Read Online The Marine's Queen by Susan Kelley - Free Book Online

Joe. I’ll….” Webb’s words trailed off when he glanced up at Joe.
    Joe turned his back on them, taking a few deep breaths.
    Webb cleared his throat. “You’re fine, just as you said, Lady Callie. I think I’ll check on the children to see if they weathered the crossing as well as you have.”
    Webb whistled a cheery tune as was his habit when the marines amused him. He’d swallow his tongue if he knew how much Joe wanted to knock his teeth down his throat.
    “ You’re lucky to have a doctor with you,” Callie said.
    Joe turned in time to see her rolling her pant leg down. He remembered the feel of her soft skin beneath his rough fingers and her brave tolerance of the pain both from the thorns and the cure.
    “ We’re an expensive product. The Galactic Military Council wanted to get as much use from their investment as possible.” Joe surprised himself with the disrespectful tone in his voice.
    Callie frowned and bent down to tug on her boot. “I deserved that, I suppose. Of all people, I should understand what it’s like to be judged on rumor and ignorance.”
    Joe remained silent.
    “ My father was one of the leaders who pushed for prosecution of the scientists who created you.”
    “ He succeeded.” Joe knew from overheard conversations of his superiors that the men who had chosen the donors and manipulated the genes to develop the marines had been imprisoned and banned from any kind of research.
    “ Yes, he did.” Callie held his gaze. “He also fought those who wanted to destroy the results of those scientists. He believed just as it was wrong to artificially create life it would be as wrong to take the life from those innocent creations.”
    “ You remember this?”
    “ I was only a child during the trials, but the controversy over what to do with you raged on into my teen years.”
    “ Did your father agree with the final solution?” Joe wanted to know if she agreed, but he feared her answer.
    “ He thought it best if you were all killed serving the Galactic Military. He pushed to have you sterilized so you couldn’t reproduce more unnatural beings.”
    “ Unnatural?” Joe turned the cruel word over his mind, wondering at its exact meaning.
    “ Not created by nature is what he meant. He believed only the Spirit Father should give life.”
    Joe stared at the boarks gallivanting in the shallows of the pool. Vicious beasts, but more natural than he was. Soon the animals would burrow in the sand to shelter from the frigid night temperatures.
    Callie rose and put her hand on his chest. He met her gaze, seeing the warm emotions in her eyes. Was it sadness or pity? She lifted her hand to touch his cheek. “Those were my father’s views, Joe, not mine.”
    “ What are your views, Lady Callie?” Joe stood frozen, afraid to even breathe for fear she would stop touching him. Touching him and connecting him to something real and good.
    “ I’m reserving the right to make up my own mind. My father never met you, but he feared your existence. He warned them to beware of their creation.”
    “ Do you fear me?” He dreaded the answer but had to know.
    “ You startle me at times,” she answered after a moment. “I can’t say it’s always comfortable being near you, but my heart doesn’t pound in fear either.”
    Joe moved a step closer, noticing the pulse at the base of her throat speed up. “What does make your heart pound?”
    Callie stared up at him with her mouth open slightly in surprise. He covered it with his own.
    * * * *
    Callie could have backed away. Only Joe’s lips touched her. Only his wonderfully talented lips. Instead, she moaned and pressed her mouth harder against his. Slipping one hand behind his head, she pulled him closer and rose on her toes.
    His mouth moved on hers, and she opened hers. His tongue flicked across the inside of her lips. Liquid heat flowed down her neck, rolling over her nipples and sinking to her private place between her legs.
    She touched her