OGENUS EARTH 🌎 🌊 {Dystopian Sci-Fi Adventure}

Deuces Are Wild

           

In the drawing, Meg sat at the small circular table in the kitchenette, her back arched upwards in a languid stretch, highlighting the few curves she had in a pleasing way. Her hair spilled out over her shoulders and down her back, the onyx sheets were accented with streaks of violet in the overhead lights of the ship.

Meg's fingers grazed the bottom of her lashes, tracing the wide-set eyes that the beauty in the drawing peered out of. The aqueous mink of their inscrutable expression matched the misty shade of her irises perfectly. There was a tender blush on the apples of her cheeks, budding out like the petals of a pastel colored rose.

Looking at this picture stirred something inside Meg's chest, a pleasurable heat that radiated from within, flushing her light olive skin with an enjoyable tingle.

It also felt deeply personal, as if she had peered too far into the thoughts of a man who prided himself on keeping people at arm's length.

With a snap, she flipped the pages back to look at one of the hellish mutants. That somehow seemed safer than the image of the girl at the table.

"What the hell are you doing?" Harrison's voice could barely contain the thin ice this girl was walking on.

With a startled jump, Meg snapped the journal closed.

The nerve endings in her entire body froze as if she'd received an electric prod. Slowly and with focused concentration, she willed her muscles to thaw just enough to move her eyes from the tip of Harrison's boots to the curve of his lips.

He was framed in the narrow doorway, leaning over the threshold and studying her with a look of bemused anger.

"Are these real?" She asked, her expression tight with wonder and fear.

"Didn't I tell you not to go rifling through my stuff?" He growled back, snatching the book from her fingers.

Meg shrank away from the abruptness of his actions, she knew that she owed him an apology.

"You drew those?" The words bleated out before she could collect her thoughts.

"Are you going to answer everything with a question? Because that's going to get old, real fast." He shoved the book into a drawer to the left of his bunk.

Meg rolled back her shoulders, squaring up to her guilt.

"I'm sorry, you left it out and I was...curious. I like to read, and I thought maybe you kept a record of your adventures, that's why I picked it up."

Her steadied delivery stunned Harrison into momentary silence.

This young woman had barely spoken a word this entire mission, while the other two ladies couldn't stop yacking. It wasn't because she was simple, that much was clear the moment he made the mistake of meeting her eyes. She chose to listen.

Very few people knew this girl, and he could tell that was a deliberate choice on her part. Harrison respected that.

"And when you didn't find what you were looking for, you just kept going?" He asked, cocking his head back to study her face.

At that moment, her expression held a conviction that nearly broke his heart.

The urge to know her, to touch the infinite depths of her mind, brought with it a painful fear that eclipsed Harrison's power of reason.

"I saw something so amazing that I couldn't look away." She replied, casting her eyes down and severing their connection.

"It's just a hobby." He murmured to himself.

Harrison bent at the waist to make sure she could see what he really wanted to say.

"I'm not mad, OK? Just keep out of my stuff. There's personal shit in there."

"I will," Meg replied. Disappointment washed through her, leaving her shivering with embarrassment and needing to escape his gaze.

Harrison was always so gruff and this invasion of privacy probably hadn't done anything to improve that. All she wanted was to know more about the beasts that slithered the oceans.

Harrison turned to leave, his iron constitution shaken.

Meg was too young to be appealing to him in that way. But she had woken something in him, something that had not been disturbed in years.

It was becoming clear that something kismet, and completely outside of his command, had brought their fates together.

Outside of Harrison's door, the others sat licking their wounds while MAX scurried between one side of the room and the other. Harrison turned his brown eyes to Olivia.

"You did good." He told her with a nod before walking away.

"I'm sorry, was that a compliment?" Olivia mouthed off to his back.

"Yeah, well don't expect a medal of honor or anything." Harrison turned around to face her. "We still got a lot of ocean to cross."

"Are there other ex-lovers we should be aware of?" Olivia snapped, taunting him to block out the pounding in her head. "Any other murderous exes we should keep an eye out for?"

"Wouldn't you like to know." Harrison scoffed offering a cheeky wink before turning to leave.

"I think we'd all like to know, for our own safety," Olivia muttered to herself, bent out of shape that the handsome mariner kept walking away.

Midge loved their sexually charged banter and she felt absorbed by the fire in Harrison's eyes when he volleyed back his last well-timed responses. She had a terrific view of his tight butt as he swaggered away, and she grinned inwardly.

Oh, if only I were twenty years younger, she thought with a shiver, he'd still have no idea I existed, but wouldn't that be a terrific failure to fantasize about? Her years as Arturo's caretaker had done nothing to help her romantic life that was for sure.

Harrison continued walking up to the front, satisfied that he was back on track and in control, for now.

This chapter is dedicated to the BRILLIANT z4k4ri4 whose thoughtful and supportive comments inspired me to keep writing. Words cannot express how much I want to say THANK YOU!! Readers like you are rare 😁