Beyond the Limits

She sucked harder on his tongue, trying to take control. Lifting her arms, she held his face, feeling his soft skin even as his stubble abraded her fingers. She rubbed her fingertips over it and then moved her hands slowly to his back, looping them around his neck.

Antonio kissed like he did everything else, with skill and accuracy, mastering her. And she was caught up in the maelstrom. Caught up in Antonio.

Suddenly she pulled back, breaking the kiss. This was the reason she’d stayed away from him. Not because of his reputation or the damage he could do to hers, but because of this. The overwhelming way he consumed her body and—if she wasn’t very careful—her soul.

She tried to slip away but he held her with one hand at the small of her back and the other tangled in her hair. “I never figured you for someone who would back down.”

His voice was sexy, his Spanish accent and the low husky timbre making her nipples harden and her center soften. She wanted him. Everything about Antonio was seductive, and now that she was in his arms, her willpower was gone.

But she had to own this. Couldn’t let Antonio know how much power he had over her. She had to up the ante, press her advantage. Could she do it?

She had no choice because she knew if she walked away now, he’d always have beaten her. And that wasn’t something she was willing to live with.

Maybe it only felt different with Antonio because he was tender yet dominant. There was no doubt that he was in complete control. And that was where her struggle lay.

She wanted to take control, but it felt good to just be in his arms, kissing him, not trying to prove she had the lady balls to own this moment. His hand trailed along the side of her neck, feathering his fingers against her until gooseflesh spread down her arm, making her nipples tighten even more.

“Querida, your kisses promise greater pleasure than I have ever known,” he said, leaning in to whisper. She felt the brush of his lips against her neck, and then he moved his mouth lower, biting so gently that she barely felt the edge of his teeth against the point where her neck and collarbone met. It was erotic and made her want to rip off first her clothes and then his.

She buried her fingers in the thick richness of his hair and closed her eyes. She wouldn’t deny herself this moment with Antonio. It had been risky of her to challenge him physically, and now it was clear she wasn’t as immune to him as she’d thought.

* * *

ANTONIO NEVER LET himself lose control. His seductions were practiced and he always kept his cool. But not with Izzy. He shouldn’t have been surprised by his reaction—from the first moment they’d met he hadn’t been able to get her out of his mind.

But a gym—an open gym—wasn’t the place he’d have chosen for their first encounter. He wanted time to explore every one of her curves and to learn the details of how soft her skin was. She rocked against him and he hardened even more. His gym shorts were starting to feel too tight and he knew that no matter what his rational mind wanted, if he didn’t move soon, he was going to push her ridiculously short shorts down her long legs and find his way into her body.

He looked around the room and saw the door that led to the private workout room. It wasn’t monitored and it would give them a modicum of privacy.

“Wrap your legs around me,” he said, hardly recognizing the guttural sound of his own voice. He was further gone than he wanted to admit.

She did as he asked and he crossed the room in record time, holding her against him with one arm while he fumbled to open the door with the other. Once inside, he pressed her against the closing door.

Izzy looked up at him, and in her eyes he read a tangle of emotions. Sex was complicated. Even when he thought it wouldn’t be, it was. It was hard to get naked with someone and then go back to business as usual.

Was this a mistake he shouldn’t make?

“Antonio,” she said.

A shiver of pure desire snaked down his spine and his balls tightened. She hardly ever called him by his given name and he’d never realized what a difference it would make. There had been a note of longing in the way she’d said it.

He couldn’t think anymore. He had to act. He lowered his head once again and rubbed his lips over hers. They were soft and full, slightly swollen from their earlier kiss, and she parted them for him. Her tongue thrust into his mouth and tangled with his as she grasped his shoulders like she didn’t want to let him go.

He certainly wouldn’t let her go. This might come back to haunt him, but right now he had his arms full of the woman who’d inhabited his dreams for almost a decade.

He loved the way she felt in his arms, undulating against him as the kiss deepened. He felt the fullness of her breasts against his chest and fumbled for the hem of her T-shirt, pulling it up over her head and tossing it on the floor. He skimmed his gaze down her torso, taking in her narrow shoulders, defined arms and her black sports bra. He saw the small marks that sweat had left under her breasts as he traced the scooped neck that minimized her fullness.

She unwrapped her legs from his waist and slid down his body to stand in front of him. She pulled him away from the door and reached behind him to lock it.

The room had yoga mats stacked in one corner and a weight bench in another. He drew her across the room to the weight bench and sat down on it. He spanned her waist with his hands and lifted her onto his lap.

“I believe this is where I was,” she said, straddling him.

“Seems almost right,” he said. Her skin was a creamy white alabaster that contrasted with his darker, olive tone.

She sighed and he glanced up. Their eyes met and again he couldn’t read what she was thinking.

He started to speak, but she put her finger over his mouth, hushing him. She tugged his shirt over his head and tossed it aside and then pulled off her sports bra. Her breasts fell free, bouncing against her chest, and he reached up to cup them as she shifted against him. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders as he leaned forward, burying his face between her breasts and using his hands to lift them toward his mouth. He tongued first one nipple and then the other as she scraped her nails down his back. She rocked against him.

The fabric of his boxer briefs and gym shorts was too confining. He needed to feel her pressed against him with no barrier, so he lifted his hips, reaching between their bodies to free himself.

He pulled the inner seam of her shorts and panties away from her delicate flesh so he could reach up and caress her warmth.

He stroked along her most intimate flesh and then let the tip of one finger dip inside her. She arched her back and thrust her breasts toward his face. He suckled her nipple as he thrust one finger inside her before slowly drawing it back out again.

She rocked her hips against him again, reaching between their bodies to find his cock and stroke it. She held him, moving her hand up and down until he felt he could go crazy from the pleasure. He tore his mouth from her breast as he realized...

“Izzy,” he said, kissing the valley between her breasts and running his hands up and down her back.

“Yes?”

“I don’t have a condom. Are you on the pill?”

* * *

SHE COULD USE this as an excuse to stop, but she didn’t want to. She was on the pill, and this thing with Antonio was overdue. She was going to enjoy a hot afternoon of sex and then put it in a box and never visit it again.

“Yes. Don’t worry about it,” she said. She knew they were both clean because they went through a barrage of tests almost daily. And right now the one thing that was on her mind was getting naked and getting back on his lap. His cock was so big and full and it had been far too long since she’d had sex.

He said something in Spanish, which she didn’t understand, but she saw the gratitude on his face and nipped at his bottom lip. She stood up and shucked off her shorts and underwear.

She felt his fingers between her legs and looked down to see him parting her and stroking her. Her legs went weak and she reached for his shoulder to steady herself. He wrapped one arm around her waist and lifted her onto his lap.

His tip was at her entrance, and as she looked down into those large brown eyes, she wondered how she could ever have thought that he was off-limits.

He pushed her. He always had, and for once she didn’t think that was a bad thing.

She shifted again and felt him stretching the entrance of her body. He replaced his tip with a finger, pushing inside of her, and she tightened herself around it. Stars burst behind her eyes. She hadn’t felt this good in a long time.

She leaned forward, her arms on his shoulders as she found his mouth and thrust her tongue deep inside.

She felt him add a second finger, stretching her. Sensations pulsed through her. Izzy wanted to be detached, to focus on the physical sensations and not who was touching her. But she couldn’t. This was Antonio making her feel she was going to shatter into a hundred pieces. Antonio who controlled her every move.

She moaned and felt her inner muscles start to clench around him, riding his fingers as an orgasm rolled through her.

She took her mouth from his and reached between them, drawing his hand away and positioning his cock where she needed him. She shifted her weight, felt his hands on her butt, clenching her cheeks as she slowly lowered herself onto him. When he was fully embedded inside her, he groaned and held her tightly to him.

He kissed her deeply as she started to ride him. His tongue plunged in and out of her mouth following the rhythm his body set. He urged her to go faster, driving them both higher and higher.

She wanted this to last but knew that it couldn’t. They’d waited too long for this moment, and both of them were desperate. They needed each other so urgently.

His hold on her became fiercer as he moved underneath her, urging her to ride him harder and faster still, thrusting up inside of her with determination. She arched her back as she felt her climax building again, his mouth on the fullness of her breast, then latching on to her nipple and sucking her deep into his mouth.

Everything inside her clenched and stars danced behind her eyelids as the sensation spread throughout her body and a second orgasm rolled through her. She dug her nails into his shoulders as he continued to pound into her.

He threw his head back and groaned as she felt him empty himself inside her. She ran her hands up and down his back as he thrust into her a few more times, and then he slowed, wrapping his arms around her waist and resting his head on her shoulder.

She held him, too, her fingers toying with the hair at the nape of his neck and her heartbeat slowly settling down.

She hoped that this would be enough and she could go back to comfortably ignoring him. She wasn’t ready to deal with Antonio and the consequences this might have on her emotions.

Of course this had been a mistake. It couldn’t happen again, even though her body was still pulsing, still wanting him. She wanted to curl closer to him, so, instead, she pushed him away.

“Izzy, baby, that was something else. I guess this just proves that good things are worth the wait,” he said. There was a softness in his tone that made her want to stay, to lower her guard, but she knew she couldn’t.

It wasn’t like they could date. The powers that be weren’t going to put a newly dating couple in space for eighteen months.

“Maybe,” she said. She didn’t want to discuss this. She climbed off him and turned her back to him as she dressed, pulling on her panties and shorts and then trying to put on her sports bra. It got tangled as she drew it over her head and she felt his hands on her back, unrolling the fabric and slipping the bra into place.

“Thank you,” she said, not looking at Antonio. She had scanned the room for her shirt before she noticed it in his hands.

He held it out to her. She took it without a word and put it on.

“So...”

“So,” she said. “I don’t know what to say.”

“Me, either,” he admitted. “I wasn’t expecting this, but it’s more than just an itch that I wanted to scratch... What about you?”

She held her breath. She could say it was curiosity that had led her to have sex with him, or she could be honest, the way he’d been, and admit that he had always fascinated her. Even when they’d first become friends and then rivals, there was something about this tall, dark Argentinian that made her pulse race.

An alarm sounded and the emergency lighting kicked on before she could answer. A shaft of fear and relief surged through her. She’d much rather face a real-life emergency than the emotions that Antonio brought out in her. She and Antonio both raced for the door.

3

ANTONIO WAS OUT the door right behind Izzy. The gym was empty, but when they entered the hallway they saw a lot of the candidates spilling from the different training rooms. Everyone looked dazed. A smoky haze in the hallway made him worry about fire. The alarm was loud, and there was the sound of something crashing in the distance.

“Someone needs to take the lead,” Izzy said. “And then we need to sweep the rooms to make sure everyone is out.”

“I’ll take care of this group,” Antonio said. “You have more medical training than I do—why don’t you go see if anyone is injured.”

“Sounds good,” Izzy said.

“Listen up, everyone,” Antonio said. “We are going to stay together and leave the building. Bombshell is going to sweep the rooms to make sure everyone is out.”

“Is she nuts? We should all just get out of here,” one of the candidates from the NASA team said. Antonio wasn’t sure his name.

“There are only—” he broke off as he scanned the faces “—eight of us here. We know there are twenty-four candidates who could be in this building at any time.”

“I’ll help Bombshell,” Velocity said. He was one of the senior astronauts in the program and Antonio had a lot of respect for him.

“Sounds good. Be safe.”

Antonio looked at Izzy’s heart-shaped face for just a moment too long. He wanted to grab her and take her out of the facility, but she was well trained and would be fine. She gave him a nod before heading into the room closest to them. She was doing her job; it was time for him to do his.

“Let’s go. Follow me,” Antonio said in a loud voice to command their attention. “Everyone move out.”

He led the way down the corridor, keeping the group moving. He wished he could help Izzy check the rooms, but his focus had to be on getting the candidates to safety first.

“Cover your noses and mouths,” he said, pulling his own shirt up to do so. The smoke was thicker as they proceeded down the hall. The scent was odd, more chemical than woody.

He tucked that fact away in the back of his mind to analyze later. One of the candidates from Space Now made a sort of panicked moaning sound and started to run. Antonio stopped the man with a hand on his arm. He had to think for a minute to remember the candidate’s name.

Peter Jensen. He was from the UK and had trained with their space program before joining Space Now two years ago.

“Jensen, stay centered. This is nothing to worry about. We are going to get out of here,” Antonio said.

“I know... I know, man, but fire... It’s one thing I have nightmares about. I’m not sure I can—”

“You can. We’re all right here with you. And if we do this calmly and sensibly we can all get out of here together. There’s no reason to panic. I won’t leave you,” Antonio said.

Jensen nodded, causing the shirt he had tied around his face to slip. Antonio stopped walking and gestured for the rest of the group to keep moving as he retied the shirt on the kid’s head. “Let’s go.”

Everyone had stopped around the corner, and Antonio made his way to the front of the group to find debris that had fallen from the ceiling blocking their path. Three of their group were already working to shift it, and he and Jensen joined them. Antonio had a lot of training in working with people in emergency situations at home on the ranch in his native Argentina. And he knew from experience that giving people a task made them feel more in control of the situation.

So he gave a task to everyone who had hung back, getting the team to shift the pile of rubble and debris until they could all safely move through the hallway. Once again he found himself at the front of the pack, and as they neared the exit, he noticed that the smoke was getting thicker.

“Everyone down on the floor. We need to crawl,” he said.

Everyone reacted quickly, following Antonio’s lead. The smoke was thinner on the floor and he moved with as much speed as he dared, constantly monitoring the team by looking back over his shoulder and keeping a close eye on the floor ahead of them for new dangers.

They reached the exit and he touched the door with the back of his hand to see if it was hot.

It wasn’t.

He slowly lifted himself into a standing position and opened the door. Fresh air rushed in as the smoke billowed out, and Antonio motioned for the candidates to leave the building. He stood by the door, counting to make sure the six people he’d had with him at the beginning of the journey were all here.

Though Antonio had expected to see emergency vehicles, there were none, just the open Texas landscape under the early-evening sky. He scanned the area again and noticed Jessie Odell, the survival instructor, standing to one side with Ace, the commander, and Thor, Ace’s lieutenant for the mission.

He had a feeling this was a test and could only hope that he’d done enough to pass. Getting on the first Cronus mission was his goal. But he realized he was also worried about Izzy. He knew she could hold her own but if this were a test, who knew what might be waiting for her in the facility.

* * *

IZZY HAD TRAINED with Velosi, aka Velocity, for the last six months at this facility. They’d both been close to winning the second-in-command position that had ultimately gone to Thor. A part of her was glad for the screaming alarms and smoke filling the hallway, because it was much easier to deal with an emergency than to worry about the aftermath of making love with Antonio.

His call sign was Playboy.

That should have been enough for her to have stayed away. Sleeping with him might jeopardize her chances of making the Cronus mission, but that didn’t stop her from remembering the way he’d felt inside of her with a delighted shiver.

“Want to split up?” Velosi asked. “You take the left and I’ll take the right.”

Focus, girl. This was what she was good at. She’d come so close the last time.

“Yes. Call out when you enter and leave a room,” she said. “Velocity in. Velocity out. Room clear. Does that work for you?”

“Sounds good, Bombshell. Let’s do this. I don’t think my wife will be too happy if I end up getting hurt while I’m training in Texas.”

Nor did she want to be injured and out of the game before they were even named for a mission. “I agree. We need to be quick and get moving.”

There were three rooms on either side of the hallway that led to the back of the gym. The smoke was getting a little bit thicker and Izzy took off her shirt and tied it over the bottom half of her face. She carefully touched the door to check for heat before she reached for the handle. Only after she was sure it was cool did she call out that she was entering the room, turn the handle and go in. She scanned the room first, just as she’d been taught in her first emergency training class and then walked the perimeter, confirming it was empty.

She exited and called out, then waited for Velosi. He rejoined her soon after, and they confirmed their rooms were clear. They cleared the other two rooms before returning to the gym and starting toward the exit.

They worked efficiently. The third room she entered was different. As soon as she stepped inside she saw the smoke was thick in one corner. She dropped to her hands and knees and slowly worked her way around the perimeter, finding someone slumped near the back.

She rolled the person over; surprised to find it was Molly—Ace McCoy’s fiancée and one of the people who liaised between the ranch and the training facility. The facility had been built on the Bar T ranch in the town of Cole’s Hill, Texas a little over forty-five minutes from Houston. Out here they had the space to do the training. She leaned over Molly to see if she was breathing and felt a reassuring exhalation. She ran her hands along Molly’s sides to make sure that there were no injuries or protruding bones.

Nothing broken, but she was unconscious.

She heard Velosi calling that he was clear.

“Woman down in here,” she yelled. “Lots of smoke, so you’ll have to crawl.”

She shook Molly’s shoulder, but she only made a moaning sound and didn’t wake up. There were first-aid kits in all of the rooms, and as soon as Velosi announced that he was in the room she instructed him to bring the kit.

She continued to try to rouse Molly, relaying the other woman’s condition to Velosi as soon as he reached her. She used the flashlight on her phone and found the smelling salts in the first-aid kit.

When she waved them under Molly’s nose, the other woman jerked upright. “What’s going on?”

Thank God. She had been scared for her friend. “You were unconscious. We don’t know if it was due to the smoke or something else. Do you think you can walk?” Izzy asked her.

Velosi had checked the room for anyone else. “Were you alone in here?”

“Yes. Just finishing up my paperwork. I should be able to walk,” Molly said.

“Good. Until we are out of this room you should crawl,” Izzy told her.

“Follow Bombshell,” Velosi said. “I’ll be behind you.”

Together they inched through the room and into the hallway. Izzy handed a bottle of distilled water from the first-aid kit to Molly while Velosi scouted up the hallway.

“There is a pile of debris that has been shifted and two more rooms. I don’t like the idea of either of us being left alone in the building. Molly, are you okay to move slowly with us as we clear the last two rooms?”

“Yes. I’ll be fine,” Molly said.

They walked past the debris, and then Izzy waited with Molly while Velosi checked out the room on the right and then he waited with Molly while she checked the right. The rooms were both clear and as they got closer to the door, they felt fresh air. Izzy guessed that Antonio had already gotten the rest of the candidates out.

She shouldn’t have been surprised so many of them were in the building on a Sunday evening. Even though some of the candidates would be enjoying time off in the neighboring town of Cole’s Hill, Izzy wasn’t the only workaholic in the group.

Izzy put her arm around Molly’s waist and Velosi flanked them as they stepped outside. She had expected to see an emergency team waiting but they were greeted only by the candidates and facility staff.

As soon as Ace saw Molly he ran over to put his arms around her. “What the hell were you doing in there?”

“Catching up on paperwork,” she said.

Realization flared in Izzy, and so did her anger. “Good thing your people are so well trained,” Izzy remarked. “Otherwise this training exercise could have ended in unforeseen tragedy.”

* * *

ACE AND DR. TOMLIN took Molly to the side to examine her. The smoke had affected her, and some of the other candidates, too. Thor called for all of them to meet in an hour for a post mortem in the common room in Bunkhouse 1, which was where Antonio’s rooms were located.

The candidates dispersed, but Izzy headed toward Thor with Velocity behind her. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that the alarm was a test. Antonio noticed Jessie Odell making notes and he followed behind the other two to confront Thor.