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Here's a preview of another story “Escape”.
Escape: Erotic Tales from the Flouriant
1
“Dammit.” I curse for what seems like the hundredth time this morning as the bank of monitors on the left goes fuzzy. It’s the last hour of my shift, and I’m looking forward to going back to my domicile to sleep. Not that we can really tell day from night on the Flouriant, a space station out in the ass end of nowhere. But I’m ready for a break.
I rise and grab my tool belt, moving the chair so I can get under the console. Damn archaic wiring. Ten of my monitors are on the fritz, fuzz and static my only view. And I need that view.
Without it, I won’t be able to see Tov, and I don’t even want to contemplate that possibility. He’s the six foot three, impossibly handsome head of security. And I spend every day following his hot body from monitor to monitor with hungry fascination. I watch him stride across the market floor or down the halls, interrogating suspects, and taking down perpetrators. It’s what gets me through my sixteen-hour shifts.
It’s my job to ensure no one steals from the interplanetary market on board by alerting him to possible suspects. An impossible job, even when the damn monitors work. Thieves are ever-present, their methods more subtle and more devious by the day. And those are only the petty thieves.
We also have some big fish here, which is where Tov comes in. He’s good at what he does. Very good. His piercing blue eyes are always canvasing the crowd, and he has a knack for spotting suspects before I can finger them.
I know I need to get over my obsession with him. There is no way that tall, blond, and outrageously good-looking would even consider someone like me. An inexperienced girl with average looks and a tendency toward gothic fashion.
I stand up to check my work and see eight of the monitors are still out. But on the bank of monitors to the right, I see him stride across the floor from a different angle, purpose in every single step. Questioning mode. I’ve made up terms for his different modes of operation. There’s also Pursuit mode, Takedown mode, and Complete badass mode, which I’ve seen only twice.
He crosses the large space three more times, one hand on the butt of his blaster and the other holding a long flashlight. He uses the flashlight to check behind a counter and grabs someone by the arm. I can’t see him because the person he caught is slightly off camera. There’s a brief scuffle, and the perpetrator actually tries to punch him. I laugh as Tov easily blocks the punch and knocks the guy out with a swift blow to the head.
Good one. I’ll have to congratulate him on our walk home tonight.
Tov might look rough, his time in the service giving him a fierce demeanor, but he’s always made me feel safe. The long blond hair and black-and-gray tattoos running up his arms complete the package that is marked dangerous. With a capital D.
About two years ago, I was attacked on the way back to my domicile. There were three guys—and if I hadn’t had my security com on me, well, things would have been a lot worse. Tov was there in less than three minutes, beating them within an inch of their lives and sending them off in an escape pod. It might sound brutal, but he said that’s the only way to keep men like that from doing terrible things to others just because they can.
Since then, he’s walked me back to my quarters after every shift. It’s great, but awkward. I haven’t really had the opportunity to date, and with the guys I meet, who would want to? Anyway, I don’t really know how to handle myself around men. I’m always sticking my proverbial boot in my mouth with him, and at those times he roars with good-natured laughter at me.
Except for the occasional moments when he looks at me and I swear I can see a burning hunger in his eyes.
Stop imagining, Callie. He would never look twice at you.
I sigh. I’ve seen the kind of women who chase him. Hot. Sexy. Rich. Dammit.
I nick my finger as I finish splicing the wire with a new one. I suck it into my mouth as I crawl partway back out to see if it worked.
Yes! The monitors are all back on. I grab my tools and put them back in the bag.
Just as I stand up to check the view, the alarms go off.
“Seriously?” I groan. “This is not my day.”
I flip on the stationwide emergency network. The words Emergency Evacuation scroll across the screen. There’s a countdown, and it’s at 8:39:48. That’s not hours. It’s minutes.
For a moment, I freeze. Emergency Evac? What the hell could be that wrong?
Just then, the door slams open behind me.
“Callie.” Tov’s deep voice sends shivers down my spine. “We have to evacuate. Now.”
I drop my wire cutters. “What do you mean?”
He strides impatiently across the room and pulls me up. “There’s a bomb on the station. We’ve got eight minutes to get out.”
I still. That’s not long enough to get back to my quarters. “I need to get my medicine.” I grab my pack and try to get past him, but he blocks me.
His face has a look of regret, as his lips thin. “No time for that.”
“I can’t leave without it.” I have a panic disorder. It usually doesn’t affect me, so I don’t carry the pills around. But if we’re going to evacuate, and I’m going anywhere near an escape pod, I’m going to need it.
“Yes, you can. This isn’t like the last time. You’re coming with me.” His voice is fierce, determined.
I try to ignore how that sends shivers down my spine. Can I do it? Just to spend time with him?
Without warning, he picks me up and throws me over his shoulder. I barely hang on to my pack. He slams a fist on the panel by the door, it opens, and he sprints down the hall to the first escape pod bay.
As I’m bouncing on his shoulder, I can feel hysteria start to build in my chest. I can’t go without my medicine. The worst part of panicking is the clawing need to breathe. Someday I’m afraid I really will die from one of the attacks.
He sets me down, entering the code to open the door. I prop myself against the wall, focusing on my breath.
“I’m not getting in there. There’s no way.” I start to feel the weight on my chest, the difficulty in getting air. My parents were killed in an escape pod. We were forced to abandon ship and our escape pod ran out of oxygen before rescue teams could reach us. My parents had put me in a suit with the last of the oxygen attached to it. After pickup, I’d been the only one to revive.
“We’ve already covered this,” he explains patiently, his voice calm even though the alarms are screaming. He puts one hand on my shoulder. “You can do it. With me. Together.”
At any other time, I would probably have done anything he asked. But I can’t. I shake my head. “You don’t understand. If there’s a malfunction, I won’t know what to do. I don’t even know how to reprogram it if there’s a program failure.”
He glances at his watch. “Time is of the essence.”
I look through the door at the tiny space. “I think I’d rather die.”
He growls and grabs me by the arms, backing into the pod and pulling me in after him so I’m sitting on his lap.
“These pods were meant for one!” I protest. “You can’t…”
But he’s already pushed the button. I feel bile rising up my esophagus as we shoot from the station, the speed forcing me back into his lap. We’re doomed.
Out the window, I see the space station receding quickly. “It looks fine! Why are you doing this?”
I see a few other escape pods jettison—many of them are far behind us.
“Just wait,” he says caustically.
A few moments later, the space station bursts into multicolored light going in all directions. Blue, green, orange, red, purple…like rainbows from Old Earth I’d only read about. Fires burn across the sky and debris expands outward in a deadly torre
nt of fire and metal.
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About the Author
Immortal Angel has lived a hundred lifetimes all in one. She's a mother, a sister, a daughter, a wife, and a best friend. She's traveled the real world, enjoying what our three-dimensional reality has to offer. She's hiked the stairs inside the Eiffel Tower. She's watched a Shakespearean play in a grassy clearing outside of Cambridge, and she's ridden a ferry to Ireland. In Australia, she cuddled koalas, in China, she cuddled pandas, and in the Middle East, she cuddled camels. And every time she opened a book, she entered a world beyond this one, one where the only limits are the imagination.
So many lifetimes of adventures have inspired her to reach beyond this planet to the stars above and to worlds rooted in fantasy. Her romances in space are meant to take her readers on their own adventures, imagining new and exciting place. With hot men. And maybe a few sexy aliens too.
You can follow Immortal Angel on Facebook, Twitter @ImmortalAngel22, and her blog here.
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