Star of the Fleet Read online

  Ignoring everything except the need to protect Gustav, she screamed for him to duck. He did, but time seemed so slow that Kera was sure the blonde woman would get another round off and Gustav would be hurt, or even killed. Kera raised her pistol to fire, noting dimly that her hand shook. There was a recognition of fate in the other woman’s eyes. She knew Kera would shoot.

  Kera grunted as searing pain lanced across her arm like fire. Jerking back, she brought her pistol back into position and aimed. Her vision narrowed on the target. With the touch of her finger on the cold metal, her opponent flew backward among a spatter of dark red blood through the open doorway to rest on the tiled floor. Still; lifeless.

  The smell of burned flesh filled the air, and a dribble of blood oozed from the hole in the woman’s chest. Kera’s heartbeat raced, and her stomach churned as she turned, needing to know where Gustav was.

  “Gustav!” she screamed, moving forward while keeping an eye on the body on the floor. Hearing a wild commotion rising behind her, she looked over her shoulder.

  This mission was now FUBAR, and she was boiling mad! Doors opened, and residents peered into the corridor, taking in the shocking scene before shutting them again. Kera continued to move forward; the team would have to deal with Rolls as she checked Gustav, who lay on the floor, his eyes wide and his face so damned pale.

  There wasn’t a hint of blood on his uniform, but still she searched with worried eyes, aware her emotions were spiking when she most needed to keep her head in the mission. “Stay here with the guards. I’m going in to check the apartment and make sure it’s clear.”

  “You’re not going by yourself.” He levered himself up, but she pushed him back down with one hand.

  “Of course I’m not going by myself.” She flicked a hand at the guard beside her. “You, come with me.” Kera glared at the other before letting her tongue fly viciously. “Keep him safe, or you’ll wish you ended up like her.” Then she was up, surging forward, checking for a pulse in the woman she had dropped like a stone. “Dead.”

  Kera waited for the hit of satisfaction at the outcome. There wasn’t one. With this woman dead, there’d be no opportunity for interrogation. They’d have to rely on whatever they found in the apartment.

  She straightened and peered into the gloom. “I like right and high, stay to my left and let me take point.”

  She didn’t wait for the guard to accept her directions but moved forward in silence, her gaze flicking from side to side, and her chest pounding.

  “Clear!” she called one room after another, anger present in her voice as she moved. “Nothing!” Kera growled as she made her way back through the apartment to the doorway.

  Gustav sat waiting exactly where he had fallen, and they took in the commotion down the hall. She noted the suspect had been pulled from the other apartment. His black, greasy hair, which she guessed had been tied back, now flew everywhere around his gaunt, lined face as he fought against the restraints. Kicking and screaming, spittle foaming around his mouth.

  The man—Jerrold Rolls, she reminded herself—spat at one of the guards, who wiped his visor clear with a gloved hand. One of the other officers took a foot in the groin, and she winced in sympathy as he hit the deck, rolling and writhing. “That had to hurt,” she murmured.

  Others came in to reinforce those struggling to hold their wild captive. Kera waited for the officer in charge of the mission to join her.

  “I’m going to need both these apartments searched thoroughly,” Kera said. “Someone had information of the investigation, and my gut tells me it’s either our dead woman or the man. If there were many more involved, we’d likely have started hearing whispers. It’s not something you can easily keep quiet. You need to canvass every resident on this floor. Look for any known associates. Be thorough, these charges have to stick.” Kera waited quietly for Daviston’s agreement before turning back to Gustav. “Come on, let’s get out of here. I need a shot of coffee, and I bet you do too.”

  He nodded to her wounded arm. “And you need that attended to.”

  She rolled her eyes but agreed.

  Chapter 12

  Kera yawned and stretched, the action pulling on tender muscles. “Fuck!” She’d forgotten about the wound.

  She continued writing the reports, hating the tedium of the job, but knew it was necessary in order to file the infiltrator situation away as completed. Pamilla Trillo became most cooperative once she realized Jerrold Rolls was in custody for questioning and would feed her to the lions. In response her charge was downgraded to assistance in treason.

  The completed searches yielded enough ammunition to put the two main perpetrators away for a long stretch. Somewhere nasty, Kera thought while continuing to enter data. “Perhaps Vega 4.” She grinned at the thought of the penal colony that was so far from everywhere that even the guards detested it.

  In Trillo’s apartment officers found a number of key passes allowing access to nearly every section of the base. Written records, decoders, and most importantly, dossiers of her partners had turned up as well.

  She kept typing, tapping and adding the findings and recommendations for changes in the Aenna base security systems. The recent incidents backed up her recommendations. The attack on the admiral’s reception center, the lack of vetting of arrivals on base, and now the plot that her staff had foiled. Clearly the base needed a higher level of defense.

  Kera rubbed her wound, willing away the ache, as Gustav entered her office.

  “How’s your arm?” His eyes were soft and flicked over her body like a caress.

  “Feels like I’ve been shot. But the pain is going away, slowly.” Kera shrugged. “What are you doing here? I thought you’d be tied up with Admiralty business for some time yet.” She waited, hoping this was more than a medical status visit. In those seconds when she thought he could have died, everything had become clear. Dwelling in the past wasn’t the way forward; it would just stagnate her and her future.

  “Ah. So what can you tell me?”

  Kera grunted. “You might as well sit down while I update you. Jerrold Rolls has had a vendetta against you since the incident on the Ishtar, as you know.”

  Gustav nodded. “And?”

  “Well, I’ve yet to figure out how he wangled the job here, but it could be something to do with our mystery blonde, Refugia Augenstein. She’s been in a position of authority and has a hand in personnel. I’d be willing to bet she had something to do with it.” She stretched her back, trying to work out a crick. “She had extensive computer hacking skills. We found her little spy-in-the-ceiling cameras that she had placed in the entries to the apartments. That explained her awareness of our entry to the building.”

  Fury welled. The stupid woman almost cost her Gustav. Kera cursed the woman again. At least her security officer would make a full recovery; immediate attention by the medics, once the danger passed, had ensured that outcome.

  “I’m now finishing my report, which includes a full overview of everything from the personnel department to the reception desk duties. I also want to retrofit keypads to the office doors, and further reinforce them. That way, each office becomes a safety bunker.”

  “Well, that’s certainly thorough. I was thinking, we should do something about dinner and call it a day. You aren’t personally handling the investigation, so you can leave now.” Kera opened her mouth, but he raised a hand. “Nor do I think you should be. We’re both too close, and from what you’ve gleaned, Crick Sur Banden wanted you back, something that will never happen on my watch. Jerrold wanted revenge on me for finding him guilty of unconscionable conduct, something you wouldn’t countenance.” She waited as he shrugged those broad shoulders of his, and a shudder of sensual awareness jolted her. He was right, on so many levels. She was too close to this investigation, and she had to let others handle it.

  “All right.” Kera pushed away from her desk.

  Standing quietly, she took his outstretched hand. In her mind, the act assumed
the importance of a lifelong promise. Gustav smiled, pulling her into his arms, and his mouth descended on hers. Hot and intoxicating.

  The tickle of his breath captured her senses, and she opened them to accept his caress. His tongue touched hers briefly as she was crushed against his chest. When he lifted his head and raised a hand to her face, she shivered. Her nerve endings whirred into overdrive at the feather-light touch against her skin.

  “Gustav.” Kera nestled closer. A sense of contentment flowed deep within her.

  They stood quietly for a moment until he pulled back, smiling with a quiet light of satisfaction in his eyes.

  “Let’s get out of here.” She smiled once more, grabbing her holster and strapping the leather about her waist. Picking up the micro-disks, she pocketed them, even though she had an inkling she wasn’t going to be achieving a lot that night. At least not work-wise, she told herself with a grin.

  * * * *

  Kera picked up the plates from the dinner they’d shared. Gustav stepped behind her, encircling her waist before covering her breasts with his hands. “Tell me if you don’t want this,” he whispered in her ear.

  Kera arched back. “I want this. I want you.”

  His fingers flicked her erect nipples softly as his warm, wet lips touched the back of her neck. Gustav turned her, hands light but insistent, and she faced him. Those cool blue eyes of his blazed. “I need to tell you...I love you.”

  She melted in his arms as he continued.

  “I should have told you already. I adore your strength of character, I adore you for your mind, and I love your body.” He interspersed his words with hot, quick kisses, his mouth raining down on her face, her lips, and her eyes. Kera shivered in his arms as he pulled at her clothes before diving his hands beneath her shirt to touch warm, bare skin.

  “I have loved you for the longest time, Gustav. Even when I thought you didn’t want me.”

  His face shined with triumph before he dipped in for another kiss. With aching slowness, he slipped his hands back down to grip the sides of her shirt. “Let’s get rid of this.”

  Kera raised her arms, giving him access, as the shirt was pulled up. Their gazes locked until the material slid over her face.

  “Beautiful,” he muttered as he thrust the offending material away from him and lifted his hands to the pale-blue bra she wore.

  He cupped her breasts through the cloth and kneaded. Her heartbeat faltered for an instant before a new, faster rhythm began.

  Kera reached for the small buttons of his shirt, the metal cold beneath her fingers. She twisted the disks back through the loops that held the shirt closed. With each deft twist, more of his bronzed flesh and scorching heat was revealed. Alive and warm beneath her hands.

  Gustav dragged his palms back down to her midriff. Feather-light touches skimmed her sensitive flesh, and she shivered as he found her scars, tracing them.

  “What they did to you...” His voice shook, and she ran a finger across his lips.

  “It’s nothing now. He won’t hurt me again.”

  She found the hard muscles of his arms and caressed them with her hands. The kiss scorched her mouth and tongue, before his lips skated over her jaw and down her arched throat.

  Her moan was filled with desire and need left her quaking, her heart thudding a quick tattoo. His body was hard and urgent against hers. And Kera burned for his touch as the molten heat of his kisses reached her collarbone.

  Her knees melted under the onslaught, and she gripped his shoulders to support herself. Gustav slipped hard, firm arms beneath her, lifting her against his chest. The shock of skin on skin stole her thoughts. Twining her fingers at the nape of his neck, she held on as he moved with controlled grace toward the bedroom.

  Kera barely registered the dip of the satiny coverlet beneath her bared skin, as his eyes, no longer cold, burned her with a shining intensity. Gustav released the clasp of his belt, then the buttons of his pants. Heaven help her, she wanted to reach out and take over. As if reading her mind, he smiled while pushing the pants down, over lean hips, to stand naked before her.

  His cock now released from the confines rose to his abdomen, reinforcing the urgency of his need. Kera resisted the urge to reach over and fondle it.

  “You’re overdressed.” His words were smoky, and she shivered once more as he moved toward her. He reached behind her to unclasp her bra before he stripped back the straps, freeing her breasts to his view and the kiss of the cool air. “You are so beautiful. I’m looking forward to tasting those strawberry tips.”

  She closed her eyes. And as his fingers started pushing at her pants, she lifted her hips.

  Gustav joined her on the bed, looming over her, looking into her eyes. “If any of this makes you uncomfortable, say so.”

  She knew he alluded to her capture. He bowed down his head, touching his lips to her breasts, opening over them and suckling at her. With aching slowness he slid his fingers over her belly to find the curls that lay at the apex of her thighs. She gasped as tremors began to rack her body.

  Kera flung her head back, the electric sensations rippling through her. His caressing fingers, mouth on her breast, and then his skin moving against hers made her writhe with passion. She grew damper and hotter against his bare flesh.

  “Gustav!” The cry was broken, and he lifted his head, settling back on his knees. He dipped his fingers ever lower, barely skimming her flesh. “I need to touch you.”

  He smiled at her with passion-filled eyes. “Not just yet, my beauty. I want to give you pleasure and watch you explode.” She made to sit up, but he extended a muscular arm, stopping her. “Stay there.”

  He gently rubbed the moist flesh between the folds of her sex. Touching the nub between her legs, teasing and tormenting with a gentleness that wound her higher. She jerked beneath him as he found the secret entry, working back and forth over the sensitive lips. His face hard and ruddy with desire.

  “I love that you’re so wet for me.” His words came out as little more than a growl in the almost silent room.

  Gustav slid one finger within her hot, wet core, and she closed her eyes, moaning at the feeling. She welcomed the sensation of him touching her this way. He kept his movement slow as a second finger joined in.

  “More!” Her voice turned thready as he increased the pace of the thrusts.

  “I’m going to make you explode, and then I’m going to do it all again,” he said, his voice a tattoo beating in her mind while with magic fingers he touched her intimately. His thumb rubbing the hooded bundle of nerves.

  His moves came faster and wilder, his lips returned to suckling at her until, with a hoarse cry, she orgasmed. Her body milked his fingers and her heart beat wildly. Boneless, she lay still, basking in the afterglow of her climax.

  A tide of red washed over him, arousal blushing his skin, and she sat up with slow, deliberate moves. “My turn now.” Meeting his lips with hers, she skimmed her hand down his body until she found his cock.

  Kera encircled the shaft, squeezing lightly before pulling away and dragging her index finger over the already wet slit. His hips moved against her, before she raised her mouth, and he grunted.

  “I want to suck you, to ride you and take all of you, deep within me.” Kera pushed him back, her mouth roaming over his stubbled chin and down his throat as she flicked her fingers over his brown nipple. “Lie flat for me.”

  She waited as Gustav settled down on the bed, his eyes searching hers while she lowered her head to his shaft. Blowing slightly against the flared tip, she watched in fascination as his erection jerked. She skimmed the top softly with a finger and then dipped her head to him, opened her mouth, and savored the satiny hardness and the salty tang of his body.

  She teased and licked, hearing his heaving pants, and welcomed the thrust of his hips. She knew he was moving closer to orgasm. His hands caught her head, stopping her.

  “Not like that. Not the first time, Kera.” He pulled her up toward him, and she re
veled in the feel of his body so close to hers.

  His mouth ravaged hers, his touch scorching as he positioned himself below her. She felt the head of his cock between her legs and cried out as he moved against her sensitized skin. He felt so hot, and she welcomed him.

  He lowered her, impaling her as she took him into her body. And Kera gloried in the way he assuaged the ache deep inside her. Gustav gripped her hips tight, keeping her still as he made a throaty request. “Not yet. I want to watch your eyes. I want you to see mine.”

  Aching with the need that consumed her, burned her, she opened her eyes and saw the same need and desire in his. Slowly, so slowly, he withdrew then slid back in, filling her fully again. She cried out with the sparks of pleasure, his hands toying with her breasts, and she heaved for breath, needing to move on him.

  “Oh, Gustav!” Her body tightened, and Kera knew she was close, already. “Gustav!”

  “Let go.” He grunted the words, moving his hips faster. Each slip and slide wound her higher and closer toward her looming orgasm. “I’ll be with you. Let go.”

  She flung her head back, and awareness of the world fled as waves of ecstasy filled her. She heard him groaning as he joined her, pumping his seed deep. She was held suspended within the pleasure, before slowly slumping forward. His arms folded around her, their hearts beating fast, their bodies damp but replete.

  “I love you.” The words were whispered against her temple as she relaxed and floated away.

  * * * *

  Consciousness reasserted itself as Gustav lay back with Kera safe in his arms. Her warm body pleased him on both a sexual and emotional level. He needed one more promise from her, and he worried slightly.

  Will she say yes? Should I ask her?

  “Kera?” he whispered, and she nodded groggily.

  “Gustav? Again? Already?” Her bemused tone made him laugh.

  “No.” His laugh died away. “I have a question though.”