Page 11 of Bradi

Chapter Four

Marisa woke with a start and barely held back a scream. The nightmare she’d had was too vivid for her to maintain her composure. She looked around the small POD, remembering what had happened, and wondered if real life wasn’t actually worse than her dream. Lieutenant Commander Janelle snored softly in his sleep, and his long body looked slightly cramped in the confined quarters.

The PODs were designed to maintain minimal life support requirements to allow for maximum amount of travel time. Marisa exhaled and swore that she could see her breath before her face. Freezing, she moved closer to Bradi for warmth.

“At least the brute’s good for something,” she said as she snuggled in close to him. Still cold, she butted her body to his and almost jerked back when she felt a rush of heat go through her. Thinking that Bradi might be ill, she reached up and touched his cheeks gently. As hard and aloof as she wanted to appear when it came to Bradi, the idea of losing him terrified her.

Then there was the fact that he’d come for her. He’d refused to leave her behind and had risked his life for her.

Closing her eyes, Marisa activated her chip and requested a check of Bradi’s vitals. His core temperature was a good ten degrees hotter than a normal person’s and when she went to access his medical records, pain ripped through her head. The chip fizzled and left her with a migraine.

“Bradi?” She touched his face again, needing to know that he was okay.

He shifted slightly and mumbled something in his sleep. Leaning down, she listened closer as he repeated it.

“I am horny and tired. Fix the first or let me sleep.”

“Oh, you…you…animal!”

The smirk that had spread over his features died quickly. He put his back to her and winced. She knew that his shoulder still hurt him, but until he let her examine it, she’d take what little satisfaction she could get from the fact that he was uncomfortable.

“How did I get stuck with you?” She attempted to get comfortable again by putting her back to him as well, and failed. “Brr. It’s freezing in here.”

Bradi shifted again behind her and let out a groan before wrapping his large body around hers. Everything in her mind told her to shove the big jerk off her, but her body sizzled under the weight of his touch.

*

Marisa’s body was tense and Bradi knew that she was thinking of tossing him off her. In truth, Bradi kind of hoped she would. His bad arm was vulnerable if she decided to inflict pain and he didn’t think he could handle her calling him an animal again. If she only knew how close to the truth she was.

The feel of her curvy backside snuggled close to his body made his cock jerk. Even after narrowly escaping with their lives, Marisa still managed to smell wonderful and make his body hungry for hers. She always had. The first day he’d met her, he’d been drawn to her like no other female before. Something about her called to him on a primitive level, and he didn’t want to think too hard about it.

To his kind, that type of attraction could only mean one thing. And that wasn’t something Marisa would ever want to believe to be true. Bradi was having a hard enough time juggling the idea around in his head. Asking Marisa to believe she might very well be his mate, born to be his lover, his wife, the mother of his children, was insane.

The woman couldn’t stand him. She barely tolerated him and she’d only kissed his cheek because emotions had been running high.

*

Bradi woke slowly, his joints aching and his body on fire. It was normal with his condition for his body to react to changes in the temperature automatically. It was also common for him to run several degrees hotter than a human. That was just one of the reasons why he’d refused to allow Dr. Marisa Langston to evaluate him. Hell, he hadn’t ever allowed any Commission doctor to examine him. It’d cost him a pretty penny to pay others to forge his documents, but it was necessary all the same.

Marisa was still sleeping and he didn’t want to wake her. She looked like an angel lying there with her arms pulled up close to her chest and it took everything in him not to reach out and touch her. The cut on her arm had finally stopped bleeding but the slightest bump could easily break it open. Rolling on his side, Bradi winced when pain radiated through his shoulder.

Peeking out the POD window, his stomach dropped.

There, in the far distance, he saw the telltale aquamarine color of Margaidia, their original destination, and the destination that had been programmed into all the escape PODs, should there be trouble.

The POD had overshot the planet and was headed on a direct path for Sargaidia, the uncharted sister planet to Margaidia—and the last place in the universe he wanted to go back to.

Bradi checked the computer and found it frozen over. Looking around the POD, he realized that the entire thing was covered with a thin frost.

Marisa.

Dropping down next to her, he touched her lightly. Her body was rigid and extremely cool to the touch.

“Doc?” he asked, shaking her gently. She didn’t respond and his gut twisted. The thought of her freezing to death before he was able to get the POD operational again was a very real possibility.

“Come on, babe,” he said, hoping to goad her into responding. The faint blue line around her lips told him that no amount of prodding would help. She’d been hurt when they’d entered the POD and now she was dying.

Acting quickly, Bradi pulled his shirt off and reached for her. Groaning softly from the pain shooting through him, he covered Marisa’s body with his own. “This isn’t enough.”

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