Free Hostage To The Stars: A Sectors SF Romance by Veronica Scott Page B

linger.”
    “Right. Causes a secondary infection, really nasty. I planned to take a dip in the creek but I passed out before I could. Thanks for being… willing to cope.”
    Nice polite way to phrase it. She smiled. “I owe you my life. I couldn’t let you suffer.”

    He lay on the mat, trying to ignore the throbbing in his leg where the two bites hurt like hell, with the added joy of the blaster burn. At least the salve numbed the sensations somewhat. Eyes closed, he wished he could think of the right words to say to her, but how do you tell a woman who’s been brutalized repeatedly by thugs that you wished you’d been awake to enjoy the sensation of her hands all over your body? Right, there was no way to express the thought. In her present state she wouldn’t hear the remark as a compliment. Probably feel threatened even though he’d never harm a hair on her head.
    Sara Bridges appealed to him. Not only did she invoke his strongest protective instincts, which was hardly surprising, given he was here precisely to rescue her, but also she was brave and funny and growing increasingly beautiful in his eyes the longer he was in her company. I wish we’d met in an ordinary way. He risked a glance at her under his barely open eyelids. Huddled against his pack, she tried to catch some more sleep, using the lumpy bag as a pillow. He’d have to maintain awareness in case she had another nightmare or anxiety attack. Even with her understandable aversion to being touched right now, she accepted a certain amount of comfort from him. He could talk her down from the cliff, so to speak.
    He tried to imagine them meeting on Azrigone, maybe in the city. A routine encounter between two strangers, going about their everyday lives. He wished he could have had the chance. He’d give anything to spare her from having had to suffer through the kidnapping and abuse. Of course he rarely traveled to the city, hated the crowds. And she’d said she was a researcher in Sector 52 so it was highly unlikely she’d ever be drawn to his home world. Azrigone was in a Sector far removed from the Fifties. So much for fantasies of a normal meeting between a guy and a girl. Once this mission ended, he’d never see her again. He turned the thought over in his mind, increasingly annoyed at the idea. He’d rescued people before, extracted hostages from bad situations. It hadn’t bothered him in the past to walk away without so much as a goodbye, so what was different this time?
    He’d never met a woman like Sara.  
    Was this how Mike had felt, during the job on Mahjundar, when he met Shalira? She was a special woman too. Johnny had no romantic feelings towards her himself, thank goodness. At the end of their adventures there was no question she and Mike were partners. At the time he’d been astounded and more than a little worried his cousin had gone mentally AWOL, falling in love on a mission. Lying here right now, he realized maybe he could begin to understand.
    He drifted off to sleep and when he woke, Sara was putting energy bars and berries on a flat rock, for them to share. He lifted his head to study the rising sun clearly visible outside the cave’s mouth. “You foraged?” Midmorning already. He’d really been out cold, sleeping in and ignoring his mental alarm clock.
    “Don’t be upset. I took precautions, I promise but I’m getting pretty tired of these energy bars. There are fish in the stream, if we had a net to catch them with. Or a spear.”
    “I think I can march tonight, if you’re up for it. Or we can wait until tomorrow,” he said. “I’m going out there now, before the sun is all the way above the horizon, and take a proper bath. Get rid of the remaining venom residue.”
    “Do you —do you need me to help? You’re not very steady on your feet.”
    He found her blush enchanting, but then again maybe it was merely reflection on her cheeks from the sun streaming in the cave entrance. “I’ll be fine. I might