Yes, Captain Read online

  He walked faster as he turned the corner and saw that the lights blinked ahead. That must be his destination. The door opened automatically as he approached and a computer voice said ‘Welcome Captain Acton’ which startled him for a moment before he could enter. Damn, now the computer thought he was this guy? Had the entire ship gone insane?

  Stepping through the door, he saw what he could best describe as controlled chaos. A pale, fragile looking man sat in a chair at the center of the room yelling at whomever he spoke to in a large video monitor. Lizbeth held a fire extinguisher in her hands and seemed to be at the end part of putting out a small flame on one of the consoles. Four other crewmembers rushed from station to station, hitting buttons and barking instructions to each other. Every once in a while one of the crew would roll their eyes at the pale man. Charles raised an eyebrow; he didn’t care if the man was a moron or a sociopath, that was no way to treat the person in charge.

  Having taken it all in, he turned to the video screen and sucked in his breath. The face on the screen wasn’t human. At best, it fit into an amphibian category. Green and scaled, the person on the other end had a long red tongue that split at the end. In between his words, it let the tongue slip out of its mouth with a slurping sound that made Charles want to gag.

  He closed his eyes and tried to breathe through his mouth. It wasn’t the look of the creature on the screen that bothered him, not even the hideous slobbering that went on with its tongue, but rather the fact the creature looked so familiar. Why did he know it so well?

  The ship shook again and with his eyes closed he had no time to brace himself as he fell toward the floor. He thought he heard Lizbeth scream out ‘Acton’ as he whacked his head against the metal guardrail that protected one of the consoles he had stood near.

  Dots appeared before his eyes. He shook his head but it wouldn’t clear. His head swam and for a moment it felt like time slowed down. The scene before him changed abruptly. The fragile man with the pale skin no longer sat in the center chair, but rather he did. Charles could see himself as if he watched it from a distance.

  Lizbeth stood to his left, she handed him some papers to sign, which he did, and she turned away from him, presumably to feed the papers into the computer. As she walked, he watched the version of himself in the chair stare at her ass. Lizbeth seemed unaware of his interest but one of the crewmembers, who Charles now knew was called Emo, snickered. The Captain’s chair spun around and he saw himself glare at the laughing man until he stopped.

  Things sped up now. He knew what would happen next as if he’d read it in a book a thousand times. Moments later, somehow he would be pulled into a million pieces and sent off his ship and it would be the green lizard-like things that would do it to him.

  The question was why and somehow Charles—although he’d now started to think of himself as Acton—was going to get to the bottom of it.

  His eyes started to clear and as he watched the mouths on people around him speed up to catch up to the noises in the room he felt as though he caught up to time. Troy barked orders at Emo whose hands shook. Lizbeth looked frantic as she maneuvered the fire extinguisher to put out yet another fire.

  He was done with this nonsense. This was his ship. It was time he took it back. He stood up, this time as easily as if he’d walked in this type of gravity his whole life—which, in fact, he had.

  “Lizbeth, turn on the evaporation dampeners. I’m not being taken from this ship again and Troy, get the hell out of my chair. I think you’ve done enough damage to it, don’t you think?” The room grew silent and the creature on the screen cursed loudly.

  “Excuse me?” Troy had the nerve to sound indignant.

  He would speak to the crew with how they treated him but it didn’t mean he had to start pretending to like the little rat. They’d served together for years and if there was one thing Acton knew, it was that Troy always had an agenda that was about doing what was best for Troy. Not the kind of behavior a captain wanted to encourage on a spaceship where they were all dependant on each other. If he’d wanted that, he would have stayed in the darkness and lived a life of despondence and near-death poverty with the rest of his people.

  “You were never in line to take over that chair. I don’t know how you stepped into the role but believe me when I tell you it’s no longer yours.” Troy’s mouth hung open. “Are you deaf? I said get the hell out of my chair.”

  Adrenaline surged through his veins and in another second, if Troy didn’t get out of his seat, Acton would rip him from it. He tilted his head to the side. He kind of liked that idea actually. Troy jumped from his seat.

  “Welcome back, Captain.” He looked down at the floor. If the man could have made daggers fly from his eyes they all would be in trouble. Fortunately, that was not an ability Troy actually possessed.

  Acton crossed the room and sat down in his chair. It felt right, like slipping on an old pair of shoes. How had so much time passed and why had he lost track of who he was? Had the doctor said something about the sun? These were questions he’d have to mull later. Right now there were lizard-people to deal with.

  He squinted and stared at the screen. Blinking twice, he forced away the sense of déjà-vu that threatened to overtake him.

  “I think you and I know each other, don’t we?” He would give his opponent a little time to justify himself. He hoped he could still count on his crew to know what they were doing, to get things prepared in case they needed to fire their weapons.

  “I explained to you that you could never go back. You made the choice. You’ve broken our agreement.” Acton could barely make out what the alien said through the slurping and the hissing. This part of the job he hadn’t missed but it was a small price to pay to be back on his ship and in such close vicinity to her.

  “I have no idea to what you are referring. I’m afraid the only thing I am sure of is that you kidnapped me from my ship.”

  “Is this possible?” Over the monitor, Acton heard whispers. The aliens conversed about what he had just said but he couldn’t understand their individual words. “Can you have forgotten?”

  “It has something to do with the sun and vitamin D. If you want a science lesson, you’ll have to speak to someone else. I don’t discuss semantics with people who fire at my ship.” Acton mock-yawned, a skill he’d gotten quite good at over the years.

  “I’m getting tired of this. Emo, turn off the screen. Let’s show the depth of my knowledge in other areas.”

  “Wait.” The lizard captain sounded frantic. “We had an agreement but it looks as though you haven’t meant to break it. Perhaps we can work something out.”

  “I don’t know that I want to work anything out with you.” In fact, he knew he didn’t. As far as he was concerned the lizard could slip quietly back to where it came from.

  “Acton, you agreed to leave your ship, your crew, and all of your friends forever to help us save our small portion of the galaxy. In return, we have left your people alone. Perhaps we did too much to alter your memory, made you more susceptible to their powerful sun. I think we should meet in person, again.”

  Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Lizbeth move forward. She looked pale as if she couldn’t believe what she’d just heard. He wanted to turn around and discuss this with her but he knew there would be no time. Truthfully, what he wanted was to run his hands through that long dark hair until he got lost in the scent. But that was probably more out of the question than discussing this situation.

  Nodding his head, he stared at the screen for one moment longer. “Ten minutes, you come here. You will be met by two of my best security officers. If I don’t like what you say, you’re all dead men.”

  Pushing the button, he cut off the transmission. It had been a really odd day and he had a feeling it was only going to get worse. But he was back where he belonged, doing what he’d been born to do. Everything else could wait with the exception of one brown haired vixen who he knew he had unfinished business with.
/>   Chapter Three

  Lizbeth’s ears rang as she walked toward the conference room. The green menace that attacked their ship had to be making up his accusations. There was no way in any planet in any dimension Acton would deliberately leave all of them without telling someone. Okay, so what she really meant was he wouldn’t leave without telling her.

  So what that they’d never been lovers? They’d been friends. In some ways that was more important. Her fists clenched at her side, she stormed through the doors expecting the meeting in progress. Instead what she found was Acton sitting alone at the conference table.

  She cleared her throat and tried to put on a pleasant expression. “Where is everyone?”

  He looked up and smiled, his expression unreadable. “In conference room B.”

  “I was told to come to C.”

  He nodded. “I know. I’m the one who said to have you come here.”

  Now she felt confused. Leave it to Acton to turn her circles. “Why?”

  “Because I wanted to talk to you. Alone.”

  She swallowed hard. Everything about Acton had changed since he’d remembered himself. Lizbeth wasn’t even sure yet how that happened. There had been no time to talk. The way he held eye contact altered, he seemed much more intense. His hands crossed in front of his chest, with his head tilted slightly to the left was the way she always pictured him when he wasn’t around. When he’d been Charles, he hadn’t sat like that. She needed to tell him. She’d promised Emo but moreover she’d promised herself. No more wasted time.

  “Did you need something Acton?” Stupid. That wasn’t what she meant to say. She couldn’t keep the hurt out of her voice even though she tried and that made her feel ashamed.

  “I need to first thank you for coming and rescuing me.”

  “You’re welcome, of course.” Nothing made Lizbeth feel more ridiculous than accepting thanks. She never knew what the right thing to say was when someone expressed gratitude. Gods, he was so beautiful. Handsome as Charles, there was nothing like the presence of Acton to fill her up inside.

  “Why are you acting so uncomfortable around me?”

  The words exploded out of her like an uncontrollable current. “Because if you chose to leave us on purpose for that place in the middle of nowhere without even telling me about it, then I’m mad as hell at you, and if you’re considering doing it again then I just want to throw something. I—I’ve missed you tremendously for five years and I can’t believe you’re going to do it again. But most especially I’m uncomfortable because—” She paused and swallowed her words. What she’d just said was enough, no need to make things worse.

  “And you’re most uncomfortable why? Tell me, Lizbeth.” His voice lowered and his hands gripped the edge of the table. His eyes bore into hers. What did he expect her to say?

  It was too late to back out now. Time would move forward. He had to know and if he didn’t feel the same then she would move on, but she wouldn’t leave any more business between them unexpressed.

  “Because I’m in love with you. I think I always have been but I didn’t realize it until you were stolen from us and now that I have to tell you, and evidently have a time crunch in which to do it, I’m completely out of my element.” There she’d said it. If he wanted to put her off the ship for being inappropriate, he could. Most likely he was leaving anyway.

  “I don’t yet remember what happened after I left the ship. There is a big jump between my abduction and becoming the earth person Charles. It has yet to come back. I assure you, I will not be leaving again, at least, not if given any other choice.”

  She nodded. He hadn’t said anything about her last statement which meant he either one, didn’t care, or two, hadn’t been at all surprised by her feelings. Lizbeth closed her eyes for a moment against the emotions both of those possibilities raised. When she could trust herself, she opened them again.

  “Will that be all, Acton? I know you need to get to your meeting.” A gathering she wanted to attend as quickly as possible because afterward she needed to crawl into her quarters and hide there to cover her shame and embarrassment for all time.

  Acton pushed down on his communicator. “Lock the door.” Behind her she heard the door seal. She turned around in an attempt to confirm the action. Of course everything looked the same so she spun around and nearly toppled on top of Acton.

  “What are you doing?”

  “What I have wanted to do for eternity.”

  His mouth came down on hers hard. This wasn’t a kiss of kindness or friendship. His mouth made claim of hers in no uncertain terms. Lizbeth knew without a doubt that she was lost to him, now and forever.

  She wouldn’t have expected Acton to have such sweet tasting lips but he tasted of nectar. His breath smelled sweet and when his arm reached up to grab the back of her neck and pull her closer to him, she almost moaned in relief. He pulled his mouth from hers and stared down at her for a moment. Her cheeks warmed.

  “I have always wanted to do this. Even when I thought I was someone else and I saw you I wanted to do this. I’ve been in love with for years and years but I didn’t think you felt the same.”

  He leaned down and kissed her neck. The stubble on his cheeks grazed roughly on her skin but she didn’t want him to stop. Truly, she hoped it would leave a mark. She would be beyond pleased to carry a symbol of what she hoped they were going to complete here today.

  Acton picked her up under her arms as if she weighed nothing and placed her gently down on the wooden table behind them. He loomed over her, his breathing hard and she felt her panties go wet. Of all things holy, the man was gorgeous and he wanted her as much as she wanted him.

  She reached toward him and stroked his face. Afraid her heart might explode, it beat so fast, she tried to take a deep steadying breath but his mouth covered hers again robbing her of air and all coherent thought. Using his knee, he spread her thighs apart before he muttered something unintelligible and pulled her pants down. From her vantage point on the table, she could see through the neck of his shift that his chest hair was thick and dark brown. She longed to run her fingers through it.

  Acton continued to undress her, pulling her top off and exposing her naked chest underneath.

  His eyes got wider and when he spoke his voice sounded rough. “You don’t wear anything under your shirt?”

  She wouldn’t have believed she was capable of grinning as large as she did when she answered him. “Never.”

  His hands ran seductively over her nipple causing shivers to run up and down her body. “And I haven’t known it all this time? I’ve sat in rooms with you, shared endless experiences, conversations, and I’ve had no idea you were nude under your uniform shirt?”

  She nodded and he made a noise that was something close to a grunt as he bit the hardened peak of her nipple. Her back arched off of the table and she screamed. God, he was hot and she had to have him.

  “Get your pants off, Acton.”

  He raised one eyebrow, a smirk on his face. “You’re ordering me around, Lizbeth?”

  “I guess I’m the captain in here, Acton.”

  He nodded. “Then I guess your command is my pleasure to fulfill.” He pulled his long hard shaft from his pants and rubbed it against her opening. She smiled.

  “I command you to put that in me.”

  He leaned over and kissed her hard, biting her lower lip. “Yes, Captain.”

  Pushing himself inside of her almost sent her over the edge. She’d never been so turned on before. Acton was huge and she was relieved to see they could fit together so easily. The sheer largeness of him added to the delicious, endless sensations that filled her from her core and outwards into her entire body.

  She was sure she would start to shout. Someone might hear and break through the locks to come see but she was sure she wouldn’t be able to control herself.

  “Acton.” She pleaded and hoped he understood, as he always seemed to, what she needed. His mouth came down on hers, covering
any sound she might make. Lizbeth was sure she screamed but she was so incoherent she had no idea what she said. Acton’s strong mouth took every noise she made.

  His strokes became more frantic, less controlled, and the buildup of friction brought her greater pleasure. Her whole body shook and she was sure climax would be coming shortly. The sensations that rocked her body were too much, she was sure she would explode into a million pieces.

  “You can get there, I know you can, Lizzy.” He never called her that. His voice saying her name so seductively was all the encouragement she needed. Her muscles contracted violently as wave after wave of pleasure shook her to pieces.

  Acton followed almost immediately, shouting her name before collapsing on top of her as he finished. He moaned quietly and she wrapped her arms around his neck enjoying the quiet sounds of their breathing and the feel of his heartbeat on top of hers.

  * * * *

  Acton couldn’t make his pulse slow to a normal pace. This had been a mistake. Not that he hadn’t loved it or desired her every moment since he’d met her half a century ago. But the likelihood would be that unless he could be more brilliant this time, he would end up once again on the surface of the blue planet calling himself Charles.

  Even though he might not remember her, he knew he would spend the rest of eternity wishing he could have another taste, or more time with Lizbeth. Why had he been such a complete imbecile for so many years and not done this every day they’d been together?

  “What’s wrong?” Her muscles tensed beneath his hands.

  She always understood him so well and he had to admit if she kept rubbing his back with her index finger he might never move. But he was captain of the Instigator, which meant he couldn’t think about himself anymore. There were too many lives on this ship to consider not mentioning the oath he’d taken to protect the Alliance.

  He lifted his head off her forehead and looked down at her perfect features. Stunning would be the best word to describe Lizbeth. Her dark hair was strewn everywhere. She made the perfect picture of carnal pleasure.