It was the plant, I told myself uneasily. Just the lingering aftereffects of what it sprayed him with. It’s probably all out of his system now, and there’s nothing more to be worried about. Yes, I was sure that was it. After all, hadn’t the Svortzian tried to warn us that the truth plant was dangerous? What were his exact words? Oh yes…
“Is bad. Is make you do…things you want to do. Is make you hurt.
” Or something like that.
Now I understood what the tall alien had been talking about. The truth plant’s secretions obviously made someone act on their secret desires and do things they wouldn’t normally do in their right minds. No wonder Josh had been acting so strangely—all his inhibitions had been stripped from him. So none of what had happened was his fault.
Come to think of it, I remembered feeling sort of hazy myself while he was touching me—as though it was all right to open myself to him and let him do what he wanted. I hadn’t received such a big dose of “truth serum” as Josh, but some of it had gotten on me. Could it be that my submission to his advances wasn’t all my fault? Could it be that I was simply under the influence of the truth plant as well?
The idea made me feel much better until I remembered one thing—the plant made you act on your hidden or buried desires. So did that mean I secretly desired Josh sexually? That I
wanted
him to touch me and make me come?
I put my head in my hands. Oh God, that made me sound
completely
messed up. Josh’s desires could be excused—he was male, and my body had suddenly changed and ripened, drawing him in a way he couldn’t help. But nothing had changed about him—nothing to suddenly attract me or make me want him. Did that mean that deep down, so deep I didn’t even know it myself, I was in love or at least in lust with my own stepbrother?
No!
I pushed the thought away. It couldn’t be. It just
couldn’t
. Even though there was no real blood relation between us, Josh had been my brother for years. We had been through so much together. For me to love him in a way that was more than platonic would be unnatural and wrong.
Then why did you act that way? Why did you spread your legs for him and let him in so easily? demanded the little voice. What’s wrong with you, Cassandra?
I didn’t know, and I didn’t want to find out. Taking a deep breath, I swore to put this whole incident behind me. I would forget it completely, would overcome it and never think of it, just as I had the shower incident. And I would never,
never
tell Josh about it.
It was a one-time thing, and now it’s over. Time to get dressed and go eat some pancakes.
And that was exactly what I did.
* * * *
The rest of the day was uneventful. At first I was worried that Josh was going to turn back into the Beast—as I had begun calling his mindless, animalistic alter ego in my mind. But I needn’t have worried; he was his old, cheerful self without even a hint of the strange, sexual stranger who had come out so forcefully that morning. Gradually, I began to relax. Clearly, I told myself, that morning’s occurrence had been an isolated incident. Something I should put behind me and forget permanently because there was never going to be a repeat performance. Besides, I had other things to worry about now—like surviving the rest of our mission.
Despite my misgivings, we put on protective clothing and masks and went back to the truth plant. I was surprised to see that it was still in its dormant state, its vines and leaves completely inert and its flowers furled tightly closed. Still, I insisted on holding the blaster on it while Josh walked gingerly forward to collect his samples. But the plant didn’t move a bit while he held a collection tube under one of the furled flowers and harvested some of the clear, sticky sap. He even clipped pieces of its leaves and roots and it didn’t so much as quiver. In the end, he wound up taking a surprising amount.
At last, having gotten everything he wanted, Josh stepped back. “Hmm, very strange. It seems to be in some kind of hibernation.”
“Or maybe it’s just biding its time until it’s ready to reach out and grab its next victim,” I said nervously. “Come on, Josh, let’s go.”
“Fine, we can go.” Shrugging, he packed the samples carefully in his case, and we made our way back to camp.
All during our trek back, I kept expecting the plant to come to life and grab us, or for the tall Svortzian to appear again, or for some other voracious alien life-form—plant or animal—to attack us at every turn. Every little stirring in the underbrush made me nervous, and I kept looking over my shoulder, expecting a mottled greenish-pink vine to be coming for me. I couldn’t hide my relief when we finally made it out of the jungle and crossed the safety perimeter of our camp.
“Hey.” Josh’s large, warm hand on my shoulder made me jump.
“What?” I turned to face him, still looking around nervously.
“Are you okay? I mean
really
okay?”
“Of course I’m okay. Why wouldn’t I be?” I asked, trying to sound normal and failing miserably.
“Because you’ve been jumpy all morning.” Josh tilted my chin up and studied me, his eyes serious. “Jumpy and
off
somehow. Is there something wrong, Cassie? Something you’re not telling me about?”
Yes, yesterday that damn plant attacked you. And then when you woke up this morning, you attacked me. But it really wasn’t much of an attack because I guess I wanted it. Anyway, I sure acted like I did. I spread my legs and let you touch me and it felt so good to let you do that I came. Came so hard…
I pushed the troubling thoughts away and tried to make my face smooth.
“I’m fine, Josh, honestly. I was just…just nervous about going near that plant again.”
“You’re sure?” He looked at me anxiously and stroked my cheek. “Because I really want to know if there’s something bothering you.”
Trust me, Josh, I thought, you do
not
want to know about this.
“I’m fine,” I insisted aloud. “Just…tired. That’s all.”
“All right, if you’re sure.” Suddenly he pulled me into a bear hug. “I love you, Cassie. You know that, right? I mean none of this—the job we do, the planets we visit—none of it would be any good without you.”
I was unexpectedly touched. Josh tended to be more of a shower than a talker when it came to affection. He was always doing little things like making me pancakes but he rarely came right out and expressed his emotions in words.
“I love you too, Josh,” I said, hugging him back. “So much. Now come on—let’s make lunch, I’m starving!”
The rest of the day was spent cataloging and sorting the samples and packing them in the proper containers for shipping. Josh announced that we would be staying longer than expected—he had seen several other interesting-looking plants he wanted to study, and we could stay another week at least and still make our Pharm-Co deadline easily.
I agreed, mostly because I wasn’t anxious to go back to Earth until I was absolutely certain all the truth-plant toxin was out of his system. But by nightfall, when nothing had happened, I was almost positive it was. As we cooked and ate our dinner of rehydrated beef stew and freeze-dried biscuits, Josh was being his normal, charming self. In fact, he was in such a good mood that I convinced him to lay out our sleeping bags on the grass and look up at the stars instead of going right to bed in the tent.
The Svortzian night sky was beautiful. A rich blanket of stars, glittering like jewels set in black velvet, arched over our heads. The soft hooting noises of small animals sounded nearby and a cooling breeze filled with the rich, tropical fragrance of the jungle caressed our faces. I cuddled close to Josh, pressed tight against his side, and laid my head on his chest the way I always did when we relaxed together. Forgetting the trauma of that morning, I sighed happily, feeling completely content.
“They’re gorgeous, aren’t they?” Josh murmured, pointing at the stars. His deep voice rumbled through me, and he stroked my hair absently with one large, warm hand. “The constellations here really put ours on Earth to shame.”
“That’s because we’re in the middle of a stellar cluster here. If Earth wasn’t so far out on the edge of the Milky Way, we’d have prettier stars to look at too.”
Josh turned his head, his eyes soft in the starlight. “I’m looking at something pretty right now,” he murmured.
“Josh!” I slapped his chest lightly. “Don’t embarrass me.”
“I’m just telling the truth. You
are
pretty, Cassie—you’re beautiful.” He stroked my cheek. “I guess I need to tell you that more often because I never let any other guys get close enough to say it.”
“Yeah, well…you
are
pretty overprotective.” I nuzzled against his hand.
“Well, I have to protect what’s precious to me,” he said seriously. “And you are, Cassie—you’re more precious to me than anything else in this whole damn universe. You know that, don’t you?”
Slowly, I nodded. Our faces were close now—closer than they should be and I knew it. But somehow I couldn’t bring myself to draw away. Somewhere inside, a little voice was whispering that this was wrong, that I shouldn’t be enjoying his touch as much as I was, but I pushed it away. Josh and I had always been close. I was just glad that after a few bumps in the road, we were getting back to our old relationship.
For a long moment, Josh held my gaze with his. In his eyes I saw all the times he’d comforted me after my mom died, all the times he’d held me and laughed and cried with me and hugged me. All the times we’d stuck together—just him and me against the universe—and had come out on top despite the odds. But there was something new in those deep-blue depths as well—something I had never seen before, something that was only there for me. He looked at me not as a doting big brother sees his little sister but as a man looks at a woman, a beautiful woman he wants to touch and caress and kiss. There was a fire kindled in those intense eyes—a hungry fire I had put there. And only I could satisfy it.
He’s going to kiss me, I thought dreamily, leaning toward him. Josh is going to kiss me on purpose this time, and I’m going to let him.
And then, suddenly, he went limp and fell asleep.
Chapter Seven
“Josh? Josh!” I slapped his cheeks lightly, trying not to panic. God, he was out again, just as he had been after our encounter that morning. Except then he had fallen asleep as the Beast and woken up as Josh. Did that mean this time he would—
A low, rumbling growl coming from Josh’s broad chest jerked me out of my thoughts. I looked down to see that he was staring at me. But the humanity that had been in his eyes just moments before had leaked away, leaving only raw, naked hunger in its place.
“Josh?” I said uncertainly. Moving slowly so as not to startle him, I tried to sit up, to get away from him.
But the Beast was having none of that.
With inhuman quickness, he grabbed me around the waist and pulled me back down. Then he took my mouth in a long, lingering kiss that stole my breath. I tried to resist at first, but there was no denying him. He kissed me like he owned me, like I was exclusively his to explore and to pleasure.
“Josh?” I whispered when he finally let me go. But he was already moving down my throat, making my breath catch as he pressed hot, openmouthed kisses to the vulnerable side of my neck. At the same time, I felt his hands slipping under my blouse to feel for my breasts. As before, he seemed to have forgotten all about how my bra fastened, and he fumbled with it for a moment, letting out a growl of pure frustration.
“No, wait!” Fearful of losing another bra—the only other one I had with me—I tried to push his hands away. But the Beast inside of Josh was not to be denied. He growled again, and I suddenly understood that if my bra and blouse didn’t come off soon, he would rip them off, just as he had before.
Telling myself there was no other choice, I reached behind me and quickly unfastened my bra. Then, with trembling fingers, I pulled it off and lifted my blouse, baring my breasts for him.
This gesture of submission seemed to please Josh immensely. He immediately began licking and sucking my breasts, drawing my nipples as deeply into his hot mouth as he could. It was as though he couldn’t get enough of me, as though he was hungry for the taste of my skin and the feel of my nipples between his lips.
He wasn’t holding me down this time, but I didn’t try to get away. Instead, I lay there and watched him lick my breasts, just as I had before. And of course my body reacted to him again—I couldn’t help myself. Maybe I didn’t
want
to help myself. I didn’t know. I only knew that his mouth on my breasts felt incredibly sweet, incredibly right somehow.
This time when Josh reached between my legs, I didn’t try to stop him. In fact, I pulled off my panties myself, mindful of the fact that I didn’t have many of those left either, and threw them to one side. Then, feeling like my heart was beating in every part of my body at once, I spread my legs for him.
“It’s all right,” I murmured when the Beast looked at me, a bit suspiciously I thought. “You can…can do what you need to do. Just don’t hurt me, okay?”
He growled softly and nuzzled my cheek. The gesture touched me, and I felt certain it was his way of telling me he would never harm me, that I was safe with him. It made it much easier for me to relax and let him in as he fingered my pussy. Much easier to let myself get swept away in the sensations and not think about the possible consequences of my actions.
I moaned softly as the pad of his thumb slipped over my clit and two long, strong fingers invaded me. God, that felt so good! How could something I knew in my soul to be wrong feel so incredibly right? It seemed to defy logic, but I couldn’t help myself or the way I felt. I couldn’t do anything but react to the pleasure Josh was giving me. Without thinking, I parted my legs wider, giving him better access to the part of me he seemed to need so badly.
“Josh,” I whispered. “Yes, Josh, oh
yes
.”
After a long, breathless time I came hard and long as his fingers invaded my body, crying my pleasure to the glittering stars above. As my orgasm raced through me, Josh kissed me, slowly thrusting his tongue between my lips in time with his fingers in my pussy, taking me places no other man had ever taken me before.