Promise of Love (3 page)

Rieko should have been wary the second she learned she was his third choice. She probably should have told him ‘no thanks,’ and left when he informed her as the lights were getting ready to dim that he'd been told the first fifteen minutes were very real, ‘almost like being there.’ Instead she stayed and watched the opening credits turn into a battle scene.

The scene had the eerie feel of reality, as if one were walking in the shoes of the character on the screen. She braced herself enough to be okay until she saw a man trying to drag a friend to safety, not knowing he was carrying only the top half. With a light yelp and a strong fight to keep her stomach settled, she turned to hide her face in Stuart's strong shoulder.

Stuart put his arm around her and pulled her closer to him. He placed a hand gently on her head. “Shhh,” he whispered. “It'll be over soon. I'll tell you when it's okay to look up.” She sunk into his arms, and tried to bury herself in his strength as the sounds of war still blared from the movie. It had felt good to be in his arms of safety.

Rieko shook her head. Earrings, she needed to find earrings. They were around here somewhere, she knew it. She wore a red dress, cut low in front and barely coming to her knees. Her high heel shoes sat beside her bed ready to wear. Her hair was down and right now getting in the way as she searched her room for those damn earrings. Her quarters weren't large enough to lose something in.

While she cursed her lack of earring finding abilities, she might as well throw a few choice words Taylor's way. Why again had she let the man talk her into this?

"Ah, come on Rieko. A little ship get-together with music and dancin’ and refreshments,” he said with his Southern drawl. “It'll be fun.” Then he flashed that damn charming smile of his. That was the reason she frantically searched her quarters for a stupid pair of earrings.

The door chimed and Rieko yelled, “Come in.” She knew that was because of her frustration to get ready and not the man who would enter the room.

"Ready, Rieko?” Stuart asked as he entered as requested.

Rieko had her back to him, taking apart the stuff on the shelf above her bed. Those earrings had to be in here somewhere. They didn't just walk off. “In a moment,” she replied. “I just need to find earrings."

"Aren't these earrings here?” Stuart asked. Rieko turned to find him holding a pair in his hands.

"After I've torn my quarters apart looking for a specific pair of earrings,” Rieko told him. “Those are the ones I'm wearing."

Stuart shrugged his shoulders slightly, and put the jewelry back. As she moved on to look elsewhere she noticed his eyes around her room. It must look a mess right now. Her uniform was thrown on the bed along with several dresses discarded in the selection process tonight. Then there was the disorder she had left in the wake of her search for the misplaced item of jewelry.

"Taylor probably wanted you there about five minutes ago,” Stuart told her while he finished taking note of the chaos. The first time she actually got him in here and the place was a mess.

Rieko moved to yet another nook the earrings might have been put in. “Well, Taylor, and that damn charming smile of his will just have to wait.” Wait a minute she did remember putting some earrings in here. If she wore things like this more often they wouldn't get so lost in between wearing. Maybe she should be cursing the space fleet and their dress code. Rieko smiled brightly as she successfully pulled a pair of red rose earrings from the container she had been checking.

"Found ‘em,” she shouted.

It was about that time Rieko realized how close Stuart was. Her back was turned to him and he was standing with his chest almost touching it. One of his hands ran through her hair, his other rested on her waist. He pulled the loose hair from the left side of her neck bringing it behind her ear and onto her back. She heard him breathe in deeply as he bent his face to her neck. His nose grazed her ear. He leaned his body closer, his chest now fully against her back.

Rieko wasn't surprised when his lips kissed her neck and trailed nibbles up to an earlobe. She placed the long sought after earrings on the desk, and brought a hand up and behind her to curl her fingers through his hair. Stuart's hand tangled in her hair gently turned her head to face him. He captured her mouth with his. She allowed his tongue between her teeth, and met it with hers. His hand slid up her side running over the side of her breast before fully cupping it. Rieko arched forward into Stuart's touch as he deepened the kiss.

He twirled her around, and graced the other breast with caresses from the same hand. Rieko's hand twisted in the hair at the back of his neck. Her other hand around his waist pulled him closer. Stuart turned, and backed Rieko toward the bed. His long fingers deftly undid the buttons on the back of her dress.

The intercom chimed and they fell onto the bed, bodies entangled. Stuart's tongue delved deeply into her mouth. He worked the top of her dress down enough to release her breasts. His hands rubbed them through the fabric of her bra, and pinched the hard nipples.

The intercom chimed again, then a voice sounded, “Uh, Rieko, this is Taylor."

They ignored the message, too caught up in other things. Stuart unfastened her bra, pushing the fabric down to join the fabric from the top of the dress. Rieko scraped her nails over Stuart's back. He bent his head to capture a breast in his mouth and his skillful tongue teased her nipple. Rieko's hands pulled his neatly tucked shirt from his pants. Her hands ran over his stomach and through the light covering of hair on his chest.

The intercom spoke again, “I really need your help, Rieko.” The southern voice of Taylor echoed through it.

Mouth now on her other breast, Stuart slid a hand up the underside of her thigh, and slipped under her panties to fully cup one butt cheek. His hand moved around to the front and rubbed at the fabric between her legs, already moist with anticipation.

Rieko used one hand to pull his mouth back to her mouth, while her other hand gripped his butt though his pants. She pulled his hips closer to hers and moved a leg to rub against the hardness she knew she would find.

"Really, Rieko,” the intercom spoke again. “I don't know where the decorations are, and I got this thing with the music to fix, and there's ah, twenty minutes to pull this all together."

Stuart halted his action of grinding his hips into her leg, and released his hand from her breast, his mouth from her lips. He rolled off Rieko onto his back.

"Answer him,” Stuart told her, his voice rough. Rieko just stared at Stuart, her body still reeling from the attention it was getting. “Go on.” He motioned with his head in the direction of the intercom control.

Rieko struggled to get her breathing back to normal, and slightly quelled the giddy feelings in the stomach. She pulled her dress back up to cover herself as she walked on unsteady legs to the intercom.

"You're having problems, Taylor?” she asked. Taylor began telling her about the numerous problems, big and small, he was experiencing and thought only Rieko could solve. Rieko found herself tuning him out, looking instead at Stuart lying on the bed.

He had propped himself up on an elbow, his hair disheveled, his shirt untucked and still pulled up enough to show a bit of bare flesh at his waist. The look in his crisp blue eyes was still full of desire. She almost felt like telling Taylor she was busy and running back into those strong arms of Stuart's. She turned her back to his gaze, even if she could still feel it on her back.

Taylor finally got to a stopping point. “Okay, Taylor, I'll be there in another five minutes,” she said. “I promise."

Rieko refastened and straightened her bra, and put the dress back on her shoulders. When she turned back around, Stuart already had himself mostly put back together. He ran a hand through his hair to get it back in place. She picked up a hairbrush to make order of her hair.

"Let me get that for you, Rieko,” Stuart said, offering to re-button her dress. As she fixed her hair and makeup, Stuart went out of his way to avoid touching her in the process of buttoning. “And earrings.” He dropped the miniature red roses into the hand she held out for him.

Rieko put on her the earrings and then her shoes, giving herself a final look in the mirror. She had dozens of thoughts and questions she wanted to share with Stuart, but his eyes pleaded with her to not say a word, and she obeyed.

[Back to Table of Contents]

At first Rieko had thought Stuart was just busy doing other important things than spend time with her. Then she realized he avoided her, skipping lunch, eating dinner too early or too late for her to be in the mess. She knew he did it all on purpose.

Just tonight Rieko had left the bridge early to possibly catch him at dinner. As she approached the table where he sat alone, he quickly gathered his things and left despite his dinner being only half eaten. She stopped as he briskly walked past her and actually caught a glimpse of fear in his eyes.

Why he was doing it? Rieko didn't know, but his avoidance was getting to her. Things were fine before, so why wouldn't they not still be? So, they had kissed and a little bit more, did any of that really change anything between them?

Instead, Rieko ate dinner with Mike and talked about the day's events and a little ship's gossip. Inside she was slowly cooking over Stuart's avoidance of her. Afterwards she spent a good deal of time studying star charts in the astronomy lab. Anything to get her mind focused on something besides Stuart. Finally, she just decided to go back to her quarters, and try and do some work there.

She knew she shouldn't rush things between them, and pressuring him would just send him farther away. Stuart said he wanted to let someone in, and had asked her to help him do so. Sure he had laid down some ground rules, but he was as much a willing participant the other night as her. Maybe they should be glad Taylor had in fact had a large crisis in the rec hall that night. It had stopped them, now they could step back, and think through all of this again.

But no, Stuart was avoiding her. Come to think of it, he hadn't been all that sharing about himself anyway so far. She had learned a great deal about his work, a little about what he liked about history. He didn't talk about his family or home or past friends. In Rieko's opinion, who a person was depended on those things.

Rieko slid the data pad she was studying across the desk in her quarters. She hadn't realized how furious she was with him. What was up with the man? Sure, he could be charming and funny. No doubt he was sexy in a mysterious way, but at times he rubbed her entirely the wrong way. If he wanted to tell her about himself, then why keep his distance? If he didn't want to kiss her, then why kiss her? If he'd decided he just wanted to be friends, it was fine, just tell her so.

There was no way she was getting any sleep tonight until she found him, cornered him, and made him talk again. So, what was she doing here wasting time? Rieko threw a robe on to cover her satin pajamas, kicked her feet into slippers, and stormed out of the door to find Stuart.

It was late now, almost one o'clock in the morning. After knocking on the door to his quarters a couple dozen times and getting no answer, she thought that perhaps he really wasn't there. For a moment, she wondered where else on the ship he could be.
The armory, of course, avoiding her by calibrating those precious weapons of his
. Rieko turned in the corridor and strode purposefully toward the armory.

Her steps still held purpose when she finally walked through the doors to the armory and found Stuart exactly where she thought she would. She walked up to him and stood before him with her hands on her hips. His stormy blue eyes watched her the whole time.

"Why are you avoiding me?” she asked.

He just continued to look at her with a blank face.

"What is so wrong with having sex?” she continued. “Just why do you think us having sex would cause you to hurt me, and avoiding me won't?"

His solid face wavered for a moment before falling back into place. “I've done it before,” he said in a soft voice.

"Maybe I'm different.” Her voice echoed in the largely empty space of the armory.

"If we had sex,” he continued, still quiet and calm, “I'm not sure you would be."

She screamed in frustration, and her body shook. “Why can't you just give me a straight answer?” Stuart's face still held a blank expression, but his eyes widened.

Stuart lightly shook his head from side to side. “I don't know.” His voice held pain and his face crumpled into a look of sorrow and confusion.

Having opened him up, Rieko forced her voice to calm. “Why have you been avoiding me?"

"I don't want to hurt you.” His blank face shifted back in place.

He drove her so crazy sometimes. “We've already gone over that. I don't want to start running in circles.” She heard the anger rising again in her voice.

"Well, you don't seem to understand,” he said.

"Don't blame me for not understanding, when you aren't telling me enough to understand,” she said. His face was set in stone, even his eyes masked any emotion. “I might as well be talking to a bulkhead.” She threw her arms up in protest.

With a loud aspirated sigh, she turned and started to leave. So much for getting him to talk, not to mention her getting any sleep. Rieko felt even worse now that she had seen him.

Rieko was feet from the door, when she heard a rustling behind her. She felt Stuart's hand grab her wrist. He pulled her into an embrace. A hungry kiss enveloped her mouth, as his hands groped everywhere on her body. Her robe fell to the ground. Stuart maneuvered her deeper into the armory. Their feet did an odd shuffling dance over the floor. Their tongues dueled, and their hands grabbed hungrily at each other.

Her back hit a bulkhead. Stuart's body pressed against her. His mouth moved over the skin of her neck, collarbone, ear, cheek. His tongue lapped and his teeth nibbled at her flushed skin. His hands slid under her pajama top, and rubbed her bare breasts. She heard herself moan. Her hands pulled at his hair and gripped the fabric of his uniform.