“Stay put,” I told him. “I have to fix this thing and I’m not going to go chasing your sorry ass across this god-forsaken planet. You bolt, I shoot. Got it?”

He smiled at me. It was unnerving. And ridiculously sexy. “Got it, Ace.”

“And stop calling me Ace, jackass.”

I entered the tin can I liked to call my spaceship and scrounged together the few tools that I had brought with me. I hadn’t done a full assessment of the damage yet, but was nonetheless confident that it could in fact be fixed. It had to be fixable, actually, or I was in deep shit. The Captain gave me this stupid mission to get my ass out of the hot water I was in and if I fucked it up, I would just be in deeper. That didn’t sound like a metric ton of fun to me. I peeled back the wall panel to get to the wiring for the navigation system. Sparks flew out at me. I fell backwards.

“Shit!” I yelled, forgetting for a second that I wasn’t alone.

The whole system looked fried. I would be lucky if it didn’t take me a week of intensive labor to get it straightened out and working again. Just then my houseguest popped his head in the door.

“Need any help?” he asked, almost cordially.

I turned my head to look at him, noting the amusement in his eyes.

“No,” I snapped at him. “I got it.”

I muttered under my breath at the mess of wires I had to sort out then took my pliers and dug in as best I could. I heard him still behind me, but I didn’t turn around. I figured he was probably leaning nonchalantly in the doorframe, watching me with a smug she’s a girl, there’s no way she can fix that look on his face. Men, I thought. No matter how many hundreds of years it had been since the women’s movement in the pre-millennium, nothing had changed. Nothing ever changed. I was feeling pretty smug as I sorted our a little bit of the problem with the wiring.. I looked over my shoulder to throw a cocky word or two his way and realized he wasn’t there.

“Oh, no, no, no. Damn!” I said to the empty ship, thinking he had fled.

I ran out of the ship and into the red dunes and sun outside, gun in hand and came to a screeching halt when I saw him sitting against the hull of the ship, swirling his finger through the sand. He looked up when I came flying out. Our eyes met and I wondered what kind of threat this man could be. His face held neither malice nor any pretense of remorse for whatever it was he had done. I sighed. Fuck it, I thought. I knew in my head we were going to be together a while, the two of us, and he obviously had no intention of bolting. So it wouldn’t hurt to exchange at least a greeting, would it?

I walked over to him. “What’s your name?”

“John.You?”

“Sam.”

“Well it’s nice to meet you, Sam.”

Yeah, I thought, the pleasure is all mine. I wasn’t one to get all googly-eyed over a man. That had never been my style. But there was something about him. Something dangerous, but gentle at the same time. I shook my head and made a face at myself. Oh my god! What kind of idiot was I? He watched me, probably thinking I was crazy.

“Look, I gotta get back to work in there. You can come in out of the sun if you like.” That was the best I could do for now at being cordial.

I felt his eyes on me as I walked back into the ship and I cursed myself for being so stupid. I had never been affected like this by a GUY. It was irritating as hell. I like men as much as the next chick, but this was getting to be too much. I was not the type to get all flustered and nervous around some male with a nice body.

After sitting back down in front of the mess the crash had created of my navigations system, I heard him come inside. This time he sat down. I could see him out of the corner of my eye while I worked. He sat so still and seemed so calm. I found myself wondering what would happen to him when I got him back to the Territories. I wondered what it was he had done to get himself in this much trouble in the first place.

“I know what you’re thinking,” he said suddenly. “And no, I didn’t do it.” His voice pierced the silence like a needle to a balloon.

I jumped when he spoke, startled out of my own thoughts.

“Is that what I was thinking?”

“Yes,” he said calmly. “It was.”

“Huh. Wow, where did you learn to read minds? Cus if I were you I’d get my money back.”

I pretended concentration on the task at hand, hoping he wouldn’t try for any further conversation. My concentration was of course completely shot and my curiosity was getting the better of me. I tried to work for a bit longer and finally gave in.

“Okay, I give. What is it that you didn’t do?”

“I didn’t kill the Ambassador.”

I gaped at him. The death of the most influential man in the modern world had shaken the Territories. There had been talk of revolution, of a new government, of total administrative control over everything. It was mayhem and this man was the cause.

“Holy shit,” was all I could muster.

“I was framed, Sam. It’s bullshit. I have no political agenda. I barely even knew who the guy was.”

John spoke as if he scoffed at the government players. He did not sound like a man who was out to change the face of the universe with drastic measures. I felt almost inclined to believe him, which pissed me off even more.

“Well if you didn’t do it, who did? And why would they frame you and not someone else?”

“I don’t know who did it. I just know it wasn’t me. I was on Venus 12 when it happened, drinking in a pub. I had had a few too many, but shit, who doesn’t now and then? The last thing I remember was being in the pub and feeling dizzy. I woke up face down in an alley with a sniper blaster in my hand. Turns out it was the gun that had been used to shoot the ambassador. Funny coincidence, isn’t it? I mean, fuck, I can’t even piss straight when I’m that drunk, much less shoot a sniper blaster from a rooftop well enough to pull off an assassination.”

I was a little taken aback as I hadn’t expected that much of an explanation. I hadn’t expected to believe a word of it either. But looking at him and knowing what I knew of the state of the government lately, it seemed at least somewhat possible that he was telling the truth. The shit had been about to hit the fan at the capital for some time now. Something had been brewing; it was just a matter of what. The political shitstorm that resulted from this assassination was just enough to put a new face into power. And there were plenty who had been biding their time for a turn to play ball.

“Ah, shit. You know, I actually believe you. Isn’t that sad? You’d think I didn’t have a single brain cell left. Maybe I hit my head harder than I thought.”

I reached up to touch the cut on my head. It no longer bled, but still smarted a bit. I made a face as pain shot through my head. He looked at me with concern and moved closer to me.

“Ow,” I said softly as he tenderly inspected my wound. I felt like such a girl all of a sudden.

“It’s not too deep,” he said. “Won’t need stitches.”

He sat back again and I actually felt disappointment that he was no longer near.

“You were lucky.”

“If I had been lucky, I wouldn’t have crashed the damn ship.”

I turned back to my work, unsure of where to go from here. I had just told Dangerous Political Prisoner John that I believed his tale of innocence and he had just tenderly examined my gaping forehead wound. I was at a loss really. I had known the man for a matter of hours and he had been gentle with me. No man had ever been gentle with me. My dream came back, the dream in which he had appeared to me. I remembered how it had felt when he pulled me to him, how our bodies fit and I remembered the sensation of happiness washing over me then. Where the hell had that dream come from? And why?


I was at a loss for anything to say, a rarity for me. I was very rarely nervous, especially around men. That was one facet of my life where I always had complete control. But this one, he was different. I felt jittery all of a sudden and pulled myself out of my thoughts to see him studying me.

“Where did you go?” he asked.

“What? Oh. No, I just…My mind wanders sometimes.”

I felt like an idiot. I looked up at him. Prisoner, I repeated over and over in my head. He’s a prisoner, an outlaw.

“I need to fix this so I can get you where I’m supposed to take you.”

I made a show of trying to go back to fixing the ship, trying not to kick my own ass for being such a girl about all this. A gorgeous man on my ship tells me he is innocent and my first instinct is to believe him?? What the fuck! He stood watching me for a very long time, longer than I was comfortable with. I sighed, and met his stare with my own. He didn’t look upset or angry or anything I would have expected. He looked resigned. I guess that is what got me in the end.

I threw down my tools and stood up again to face him.

“You can’t just tell me you’re innocent and expect it to change what I am here to do. If I don’t follow orders it’s MY ass. And while I think you are very nice, I do not relish sharing a cell with you for the rest of my life!”

He was stoic. His silence made me even angrier. What the hell did he want from me?

“ARRRRRRRRRGH!” I yelled.

I turned around so I wouldn’t have to face him. I heard the rattle of his chains and then felt his hand on my shoulder. I wondered if he thought I was crazy.

“Oh fuck it,” I said and spun around, grabbed his face in my hands, and kissed him.

It was the most impulsive thing I’d ever done. And the rush of it was like a drug. I could feel his kiss in every cell of my body. His lips were hard and unyielding and he returned the kiss with utter abandon. I parted my lips just a little and then his tongue was plunging into my mouth. I felt my knees go weak. My fingers tangled in his hair as I held him to me, letting him deepen the kiss. He tried to put his arms around me, but his chains were in the way. Without a word or a thought, I took out the key and unlocked them. In a split second, his arms were wrapped tightly around me. I felt how strong he was when he held me and I knew then that I had to have him.

We stood there in the belly of my big metal scrapheap and I had what could only be described as the best kiss of my life. It seemed to go on forever. I started to lose track of anything that was going on that wasn’t his lips and mine. He lowered me down and I let him. He was on top of me. Our mouths stayed intertwined as he ran his hands up and down my body on the outside of my flight suit. I could feel him hardening against my leg. He kissed me with a hunger that would have been frightening if it weren’t so intoxicating. I felt myself wanting to be devoured, wanting to satiate his hunger.

My mind was full of him, what his body felt like against mine, the salty taste of his skin, the way I would open my eyes every little while as he kissed me and see him watching me with his dark eyes. There were shivers running through me while his tongue explored my skin, almost like jolts of electricity from my head to my toes. The feeling was more concentrated in my belly, but god I was pretty sure that even my ankles were aroused by that point.

He tugged on the zipper of my flight suit, which ran all the way down to my abdomen. His hand hesitated when he got to the bottom, hovering agonizingly over my sex. I sucked in a breath, feeling my body’s instant reaction to just the idea of him touching me there. I was aching for him. I wanted him to touch me so badly. I opened my eyes and looked into his stormy gaze.

“Please,” I whispered.

I had never begged anyone for anything in my life, but I had no trouble asking him for this. As he watched me with those eyes of his, he plunged his fingers between my legs. My back arched and I cried out as he explored my wetness. He was merciless and gentle at the same time, a combination that had me writhing all over the floor. He kissed me again as he made love to me with his hands.

His hand slid up my stomach and spread apart the front of my suit. I only had on the tank top and no bra. He slipped his hand softly under the cottony fabric and massaged my breast. I gasped when he pinched my nipple but he smothered my lips with his and I was silent again. I pulled on his shirt, wanting to see all of him, to have all of him. He lifted his hands over his head and then slid easily out of the rest of the dingy flight suit. I ran my hands along all of the skin I could reach, savoring the feeling of his flesh and mine. His body was hard with muscle. A few more minutes and I was out of my clothes, both of us naked on the cold floor.

He kissed my neck and my ear lobe and I pulled him to me, wanting him so badly to be inside me. I felt his manhood poised at the entrance to my sex and with one smooth thrust he was inside of me. My nails dug into his back as I matched his rhythm with the movement of my hips. I raised myself up to meet his thrusts and felt as though I were drowning in a sea of ecstasy.

“John,” I breathed.

He groaned when he heard me say his name and increased his speed. I had never felt anything like this. He was pure solid man and I couldn’t get enough of him. I wanted more, wanted it all. We moved together in this ancient dance, skin touching skin, soul to soul. I was slick with sweat from the exertion and so was he. His body slid smoothly over mine as I held him to me. Our lips were locked together in an endless embrace. I broke the kiss and threw back my head as I felt myself climaxing. I exploded inside and the earth shook. He thrust into me a few more times and erupted, spilling his seed into me.

We lay on our backs afterward, staring at the ceiling. His fingers toyed with my hair and I found myself unable to move. Now that the mind-blowing sex was over, my brain started to function a little bit again. Slowly, but surely I was regaining my sanity. I could not set him free. I would be hunted as surely as he would be. I would be an outlaw too. I was an officer in the military and I could not break the law. My mind was soon running a million miles an hour, wondering what in the hell I was supposed to do.

I turned my head to look at him. He smiled sadly at me, almost as though he knew exactly what I was thinking. I started to speak, but stopped and looked back at the ceiling. Without a word, I got back into my clothes and set to work fixing the ship. I finished quickly, desperate to get off this god-forsaken planet. All the time I worked, John didn’t say a word to me, nor I too him. I was too ashamed.

I told him to strap himself in and headed for the cockpit. He grabbed my arm as I walked by.

“Sam,” he said softly.

I looked up at him. His eyes implored me not to turn him over to the TA. I would have cried then if only I knew how. And why. I didn’t know why I wanted to save this man. I just knew that I did. I closed my eyes for a brief second, remembering the feel of him inside of me. I took a deep breath.

“I can’t,” I whispered.

It was agonizing, knowing I couldn’t help him. He lifted my chin with his finger, leaned down and gently kissed me. And it seemed like a goodbye. I returned to the cockpit and fired up the ship. We took off for the Territories, John sitting silently beside me. I kept stealing glances at him, wondering if this was really happening. Was I really going to turn him over so they could do god knows what to him? We didn’t get very far before I punched new coordinates into the computer. The ship made a u-turn and headed the opposite direction of everything I had ever known.

“You had better be worth it,” I shot at him.

John reached over and took my hand. We were on the lam now. I hoped he knew what I was giving up for him. The future had never been so uncertain. He gave my hand a squeeze and held on to it.

“Sam,” was all he said.