Stars On Fire Read online

  “Well, would you want to return to Lunar Labs in two weeks? I have a crew going out to finish up on the station.”

  I’d just returned from Lunar Labs weeks ago. I’d barely caught up on food, sex, and sleep. It was unusual to send someone off so quickly after arrival, but he wouldn’t have asked me unless it was important. “Is there an issue?”

  “Actually, yes. All of the rovers have been disabled for some mystical reason. Transportation and work have halted at the site. We’ve done our best to override the system here in the control center, but nothing is working. Something is wrong on their end. Commander Higgins is the only engineer I have up there, and he can’t figure it out. That means you’re my last hope.”

  That seemed to always be the case.

  “Is that a yes, Neil?”

  My family wouldn’t be thrilled about it. My mom just got me back…now she had to watch me leave again. “How long?”

  “Three months.”

  So, it was a short mission. I’d been space for six months at a time. Three months was a cake walk in comparison.

  “You know I wouldn’t ask unless it was important.”

  “And you know this program has my undying loyalty. Of course I’ll go, Tom.”

  Tom gave me a nod in gratitude. “Thank you, Neil. I know I can always count on you.”

  LIKE SHE WAS TRYING to torture me, she wore a halter top red dress. The fabric pushed her sexy tits together, and the short length showed off her muscular thighs and toned calves. Her sun-kissed skin was beautiful, like she’d recently gone on a run and got a nice tan. A gold necklace was around her throat along with matching earrings.

  She sat across from me, looking like a sexy lady but drinking like a man. “You look tired.”

  “I had a long night.” I sat across from her at the table in the bar, barely watching the game on the TV because I was more interested in Charlotte…my friend.

  “Couldn’t sleep?”

  “No.” All I wanted to do was sleep. “There was an emergency, so I got called into the control center.”

  “What kind of emergency? Am I allowed to ask, or is it classified?”

  Some things were classified, but not all. “There’s a team of American astronauts on the ISS. Space debris struck the rear side and seemed to pierce an outer layer where the oxygen tanks are. The Space Center uses a filtration system to create new oxygen, but that was affected by the strike as well. There’re safety protocols that block damaged areas and kick on emergency reserves until the problem can be fixed, but it wasn’t coming on.”

  She held on to the neck of her bottle, but her lips were open like she was astonished by everything I was saying. “And what did they expect you to do? You’re here on Earth.”

  “I’ve been in the ISS a lot, so I know how everything works. The issue they were having was technical, so I guided the commander through the steps to get everything to shut down and reboot. We couldn’t override it in the control center.”

  “Wow…so if you didn’t help him…”

  “The entire crew would have died.” That seemed to be how everything was. If something went wrong in space and it wasn’t fixed…there would be fatalities. It was a dangerous profession for a reason, because you couldn’t just step out of your suit and breathe on your own. The gases in your blood would stop dissolving and would bubble out, making you evaporate like boiling water. It would be a painful way to go, and thankfully, it’d never happened in the program.

  “Good thing you’re a brilliant man.”

  I didn’t know how to respond to the compliment. I wanted to say thank you, but acknowledging what she said made me feel like an ass. Ever since I was a child, I was always in the accelerated programs. My teachers told me I was gifted, that I was meant to do great things. But they didn’t understand my brilliance came from my motivation. I wasn’t naturally smart…I just had a goal. “How do you learn all that stuff?”

  “I learned most of my trade in college.”

  “Yeah, but when you’re in the moment like that and people’s lives are on the line…how do you function?”

  “I don’t stop until I find an answer. I admire every astronaut in the program. I consider them friends…even family. I wouldn’t let anything happen to them. So, when that kind of stress is pressing into my shoulders, I work hard…”

  “That’s still amazing. Some people would just panic.”

  “You can’t panic. That’s not an option. Panic is the quickest way to get killed. You must be calm at all times.”

  “You do seem like a calm person.”

  “I never get mad.”

  “Ever?” she asked incredulously.

  “Your dog chewed up my wallet, didn’t he?”

  “But he’s cute. No one can get mad at him.”

  “You cut off sex and I stayed cool.”

  She smiled and brought her beer closer to her. “You can get sex from any woman you want.”

  Yes, I could. But she was the only woman I wanted at the moment. Laura would pick up the phone in a heartbeat if I called her. Or I could go to a bar alone, flash a few smiles, and have my pick of the crop. But when it was just meaningless sex, it really wasn’t that satisfying. With Charlotte, I actually liked her as a person, so the heat between our bodies was scorching. “Maybe there’s only one woman I want.”

  She took a drink from her beer and brushed off my comment.

  This was new territory for me. I’d never realized how much of an arrogant prick I was until I didn’t get what I wanted. She was the first woman to reject me, and I didn’t like it one bit. I always got my way—always got the girl. “I haven’t told anyone this…but I’m launching in two weeks.”

  Her playfulness died away instantly. Her beer was abandoned, the game was ignored, and she gave me a horrified expression. “What? You’re leaving? Already?”

  I nodded. “There’s work that needs to be done at Lunar Labs.”

  “But you just got home. Don’t you have to stay on Earth for a certain amount of time?”

  “Not necessarily.”

  Now that she knew I was leaving, the sadness crept into her eyes. Whether she was happy or sad, she was beautiful. When her lips dragged down into a frown, it only made me want to comfort her. When her eyes closed and her thick lashes blocked her eyes, she looked shy and sexy. “How long will you be gone?”

  “It’s a semi-short trip. Three months. I have to repair the rovers up there. There’s some kind of malfunction, and they aren’t working at all.”

  “It seems like a lot of your stuff goes wrong.”

  “Everything goes wrong. When I started this program, I was told they would prepare me for everything… because something will go wrong. Being an astronaut is about reacting quickly, fixing problems before they kill you. You’ll be in situations you’ve never encountered before, and you’ll have to solve problems in a single breath.”

  “That sounds terrifying.”

  I shrugged. “Between the periods of stress, there’s great beauty.”

  “I would be so scared all the time…just launching would terrify me.”

  “Well, it’s probably the most dangerous part of the mission. You have thousands of tons of combustibles firing off at once. The launch pad is three miles away from the control center because the blast is that enormous. Being encased in something that’s supposed to protect you from all of that…isn’t always comforting. Once you reach two minutes after launch, the rockets break off to drop weight, and the sound is so loud. It’s like a million gunshots going off at once.”

  She hung on every word. “Do you ever get scared?”

  If I said no, I’d be lying. If you didn’t feel fear, then what was the point in doing anything? Fear meant there was something to lose…and I did have something to lose. “Sometimes. But my dreams are bigger than my fears.”

  “Have you ever known anyone who’s died on a mission…besides your father?”

  “No.”

  “Oh…that’s good.�
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  “We always do the best we can to keep each other safe. We have some of the most brilliant minds on the team, and we always stick out our necks for each other. I had an astronaut doing a spacewalk outside the space station. Ammonium exited the ship and sprayed all over his suit, including his helmet. He couldn’t see anything, and he couldn’t come back into the hatch. So I had to go out there and position him in the sun so the radiation would burn it off his suit. Since he couldn’t see anything, he couldn’t move at all.”

  “The sun burned it up?”

  I nodded. “Without Earth’s atmosphere, we’re at the mercy of the sun’s piercing rays. It’s hitting us at extreme levels. Even when we close our eyes, we can see spots of sunlight in our vision.”

  “Wow…is that dangerous?”

  I shrugged. “I’m sure long exposure over time isn’t good. But most astronauts aren’t in space for more than a year of their lifetime.”

  “How long have you been in space?”

  “Altogether?”

  She nodded.

  “Maybe almost two years…”

  “Wow. Is that unusual?”

  “Yeah…but they try to get the most work out of me.”

  “So, you’re returning to the moon to work on those rovers. What else is up there? What are you guys working on?”

  We were supposed to have meaningless chitchat and watch the game, not have these deep conversations about my work. Most people asked me superficial questions, but Charlotte seemed genuinely interested in my missions. “It’s a secondary lab. The space station will expire in a few years. By having a station on the moon, it’ll be sedentary so we don’t have to worry about keeping it in orbit.”

  “Isn’t the space station always in orbit?”

  “It actually circles toward the surface, and every few years, we have to ignite the thrusts to pull it into a higher orbit.”

  “Wow…I never knew that.”

  “With the lab at the moon, we don’t have to worry about that. Gravity is much different there, so we can do different experiments that can’t be replicated elsewhere.”

  “Does NASA intend to colonize it?”

  “No, there’s nothing there but sand and rocks. There’ve never been any signs of water, any signs of life. It’s just a big asteroid that’s sucked into our gravitational field.”

  “Do you think we’ll ever be able to colonize another planet?”

  “Yes.” I gave the answer without thinking twice about it. My entire purpose in this program was to find another way of life.

  “Really? In our lifetimes?”

  “Maybe not in our lifetimes…but I think we’ll begin the process.”

  “What planet are you thinking of? Europa?”

  “That’s a moon…but I’m impressed you knew that.”

  She smiled. “I watched that horror film…it wasn’t very good.”

  “Mars is our best chance. It’s has indications of microbial life.”

  “And you think someday we’ll be Martians?”

  “Or maybe I already think we’re Martians.”

  She raised an eyebrow.

  “There’s this theory that an asteroid broke off from Mars, full of small microbes, and then landed on this planet. Over the course of millions of years, that single cell organism evolved into what we are today.”

  “But if that organism didn’t evolve on Mars, then why would we survive there?”

  That was a damn good question, and it made me realize she had a scientific mind. She did graduate with a degree in chemistry, so she was obviously bright. Sometimes I forgot just how smart she was because she was so damn sexy. “Maybe the conditions weren’t right. But now that we’re a higher-functioning species, perhaps we can mold that environment to what we need it to be.”

  “True…but Earth is already pretty damn perfect, so why don’t we just take care of it?”

  “Excellent point. If only everyone felt that way…” I took a drink of my beer, connecting with this woman on many levels that I’d never shared with anyone else. I shared these same viewpoints with my fellow astronauts and the people in the control center, but I wasn’t sexually attracted to any of them. When it came to women, I had a very specific type.

  Hot.

  But most of the time, they weren’t bright. That never mattered to me because I wasn’t looking for an emotional connection. But I’d somehow formed one with this bubbly, cute girl.

  She held her beer to her lips and looked at the TV.

  I could watch the game, but I chose to look at her instead.

  Why the hell would I care about a game when I could stare at this perfect ten?

  “Neil Crimson, right?” A woman appeared out of nowhere, petite, cute, and flirty. “Oh my god, you’re that famous astronaut, right?”

  I wanted to shoo her away because she was sabotaging my evening with Charlotte. We were just friends and nothing kinky would happen, but I didn’t want to wrap it up yet either. “Yes…nice to meet you.” I shook her hand.

  She talked my ear off for a while, touching my arm occasionally and flashing a pretty smile.

  Charlotte didn’t seem to care because she was absorbed in the game. “If you don’t make that shot, I swear I’ll…yes!” She slammed her first down. “That’s my man right there.”

  I cut things short with the woman and politely got rid of her.

  Charlotte kept watching the game.

  “Sorry about that.”

  “No big deal. You can take off with her. I just want to watch this last bit before it goes to commercial.”

  “I’m not gonna go home with her.”

  Charlotte’s eyes followed the player as they crossed the court then made the shot. Then it cut to commercial. “Sorry, what did you say?”

  “I said I’m not going home with her.”

  “Oh. Too bad.” She opened her clutch and put down her money for her drink.

  I knew this wasn’t an act. She genuinely didn’t care if I went home with another woman or not. “Because I would rather go home with you.”

  She’d just finished counting her bills when she smiled. “Neil…”

  “I’m leaving in two weeks. Come on.”

  She lifted her gaze to meet mine, looking sexy when she was shy.

  “And I won’t be back for three months. We can try this friend thing then.”

  She chuckled. “Neil, it’s a compliment. I actually care about you and want you in my life. I don’t want to use you for sex—”

  “Well, I want you to use me.” I leaned over the table, my fingertips touching hers. “Come on, we’re great together.”

  She tilted her gaze down but didn’t pull her touch away.

  “Two weeks. Amazing sex. Don’t let me go back to space without being fully satisfied.”

  “I’m sure you have a dozen girls you could call right now.”

  “Like I said, I don’t want them. I want you.” I grabbed her hand and interlocked our fingers. I’d never worked to be with a woman. I’d never wanted to be with a woman I’d already had. But the idea of getting naked with a stranger didn’t seem appealing. I wanted to make Charlotte come, make her forget about that shitty ex-husband who didn’t deserve her in the first place. I wanted us to be together…in the throes of passion…as man and woman.

  She lifted her gaze again, a slight smile on her lips. “Alright….”

  10

  CHARLOTTE

  NEIL WAS A PERSUASIVE GUY.

  When he talked about his role with NASA, his badass abilities that saved lives all the time, it was easy to weaken, for my respect for him to morph into something deeper. He was so passionate about his work, and that was so sexy on a man. I’d always been a sucker for smart guys, for men that could carry on a conversation about something besides booze and sports. On top of that, he was drop-dead gorgeous.

  How the hell could I say no?

  He was leaving in two weeks, and since we’d already slept together, what was the harm?

&nbs
p; I followed him in my truck and pulled up to the front of his house. It was the same place where I dropped him and saw his lady waiting for him. Beautiful and wearing cutoff shorts, her perfect body wasn’t hard to imagine.

  But now I was the woman showing up at his house.

  I got out of my truck and walked with him to the front door. When he pulled in front of me to get it unlocked, I took a peek at his ass. Snug in his jeans along with a muscular back, he was beautiful from head to toe.

  And he was mine.

  He got the door open and flicked on the lights.

  He had a large, open floor plan, a big living room that led directly into the kitchen. Hardwood floors and granite countertops adorned the space, along with a formal dining room. It was a big place for one person—and expensive too. Houses in the Houston area were not cheap. He must make a good living as an astronaut.

  “Can I get you anything to drink?” He moved into me, his arms circling around my lower back and hugging the deep curve of my spine as he pulled me close. His head tilted toward mine, and he stared at my lips like he couldn’t wait to kiss me.

  I forget his question altogether.

  My fingers inched underneath his t-shirt, and I felt the grooves that lined his muscular stomach. He was all man, tight, strong, and fit. My fingers worshiped every valley, every mountain. They migrated up to the bottom of his chest, feeling the distinct slab of muscle that brought chills down my spine. He was so warm…so hard. I’d been on a few dates with pretty men, but they weren’t ripped like this; they weren’t brilliant like this. Neil Crimson was the bravest man I’d ever met. Only someone with real balls could launch into the unknown and put his life on the line every second of every day.

  His hand slowly moved up my back until it glided over the back of my neck. His fingers dug deep into my hair, using it like a lasso to control me. He gave a slight yank, tilting my head back so he had better access to my lips.

  I was powerless to do anything but wait as he claimed my body, mind, and soul. My breath came out shaky because there was so much adrenaline in my blood. I was anxious for that kiss but terrified at the same time. I’d already had him, and I knew how wonderful it was…so it made me even more afraid.