The Phoenix Code by Catherine Asaro Page A

darkness with her reader lying on her chest. Cleo must have turned out the light. The sensors in the console could figure out if she was asleep by analyzing her heart rate, activity, posture, and breathing. She probably would have slept all night like this if the banging hadn't woken her.
    Banging?
    There it came again, someone thumping on the door.
    "Raj?" she called. "Is that you?"
    "It's the power," he answered. "It's out and neither backup generator came on. I wanted to make sure you were all right before I went to check."
    "I'm coming." Groggy and half-asleep, she dragged herself out of bed and made her way toward the door, waving her hands to keep from stumbling into furniture. She couldn't see a thing; no trace of light relieved the dark. It took her sleep-fogged mind a moment to register that anomaly. What had happened to the emergency lights?
    Megan grunted as she bumped the wall. Sliding her palms on its surface, she moved along until she found the door. She opened it into a hall just as dark as her room.
    "Megan?" It sounded as if Raj were standing in front of her. She could smell the spices he had used for dinner.
    "Here." She stepped forward—and ran right into him.
    "Ah!" He caught her around the waist. "I can't see."
    Megan couldn't believe she had been so clumsy. What if he thought she did it on purpose? "The emergency lights should be on." She was talking too fast. "They can go for hours."
    "It could have been that long since the power went out," Raj said. "I've been asleep."
    "So you do sleep!"
    He paused. "Of course I sleep."
    "The LPs should have notified us and tried to fix the problem." She forgot her chagrin as she realized how little sense this situation made. "We've triple redundancy in the generators, emergency lights with individual batteries, a backup battery for each set of lights, and a base full of LPs. None of those worked? I find that hard to believe."
    "I don't know about the LPs." His breath stirred her hair. "But I think the automatic transfer switch for the generators malfunctioned. Do you have a flashlight? Mine's in the lab."
    "I've one under my workstation." She twisted to look back into her room. "That's odd."
    "What?"
    She turned to him again, aware of his hands on her waist. They felt large and strong through her nightshirt. "I had an emergency light on my console. It's out too."
    "It shouldn't be." He slid his hands up her sides, then down to her hips. "Why no alarm?"
    "Good question." Her face was growing warm. He could have let her go by now.
    "I ran tests on Ander earlier tonight." He sounded distracted, as if he were talking to fill the silence. "Maybe it caused some problem." He moved closer, the denim of his jeans brushing against her bare legs.
    Megan was poised to go for the flashlight, but she stayed put. Raj slid his hand to her chin and tilted her face upward. She still couldn't see him. She had never realized before how total the darkness became here with no lights.
    Raj slid his other hand around her back, pressing her closer while he held her chin. His clothes rustled—and then his lips touched hers.
    Megan froze. She hadn't expected him to kiss her. Nor would she have thought he would be so rough. He pressed his mouth hard against hers, mauling her lips. His clumsiness so distracted her, she didn't respond.
    Raj drew back his head. "I hope I didn't offend you."
    Do I want this? If she didn't answer soon, he would let her go. Given what she had seen of him, she doubted he would try again if she rejected him. Maybe his graceless approach came from the awkward situation. Suddenly glad for the darkness, she reached up, meaning to touch his cheek. Her fingertips brushed his jaw instead. Just one moment can't hurt , she thought.
    Raj gathered her into his embrace. Relaxing against him, she slid her arms around his waist. Then, with no warning, he put his hand over her breast and squeezed.
    Megan winced. "Don't."
    He rolled her nipple between his fingers. "Hmmm?"
    "Slow