THE OFF WORLD COLLECTION (Short, Steamy Science Fiction Romances) (Off-World Series) by Rebecca York Page A
Authors: Rebecca York
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felt the tension between them.
“Thanks.”
“I’m glad I was here to tend to it.”
oOo
The man sitting beside Beka was half naked, and she tried not to stare at his broad chest and hard muscles. His skin was tanned, telling her that he must go shirtless on hot days when he was working outside.
He was attractive in a rough kind of way. Not just physically. She liked a lot of the choices he’d made. From her brief view of his farmstead, she could tell he was a hard worker, determined to succeed in this wide-open environment, and he’d taught himself the skills he needed to do it.
He’d taken a risk, rescuing her back at the spaceport. What kind of risks would he take now?
She swallowed, struggling not to react to him or to the intimacy of the moment. She had agreed to come to this isolated homestead. He’d said there was a comms unit she could use if she got into trouble. But what if the trouble came from her own husband? Would anybody respond to that?
Probably not. She couldn’t stop her thoughts from circling back to her initial fears that he could do anything he wanted to her. On the other hand, she thought from the way he was acting that he was jittery about being thrown together with a wife he had met only a couple of hours earlier. That could be an advantage for her.
But now there was something she’d better say before they got much farther into the physical part of the relationship. And maybe that was a sort of test. Was he going to get angry when he got the bad news?
She cleared her throat. “You’re probably expecting . . .”
When he said nothing, she said, “I have to tell you something.”
She saw him tense. “What?”
“I’m having my period.”
Several seconds passed before he said, “Am I supposed to know what that means?”
Chapter Three
By the powers, she’d hoped he’d know what it meant. But then she reminded herself that up until the past few months, all the colonists sent to Palomar had been men. She hadn’t considered the full implications of that fact until this moment.
Now what was she supposed to do? All sorts of explanations leaped into her mind, all of them making assumptions about his knowledge of basic biology and sexual relations.
She felt her face grow hot as she tried to decide where to start and heard herself blurting, “Do you know where babies come from?”
Now his face flushed. “I told you I have livestock out in the barn,” he snapped. “Of course I know.”
“Uh—female animals go into heat. And uh, when they do, they’re receptive to the males.”
“Yeah.”
“It’s not exactly like that with women. They can get pregnant any time of the year. I mean if it’s the right time of the month.”
He gave a tight nod.
She wanted to sink into the floor, but she forced herself to keep standing there, facing him. “So every month their body gets ready to carry a child. And if they don’t get pregnant, their body has to get rid of the preparations.”
When he didn’t say anything, she continued. “That means we can’t . . . do anything . . . I mean we could, but it would be a bloody mess.”
When he finally got it, she watched the conflicting emotions on his face. He was embarrassed by the frank details, but she thought he was also relieved. Maybe he wasn’t entirely comfortable with the idea of taking his new bride home and rushing her right to bed. Well, she amended, they’d be sleeping in the same bed, but they weren’t going to have sex. At least she didn’t think so.
“Okay,” he clipped out, then stood up so abruptly that she was forced to take a step back.
“I should go out and check the stock,” he said.
“I could fix dinner. If you tell me where things are.”
“Right.” He turned toward the prep area. “I keep fresh food in the cold box. Some meat is in the freeze unit. You can thaw it fast in the micro. My labels are like hen scratches, though. Maybe I should get you out a kilo of ground beef.”
“Okay,” she
“Thanks.”
“I’m glad I was here to tend to it.”
oOo
The man sitting beside Beka was half naked, and she tried not to stare at his broad chest and hard muscles. His skin was tanned, telling her that he must go shirtless on hot days when he was working outside.
He was attractive in a rough kind of way. Not just physically. She liked a lot of the choices he’d made. From her brief view of his farmstead, she could tell he was a hard worker, determined to succeed in this wide-open environment, and he’d taught himself the skills he needed to do it.
He’d taken a risk, rescuing her back at the spaceport. What kind of risks would he take now?
She swallowed, struggling not to react to him or to the intimacy of the moment. She had agreed to come to this isolated homestead. He’d said there was a comms unit she could use if she got into trouble. But what if the trouble came from her own husband? Would anybody respond to that?
Probably not. She couldn’t stop her thoughts from circling back to her initial fears that he could do anything he wanted to her. On the other hand, she thought from the way he was acting that he was jittery about being thrown together with a wife he had met only a couple of hours earlier. That could be an advantage for her.
But now there was something she’d better say before they got much farther into the physical part of the relationship. And maybe that was a sort of test. Was he going to get angry when he got the bad news?
She cleared her throat. “You’re probably expecting . . .”
When he said nothing, she said, “I have to tell you something.”
She saw him tense. “What?”
“I’m having my period.”
Several seconds passed before he said, “Am I supposed to know what that means?”
Chapter Three
By the powers, she’d hoped he’d know what it meant. But then she reminded herself that up until the past few months, all the colonists sent to Palomar had been men. She hadn’t considered the full implications of that fact until this moment.
Now what was she supposed to do? All sorts of explanations leaped into her mind, all of them making assumptions about his knowledge of basic biology and sexual relations.
She felt her face grow hot as she tried to decide where to start and heard herself blurting, “Do you know where babies come from?”
Now his face flushed. “I told you I have livestock out in the barn,” he snapped. “Of course I know.”
“Uh—female animals go into heat. And uh, when they do, they’re receptive to the males.”
“Yeah.”
“It’s not exactly like that with women. They can get pregnant any time of the year. I mean if it’s the right time of the month.”
He gave a tight nod.
She wanted to sink into the floor, but she forced herself to keep standing there, facing him. “So every month their body gets ready to carry a child. And if they don’t get pregnant, their body has to get rid of the preparations.”
When he didn’t say anything, she continued. “That means we can’t . . . do anything . . . I mean we could, but it would be a bloody mess.”
When he finally got it, she watched the conflicting emotions on his face. He was embarrassed by the frank details, but she thought he was also relieved. Maybe he wasn’t entirely comfortable with the idea of taking his new bride home and rushing her right to bed. Well, she amended, they’d be sleeping in the same bed, but they weren’t going to have sex. At least she didn’t think so.
“Okay,” he clipped out, then stood up so abruptly that she was forced to take a step back.
“I should go out and check the stock,” he said.
“I could fix dinner. If you tell me where things are.”
“Right.” He turned toward the prep area. “I keep fresh food in the cold box. Some meat is in the freeze unit. You can thaw it fast in the micro. My labels are like hen scratches, though. Maybe I should get you out a kilo of ground beef.”
“Okay,” she
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