by Joanna Wylde
Together they fell back on the bed, hands restlessly exploring beneath each other’s clothing. Daaron pulled his mouth away from hers, running kisses down along her chin and nuzzling at her ears. She lay passive beneath him at first, but after a while she didn’t want him in charge. She could acknowledge that she wanted to have sex with him. Now she needed to take back what mastery she could. Tessa jumped up, straddling him and leaning down low. This time she took control of the kiss.
Daaron didn’t mind at all. He let himself relax, savoring every moment as she kissed him for the first time. He enjoyed the smooth, steady rocking of her hips across his even more. Tessa might have been a virgin until recently, but her instincts were good. Very good. He felt her heat through his pants, could imagine the sucking warmth of her warm slit pulling him deep inside. Just the thought of that crevice, so tight and slick, made his head want to explode. He reached down and cupped her ass, pulling her close.
He couldn’t wait much longer. She seemed to feel the same way, because when he reached for the clasp of her pants she pulled her mouth from his and helped him with the clothing. Within seconds they were both naked, and Tessa climbed back atop him. She caught his gaze with hers, expression inscrutable. Daaron looked deep into her eyes, fiercely satisfied to have her safely trapped in marriage. Inch by inch, Tessa lowered herself down over his heated cock, until they were half joined. Then she paused with a gasp.
“You feel a lot bigger this way.”
“Every man likes to hear how big he is,” Daaron replied. He ringed her waist with his hands, steadying her and holding her in place. “Take as much time as you need to feel comfortable. I’m pretty happy right here as we are.”
She gave a choked giggle. His heart swelled unexpectedly; he’d heard laughter so few times from her. Her life had been governed by hardship. He’d make her happy, he vowed. Short of betraying his cause, he’d do whatever it took to make up for her suffering.
Daaron’s noble thoughts evaporated as she abruptly dropped down over him, impaling herself on his length. He gasped, awash in sensation. Tessa closed her eyes, head falling back, apparently lost in sensation.
Long seconds passed.
Then Tessa began to move. Slowly at first, she rocked back and forth on him, riding him, clutching him with her inner muscles and driving him crazy. He reached down between them, pressing his thumb against her clit. She shuddered and moved faster. Despite his own mounting need, Daaron couldn’t take his eyes off her face. Her newly shorn hair curled around features abandoned to pure desire. Her breath came in short, hard gasps. A drop of sweat rolled down her temple and across her cheek before falling against him with a splat.
He pushed down hard with his thumb and she came with a loud cry as every muscle in her body clenched and froze, including those cradling his cock. He thrust up at her once more, just enough to push through the vise of her pussy and knock him over the edge. Then Daaron’s own orgasm hit and he shouted his release. Tessa collapsed across him, panting, and he wrapped his arms tightly around him.
A knock sounded at the door.
“Everyone all right in there?” a man’s voice asked, tone harsh. “Daaron?”
Daaron grunted, trying to catch his breath.
“Yes,” he managed to gasp out. “We’re both doing fine.”
“I guess we got their attention,” Tessa whispered. “Nice to know someone was able to take a break from counting my garnets long enough check up on random screaming in the compound. This is some sort of compound, right?”
Daaron heaved a sigh as he sat up to look at the incredible, sexy, belligerent woman who was now his wife.
“I wondered how long it would take us to get back to that,” he said, running the situation through his head, trying to figure how to explain things. “Sex is only going to distract you for so long, I take it?”
“I’ll admit it, you were right,” she answered. “Sex between us was good, just like you always told me it would be. And I really enjoyed it, so you can just stop gloating over that right now. But I want to know how you found out about my garnets. And why the hell you married me. You say you can’t tell me, but I’m not some puppet wifey. Either prepare yourself to watch me every moment for the rest of your life or tell me what’s going on.”
“I suppose you won’t believe this, but I really didn’t want to take them from you,” he replied, choosing his words with great care. “We simply can’t afford to have Imperials crawling around this planet.”
“Um, ‘Imperials’?” she asked, giving him a look of disbelief. “Daaron, you are the ‘Imperial’, don’t you realize that? What kind of game are you playing here?”
“No game,” he replied. “You may find this hard to believe, but I’m actually a federalist. I don’t believe in Empire.”
She burst out laughing, falling back on the bed. To his delight, he could actually see the exact moment she realized she was naked. Her face flushed bright red, and then she scrambled to dress. He watched in silence as she pulled on her pants, amused when she couldn’t find her breast band. She pulled on her shirt, clearly annoyed. Finally she faced him again.
“Stop messing with me. Why are you here? Flattering as it may seem, something tells me you didn’t just marry me so we could…sleep…together,” she said, blushing again. “You must be doing something big here, and I want to understand.”
“Sex. We had sex. Fucked. Banged. Boinked. We have not slept together yet,” he said, drinking in her embarrassment. Then he grew serious. “You may not believe me, but I really am federalist. I don’t believe that the Emperor should have absolute authority, I think each planet should form its own government. I don’t even believe in the nobility.”
Silence hung between them.
“Daaron, in the entire time I’ve known you, you’ve taken your rank and status for granted. You never gave any indications at school that you felt this way. Why should I believe you?”
“I suppose you have no real reason to,” he replied. “And I doubt that just hearing the truth will make you believe. But these are the facts. The year after we finished school I attended court with my father, who is one of the Emperor’s advisors. We went on progress with him to a small planet called Danube. They hadn’t ever had a royal visit, and their protocol minister wasn’t up to the task. The first night they insulted the Emperor, my father and several other high-ranking members of the court by providing a pathetically inadequate banquet that featured an improper seating chart.”
He took a deep breath, willing himself to keep calm as he finished the story.
“The Emperor was so angry that he ordered the noble house that ruled Danube executed, right down to the last child and elderly servant. He had the planet interdicted—completely cut off from all civilization—and blockaded. It still is, and will be for the next fifty years. Danube wasn’t a highly developed place, Tessa. They didn’t have a medical or scientific infrastructure, let alone the ability to produce enough food to feed the population. The entire economy was based on arts and crafts exports. People started dying within weeks. There were ten million living there when it happened. Imperial observers now estimate that at least half of them have died from disease and starvation. Slow genocide.”
Tessa’s face grew cold as she listened.
“We got regular reports at court,” he continued. “The Emperor felt Danube provided a very good example to the rest of his nobles. But it had the opposite effect on me. I’ve never been so angry. I’m still angry. I decided to do something about it.
“When I graduated from university, my parents gave me my inheritance. It included a small fleet and this system, which has four habitable planets. I’m a third son, so it wasn’t much compared to my brothers. We’re well beyond the normal range of Imperial travel or protection. Nobody lived here. My family considers it a token, but it’s been perfect for my needs. None of the Danubians were able to break the blockade, but thousands of them were off-planet during the disaster. I collected as many of them a
s I could and brought them here. They’re the colonists you saw at the spaceport.
“That’s the real reason you can’t have your garnets—if the Imperials discovered cerulean star garnets here, they’d find the Danubians and use them as an excuse to come in and take over. They’d lose their home all over again.”
Tessa felt humbled. Suddenly her problems—even her mother’s situation—seemed very small.
“What about your family? What do they think about what you’re doing?”
“They don’t have any idea what’s really going on,” he said. “They think I’m playing at starting a colony, they don’t know it’s connected to Danube. Eccentric, but harmless. Fortunately, the Empire has a long history of eccentric nobility.”
Tessa mulled his tale over in her head, but something didn’t click. She understood why he was so determined to protect his people. But his story just didn’t feel right. She knew, with a certainty that defied reason, that he still hadn’t told her the whole truth.
“What’s the rest of it?”
Daaron shook his head.
“That’s all.”
“Bullshit, there’s more going on here,” she said. “This is a fledgling colony, yet we’re sitting in a well-built prison in what you admit is a compound. I didn’t see anything like that when I arrived at the spaceport. Your people followed me halfway across the planet—why not just kill me when I arrived? You’re hiding something bigger.”
“It’s infinitely safer for you not to know.”
“It would have been infinitely safer for me to stay in the Warrens and get married,” she snapped. “Instead my mother sold herself into slavery to buy me an education and a better life. Tell me the truth, once and for all, or I promise you I’ll make your life a living hell.”
“If I tell you this, you’ll never be able to leave.”
“More bullshit, I’d never be able to leave anyway. I already know too much.”
He nodded his head, acknowledging the point.
“We’re not just building a settlement of people who were off-planet when Danube was interdicted. We’ve formed an organization, part military, part espionage and for the past year, we’ve been blockade running. We bring out refugees a few hundred at a time and settle them here.
“Our headquarters are most unfortunately located under the garnet deposits. We discovered them while we were building but didn’t think much of it. They weren’t worth anything back then.”
Tessa took a deep, hissing breath.
No wonder they’d planned to kill her. This was big, bigger than anything she could have imagined. Suddenly she wished she’d listened to him instead of demanding the truth.
“So you’re actively engaged in treason against the Emperor.”
“Yes. That’s why it’s very convenient that you can’t testify against me.”
Chapter Five
Tessa spent several long seconds calming herself.
“I hate to say it, but killing me makes a hell of a lot more sense than marrying me.”
“I suppose so,” Daaron replied, reaching out to touch her cheek gently. “But I couldn’t do that to you, Tessa. You were the only person at university who didn’t fall all over themselves to kiss my ass. You were the only one who told me the truth, who stood up to me. You were the one who taught me that everyone—even someone born in the Warrens—has as much right to freedom and prosperity as a noble.”
“Wow.”
“Not to mention the fact that I still hadn’t gotten into your pants,” he added, a sly little smirk stealing across his face. It broke the tension that hung so heavily in the room. Tessa snatched a pillow and hit him over the head with it, hard. He grabbed her and wrestled her down, kissing her roughly even as he reached around to tickle her. She kicked at him, pulling away from his kiss and screeching. He clapped one hand over her mouth.
“Be careful,” he said. “Remember our listeners in the hallway. We’ve already given them enough of a show.”
She nodded her head and he released her. Goddess be-damned, touching him made her want him again. All those years of celibacy must be coming back to haunt her, because all she could think of was sex, sex, sex.
“So where do we go from here?” she asked finally. “I understand why you can’t let me have the garnets. I don’t think I want them anymore, not if it means hurting so many people. And I certainly don’t have any love for Imperials. I grew up in the Warrens, remember? Their own personal hunting grounds? Where I live, a person who works for the Emperor is likely to get gutted if he strays too far without armed guards. I’m not going to rat you out, Daaron.”
He nodded his head.
“I believe you,” he replied. “But only marriage is enough to convince my people of that. They’re different than most living within the Empire, very religious. When their priestesses declare a marriage valid, they don’t just see it as a social contract. It’s a lifemating. And something strange happens between them, I’ve seen it. I don’t think those couples could separate even if they wanted to. Our marriage will keep you safe.”
“I have an obligation to my mother,” she said, feeling tired. “I was going to use the money from the garnets to buy her freedom. I can’t just let her rot away. Will you help me?”
“Yes,” he replied. “Easy enough to buy out one woman’s indenture. I’m sorry for that—I know you wanted to do it yourself.”
“My pride isn’t worth destroying lives,” she said firmly, pulling away from him. “This isn’t how I would have planned things, but I can accept reality. We should make the best of it, Daaron. I don’t want to fight with you if I don’t have to.”
“Then I guess we’re stuck with each other,” he replied. He reached up and tousled her newly shortened hair. She sighed, rolling her head into his touch. It felt good, comforting. For the first time in her life, she felt safe. Pretty pathetic, considering she’d just entered into a conspiracy against the Emperor.
“I suppose so,” she replied. “At least, let’s give it a try. I never considered marriage to you, Daaron. It’s going to take some getting used to. But when I was a little girl, getting out of the Warrens and going to university seemed like an impossible dream. I made it there. Maybe I can make it here.”
Daaron gave a sigh of relief. He hadn’t realized just how nervous he was until she’d said yes. He thought about when he’d cut off her braids, marking her as his in the way men of the Warrens had for centuries. His noble peers had always laughed at the lower-class practice, mocking the masses of Tyre for their barbaric traditions. He hadn’t understood until now just how satisfying those traditions could be.
“Come here,” he said, reaching for her.
“Why?” she asked, her tone suspicious. “I’m not up for more ‘boinking’ as you so eloquently put it. I need a shower first.”
He laughed and shook his head.
“Because you’ve done me a great honor and I want to thank you,” he replied, willing her to believe and understand him. “I know this isn’t what you planned, but I promise you I’ll care for you, Tessa. And your mother. I still have enough contacts on Tyre to find her.”
“Thank you,” she said. “You have no idea how much this means to me.”
Daaron smiled at her, feeling strange, almost light. Happy.
“I had no idea how much you could mean to me,” he said. “Never dreamed it, but I can’t imagine anything better.”
* * * * *
Tessa tried not to get too lost as Daaron guided her through the training center. The place was a maze, but she’d always been good with directions. Who would have imagined a conspiracy of this scope against the Emperor could exist, let alone that she’d become part of it? Although the politics really didn’t really matter to her. All that counted was her mother’s freedom and their new life. Daaron’s compassion for the Danubians, his willingness to risk his own life, had taken her completely off guard. Who could have imagined the mighty Lord Von Saur’rel could have a soul?
It certainly made up for the loss of her garnets.
After leading her in what seemed like endless circles, Daaron finally brought her into a large dining hall. Round tables surrounded by bench seating were bolted into the floor. At some silent signal, people filtered in through the doors, more men than women. They eyed her closely, some looking friendly but most seeming suspicious, even hostile.
She supposed she would feel the same way about a potentially threatening stranger if she found herself in their shoes. Daaron took her hand, guiding her up and over a bench onto one of the tables.
“This is my wife Tessa,” he said, voice firm and in command—the voice of a man whose authority had never been questioned in his entire life, she thought. “You will treat her with the same respect you treat me. Do you have any questions?”
“I do.”
The woman who spoke was young and lovely, but her face held a brittle tension that spoke volumes about the life she’d led. No one could ever mistake her for someone who had been granted anything. Tessa knew instinctively that if anyone could successfully challenge her presence, this woman would be the one.
“Why should we believe you won’t betray us?” she asked, her voice ringing in the barren, metal-walled room. “Daaron says you’ll obey him, that you’re his true lifemate. Will you obey?”
Good question, Tessa thought. She knew she should say yes, but she’d never been good at lying. Warrens culture might tell her to obey her husband, but somehow that didn’t seem to apply to a woman who had been to university and now found herself married to a noble-born rebel. And she wasn’t even sure she knew what a lifemate was, let alone whether Daaron was hers. He looked at her expectantly, nodding his head as if to give her permission to speak. Needing a man’s permission just because he’d cut off her braids rankled. Time to lay her cards on the table. She figured it might not be smart, but Tessa didn’t care. She should be honest if she hoped to make a new life among these people.
