His dark brows slammed together over the bridge of his nose, but he didn't attempt to say anything else.
"I got a real problem right now, anyway," she muttered. "My clothes are soaked. I don't have anything to put on."
Seth looked down at his own shorts.
He was still hanging out of them, Danika discovered when she followed his gaze. And he either hadn't cum like she'd thought or he already had another raging hard-on.
She revised that once she'd pulled her briefs down and wrung the water out of them. He'ddefinitelycum!
The asshole!
She wasn't sure she liked the way the damned thing had leapt right back up! It sure as hell didn't seem to indicate a lot satisfaction!
She, on the other hand, wascompletelysatisfied andcompletelyuninterested in whether he was ready to go again or not!
Her T and briefs were still way too wet to be comfortable even after she'd wrung as much water out as she could and stood inside the dryer until her skin and hair was dry. She contemplated staying longer, but her skin was already stinging from the sunburn.
The upside to the situation was that she figured everybody would've had time to go back to sleep--she hoped.
* * * *
Danika knew as soon as they were summoned to report to the mess for food and then turn out for work detail the following morning that she'd been too horribly right. She'd made enough racket to wake up everybody sleeping in the hold/sleeping quarters. Most of the men simply stared at her as if they were trying to figure outwhyshe'd been caterwauling. The women either wouldn't look at her at all or they smirked knowingly, which made her want to knock the smirks off their faces.
Sheila was the only one that had the nerve to approach her directly, however.
"So," she said pausing on her way out of the mess, "how was it?"
Danika felt her face flame instantly. "What?" she asked, trying to pretend she didn't have a clue of what the woman was talking about.
Sheila gave her a look. "Oh come on! The showers weren't that damned good! At least not when I took mine."
She supposed if she put her fist in Sheila's face it wouldn't be considered assaulting a superior now that Reuel had made her captain ... and it was tempting. On the other hand, she was still more intent on pretending it had never happened than removing all doubt and besides that Reuel was already unhappy with her due to the firefight with his groundcover the day before.
As if the thought had conjured him or--horror of horrors he'd already heard!--she saw Reuel striding toward the ship as she left it. She was on the point of trying to pretend she hadn't seen him when he lifted a hand and summoned her.
She presented herself reluctantly. "Yes, Sir?" she said uneasily.
"Come with me."
He didn't wait to see if she would. He simply kept going and started climbing the rocks toward the summit of the rocky crag they'd used to conceal the ships. Hoping he didn't intend to go all the way to the top since she wasn't really keen on heights, Danika followed him. He paused on a ledge about half way up, moved to the edge and stared down at their encampment. Apparently satisfied, he turned and gestured for her to join him.
Curious, Danika moved closer and stood staring down, as well.
"I have need of the human eye and I trust you. Look closely and see how well we have done in concealing our presence."
As comprehension dawned, Danika focused on the view below in an entirely different way. It was hard to be objective, she discovered, when she knew what was below, but she focused on looking for anything that really stood out. "I don't think anybody would see it unless they were specifically looking for it," she said finally. "I mean the ships or the equipment. It's pretty easy to see everybody working because their suits are so white and nothing else is. And I think we might ought to get rid of the vegetation we cut down. I can't see it from here, but it's already starting to look wilted. It'll look dead soon and then it'll probably be a lot more noticeable."
Reuel, she saw when she glanced at him, was frowning. He nodded. "I'd thought much the same." He paused for several moments. "Some of them know we have ships. I think we must assume there will still be survivors when the Confederation ships arrive and that that will not remain a secret long." He looked disgusted. "I had hoped .... But we must work with what we have to work with. Let us hope that the determination of a few to rescue the women from our former battalion will not cost us all--and work to do what we can to prevent that.
"We must see what we can do about the suits. Some of the vegetation stained your skin yesterday when you were working. Mayhap it can be used to make the hab-suits a little less blindingly white? I will let you experiment with that."
Danika nodded and turned to go.
"Ah ... Captain .... Mayhap a little more discretion next time?"
Danika whipped a sharp look at him, feeling her face heat. "Sir?"
Humor gleamed in his eyes for a few moments and then he looked away, studying the scene below them. "There are no doubt strange and wonderful creatures on this world. I believe I heard the mating call of one last eve when I was making my final rounds. I pointed it out to the men.
