Best Kept Secrets Read online

  At last, having gotten everything he wanted, Josh stepped back. “Hmm, very strange. It seems to be in some kind of hibernation.”

  “Or maybe it’s just biding its time until it’s ready to reach out and grab its next victim,” I said nervously. “Come on, Josh, let’s go.”

  “Fine, we can go.” Shrugging, he packed the samples carefully in his case, and we made our way back to camp.

  All during our trek back, I kept expecting the plant to come to life and grab us, or for the tall Svortzian to appear again, or for some other voracious alien life-form—plant or animal—to attack us at every turn. Every little stirring in the underbrush made me nervous, and I kept looking over my shoulder, expecting a mottled greenish-pink vine to be coming for me. I couldn’t hide my relief when we finally made it out of the jungle and crossed the safety perimeter of our camp.

  “Hey.” Josh’s large, warm hand on my shoulder made me jump.

  “What?” I turned to face him, still looking around nervously.

  “Are you okay? I mean really okay?”

  “Of course I’m okay. Why wouldn’t I be?” I asked, trying to sound normal and failing miserably.

  “Because you’ve been jumpy all morning.” Josh tilted my chin up and studied me, his eyes serious. “Jumpy and off somehow. Is there something wrong, Cassie? Something you’re not telling me about?”

  Yes, yesterday that damn plant attacked you. And then when you woke up this morning, you attacked me. But it really wasn’t much of an attack because I guess I wanted it. Anyway, I sure acted like I did. I spread my legs and let you touch me and it felt so good to let you do that I came. Came so hard… I pushed the troubling thoughts away and tried to make my face smooth.

  “I’m fine, Josh, honestly. I was just…just nervous about going near that plant again.”

  “You’re sure?” He looked at me anxiously and stroked my cheek. “Because I really want to know if there’s something bothering you.”

  Trust me, Josh, I thought, you do not want to know about this.

  “I’m fine,” I insisted aloud. “Just…tired. That’s all.”

  “All right, if you’re sure.” Suddenly he pulled me into a bear hug. “I love you, Cassie. You know that, right? I mean none of this—the job we do, the planets we visit—none of it would be any good without you.”

  I was unexpectedly touched. Josh tended to be more of a shower than a talker when it came to affection. He was always doing little things like making me pancakes but he rarely came right out and expressed his emotions in words.

  “I love you too, Josh,” I said, hugging him back. “So much. Now come on—let’s make lunch, I’m starving!”

  The rest of the day was spent cataloging and sorting the samples and packing them in the proper containers for shipping. Josh announced that we would be staying longer than expected—he had seen several other interesting-looking plants he wanted to study, and we could stay another week at least and still make our Pharm-Co deadline easily.

  I agreed, mostly because I wasn’t anxious to go back to Earth until I was absolutely certain all the truth-plant toxin was out of his system. But by nightfall, when nothing had happened, I was almost positive it was. As we cooked and ate our dinner of rehydrated beef stew and freeze-dried biscuits, Josh was being his normal, charming self. In fact, he was in such a good mood that I convinced him to lay out our sleeping bags on the grass and look up at the stars instead of going right to bed in the tent.

  The Svortzian night sky was beautiful. A rich blanket of stars, glittering like jewels set in black velvet, arched over our heads. The soft hooting noises of small animals sounded nearby and a cooling breeze filled with the rich, tropical fragrance of the jungle caressed our faces. I cuddled close to Josh, pressed tight against his side, and laid my head on his chest the way I always did when we relaxed together. Forgetting the trauma of that morning, I sighed happily, feeling completely content.

  “They’re gorgeous, aren’t they?” Josh murmured, pointing at the stars. His deep voice rumbled through me, and he stroked my hair absently with one large, warm hand. “The constellations here really put ours on Earth to shame.”

  “That’s because we’re in the middle of a stellar cluster here. If Earth wasn’t so far out on the edge of the Milky Way, we’d have prettier stars to look at too.”

  Josh turned his head, his eyes soft in the starlight. “I’m looking at something pretty right now,” he murmured.

  “Josh!” I slapped his chest lightly. “Don’t embarrass me.”

  “I’m just telling the truth. You are pretty, Cassie—you’re beautiful.” He stroked my cheek. “I guess I need to tell you that more often because I never let any other guys get close enough to say it.”

  “Yeah, well…you are pretty overprotective.” I nuzzled against his hand.

  “Well, I have to protect what’s precious to me,” he said seriously. “And you are, Cassie—you’re more precious to me than anything else in this whole damn universe. You know that, don’t you?”

  Slowly, I nodded. Our faces were close now—closer than they should be and I knew it. But somehow I couldn’t bring myself to draw away. Somewhere inside, a little voice was whispering that this was wrong, that I shouldn’t be enjoying his touch as much as I was, but I pushed it away. Josh and I had always been close. I was just glad that after a few bumps in the road, we were getting back to our old relationship.

  For a long moment, Josh held my gaze with his. In his eyes I saw all the times he’d comforted me after my mom died, all the times he’d held me and laughed and cried with me and hugged me. All the times we’d stuck together—just him and me against the universe—and had come out on top despite the odds. But there was something new in those deep-blue depths as well—something I had never seen before, something that was only there for me. He looked at me not as a doting big brother sees his little sister but as a man looks at a woman, a beautiful woman he wants to touch and caress and kiss. There was a fire kindled in those intense eyes—a hungry fire I had put there. And only I could satisfy it.

  He’s going to kiss me, I thought dreamily, leaning toward him. Josh is going to kiss me on purpose this time, and I’m going to let him.

  And then, suddenly, he went limp and fell asleep.

  Chapter Seven

  “Josh? Josh!” I slapped his cheeks lightly, trying not to panic. God, he was out again, just as he had been after our encounter that morning. Except then he had fallen asleep as the Beast and woken up as Josh. Did that mean this time he would—

  A low, rumbling growl coming from Josh’s broad chest jerked me out of my thoughts. I looked down to see that he was staring at me. But the humanity that had been in his eyes just moments before had leaked away, leaving only raw, naked hunger in its place.

  “Josh?” I said uncertainly. Moving slowly so as not to startle him, I tried to sit up, to get away from him.

  But the Beast was having none of that.

  With inhuman quickness, he grabbed me around the waist and pulled me back down. Then he took my mouth in a long, lingering kiss that stole my breath. I tried to resist at first, but there was no denying him. He kissed me like he owned me, like I was exclusively his to explore and to pleasure.

  “Josh?” I whispered when he finally let me go. But he was already moving down my throat, making my breath catch as he pressed hot, openmouthed kisses to the vulnerable side of my neck. At the same time, I felt his hands slipping under my blouse to feel for my breasts. As before, he seemed to have forgotten all about how my bra fastened, and he fumbled with it for a moment, letting out a growl of pure frustration.

  “No, wait!” Fearful of losing another bra—the only other one I had with me—I tried to push his hands away. But the Beast inside of Josh was not to be denied. He growled again, and I suddenly understood that if my bra and blouse didn’t come off soon, he would rip them off, just as he had before.

  Telling myself there was no other choice, I reached behind me and quickly unfast