X Quadrant, Baida Proper, Earthbase 5792461
Juliana Harrison stared at the police officer with a cross between gratefulness and dismay on her face. He didn’t have the classic crew cut she’d seen most officers on the base wear, but his short blond hair was neatly trimmed and his dark blue uniform was immaculate. It had pleats ironed down the front of the pant legs. Like everything else on the Earthbase of Baida Proper, the police style was what she liked to think of as retro-Earth, based off the twentieth century as it was back on the planet Earth—except of course for the obvious, like squad cars that hovered not drove and guns that fired lasers not bullets.
Even the houses looked like some old suburban concoction with their mock aluminum siding and picket fences. Most of the residents of the base didn’t realize the historical influence, but Juliana’s father had been an architect and she grew up learning about such things. History had always fascinated her, not that she had gone anywhere with it. No, instead she’d gotten married.
Keeping her eye on the man before her, she continued to study him. Badges and pins adorned the officer’s short sleeve shirt, drawing her eye to the stately symbols, which led her eye down his toned body to the firearm that hung along his waist on a thick leather belt. He was a handsome man, in the militant sort of way most men of the law had about them. Glancing over his muscled chest, she read his metal nametag. It said, “M. Perkins.”
More like Officer Mmm-mmm, perfect. Perfect Perkins.
Officer Perkins had been nice to her since she had walked through the front door of her home, but that didn’t change the fact that he was there to evict her from her own house. His partner, a chubbier version of the tall handsome stud in front of her, had left to get food. She had offered the use of her food simulator, but apparently there was some office policy about taking bribes of any kind—even something as small as lunch.
Standing in the middle of her living room, Juliana’s whole body shook. How could her husband do this to her? How could he get a restraining order against her? He was the one sleeping with some twenty-year-old bimbo, not her. He was the one asking for a divorce. They’d been married for eight years and now Jeff wanted a divorce. How could he throw what they had away? So, they weren’t happy, but eight years was a lot of time to invest into a marriage. It was a good thing they’d never had kids.
Thankfully, in the eight years of marriage she hadn’t stopped getting her pregnancy shots, which protected her against both pregnancy and disease. They were practically mandatory on Baida Proper anyway, and if she’d stopped it would’ve been bad for their image. Though supposedly confidential, things like that had a way of leaking out. Not that she had a reason to be worried about disease. It’s not like Jeff had touched her since he started his extracurricular activities, unless he’d been cheating from the beginning, which was possible. Juliana honestly didn’t know.
She looked at Officer Perkins. Why was she thinking of her shots right now? She wouldn’t allow herself to do anything about her attraction to her personal rescuer. First, she just couldn’t. Even though Jeff had cheated on her, left her, treated her like space dust, she was still technically married, and Juliana just wasn’t a cheater, not even in the most extreme circumstances. Second, it had been five years since she’d had sex and she wasn’t sure how to even begin seducing someone, let alone know if she’d do it right once they started. Third, she wouldn’t let herself mistake feelings of gratitude for anything more. It wasn’t fair to anyone. She could easily see how a woman could get attached to a man like M. Perkins.
It’s a good thing we didn’t really have a marriage or this might actually hurt more than annoy.
Juliana really didn’t know why she was surprised. In hindsight, she should have seen it coming. It was a tale as old as time. Wife works while husband finishes degree at prestigious law school. Wife creates beautiful home, entertains husband’s bosses and colleagues, and helps husband secure a partnership within his intergalactic law firm. Husband has mid-life crises, realizes he doesn’t need wife anymore because he’d gotten all the work out of her he could and leaves her for a twenty-year-old with fake, Medical Alliance for Planetary Health created boobs and the IQ of a Lophibian slime trail.
Wait, no, that wasn’t being fair to the slime trail.
Juliana suppressed a laugh at the thought.
The home she had created was hard to leave. Three floors high and one of the most envied mansions on the base, she’d picked out every vase and statue, every retro-Earth carpet and mirror, every holographic painting and mock light fixture. She saw to the cleaning droids, making sure they were programmed right. Okay, she had reprogrammed them when the officer wasn’t looking. Jeff’s slacks would never be pressed the “right way” again. It was a petty, small victory, but one she felt justified in taking.
Even her front lawn, the perfect sculpturing of yellow shrubs and red alien grasses, had been of her doing. Juliana had ordered the red grass. She’d created the weaving design into the naturally lush green grass of Baida Proper to create a work of art on the lawn.
It’s all stuff. It doesn’t matter. She sighed, wishing it was that easy to let it go.
The sad truth was, she wasn’t even that heartbroken over the whole ordeal beyond her beautiful home. If anything, she was aggravated. Jeff should have told her to her face that he wanted her out of the house. Instead, he had used his position in the law firm to evict her. She knew what he wanted. He wanted her to cave so he could divorce her and not lose too many of his precious space credits in the process. She couldn’t remember exactly when it had happened, but Jeff had stopped being a real man sometime along the way. He was now a cowardly little rocket boy.
Continuing to look at the police officer, she bit her lip. Now there was a real man. Maybe that’s what she needed--a strong man who had the balls to take what he wanted. Forget intellect. Forget conversation. She needed to get laid.
Only she couldn’t allow herself to think like that, need to or not.
“Mrs. Harrison,” Officer Perkins said. His voice was soft with the touch of a leisured off-planet drawl, giving away the fact that he wasn’t originally from the Earthbase. He’d been nice enough to call in a favor for her, having some movers take her boxes to a private storage unit a friend of his owned since she had nowhere else to store her belongings. “Your court allotted time is about up. Is there anything else?”
Juliana couldn’t speak. She’d spent nearly two hours packing her belongings with Officer Perkins’ help. It was more time than she’d spent in the same room with Jeff in the last two months and that was including nights asleep in bed.
There was just something about the lawman. A kindness she saw in his expression when he looked at her. It had been a long time since she saw a man with such soulful eyes, such obviously deep emotions. Funny how she could know Jeff for years and not feel connected to him, at least not anymore, but then meet someone like M. Perkins who instantly seemed like an old friend. When he gave her another of his brief smiles, she saw the cutest little dimple on his cheek.
Juliana let her gaze roam over his firm ass as he turned around, as if looking for more boxes. Was it wrong to think the man helping to kick her out of her house was incredibly sexy? As long as it had been since she and Jeff had slept together, she’d probably think a clown handing out balloons at the local drugstore was sexy. No, a clown didn’t look so delectably authoritative in a uniform.
I’ve never wanted to be arrested so much in my life. If I confess to something, will he frisk me?
Juliana took a deep breath, trying to cool her suddenly overheated body. Was it wrong to have sordid thoughts about the man helping to evict her? It wasn’t as if she blamed him for what was happening. She’d chosen to marry Jeff, even if she’d been pressured by both of their affluent families to do so. It had practically been an arranged marriage. Juliana took a deep breath. She was tired of being the good girl, tired of doing what was expected. In fact, she wanted to be bad.
And she wanted Officer Perkins to be the one to catch her doing it.
Mm, intergalactic cops and space pirates. Who says kid games can’t be played by adults?
Officer Perkins was easy to talk to. He knew about art and music--not classical, but the good stuff. Old rock n’ roll. When he was packing her books, he’d clearly read more than just a few of them. And, somehow, he actually made her feel as if everything would work out fine. The world couldn’t look anymore bleak for her than it did on this day, and she still somehow managed to feel all right.
Juliana suppressed a grimace. She was doing it again, thinking thoughts she shouldn’t.
“You haven’t contacted anyone.” Perkins sounded concerned as he once again faced her. “Do you have some place to go?”
“My parents are both deceased and I have no other family. My husband cancelled access to our space credit account this morning,” Juliana said. She’d been trying to buy a new dress from one of the traveling pavilions that was on base for a week, and the snooty young sales girl had looked at her like she was a pauper when her credit was denied. That was how she’d found out something was wrong. When she got home, Officer Sexy was waiting for her.
“Do you have any friends that you can call?”
“No. There’s no one. The women I know somewhat well enough to impose upon are married to my husband’s colleagues. It would be too awkward for them to take me in, being as I’m the soon to be ex of a partner. I don’t want to put them into that position.”
“Ma’am, I’m really sorry about this,” Perkins said, giving another delectable, yet sympathetic smile. He had nice teeth, perfect for nibbling. Glancing down at his waist, she saw where he kept his handcuffs. Maybe she could be the intergalactic cop and he the space pirate. Hearing his voice breaking into her thoughts, she realized he was still talking. She blinked, forcing herself to focus as he continued. “But Mr. Harrison has got a restraining order on you. He claims you’ve been threatening his life.”
Juliana looked down at her slender, five-foot-four frame. “Have you seen Mr. Harrison? He’s six-foot-five and works out every day at the cyber gym.”
Yeah, with his girlfriend.
Though, she did know there were ways to kill people without resorting to strength, but for Jeff to say that she was capable of harming anyone, even his own sorry ass, was laughable. Here she was, abandoned, and she couldn’t even fathom truly going through with cheating on him during the last breaths of their dying marriage.
“Ma’am, I didn’t say that I believed the charges, just that I have to escort you off of the premises. Law is law.”
“Just doing your job, right?” She gave a derisive laugh. Seeing the look on his face, she said, “I’m sorry. This isn’t your fault. You’ve been very kind today. I guess there’s a homeless shelter on base somewhere. Or an alien hostel maybe? I know they have those kinds of things on Nozando because the hover limo used to drive by one when I was vacationing there during an Interplanetary Law Conference.”
Juliana sighed, frustrated.
“Do you keep any kind of local currency in the house?” he asked.
Juliana chuckled. “I already looked. He’s taken it all--except for the little I have in my purse. He’s even hidden my jewelry. I’ll be able to get it back in court I’m sure, but in the meantime…”
Juliana shrugged. What could she say? She supposed crying was always an option, but somehow she just felt relief that it was finally over. No use pretending to feel something when she didn’t. It was like a weight had been lifted off her shoulders. She was finally free.
Only, what did she do with the freedom?
“I have a spare bedroom.” His eyes met hers briefly and it looked like he was trying not to stare. The words were hesitant, but sincere. Could it be Officer Sexy found her as attractive as she did him? Was the electricity between them more than one sided? Hope leapt in her heart even as desire built within her. “It’s not much, but it’s just me in the house so there’s plenty of room. You can’t be much safer than at a cop’s house.”
He gave a small laugh. She looked at him, almost mystified that he would suggest it. Glancing at his hand, not for the first time, she searched for a wedding ring. There was none.
“It’s just that I’ve seen the shelters. I don’t think you’d be comfortable there, ma’am. Maybe after a good night’s rest or two, you’ll think of somewhere else you can go. I’ll even go to the hardware store and buy you a lock for the guest room door if you’re worried. If anyone asks, tell them you’re renting an apartment from me.”
Juliana let her gaze dip briefly over him. It was easy to tell he took care of himself. What was it about a uniform that made sexy men look even sexier? Her life was falling apart and all she could think about was finding a way to celebrate. “Tell me, Officer. Do you usually invite strangers into your home?”
“Call it Southern hospitality,” he said. “My momma raised me right.”
She quirked a brow at that. “I’ve been to the South and I can’t say they’d invite strangers off the street into their homes.”
“You haven’t been to the right parts then, ma’am. Leastways, I’ve been doing this job for a little over eight years. If anything, I’ve learned how to read people. Besides,” he gave her a lopsided grin in an obvious effort to cheer her up, “I know self-defense if you try anything funny.”
Juliana couldn’t believe it. Here this man was inviting her into his home and she was actually considering it. Slowly, she nodded. What choice did she have? “Despite what it looks like today, my mother didn’t raise a fool either. I know not to pass up a generous offer when I need it most. Thank you, Officer Perkins. I will gladly stay with you.”
“Name’s Maverick, ma’am.”
“Thank you, Maverick.” She gave one last glance around her home. “You can call me Juliana.”