Sex or Suffer [Dark Colony 1] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) (23 page)

* * * *

Penelope was shattered beyond her capacity for rational thought. The man she had fallen in love with had just watched her have sex with Nathan. She wanted to die. Poised over her on his knees and still intimately attached, Nathan came to his senses quickly and separated from her. He yanked her to her feet, handed her the clothing she’d removed and started hauling her down the tunnels. Trotting along in errant fashion, he kept her from slamming into rock walls. She didn’t care. She came out of her lust and saw a glimpse of Gray’s face before the mist consumed him.

Gray had seen her.

With Nathan.

Because she had this fucking virus.

Nathan pushed her further away from the blast door and the mist consumed space behind the clear wall. The solid fog now swirling about behind the barrier where she couldn’t see Gray anymore. When she realized Nathan wasn’t slowing down, Penelope stopped in her tracks and refused to move. “Wait. We need to get Gray. We can’t just leave him behind.”

“Sorry, sweetheart. He’s locked in for at least the next three days and probably longer. We have got to go right this second, or we’ll suffer the same fate.”

“Oh God. But I need him.” She stopped again, but he grabbed her by the shoulders and got her moving again.

“Come on. We need to get off the planet surface before they won’t allow us to leave. I’ll take you back to the
Dalton
, I’ll do whatever I can to help you and we’ll wait it out in orbit.”

“But we were on our way to the Parsec Colony. I need to get there. My time is running out.” Penelope did her best not to stumble as he prodded her forward down the wide tunnel.

“What’s on the Parsec Colony?” For a man she’d given few details to and two sexual encounters that really needed some clarification, Nathan was a decent guy not to demand an explanation.

“They have the cure for the virus that I contracted. It makes me need sex or else I hurt.”

Nathan turned his head without slowing down and his soft gaze searched her face for she knew not what. “Hurt? There is no need to sugarcoat it for me sweetheart, that virus doesn’t make you ‘hurt’, it makes you scream in pain.”

“Only until I have sex.”

Arm fastened around her to help keep the breakneck pace, he squeezed her tighter as if he could protect her from all the bad things she’d already had to endure. When he spoke, his voice was almost a murmur. “That is the worst thing I have ever heard of in my life, and I’ve heard of some monstrous things.”

Over one shoulder she sent a glance to Gray. She couldn’t see him anymore and the absence already made her heart ache. The memory of what Gray had mouthed to Nathan when he pounded on the glass surfaced in her mind. “Don’t let her suffer!” Tears welled up with pure unrelenting anger at this unjust situation.

Nathan pulled her, stumbling further and further away from Gray. They traveled faster and faster towards the first blast door they’d crossed in the direction of the
Dalton
. The blast door was still up, but five seconds after they passed the dip, a heart pounding alarm pealed relentlessly. The clear wall crashed down into the grooved space they’d just crossed.

They didn’t stop.

“Not much further.” Nathan wrapped an arm around her shoulders and sped his steps, trying to get her to keep pace with his urgency.

Penelope didn’t want to argue, but she wasn’t a great runner by any stretch of the imagination. She was already out of breath as they made their way back to the dock. “Do we still need to run?”

“Yes. I don’t want them to seal the tunnels with us inside. They take drills very seriously here. I imagine that they also take sudden unexplained explosions to an entirely new plane of security.”

“Good point.” Ignoring the stitch in her side and with the threat of possible burial if she didn’t move her butt, she pumped her legs faster and in close rhythm with Nathan’s. If he hadn’t been propelling her along as they ran, she never would have made it. They ran through the door to the hangar seconds before a guard snapped the entrance shut.

“Halt. You have to be tested for explosive residue. And I recommend putting filter masks on.”

Penelope was grateful to halt. Nathan raised his arms over his head and widened his stance. Penelope mimicked his movements, still trying to catch her breath. The guard handed them two cheap, disposable filter masks and waved a square black handheld device over each of them slowly. He nodded once and walked away. Apparently they were free to go.

“I’m not sure if the stench is still lingering. We should likely wear these.” Penelope slipped her mask into place.

Nathan put his mask on quickly. He then slung an arm around her again, pulled her close, and led her to the lively activity at the
Dalton’s
lower bay ramp.

Angelica, still wearing her mask, turned and fixed a surprised stare as she and Nathan approached the ship. “Lieutenant Commander Tyndall?” Her gaze widened as she searched Penelope’s face with the new filter mask. “Where is the captain?”

“He’s locked in the tunnels behind the second blast door.”

Again Lieutenant Brice’s gaze found Penelope. “For how long?”

Nathan pushed out a sigh and answered, “Minimum three days, but I’m betting it will be more since something exploded down there.”

Cahill galloped down the interior ramp from the cargo bay of the
Dalton
. “The captain just called and left a message.”

“What’s the message?” Nathan asked.

“He said to depart Echo Province immediately once we’re released and continue on…without him.” Cahill sent his gaze to her.

“Without him? No. We can’t leave without Gray.” Penelope headed toward the tunnel door.

Nathan grabbed her into a tender hug, pulled her back. She fought him. Silent tears erupted, but he held her close and whispered over and over that it would be okay. He walked her up the ramp and into the
Dalton
. Over her head he asked Angelica, “When can we depart.”

Cahill and Angelica exchanged a look, but the Ensign answered, “At once, when we get clearance from the Echo Province docking command center.”

Angelica took a step closer. “Do you want me to take Dr. Drake to her quarters?”

Nathan squeezed her tighter as she sniffed. “No. I’ll do it. I’ll return to the command deck once I get Penelope settled in her room. Is she in the quarantine cabin?”

“Yes, sir.”

Penelope did her best to keep the tears locked inside as the ramp ascended closing off the ship to the Echo Province dock.

And Gray.

* * * *

Nathan escorted a distraught Penelope toward her room on the
Dalton
. Her progress slowed as if she walked through a trough of mud. He gave up and carried her the final leg since their movement was so prolonged. Once inside her room he put her on the edge of the bed and squatted next to her. “What can I do?” He put a hand on her knee more to make himself feel better and resisted the urge to pat her like a domestic pet.

Her utter sadness was pervasive. “No…nothing.”

“There’s got to be something. Maybe a shower would make you feel better. Do you want me to turn the water on for you?” He’d never considered himself an expert at giving comfort. Humor was a much easier to deliver, but was inappropriate in this instance.

She shook her head back and forth in response to his shower query. Nathan didn’t know what to do. He lifted himself from the floor and sat next to her on the bunk.

Elbows resting on his knees, Nathan hung his head. “You’re killing me, sweetheart.”

Her back straightened and she sent a gaze in his direction. It was the first time she’d actually looked at him since they boarded the
Dalton
. “What…what do you mean?”

Nathan hadn’t gone a single day without thinking about her. He knew her name was Dr. Drake from the café where he’d met her the first time right before leaving Bravura. From the quick introduction in the cave from Gray, he now knew her first name was Penelope. Handy given what had commenced after the explosion and the subsequent blast door’s fall.

“You’ve been on my mind since…” Without finishing his thought, he sent a sideways glance to gauge her expression.

“The alley,” she supplied and hunkered down to his level. “I owe you a long explanation.”

“Well, I have been very worried about you. And there are several levels of guilt that have been eating at me since we were together on Bravura.”

“Don’t feel guilty. You saved me from a horrendous pain you can’t imagine.”

“I’m glad I relieved your pain, but the guilt is for something else.”

“What else?”

“You left a couple of things behind in the alley.”

Her lovely brow furrowed. “I grabbed my bag. The only thing I left behind was my dinner sack.”

“And your panties.”

“Oh.” Color rose in her cheeks like the sun in the morning. “I forgot about those.”

“I still have them, but they’re currently hidden in my quarters on the
Mirage
.”

She cleared her throat and looked at her feet. “You don’t have to feel guilty about that either.”

“And I ate your dinner, too.” Her eyes narrowed in confusion. “The one you left behind outside Nikki’s café? I couldn’t find you and I hated to see it go to waste.” Nathan had taken away her dinner and her panties from that alley once he’d gotten his clothes straightened. He’d looked around for her briefly, but ultimately had to leave for the
Mirage
to depart the planet. He ran to the dock platform and his ship without realizing what he carried until a dock worker gave him an odd look.

A laugh erupted next to him breaking his reverie. “After all that’s happened, you’re worried about eating my dinner?”

Nathan turned and smiled. “Yeah.
That
and one ‘other’ thing.”

“What other thing?”

He took her hand and kissed her palm. “I will always remember being in the alley with you for the rest of my life. “ He paused and gazed into her eyes. “And I’ll never forget that you didn’t get any pleasure out of it.”

“Honestly, relieving the pain was pleasure enough. I’m sorry I didn’t have time to send you a note. ”

“Don’t worry about that, but now with the Echo Province cave incident fresh in my mind, that makes two in a row.”

“I don’t understand.”

“The second to the last time I had sex took place with you in an alley against a wall. The last time I had sex was also with you, but instead it happened on the floor of a cave in a tunnel on another planet.

“I’m two for two in the ‘don’t bother to give your partner any pleasure’ competition, not to mention the luxurious setting we shared during each unexpected affair. I believe as a result I’ve been named a finalist in the Mr. Galactic Tender Romance contender of the year. So I have that to look forward to.”

Another laugh escaped. She reached out, hugged him around the neck and kissed his cheek. “You’re funny.”

“I try. Especially in difficult situations.” Nathan put an arm around her shoulders. “Please let me make up for it. Let me give you some pleasure.”

Penelope turned toward him and he tightened his embrace. “You don’t need to do that.” Her breath brushed the skin at his collar and sent a pulse of desire down his spine.

“Let me do it anyway. I feel like such a bastard prick.”

“But you aren’t.” She pulled away and her gaze pierced his soul. She caressed his face with one soft hand. A tender gesture he wanted to explore. Nathan glanced at her mouth briefly before he lowered his face and kissed her.

His recent dreams held many scenarios where he’d kissed Dr. Drake, instead of what had really happened in that alley. Nathan had wanted a “do over” since the first scorching kiss they’d shared right before the exciting dangerous sex that came after. But in his dreams she released with a grateful sigh instead of climbing off his cock to run.

Nathan cupped the back of her head and pulled her tighter. He pressed his lips lightly to hers. She didn’t move. Instead, she tensed up. A stray thought hit him like a renegade meteor and he broke away. Penelope hadn’t wanted to leave Gray behind in the tunnel and the reason why was stamped in her reluctance.

“You and Gray are involved.” It was both a question and a statement.

She cast her gaze from his and whispered, “Yes.”

“Much more than just a cure for this illness, right?”

“Yes,” she said again in the same quiet tone. She put a hand across her eyes and rubbed either side of her face as if massaging away the stress of today Nathan held her and rocked her gently. He considered Gray being left behind and the fact that the woman he was involved with had to have sex with his best friend right before his eyes. More guilt heaped on Nathan’s already abraded soul.

“I’m sorry, sweetheart.”

“Don’t be. It’s not like I’m not attracted to you or nothing would have happened between us in the first place. But I feel like I’ve betrayed him in the worst possible scenario.”