Page 20 of Bradi
Chapter Eight
Bradi finished putting the last of the large leaves over the crude structure and climbed underneath it to join Marisa by the fire. She sat there rubbing her hands together with her knees to her chest. It gave him a fantastic view up her ultra-short shorts and he savored it. His cock stirred to life and he could almost taste her sweet skin as he watched her.
He reached out to turn the brula he’d managed to catch to keep it from burning over the fire and he moved closer to her. She shifted and gave him a wary look. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“You look cold and I’m burning up, so I thought you might want to be close to me.” It was only a partial truth. Because I want to hold you seemed like too bold a statement.
“Oh,” she said, moving closer to him. She looked up at the meat and cocked an eyebrow. “Are you sure that’s edible?”
He chuckled. “Yes, it’s similar to rabbit.”
“I’m going to eat a bunny?” She sounded so innocent.
Laughing again, he turned the meat. “No, brula. Similar but not the same thing.”
“How do you know so much about this planet? I thought you were from Margaidia.”
He had to hide his delight. She knew, or thought she knew, where he was from. That meant that she’d paid attention to the details of his life. He nonchalantly turned the brulaagain and shrugged. “Well, I lived there for the last twelve years but I wasn’t born there.”
“Where were you born?”
He smiled. “Tell you what—I’ll tell you a secret about me if you tell me one about you first.”
Marisa stiffened. “I don’t have any secrets.”
“Fine, then neither do I.”
She glanced up at him and shivered. Sliding his arm around her, he waited for Marisa to scream at him or hit him. When she did neither, he assumed it was safe. They sat quietly and watched the brula cook. His gaze kept going to her legs and he wished that she’d come clean about her ability to heal just so she could mend the angry cuts on her body.
“Bradi?”
“Hmm?” he asked, not wanting to let her go and praying she wouldn’t ask him to.
“What happened to the ship? It was fine, and then all of the sudden it wasn’t.”
The same question had plagued him from the moment he’d felt the first signs of distress on the ship—and that had been a day prior to the crash. His gut told him it was sabotaged, but he didn’t want to believe that one of his own crew members would do such a thing. The meteoroid shower could have been to blame, but even that wouldn’t have caused the amount of destruction he’d seen on board the ship. “I’m not sure, baby.”
When she didn’t balk at his term of endearment, he took it as a good sign.
She sighed. “Peter is probably dead, isn’t he?”
He exhaled slowly. “Yes. Probably.”
He drew her deeper into his arms and was surprised when he felt her shift her body to meet his. Kissing the top of her head gently, he rocked her slowly. Marisa turned her face to meet his and when he noticed the unshed tears in her eyes, he instantly wanted to rip something apart.
*
Marisa stared into the blue depths of Bradi’s eyes as the firelight sparkled off them. It struck her how handsome Bradi was, and she was grateful for the warm glow of the fire because it masked the faint red glow she now wore. This man, whom she’d assumed was a pig, sat so quietly, stroking her back gently and rocking her softly. How was it that he could be so thoughtful when she’d only ever considered him a candidate for Chauvinist of the Year award?
Bradi’s full lips were framed nicely by his dark black goatee, and when he tipped his head slightly to look at her, she couldn’t help herself. Leaning in, she pressed her lips lightly to his.
His entire body stiffened and for a minute, she thought he’d push her away from him, but he didn’t. When she felt his hand move into her hair, she realized what she’d started.
The kiss remained chaste at first, and that bothered her. Was she not as good as the women he normally surrounded himself with? Marisa had never undergone any drastic body changes, so her breasts were hers and hers alone, as was the rest of her body. At five foot five, she just missed hitting his shoulder and she knew that men tended to prefer the intergalactic supermodels to tiny women like her. Didn’t they?
Opening her mouth slightly, she let her tongue slide along his lower lip. She was met with a moan and Bradi’s grip tightened in her hair. Pulling her head back slightly, he brought his mouth down hard on hers.
At first, she forgot to breathe. Sure, she’d been kissed before, but never like this. Never with such raw, unbridled passion. His tongue dove in and out of her mouth, mimicking mating, and Marisa’s legs drew together in an attempt to quell the burning between her thighs.
