The Colonel's Man (12 page)

Giving her what she craved, he drove harder, faster, until she was breathless, her mind relinquishing control to her body as she let all the waves of pleasure wash over her.

“Jason!” She cried his name as he drove in again, her hands wrapped around his strong wrists either side of her head as she gave herself up to the passion running through them, to him. The heat drove her, primal instincts that drove her to seek out a mate, urges that had ensured the continuation of her species on the hard planet of their birth. But the choice…that was hers. She’d avoided it in the past, preferring sedation or mindless trysts on stations where no one knew her.

This time was different though. This time she’d made a choice. As soon as he’d crashed through that door on Cestus and held her while Drew cut her down from that pipe, she’d known, deep down, that it was going to be him.

“Please, more. Harder.”

*

He pounded into her with every powerful thrust, his balls slapping against her ass. Fuck, he was so close. It took all of his self control to hold back. He wanted her to feel. To experience pleasure at his hands. To show her how he felt. With every thrust she tightened around him, massaging him like a moist, silken fist. Her cries sent him closer and closer to the edge.

His fantasies about her writhing in ecstasy and impaled upon him didn’t even come close to the sheer magnificence of finally having her at last. God, she was so small and tight and for a moment he was afraid he might hurt her. When he finally sank into her completely, the feeling was…indescribable, but the only thing that mattered to him was that it felt right. She was perfect for him.

He moved, rolling them over so she rode him, then groaned as she sank over him deeper than before. Hands on her hips, he watched her. She was gorgeous, her hair a dark mass around her shoulders, her hands on his chest to balance herself as her hips rocked against him. Another groan escaped him as he reached up to slide a hand in the nape of her neck and pull her against his chest to plunder her lips again. She opened up immediately, teasing him with her tongue and driving the heat between them higher.

Need hummed through him, lightning that arced through him as his body tightened. Not long…he grit his teeth, determined that she would come first.

His hands cupped the globes of her perfectly rounded ass, kneading them firmly. His mouth absorbed her gasp of shock as his fingers touched her where they were joined as she rocked upon him. She cursed him with a half lidded look and a temptress’ smile as she leaned back and rode him with abandon.

Jason closed his eyes, loving the feel of her around him, over him. His mind filled with all the things he wanted to do to her, with her, and have her do to him. She was perfect. Absolutely perfect and finally she was his.

Now he just had to figure out how to hold onto her.

She gasped, head thrown back so the long, dark fall of her hair brushed against his thighs in an erotic caress. Her body tightened around his, the silken walls milking him in rhythmic waves that all but turned him inside out.

“Oh, Spirits… I’m go…nearly there,” she gasped, her movements shorter, more powerful as she impaled herself on his cock time and time again. Frustration and need flared across her face as she leaned down to drag her lips across his neck. “Jason, please…”

“Just let yourself go babe…”

He groaned as he answered her rocking movements with the thrusting of his hips. Her perfect breasts bobbed enticingly above him. He slid his hands up her body and cupped her full mounds, kneading the soft, silky flesh with his fingers. She hissed and her pussy clenched around his cock as he pinched and rolled her nipples. Her own hands clasped around his and squeezed harder.

It was too much for her. She cried out as she came, her body clamping hard around his. She panted and gasped, clutching his wrists for support until she collapsed across his chest. He couldn’t take it anymore, enfolding her in his arms as he rolled again. Once he had her on her back, he hauled her thigh over his hip, letting loose and driving into her, chasing down his own fulfillment.

“Fuck!” he cried out as his release hit him like a freight train, the enormity of which almost rendered him immobile in paralyzing pleasure. He grunted as he gushed his seed deep inside her, her tight channel milking him dry.

Spent and breathless, Jason rolled them over to lie on his back as he held her close on top of him until the aftershocks of their completion had abated. He pressed a soft kiss to her temple then, unsatisfied, he tilted her chin and smiled at her beautiful face before he sealed their mouths with a deep, hot kiss.

She murmured against his lips, the sound lost in his mouth before he broke the kiss and tucked her against him. Already he could feel the softness in her limbs, and the difference in her breathing as she relaxed, all the tension gone from her body.

“Sleep,” he ordered softly. “I’ve got you.”

“We’ll be over the target zone in five minutes, Staff,” the pilot shouted over the comm link. “You better get ready.”

Drew nodded in reply before going out back and joining the rescue team as they geared up. It had been four days since he watched the drop-shuttle crash into the planet with Jason and the Colonel inside. The mission had been hairy to begin with and if it hadn’t been for Jason and the Colonel flying above them for support, they probably wouldn’t have been able to grab the package and exfiltrate in one piece.

His best friend and boss hadn’t been so lucky. It had taken the
Mandrakion
four days since the crash just to clear the area of any space-borne threats before a rescue mission could be launched. Jason had managed to punch out a final distress call just before the comms went out, so they at least knew the general area they were looking in. The planet’s atmosphere prevented comms or sensors from reaching the downed crew and no one knew if they were still alive. They weren’t just going to give up. Drew wouldn’t let them.

“Okay people, keep in mind our three subjects may be injured. Meteorology indicates this area has received several days’ worth of rain non-stop. The sun is out now, but the soil may be unstable, so watch your step. I don’t want to have to chase after one of you guys if you slip and fall down a mountain. I’ll kick your ass for making me work harder.”

Chuckles all around. Drew smiled, opening the side door when the indicator lights gave the proximity warning. He looked out. Below them was the felled track of trees that the drop-shuttle mowed down on its descent. At the far edge of the treeline, he saw the wreck, smoke pouring out the rear doors.

“What can you see?” He called up to the cockpit.

“Sensors say two life signs inside.”

That gave Drew pause. “Only two?”

“Yeah ‘fraid so. I can’t make a positive ID since the residual ions are still fritzing with the sensors.”

Shit. Two meant someone was cold. Dead. A sick feeling gripped his stomach and dug icy fingers in. Who was it? The boss? Jason?

“Bring us in,” he shouted back. “Take us down as low as you can.”

He watched as the pilot brought the small vessel around and lowered them toward the ground, then flicked a gaze toward the downed drop-shuttle, only to see the doors flipped open from inside.

“We’ve got movement at the crash site.” One of the door gunners shouted over the noise of the engines.

The pilot swung them around and got as low as possible in a clearing of trees made by the crashed drop-shuttle. With the rear loading ramp lowered, Drew and the Search and Rescue operators jumped out, making a beeline for the wreck. The marines established a perimeter while the drop-shuttle circled overhead in watch. Even in a rescue mission, Drew wasn’t about to risk their lives by being careless now.

As they approached the feeling of dread he had earlier returned. Part of him was already expecting the worst and unlike other ops when he could detach himself until the moment had passed and he had the luxury of time once again to contemplate, he couldn’t now. It was personal.

So that part of him was surprised to see Jason’s face pop through the tarp that hung over the rear cargo ramp.

Jason grinned. “Hey buddy. I was wondering when you guys would show up.”

At first Drew’s mind didn’t work, the side of him that expected the worst having trouble reconciling with his optimistic side and the truth. Eventually truth won out and a smile broke out on his face. “Jason? Holy shit mate you’re okay!”

He started for the door followed by the corpsmen but the grin faltered on Jason’s face. “Whoa hey…yeah, I’m good, buddy.”

Drew’s brow furrowed, puzzled at Jason’s reaction. “You okay, mate?”

“Yeah, I’m just peachy.”

“Peachy? Where’s the Colonel?”

“Oh, she’s not feeling so well. I think the fruit didn’t agree with her, she’s just stopped throwing up all over the place but… Ouch!”

“You okay, mate?”

“Yeah… I’m just messing with you. She just came back from taking a bath in the stream. She’s getting dressed up front.”

His spidey sense was tingling, and Drew saw right through Jason’s ruse. “Really? So why don’t you come out of there and let the woman get dressed in peace?”

“Uh, yeah sure. Just gimme a sec.”

Instead of coming right out, Jason disappeared from the makeshift doorway as he went back inside. Drew shook his head and in the most professional face he could muster told the corpsmen to hang back for a bit while his two comrades got their stuff together. There was no point in letting scuttlebutt run amuck on the ship.

There was scuffling and the murmur of conversation. The feminine tones of the colonel were easy to pick out but he couldn’t hear what they were saying. It sounded like an argument though, especially when Jason’s voice rose sharply. Before Drew could call out again, the tarp was flung back and Colonel Rhade ducked under it, followed by Jason, who hovered over her like a protective mother hen.

Drew’s eyebrow flicked upward for a second before he got it under control. By the time the colonel straightened up and looked at him, his expression would have done a champion poker player proud.

“Everything okay, Ma’am?”

Her gaze flicked over him, the marines and the circling shuttle before she nodded. It was easy to see she was exhausted, weariness in every line of her slender body.

“Yeah, we’re good, thank you Staff, but boy, are we glad to see you. Good work on locating us.”

As he watched, she seemed to grow in strength and stature, pulling the responsibility of her rank and position around herself like armor. Behind her, Jason scowled.

“Unfortunately we lost Corporal Mendes. You’ll find him just outside the camp, bagged but buried. There was no other way to secure the body and not attract predators. You and you,” she nodded to two of the marines. “Could you please recover the corporal’s remains and get them ready for loading onto the shuttle. We don’t leave anyone behind.”

Drew nodded as the two men named looked to him for a moment, turning to fall into step with the two survivors. “Everything else okay? Do you need water, food? You’ve been down here a while.”

“Yep, nothing to worry about pal.” Jason reassured him as they made their way to the awaiting shuttle. The corpsmen tried to stop them to get checked out first but Jason blocked them from reaching the colonel, putting himself between her and them. They kept walking as Drew and the corpsmen followed.

“Jason, you really should at least get yourselves checked out. You’ve been stuck down here for a while.”

“I told you man, we’re good. We’ve been eating and drinking and we’re not sick. Maybe a little sleep deprived but… Ouch!” He exclaimed as he rubbed his ribs while the colonel gave him a death glare.

“Uh…yeah sleep deprived from keeping watch and the rain. Boy, it was wet for days.”

Drew didn’t miss the way Jason herded the Colonel away from a muddy trail while sticking to the tree line and staying ahead to clear a path for her. He also didn’t miss the annoyed expression on her face and the way she tolerated all of it.

They reached the shuttle and this time the medics weren’t to be put off, pulling a flanking maneuver and splitting Jason away from the diminutive colonel.

“Ma’am, step this way…just a quick check. Major Hurst’s orders.”

The boss lady cocked an eyebrow but otherwise held the amused smile on her face. “Oh, its
Major
Hurst now? Very well then, let’s get this over with.”

Jason watched the colonel as the medics led her into the drop-shuttle while he stayed outside waiting his turn. Drew chuckled as he approached. He knew Jason wasn’t exactly one of the best patients and he hated medicals with a passion. Watching him twiddle his thumbs was usually amusing but he had a feeling there was something else at play.

“So…sleep deprivation eh?” Drew leaned against the shuttle next to Jason. “Must have been some storm to keep you two up nights.”

“Uh…yeah.Very loud and tempestuous.”

“Hmm…tempestuous?” Drew repeated mockingly though Jason didn’t seem to notice. “Didn’t figure you for a deep sort of individual mate.”

“Oh yeah, deep alright.” A subtle smile crept across Jason’s face.

Drew stilled, amusement fleeing.