VirtuallyYours by Caroline McCall Page A

growled his approval and
he tugged at her tunic, breaking his kiss only to pull it over her head.
    Pete’s mouth traced a fiery path down her neck and along her
collarbone before his lips fastened on the pebbled peak through the thin lace
of her bra. His mouth was so hot. Darts of pleasure fluttered in her abdomen.
“Oh, yes.”
    Upward, his mouth trailed again, biting and nipping on the
tender skin of her neck. The bruises were beginning to fade and he fastened his
mouth hard against the same spot, sucking and laving with his tongue, claiming
her again. He pulled away. Rivulets of water ran down his face. Blue eyes
stared at her, hungry with longing. “Charley…”
    A loud banging sounded on the bathroom door, startling both
of them. Pete’s face was an agony of frustration.
    Charley recovered first. “I’m cleaning his wounds,” she
called.
    “Be quick about it.” Kirez banged on the door again. “Tinar
wants you on the bridge. There’s a problem with the Array.”
    They listened in silence as heavy footsteps moved away from
the door and out into the corridor. They had to hurry or Kirez would be
suspicious. Charley switched on the water collector, and as they dried off, she
told Pete quickly of Marc’s plan to take over the ship while the Vashtar went
hunting.
    “Charley, even if we do succeed in getting the Pegasus back,
the weapons systems have never been tested in combat.”
    Combat. The reality of their situation suddenly hit her.
While Pete and the techies were fighting the Vashtar, she would have to battle
against another ship. All of their lives would depend on her.
    “Hey, don’t think about it now, Charley. I was sick as a dog
before my first battle. My legs froze and I couldn’t move a muscle.”
    “What did you do?”
    “My friends Jake and Strom each grabbed an arm and hauled me
along with them. I realized that I wasn’t fighting against the enemy—I was
fighting for my friends. After that I was okay.”
    Pete’s hands cupped her face, teasing her with one last
lingering embrace. “I promise you that we’ll make it through this. You and I
have a date when we get back to Earth, and next time, there will be no
interruptions.”
    Earth. If they made it home, their own lives would take over
again. She would be back at the Academy, and after that, she would have to
leave Earth for good. What a mess. Someone’s heart was going to get broken into
a thousand tiny pieces and she knew that it was going to be hers.
    “Hey, what’s up?”
    “Nothing,” she lied as she pulled on a dry uniform tunic.
“I’m just thinking about Marc.”
    “I’m not sure if I like the idea of my girl thinking about
other men.”
    His girl. She was never going to be Pete’s girl. What would
he do if he found out who she really was and what she had done? This thing with
Pete had to finish before they got back to Earth, before she made a complete
fool of herself and told him that she loved him. It was better to end this now.
“Pete, I can’t be your girl. There can be no us when we get home.”
    His face paled, he looked as if someone had punched him.
Charley pressed on, stumbling over her words. “I’m graduating in June and I
don’t want to settle on Earth. I want to travel, see other planets. So it’s
better if we don’t get involved.”
    Charley turned away before he could respond. It was over.
She had to get out of here. As she hurried along the corridors, Charley was
conscious of the lights flickering overhead. It was impossible for a system to
have that many faults on a single circuit. She remembered the problem with the
water dispensers earlier. Marc must be trying to take control of the automated
systems.
    Tinar was pacing the bridge impatiently when she arrived.
Charley averted her eyes from his face and slid quickly into the com chair. If
they were to get out of this alive, she had to get the weapons and aeronautics
systems on-line.
    “There have been problems with a number of systems