AllFreeNovel
Share Us
They both knew what this meant as they trudged back, her limping against him. No way was anyone going to risk landing on Arvex now. It was clearly unstable—too dangerous for a rescue mission. No one would be coming for them.
What they found on the way back, though, distracted her from ruminating on their doom. She was the one who spotted the gash of gray just a few feet away from the wreckage of the ship. She hobbled to the spot as fast as her knee would allow, certain at first that she was seeing things. But there it was: pure blue-gray water seeping up from the open veins in the ground.
“They didn’t detect water under the surface during exploratory drilling,” she said in disbelief.
“Must not’ve drilled the crater.” The excitement in Stag’s voice mirrored her own.
They were impatient as they got back to the Raptor to run critical life support checks. They needed to do that first, making sure what little oxygen supply the ship had left hadn’t been compromised in the quake. As soon as that was done, they wandered back out with plastic containers, filling them up to the brim. They gulped the water down as soon as they were back inside, then went out again. By their third trip they were full, hydrated, and giddy, having also sucked down a couple more nutripacks.
At least they were going out with a bang, she supposed.
Hours later, they lay side by side on their blankets, bellies bloated and mouths blissfully moist. When their arms touched, neither moved away. It was getting warmer with approaching nightfall, the night winds of Arvex starting to pick up. Layers of clothing had come off as the temperature in the Raptor rose.
Tez let her gaze roam over Stag’s bare torso. He really was something: body chiseled with musculature that was hard and efficient, dry in that way you want in a pilot.
When her eyes swept back up, she realized she’d been caught in her admiration. Their eyes locked.
“Twenty hours left,” she whispered. She had checked the life support estimate while he was in the bathroom—they’d needed to goa lotafter all that water.
They watched each other for a few seconds, and when he reached out to tuck loose hair behind her ear, she found herself leaning into his palm.
“Tell me aboutOlympus?” she sighed, voice small and a little shaky.
Stag scooted closer and propped himself up on an elbow, leaning his temple on one hand. The other reached to trace the line of her collarbone with slow, absent-minded strokes. His eyes were on her, but he was somewhere else. Tez remained on her back, waiting for whatever he’d be ready to share.
Never did she expect to feelsafewith this man looming over her, but she did. All of it seemed so backward. Sideline the fact that not long ago they were trying to shoot each other, or that this was definitely against company regulations, or that she wasn’t supposed to consider this man human, much less feel…this. All that aside, moments like these—the talking and gazing and crap—were meant to happenbeforeshe paradoxically slept with the man.
But their months-long “relationship” was rooted in anger and resentment. Screwing it out of each other had come naturally somehow. It had been a relief getting it over with. And now she was shifting closer to his warmth, feeling things she didn’t want to risk putting names to.
“We’ve been working on it for five years,” he began, a glint of pride in his eye. “And we think we’re getting close. We just need to retrofit the thrusters and finish the gene decoding…”
“You’redecodingthe genes it responds to?” Tez gaped, eyes wide. “That’s impossible. The whole point of colony ships was to ensure continued—”
Stag nodded. “Didn’t say it was easy. But we’ll get there. And we have a descendant.”
Tez’s heart hammered in her chest. “So… you have control? A functioning commander?”
“Partial. His blood is just slightly too diluted. Ship recognizes him, but it’s not reliable. So now we need to find out how to mod it to respond to a smaller percentage of the necessary genes.”
It sounded like an impossible task. Then again, finding a dead colony ship and bringing it back to life inanycapacity would’ve sounded impossible to her and yet there he was, telling her they’d done just that.
“When it’s ready, we’re gonna stock up on supplies and set out. Find a New Earth. We even know where to look.”
“Bullshit.” Tez clasped a hand to her mouth, realizing what she’d said.
“I love it when you talk dirty,” he drawled in a deep, grinning baritone.
He caught her halfhearted punch before she landed it, enveloping her fist inside his own.
Her chest swelled with panic and anticipation as he leaned closer. They had sex. He’d taken her virginity. But they hadn’t done this yet. It wasn’t a good idea. But when his mouth hovered over hers, she tilted her chin up toward him. And when his lips brushed her own, she closed her eyes and melted under his touch.
It was a slow kiss, a gentle, tentative exploration. When Stag tested dipping his tongue against the seam of her mouth, she let him in. And as he rolled on top of her, her legs parted naturally to cradle his hips between them despite the jolt of pain running up her knee. He sensed it though, her wince against him.
With a quiet grunt, he pulled away and trailed his mouth down the length of her body until he was on his knees between her legs. One hand cradled the sweep of her calf, the other rested at her inner thigh. He bent down to skim his lips up the blue bruise at her kneecap, warm eyes dark and hooded as he looked up at her. Tez watched with bated breath as he lowered her leg to the floor, then shifted his lips up her thigh, his hands stroking her sensitive flesh, sending goosebumps up and down her spine like needy radar pulses.
Slowly, Stag hooked his thumbs in her panties and slid them off over her ankles. Tez had had so much water, but her mouth was suddenly dry as a nutricracker, nerves itching under her skin even as her chest tightened under his confident touch.
When his breath washed over her clit, Tez clenched her fists in the blanket on which she lay.
