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Authors: Jenna McCormick

Tags: #Romance, #Science Fiction, #Adult

No Limits (20 page)

BOOK: No Limits
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The foreign controls took some getting used to, and instead of water falling from an overhead spigot, it was forced up like an indoor sprinkler system, arcing overhead before running back down the drain again. Gen waited for the temperature to reach comfortable levels and stepped inside.
The shock from the forced water on all those hard-to-reach areas made her jump, but she soon grew accustomed to the pulsing jets between her thighs. That bit of her anatomy had seen more action in the last week than it had in her entire life, yet she was still amazed at how a little bit of water could make her crave more.
Spreading her legs wide, she took her time cleaning herself, enjoying the utterly decadent sensations, not thinking of anyone or anything in particular. She scrubbed her hair with a viscous purple compound that she really hoped was shampoo or soap. Suds dripped down her arms and torso, and she flipped her head forward to rinse. The waterspouts chugged away, drumming relentlessly against her sex. Her breasts felt full and achy, and she squeezed them, letting the water penetrate as deep as it could go.
I could really get used to this.
“Thinking of me?” A low male voice startled her from her play.
Gen flipped her head back and dodged the water. “Zan!”
Shit, shit, motherfragging shit.
He stood there, naked from the waist up, those colossal Arms crossed as he leaned against the doorway. “You slunk out this morning without saying good-bye.”
She slammed her palm against the water controls and the jets stopped. Shivering, she stepped from the shower, glancing around for a towel or any sort of covering. “Sorry, I was craving a shower.”
The corner of his mouth kicked up, his golden eyes alight with interest. “I can see that.” He reached over to tweak one stiffened nipple. She leaped back, still dripping wet, and skidded into the wall.
One dark eyebrow went up. “Not in a playful mood?”
Arms wrapped around her chest, she nodded. “It’s been a rocky couple of days, and I need a little space.”
“You’re in space.”
She rolled her eyes. “Men.”
Taking pity on her, Zan snagged something small and silvery off the shelf. He shook it out half a dozen times, and with each shake, it grew larger and sparkled brighter. He handed it over to her. “To dry off.”
She wrapped it around herself, totally astonished at the amount of fabric. “This is so cool. Too bad you don’t have clothes that can do the same thing. Would take all the stress out of shopping, with one size really fitting all. Especially shoes. God, I had this pair of boots and it took me forever to find my size... .”
Zan’s eyes had glazed over.
Stop with the pointless babble already, Gen. He doesn’t care.
“So, did you just come here to chastise my morning-after etiquette, or did you want something?”
His grin returned, and Gen silently cursed herself. How easy to fall into witty banter with this man. Pirate. Whatever. It would be so simple to just let nature take its course, to fall back into bed with him, satisfy her body if she couldn’t satiate her heart. The small, spiteful part of her wanted to see if he could make her come without Rhys’s little nudges.
But she’d promised Rhys, and though she didn’t hold out too much hope for them, he was right that she had no future with Zan either.
“Actually, I wanted to take you up to the bridge. You ever flown a spaceship before?”
Her heart actually leaped at the thought. “Two days ago I’d never even
been
on one before.”
He winked at her. “Get dressed and I’ll let you take the helm for a little while.”
She waited until she heard the outer door hiss shut. Hmm, maybe she shouldn’t dismiss Zan so abruptly. Obviously some interest remained inside him, even sober, and the fact that he’d let her pilot his vessel was a major gold star next to his name.
Don’t be a dumbass
, her rational mind lectured while she scurried into a clean skirt and a blousy shirt.
Zan is still in love with a dead woman, and you are emotionally attached to another man. Giant slut bag, you promised!
She shook her head at her reflection in the mirror. “From famine to feast.” Without glancing toward the candle, Gen sashayed out of the room.
Zan stood at parade rest outside the door. He didn’t smile at her, but from what she could tell, he was of the still-waters-run-deep variety. She could look forever into the golden orbs and never quite see the bottom. The fanciful notion made her shiver.
Luckily, Zan didn’t seem to notice. “You all set?”
She nodded and he marched off down the corridor. Scurrying to catch up, Gen took the time to notice details of the ship that stress had made her oblivious to. The hard metal grating shimmered as the built-in deck lighting bounced off it, almost as though the ship preened for her perusal.
“What’s the ship’s name?” she called out to Zan.
“Name?” He didn’t slow his pace.
Lengthening her stride, she matched his speed. “You know, like a designation? What do you call her?”
“
He
never told me.”
She grinned until she realized he was dead serious. “You mean it’s alive?”
Zan nodded. “Although not what you might term
sentient.
My people have developed a symbiotic relationship with this kind of space-faring creature. We help them find food, and they take us where we want to go.”
She looked around with a newfound respect and swallowed. “What does it eat?”
He caught her drift. Small lines of mischief appeared at the corners of his eyes. “Not people, if that’s what you’re thinking. These creatures are not organically based life-forms like we are. They can ingest any form of energy to convert to useable fuel. Having us detect the highest concentrations of power in a particular system allows the ship to fill itself up, not having to spend all its energy seeking more.”
“Wow.” Gen reached out and touched the bulkhead. “And he knows that we are here?”
Zan shrugged. “We aren’t sure how aware it is beyond the need to eat.”
Gen thought it through. “That makes no sense. How do you tell it where to go if you can’t communicate with the creature?”
They came to a metallic walkway that spiraled up like a slide. Zan gripped her by the elbow and propelled her in front of him. “Hold on.”
Opening her mouth to ask what she ought to hold on to, she lost her breath when the spiral was sucked upward, straight to the bulkhead. Throwing her arms over her head, she let out a squeak and braced for impact. It never came. Before she could inhale enough air to scream, the wild ride halted. They stood in another room, one she hadn’t even suspected sat above their heads. “What was that?”
Zan released her arm. “Security measure. Don’t ever try to come up here without me or one of my bridge officers, or the bulkhead won’t disappear.”
She flinched, imagining the splat of such an impact. It would probably break every bone in her body. “Thanks for the warning.”
The bridge looked completely different than the other parts of the ship she’d seen. The walls effervesced with a pulsing green light that spilled over four bedlike chambers. Two of the “stations,” as Zan called them, were occupied with men who appeared to be lost in a deep sleep. Tubes and wires were attached through several ports to the bed and ran down into the deck below. Two other men sat in chairs facing a bank of monitors where screens displayed the men’s life signs as well as other information she couldn’t decipher.
“What are they doing?” Gen asked, taking in the bizarre scene. She kept her tones low, as it seemed rude to shout while men slept on the job.
Zan indicated the two upright chairs. “Those are our nav stat readers. They scan the area, searching for decent-sized sources of energy and keeping an eye on the contact going on with the fliers. Make sure everyone is healthy, things like that.” He indicated the sleeping men.
Gen stared at the unconscious figures. “So, they are flying the ship while they are sleeping?”
Zan nodded. “Exactly. You asked how we talked to the ship. This is how. They study the information from the readers and then feed it to the ship through their own minds. Then, it’s up to the ship where to go. We can make requests, but they are sometimes ignored. It’s how we ended up so far from home in the first place.”
That seemed beyond risky to Gen. “Can’t you ask it why?”
Zan shivered, though the room seemed plenty warm to her. “Believe me—you don’t want the ship to talk back to you.”
“Why ever not?”
“Because when it tries, it drives the fliers mad.”
21
G
en stepped away from the beds. “Does that happen often?”
“No.” Zan caught her hand before she could scurry back down the ramp from hell. “This ship was born to a domesticated ship and has never once tried to talk to the fliers. It’s perfectly safe, if you want to take it for a spin.”
Fear warred with curiosity. Did she trust Zan? Of course not, but she figured if he wanted to hurt her, he’d do it himself, not concoct some weird scheme. And she really wanted to know what it felt like to fly the ship. “What do I need to do?”
“Here.” He helped her climb into one of the empty beds, attaching the small disks to her bare skin. Slipping a small wire into her ear canal, he moved to one of the seats and spoke softly. “Is the transmission clear?”
It sounded as though he was whispering in her ear. “Perfectly.”
His gaze seemed to study her. “Lie down and try to relax. I’ll be your reader, feeding you the coordinates to give to the ship. It’ll take over from there.”
Gen nodded and closed her eyes. The bed felt unbelievably comfortable, molding to her every contour. She inhaled slowly through her nose, bringing the air deep into her lungs and breathing out all her tension. The light throbbed around her, pulsing with a rhythm she instinctively knew, and she matched the speed of her breaths to the soft
lub-dubbing
of what sounded almost like a giant heart beating.
Tranquility seeped in through her pores, and Zan’s voice was like a caress as he spoke low. “You’re doing great, Gen. Perfect first run. He likes you.”
Her lips tilted up at his words. “How do you know?”
“Because, according to my instrument panel, he’s already accepted you into his inner data matrix. Try giving him a command.”
“Like roll over?” she muttered.
“Would rather you didn’t. There’s a white dwarf star not far from here. Relay these coordinates.” Zan rattled them off.
Gen repeated them, opened her eyes, and let the glow from the ship sweep through her until light seemed to pulse from her fingertips. Her heart rate picked up as the ship pivoted in space, expending the minimum amount of energy to reach the star. “He’s so hungry.”
“Why makes you think that?”
“I can feel it. The thought of food makes him giddy, and he wants to race over there, but he’s not strong enough. When was the last time he ate?”
She heard the frown in Zan’s voice. “Earlier today.”
Gen shook her head, knowing it for a lie. “No. He hasn’t eaten in a very long time. He’s starving.”
Zan said something in a foreign language, but from the urgency, she felt sure it was a curse. The soothing tone he’d been using disappeared as he switched back to English and called out, “We have a nutrient leak somewhere. Pin it down, now!”
The poor ship. Even as she heard the sharp voices of the worried crew, Gen allowed herself to drift, feeling her way through the corridors, searching for the source of weakness. Before she realized what she was doing, she breathed the question, “Can you tell me where it hurts?”
“NO!” Zan shouted. With her mind elsewhere, she couldn’t be sure, but she thought he might be trying to shake her awake. Then she lost contact with him altogether.
Yessss
, the ship hissed, guiding her conscious mind through seemingly solid bulkheads and even a few people to the belowdecks area.
Here, hurts here, friend
.
Gen carefully studied her surroundings. There was nothing but dark tubing as far as the eye could see. “How can I help fix you?”
There was a pause, as though he considered carefully how best to answer.
Patch. Feed. Better.
Well, that seemed relatively straightforward. “I need to tell Zan so he can patch. You keep going toward the star and get ready to feed. You know Zan, right?”
The ship didn’t respond aloud, but she felt sure he understood. “I’ll do whatever I can to help you.”
Hurt friend. Goooo
.
Gen went, her mind traveling at the speed of thought. She pictured the glowing bridge and the next second opened her eyes, staring into Zan’s slightly crazed ones as he shook her shoulders almost violently. “I know where the leak is.”
To his credit, Zan recovered quickly, not asking how or what had happened. The dark knowledge resided there, and he feared she would snap at any moment. “Show me.”
Taking his hand, she hauled him to the gateway and together they slid down several decks. Picking up her pace to a sprint, Gen led the way to medical to retrieve the organic sealant used to doctor flesh wounds.
Zan raised an eyebrow but didn’t comment. She gave his hand a quick squeeze for reassurance. “I’m not losing my mind. Well, any more than usual.”
“That’s what all the crazies say.” His hand went to his laser pistol. “This is your warning—if you go nuts, I will shoot you.”
She didn’t doubt it for a second. “Understood.” One final quick stop in her cabin and they were good to go.
“Hold this and pass it to me when I’m through.” Gen thrust the lit candle at Zan so she could squeeze into the small access panel. If her hips fit, she’d be in the clear, but no way could Zan’s massive shoulders angle inside.
From the pinched look around his eyes, he knew it too. “Mind telling me what this is for?”
Struggling for a toehold, she avoided his suspicious stare. “It’s dark in there.”
“If the ship knows you are coming, he’ll power up so you can see.”
“The ship needs to conserve power.” True enough. And maybe Rhys could enlighten her in more ways than one. She tried not to put too much thought into how soon she would see him again. Her hurt over his high-handed maneuvering still throbbed, but in a sick and twisted way, she could almost understand his reason.
Besides, this wasn’t for her; it was for the ship.
Damn it, no more cheesecake. I mean it.
She’d have to grease herself to fit through this thing. Perhaps some of the pirates were smaller, but that leak needed to be fixed as soon as possible.
A bit more frantic struggling and some chaffed skin on her hips but she made it. Her feet landed in liquid with a plop, and she reached up for Rhys.
Zan didn’t give her the candle right away. “Can I trust you?”
She stared straight back at him, unblinkingly. “Can you afford not to?”
He handed her the candle.
Taking several steps in what she hoped was the right direction, Gen let all of her adrenaline-charged feelings flow into the flame. “Rhys, I need your help.”
His answer was immediate.
What is it, sweetness?
“The ship is damaged. I’m trying to repair it.”
To his credit, he didn’t ask why she had been tasked with the job.
What do you need me to do?
“Can you feel him? The ship I mean. He’s alive and he’s in pain.”
Not like this, no. Is it safe for me to take corporeal form?
Gen glanced back at the hatchway but couldn’t see Zan anymore. “Yes.”
Think about how you feel when I have my head between your luscious thighs.
Heat flooded her face. “Not now!” she hissed. But of course she couldn’t not picture the way he’d appeared, his red-gold locks trailing over her pale skin as he dipped his head to take her in his mouth, green eyes blazing with intensity... .
“We need to do that again soon.” Rhys touched her shoulder, stark naked and as radiant as ever. “Pleasuring you is such an emotional high.”
She bit her lip to keep from smiling. “Keep your eye on the prize here, you junkie, or you won’t get a chance for your next fix. Can you feel it?”
He closed his eyes, shook his head. “Still nothing. Tell me exactly how you found this out.”
Gen described what had happened on the bridge as best she could, considering she didn’t understand it herself. “I was connected to it, through these tubes. Normally they talk to the ship, but it can’t talk back without making them crazy. But I heard it, talked to him, and I don’t feel any crazier than usual.”
Rhys touched her arm, just a quick brush of his fingertips over her skin. Nothing overtly sexual about the gesture but it warmed her insides. “I think I know what is happening. Your grandmother is a telepath, correct?”
“No, Rhys, she’s
the
telepath, like the most powerful to ever live.”
He nodded. “And at least one-quarter of her DNA was passed down to you.”
Gen’s mouth fell open. “Are you saying
I’m
a telepath?”
“Not in the strictest sense, no. You won’t be able to read the minds of anyone in your vicinity, but if there’s an emotional connection made first ...” He trailed off and focused on her face. “Are you all right, sweetness?”
Was she all right? What Rhys said made perfect sense; she should have been a telepath. Her mother had been one, and Tanny showed signs of the gift too. Gen never had. “I thought that maybe it skipped me, that my brain couldn’t handle it.”
He reached out and cupped her chin. “There is nothing wrong with you, love. Stop worrying.”
Looking into his vivid green eyes, Gen decided to put a pin in this new little nugget and study it under a microscope later. “So any idea how to proceed?”
“Perhaps if I come inside you, I can find the ship’s resonance.”
Gen nodded. “Hands down the best line ever. ‘If you don’t let me in you, we’re all gonna die.’”
His laughter lingered in the air as his energy melded with her own.
 
Being inside Gen, sharing her energy, felt like coming home to Rhys. The hours he’d spent in the candle with nothing to do but brood had dragged onward, the relentless passage of time and nothing to mark it. He had started to equate time in the candle with the twilight years of an old man’s life. Nothing to do but ruminate on what could have gone differently, if only he’d been smarter, braver, less selfish.
When she’d come for him and he’d heard Zan’s voice, panic had seized him. What if she didn’t follow her heart but followed that razor-sharp mind of hers and hedged her bets on the pirate?
Would he ever be able to recover? This little emergency was the best thing that could have happened, at least for his nefarious purposes.
Inhaling deep to fill her lungs, Rhys commanded her eyelids open. Her worry for the ship was pungent, skewing his senses a bit, but he could detect the dwindling presence of a creature in pain.
“I think it’s this way.” Candle in one hand and tube or organic sealant in the other, Rhys stepped carefully through the ankle-deep liquid.
“Gen!” Zan’s voice called out. “The ship is nearing the white dwarf star! We’ll need to seal this area off in five minutes or we all risk radiation poisoning!”
Some days, I wish I didn’t bother getting my happy ass out of bed.
Gen sighed.
“We can go, now—”
No! Rhys, don’t you even think it. I promised him I would help. And if he dies circling the sun, how much longer do you think the rest of us will live?
He wanted to argue about the possibility of another ship coming along, but deep down he knew she was right. “I just wish it were someone else risking his neck here, sweetness. You have four minutes and then I’m going back.”
Dodging several giant cords and piping that carried more plasmalike fluid, Rhys narrowed in on the sharpest point of pain. He squinted into the gloom and saw the broken line, which had to be the source of the leak. “There, I think I’ve found it.”
What the hell are you waiting for? Let’s haul ass.
Stepping over to where he could inspect closer, he commented, “You said this ship is not a carbon-based life-form. Will an organic seal hold?”
Do you have a better idea?
Even her thoughts sounded defensive. He sensed her fear, wanted to soothe it, but refused to tread that shaky path again. What he needed to do was respond like a nonempathic male. Bring her stress down with words, instead of abilities.
“Don’t get snippy, Gen. We don’t want to put the poor creature through this again. But you are right; we are without an alternative so ...” He set the candle down on a large outcropping bulkhead before pinching off one end of the leaking tube. Holding the other, he prepared to seal it. The ship shuddered.
Wait! I have an idea. Let me have control over my body. We’ll need more than one pair of hands for this.
The countdown in his head had just passed the two-minute mark, and he accepted they didn’t have time to argue. He breezed out of her, solidifying in time to grip her shoulders as the ship lurched again.
She shuddered. “He’s excited because the star is so close. There’s a knife in my boot. Take it out. I need you to do exactly what I say, Rhys.” Fear had been replaced by steely resolve. Whatever course she had set, she was intent on it.
BOOK: No Limits
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