Free The Space Colonel's Woman (Dragonus Chronicles Book 1) by Jay Shaw Page A

draining miraculously away.
    “Where you going?”  He asked when Julia turned to search out her toiletries. 
    “Soap’s in the water, just stay inside the silver square.” Mark explained and vanished into thin air, freaking her out.  She couldn’t help her bubble of shocked laughter when his disembodied head reappeared, mischievous grin splitting his handsome face. “Still here, nothing says privacy like a reflective holographic wall, right?”
    The simple act of rubbing her skin conjured soapy bubbles instantly washed away, only for more to be made when Mark caressed her.  She’d never had a shower like it in her life.  Even the distortion from their bodies didn’t splash so much as a drop beyond the silver square.  The tape on Mark’s flank soaked through and he ripped it off to expose patchy bruises beneath the pale smooth skin of his flank.
    “Had worse.” He assured her when she stroked him with gentle fingertips, a trail of bubbles rising in their wake.
    “And I’ve seen worse.” She murmured, Mark stilling at her words. “SAR chopper EMT, twelve years.”
    “Chopper?” His eyes were wide as he gathered her against his slick skin. “You’re a pilot?”
    “Uh huh.” Julia pressed a kiss to the hollow of his throat. “Seems we’re a matching set, you and I.”
    Mark’s fingers tangled in the wet ropes of her hair when he kissed her forehead. “Works for me.”
    They stood under the caress of the spiraling waterfall, eyes closed and the feel of each other in their arms, until the water turned itself off and Mark had waved his hand over the wall beside the basin.  A compartment appeared and yielded two fluffy white towels, laundered with a soothing lavender-like scent.  Julia left Mark to shave and went in search of clean clothes.  When he joined her in the main room, his jaw was smooth, his hair soft and rakish, and his towel rode low on his narrow hips.  She was tempted to explore every inch of him, but if she did, they’d never leave the room.  And ignoring Colonel Archer’s orders wasn’t the best way to begin her new life on Phoenix.
    So she settled for memorizing every minute movement he made as he dressed in clean BDUs, tee, and black fitted over-shirt with Phoenix shoulder patches.  She knew he was aware of her gaze, and no doubt, her thoughts as well.  The blush high on his cheeks told her how she was affecting him and the power buzzed in her shower-warm limbs.  But she wasn’t the only one with the power to arouse.  Mark’s expression when he stood from lacing his boots hit her with a physical jolt, deep down low in her belly.  If he hadn’t needed to go, Julia knew with absolute certainty she would’ve found herself flat on her back again; Mark ravishing her with his mouth and his body.  A pleasant thought, indeed.
    “Do you want to come with me?” He asked, folding his sleeves into precise three inch cuffs just above the crease of his elbows.
    “I have to stay put, remember?” Julia pretended not to notice his frown, gazing around the room again instead. “It’ll give me time to unpack.”
    “Take the drawers by the bed.” Mark moved over to the white dresser, wiggled his radio into his left ear, then pressed the silver trim at the base of the top drawer.  It opened without making a sound. “These three are empty.”
    She clutched her towel over her breasts and hoisted her duffle onto the rumpled bed. “Thanks.”
    “I’ll be in the infirmary, then conference room for debriefing.  Could be a while.”
    “I’d better be the only one debriefing you, Colonel Holden.”
    “Count on it, Beautiful.” He laughed, a warm and happy sound that Julia felt in her chest. “I’ll come back for you and we can eat.”
    “Sounds good.” She agreed, dropping her towel and bending at the waist. 
    The whispered Jesus fuck! as he fled the room, left her chuckling to herself as she decided what color panties Mark would enjoy ripping off her later.

 
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