Best Kept Secrets Read online

  Josh suddenly seemed to deflate. “Oh hell, Cassie, I’m sorry.” He scrubbed a hand over his face and pinched the bridge of his nose, as though he was trying to drive back a headache. “It’s my fault as much as yours. I guess I’m just reacting to the way you look now.”

  I stiffened and crossed my arms over my full breasts. “And what’s wrong with the way I look?”

  “Nothing. Not a damn thing,” Josh said earnestly. “You look wonderful—incredible. But…you don’t look like my little sister anymore. Not by a long shot.”

  “I can’t help that,” I said stiffly. “You know the effects our lifestyle has had on my body, Josh. You’re lucky I stayed looking like a little girl for as long as I did.”

  “I know,” he said, looking miserable. “And I know you like the way you look now—I don’t blame you. You’re beautiful, Cass. But…it’s hard for me to be around you, especially after what happened in the shower.”

  “It’s hard for me too,” I whispered. “But I still want to make this work.”

  Josh’s response surprised me.

  “If you really mean that, then buy some more clothes.”

  “What? What does that mean?”

  “Exactly what I said.” He frowned at me critically. “I guess you can’t see it, but none of your clothes fit anymore. The shirts are all too tight, and your skirts are all too short. When you bend over I can see your panties, for God’s sake.” A look of misery crossed his face. “I don’t need to see that. It only makes things more difficult.”

  The memory of his large, hard cock throbbing against my core rose unbidden in my mind, but I pushed it back down again. “I guess I didn’t realize. I’m sorry, Josh, really sorry. I never meant to…to tempt you.”

  “That’s the thing—you shouldn’t tempt me.” He sounded almost desperate. “I mean, it’s not right, Cass. I should be able to see you completely naked and be totally unaffected. Not…never mind.” He shook his head, apparently unwilling to say more.

  I should have been horrified at the thought of my stepbrother getting the hots for me, but to be honest I felt flattered instead. I had always considered Josh a handsome man—a specimen in his prime. The idea that he desired me was a heady experience, but I tried not to show it.

  “I’ll buy new clothes,” I said earnestly, looking up at him. “The minute we get back to the space station, I promise. And…and you can find some willing girl and, uh, scratch your itch. I’m sure that’s the only reason you’re, um, looking at me that way.” I cleared my throat, embarrassed. “Really, Josh, we’ll be okay.”

  “Really?” He frowned, his handsome face dark and brooding. “I don’t know, Cassandra. I feel like we’re on a slippery slope and if we don’t watch out, we might fall off.”

  “Fall off and what…sleep together?” I tried to laugh at the foolish idea but somehow my mouth was too dry to make the sound. “Come on, Josh. That’s ridiculous. We would never…do that.”

  He took a deep breath. “Of course we wouldn’t. I’m sorry. I’ve just been going crazy ever since the, uh, shower thing.”

  “Me too.” I took a step toward him. “But Josh, you’re the most important person in my life—I don’t want to lose you over this.”

  “I don’t want to lose you either.” Sighing, he opened his arms to me. “Come here. It’s weird, but we’ll just have to get past it.”

  “Thanks, Josh.” I went to him and allowed myself to melt against him completely, just as I had when my mom had first died, and I went to him for comfort. He hugged me tight against him, and I breathed in the spicy, masculine scent of his skin, feeling safe and cared for just as I had that first time, so long ago. “I love you, Josh,” I whispered in his ear before kissing his cheek gently.

  He squeezed me tighter. “I love you too. More than I can say.”

  I pressed myself against him, feeling content and protected in his arms. This was good; this was right. It was exactly where I needed to be—exactly where I belonged.

  “Cassie,” he whispered. “Oh, Cassie.”

  “Josh.” I kissed his scratchy cheek again, and I didn’t pull away—even when the hard ridge of his cock branded my belly through his tight black flight pants and my own too-short skirt.

  Everything is going to be okay. I’ll get some new clothes when we get back to the space station, and we’ll put all this behind us. In the meantime, I was determined not to make Josh feel any worse than he already did. I swore to myself that no matter what happened, no matter how many times he got hard when he hugged me or how often he stared a little too long at my breasts, I wouldn’t say a word.

  Everything was going to be fine between us—I would make certain of that no matter what the cost.

  Chapter Four

  The surface of Svortza 6 was like one big tropical jungle with green and pink and blue and gold leaves as far as the eye could see. I reflected, as we made our way from the base camp we’d established in a small clearing, that it was a good thing Josh and I knew exactly what we were looking for. Otherwise we never would have found it in the verdant wilderness.

  “Remember,” he was saying as we tramped through the long, whispering grasses, “it’s a pink-and-green plant with purple trumpet-shaped flowers.”

  “I know what to look for,” I reminded him. “I heard the transcript and saw the vid pics too. They said—”

  “Look!” Josh was pointing excitedly. I followed the line of his finger and saw the truth plant. It wasn’t exactly the way it had looked in the picture, though—in fact, it was a great deal larger. Its thick vines were as big around as my waist, and I could have made a skirt from a single one of its broad leaves. Mottled green and pink, its branches rose to the top of the forest canopy high above us. The purple flowers, which were indeed shaped like the bell of a trumpet, were huge—half as long as a tall man’s body. Their waxy petals stirred sluggishly in the breeze and dripped with some kind of sticky resin or sap. It made me glad we both had protective goggles and gloves in our packs.

  “God—what a monster!” Josh was still looking at the plant eagerly. He took a step toward it, but I hung back. He frowned. “What’s wrong, Cass? Here it is and not a hundred yards from our campsite. This is going to be the easiest mission we’ve ever been on.”

  “Yeah, I guess.” Still, I hung back. The huge plant stirred something in me—some primal fear that was hard to explain. I couldn’t help thinking that those huge, waxy blossoms reminded me of the pitcher plant—a carnivorous plant that lured insects inside its flowers with its sticky-sweet sap and then digested them slowly over the course of days or weeks.

  “Come on.” Josh gestured to me impatiently. “Let’s get a sample so we can get it back to camp and start running some tests.”

  “I don’t know, Josh.” I was still dragging my feet. “I don’t like the way it looks. I don’t think we should—”

  “Stay away…from plant! Is danger!”

  The hissing whisper in my ear where my universal translator was implanted surprised me and I jumped, looking around for the source. From the look on Josh’s face, he had heard it too.

  “What?” He looked around, frowning. “Who said that? Come out and show yourself.”

  “The plant…the truth plant…is danger,” the hissing voice continued. Suddenly the dense vegetation to our left rustled and a strange, tall being stepped out of the jungle.

  It wasn’t my first time seeing an alien, though sentient life is far rarer in the universe than mankind once believed. But I still stared at this being with awe and fear—I couldn’t help myself.

  Besides being three feet taller than Josh, the Svortzian looked like a grasshopper grown to enormous size, with long, skinny limbs and gray-green skin. Huge glittering compound eyes stared down at us from a disturbingly insectile face.

  “Get behind me,” Josh said in a low voice. “We don’t know what it wants.”

  “Is not to fear,” the creature assured us, obviously having heard Josh's remarks. “Speak—is to un