Finding Lara (Distant Worlds Book 3) (14 page)

Lara was not where he had
left her. 
Shite!
   He was about to lose his ever-loving mind and start
calling her name like an idiot when she stepped through the trees carrying a
load of fire wood.  He blinked at the unexpected sight. 

“I got the wood pile
started,” she said. Lara dumped the current load on top of the small pile she
had already collected there.  “I sure hope we can start a fire tonight.  The
rations have some cold choices, but after that climb, I need some hot food. 
Preferably protein.  Though I do understand if the cave is not habitable that
we will have to make do.  We don’t want to show anybody watching where we are.” 
She tapered off.  “And, why are you looking at me like that?”

Barnos flashed her a
smile, then laughed outright.  “You just keep managing to surprise me, sassy,
that’s all.  And I didn’t think any woman could do that.”  He raised a brow.  “I
take it you have camped out before?”

She snorted and rolled
her eyes, looking impossibly young despite the overwhelming proof that she was
all mature woman.  “When you travel to as many unexplored worlds as I have you
learn to camp and make do, or you suffer for it.”  Then she smiled a big goofy
smile he was not expecting.  “After we get camp set up I’ll tell you some crazy
stories that will turn your hair white.”  She flashed a bright look at him and
then blushed and stammered a bit, which did nothing but make Barnos immediately
hard as a pike and wonder what she had just thought of.  What she said was, “Or
you can tell me about being a pirate and how you ended up with Tolan Lark in
the first place.”

“That wasn’t what brought
that lovely blush to your face,” he practically purred.  “Want to tell me what
you were thinking just now?”  She blushed again.  Lord, she was fun to tease,
and pretty, all blush pink cheeks and bright eyes.

She raised her chin at
his teasing, even as her blush darkened.  “If you must know I was thinking of
having sex with you when I am better rested.”  She said it like a challenge and
managed to blush even harder.

Once again, she had
managed to surprise him.  You’d think he would learn when it came to Lara,
never assume you know what she is capable of saying, or doing.  She was meeting
his eyes with a concentrated effort so he allowed his own desire to bleed
slowly across his face, until his smile was as wicked as it was satisfied.  “Well,
then.  Let’s get you settled, fed, and rested.”  He stepped forward until she
was blanketed quite deliberately in his heat.  He did nothing to disguise the
proof of his arousal, letting her see everything.  Looking down at her, she
seemed so small compared to him, but the fire in her eyes was more than a match
for his.  “Then I’ll give you what you’ve been wanting since the moment we met.”

It took Lara a minute and
then his meaning smacked her in the face.  She drew a breath of incensed wind,
but caught the twinkle in his eyes before she blasted him with it.  She laughed
instead.  She couldn’t help herself.  “You are the most outrageous . . .”

He kissed the words and
the laughs from her lips, and liked the taste of them so much he went back for
seconds.

There was an inflatable
bed in the supplies.  One small bed, two people, but still Lara clapped her
hands in glee at the discovery.  She had roughed it before on solid rock, but
that was one adventure she would be happy not to repeat.  Since Barnos grunted
his appreciation, she guessed he felt the same.  In fact, the way he looked
from the bed to her dancing about in glee made her aware of what she was doing
and how very much his eyes appreciated.  She stopped dancing as the brief spurt
of happy energy slid away, cleared her throat, and then went through the rest
of the supplies.  For an emergency pack, it was high on luxuries.  It had the
usual fire starter, Fire Gone, and heat capsule; also a solar blanket and
flotation devices, as well as water purifiers and food testers.  Along with that,
there was the bed, the nanite armor, and the blaster of course.  But what
really put it over the top was the preserved luxury meals in carefully labeled
food pods.  She read a few of them aloud in disbelief.

“Borinta steak in wild
mushroom sauce.”  She raised her voice at the next.  “Forelian mana?”

Barnos shook his head
with a snort.  “Cor Warrung’s emergency stash?  Sodden pecker head.”  Barnos
muttered the last part, then grabbed the Borinta steak and smiled with big
teeth, looking very much like a carnivore.  “I’m really going to enjoy this.”

Lara laughed and grabbed
the Forelian mana.  There were enough food supplies for one meal a day for a
month, but for one person.  The two of them were going to run out in half that
time.  But for now, they had a dry cave, food, water, and a mattress.  No one
had tried to kill them all day, well not since they landed anyway, and they did
not have to climb anywhere anytime soon. 
Life is good
,
Lara
thought on a happy sigh, then started opening her preservation pod and
preparing the wood for a fire.  Which was easy with the laser fire starter.  A
flick of the wrist and the thing went whoosh catching the wood and burning
brightly.  Lara had started a fire many times on her journeys so she leaned
back at just the right time to avoid singed eyebrows.

She caught Barnos
examining her smile with a shake of his head.  “What?” she asked, shoving the
opened pod in the cooking apparatus and setting it on the fire crackling
merrily between them.  Barnos laughed.  “You are familiar with the laser fire starter
I take it?” he asked in a teasing voice, his hand rubbing over his arched
brows.

Lara laughed and patted
her own eyebrows.  “A lesson well learned.” She grinned.

“You know most women
would be complaining about the accommodations or belaboring their aching feet,”
Barnos suggested, his eyes moving over her in that way he had of seeing
everything.

She crinkled her eyes at
him and gave him a pitying look.  “What kind of women have you been associating
with?”

Barnos chuckled and
saluted her with his water cylinder.  “Not your kind apparently,” he said, and
his eyes and voice were appreciative.  “But in my defense, I had no idea your
kind really existed.  I expect finding an uncomplaining woman, well it’s gotta
be akin to finding a unicorn.”

Lara laughed at his
teasing.  “Kenosha has unicorns.  Big ferocious beasts that carry the warriors
to battle.  Though they don’t call them unicorns. Forelia has them, too,
beautiful graceful creatures that are all white with a spiraling horn that
resembles more the old Earth myths to me.  I saw one in the distance once.  It
was magical.”  Her eyes lit up with remembered awe.  Then she explained why
that was so unusual.  “They are rarely seen and bond with only one rider in
their lifetime.  To catch a glimpse is considered a blessing on your journeys.”

Since he was looking at
her with his lips frozen around his water cylinder, she cleared her throat.  “The
point is they are not as rare as you might think.”  She gave him her best saucy
smile.  “You just have to know where to look.”

Barnos finished his drink
and replaced the cylinder standing, even as he finished his laugh.  “Stay here,
sassy, eat your meal.  Get some rest.  I’ll be back in a bit.”

She looked up at Barnos,
a frown chasing away her smile.  “Where are you going?”

Now that darkness has fallen,
I’m going to have a look around. Check for lights.  Make sure we left no trail
to follow.”

“You haven’t eaten or
rested either,” she said frowning harder.  She looked yearningly at her food
and the bed.  “I should go with you.”

Barnos laughed at her
tone.  “No need to sacrifice, sassy.  Enjoy the food and rest.  I won’t be long
and I will move faster on my own.”

“You should at least eat
first,” she muttered.  She had been enjoying the thought of a companionable meal. 
And she hated the idea of him going into possible danger alone.

“I’ll eat when I get
back.”  He was done talking apparently because he moved around the fire heading
out of the cave.

She stood quickly
ignoring her weary muscles to catch up to him and turn him back to look at
her.  Problem was she was not sure what she wanted to say.  Lara bit her lip.

“You will be safe?”  She
knew he could read her worry for him in her face, but hoped he could not also
read her other mixed bag of feelings.

“You can just say it,” he
said with that wicked look in his eyes and his mouth tipping up in one corner.

“Say what?” she really
had no idea what she wanted to say, so how did he know?

“That you want a good-bye
kiss,” he answered matter-of-factly and then shrugged, his eyes twinkling.  “Don’t
be embarrassed.  You can’t help yourself.  I’m just that potent.”

Lara laughed outright,
her worry melting away beneath his outrageousness.  She pushed him towards the
cave tunnel.  “Get out of here, you delusional pirate.”

Barnos left with a laugh,
but not before kissing the breath out of her before she could do anything to
stop him.  Not that she tried all that hard.

“Try to get some sleep, sassy. 
I’m going to want you energetic tomorrow.”  Then the blasted pirate smacked her
on her ass and sauntered out.

Lara blew a deep breath
out and it ended on a laugh.  He was a scoundrel; that much was obvious, but he
did have a way about him.

Her meal beeped and she
went back to the fire, determined to eat and then sleep while she had the
chance.  Besides, she wanted to claim her side of the bed and a good deal of
the blankets.  Barnos looked like he would take more than his fair share if she
did not establish her bulkhead first.

***

Very little light reached
them this far into the cave system, but she could see the outline of shadows
around her telling her it was close to dawn.  Lara had fallen asleep sometime
after dinner.  Barnos must have returned after she fell asleep because he was a
solid presence at her back.  A warm hard presence that presently had a big hand
wrapped around her hip, and the other around the soft curve of her breast. 
Very quickly, the proof of his waking up was growing against her backside. 
Lara swallowed, wondering if he could actually be as big and hard as he felt. 
The thought had heat pooling in her lower belly and her nipples hardening to
points.  She felt Barnos adjust behind her.  His hands tightening on her hip
and breast, his breath fanning across the back of her sensitive neck.  She actually
felt his smile slowly slide across his face.  He shifted his hips and bucked
against her softness just the tiniest bit.  Lara groaned at the feel of him and
a second later, she was flat on her back looking up at a very sexy morning grin
and hot eyes.  He nudged her thighs apart and then shifted himself between them
until he found a position he liked.  She could admit she liked it as much, if
not more than he did, as it placed the hardest part of him against the hottest
part of her.  Lara flexed her hips and enjoyed the slick friction growing
between them.

Barnos did not say a word
as he reached for the top of his armor and peeled it away, leaning back to get
it all the way off.  Like her, he had taken his boots off for bed, and now
nanite armor being what it was, with one solid peel he was above her naked. 
Lara gasped at the sight of him in all his naked glory.  The man was
beautiful.  She knew he had a cybernetic arm and eye, but even unclothed she
did not notice a difference.  All she saw was sheer hard masculine perfection,
and she wanted it.

Lara stayed still only a
moment, not quite sure how things had escalated so quickly.  Then, with a
raising of her chin and a determined gleam in her eyes to meet the challenge in
his, she yanked down her own armor, and Barnos took hold of her start and peeled
her out of her armor like he was pulling off a glove.  Then he looked at her. 
Being with Barnos naked for the first time, she was anxious to get back to that
lovely friction.  He just looked his fill.  When she would have taken him down
to the bed herself, he chuckled and held her in place.  He said nothing, and
neither did she. Then he ran his big hand from her neck over her breasts, down
her flat belly, and between her thighs in one long pet.  When felt the hot
wetness there, he growled low and Lara could swear she felt it in every nerve
ending.  She was so turned on by their silent twilight brushes of body-to-body
that she was done with foreplay before it even got started.  Barnos was not. 
Leaving his big rough hand playing between her straining thighs, he moved his
warm lips to her neck, and followed the same line his hand had just traversed
in an even more leisurely path.  He paid special attention to her neck, the
curve of her ear.  He spent so much time plumping and sucking her breasts that,
by the time he was moving down her belly, she was ready to orgasm without
anything else needed.

He gave her more anyway. 
He licked and nibbled at her belly, kissed and tongued her naval, and then
proceeded to befuddle her mind with his dark wanderings across her hips with a
trailing path from left to right along the ridges of her hip bones.  She was
already mindlessly twisting and pressing up against his playful teasing fingers
between her thighs when his lips finally found the very heart of her, and
without preamble, his tongue was in play.

With the first brush, her
back bowed and she was gasping out her orgasm.  She felt his satisfaction and
need, before he moved up and caught her dazed eyes.  One hand going against the
side of her face to hold her waning attention on him.  Lara blinked into that
suddenly implacable face.  When he saw he had her attention, he thrust full
into her making her body seize and twist to get even more from him.  Barnos was
cursing before he was halfway in.  Lara clutched at his shoulders and wrapped
her legs around him tight trying to get him in further, harder, completely.  He
reached the end of her before she was fully satisfied, and fully seated at last,
he wasted no time in moving.  Lara would have accepted nothing less.

Barnos cursed again when
she tried to push him along faster.  The muscles everywhere on his body were
straining with his need to move, so Lara was having a hard time with his slow
pace.  She pushed her hands into his hair and tried to yank him into
submission.  He actually laughed at her. Taking her hands in his he pulled them
from his hair and held them above her head, holding her down while he worked
his own pace, his own time.  He was going to drive her crazy.  She was so close
to coming again, all she needed was for him to
cooperate
.  Instead, he
pushed her impossibly higher until every molecule in her body felt like it was
going up in flames.  She screamed at him, breaking the silence that they had
only peppered with their shallow breaths and groans until then.  Apparently,
that was finally enough for Barnos, because he started thrusting in earnest. 
Hard and fast until with another scream, she came, and a moment later, he
followed, coating her womb with heat.  With her last breath, she called his
name.

Sometime later, Lara was
basking in the afterglow, her body slick with sweat where she lay pressed
against Barnos’ chest, her leg thrown over his, his arms holding her tight. 
They were cooling slowly, pressed together as they were.  Neither of them moved
nor felt the least bit uncomfortable.  For her part, Lara was open to the idea of
them never moving again.

Into the continuing
silence she heard Barnos chuckle.  She pulled back her head and rested her chin
on his pectoral to look at him inquisitively.  There was just enough morning
light filtering in to see the satisfied gleam in his eyes.  He caught her
questioning look and laughed again.  “Good talk,” he said, squeezing her waist
affectionately.

Lara felt her lip twitch
and then she bit it, thinking about the almost total silence while they made
love.  Then she smiled full at him and laid a kiss on the chest beneath her.  “It
was.  You did not manage to irritate me once,” she teased.

“I didn’t think you could
be quiet for that long,” he rumbled out.  This time she nipped him with her
teeth for his teasing.  Hard.  “Owe, watch it, sassy.  Don’t damage the goods.”
 He chuckled while he said it, and then without warning, yanked her up his body
so she was draped over him with her face above his.  She gasped at the move and
would have spoken, but the heat and possession in his eyes froze the words on
her lips.  “In a few minutes when you scream my name again, try Conall.”

She blinked down at him
surprised.  “Conall?”