Farthest Space: The Wrath of Jan Read Online Free PDF

women, Vaish was physically just like a human woman… and yet not like any human woman he’d ever seen.   Something about Vaish’s nudity ignited a fire in his blood that wouldn’t go out, no matter how many flight paths he calculated in his head.  
    Or perhaps it was just the memory of her wide, yellow eyes staring at his… anatomy that had him so turned on.
    He tried to squelch his reaction, without the slightest bit of success.   He was as hard as the lifepod’s metal hull.   Fortunately she refused to look in his direction, so she hadn’t spotted his condition.   He thought, anyway.  
    “It’s oh-eight hundred by our time,” he said when she’d finished the last of her rations.   “Kind of early, but it looks like night is falling by local time.”   The pod door, which they’d left open to permit fresh air to circulate, showed the sky turning a deep jade green as the sunlight faded.   “Maybe we ought to go to sleep.”
    Vaish looked dubiously at the small floor space.   “I’m not sure there’s room.”
    “Of course there is,” he said.   “Like you said earlier, we’ll just have to sleep next to each other.”
    “It looks as if we might have to sleep on top of each other.”
    He shot her his most wicked grin.   “Works for me.”
    She drew in an irritated hiss of breath.   “Do you ever think about anything besides sex?”
    “There’s rarely anything more interesting to think about.”   Stars knew there wasn’t anything else to think about in this situation… aside from the minor matter of survival.   But he’d always been easily distracted.   That was the entire problem.   He was going to have to sleep with her naked form only a few centimeters from his own.   There was absolutely no way he could sleep.
    He wondered if he could survive without sleep for the rest of his life.
    They stood up to investigate the provisions further, and Steven was annoyed to discover there were only two blankets.   Although given the Noo’dis’ts’ attitude toward covering the body, he supposed he should be grateful there were any.   “One to spread out on the floor, and one to spread over us,” he suggested.
    “I don’t think so, Captain.   I’ll just roll up in one, and you roll up in the other.”
    “You’re no fun, Vaish.   Has anyone ever told you that?”
    “Get used to it,” she said dryly.   “I don’t plan on providing you with any fun.   Ever.”
    “Fine,” Steven said, although a part of his anatomy didn’t think it was fine at all.   “Fred, close the door.   Let’s go to sleep.”
    *****
    Sleeping, Vaish thought thirty minutes later, was a good idea… in theory.   The trouble was, she couldn’t sleep.   She was acutely aware of the heat from Steven’s body, which seemed to radiate out and pull her irresistibly toward him, like a tractor field.  
    Judging from his even breathing, he’d forgotten her proximity and gone straight to sleep.   Which annoyed her.   
    The stars knew she wasn’t able to forget his proximity that easily.   The memory of his body was burned into her brain.   Her mind was filled with the memory of his sharply hewn muscles, of sinewy muscle and bone under smooth warm skin and a dusting of golden hair.   It reminded her of the statues her primitive ancestors had carved out of stone, depicting gods with perfect bodies and beautiful faces.   Except she’d never seen a statue that was anywhere near as gorgeous as Steven.
    She closed her eyes, trying to blot out the memory, but without the slightest success.   He was naked, sexy, and right next to her, so close she could hear every breath he took, so close she could almost hear the beating of his heart.   If only she hadn’t insisted on each of them wrapping up in their own blanket, she could have moved a few centimeters toward him and felt the warmth of his skin pressing against her own.
    She could have him easily enough if she wanted him, she thought.   The only