“I know it hurts. I am sorry.”
Raider.
She tried to lash out, to hit at him. She’d die fighting.
He grabbed her wrist in a firm, unbreakable grip. “Stop. You will hurt yourself worse.”
“Let me go!”
“I am not going to hurt you.”
She tried thrashing more, then felt the sharp sting of a hypo against her neck before her world went black.
* * * *
She wasn’t in the life pod. She still hurt, worse than before. When she opened her eyes she found herself looking up into damp, tall trees towering over her in a hazy, grey mist. She swiveled her eyes, in too much pain to move anything else.
A large man knelt close by, his back turned to her as he hunched over something. A long blond braid hung down his back. When she felt a brush of air against her bare flesh, she realized she was naked.
Then she saw her knapsack lying nearby.
That snapped her control. She tried to reach for it, realized she was restrained, and cried out as pain splintered through her body again.
Whether he was just that fast or the pain twisted her perception, he suddenly knelt next to her before she ever saw him move. He made soothing noises as he checked her over.
He looked…worried?
“Let me go,” she croaked through the pain. “You don’t know who you’re fucking with.”
“I am not fucking with anyone, Captain Lorcan.”
Shit.
His clear, dusty green eyes bored right through her. “You are seriously injured. I am sorry I had to move you, but the crash site was too exposed.”
“Afraid one of your buddies will try to steal your prize?”
He arched an eyebrow at her. “Just who do you think I am, Captain?”
“Fuck. You. Asshole.”
He rummaged through his medical kit. “You certainly have a mouth on you.”
Another wave of pain ripped at her guts. When she moaned he pressed his palm over her mouth to muffle the sound, held his body protectively over hers, and looked around as if to verify they were still hidden.
“I wish you would not do that,” he said when she composed herself.
“What? Scream in fucking agony?”
“No. The swearing. It is beneath a captain of your caliber.”
She couldn’t have heard him right. “My swearing offends a raider asshole?”
He held up another hypo. “I am not a raider, and I am not an asshole. And you will rip open those sutures if you do not lie still.”
His English wasn’t accented but she didn’t miss his formal speech pattern. “What’s that for?”
“Painkiller and healing accelerant.” He jabbed the hypo into her upper arm. She remained conscious long enough to watch him move her knapsack closer to her before he covered her with a blanket.
* * * *
The world swam into focus. He sat a few feet away, leaning against a tree. “How are you this morning, Captain?”
She glared at him. She still hurt, but not as badly. Her mind also felt clearer.
“If I free your hands, will you promise not to move?” he asked.
“Why?”
“Because three different times you nearly bled to death last night and I am out of emergency plasma. I cannot move you yet.”
She was still naked, but covered by the blanket.
“Move me where?”
“My lander, so I can get you back to my ship.”
Another stab of pain. She must have winced, because he was over her in a flash, pulling the blanket back and checking something. His face changed, his calm demeanor gone. He said something in a foreign language she assumed was an epithet. He threw the blanket off her, and she felt his hands doing something. Another sharp pain tore through her abdomen.
“Sorry,” he apologized. His eyes drifted to hers for a moment.
“Wouldn’t want your prisoner to die. I’m worth too much money.”
“Right now you are a beautiful pain in the ass, Captain Lorcan, but not my prisoner.” He grabbed something out of his medical bag and reached up to her mouth. “Open.”
“Gagging me?”
“Because you are going to scream. I do not want you giving our position away in case the raiders have sent landing parties. I cannot risk giving you any more sedatives right now. I am sorry.”
She finally opened, and he carefully slipped a roll of gauze into her mouth so she could bite down on it.
“Take a deep breath, let it out, then take another.”
Despite the pain, she kept her eyes on him. She did as he said.
He looked at her. “I am sorry, but this is going to hurt. A lot.” Before she could react, agonizing pain seared her, graying her vision as she screamed into the roll of gauze. After a moment the worst of the pain eased and returned to a more tolerable degree of discomfort.
She never thought she’d be glad about something like that.
When he reached up to remove the gauze roll from her mouth she saw blood on his hand. “I am sorry, Captain,” he said, his voice gentle. “I had to cauterize it. The sutures were not holding. You have an artery in your abdomen that keeps bleeding. I am not a skilled surgeon. I am only trained as a field medic, so I am doing the best I can.”
He noticed his hand and wiped her blood on the blanket.
“Who are you? What are you going to do with me?”
“Captain Lorcan, do you always talk this much when injured so badly?”
“Tell me!”
“I am Commander Sammuel Jorvis of the Act’huran battle destroyer Ab’yoika Maru.”
Relief flooded her. “You’re not a raider?”
He sat back. “I believe I told you that earlier. Did you not understand me?” He reached into his bag and withdrew a bottle of water. He carefully slipped his hand under the back of her head to lift it and helped her take a sip. “Not too much.”
Once she had a little to drink, he gently lowered her head again. “Will you promise to hold still if I free your hands? I do not wish to keep you restrained. I will not hurt you.” He frowned. “I mean intentionally. I cannot promise I will not have to do more treatment.”
She nodded.
Aine got a better look at his face as he leaned in and removed the energy shackles from her wrists. A man used to being in command, definitely, from the steely set of his strong jaw. Depth and strength in his eyes. For some reason he looked vaguely familiar, although she couldn’t figure out why.
He rubbed her wrists after he removed the energy shackles. “I am afraid to give you too much painkiller or sedative. I have given you more than the maximum dosage of healing accelerant as it is.”
“Where’s your lander?”
“Hidden. Cloaked. Nearly a kilometer away.” He looked amused. “You are a very talented woman, Captain. I am most suitably impressed by your engineering skill.”
“Let me walk. I can make it.” Now that she knew he wasn’t a raider, trying to stay alive seemed like a damn spiffy idea.
“You will die if you try to move. You need at least another six hours to lie still and allow the medicine to heal the worst of your internal injuries. We can treat the rest once we return to my ship. Besides, I cannot risk taking off in daytime.”
“I’m not good at waiting around.”
“A woman after my own heart.”
“I hate planets.”
“You really talk too much.”
“Fuck you.”
He smiled. Despite her pain, something about the expression touched her in a pleasant way.
“It would be my extreme pleasure to oblige you in that,” he said. “Perhaps after you have healed more, Captain. I would not wish to love you to death. For now, sleep.”
His voice had a soothing, deep rumble to it. Funny, she did want to sleep. And that’s what she did.
* * * *
Sammuel watched her sleep. He couldn’t help but reach out and stroke her cheek, touch her short, spiky hair.
Why did he have to meet someone like her under these circumstances?
He’d heard about her, of course. Studied her battle record. Yes, she did impress him. Meeting her in person…
He closed his eyes as he inhaled.
His t’wren. She was perfect.
If she would agree.
Unfortunately, with someone like her—married to her career—he suspected he had little chance of persuading her to change her way of life. She might not even feel a connection to him. Not to mention he had a not-so-minor matter of keeping her alive and getting her to the safety of his ship.
How he’d prayed to every god he’d never believed in while he worked on her throughout the night! Terrified she would die, afraid to take his eyes and hands off her.
Ker would laugh, no doubt about it.
Sammuel always swore he was no soft, silly man, would never simply fall in love as he’d made fun of others for doing.
Ker’s teasing aside that he might one day see the truth for himself, he’d never wanted a t’wren. Never wanted to share Ker with anyone, male or female. Ker always sat back, patient, never urging him to seek out a t’wren, content to wait until Fate struck on its own. But with Captain Aine Lorcan’s scent coating his skin, Sammuel couldn’t imagine her not joining them.
Completing them.
He shook himself from his reverie.
First things first—save her life.
* * * *
The light had changed when she next opened her eyes. Commander Jorvis sat close beside her, his eyes on her. She suspected he hadn’t moved much since she was last awake.
He touched her arm when she tried to move. “Please do not sit up yet, Captain.”
“How long have I been out?”
“A few hours. I risked giving you another dose of healing accelerant while you were out.” He picked up a scanner and she didn’t try to stop him when he pulled back the blanket and held the scanner over her belly. “The cauterization is holding and healing, but I would prefer to wait a little longer. Besides, it is not dark yet.”
“How long?”
“Three hours until dusk, another hour until full dark.”
“How badly was I injured?”
“Very, internally. A few minor external lacerations from debris bouncing around inside the life pod.”
“How did you know where I was?”
“I positioned my ship on the outskirts of the battle, cloaked, prepared to catch any raiders who escaped. I watched your ship. I saw the collision and the last two life pods jettison. I knew I needed to go after you.”
“One of the shadow ships?”
He nodded.
“Are my men really safe?”
“Yes, the Confederation safely retrieved them. I left my ship in a small landing skiff to follow your life pod. I figured the smaller the vessel, the less likely I would be detected. I did not wish to draw attention to you from the raiders and I knew you would not call for help.”
“How did you know which pod I was in?”
“Captain, I have studied your career. You are definitely a strategist after my own heart. There is absolutely no way you would allow any men to remain on board while you yourself left. Your pod had to be the last to depart.” He smiled. “That was a brilliant plan, by the way. We laughed over the show the raiders put on trying to retrieve the life pods. My most sincere admiration.”
She felt herself blush at the compliment. “How long until you return me?”
She didn’t miss the cloud that crossed his expression. “It is too risky. We will rendezvous with my ship and get you safely from the area and make sure you are physically healed. Then we can decide what to do.”
Her eyes fell on her knapsack. He must have followed her gaze because he reached for it and moved it even closer. “What is in there that is so precious to you? I did not look, if that is your concern.”
“My family’s in there. All that’s left of them.” She curled her fingers around the straps and held on to it but didn’t open it.
She didn’t share her past with others, especially not with a strange Act’huran commander.
Which brought her to another point. “You don’t look like a normal Act’huran. I thought you were a human.”
“I am human.”
Human? “What are you doing with them?”
He shrugged. “I am happy. I have been with them longer than I was with the Confederation.”
Bells went off in her memory. Sammuel Jorvis…
“Holy crap, are you related to Captain Sammuel Jorvis of the Confederation?” Jorvis, one of the Confederation’s most decorated captains, was standard study material in the Academy. His battle tactics were hailed by most as genius. She even wrote a paper on him.
He had been listed as missing in action over eighty years earlier, when he disappeared at the age of thirty-two after having to abandon his ship. His crew survived, but the life pod he’d been in was never located.
This Jorvis looked barely older than thirty-five. Forty, max. He looked a lot like pictures she’d seen of him, but Jorvis had brown hair, not blond, and he didn’t have green eyes…
He sat back, looking amused. “Captain Lorcan, I am Sammuel Jorvis.”
* * * *
Stunned, she stared at him. “No. Fucking. Way! How is that possible? What happened?”
He ran the scanner over her abdomen again. “What do you know of the Act’hurans, Captain?”
“Not much. Technologically advanced, brilliant in battle, but not a hostile race.”
“Of their physiology?”
“Nothing other than their physical appearance. Act’hurans are usually larger than the average human, eyes set wider apart.”
“Our lives are very similar, Captain Lorcan, yours and mine. I also crashed upon an uninhabited planet in hostile territory. I was also rescued. Act’hurans have been fighting alongside Confederation forces for a long, long time.”
“You decided to stay?”
“In a manner of speaking. You need to rest. You can ask more questions later.”
She studied his profile as he ran a detailed scan over her entire body. Every time his eyes drifted to hers his expression softened. Since her pain had eased somewhat due to the healing accelerants, she could enjoy the tingly feeling his gaze filled her with. He smelled good, too. His natural light, sweet and slightly spicy scent filled her lungs every time he leaned close.
What the hell is wrong with me?
It had to be the situation, that’s all.
She closed her eyes and tried to relax, but her awareness of how close Jorvis’ large body hovered kept her from sleeping.
By the time dusk fell, Jorvis had her sitting up. It hurt, but he felt it safe enough to try. He gave her another dose of healing accelerant and wrapped the blanket around her.
“Where are my clothes?” she asked.
“Sorry, Captain. I had to cut them off you for the scan and to operate. You were near death, and I had very little time for proprieties.” He shrugged off his long, light uniform coat, which hung almost to his knees. Beneath that he wore snug uniform trousers and a long-tailed shirt that fell past what she assumed was a tight ass, if the rest of his hard physique was any indication.
Heat filled her face.
Totally inappropriate thought.
He helped her stand and made no effort to avert his eyes as he helped her put the coat on and roll up the sleeves. Huge on her, the hem fell almost to her ankles.
Once on her feet, Jorvis appeared even larger compared to her slight frame, well over a foot taller than her.
He gathered his things, including her knapsack. “Will you please allow me to carry this for you? I do not wish you to strain yourself.”
Even she realized the stupidity of refusing. “Okay. Thanks.”
He slung her pack and his medical bag over his right shoulder. He wore an energy pistol on his right hip, she finally noticed. He slipped his left arm around her. “Do you want me to carry you?”
he asked.
He could probably do it, as big as he was. “No, that’s okay. I’ll try to walk.”
He’d salvaged her boots and pulled them on her feet. Then they carefully made their way across the terrain. He had much better night vision than she did because he didn’t hesitate or stumble and she could barely see two feet in front of them.
When they finally reached his lander Aine felt shaky, weak, and in a lot of pain. He helped her through the hatch and carefully laid her on a padded bench. “I need to check you again.”
The pain took away any thought she had of protesting. She nodded and closed her eyes. He unbelted the coat and parted it. She didn’t even care that he could probably see how her nipples puckered and tightened as the cool air hit them. She was aware of him passing the scanner over her, then finally opened her eyes again when he pulled the coat closed and tied the belt.
“You did not rip anything loose, thank the gods. I think it is safe to give you more painkillers now.”
She reached out and touched his arm. “Not much. Please.”
“You are in pain.”
“I want to stay awake.”
He hesitated and finally nodded. “As you wish, Captain.” He adjusted the dosage and she felt the sting of the hypo. The pain eased to tolerable levels.
He started to strap her in when she touched his arm again. She liked touching him, another thing that surprised her in addition to her reaction to him. Normally she didn’t want any kind of physical contact with others since she left Hector.
“Thank you, Commander Jorvis.”
“Please, call me Sammuel.”
She surprised herself with her reply. “Aine.”
The bright smile she received in reply warmed her heart and she didn’t know why. “Aine. Captain Aine Padron Lorcan. Thank you. I had wondered how you pronounced your first name.”
“When can I ask you more questions about how you look as young as you do?” Now with her pain at manageable levels and in the safety of his ship, she wanted to know.
She didn’t mind when he curled his fingers around her hand, brought it up to his mouth, and kissed it with sinfully hot lips. “Let me get us off this godforsaken rock. We will have at least six hours before we reach my ship. You can ask me as many questions as you wish during that time.”
Fierce Radiance Page 6
