Last Call (Stranded in the Stars Book 1) (6 page)

Waiting, watching, and investigating the newcomer had made her create a bond to him that she had never intended to create. She had been alone for so long that this stranger now felt like her closest friend.

Her last friend had died and if she was going to consider this man a friend, she would do what she could to ensure that he stayed alive.

Allie didn't want to show unnecessary weakness in front of the male but facing her demons and confronting what she had long ago run away from, shook her to the core. And she was so starved for any company– attention, she realized, that she would actively put herself in jeopardy to prolong the contact.

He would need her to take him to the tomb. She couldn't let a stranger fall prey to the place alone and without warning.

He won't believe me– he already thinks so little of me,
she thought as she sat down outside her cave and looked up at the darkening sky, watching the day dissolve away.

***

The next morning Allie forced herself to head back to the ship, eating some roots on the walk there, arriving when the sun was at its zenith. When it came into sight, she saw the man outside standing over the area he was repairing, his hand against the metal.

She felt her pulse quicken as she moved closer to him, taking in his large, strangely perfected form. When she was within several yards he turned around and beckoned her into into the ship, only stopping when they were back in the center around the circular table.

      
She watched him disentangle his armor straps, eyeing his weapons and scars.
He's a warrior, I'll be safe with him and he may even scare away the ghosts. Maybe for good.

She couldn't help but notice how much power he emitted. His presence filled up the room. The man never made any unnecessary movements and his eyes were constantly absorbing everything around him.
I wonder what he thinks of me?
She wanted him to like her, she didn’t want another enemy.

I won't let the darkness consume this stranger.
Looking at him, sizing him up, she asked, "Have you ever seen a ghost before?" She watched as he sat down and put his elbows on his knees, leaning forward in the process.

"Why? Does your ship have ghosts?" He asked.

"It's filled with darkness. It's why I don't want to enter it."

He laughed. "I'm pretty fucking sure I can get rid of some ghosts for you. I'll even prove to you it's just your imagination," he continued. "They don't exist. There is no known scientific proof of spiritual activity, only hearsay. According to the intergalactic hub," his eyes looked distracted, "Ghosts are creations of the living, projections of extreme emotional states, hysteria." He finished, peering at her curiously. “Why do you think there are ghosts at the crash?”

“Can you really prove that they don’t exist?” She asked hopefully, taking a step closer to his sitting form. He sat back in his chair and casually looked up at her.

“Sure.”

Allie couldn’t help the shy smile that appeared on her face.

"We'll leave tomorrow, at sunrise, but for now we'll heal some of those cuts you have while you tell me about this planet."

Relieved, she whispered, "You won't hurt me then? I don't know your name."

He got up abruptly, making her take a step back so as not to collide with him. The man looked at her for a moment in tense silence before walking away to open a metal panel on the wall. A strange array of medical supplies appeared. He didn't turn back when he answered. "No I won't hurt you, at least not unless you want me to. Call me Jack. Sit." He demanded, pointing at the table.

Allie chose not to read into his odd statement but instead followed his instructions and went to the table, sitting in the seat he just vacated.

She looked around nervously at all the foreign, shiny objects the room held. The interior of his ship was pristine yet menacing. There was a soft blue illumination along the pathways and along the walls were the same red strips of light the exterior of the ship had. It was colorful, beautiful yet intimidating. Like it wasn’t meant to be appreciated. It was clean, forbidding, and severe.

The crisp neon lighting let her see down the corridor that she had entered through. The hatch was still open but it didn't stop her from feeling trapped.

She returned her attention back to Jack and it was then that she noticed a series of number tattoos across his right upper back where his mesh under armor failed to cover up; a single scar running through them. Suddenly realizing, "You–
you're a Cyborg?" Gasping, "You were in the war. I knew you weren't Earthian, you are much too large but didn’t look like a Trent." Her eyes widened, "it makes sense."

***

Jack was preparing a balm for her chapped lips when she figured out what he was.

"Took you long enough, didn't think you even knew what a Cyborg was. Yes, I'm a Cyborg. I was bred in a vat of nanoparticles and humanoid genes." He turned toward her. "Does that bother you? That I could kill you in a thousand different ways as we speak."

He walked back to the table, placing the fresh salve down between them and coated his middle and index finger. He was momentarily taken aback by her wide bottomless eyes and moved closer
.

I touched her earlier, I wonder how long it has been since she's been with another human, let alone a man.
He wasn't sure if he wanted to know the answer.

"I don't understand. Why would you be here, a Cyborg? There is no war here..." She hesitated, "Or anyone for that matter."

He smirked at her assumption, "Maybe I'm here to find myself a pretty girl." Liking how she blushed at his comment.
Red would really suit her.
"Now don't move. I'm going to apply this salve I have here to your lips and then to your scratches. It won't hurt but it will tingle." He continued, "there are tiny micro-organisms in it that can replicate and promote new cell growth. I have also mixed in some of my nanocells so I may read your internal system." Staring at her, "Do you understand? They won't be able to affect you in any way, in fact your body will quickly destroy them but it would help me help you."

While he waited for her to acknowledge, he couldn't help but notice how intense her stare was or how she began to breath heavier; that her mouth parted slightly. Jack didn't need to scan her to know what kind of reaction she was having to his nearness.

"Yes, I think so."

"Good. It's obvious that you're malnourished but you may have internal injuries that I'm unaware of." He placed his hand lightly on the back of her neck and the shock of the touch made her surge away from him and away from the table.
Fuck.
He frightened her.

He grabbed her around the waist with his other arm and pushed her back onto the chair.

Allie was struggling against him like a terrified animal. "Stop moving, I won’t hurt you. You could have a parasite or worse and I will not have you contaminate my ship."

"I'm sorry" she breathed as her struggling slowed down.
Damn, he liked it when she struggled.
When she had stopped moving, with his hand still holding her neck, he coated the index and middle finger with his other hand.

"Don't move." Jack warned.

"Okay. I just,” she took a deep breath. “This is new to me." He watched her relax.

He breathed in deeply and was immediately engulfed by her pheromones. "Why is this new to you?" He inquired trying to lighten the mood, softly pressing his fingers across her velvety bottom lip.

"It was forbidden to be touched by a male in my colony. I was tested fertile when I turned fourteen cycles and was placed in a maiden commune, a community of unmated girls and their elders. Infertiles lived there too, in service to us but men were strictly forbidden to enter unless otherwise directed."

Curious he asked, "Earthian colonies don't have a problem with women being fertile. Where were you? You have a Trentian accent"

He could tell she was hesitant about answering him.
What does she think I would do with the information? Take her back?

“I grew up in a Trentian colony.”

“And how did you end up there?” Jack watched her face as she chose her words. Her mouth opening and closing as she decided what to say.

"My mother was Earthian but I never met her. She wasn't born at the colony but belonged to the Warlord's tribe. I don't know how she got there but I know she was pregnant with me before she arrived," she continued, "My mother was smuggled off of her birth colony, I was told, and she was on her way to Xntaeus Trent but she never made it. When she was delivered to the community, along with several other women, she and the others were immediately paired off. When she bore me,” she hesitated. “And I was not a half-breed, my mother was cut down by her chosen and I was sent to an orphanage."

As she spoke, he continued to massage her lips back and forth; watching her watch him back. Jack wasn't too pleased with the story, temporarily caring about Pirate Captain Larik’s profession and the reasons the Earthian Council hated him; and why he was contracted to capture him.

"So you have had no contact with a man before now?" He asked, intrigued about her innocence.

"The priests– doctors who tested me were men and that was the first time I was touched by one." She shivered. "It was against the laws of the current Warlord for a maiden to be touched and it was a death sentence for any unworthy male who did. Only the Warlord could honor a male with a female and those males were always the closest to him, the strongest. It was only when he was overthrown by a spurned warrior that I was touched for the second time." She trailed off.

He slowly rubbed the salve over her upper lip, coaxing her body softly with his light touch, watching her eyes go to half mast. His cock was as hard as rock.
It doesn't help that her body is giving me all the wrong signals,
He thought as he tried to cool off his ardor.
I want her under me but I don’t want to frighten her.

He could smell her desire and was painfully aware that she was pressing her legs together, that the blush that hadn't gone away was deepening.

"It tingles." She whispered.

"Yes, like I said it would," groaning, he scooped up more of the stuff. "Now open your lips slightly. I'm going to insert some into your mouth. I promise it won't taste like anything..." She complied without hesitation and he pushed both fingers in; rubbing her tongue, mimicking the motions like he would if he was fingering her.

Her mouth was hot. And wet. And it drove him crazy.

"Lick the salve off them... make sure you get all of it." He was a goner.
This is so wrong.
The second her mouth closed over his fingers, sucking them while he pushed them further in, he couldn’t focus on anything else but her pretty face, his grip on her neck tightened as she moved her tongue all over.

"Fuuck me," he moaned– breaking the trance suddenly– her eyes shooting open. Jack released her and took a step back.

"Did I do something wrong?" She gasped.

"No sweetheart, you were perfect." He backed away, wiping his fingers on his pants. "I think you should apply the rest of the solution yourself. Make sure you get the scrapes on your knees." He needed to remove himself, shut down and let his cybernetic side take over before he did something he would regret.

***

Jack walked out of the room and through one of the corridors, leaving her alone and feeling very confused.

Did she do something wrong?
She wanted him to touch her, she had been looking forward to the contact. Realizing that, that wasn't going to happen now and feeling oddly rejected, she scooped a dollop of the tingling gel onto her finger and sucked it off.

Hmm it just isn’t the same
. At least her lips no longer burned.

She bent over to start rubbing the salve on her cuts when Allie noticed the chair was damp beneath her and her core was throbbing.

Should she find something to clean it up? Looking around quickly she noticed a cloth at the medical unit Jack had pulled out earlier. Grabbing it, she wiped down the chair then folded the cloth and replaced it where she had found it.

Now that she had cleaned up, she went back to her former task, carefully rubbing the salve over her cuts and scrapes and by the time she was finished, she felt remarkably better, enjoying the healing sensations playing over her skin.

Jack still hadn't come back out so maybe this was his way of dismissing her. Unsure of herself, she called out his name, "Jack." She didn't want to leave without thanking him but when he didn't answer she took that as her queue to leave.

Picking up the little capsule of solution that was left over, she capped it and placed it into her pouch. She was on her way out when his voice rang out behind her.

"Allie." His pitch lowering, sounding rough and incredibly deep. She shivered and saw her freedom vanish as she listened to his steps catch up to where she stood, unmoving.

"We leave at first light tomorrow. If you run then I'll assume the deal is off, find you, and demand payment for the medicine." He was going to let her leave and she found herself thinking she didn't want him to let her leave. "Take this with you." He handed her a small metal disk. It had a thin line of blue light essence along the sides with small ridges along the middle. "If you need me, swipe the sides and call my name."

Without another word and with the disk in her hand– she ran outside and didn't stop until she was curled up in her cave, alone, allowing the soothing, healing sensations take over.

Chapter Six:

---

J
ack replayed her face sucking his fingers over and over in his mind. She was so innocent and so very erotic and in that moment, right before her eyes went wide, he wanted to take her– knowing the repercussions in doing so he had quickly created some distance.

He was relieved that she left, knowing it was safer this way because playing the hero to a wild girl was just not his fate. Once he checked this transporter ship for pieces, he would patch up his flyer and leave.

It was mid evening now. The girl had left several hours ago and since then he had run the purifiers several times, choosing to erase her presence.