Brianna Read online

  BRIANNA

  An Ellora’s Cave Publication, June 2004

  Ellora’s Cave Publishing, Inc.

  PO Box 787

  Hudson, OH 44236-0787

  ISBN MS Reader (LIT) ISBN # 1-84360-882-0

  Other available formats (no ISBNs are assigned):

  Adobe (PDF), Rocketbook (RB), Mobipocket (PRC) HTML

  BRIANNA © 2004 JUDY MAYS

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part without permission.

  This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. They are productions of the authors’ imagination and used fictitiously.

  Edited by Raelene Gorlinsky.

  Cover art by Syneca.

  Celestial Passions:

  Brianna

  Judy Mays

  Prologue

  “Spread your legs.”

  She complied.

  “You’re very wet. Look.”

  When he placed the mirror beneath her, she was able to look down and see her honey dripping from between her swollen labia. He slid his fingers along her slit. She moaned and arched into his hand.

  “Wider.”

  Cupping her own breasts, pinching her swollen nipples, she leaned back and spread her legs as widely as she could.

  “Come into me, now!” she demanded.

  Grasping her thighs, he thrust his cock into her and began to pump, slowly at first and then more rapidly, more deeply.

  They both moaned.

  Naked, Char lay back on his bed, hands clasped negligently behind his head. Still flaccid, his penis curled over his testicles.

  With a bored grimace, he reached for the control and fast-forwarded. Soon two couples cavorted on the screen. Still, he remained unaroused.

  With a mumbled curse, he swung his legs over the side of the bed and pushed himself to his feet. “I don’t know why I bother.”

  Discontent rippled through his mind. No woman had aroused his interest since…

  But, she was certainly married now, and her husband would give him another scar to match the first if he ever got near her again.

  Char raked his hands through his hair. Why was he lying to himself? Even with her, it had been the thrill of the chase, the pursuit of the forbidden.

  Restless, he left his bedroom only to return a few minutes later with a glass of his favorite red wine. A solitary woman now amused herself on the video screen. His penis stirred.

  “But she’s there, and I’m here, and self-appeasement doesn’t appeal to me today,” he muttered to the empty room. “I want a woman who’s different, whose responses aren’t planned or choreographed. A woman who looks at me for me, not for my wealth or family name.”

  Could there be such a woman anywhere?

  Laughing bitterly, Char tossed back his wine. “I’ve been everywhere.”

  The red light flashed above the intercom.

  Setting his glass on the table, he punched a button.

  “What?”

  “We’ve lost them. We heard sounds of a struggle and then the audio went dead.”

  “I’m on my way.”

  Jerking his clothing from the chair next to his bed, Char slid into the form-fitting uniform. Then, tail lashing with barely controlled anger, he left his quarters and headed for the starship’s bridge.

  Chapter One

  The incessant screaming of the sirens burst across the base.

  Brianna clenched the steering wheel tighter as she slowed to a stop at the gate. “Come on, Harry, ignore the sirens and raise the barrier.”

  The barrier remained down.

  Harry stepped out of the guard box and walked towards her open window.

  “Oh, shit!” She glanced back over her shoulder. “Stay down and don’t move.”

  The light wind blew a fine dust into her open window.

  As the guard bent to look inside her SUV, Brianna forced a nonchalant grin. “Come on, Harry. I promise I didn’t steal any government secrets.”

  Harry grinned back. “Gotta follow the rules, Bri. Just need a quick look.”

  The shrill ringing of the phone pulled him back to the guard box. The look he gave her as he listened into the receiver told her she was out of time. Even now, two other soldiers were moving to close the gates.

  “Double shit! Hang on. They’ve discovered you’re gone.”

  Stomping the gas pedal to the floor, Brianna smashed through the lowered barrier and roared off of the base.

  * * * * *

  Biting out a curse, the general hit the button on his buzzing intercom. This had better be important. “What is it?”

  His aide’s voice was sharp. “Sir, the gates have been breached at the north entrance. A green Ford SUV registered to a Brianna O’Shea of laboratory area four, biomedical division, crashed through the checkpoint.”

  Wham! The violent slamming of the door reverberated up and down the corridor as Dr. Yens Gustovson burst into the office followed by the general’s exasperated aide.

  “Doctor, you just can’t burst into the general’s office!”

  Gustovson ignored him and shouted, “She’s got them!”

  Silencing the incensed scientist with the slash of his hand, General Hawkins said, “That will be all, lieutenant.”

  After his aide left and he’d turned off the intercom, the general snapped, “Do I have to remind you this is top secret? Will you ever learn to keep your mouth shut?”

  Gustovson slapped the desk. “You won’t need to worry about secrecy if she gets away.”

  Hawkins steepled his fingers. “We never located a ship. This may work out after all. We’ll soon have copters in the air, so they’ll be easy enough to follow. With luck, they’ll head straight back to their ship, and then we’ll get that too. Don’t worry, you’ll get your ticket to fame and fortune back, Gustovson.”

  “What about O’Shea?”

  The general shrugged. “Once we have them back, she’ll be debriefed then fired.”

  “She’ll go to the press!”

  “And who’ll believe her? The National Enquirer?”

  Gustovson grimaced. “Just be sure of the troops you send after them. She has a lot of friends on this base.”

  The general drummed his fingers on the desk. “You may be right. Captain Douglas has a new platoon just in from Texas for woodland training. I’ll send them. Lieutenant Simms,” he ordered into his intercom, “have Captain Douglas report to me on the double and put his platoon on red alert. They pull out in fifteen minutes. Choppers ready?”

  “Yes Sir. Major Richter has the potential routes mapped.”

  “Very good. Inform the major I’ll be with him in a moment.” The general rose. “Doctor, everything is under control. Would you like to accompany me?”

  Gustovson curled his hands into fists, but he managed to keep control of his temper. “No, I’ll wait in the lab. I have other things I can be doing.”

  The general nodded. “Very well, I’ll inform you when your specimens will be returned.”

  Once out of the general’s office, Gustovson hurried to the building’s foyer, where he waited as unobtrusively as possible until the man he wanted appeared.

  As Captain Mark Douglas strode toward the elevators, Gustovson clutched his arm. Irritation evident on his face, the captain continued on, shrugging the hand loose.

  The scientist was undeterred. “I need to talk to you.”

  Douglas stopped. “Make it quick. The general wanted me five minutes ago.”

  The scientist’s eyes darted around the foyer. No one was paying them any attention. “A mutual acquaintance has stolen some valuable specimens from the lab. A matter of national interest.”

  “Yeah, so what?” the younger man sne
ered, but he bent his head and listened.

  “This person must not be permitted to make the existence of these specimens public. The damage to the base and the United States military will be irreparable. She must be stopped, and I know you’re the man for the job. You do understand?”

  Watching the man’s reaction, Gustovson smiled to himself. Telling Douglas that Brianna had been spreading the rumors about him stealing things had been sheer genius.

  Douglas contemplated the tiled pattern on the floor. There was only one person Gustovson could be referring to. After a curt nod, he spun away and headed to the elevators. The top brass had done a pretty good job keeping things hushed up. Even now that he was out of the loop, he still had a few sources. He had an idea about what was happening. A thoughtful expression on his face, he stepped into the empty elevator.

  Clenching his fists, Douglas snarled mentally. It had been Brianna’s idea to go to the lab that night. Getting those papers was just an excuse to leave the party, wasn’t it? When he pushed her back onto the examining table, she was just acting, playing hard to get. If Gustovson hadn’t come in, she would have stopped fighting and spread her legs quickly enough. Women liked it when men got rough. He slammed his fist into the wall. Who’d have thought she’d spread those lies about him? You couldn’t trust any woman. The other guys still didn’t trust him even though nobody could prove he stole anything. Where did that bitch get off saying he had?

  * * * * *

  Brianna’s mind whirled as she sped north into the mountains. She must be crazy, stealing them from the lab, but she couldn’t let Gustovson just murder them in the name of science.

  Shivers of wonder raced up and down her spine and she smiled in spite of her present predicament. Aliens! She’d always known humans weren’t alone, that there had to be life on other planets, but hermaphrodites! And tails that were really very long penises! Not even Hollywood could have dreamed that up. And how could they understand her when she talked to them? Where had they learned English?

  Brianna glanced into her rear view mirror. “I hope you guys know where you want to go because I don’t have the faintest idea what to do with you. I can’t take you home. My parents would understand and agree with my actions 100 percent, but that’s the first place the authorities will look.”

  One of the aliens tapped her shoulder.

  Glancing back, she discovered they had inched up to her seat.

  One of them pointed towards the mountain to their left.

  “Left? Okay, that’s as good a direction as any, I guess.”

  Switching to four-wheel drive, she turned onto the dirt road, a cloud of dust settling in her wake.

  The taller alien turned to his companion. “Can you remember where the contact point is? Without our instruments, I’m blind.”

  Cindar dragged her eyes away from the window. “What happened to your sensor implant?”

  “I don’t know. I must’ve fallen on it when we were captured. My wrist’s numb.”

  “Then the captain doesn’t know where we are. We really do need to improve on this system. If we’d both had a transmitter, we wouldn’t be in this predicament.”

  Miklan squeezed her hand and smiled. “As long as your locator is working, once we’re in range of the transport point, they’ll lock on to us. All we need to do is find it.”

  “No problem. I can hear the frequency in my translator, and it’s becoming stronger the further north we go. Besides, I recognize the trees along this road. The plant life on this planet is absolutely amazing.”

  His smile became a grin. “Advantage of being a botanist.”

  She laughed gently. “If I weren’t, we wouldn’t have enjoyed that afternoon on Deslossia so much. That was poison llacatian redfern you wanted to use for a bed!”

  Hearing the soft, intimate laughter behind her, Brianna decided she had no regrets. These aliens were just as human as anyone else.

  * * * * *

  The pilot of the helicopter tapped Captain Douglas on the shoulder to get his attention, then shouted over the noise of the whirling blades. “She’s turned north onto an old logging road. It winds up the mountain to a small clearing in front of an old abandoned mine. I don’t think they know we’re tracking them.”

  Douglas looked up from the map he was studying. “Get us up there ahead of them. We’ll have a reception committee waiting.”

  “Roger, Sir. I’ll radio the other choppers.”

  Douglas allowed himself a satisfied smile. Brianna O’Shea would pay for ruining his career.

  * * * * *

  Yellow and blue lights lit the console on the navigator’s bridge station. After typing a command into the computer, she turned to her captain. “There’s been a great deal of activity at the contact point, sir. Our monitors picked up transports of some sort off-loading what are probably troops.”

  Char studied the navigator’s instruments. “Have the beam ready. As soon as you locate our people, get them up here. Lock in defense sequence 7-Yellow-7, just in case.”

  “Have we encountered a problem on this so-called human world, Captain Alalakan?” an oily voice asked.

  Char stiffened slightly and turned to confront his tormentor. “We have a problem with a transmitter. Surely even Academy equipment sometimes fails?”

  The shorter man laced his fingers together. “At times, Captain Alalakan, at times. But—we’re not under attack when it does happen.”

  Char arched a single eyebrow. “Attack? Do you hear sounds of attack, Bakom? I think you have an overactive imagination.”

  Acquiescing, the doctor bowed his head. “Possibly, Captain, possibly, but if we’d gone straight to Drakan as I requested, we wouldn’t be having this conversation, would we? However, if it’s needed, my medical training is at your disposal.”

  Char turned away. “So noted, but I doubt if it will be necessary. Now, if you will go back to your quarters, I’ll get back to captaining my ship.”

  Silence ruled Control as the door slid shut. Dr. Sendenton dem al’ Lorilana walked over to stand beside the captain. “Don’t listen to him, Char. There could be a perfectly reasonable explanation why we lost contact with Miklan and Cindar.”

  Concentrating on his instruments, Char said nothing. Two of his officers were missing, and he was responsible. He was the one who’d sent them down to that planet.

  After easing into the clearing, Brianna pulled to a halt. A single bird chirped. Then…silence.

  She looked over her shoulder and asked, “Is this where you want to be?”

  The alien on the left nodded affirmatively.

  Sliding out of the SUV, Brianna hurried to the back and lowered the tailgate.

  Slipping out, Miklan helped Cindar, who gingerly put weight on her left foot, said something low to her companion, and limped out into the meadow.

  A forlorn feeling seeped through her body as Brianna watched her limp away. Even though the summer sun was warm, she rubbed her arms, trying to alleviate the sudden chill that enveloped her. She had never even gotten a chance to get to know them. What was it like, traveling in space? She turned as Miklan took her hand.

  “Brianna,” he began then added more in his musical language.

  Tears formed in her eyes. “Thank you” in any language was easy to understand.

  Pulling her into his arms, Miklan gave her a quick, hard hug.

  A single burst of gunfire from an automatic rifle exploded into the air.

  “You in the clearing, stand where you are and raise your hands. You’re completely surrounded. Surrender and you won’t be hurt.”

  Brianna and Miklan whirled as they heard snapping brush behind them. All around the clearing, soldiers with weapons pointed at them advanced slowly. Miklan shouted something, grabbed Brianna’s wrist, and began to run.

  Brianna was jerked forward. “Hey! Wait a minute!”

  “Halt or you will be fired upon! This is your last warning!”

  Brianna whipped her head around. That was Mark’s
voice.

  A beam of clear, bright light appeared in the center of the clearing. Cindar stepped into it and promptly disappeared.

  “Stop them!” Captain Douglas screamed. “Fire at will!”

  Those words caused Brianna to stumble. Fire at will! What’s the matter with him!

  When bursts of red light began sporadically sweeping the clearing, most of the soldiers dived back into the safety of the forest.

  Brianna’s eyes were drawn back to the tall blond leader as he cursed vehemently. Horrified, she watched him pull his sidearm from its holster.

  “You won’t get away, bitch!” he hollered after her.

  “My God, he’s going to shoot at me!” She stumbled and tried to pull free of Miklan’s grasp.

  Miklan ignored both her outburst and her attempt to jerk her wrist free from his grasp.

  “I really don’t think this is a good idea.” She glanced back again. Mark was aiming his sidearm at her.

  Miklan shouted something over his shoulder and pulled her into the light.

  Brianna swallowed and shivered involuntarily. However, she never learned exactly what matter displacement transportation felt like. Just before she stepped into the beam of light, a bullet ripped into her right shoulder. Unconsciousness blocked out the pain.

  * * * * *

  A bright red light began flashing on the screen. “They’re in range of the transport beam, Sir.”

  “They may need a diversion. Retrieve them, now! Begin the defense sequence,” Char commanded. “Damn! I wish I could see what was happening!”

  His communications officer shook his head. “Every frequency for the view screen is monitored by their satellites. The minute we activate it, they’ll know we’re here. The radio probes sent our way are becoming more numerous. So far, we’ve been able to deflect them. That’s a highly advanced civilization down there. The sooner we get out of here, the better.”