glass door, ushering her and Norese inside. The captain hung back, speaking with two other karuntian.

The modern amenities had Sadie in awe as she laid a sleeping Norese on the sofa facing the glass door. Before she got comfortable, Montage suggested she take Norese to her room, two doors into the hallway.

She did. In awe, Sadie walked around the room that was an exact replica of the room in the space station. Soft pinks, greens, and yellows on every wall appeared to be the solar system from the eyes of a two-year-old girl. Touched by Aroc’s overwhelming love for his daughter, she smiled, thinking of the way he stood up for her in the shuttle. Was she living the story of
The King and I
in outer space? Both men were bald and handsome.

The weight in her arms brought her out of her haze. On the bed, Sadie removed Norese’s shoes, setting them in her closet, then pulled a blanket over her sleeping form. When the sound of violins filled the room, Sadie knew the captain had come inside the apartment.

Depressing the button, she left the room, folding her arms around her body to return to the front room and see the two males watching her approach. Captain Aroc Farkus held a hand out to her, yet all she focused on was the fact that he wore no vest. Swim shorts and bare feet rounded out his wardrobe, and for the first time she got a good look at the tattoos trailing his arms. Circles and lines crisscross one another in a miasma of symbols and honor pledges decorated down to his forearms. His stomach appeared fake. The shadows and valley’s created by the intricacy of his sculpted muscles, held her attention captive.

“Let’s go for a walk on the beach. It’s a warm day, the water’s clear, and we both could use some time alone.”

Her pulse fluttered. An unnatural rhythm beat through her heart at the visual of him on the beach. She cleared away the image, turning to take in her new home. “Can’t I see the rest of the house first? Get my bearings? See where I’m sleeping tonight.”
And test the lock on the door.
“Maybe I’ll take a nap with Norese.”

“No,” he commanded, his tone ending her attempts to stall being alone with him, half-naked. “Crandall will listen out for Norese until she wakes.” He eyed her attire, then came into the apartment. “Put on the suit…we’ll swim and have some breakfast. Do you have an idea of what time it is, Sadie?”

Out the window, the atmosphere was always dark. “Early morning?”

“About 10am...a few hours ahead of Earth’s time.”

“And you want to go swimming?”

He rested a shoulder casually along the wall and folded his arms. “You refuse my generous offer of hospitality to share a meal and a swim?”

She dropped her head in surrender. “The white string bikini you replicated that leaves little to the imagination…you want me to wear it?”

“Our females swim nude more times than they wear a suit, Sadie. Wear a suit or swim naked—your choice.”

When the fog cleared from his admission, she thought about the other name he’d said. Sadie scanned the room, unaware there were others traveling with them on their abrupt vacation. “Who is Crandall?” she asked when a muscled man came through the glass door. He was beautiful, near pretty. However, the burgundy goatee and ripped body marked him as far away from feminine as the captain did in her mind. Karuntian were hulking giants, prone to resembling a motorcycle gang in her eyes.

“Captain,” he greeted, setting down what appeared to be the case to a typewriter. Montage carried it to a table, and opened it to reveal several electronic devices.

Sadie left them to go change.

Twenty minutes she’d stalled, gathering her nerve to go out into the room to join the captain. Smoothing out the ties at her hip from the length of material around her waist, Sadie looked up and the sight before her pebbled her nipples. He stood dripping wet, water glistening on his bald head under the manmade sunlight streaming through the glass window at his back.

The appreciative glances from all three men didn’t help her anxiety in the least. But nothing kept her from drooling over Captain Farkus’ black swim trunks slung low on his lean hips. Her eyes drifted to the tattoo in the shape of a star with eight points encircling his navel. His skin glistened with beads of water dripping from his clean-shaven head. Yesterday she was at a funeral for her parents. Today, she was in outer space living an adventure. What would her mother say:
You don’t get this day back tomorrow so make it worth remembering.

She pretended not to care she was outnumbered, walked over to him, and waited by the door. The warm air danced over her bare skin around the scrap of material he called a bikini.

“The beach cleared of everyone, so you have it alone today.” She accepted his hand as he extended it to her. “Crandall,” he introduced himself. “Ms. Alexander, at your service.” He bowed an exaggerated sweep of his body before her. She smiled, loving his unexpectant gallantry.

“Crandall,” she returned his curious greeting with a small tip of her head, mimicking his adorable nature. “You’re loaded with personality. I can see why Norese likes you.”

The wide smile full of flesh tearing teeth, oddly sexy on this male, made him stunning to look at. “If you need anything, ask for Crandall and I’ll pop over from the station.”

“I’ll remember that.”

A tug on her hand brought her around to the captain leading her outside.

“He’s young.”

“And pleasant,” she added with a smile she hadn’t intended to share, but it was nice to finally see a little southern charm even if it came from an alien a million miles from Earth. “I like him. Crandall’s hospitable.”

He harrumphed.

“Is that a problem, Captain?”

“That you find my male attractive?” He shot her a suspicious side-glance as they traipsed over the dense sand unbalancing her steps.

She worked to keep up with his long strides. Every few feet their bodies rubbed together and he’d catch her around the waist to steady her steps. Then he’d release her, without a word. Her alien was a gentleman. “I said I like him. I didn’t say we made plans to get married.” The women on her block back home would stop wearing panties if they saw Crandall, or Montage for that matter. Should it concern her she left the captain out of the males she willingly offered to her friends? Yes.

“You have that freedom, Sadie. Our relationship is strictly business.”

That should have made her happy. It didn’t.

Her toes sank into the sand, the red flecks sticking to her feet and legs. She slowed her steps then reached down, running her fingers through the cool granules. She fell back in step allowing the sand to fall from her hand…so pretty.

“You put off a generous amount of heat, Sadie,” the captain commented, looking down at her. The glow from the alien manmade sky danced over the bridge of his nose.

“How can you feel my body heat?” she asked, meeting his stare.

“I’m karuntee. We survive off instinct. I can sense your body temperature change when I’m too close. In earlier times, when more of us lived on the moon—a most inhospitable place—one honed his skills to stay alive. We are moon dwellers, yet most no longer live on the moon, preferring a more civilized existence on a space station.”

“No one can live on the moon, Captain,” she commented. “Where did your people come from?”

He ran a hand over the bare skin of her shoulder, while his attention went to the manmade sky. “Once we lived on a planet that gravitated toward Saturn. Many abandoned our world to begin anew on the moon. We debated going to Earth. After the report of seeing animals in zoos and slaughtering of people that were different from the majority, my people created the space station. Over time, our technology grew from hours and hours of studying the galaxy. We’re slightly uncivilized compared to humans, but our people are brilliant.”

They had to be to have built this fake vacation home.

They walked to a black and white striped cabana and the captain knelt on the sand taking Sadie’s hand to settle her at his side.

“Where is your family, Captain? Parents, siblings?”

“My sister, Nedra, lives on a different station with her husband. Once I mated a human, my parents no longer considered me their son.”

“I’m sorry,” she offered, placing a hand on his forearm. “They’ve never met Norese, have they?”

He shrugged. “And they never will.”

“What about Norese’s mother? Her family? They should be involved in her life. What happened?”

An eerie sadness fell over his face, then his color came back just as fast. “Norese’s mother died in childbirth. That’s the extent of what I’ll answer in that regard. I want you to help Norese develop a balance between her two different heritages, not reunite her with a family that will ridicule her very existence.”

That lit his match. Sadie knew not to play with fire.

“Why do you think I can help her with that?”

His straight brows drew together in a strained grimace. She’d missed something? “I’ve watched you interact with the little boy, directing him appropriately when he needs discipline.” He drew a knee up to rest one elbow and lean in closer to her face. “You’re kind yet unyielding in teaching him respect for others regardless of their differences. Something I have a hard time with.” He paused. “Most important to me, you handle your mixed heritage well.” His finger brushed her face at the edge of her upturned eyes. “You’re African American and Japanese, yet you don’t hide anything about your features. I’ve noticed humans hide what they don’t appreciate about themselves, when it differs from what’s popular.”

“How long have you watched me, Captain?”

He sat quiet for a long moment before digging his heels in the sand. “Long enough.”

The sound of sand crunching under footsteps brought both their faces up to greet a male approaching with a tray of food.

The succulent aroma caused her to surrender, and she picked up what she hoped was shrimp. She lifted the pinkish-peach meat to her nose; the fresh ocean scent made her salivate.

“Here,” the captain said, bringing her hand to his lips to close his mouth around the tip and taking a portion of it into his mouth. “I won’t hold your suspicions against you, Sadie.” He chewed appreciatively, savoring the hunk of meat and sighing deeply as he swallowed. He licked his thumb then index finger. His lips suctioned around the digit. “Under certain circumstances, I’m a killer by all definition.”