Seven Days - A Space Romance (11 page)

And he’d fucking lost her
. The agony drove him wild, until he was screaming in his helmet, trying to tear himself free—why had he knotted the fucking belt on so goddamn tight—And then there she was, waving a hand in front of him. Pointing at her helmet.

And, well... damn.

He couldn’t calm down. Even though they’d made it back to the
Alcestis
without incident, there was some part of him still shaking with anger and bone-deep fear.

As soon as he could, he’d torn his helmet off and then hers, because he wanted to kiss her, taste her. Make sure he wasn’t fucking dreaming this. That she was real in his arms, and that his brain hadn’t fucking snapped at the sight of her colliding with that asteroid.

She’d given a small, throaty laugh at his urgent kiss. “I’m sorry,” she breathed between his frantic kisses. “I didn’t see the asteroid. I still had the schematic up and the peripherals—”

“Fuck the peripherals,” he growled, kissing her hotly, his hands finally able to slide down the front of her spacesuit. He began to unfasten it, more ripping at the closures than opening. He wanted her naked in his arms. Now. He needed to bury himself in her.

Maybe then he’d lose this frantic hollow in his chest that was making it so damn hard to breathe.

“My helmet,” she protested softly, even though her fingers went to his suit and began to undo it as well, unzipping and unlatching the myriad buckles. Between hot, frantic kisses of course. “Malfunctioned—”

“Don’t care,” he told her, and was able to jerk the suit down around her waist. She wore nothing but a standard tee under the suit, and he jerked it over her head just as quickly. “Need you naked. Right now.”

“But what about the—”

“Right now,” he growled, his throat nearly hoarse. “You have one minute to take the rest of your suit off or I rip it from you.”

Her eyes widened in surprise and then went soft, her gaze moving to his mouth, her own wet from his kisses.

“One minute,” he warned, yanking free his own suit. His hands moved through the buckles quickly, expertly.

Dazed, she followed his lead, working through the suit with nimble fingers. He stepped out of his two seconds before she did, his cock hard and erect in his regulation-issue shorts. He shucked them, standing naked in front of her. She stepped out of the discarded spacesuit, now in her panties and t-shirt, and he’d never seen anything more beautiful.

Somehow, this damn woman had gotten under his skin in seven days. No, less than that. By the time day seven hit, they were going to be well on their way back to Earth.

He grabbed her by the hips and hauled her up against him and she gasped in surprise, her arms going around his neck. Good. Kaden kissed her again, another hard, possessive kiss. He was going to take her, and it was going to be hard and rough and wet, because he really, really fucking needed to be inside her right now.

She wrapped her legs around his hips, her weight causing the vee of her sex to press against his cock. He groaned at the sensation. Too many clothes. Still too many clothes. He moved forward, heading to the closest antechamber. Someplace where he could set her down, spread her legs, and fuck her until she came.

The cockpit was the closest place. He tore his mouth away from hers and glanced at the empty pilot’s chair. Worked for him. He carried her along, still kissing her, biting at her full lower lip. She sighed in response and he watched her eyes close with bliss, her expression going soft as he tugged on her mouth.

He half-stumbled to the pilot’s chair and thumped down into it heavily. The motion caused her to bounce against his cock, and she moaned at the sensation of him ramming up against her. Her legs fell to his sides, dangling over his hips and the side of the chair, and she began to kiss him with more intensity. Her nipples rubbed up against his chest and he could feel the tips harden under the thin shirt she wore.

 He needed to be inside her. Now. Kaden’s hand moved to Zoey’s panties and pushed them aside. Now there was nothing standing in the way of him sinking into her. He lifted her up and positioned his cock head at her entrance, barely giving her a moment’s advance notice before driving into her in one fierce thrust, sinking to the hilt.

She gave a small, broken gasp in response, stiffening against him.

He stilled, panic flaring through him. His hands moved to her hair, stroking her ponytail, her cheek, everywhere he could touch her. He’d been too rough, too quick, and now he’d hurt her. “Zoey?”

Her hands curled on his shoulders, her eyes closed. “I’m okay. I just... need a moment to adjust.” She bit her lip and then chuckled. “You’re not the smallest man I’ve been with.”

God he loved her. “Flatterer,” he told her and tugged her close to kiss at her mouth again. His hand moved to her breast, grazing his thumb over that fabric-covered nipple, and he felt her shudder of response all down his cock, seated deep inside her. He’d wait for her to take the lead again. For now, he was satisfied with simply kissing her. Holding her in his arms, his cock buried in the only place he wanted to be.

She moaned at his caresses on her breasts, leaning into his touch when his fingers played across her nipple again. Her pussy clenched tight around his cock in response and he sucked in a breath, willing himself to remain still.

In an instant, it had gone from being about his need to hers.

When her hand moved to his jaw and stroked lightly along his three-day growth of stubble, he leaned into the caress. He left his hand resting against her side, his thumb pressing just under her jutting little nipple. Zoey shifted on him a little, twisting so that his thumb grazed against the underside of her nipple, and she moaned in response, and he felt it quake deep inside her body again.

“You’re so big, Kaden.”

“You already told me that,” he said in a low, husky voice. He let one hand slide to her waist, moving to her lower back, supporting her. “How are you feeling, Zoey?”

She rocked her hips a little, and he felt the slick glide of her pussy along his cock. His eyes nearly rolled back in pleasure, but he forced himself to stay still. Let her lead... until she gave the lead back to him, of course.

“I’m sorry I scared you back there,” she said, leaning in to kiss his mouth all over again, pressing light, nibbling caresses at the edges of his mouth, where he bristled with stubble. She liked that stubble, he realized. “I didn’t realize my helmet was out until I was heading back.”

His heart gave a painful clench at the too-recent memory, his hand locking at her waist. “S’okay.”

“It’s not okay,” she whispered, her tongue darting against his lips to flick against his mouth. And again, she gave just the slightest rock of her hips, enough to drive him wild. “I’ve been pushing you so hard these last few days—”

“Because you had to,” he said, and captured her nipple between his fingers, pinching it and then rolling the tight nub between thumb and forefinger.

She gave a delicious quiver all through her body, and her breath gasped against his mouth in response. “I know, but I should have been more considerate—”

He tweaked her nipple harder. “Are you apologizing to me?”

Him? After he’d just crammed his cock inside her when she wasn’t ready? He was lucky she hadn’t slapped him across the face and demanded he never touch her again. And his other big hand went to her other breast, to echo the motion on the other peak.

Zoey shuddered—fucking shuddered—in his lap. God, that was the most amazing, erotic thing he’d ever seen. She whimpered, thrusting her breasts up against him, and her hands dug into his shoulders, then twined in his shaggy hair, tugging fiercely. And she rocked on him again, this time hard.

“You like that?” he whispered in a low voice. “Tell me.”

“Your hands... amazing,” she breathed and was rewarded with another dual-tweak of her nipples. She rocked her hips again, her breath coming in another gasping burst.

“You wet?”

He loved the sight of the blush that spread over her cheeks. “You check and tell me.”

Ah, his Zoey. So bossy. He slid a hand from her small breast and moved to the silky mound of her pussy. He slid two fingers into her cleft and stroked, testing for wetness.

She was soaked. And she gave an erotic little total-body quiver at his touch. He dragged his fingers up her cleft, slowly, making sure to circle around her clitoris before moving his fingers to his mouth.

And then he licked them clean as she watched him with heavy-lidded eyes.

When he let his hand fall from his mouth, her gaze went to his lips and she leaned forward suddenly. Her mouth crashed into his as she kissed him fiercely, her teeth grinding against his own. And then she was raising her hips and slamming down on his full length, squeezing him into her tight warmth, and holy fucking shit, it was the best thing he’d ever felt. His hands went to her hips—she was so small against him—and when she raised her hips for another grinding thrust, he lifted her, helping her raise up and then slamming her back down again even as her little wicked tongue thrust into his mouth.

She was so wet now. So incredibly wet. Tight as a little fist around his cock, she began to quickly roll her hips on top of him, needing the rough, hard fucking that he’d been so ready to give her earlier.

And she was moaning.

Hell yes. Kaden thrust hard, rocking her entire body. Then again, and again, his rough, jerky motions met by her equally needy ones. It was no more than a handful of thrusts—each one soul-deep and incredibly rough—before she gave a harsh cry against his mouth, and he felt her pussy spasm around him, tightening like a vise as she came.

And he exploded as well, coming into her with an intensity that made everything in his body nearly dissolve.

And in that moment, he fucking
loved
her.

It was stupid, he told himself as he rocked his hips gently once or twice in response to her slowing movements, her soft cries against his mouth as she continued to kiss him, her body boneless against his. They’d barely been in this for a few days. If things hadn’t gone wrong, she’d have not thought about him twice before disembarking after the mission was done and then going on her way.

And yet, here they were, with him deep inside her, replete, her damp skin pressed against his own. Funny how a crisis had brought them together. Funny how he’d grown so close to her—hell, he’d practically bonded to her. They were a team. It was him and her, against the universe. Kaden and Zoey. Together. He loved everything about her. From her smile, to her determination, to her prim seriousness. He loved the feel of her against him and could imagine waking up next to this woman for the rest of his life.

And if he had anything to do about it, it’d be longer than two more days.

Day 6

“It’s going to work,” he told her as she hovered anxiously over his shoulder, eyeing his progress through the helmet of her spacesuit as he soldered wires together, connecting the compressor to the old lifepod aboard the
Cephalon
.

“You’re sure?”

He could practically hear her nibbling on her lip in anxiety. “I’m positive,” he said again, his tone calm. She was feeling the same anxiety he was. Day six and they were still stranded. They had to get this pod moving and in a hurry. Jump out of the system before that solar storm fried them both.

They were both all too aware of the situation, and it was making things on the small ship tense. Still, even with the pressure of limited time, the run to the
Cephalon
had gone off without a hitch, the ship more or less whole, just dead in the water. They’d brought the compressor aboard and now Zoey hovered over him as he scanned ancient schematics and soldered in cables, hoping that this wouldn’t all be in vain.

Of course, she didn’t know that he worried. And he didn’t plan on telling her. That sweat on his brow? Simply from the blowtorch, not his own nerves about if this would work or not.

When the last wire was in place and there was nothing else to be done, he turned to her. “Should we fire her up?”

Her eyes lit up. She crossed her fingers and held them in front of his helmet, and then moved to the tiny cockpit of the lifepod. There was no life support on at the moment, and they stood in their spacesuits. They were taking no chances, doing all functionality repairs prior to attempting to power up the lifepod. As the
Alcestis
’s computers diagnosed possible problem areas, they patched and repaired. It had taken most of the day, and they didn’t even know if it would work. But they didn’t have any other options. None. So they worked.

He nodded at her, feeling a queasy tension in his own stomach. “Let’s give it a whirl.”

She opened the old, blocky panel of the lifepod’s computer and began the initiation sequence. He held his breath, waiting.

A few moments passed, then a chirp. “Systems online,” the lifepod computer asserted. “Running diagnostic for ship feasibility.”

Minutes passed. Neither of them moved, waiting anxiously.

Then, another small ding. “All systems are functioning at acceptable capability. Initiating life support systems. Gravity now online.”

Breath exploded from his throat—he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. Through the helmet, he heard a little squeal of triumph from Zoey and then she was grabbing him by the waist and bouncing with excitement. “It works! It works!”

“It does,” he agreed, still half in shock himself. He stared at the old pod, and even as he watched, oxygen flooded in from an overhead vent, a puff of recycled air. The atmospheric light overhead went from red to green, indicating that it was safe to breathe. “Go and get the ship’s logs from the
Alcestis
and I’ll work on bringing up the sprint drive on this thing.”

She nodded and bounded away, heading out to the airlock of the small lifepod so she could move to the
Alcestis
, anchored nearby. The lifepod itself had been secured on one side of the
Cephalon
’s deck, ready to jettison at a moment’s notice. Two remained, but the probe had told them this one was their best chance for survival.

Kaden turned to the ship’s computers and began to tap at the interface. It was old, something he’d only seen in old vidpics and lesson books, and it took him a few minutes to adjust to the clunky interface. He found the menu to activate the sprint drive, and the stasis chambers on the ship itself.

All stasis chambers functioned the same, even a thousand years after initially created. Small ships themselves, they were designed with one purpose in mind—get the passengers to safety. To that extent, they had a sprint drive and stasis chambers for the passengers if the month’s worth of food stashed on board wouldn’t be enough.

Of course, all the food and water stored on this small lifepod had probably turned to inedible dust hundreds of years ago. He and Zoey would have to resort to stasis. They could supply from their ship, but they only had so much room and they didn’t know how long they’d be out in deep space. Stasis was the best option. There were four chambers on the tiny lifepod.

He ran a diagnostic on each of them and heaved a sigh of relief when the first one lit up green. Perfect. The next flashed red—inoperable.

His stomach churned.

 The next... red. Inoperable.

Acid flared in his gut as he watched the screen and the computer checked the systems of the last stasis chamber. It paused a moment, then flared yellow. “Critical systems failure on stasis chamber four. Printing analysis.”

He heard the chirp of a record somewhere and stared in shock at the screen that filled with errors. Only one stasis chamber was functioning.

One of them wasn’t going home.

The diagnostic kept printing, and he looked at the long list of items wrong with the pod that would prevent it from functioning properly. He could fix it, given time.

But time wasn’t something they had. The lifepod’s oxygen tanks were functioning, but he doubted it had the filters for a longer retrieval, and he wasn’t sure how long it’d take before someone could run across their distress beacon. It might take weeks. Months. Years.

A strange sense of calm overtook him. Disappointment, yes, but through it all, was calm. He wasn’t going to live through this.

He stared at the pod’s report for a minute longer and then shut the screen down. He wasn’t going to tell her. If only one of them was going home, better that it be his beautiful, brilliant science officer than some generic military meathead.

The airlock hissed and he moved to the far end of the small one-room lifepod to greet her. Zoey returned, a case in hand—their ship’s records. She’d worked tirelessly through the night to do backups of the
Alcestis
, determined to copy not only the archaeological data that had been left behind when Dr. Nevis had abandoned them, but their records of the doctor’s sabotage and Garcia’s suicide. The truth would be known, and Zoey was determined to ensure that the authorities took action.

And since Dr. Nevis had likely set up his own version of the rescue, they needed backup. Hence, the records.

Her brilliant smile met him, visible even through the curved glass of her helmet. They waited for the airlock door to shut again, then for the chime of the lifepod that signaled it was okay to take off their helmets. They did, a moment later, and Zoey set down the records, and then jumped into his arms, kissing his face wildly.

“You beautiful, beautiful meathead,” she said between kisses. “You did it.”

“I did,” he said, forcing a grin to his face. She was so gorgeous, so full of life. “And we’ve got just enough time to start powering up the sprint drive and get the hell out of this system before it all goes belly-up. Did you get everything you need off the
Alcestis
?”

“Everything I need is right here,” she said in a soft, throaty purr that told him she was turned on. Ah, hell. He’d love to drag her to the floor and make love to her one last time, but that anxiety cramping his gut was going to destroy any hopes of getting hard. He just wanted to get her safe and get her away from here.

Making sure Zoey lived was the only thing he had left.

He gave her a light, affectionate kiss, and then swatted her on her ass through the spacesuit. “Let’s get you into stasis and get things going. I’ll get the sprint drive running.”

He half expected her to protest, but she didn’t. She gave him a trusting smile and began to strip out of her spacesuit one last time, back down to that tiny tee and the panties he loved seeing her in. He stripped out of his own suit, lest she think anything was amiss, and got down to a tee and briefs.

They moved toward the first stasis chamber set into the wall of the lifepod, and Kaden pushed the unlock button on it. Zoey moved forward to get in and then paused. “I’m the scientist. I should be the one loading you in.”

He shook his head, nudging her forward again. “I’ve done this a hundred times,” he lied. “I’ve got it handled.”

She gave him an openly skeptical look. “You’re sure?”

“I am. I want to make sure the sprint drive is running and doesn’t need any last-minute repairs before I shut down.”

Zoey seemed to accept that and slid into the chamber. It was large—much larger than the modern ones. Big enough to fit two people, he thought with a wry sense of irony. Too bad the life support systems were only enough for one person. She slid into the standing chamber and then began to attach the sensors that would allow the computers to monitor her vital signs. They would feed the appropriate nutrients and cryo into the atmosphere of the pod that would ensure that she remained in stasis until someone awoke her. After the sensors were applied, she looked at him, and her gaze slid to his mouth.

“Can you kiss me again, Kaden? One last kiss for luck before we do this?”

He slid into the pod next to her, jostling her to the side and getting tangled in the wires now connected to her skin. But she only grinned and reached for him, pulling him forward.

And he kissed her gently, his lips on hers. It was a slow, delicious kiss, one that promised all kinds of naughty, wonderful things when she got out of stasis. Her leg lifted, hiking up around his hips and she pushed against him.

He groaned against her mouth, feeling his cock become hard as rock against her. “Zoey—”

“I know,” she said softly, kissing at his mouth, then biting at his lower lip. “I know. Just a minute more.”

“You need to go into stasis,” he told her, mock-stern. “And if I stay here much longer, when they open this pod, they’re going to find the cock of the ship’s resident meathead stuffed into the science officer. Think of the scandal.”

She chuckled against him at that and gave him another deep, lascivious kiss. “Then the science officer will just have to meet up with the meathead when they wake up,” she said, all teasing. “And find new ways to be scandalous.”

“Sounds like a plan,” he told her.

“I can’t believe this is going to work,” she said with excitement, squeezing his arm. “I thought we were just going to wait for the bitter end, but you never gave up. You’re amazing, Kaden.”

He leaned in to kiss her soft mouth one last time. The last kiss he’d ever give her. “I love you, Zoey.”

The words were soft, barely whispered, and he half-hated himself for saying it, and was half-glad that he’d taken that risk.

Her eyes widened in surprise at the confession. “Oh, Kaden...”

“I know,” he said, and brushed a thumb along the edge of her delicate jaw. “It’s too soon. That’s fine. You don’t have to say anything. I just wanted to say it to you.”

She gave him a soft, shy smile. “Maybe I’ll say it to you when we wake up.”

His heart ached. “Maybe so.”

Kaden detangled from the wires and stepped back out of the pod. He double-checked her vitals, and then watched in silence as the door slid shut. The chamber was entirely enclosed, a small portal window over her face the only thing that allowed him to see her wink. A few moments later, her eyelids began to droop and she laid her head back against the stasis chamber.

And then, she was asleep.

Ah, fuck. Now it was just him and the endless depths of outer space.

“Chamber one in full stasis,” the computer intoned, so much more stiff and formal than the
Alcestis
’s own computer. “Functionality at 100%.”

He tapped to bring up chamber four.

“Chamber four: functionality at sixty-two percent.”