Page 7 of Searching the Skies
Raising her hips, she reached underwater and located his stiff erection. This time, she guided him inside easily and slid back down to her original position with him inside her. He breathed out a low moan as she rocked back and forth, keeping her movements deliberate and controlled.
Ash soon revealed his patience had its limits however. He grabbed her by the hips and lifted her up, the steaming water helping him keep her suspended for an endless moment before he slammed her down. Flattening her palms on his chest, she braced herself as he repeated his motions, her torso swaying in the waves lapping up against the edges of the tub.
She rode him hard, her breasts bouncing with every movement, her thighs gripping him tightly as the water splashed around them. Loosening his grasp on her with one hand, he slid it to where their bodies interlocked and pressed his thumb to her clit. The added stimulation tore a ragged gasp from her lips, and her heart rate increased along with their speed as he rubbed in concise circles. It didn’t take him long to coax another orgasm from her, and she pitched forward, collapsing on top of him in a trembling heap. She contracted around him as he thrust up into her, sending water cascading over the rim of the tub. He slackened beneath her and wrapped his arms around her waist as they clung to each other in the throes of delight once more.
This time, Geneva was the first to speak, once she regained the ability to form coherent sentences. “If we don’t get out of this water, we’re going to catch a cold,” she murmured.
“As always, you’re right.”
She sat up and exited the tub, taking care not to slip on the slick tiles. After he followed and unplugged the drain, she tossed him a spare towel, and they dried off before returning to the bedroom. “I have to get up early tomorrow,” she said as she pulled on an old T-shirt. “You can stay or you can go…it’s up to you.”
The impish gleam never left his eyes. “Which would you prefer?”
She pretended to ponder the question, though heat crept back into her cheeks. “Stay.”
“You got it.”
Ash located his boxer shorts and left the rest of his clothing strewn about her quarters. He joined Geneva in bed and curled around her curved body from behind, resting his chin on top of her head and holding her close. As his breathing became more steady and even, she turned to snuggle against his chest, content in his arms. Before drifting off to sleep, a reminder of the following day’s trip pierced through her mind. Regardless of how much carefree fun she’d had, anxiety lurked at the fringes of her consciousness.
Chapter Four
Geneva kept a small handgun in the drawer of the nightstand beside her bed, and she fought the temptation to use it to forever silence the alarm clock screeching far too early in the morning. As she rolled over to turn it off in the appropriate way, Ash, whose arm remained slung around her waist, stirred beside her. “Sorry,” she whispered. “But I do have to get ready to leave.”
She tossed some last-minute articles of clothing and toiletries into her bag, aware of his eyes on her. When she pulled off the shirt she’d slept in and started dressing for her trip, he slid out of the bed to pick up his own clothing from the various places it was scattered about. “It’s early enough you’ll be able to slink back to your quarters without anyone noticing,” Geneva teased as he pulled his pants on.
“Slink back?” He donned his shirt and attempted to smooth down the wrinkles. “I may be half asleep, but believe me, it’ll be a masculine, satisfied swagger.”
She laughed. “Just don’t go spreading our secrets to the entire ship. I don’t want a line of eager young soldiers forming at my door.”
“Of course not. I don’t want a line forming, either, even though we all know I could push through said line without breaking a sweat.”
The twinkle in his eye faded as a rare serious expression appeared on his face. “Whatever’s going on that you need to deal with, I hope it all goes smoothly.” He crossed the room to where she stood and took her hands in his. “You don’t need to tell me details, but I’m not going to worry because I know how strong you are and how you can kick the ass of anyone who dares to cross you. I will tell you, though, I look forward to seeing you when you return.”
“Thanks, Ash.” She stood on her toes and kissed him on the cheek. “See you in two weeks.”
He closed the door behind him, and she finished packing the belongings she needed. She’d opted to travel in civilian clothing, pairing a tan button-down shirt with cream-colored pants. The chocolate suede jacket she threw on completed her monochromatic ensemble, and she trudged to the bottom of the enormous vessel, where her much smaller transport ship waited.
Even at the high speeds the shuttle was capable of, the journey home would take the better part of the day. Geneva hoped she’d be able to sleep through most of it in the dark cabin, but although she’d gotten little rest the previous night, thoughts of home kept her awake. She’d last seen her parents two years ago when they came to visit her during one of her brief assignments at a base on a local satellite, but nine years had passed since she’d left her native planet.
She hadn’t realized she’d dozed off until the travel system’s automated message awakened her. “Now entering the Enegar star system. Destination: Pasurea. Pasurea, the fifth planet of—”
Geneva punched the button next to the speaker to silence it, as she had no desire to hear its programmed description. She knew more about the planet than anyone else back on her ship.
Life was comfortable on Pasurea, home to many of the universe’s wealthiest and most influential humans. Geneva had grown up wanting for nothing, and it had always been her parents’ intention their only child be raised to one day join them among the ranks of the powerful ruling class. She was educated and groomed to their high standards, all within the bubble of safety surrounding the peaceful planet, and everything she ever needed lay at her fingertips.
Such an existence held little appeal for her however. She’d known from an early age she would never be content to spend most of the next century on Pasurea, flitting about from one social event to the next while pretending to make a difference in the lives of the humans “below” her, all while waiting to become the perfect partner for some elite politician, or lawmaker, or businessman. Just as her mother had once done. And her mother before her.
In what her family would later try to dismiss as a simple act of teenage rebellion, she fled as soon as she turned eighteen. As she had always been a clever child and a brilliant student, she ran to the one place where the far-reaching tentacles of her parents’ influence couldn’t reach her: the Terran military. She met the minimum age requirements for enlisting, and her signature proved to be enough to override any amount of money and outrage.
Geneva snorted to herself in the empty cabin as she recalled her parents’ reaction. To say they were nothing short of pissed off would have been accurate, but she knew her mother would be even more upset at the association with vulgar language. Cries about it “not being her place” and the military life being for “other people’s children” went ignored, and recruiters had flown her millions of miles away to the Academy.
Her impressive academic record had only continued on, and her sharp, analytical mind did not go unnoticed by her instructors. Before her arrival on the distant satellite housing the educational facility, she had never seen any sort of weapon, let alone used one, but she had dedicated herself to an intense physical training schedule in order to ensure her success in that facet of her preparations. She would have been lying if she’d said she hadn’t been pleased by the attention and praise she received from the top-ranking officials at the Academy, but the real motivation behind her desire to graduate at the top of her class was to prove her worth to herself.
Contact with her parents had been sporadic and brief as she rose through the ranks. Despite her innumerable accomplishments, she’d never gotten the impression they accepted her decision to leave their world behind. On occasion, she allowed a slight twinge of guilt to enter her mind over not maintaining better communication. Today was not one of those days, as the underhanded methods used to get her home filled her with fury.
The twin suns of Pasurea had dipped below the horizon by the time the shuttle landed at the outskirts of Triayda, the planet’s capital, but it still took Geneva a few moments to let her eyes adjust to the light. As expected, a hovercar waited for her outside the terminal. The driver recognized her right away, though she wasn’t sure if she had previously met him or not. In less than fifteen minutes, she arrived at her childhood home in the quieter suburbs of the busy city and engaged in a futile argument with the driver over whether or not she could carry her own duffel bag.
Empty-handed and more annoyed than she had been at the onset of her voyage, she slipped inside the front door.No use in prolonging the inevitable,she thought, huffing out a long breath.As soon as she entered, she felt dwarfed by the high ceilings and massive columns lining the foyer, their cold gray marble forming an imposing presence. The house was quiet, but though she hadn’t been there in the better part of a decade, she assumed the silence would be short-lived. She hovered by the doorway, not ready to draw attention to herself, yet it wasn’t long before she heard the sound of her mother’s voice.