Domestic Duet: Domestic Alliance & Asset by Cora Blu Page B

away from feminine as the captain did in her mind. Karuntian were hulking giants, prone to resembling a motorcycle gang in her eyes.
    “Captain,” he greeted, setting down what appeared to be the case to a typewriter. Montage carried it to a table, and opened it to reveal several electronic devices.
    Sadie left them to go change.
    Twenty minutes she’d stalled, gathering her nerve to go out into the room to join the captain. Smoothing out the ties at her hip from the length of material around her waist, Sadie looked up and the sight before her pebbled her nipples. He stood dripping wet, water glistening on his bald head under the manmade sunlight streaming through the glass window at his back.
    The appreciative glances from all three men didn’t help her anxiety in the least. But nothing kept her from drooling over Captain Farkus’ black swim trunks slung low on his lean hips. Her eyes drifted to the tattoo in the shape of a star with eight points encircling his navel. His skin glistened with beads of water dripping from his clean-shaven head. Yesterday she was at a funeral for her parents. Today, she was in outer space living an adventure. What would her mother say: You don’t get this day back tomorrow so make it worth remembering.
    She pretended not to care she was outnumbered, walked over to him, and waited by the door. The warm air danced over her bare skin around the scrap of material he called a bikini.
    “The beach cleared of everyone, so you have it alone today.” She accepted his hand as he extended it to her. “Crandall,” he introduced himself. “Ms. Alexander, at your service.” He bowed an exaggerated sweep of his body before her. She smiled, loving his unexpectant gallantry.
    “Crandall,” she returned his curious greeting with a small tip of her head, mimicking his adorable nature. “You’re loaded with personality. I can see why Norese likes you.”
    The wide smile full of flesh tearing teeth, oddly sexy on this male, made him stunning to look at. “If you need anything, ask for Crandall and I’ll pop over from the station.”
    “I’ll remember that.”
    A tug on her hand brought her around to the captain leading her outside.
    “He’s young.”
    “And pleasant,” she added with a smile she hadn’t intended to share, but it was nice to finally see a little southern charm even if it came from an alien a million miles from Earth. “I like him. Crandall’s hospitable.”
    He harrumphed.
    “Is that a problem, Captain?”
    “That you find my male attractive?” He shot her a suspicious side-glance as they traipsed over the dense sand unbalancing her steps.
    She worked to keep up with his long strides. Every few feet their bodies rubbed together and he’d catch her around the waist to steady her steps. Then he’d release her, without a word. Her alien was a gentleman. “I said I like him. I didn’t say we made plans to get married.” The women on her block back home would stop wearing panties if they saw Crandall, or Montage for that matter. Should it concern her she left the captain out of the males she willingly offered to her friends? Yes.
    “You have that freedom, Sadie. Our relationship is strictly business.”
    That should have made her happy. It didn’t.
    Her toes sank into the sand, the red flecks sticking to her feet and legs. She slowed her steps then reached down, running her fingers through the cool granules. She fell back in step allowing the sand to fall from her hand…so pretty.
    “You put off a generous amount of heat, Sadie,” the captain commented, looking down at her. The glow from the alien manmade sky danced over the bridge of his nose.
    “How can you feel my body heat?” she asked, meeting his stare.
    “I’m karuntee. We survive off instinct. I can sense your body temperature change when I’m too close. In earlier times, when more of us lived on the moon—a most inhospitable place—one honed his skills to stay alive. We are moon dwellers, yet most no