“We’ve gotten further than I thought we would have in the time.” She handed him a meal and leaned back on her hands to look around. “It’s beautiful.”
He glanced around, but it was her who caught his attention.
She was slightly disheveled, not sporting the smart, sophisticated look he was used to, but she was just as breathtaking.
He had it bad, he admitted. And he wasn’t sorry about that at all.
His silence obviously alerted her, and she was suddenly studying him, her gaze steady.
“None of that,” he said. “We’re on a tight schedule.”
“You started it,” she pointed out, and he couldn’t disagree.
He reached over, got one arm under her knees, the other around her back, and lifted her onto his lap.
“Now what, Commander?” she asked, and he was close enough to see her eyes darken.
He reached down and began to unbutton her shirt, and she squirmed a little in his lap, as if just the thought of what he was going to do was affecting her.
“This is going to go faster if you keep doing that,” he warned.
“Good.” She gasped as he got her shirt off.
And going faster turned out to be more than just good, he had to admit.
He’d left them vulnerable, though, because when, at last, she was snuggled up beside him, naked and sleepy, he couldn’t remember any sound, any movement, except the sound of her breathing, how it caught as he touched her with his lips and hands, and the way she moved against him, around him.
“Fuck, that was reckless.” He rose up on an elbow.
She sniggered against his shoulder.
“Seriously, Velda. We’re being hunted. This wasn’t a good idea.”
“We’ll do better next time,” she reassured him, patting his chest.
He snorted out a laugh. “That’s the spirit.”
She stood up, looking at him over a naked shoulder, and then up at the sky, at how much the sun had moved. “I suppose you’re going to force march me a little more?”
“Sorry. But yes.”
She sighed and climbed down into the river, gave a little shriek, he assumed at the temperature, and then submerged herself.
He had to go into the water after she got out, just to stop himself going down the road of failed good intentions any further than he already had.
“So stoic. So noble,” she said, and patted his arm as he grumpily packed up.
He didn’t let her see, but he grinned at her comment.
He had fallen for her well over a year ago, but he’d kept his distance. He had never known until now how funny she was, how sharp and witty.
He set a slightly easier pace, and then chuckled when she muttered something about how she would have slept with him sooner if she knew he’d let up a little for sexual favors.
It was late afternoon, and they were sitting sipping water from their bottles, both looking up to check if the flash of debris had abated, when a blinding blast of light flared far to the south.
They both shot to their feet, looking toward Demeter.
“That was a laser strike on the city.” Velda’s voice was raspy.
