THE OFF WORLD COLLECTION (Short, Steamy Science Fiction Romances) (Off-World Series) by Rebecca York

flushed as she anxiously studied his face. “Maybe it’s a bad idea.”
    “No!” With the adrenaline of excitement flooding his veins and his mind suddenly alive with ideas, he said, “It’s a wonderful idea! You’re right—children will accept people for what they are. And maybe some of the men I met in the hospital will want to join us. Men who never want another war. I’ll send for a few of them first so we’ll have a defensive force.”
    She gave him a tremulous smile that touched him to the depths of his soul.
    “The war was a horrible thing,” he said thickly. “But it brought you to me.”
    Wordlessly, she nodded.
    He pulled her close. “I came here not caring whether I lived or died. Now, I’m going to thank Atherdan for every day I have with you—and for every day we can make a difference, at least, in our little corner off this damned, screwed up planet.”
    She stroked his damp hair back from his forehead. “Oh, Link, I know why I fell in love with you. You’ve always had vision and courage. You were a leader even when you were a boy.”
    “I forgot who I was,” he muttered. “But you’ve made me remember.”
    And he clasped her tightly, the most precious thing in a world that had turned, overnight, from dark to light.
    The End

 
     
    NIGHTFALL

    Chapter One
    “What are you afraid of?”
    “Nothing,” Caleb Raider snapped.
    “You’ve watched enough porn vids to know what you’re doing.”
    Caleb slicked back his dark hair. He’d washed it when he’d taken a shower, but maybe he should have cut it before coming to the spaceport. He gave his friend Jed Stevens a hard look. “That’s all you think it’s about? The stuff they do in porn vids?”
    Jed made a snorting noise. “What else is there?”
    “Plenty.”
    “Like what?”
    “If I knew I wouldn’t be worried about it.”
    “So you are worried.”
    “And you’re not?”
    Jed looked down at his scuffed syntho boots. “Maybe a little.” He jerked his gaze back to Caleb. “You’re one of the most successful homesteaders of this generation on Palomar. When your dad discovered that catborn mine on your property, you were set for life. Any woman would give her eyeteeth to have you.”
    “Listen, my dad died in one of those damn tunnels trying to scrape the stuff out of the ground.”
    “You’re still working the mine.”
    “Because the money’s good, but I could go in there one day and not come out.”
    “Stop thinking of worst-case scenarios.”
    “I have to,” Caleb answered, and he wasn’t necessarily referring to the tunnels in the catborn mine.
    When Jed scratched his crotch, Caleb made a disparaging sound. “Women don’t like to see a guy touching himself down there.”
    “How do you know?”
    “I . . . read the material they gave us. Didn’t you?”
    “I thumbed through it.”
    “Well it looks like you didn’t read the lists of don’ts. Don’t hawk and spit on the ground. Don’t whizz against a wall in town. Don’t fart.”
    “If there’s a fart up your ass, it comes out.”
    Caleb sighed. “Ease it out.”
    He and Jed had known each other for twenty years, since before the plague of ‘83 on Centorus. They’d been ten years old when their mothers had both been taken away to die in one of the hospital tents set up in the fields around Souter City. The plague had hit women harder than men, but because they’d been in a household where someone had gone under, they were quarantined. And when three weeks passed and they were all still alive, their fathers had been given a choice. Stay on decimated Centorus or make a fresh start on Palomar, a planet the Federation had recently opened for colonization.
    Although the atmosphere and gravity were Earth-like, the rough, unfinished place held a host of known and unknown dangers. Opting for caution, the authorities were sending only men. Both dads had decided to go and take their young sons.
    The colonists who arrived at the new capital city of