Desperate for a diversion from her thoughts, Selena waved a hand. Mia, the dome’s holographic newscaster, appeared next to her, impeccably dressed as always, and began filling her in on the events of the past twenty-four hours.
“Good morning, Selena. I hope this new day finds you well. The flotilla to Celeron Six departed last night, packed with citizens eager to serve the federation. Five thousand soldier-scientists volunteered to colonize this recently discovered planet, home to a dazzling array of never-before-seen plant and animal life. When they arrive, they’ll claim it and its incredible wealth of resources in the name of the federation.”
Selena found herself wondering if some of those never-before-seen forms of life might be sentient beings. Creatures going about their lives, never dreaming they were about to be invaded and stripped of their homeland. She waved a hand impatiently and Mia vanished. The last thing she wanted to hear about right now was another alien planet.
Selena dressed quickly, knotting her hair into a tighter bun than usual. She considered wearing her blue uniform to remind herself of her responsibilities as a high-ranking official, then remembered Haldor’s comment about how she’d look lovely in a blue gown that matched her eyes. She didn’t want to do anything he might see as a sign that she intended to continue behaving inappropriately with him. Pulling on another shapeless white uniform, she hurried out the door.
She got to the lab early and caught Mindy as she arrived.
“I have some news,” she said, trying to keep her tone calm and measured. “Our Viking patient awakened last night. I gave him three portions of meal #5 and…”
“He’s awake? Oh, my gosh, Doctor Reston! You were here all alone with him and he’s so big. Were you scared? Did the Tellex chip work? Were you able to communicate with him? What’s he like?”
“Mindy!”
The young woman stopped abruptly. Selena tamped down a pang of guilt. She’d never raised her voice in the lab before. “There’s no need to get so excited,” she said more softly. “He may be from another planet, but he’s human, just as we are. Although a more primitive form of human. Until I have an opportunity to evaluate his mental state, I want you and James to stay away from him.”
“But Doctor Reston…”
“Mindy, that’s an order,” she snapped. So far, the Viking’s behavior had been bizarre, to say the least. She couldn’t risk having Haldor grabbing her assistant, spanking the girl—or worse.
“I’ll be starting physical therapy with him this morning,” she said. “Please see that we are not disturbed for the next few hours. And call Minister Symon. Tell him the Viking is awake and he can come by tomorrow to see him.”
“Yes, doctor.” A subdued Mindy hurried away.
Selena pushed open the door to Haldor’s room, relieved that the heavy meal tray she carried masked her shaking hands. His bed was empty—and so was the room. Her eyes darted around frantically. She gave a sigh of relief when she caught sight of him standing with his back to her in front of the mirrored wall in the adjoining bathroom.
He hadn’t seen her yet. He stood there, staring at his naked reflection, turning from side to side, examining his flawless skin. James had done an outstanding job. He’d made numerous injuries on Haldor’s torso, arms, and thighs—some inflicted in the battle that had nearly taken his life, some deep scars he bore from wounds that had healed years ago—disappear.
She could feel her pulse racing again at the sight of him. Lord, he was magnificent. She’d never seen him from behind. He had the body of one of those ancient statues in the museum—broad shoulders, muscles rippling under the bronzed skin on his back, narrow waist and hips. And that… ass. There was no other word for it. He had a gorgeous ass. Tight rounded glutes she wanted to dig her nails into. The way she did on his back last night when he buried his face between her legs and brought her to gratification.
He turned as though he’d heard her thoughts. Ran his eyes up and down her body and smiled. A slow, sexy smile that made her feel like he could see right through her clothes.
“Selena.”
The low rumble in his voice made her pussy clench. Keeping her distance was going to be much harder than she thought.
“Good morning, Haldor.” She used her cheery first-day-of-class lecture tone. “I brought you some breakfast. There’s a liquid protein drink, plus a serving of fruit and another balanced meal. I hope you’ll find it adequate.”
He came toward her and she shoved the tray at him. “I’m going to have James find you a temporary uniform. I’ll run a full body scan after you’ve eaten. The design department will have one custom fitted to your exact measurements ready by this afternoon.”
He took the tray and sat it on a table near the bed. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.”
“Now, Selena. We may be from different planets but you’re still a female. And I’ve been around enough females in my life to know that when I ask one of them what’s wrong and she says nothing, it’s definitely something.” He came closer. “I know I pleasured you well last night. I could tell by your cries.” He gave her a naughty grin. “And by the scratches you left on my back. Did I not do it enough?”
“No!”
He took another step toward her and she backed away, putting the table between them.
“I mean yes, you did, but you shouldn’t have. I shouldn’t have let you.” She knew she was babbling but the words kept coming. “It was wrong of me. I’m your doctor and you’re my patient. No matter what you say or do, it’s my responsibility to remain in control. And it’s my duty as a citizen to uphold the laws of the federation. What I… what I did to you while you slept was wrong. And what I agreed to do afterward, to make amends, well, that was wrong too. All of it. I’m deeply sorry for everything that went on last night. And it can never happen again. I humbly beg your forgiveness.”
His face darkened.
“So you bow to the will of the fools who decreed that pleasure such as you felt last night is wrong? Have you also decided to go to your superiors and confess your crimes?”
She’d been awake most of the night thinking about that, weighing the consequences of her choices. Selena shook her head. “I can’t. Not now. I’m not the only one who would be punished. They’d investigate, scan my mind, and find out everything that went on between us. Not only would they banish me, they’d send you back through the Portal. Immediately. The bones and organs I transplanted haven’t melded with your body yet. They’d never stand the stress the Portal’s energy warp puts on your system.” She looked up at him, her eyes bleak. “It might kill you.”
He stared at her in horror. “Are you telling me the things you did to save my life have trapped me here in your cursed world?” he shouted. “Forever?”
“No, not forever.” She hurried to explain. “For another two moons. Maybe less. Your body is incredibly strong. And daily sessions of physical therapy will hasten your recovery. As soon as I’m confident that you’re completely healed, you can go back to Gadolinium. Until then, I must maintain a proper doctor-patient relationship with you.”
Haldor was silent for a few moments.
“Two moons living on your world. That I can do if I must.” He raised an eyebrow. “But what is this ‘daily physical therapy’?”
“We’ll start out slowly. Walking. Climbing stairs. Building your muscles with weights. Allowing your cloned organs to mature fully, gradually adapt to the burden a healthy body places on them.”
“This I understand. Training for battle after an injury. I have done this before.”
Selena smiled. “Yes. Based on the scars we discovered all over your body, I imagine you have.”
He looked down at his flawless skin, marked only by the ragged edges of the near-fatal stab wound low on his side. “My skin is as smooth as that of a babe now, save for this. What did you do?”
“Yes, you’re nearly perfect now, inside and out. Isn’t it wonderful? Besides all the new organs, we replicated the l
eft humerus and clavicle you broke years ago. They’d healed improperly.” She glanced at his arm. “My guess is that you suffered pain every time you lifted your sword—pain that would only have increased as the years went on.”
He shrugged dismissively and she went on.
“My technician James was able to erase all your scars completely—except the one you sustained in the last battle. I told him not to eradicate that one yet. I made the incisions for your last few surgeries there, so we wouldn’t have any additional trauma to your epidermal or subcutaneous tissues to repair. Now that those transplants have been completed, we’ll take care of that scar over the next few days. It’s a deep one, so it will take several treatments.”
“No.”
“Don’t worry. You won’t feel a thing. We’ll put you back into sleep mode for an hour or so each time.”
“I said no!”
He turned away, his shoulders slumping. “Get out. Just go. I’ve had enough of you for now, woman. You’ve teased me while I slumbered and then let me have a taste of you. Now you’ve taken away your favors. I’ve done no wrong but you’ve condemned me to imprisonment here on this cursed planet with the sorcery you performed on my body. You’ve robbed me of the many battle scars I earned with my blood, badges of honor I wore with pride. Now you would strip me of the last proof I have that I’ve earned the right to enter the gates of Valhalla? Never.”
She took a step toward him, stricken. “I… I’m sorry, Haldor. I had no idea… I thought…”
He ignored her and strode over to stand at the window, with his back to the room.
As she slipped away, she heard him mutter, “By all the gods, I wish Sigrun had let me die.”
* * *
He stared down, unseeing, at the bustling streets below. His head ached so badly he was tempted to go back to the looking glass to see if the doctor had somehow missed a Tabun arrow imbedded there.
He felt guilty for snapping at Selena. It wasn’t all her fault. Teasing his cock the way she’d done, making his balls ache—that was just the naughty wench in her. She was badly in need of a strong man who’d take her over his knee regularly, then take her to his bed. He’d proven that last night.
As for being here, on Earth, well, that was the doing of the three Norn. Beloved maiden goddesses? Not to his way of thinking. Vicious old maids, that’s what they were. Three dried-up, nasty spinsters in need of a good fuck as badly as his doctor. Spiteful witches who envied human happiness and had nothing better to do but make up trouble to put in people’s lives.
They’d set the terms of his fate at the moment of his birth, as they did for every Viking babe. It was because of them that he found himself trapped here—hungry, horny, lonely—instead of where he belonged, seated at the long table in the Great Hall of Valhalla with his departed comrades, feasting on roast goose with a mug of honey mead in his fist and a buxom wench bouncing on his knee.
He sighed and turned away from the window. Maybe he couldn’t do anything about the horniness or the loneliness, but at least he could still the pangs of hunger gnawing at his belly. He sat down on the edge of the bed and picked up the tray.
A clear glass vial with a white substance that looked for all the world like goat’s milk. Back home, only sickly children and old folks with no teeth drank goat’s milk. He sniffed. At least it didn’t smell like goat. A dish with brownish gray paste. That looked like the shit that came out of sickly children and old folks after they drank goat’s milk. She called this food?
He picked up the only item on the tray that didn’t look disgusting. A reddish object as big around as a duck’s egg. Fruit, she’d said. He sank his teeth into it and grunted with approval. Firm. Sweet. A pity they didn’t have liquor on Earth. He’d love to taste what came from letting a barrel of these ferment.
Once his appetite had been primed, he managed to get down the rest of the tray. Restless, he prowled the room, idly picking up objects for which he had no name, twirling them around in his hands and trying to guess their function. He soon tired of that pastime and dropped to the floor, doing pushups and then situps until he was drenched in sweat, his lazy muscles screaming for mercy.
He was curled on the floor with a violent cramp in his side when he heard the hesitant knock at the door.
“Enter,” he gasped, struggling painfully to his knees.
“Haldor!”
She rushed to his side, drawing another strange object from her pocket and waving it over his body. It made a bleating sound like a lamb caught in briars. She dropped to the floor next to him.
“Your heart is racing and your new organs show levels of severe stress. What happened?”
“Nothing,” he said. “I was training and got a cramp in my side.”
“Training? Please, Haldor. I know you’re angry with me right now and you have every right to be. But I beg you, don’t try to do this yourself. You’ll only slow your recovery. Earth’s gravity is stronger than that of Gadolinium. It takes a heavier toll on your body. And you’re at a higher altitude here. We’re on the 411th floor of this building. That’s like being near the top of a small mountain on your planet.”
She gave him a guilty look. “Oh, my goodness. I’ve never had a patient from off-world. I didn’t think to ask, now that you’re up and about. Do you have a headache?”
“I won’t have, once you pull the axe out of my skull.”
She laid a cool hand on his brow, then touched her machine to the back of his neck. It hummed softly and the agony in his head instantly lessened to a dull ache.
“Better?”
He risked a nod now that he didn’t fear his head falling off.
“Your headache will disappear completely in a few minutes,” she promised.
He gave a sigh of relief. “That would be a useful object to bring along to battle. If a warrior can stay on his feet and fight on, he doesn’t feel the pain. But when he’s felled, that’s when it gnaws at him like a hungry wolf feasting on his flesh. I’ve seen valiant men nearly bite off a finger rather than shame themselves crying out.”
Her eyes grew wide. “Your world is a harsh place.”
“It can be at times.” He reached for her hand and she didn’t pull away when he brought it to his lips and kissed it. “I owe you an apology, Selena. I spoke out of anger and frustration earlier. Instead of thanking you for saving my life, I drove you away. Whether patient or prisoner, I am here in your world for now and I will make the best of it.”
“It’s all right. I understand. You’ve had so many shocks. Thinking you were dying, then waking up on a strange planet…”
“I wronged you another way.”
She gave him a puzzled look.
“My scars. I blamed you for doing me harm by removing them, when you’d only tried to help again. You could not have known that in my world, those scars I bore are looked upon as a source of great pride. Proof of my courage in battle. My drengr. Kylar always says the only thing quicker than my sword is my temper. I’m sorry, Selena. Will you forgive me?”
“I accept your apology, Haldor, if you’ll accept mine, for altering your appearance without your permission. I’m afraid we Earthers are an arrogant lot. We think our ways, our ideas, are better than those of other worlds.”
He smiled. “It seems our people are more alike than I thought.”
Selena smiled back.
Haldor got to his feet and took stock of his situation. Loneliness eased by their conversation. Belly full. Headache gone. He saw Selena glance down, then hastily avert her eyes from his cock when he caught her. Still horny—but suddenly the future looked much less bleak in that area. Spending two moons on Earth didn’t sound quite so horrible now. After all, it would give him plenty of time to recover his strength in every area.
“So—tell me more about this ‘physical therapy’ you have in mind. You will bring in other warriors to train with me?”
“We… uh… we don’t have any other warriors on Earth.”
He could
see the wheels turning in her head. She’d no doubt learned enough about his culture to know that Vikings thrived on competition, on pitting themselves against other males in tests of strength and skill and endurance. But she hadn’t realized how large a part that competitive spirit played in keeping a man motivated through the grueling days and weeks of pain and exhaustion it took to rebuild a broken body.
“Maybe we can set goals to strive for instead,” she offered. “Come up with rewards worth winning when you achieve them.”
Goals. And rewards. Haldor grinned at the beautiful doctor, trying so hard to remain businesslike this morning. As though his head hadn’t been planted squarely between her legs last night. His tongue lapping at her pussy, sucking her throbbing little jewel until she screamed.
He already had his first goal in mind. His goal—and a reward for them both. He’d have her get on her knees. Take his cock in her mouth while he pulled the pins from that tight little knot at the back of her head and then buried his fists in her soft wavy mane. He’d hold her head in both hands while he pumped his hips, sliding deeper down her throat with each stroke.
Then, just before he shot his seed, he’d pull out. Make her lie back and spread her legs so he could taste her sweet pussy again. Run his tongue inside her until she…
“…so we’ll begin with that if it’s all right with you, Haldor.”
He let go reluctantly of the delightful picture in his mind and brought his attention back to the present. She’d been going on all the while. By Odin’s beard, that woman could talk! It would be reward enough just to earn the right to put her over his lap again and still that voice for a little while with a volley of firm whacks on her backside.
The thought cheered him, marooned here though he might be on this dismal planet for two moons. With no decent food, no ale. Selena Reston could set her goals. Her rewards. But he’d create his own contests between them. And winning the right to have his prim doctor submitting to him willingly no matter what he required of her—whether it be kneeling before him, or spreading her legs, or bending over his lap and presenting her luscious ass—was a reward worth seeking.
His to Tame (Alien Masters Book 4) Page 6
