Chapter Ten: …Getting to Know All About You

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"Damn!" she cursed breathlessly, breaking the surface of the placid pool. Her spear was all wrong and half the day was already gone. She'd spent the entire morning picking a branch and carving a tip onto it. Then she's spent the last two hours swimming in the pool of fish trying to spear them. To make matters worse, Malcolm had a whole string of fish thanks to her stirring them up and forcing them onto the bank.

He'd picked them off one by one and was now sitting on the bank watching her with a bemused expression.

God! She was hungry. Too bad she couldn't just spear him and get it over with. Admitting defeat, she swam into the shallows and made her way up the sandy bank. Her undergarments clung to her skin and she did something she'd never done before in her entire life. She put a sway in her hip and walked up to him. "Excuse me, uh, sir, uh, Commander Reed. Could I use the phase pistol?" Her voice was dripping with sugary sweetness and she groaned inwardly. Flirting was not her forte.

She looked like a drowned rat and he bit back a smile, standing up and slinging his fish over his shoulder. "No," he replied and started to walk away.

Blindly, she grabbed for the weapon and managed to take it out of his holster. Malcolm dropped the fish and made lunged for the phase pistol.

Just like the dying fish on the bank, the weapon fell onto the riverbank and bounced spasmodically as Hoshi and Malcolm made attempts to capture it. As if it had a mind of its own, it fell into the river and was swept away.

They jumped into the river, splashing one another in their efforts to grab the phase pistol.

It was almost within his grasp as he waded into the waist deep water. All he had to do was reach out and – A hand grabbed his ankle and yanked him under the water. He surfaced near the deep pool and with his fear nearing the surface, swam quickly back to the shallows.

He kneeled in the water, coughing and catching his breath, unable to see Hoshi. Hopefully she'd drowned. If she hadn't, he was going to kill her.

Her head popped up in the deep end and she smirked at him. She swam toward the bank, cutting a wide berth and trying to go around him. "Guess I'll have to make another spear," she said with an exaggerated sigh.

He dove toward her, tackling her around her waist. Water splashed around them and he grabbed her arm and hauled her onto the shore. "Do you realize what you've done?" he asked, his voice low and dangerous.

"Do you realize what a sanctimonious ass you are?" she countered, trying to roll away from him. He was lying on top of her, his leg insinuated between hers. "All you had to do was let me use the phase pistol. All you had to do was –"

Anger and revenge compelled him to silence her with a kiss. He smashed his lips to hers, no longer caring if he harmed her. The way she was going, she wasn't going to make it off the planet alive anyway. She shifted under him and groaned.

He pulled away quickly, his eyes blazing. Releasing her wrists, he scowled. He didn't need this kind of complication. Trying to stand, he gasped as she pushed him onto his ass and straddled him. Her wet hair brushed against his chest and he shuddered.

She was frozen on top of him, as though she were waging some internal war. Making the decision for her, Malcolm sat up and wrapped his arms around her, crushing his lips to hers. If she wanted him, she was going to have him.

Pushing his tongue past her lips, he deepened the kiss. Caught in sensation, he had no idea who moaned.

He unfastened her bra and tossed it into the river.

Her eyes followed the scrap of cloth, yet she made no move to protest.

Malcolm rolled her onto the soft sand and feasted on her breasts, alternating between the two globes like a starving man.

She thrust her hips up in welcome, and he pulled her panties down.

Desperate to have her, he kicked his boxers off and settled between her legs.

She was writhing beneath him, shaking her head from side to side.

"Look at me," he whispered, staring into her fathomless, warm eyes, and needing her to recognize it was him who was above her and not another one of her meaningless conquests.

He could feel the heat from her body and he moved against her.

"Please," she pleaded, thrusting up to meet him.

The look in her eye was his undoing and he sheathed himself quickly, closing his eyes as he did so. He was mindless, beyond caring, and didn't hear her cry out. Driving into her, he crushed his mouth to hers and met his end.

He had enough strength to roll onto his side. He just needed to catch his breath, then he would make up for his lack of control.

She was anything but ignorant, but she just hadn't been prepared for the raw desire he so easily wrought from her body. That desire was gone now, laced with pain and shame. Sand stuck to her back she felt him stir next to her, his breathing evening out and his hand starting to roam possessively over her body.

Slapping his hand away, she jumped up and waded through the currents of the river. "Don't ever touch me again!" she shouted over her shoulder and dove into the deep pool.

"Hoshi?" he called after her but she didn't respond.

He was dumbfounded. She'd been so warm and willing just a few moments ago. Now she was acting like a cold…fish. She'd writhed beneath him, welcoming him, even pleading with him to take her. And now she was acting like some frightened virgin.

"Bloody hell!" he cursed, standing up and pulling his shorts on. He noticed a crimson streak high on his thigh and his breath hitched in his chest. The proof of her virginity was clearly etched upon him, incinerating every preconception he had of her. The entertainment rags had painted her as a harlot with lovers around every corner, feeding his perception of her as a wanton woman.

He had misjudged her in so many ways and around every turn she had surprised him. He never would have let her starve or die out here but he wasn't about to let her know that. Every concession she'd made to him had been a difficult battle, feeding his developing fixation with her.

Previous conversations with her came back to haunt him. What was the use of having a life of privilege if one had no time to enjoy it? Her question had always remained in the back of his mind, totally unexpected and poignantly sincere.

She was supposed to be the feather in his cap, the diamond in his career. His career – his life. She'd turned his entire life upside down, laughing in the face of convention and taunting his very existence. He'd pulled out all the stops, taking pleasure in her pain, laughing at her as she found her footing in this new world.

He'd been cruel…like his father. Unknowingly he had become that which he'd deposed most – his father's son. God, he was an ass, a cold bastard who substituted his accomplishments for any semblance of warm or caring.

His epiphany shattered his resolve. He needed her, more so than she needed him. He wanted to go to her, but as he stared at the currents he had to cross to get to her, he couldn't bring himself to go to her. She hated him. Even from this distance, he could see the hatred in her eyes. She was totally submerged in the silvery pool with only her head above the water.

Pulling his shorts on, he bent over and picked the string of fish up. They still needed to be cleaned and cooked.

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The sun would be setting shortly and everything was in place. He had repaired the secondary power cell and their shelter would provide them with the warmth they would need during the coming night. He'd even turned the heat up, making sure she didn't suffer frostbite again.

The fish were cooked and the ration packs were stacked inside the storage lockers. She would have her pick of food tonight, a small concession on his part.

Poking the fire, he waited and worried.

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She floated in the water, her tears of frustration mingling with the warm water of the river's pool. It was kind of ironic. No wonder the fish didn't venture into the shallow currents to often. The water in the pool was warm and inviting, not at all like the frigid waters of the river waters.

Her stomach growled but she ignored it. She'd gone longer than this without eating. Besides, she really didn't feel like fish tonight. She didn't feel like eating at all.

She could just imagine the humiliation she would suffer when she went back. He had touched her and she had melted. He held power of her and the bastard knew it. Well if he thought she was going to give in to him again, he had another thing coming.

"Hoshi!" his voice called across the currents.

Starting to tread the water, she glared at him. "Damn," she whispered. I should have just kept floating and ignored him.

"You need to come in," he yelled, holding some clothing in his arms.

Feeling the chill in the air, she knew he was right. She couldn't stay here all night. "Put the clothes down and go away!" She would be damned if he would take the last of her dignity and watch her get dressed.

She watched in amazement as he set the clothes down and walked away.

She swam out of the warm pool and into the frigid currents, hurrying along the way. By the time she got out, her teeth were chattering and she yanked the jumpsuit off the ground and jumped back as something fell out of it. "Ration pack, two-oh-three," she read the writing out loud, jerking her jumpsuit on quickly. She grabbed the food and made her way to the shuttle.

This was the last straw. Who the hell did he think she was? She was going to enjoy cramming this down his throat, plastic wrapping and all.

She stomped through the woods and into the camp, where he sat by the fire.

He stood as he approached him, totally unprepared as the ration pack smacked him in the head.

"I'm not some whore you can bribe for sexual favors!" she spat. "Even if I was, you would be the last man on the planet I would willingly choose to bed!"

Rubbing his head, he bent over to pick the ration pack up. "This isn't what you think," he tried to explain.

"That was the most horrible act I have ever had the displeasure of experiencing in my entire life," she ranted.

Her insults angered him and he lashed out. "For your information, Princess," he sneered. "I wasn't all that impressed with the 'horrible act' either. I am the last man on this planet. I'm making sure you don't die in the event we ever are rescued. It would look bad on my service record if you died."

Her retort died on her lips as she watched him crawl into the shuttle. His biting remarks would have stung if she weren't already so numb.

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TBC