High Intensity Read Online Free PDF Page B

illegal in some states.
    Zanita gasped. "Quit that!" She jumped up and backed away from the couch a few steps. He winked at her and patted the seat next to him.
    "Tyber, you are a scientist. I am a reporter— we are poles apart."
    "Nope."
    "How do you figure that?"
    "We both 'investigate', you with your reporting, me with my science. We're two peas in a pod, baby. Speaking of pods, let's cuddle while we watch the movie…"
    She pointed her finger at him. "You have tunnel vision!"
    He grinned.
    "I'm going to the kitchen to get a snack; want anything?" At the magic word "snack," Hambone lifted his head off the floor, showing sudden interest. "And don't say 'nope,' because whenever you do, you end up eating most of mine."
    His smile was pure deviltry. "Nope." He crossed his hands behind his head. "I'm fine."
    Zanita rolled her eyes and headed off to the kitchen. He was after her snack!
    Tyber chuckled as his focus shifted back to the fickle-hearted alien, which was now delightedly munching on the scientist who had tried to befriend him. "Take a lesson from this, Gregor," he murmured dryly. "You must begin to think of Mills as a set of teeth with wings."
    He relaxed back into the couch and fell into that trancelike state most appropriate for watching such a movie.
    A few minutes later, Zanita burst into the room, flinging the pocket doors open with a snap. "Tyber! Tyber!"
    He raised one brow lazily. "Hmmm?"
    "Come quickly! I want to show you something unbelievable!" She grabbed his hand in an attempt to pull him off the couch.
    "What is it?" He tried to pull her onto his lap.
    "I found a popcorn kernel that looks just like a brain!!! It's got two hemispheres and a convoluted surface and everything! I put it in a ziploc bag so no one would—"
    At that moment Blooey walked in munching on a bag of popcorn. A ziploc bag of popcorn.
    Both Zanita and Tyber stared at him. Zanita's face crumpled into the picture of horror. Tyber's was vastly amused.
    "Blooey, that isn't the bag I just left on the counter, is it?"
    "Aye, Yer Ladyship. I figured ye changed yer mind the way ye took off, so I availed meself of the bag for the popcorn."
    "Stop eating! It could still be in there!"
    "Iffen you mean that one kernel ye left, I'm afraid I popped that in me mouth before I poured the rest in. It be lying in Davy Jones' locker now." He patted his potbelly.
    Zanita let out a wail.
    Chuckling, Tyber refused to let go of her hand when she tugged at it. "A popcorn brain," he murmured, his sensual voice laced with teasing amusement. "What a loss to the world of science."
    She yanked her hand free and stormed off to the kitchen to get something else. Blooey and Tyber stared after her. "Wimen be strange creatures, Captain."
    "Aye, Blooey. That they are. Only some are a mite stranger than others."
    "We're a lucky ship, aren't we, sir?"
    Tyber laced his hands behind his head. "That we are, sailor. That we are."
    Zanita came back a few minutes later with a plate bearing a huge slice of cake. Apparently, losing a scientific find required recompense on a grand scale.
    Hambone's nose lifted, testing the worthiness of the possible offering as the plate zoomed by. Quarry tested, he lumbered to his feet, and belly swaying, tried to unobtrusively follow Zanita to the couch.
    Cake was prime cat-catch.
    The marauder cat swiveled his one eye, like a cannon turret, and tracked the booty.
    Meanwhile, as Zanita licked the fork of gooey frosting, Tyber was watching her with a growing… desire. This was his wedding night. Even though he was doing his best not to make it seem that it was, like any groom he was more than anticipating it.
    "What do you have there, hmmm?" he purred, snuggling in close to her.
    Zanita wasn't fooled for a minute. His voice had a real husky edge to it. The Captain was setting a course. He was after the cake! "It's a chocolate chocolate die! die! by chocolate fantasy double blitz cocoa fudge cake."
    "Mmmmm… Looks good." He seared her with a