Luca brings out my playful side, one of the reasons I reluctantly indulged in his offer of no-strings-attached fun these past few months – the other reason being to chase the cobwebs away.
“I can think of better ways you could have woken me up.”
His eyes widen, a mischievous glint alighting his strong features. “I’m sure we can arrange something.”
I giggle as strong hands clasp beneath me, pulling my hips up level with his head. Our sleeping bags are forgotten, discarded as he presses his face against my plain cotton regulation knickers – not the sort to inspire sexy thoughts – and inhales deeply.
“You’re such a deviant.” I gasp as his mouth sucks on me through the thin fabric.
“Shh, let me enjoy my breakfast,” he says, attempting to silence me with his fingers against my lips. Sucking on them, I pull them deeper into my mouth. His eyes blaze. “Mio Fiore, you are anangelo.”
My communications device chirps.
Luca groans.
“Peake, you with us?”Clayton barks, his voice tinny through the speaker.
“Until tonight,Fiore,” Luca whispers against my lips before he steals a quick kiss.
I groan aloud before reaching for my comms.
“Not for long,” I call back.
There's a deep rumble of laughter down the comms,“Not long now, and y’all can take a nice ol’ vacation,”the southern drawl of Clayton’s voice echoes around us.
Someone snorts in the background, likely Chelenko, who meets anyone’s enthusiasm for home with derision. I think the stubborn Russian would live up here permanently if they let him. He’s practically furniture at this point.
He’s been on the station every time I’ve been here. Likely every time in between as well. Should ring up the Guinness World Record people for the longest stint in space, or the biggest arsehole. He is the dictionary definition of anal-retentive, complete with stick up butt.
That said, he is one mean engineer. What he can’t fix is probably not worth fixing, and even then, he could break it down for parts.
“I have a visual on the shuttle. Soyuz, check in,”Aiko’s delicate voice rings out through the station, polite and formal as ever.
“Soyuz here. We are on final approach,”a soft French accent responds, static swallowing the last syllable.
“Konnichiwa, Soyuz.”Aiko greets them, her speech still heavily accented despite the past few years spent over at NASA.“Autonomous docking procedures taking over.”
“Alright, I’m heading up. Peake out.” I click my comms mic off, wriggling my flight suit the rest of the way up. Luca coasts his eyes over my sleep-mussed form one final time.
“Tonight,Fiore.” He adjusts himself through the fabric of his joggers. His darkened stare hints at the obscene scenes he has playing out in his mind, before he pushes through the open hatch.
ALEX
CHAPTER TWO
I etch it into memory. Taking one last, lingering moment to gaze over the Earth. This may be the last chance I get to see our home in all its giant, polished-marble glory.
“Soyuz aligned,”Aiko calls out through the comms.
In my periphery, I spot grey metal blotting out my view of the solar arrays that stretch out like golden wings from the station’s core.
“Ease it in slowly,”Clayton says.
Through the viewing glass I see the Soyuz docking, the domed tip jutting straight out into space. I feel the vibration as it connects with the station’s docking module.
Clayton’s run me ragged in recent weeks, so I never did check the crew manifest updates. Between my resistant materials experiments and performing some much-needed upgrades, work has kept me busy. Besides, I’m more interested in the cargo.
“Good work, Y’all,” Clayton says. “Matherson, patch Soyuz into our comms.”
