Infiltration (Katieran Prime Series Book 11) (6 page)

“What’s happening?” She felt the ship lowering instead of rising to the sky.

“One of our thrusters was hit. I’m going to have to land us so that I can fix it. If we try to leave the luna as is, we could lose power in the thrusters and be sitting up there vulnerable.”

“Won’t they be able to track us?”

“The issue with the luna causing static also applies to ships on the surface. They won’t detect us until we make a run for orbit. They could send a search party in our direction so we need to find a place that gives us cover, fix this thruster and then leave as soon as possible.”

She held on as StrykER made his way to a clear spot near a mountain. Hopefully, they would be able to get off this moon before they were discovered.
Please God, don’t let us die.

Chapter 10

“You can open your eyes now.”

Melody hadn’t realized that she had closed her eyes. “Are we still alive?”

He chuckled. “Last time I looked, yes.”

She glared at him. How could he find anything funny right now? Plus, he didn’t really come across as a humorous person.

When he laughed and smiled, it changed his whole look from sexually intimidating and dangerous to—sex on a stick hot. It softened him too, making him appear more approachable. She had to get her mind off the delicious man next to her.

“So, how long do we have before they find us?”

He unbuckled his belt and stood up. “It could be hours, maybe a day. I’ve turned the engine off so that our ship’s heat signature can’t be tracked while I work on repairing the thruster.” He pulled open a panel on the side of the shuttle and removed what looked like a tool kit.

She unbuckled and stood up to follow him outside the shuttle. “Is there anything I can do to help?”

“Are you mechanically inclined?”

“I’m sorry, I’m not. My dad tried to teach me how to change a tire when I was learning how to drive but gave up and got me a Roadside Assistance membership.”

“What’s Roadside Assistance? What were you learning to drive?”

She sat on a nearby boulder. “On Earth we get around using cars. It’s like a bigger version of your carts. We have to have a license to drive them and you don’t get a license until you turn sixteen. If a tire goes flat or you run out of gas, you can call Roadside Assistance and someone will come to help you.”

“It sounds like your father wanted to make sure you were safe.” He stretched out on the ground and looked up under one of the big cylinder thrusters.

“He was the best. Not a day goes by I don’t miss him.”

“What was his name?”

“Ben Abrams.”

“Abrams? Why is it not Song? Did you have a union to change your name?”

She shook her head. “My real name is Melody Ann Abrams. Song is my stage name.”

“That makes no sense to me.”

“That sums up Earth people for you. We don’t make sense sometimes.”

“What about your mother? Did she pass to the afterlife?”

“No, she’s still living on Earth.”

“Why would she let you come here to a different planet alone?”

“I’m a grown woman and make my own decisions.”

“Could she not come with you?”

“My mom, Meredith, fell apart when my Dad passed away. She turned to drinking alcohol to try to escape the pain she felt for losing him. My mother was killing herself with drinking. I tried to get her help but she refused all my efforts. Then she wrecked her car in a ditch and woke up in the hospital. She checked herself into rehab after the accident. It took a long time for her to get back on her feet and she wasn’t ready to leave her home.”

“What about you? Did she not worry about who would take care of you?”

“I was kind of on my own and turned to music. Music saved me from following in my mother’s footsteps. She was relieved when I told her I planned to travel to Katiera. She worried for a long time that I would not live my life to the fullest, which she wanted more than anything. My leaving made her feel better about the fact that I was taking control of my life.”

“You didn’t have a male in your life that protested you leaving?”

She glared at his boots because that was all she could really see from her position. “I wouldn’t have come if I was in a serious relationship. Why are you asking me questions about me and my life? How would you like it if I started bombarding you with questions?”

“Go ahead. I have nothing to hide.”

She bit her lip, trying to think of what to ask him. She meant to ask where he was from but the first thing out of her mouth was, “Do you have someone?”

“Have someone? Like what do you mean?”

“Do you have a mate? Someone waiting for you to return?”

She watched him move his body enough so that he could look at her. “No, I have no female, no mate.”

She felt heat rise to her cheeks. She quickly tried to move past that awkward question. “Where are you from?”

“My parents were killed in a Morin attack when I was a child. I was raised on Kiljor by my grandparents.”

“How old were you when your parents died?”

“Seven.”

“That’s so young. At least you had your grandparents. Are they still living?”

“Yes, and they are constantly demanding I take a mate.”

She smiled at his frustration. “They just want to see you settled and happy.”

“Who says I’m not happy with my life the way it is?”

“You don’t want to have a wife—
mate
—and young to come home to?”

“I live a dangerous life and am called to interrogate our enemies. My family would spend a lot of time alone without me in their lives. Who would want that?”

“Maybe if you found a female who would be understanding about what your job entails…”

“I’m focused on my position as interrogator.”

“I can understand that. I’ve dedicated so much of my time to my career that I haven’t had much time for a social life.”

“Is that what happened with you and the Colonial Commander?”

“How do you even know about him? You weren’t even on Katiera. I didn’t know you then.”

“I have abilities. I can see images from people I interrogate.”

“Oh crap! You’re a mind reader?”

“I don’t really read minds and communicate mind to mind. Leader LarIS from the Colony can do that. I get images and if someone feels strong emotions I might pick up a word or two, such as a location, or a name of a lover.”

She still wasn’t sure how that all worked. “AshOR was a one-night thing. Neither of us were ready for a relationship and there was something missing.”

“What was missing?”

She decided to change the subject. “I want to know more about your abilities. Have you always had them?”

“Yes, I was born this way. My mother had the same ability but my father didn’t.”

She jumped down from the boulder and walked over to where he was trying to remove a bolt from the thruster mount.

“Hand me the twerk wrench,” StrykER instructed her.

“What’s a twerk wrench?”

“It’s L-shaped with a round dial in the center. I use it to loosen the bolts.”

“How do you know how to work on ships?”

“My grandfather did warrior training but he was a specialized mechanic. He taught me everything I know.”

She reached inside the tool kit and pulled out the L-shaped tool. She got on her hands and knees and crawled closer to him to hand it to him. Their eyes locked and she felt an electric current go through her whole body.

“Thanks.” He took the tool from her and their fingers brushed.

She knew she should move away, but she didn’t. She watched him concentrate on removing the cover over the thrust. “How bad is it?”

“The good news is that it didn’t suffer a direct hit. If we lost a thruster, we would not be able to get enough speed to leave the planet. Something did break and it needs to be removed so that we can get full power. The problem is—the piece broken off is in small tight space. Every time I reach for it, my hand gets stuck.”

“Can I see?”

He moved over a little so that she could move up next to him. Her breasts brushed against his chest and she couldn’t help but shiver.

“I think I could reach it. I have small hands.”

“I don’t want you to hurt yourself.”

She rolled her eyes. “I’m just reaching up to pull something out, right?”

“Yes, but…”

“I’m doing this.” She moved closer, reaching up with her left hand.

It was hard to ignore the feel of him against her. His body heat was seductive. All she really wanted was to curl up against him and snuggle. Well, that wasn’t entirely true. She wanted to rub her body against his—naked.

“Fuck.” She glanced over at him realizing she had said that word out loud.

He gave her a sexy smile “Mmmm—there’s that word you like to use.”

Her breathing was becoming more erratic and she thought his was too. No, she couldn’t think about him like that right now; she needed to get this piece of whatever-it-was out of the thruster.

She closed her eyes and pushed up as far as she could and stretched. She felt something cold and metal that was loose.

“I think I’ve got it.” She yanked hard, and it finally broke free, making her fall hard to the ground and hit her head.

“Ouch!”

“Are you okay?” StrykER was running his hands over her body, checking for injuries. When he caressed her breasts, she snorted, shoving his hands away.

“I hit the back of my head, not my boobs.”

“I must inspect every inch—just to be sure.”

Melody was about to argue when he surprised her by leaning over and taking her lips. She had no time to think. He nibbled her bottom lip and any resistance she would have put up seemed to just evaporate. She opened her mouth and his tongue was there immediately, claiming her.

She wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed as close to him as she could get. Electrical currents she felt before from his touch just amped up to a fiery need. It was so strong, stronger than anything she had felt before in her life.

He moved to get a better position over top of her and hit his head on the thruster. She couldn’t help but giggle.

“This isn’t the best place to get down and dirty.”

“If you mean share sex, I agree. We should be naked and in a bed.”

Images filtered in her mind of them in a bed, naked, him over her pumping his hard cock deep inside her.

He rumbled with need and whispered in her ear. “Stop—if you keep thinking those thoughts I’ll not be strong enough to pull away from you.”

“You saw that?” She was curious.

“I saw.”

“What about this?”

She closed her eyes and imagined her on her knees while he stood. His pants were down around his ankles. She had his cock in her hands and she stroked him. She had heard other women talk about doing this and that the men’s semen tasted sweet. She hadn’t done this since she came to Katiera, as she had never been interested until now. She craved the taste of him. She projected her need.

He ground his stiff member against her. “You are dangerous, female.”

Instead of laughing, she groaned in need. Her test had backfired on her and made her so hot for him. He moved off of her and slid out from under the thruster. He helped her move and stand up. He held her close to him for a moment before he released her and stepped away.

“Let’s see if what we did is enough to get the thruster working again. We need to be prepared. As soon as I turn the power back on the shuttle, the Purists will be able to track our heat signature.”

She nodded her head. “I just want off this rock.”

Chapter 11

“Here goes nothing.”

StrykER turned to look at Melody in surprise. “What do you mean by nothing?”

“It’s just an Earth saying. It means we’re about to do something that may or may not work.”

It made no sense to him but he didn’t have time to sit there and debate it with her. He powered up the shuttle and felt relief when he felt both thrusters working.

“Thank the Goddess.” He checked the readings and noted that there were several warships heading their way. “Buckle up, we’re going to be making a run for it. There are warships on the way.”

He didn’t look her way as he concentrated on piloting the shuttle up into the atmosphere. It took ten minutes to break free but they weren’t free of danger. The warships could still follow them up into space. They just couldn’t handle long trips in deep space. His hope was to get as far away as possible.

“Can you send out a message for help?”

He tried the communications. “We’re too close to the luna and OrIN is blocking our transmissions. When we’re far enough away, we’ll be able to contact others.”

StrykER hated feeling helpless, but there was only so much he could do. He glanced over at the female, expecting her to fall apart at any moment, but she didn’t. She was nervous and scared. She had a death grip on the chair she was sitting in, but she didn’t break down into hysterical sobs. He admired her for that.

“So we just fly around until they lose interest in us and then make a run for Kiljor?”

“We would waste fuel that way. We need to find somewhere to provide cover so we can shut down for a few hours. The warships will have to return to the luna to refuel. Then we make a run for it.”

“Okay, so what are we looking for to use for cover? Another planet? A luna?”

She surprised him again with her willingness to help him to find cover. She wasn't anything like the females he knew. Those females were spoiled and selfish. They would demand that he cater to them. Maybe it was just the few females he grew up with that were like that. His grandmother was wonderful and so were her friends. He shouldn’t be unfairly judgmental.

“Something like a luna because it would offer static interference to cover our heat signature.”

“How about an asteroid?”

“That would work as long as it is not giving off unsafe energy.”

“There’s one to your left.” She pointed to it.

He used his computer scanner to check for energy levels. “It’s safe to use.” He changed direction of the shuttle to fly over to the asteroid. He circled it and found an area on the other side that he could land on.

“It’s a good thing we spotted this thing.” He started powering down the ship, leaving life support active.

“Why?”

“The warships have arrived.”  

*****

Melody watched the viewing screen, silently clutching her seat as the warships from the Purist base circled the area. A couple of times she thought they were found out, but the warships moved off and went in a different direction.

“Was that it?”

StrykER shook his head. “They’ll be back. We need to wait until they return to the luna surface.”

She sighed. “What do we do until then?”

StrykER unbuckled his belt and turned to look at her. There was a look in his eyes that made her shiver with need.

“I need to know.”

She was confused. “Know what?”

“What this is going on between us.”

“I’m not sure…”

“I want to tear your clothes off and fuck you until we both pass out.”

Oh...my. He went there.
She glanced nervously up at the viewing screen. Her body was heating up just thinking about what he said. “Now isn’t exactly the right time for—
that
.”

“When would be a good time? When we make it to Kiljor? After you return to Katiera? When I am called away on another mission? There may not be a perfect time for us to figure this out. I want to know if it’s just a physical attraction or more.”

He was right. She could make up a number of excuses to not get close to StrykER, but her biggest issue was fear. She was afraid to get close to someone and open her heart, just to havethat person turn around and walk out.

There were times in her past when she had serious relationships, but even then she managed to keep a part of herself locked away. Looking at StrykER, she knew he would see right through her; he would tear down the walls and have direct access to her heart.

That was why she preferred to have one-night stands or short affairs, to keep things controlled and simple. If no feelings were involved, then her heart would be protected. She lived her life like that, ever since her father died and her mother broke down. This was exactly the reason her mom wanted her to leave Earth. She wanted Melody to start fresh, have a chance to have love and a family of her own.

She jerked in surprise when she felt his warm hands take hold of hers. “Do you not feel this connection between us?”

“I do.” She whispered nervously. She looked at him. He was now on his knees and moved her chair to turn toward him.

“I’m going to kiss you, Melody.”

That was the only warning she got before he pulled her against him and kissed her. She melted in his arms. It was like a light was suddenly turned on inside her and it was so bright that it cast away all the shadows inside her.

“Melody.” He groaned her name and lifted her from the chair.

She wrapped her legs around his waist and ground herself against his crotch. His cock was hard and tight against his pants. She was desperate to get his clothes off but that would mean they would have to stop kissing and touching.

She reached down between them and squeezed him through his pants. She was rewarded by a growl at her ear.

“Melody, you are dangerous to a male’s sanity.”

She loved that she could make this tightly wound, strong man weak with need for her. It was a power trip that went from her head straight to her pussy. Her inner walls convulsed with desire.

“I don’t know if I can wait any longer.”

He helped her undo the fasteners to his pants. That was easy, but she still wore pants and it was going to be more difficult for her. She was going to have to stand up. “Damn it.”

He pulled back to look at her with concern. “Did I hurt you?”

“I’m going to have to stand up to take my pants off.”

He smiled realizing she was just impatient. He looked at her pants. “Maybe not.” She watched him undo her fasteners and maneuvered her to lay her back on the floor of the shuttle. He slid the pants down to her boots and stopped.

“We’ll have to remove the boots too.”

“Not yet.” He lifted her legs up with her pants still stuck at her boots then had her part her legs as far as she could. He ripped her panties from her and threw them to the side. He squeezed his wide chest through her legs. He paused to look at her pussy and closed his eyes while he inhaled. Nothing was sexier than that.

“You smell so good. I would eat your sweet pussy for hours, but right now, I hurt for you.”

He kissed her stomach then moved up to take her lips again. Somehow, he’d gotten himself in there. She could feel his fingers caressing her mound. It was teasing and she wanted more. She lifted herself closer to him.

“Please.”

He nibbled on her chin and worked his way down her neck. “What do you want, Melody?”

“You. I need you inside me.”

“Like this?” He inserted one of his fingers between her slippery folds. He stroked her over and over. He gave her another finger, then another. Three fingers were moving in her, touching her deeper but not deep enough. She wanted him to be buried so deep inside of her, she wouldn’t be able to tell where he ended and she began.

“More, please StrykER. I need to feel you.”

Her words must have struck a chord within him because he growled and moved his fingers out and placed the tip of his cock at her entrance. He looked into her eyes as he pushed forward entering slowly.

“By Goddess, you are so tight. I don’t want to hurt you.”

She was worried he would pull out and stop this. She needed this. It wasn’t just about the sex; she thought she might die underground being tortured to death. Never getting to sing for others, never getting to kiss again or touch. She wanted a way to celebrate her life. This was reaffirming for her.

“Don’t stop.” She whispered, kissing his ear.

“I can’t, not even if I wanted to.”

He continued moving inside her until he was fully sheathed. He pulled out, and just when she was about to ask him to come back, he drove back into her. They both moaned in pleasure.

She wrapped her legs higher up on his waist and tried to meet him thrust for thrust. She had never realized just how empty she was inside until she felt the fullness of having StrykER inside her. She never wanted to let him go.

Melody wished she had gotten her pants off so that she could meet his thrusts better. All she could do was hold onto him as he rode her. Everything else around them faded and she just concentrated on how good he felt and how good he made her feel.

She felt that fire he built up inside her turn into a full inferno. She was burning up with need to come. She was on the precipice; all she needed was something to push her over the edge. He bit her neck but didn’t break skin, just enough to spike the excitement for her and she felt like she dove off that cliff and fireworks went off inside her. Every part of her lit up.

He kept moving inside her, lifting her higher so he could get a different angle. In and out, over and over, he pushed in and pulled out. She felt herself building up again, about to have a second orgasm. Holy shit!

She called out his name with her second orgasm. She felt him pull out and then he almost roared as he shot his seed on her thigh. They were both out of breath, and held each other as they fell back from the heavens.

He slowly moved his body back through her legs. It was nice that he could still move after all that, because she felt like a melted puddle. He removed her boots from her and then the pants. The way he looked at her made her feel different. No man had ever looked at her like she was the most amazing thing he had ever seen. She felt at ease around him. That had never happened before. She wasn’t sure what to do or say and he seemed to be struggling with his own thoughts.