Delta Green - страница 45
She opened her eyes slowly. In the dimness of the cubicle, it took her a moment to recognize the diffused mass of her potato sack floating near her head, against the hatch curtain.
She was sleeping naked.
She never slept in the nude on board Themis.
Never.
And then she realized that her back was warm, McKenna’s chest firmly and comfortably pressed against it. His left arm was wrapped around her waist, his hand flat against her stomach. They were held in place by the restraining straps, but the straps had not been designed to enclose two people, and the Velcro ends barely met.
After a moment’s panicked alarm, Pearson decided she was very content. Another twelve hours in the same place would be pleasant.
And then she glanced at the clock readout on the control panel: 0538. People would be moving around in the corridor soon. The panic returned in force.
Gripping the strap with her right hand, she used it to tug herself around to face McKenna.
“Kevin,” she whispered, “wake up.”
“I’m awake,” he smiled. “I just didn’t want to give up the position.”
“You’ve got to get out of here.”
He kissed her, and though she resisted for a moment, she felt herself falling forward, leaning into it despite the lack of gravity, her mind and body responding to the heat.
No!
She finally broke off, then kissed him again lightly, then released the strap and floated away from him, though not far in the confines of the compartment.
“We don’t have time for this,” she said.
“Did you ever notice how things float in space?” he asked, his eyes running over her. “I did.”
“I’ve noticed,” she said and did. “Come on, now. People will be waking up.”
“I’m awake.”
She grabbed her sleep suit and began pulling it on. In the tight space, her knees and elbows seemed to bump into everything, padded walls, control panel, McKenna.
“You promised me in Aspen,” she said.
“Aspen.”
“You did.”
“I have many fine memories of Aspen”
“You promised.”
“Remind me.”
“We aren’t going to do this where people will see us.”
“I did make that commitment, I suppose. It was in a very weak moment, and I have no willpower, darling.”
He continued to float naked in the corner of her tiny cubicle.
“Get dressed!” she hissed.
“It’s better the other way. Don’t be in such a big rush,” he said.
She zipped up her sleep suit, fished around in the fabric pouch attached to the bulkhead, found his jumpsuit, and shoved it at him. “Get dressed, damn it!”
She was trying to whisper.
“Why would I make a dumb promise like that? The one I made in Aspen?”
“There are three good reasons,” she said. “You don’t want to get married, I don’t want to get married, and I sure as hell don’t want a reputation that will affect my professional life and my career.”
“Oh. Those reasons.”
For all of her ability in analyzing intelligence data, she had never fully evaluated her relationship with McKenna since the time their personal lives had become irreversibly confused on a long weekend in Aspen, Colorado. Or perhaps she was simply avoiding the assessment. On the surface, he was too irreverent with regulations and too infatuated with skirting the edges of danger to qualify as a desirable mate. Slightly below the surface, she had been forced to admit that she liked him a little, but in a more basic, more sensual way. Certainly, he satisfied some of her physical needs, and she supposed that was reciprocal. For the immediate future, however, she didn’t intend to analyze it much further.
Despite his attractiveness, McKenna was just too damned independent to mesh with the other facets of her life, and she wasn’t going to allow trysts like this to dominate her mind or her behavior.
She just wasn’t. She had made that promise to herself the week after Aspen.
Pearson retrieved fresh underwear, a jumpsuit, and her hygiene kit from her locker, then unzipped the side of the curtain. “When I get back, you won’t be here, right?”
“Only if I get another kiss.”
She peeked out into the corridor, which was vacant, then turned back to him. He pulled her close.
Strength was very deceptive in a zero-gravity environment, but McKenna always radiated strength. She felt it in the way, however lightly, his hands gripped her upper arms. He could be tender when he tried.