This deleted scene is from my archived posts, shared it a couple of years ago on Weekend Writing Warriors.
(We do know there’ll be an HEA for Wreck of the Nebula Dream, right? so this isn’t a spoiler…)
This scene takes place on the Sectors battleship Andromeda, after Nick has given his formal report to the Admiral and has been released to seek medical attention. He goes to sickbay but refuses treatment until he’s seen Mara.
She lay sound asleep on the hospital bed, hair tousled on the pillow, silken strands drying after a recent shampooing. He felt three times as grimy and in need of a shower as he had before, standing here with her. She slept easily, her face calm, peaceful, which he was relieved to see.I’m going to have enough nightmares for both of us, at least I’ve been trained for dealing with the horrors we saw. She’s pretty tough though.
Standing beside the bed, he murmured her name, not wanting to wake her, but hoping she would know on some subconscious level that he’d come as promised, as soon as possible.
Stirring just a little at the sound of his quiet voice, Mara didn’t open her eyes.
Bending over, he kissed her cheek, acutely conscious that he was going to be interrupted any second by the impatient doctor.
Here’s the story for Wreck (which is on sale this month for $.99 by the way):
Traveling unexpectedly aboard the luxury liner Nebula Dream on its maiden voyage across the galaxy, Sectors Special Forces Captain Nick Jameson is ready for ten relaxing days, and hoping to forget his last disastrous mission behind enemy lines. He figures he’ll gamble at the casino, take in the shows, maybe even have a shipboard fling with Mara Lyrae, the beautiful but reserved businesswoman he meets.
All his plans vaporize when the ship suffers a wreck of Titanic proportions. Captain and crew abandon ship, leaving the 8000 passengers stranded without enough lifeboats and drifting unarmed in enemy territory. Aided by Mara, Nick must find a way off the doomed ship for himself and several other innocent people before deadly enemy forces reach them or the ship’s malfunctioning engines finish ticking down to self destruction.
But can Nick conquer the demons from his past that tell him he’ll fail these innocent people just as he failed to save his Special Forces team? Will he outpace his own doubts to win this vital race against time?