Tiana Gets Hurt

A bit later, Tiana awoke, sated, floating with Derek’s muscular arms around her and his penis still in her. With her head on his chest, she could hear the steady beat of his heart. At that very moment, she felt complete. She required nothing else. She barely knew this man, yet she felt so right in his arms, and so right being his wife. When she was with him, nothing else mattered. In his embrace she felt secure in a way she never had before. Not with Tom and so different from her father, who had always cared for and protected her. In Derek’s arms it was quiet, it was peaceful, and she felt safe. She was light years away from where she was supposed to be, in an escape pod, heading for goodness knew where, yet she really didn’t care. For the first time in her life, she felt at home.

“Good morning, princess.”

“It’s not morning. We’re in space. There is no morning.”

“Hey! No engineer speak while I am being romantic.” He chuckled softly. “If, in fact, we just woke up, then by my definition it is morning, and since I woke up with you, by any definition it is a good morning.”

“You sure seem to have your ‘definitions’ down, don’t you. Well, in that case, good morning.”

I wonder if this would be a good time to let him know that I am in ‘deep like’ with him. What to do? What to do?

Tiana was bubbling over with feeling for her new husband and she wanted to tell him and find out how he felt about her, but the fear of rejection kept her from speaking. She wasn’t going to play the fool once more; after all, this was a marriage of convenience. Maybe the coming two years would change things. Yup, she would make sure things changed indeed!

“I’m going to see what this pod is able to synthesize for lunch.” Derek unwrapped his arms from around her and floated to the scaled-down food synthesizer in the escape pod.

Oh no! Holy loneliness! Hmm … my, but this man has a great butt!

She stared at him, taking in every graceful move he made as well as every contraction of every muscle visible to her, which, in his currently naked state, was all of them. Gracious! She was feeling moisture between her legs once more. It wasn’t only sexual, though. Her heart just jumped for joy at being cocooned in the escape pod with him.

“Wait a minute,” she started, “you can’t have it both ways. If it’s morning you have to have breakfast and you can’t have lunch without first having breakfast, after all —”

Fate did not give her the courtesy of finishing her sentence. The shockwave from the matter/anti-matter reaction, which had been expanding ever since the ship’s explosion, had finally caught up with the escape pod. The small craft shook violently, throwing Derek and Tiana across the small space. Derek hit a flat part of the wall, and though his very breath was knocked out of him, the damage to his person was minimal. Tiana was not so lucky. As she flew across the escape pod, she managed to slice her bare leg on the edge of the bed. It all happened so quickly that the first hint she had that she was hurt was when she saw blood freely floating past her dazed eyes. Another ricochet of the shock wave slammed into the escape pod, wreaking havoc for its inhabitants and throwing Tiana at the opposite wall, while Derek, trying to get to her, held on for dear life. This time it smashed her, head-first, into the wall. Darkness and silence fell upon Tiana as she replaced consciousness and awareness with peaceful slumber.