“She’s too old,” Lena said after a moment.
“She’s been around a while, though.”
“Yes, but she’s too old. She must be nearly eighty. She couldn’t hope to hold the position much longer no matter how many people she replaced. Besides, neither money nor power means a lot to people that know they’re facing the end of their life. She’s looking forward to retiring and spending her last years with her grandchildren, or great-grandchildren, not controlling the world.”
After working over the list for several hours, they had cut it down by almost half.
Lena frowned at the names that remained. “My money would be on him, if I was just guessing,” she said finally, tapping her fingernail on the lettering.
Dax looked at the name and chuckled. “Any particular reason why? Other than the fact that everybody hates them?”
Lena smiled reluctantly. “You’re probably right. I was just thinking, though, that I don’t know a thing about him. I didn’t even know his name and I keep up with the people in charge of the government.”
Dax took the list from her hands and dropped it to the floor beside the bed. “I’ll make a note of that,” he murmured, leaning forward to brush his lips across hers. “Baby girl doesn’t know the guy so she doesn’t trust him.”
She pulled away and he leaned back, eyeing her warily.
Reaching for his suit, she grasped the front and tugged it open. “I want to feel all of you,” she whispered, placing a light kiss in the center of his chest.
ChapterTwelve
The certainty that something was bothering Dax grew upon Lena as they lay curled together in the aftermath of their lovemaking. She supposed it might be that he had gone back to worrying over the puzzle, probably was that, at least in part, but she sensed that there was something else.
She had a feeling she knew what that something else was.
“When do you think we’ll reach home base?” she asked him finally, idly playing with the hair on his chest.
He tensed. “Six hours … more or less.”
Pain squeezed Lena’s chest as if a hand had fisted around her heart. Six hours. It had been a hell of a whirlwind romance--not that it was actually a romance. They’d been together a grand total of two weeks, just long enough to make her feel like dying at the thought that he was going to walk out of her life just as abruptly as he’d walked into it.
When she’d finally gained control of her wayward emotions, she turned in his arms, tracing a trail of kisses along his hard chest to his chin. If she wasn’t going to see him anymore, she was going to make the most of the time left.
He tucked his chin, aligning his mouth with hers. After kissing her almost lazily for several moments, he shifted, pushing her to her back and moving over her.
* * * *
“Captain Morris!”
Dax disentangled himself from Lena and strode to the com unit. “Yes.”
“We’re on final approach, sir.”
“I’ll be up in a few minutes.”
He saw when he turned to look for his uniform that Lena had sat up in bed. Her hair was tousled, her lips swollen, her eyes heavy from lack of sleep. He felt like a complete ass for keeping her up all night, but he’d felt a desperation to make love to her over and over, as if doing so was going to make it any easier.
Scrubbing his hand over his jaw, he discovered he needed a shave--which probably accounted for the redness all over Lena’s neck and chest. Moving to the lav, he shaved quickly. “Would you like to come up with me?”
Lena looked at him hopefully and he felt his gut clench. He forced a smile. “Nigel will probably be watching for our arrival.”
Nodding, she climbed from the bed and moved to the lav as he moved away and grabbed a uniform to put on. He saw when he glanced up from pulling his boots on that she’d pulled her borrowed suit on and was trying to get her feet into the boots. Crossing the room, he tapped her chin to make her lift her head and aligned the front edges of her suit, smoothing the seal.
When she’d combed the tangles from her hair, he took the comb and raked it through his, irritated when he realized it was halfway down his shoulders and wondering if had been that long since he’d remembered to get it cut or if it was just growing faster than he remembered.
Rodriguez glanced at him questioningly when he saw Lena was in tow. Dax glanced at the forward viewing screen. As he did, it went black. “Still no contact?” he asked, pointing Lena toward a vacant seat before he sprawled in his own.
“We got a blip right after I called you, captain.”
