Free Seven Days - A Space Romance by Jill Myles Page B

her ponytail sliding over her shoulder and dangling to touch his chest. “We’re going to practice. A lot. And by the time we get to Titan 34, you’ll be old hat. And I’ll be at your side the entire time.”
    He gave her a skeptical look.
    She sighed. “I’m serious. We have nothing to do for the next two days but wait for the ship to arrive at the asteroid belt.”
    “Nothing?” he asked, and rolled over in the bed, rolling her underneath him. His hips flexed against hers, showing her that he was quickly getting hard again. It wasn’t difficult, given that the Zero-G was no longer destroying his erection and warm, delicious Zoey was cuddled up against him.
    “Well, maybe one or two things,” she said in a teasing voice. Her hand trailed over his tattoos. “A very small thing.”
    He growled. “You didn’t think it was so small earlier.”
    Her eyes opened wide, mock-playful. “I didn’t?”
    “Guess I need to show you again if you forgot, huh?”
    “Guess so.”
    And Kaden kissed that impish smile off her face.
     
    #

 
    Day 5
     
    Zoey rested her bare feet on the nav panel and curled up in her robe, a cup of coffee in hand as she stared out the starboard viewport. One of Titan 34’s rings covered one entire side of the window, and she could see a fraction of the blue planet behind it. Off to the right, she stared at the wreck of ships that made a ship graveyard.
    The Yokohama . And the Cephalon . Very close. She sipped her coffee, staring at the wrecks with an odd mix of anticipation, disappointment, and reluctance churning in her gut.
    Anticipation, because they would soon be heading out to the wreck to salvage what they could and repair their own ship.
    Disappointment, because this should have been an archaeological expedition, and she wouldn’t get the chance.
    And most of all, reluctance. Reluctance that they might get out to the Yokohama and find her stripped of parts thanks to a space pirate. Or worse, that the parts were somehow unusable and Kaden’s diagnostic had been incorrect after all. And, she admitted to herself, reluctance to move on from their cozy pairing.
    Even though she’d been initially a little wary of sleeping with Kaden, she’d quickly found that they... matched. Very well. It wasn’t just the desperation talking, the knowledge that her life would be ending in two short days. It was that they laughed at the same jokes. Enjoyed the same vids, the same books. Shared the same views on so many things. That he didn’t seem to mind when she had a melancholy moment due to their situation. That he was unfailingly optimistic, even though she knew he was fighting real terror at the thought of the spacewalk, and was fighting it for her sake.
    They just... fit.
    In bed, he was amazing. It seemed to bring him just as much pleasure to make her come as it did to climax himself. She’d never had a partner so fascinated with getting her off—her previous relationships seemed to pale in the intensity of the last few days. And when he pulled her into his arms and held her close, stroked her skin, her heart did funny little things. She’d been attracted to Kaden before, in the way that anyone would be attracted to forbidden fruit, but now that she’d had a taste of their illicit affair... she regretted the last two months of celibacy. Deeply.
    It seemed a shame that certain death had been the thing to bring them together. She would have liked to have had more time with him, she thought sadly. Maybe they’d vacation on Mars IV or Ceres 13. Go skiing on the slopes of Astra. Sunbathe on the beaches of Europa 13. Kaden had said he’d wanted to go there.
    Or just cuddle up in his arms, in his quarters, content with the knowledge that no one had to go anywhere for days and days on end.
    She would have liked to do a great many things with him. Definitely felt regret , she said to herself, and cradled her coffee mug in her hands. Zoey stared out the window at the wreck of the Yokohama . It