They landed in a panting, sweaty heap on the floor, and Ilyna made a promise to herself not to move anytime soon. She only sighed with contentment and wrapped her arms around his neck when Bryan finally lifted her into his arms and carried her back to their suite. He drew them a bath, and Ilyna was happy just to curl against his chest in the warm, sudsy water.
“Did I hurt you, honey?” he asked quietly, his cheek resting on the top of her head.
“No,” she whispered. “It was a very pleasurable experience.” She shrugged her shoulder. “But it didn’t make me feel as…special as when we usually make love.”
Bryan’s arms squeezed her, and he pressed a kiss to her scalp. “You are special, Ilyna. You’re very, very special to me.”
She heard the sadness in his voice, but didn’t quite understand where it was coming from. “Did I displease you tonight, Bryan? Because I enjoyed watching other having sex?”
“I’m not displeased. I’m worried that you’ll want to stop watching and start joining in—that you’ll get bored with me and want to enjoy new people or new experiences I can’t give you. You have nothing to compare me to.”
His heart was thumping rapidly under the flat of her hand, and Ilyna realized he was more than worried. Water churned and splashed as she turned to straddle him in the wide tub. She wanted to see his face.
“No, Bryan. I don’t want anybody but you. Watching other people was fun, but you’re the only one I want to make love with. I want to stay with you forever. We can leave here right now if it makes you worry.”
He leaned closer until his forehead rested against hers. “We have to leave here soon, anyway. We’ve imposed on Dane long enough, and I have work commitments. I just…I just don’t know where to go, sweetheart.”
“It would be better for you without me, wouldn’t it?”
He squeezed her again, this time so hard she almost couldn’t breathe. “No. No matter what, it wouldn’t be better for me without you.”
He was lying, but he kissed her so tenderly she let it go…for now.
Chapter Four
The telephone unit beeped discreetly, still set as it was on privacy mode. Bryan carried it as far from the bed as he could get so as not to wake Ilyna. “Hello?”
“They’re coming for her,” Dane said abruptly. “One of my bouncers—whose ass is fired, by the way—turned her in for the reward.”
“But if we don’t leave Ris-K—”
“According to the last interstellar treaty, an alien government can petition for the right to supersede our laws in a few extreme cases, one of which is the recovery of material possessions valued in excess of one hundred million Earth credits if the manufacturing of said possessions is unique or sensitive in nature.”
“What does that have to do with us?”
“It’s Ilyna, Bryan.”
He glanced over at her, still curled in the center of the bed, fast asleep. There was no force on the planet—or off—that could make him give her up to the Acelan government. There had to be some kind of political asylum she could apply for.
“The Acelans made a case,” Dane continued, “for her being a uniquely engineered material possession and our bastard president agreed. They can use force to get her back. You know I’d sacrifice all I’ve got for you and Ilyna, man, but I can’t let my people get hurt.”
“No, we’re out of here. How long do I have?”
“Not long, but listen—”
“You’ve done all you can, Dane. I’ll try to let you know somehow where we end up.”
“You can’t run, or you’ll be running forever.”
“I won’t let them have her,” Bryan hissed. “You don’t know what they’re going to do.”
“I have a plan,” Dane argued, but there was no way his big brother could get him out of this mess. Not without losing everything himself. “Trust me on this. Let her go with them for now and—”
“No!” Bryan interrupted, and Ilyna sat up on the bed, her eyes wide and frightened. “No way in hell. I’ll be in touch.”
“No, listen—”
Bryan disconnected the call and took a deep breath. He didn’t want Ilyna to see his panic. Which was ridiculous as she was all too aware of the dangers she faced, but he still didn’t want to add to her fear.
“We need to leave now, sweetheart.”
He wouldn’t have thought it possible for her eyes to open even wider, but they did, and then she was scrambling off the bed. “How long do we have?”
“I don’t know, but not very long. We have to hurry.” She was very still, and he wanted to stare at her forever, to memorize every inch of her.
She was so damn beautiful. Her regal bearing perfectly accented her body, which appeared to have been sculpted by a master. He may hate the sons of bitches, but he had to admit the Acelan scientists had done one hell of a job.
“Shouldn’t we pack? Or…something?” she asked.
He walked to her, resting his hands on her bare shoulders. “There’s no time. Put some clothes on, quickly, and let’s go. We’ll buy what we need later.”
Still she didn’t move. “Where will we go now?
“I don’t know, sweetheart. Someplace they won’t think to look for us. It was obvious they would connect us to Dane, but I thought we’d be more secure here at Ris-K. Obviously I underestimated your government’s desire to get you back.”
He rested his forehead against hers, breathing deeply through his nose in effort to keep from plowing his fist into a wall. Why the hell would they invest so much in finding her just to make her a slave?
“Please get dressed, Ilyna,” he whispered, unable to say everything he was feeling at the moment. “We need to go.”
She slid a white sundress over her body, not even bothering with undergarments, and she was fishing for her second sandal when the door exploded into the room. Ilyna screamed and Bryan threw himself at her. She was scrambling toward him, sobbing, and he couldn’t reach her.
Pain shot through his gut as a member of the Ambassador’s Guard kicked him, and then two men grabbed his arms and pulled them behind his back. He tried to struggle, but they had the advantage. Another of the guards—all of them well armed, he noted—stepped to Ilyna and grabbed her arm.
“You will come with me now,” he said in a flat voice.
She tried to touch Bryan’s face as they went by, but her guard’s grip on her elbow prevented even that small contact.
“I love you, Bryan, and it was worth the price.”
The guard pulled her toward the door then, and Bryan renewed his struggle against the officers holding him.
“Don’t hurt her, you bastards!” he shouted. “Don’t you fucking hurt her!”
A fist hit him just above the nape of his neck and the blow drove him to his knees. The slight pinch of an injection, then the slamming of the door.
Ilyna.
With dark, blurry spots encroaching rapidly on his vision, Bryan reached for the phone.
* * * * *
It took more than a few favors called in on Dane’s behalf to get them a five minute audience with the Acelan minister. He was on his way back to his planet and didn’t like being held up. Bryan didn’t especially give a shit, and he wished desperately for a vidcam when Jerrod recognized him and his brother seconds after they entered the private room.
“Minister Jerrod, I’ve come for my wife.”
“She is not your wife, Mr. Cameron. Ilyna is the Acelan ambassador to Earth. Your claim is ludicrous.”
“Breed yourself another ambassador. Ilyna’s staying with me.”
Minister Jerrod stood, sweeping the creases from his robe with a practiced hand. “You are clearly delusional, and I am in a hurry. My security team is waiting to see you to your vehicle.”
The minister started for the door, but Bryan reached out and grabbed his elbow. Jerrod flinched at the contact.
With his other hand, Bryan pulled his compact disc viewer from his pocket. “Is that any way to treat
a fellow Ris-K aficionado?”
Bryan wouldn’t have guessed the Acelan minister could get any paler, but he did. “I…you must have me confused with another, sir.”
“Sure. What with all the short, albino-looking Acelans in the club, I guess it’s possible.”
Jerrod remained frozen for a moment, and then he jerked his arm. “I do not have time for games, Mr. Cameron. I must collect Ambassador Ilyna and return to Acela.”
“You mean former ambassador, don’t you?” Bryan stepped around to block the door.
Jerrod shook his head sadly. “Ilyna has disgraced herself and her people. She is…contaminated.”
Blood rushed through Bryan’s veins, throbbing in his ears like cranked up bass. He clenched and unclenched his fists, fighting the urge to put the Acelan ambassador through the wall.
“So you’ll scar her,” he said in a low, tense voice, “mutilate her and make her a slave.”
“Our laws seem harsh to you, but we have to protect ourselves from the filth of your primitive society.”
And the gloves were off. Bryan smiled and leaned back against the door. “How concerned were you about our primitive filth while you and your sidekick were fucking that blonde in Ris-K’s VIP room?”
Dane snorted. “Forget fucking the blonde. It was the blowjob that impressed me.”
Jerrod’s knees started to buckle, but the recovered himself quickly. “Get out.”
Bryan hit Play and the room filled with the wet sounds of the Acelan minister sucking his aide’s cock.
“How did you get this?” Jerrod cast an accusing glare at Dane. “You. The video feed is supposed to be secure and entirely confidential. There is legal precedent for not only a civil suit, but criminal action as well.”
Dane shrugged. “So sue me. I’m sure you’ll get off on the media exposure. Bryan’s my brother, asshole. Our blood may not be genetically homogenized for purity, but it matters.”
The minister turned horrified eyes back to the screen, watching his own head bob up and down in full color, high resolution glory.
“Your technique’s a little boring, though. You may wanna try some creativity next time. Some tongue action—”
Before Bryan could even react, Jerrod launched himself at Dane, an eerie keening sound coming from the man’s throat. The alien minister never saw Dane’s fist come up, but he sure as hell felt it connect with his jaw.
He went down like a rock and Bryan rolled his eyes at his brother. “I thought we were going to be civilized.”
“Is he still breathing?”
“Yeah.”
“Then I was civilized.”
Bryan decided to shrug it off. Dane had a dark, empty place inside him that was better left the hell alone.
Now they just needed the Minister to regain consciousness so they could resume their negotiations—so he could get his wife back.
* * * * *
Ilyna shivered on the floor of the holding cell, her head in Myscha’s lap as her friend stroked her head. The Minister’s first petty act of retaliation had been the shearing of Ilyna’s gorgeous tresses, leaving a short mess of spiky blonde hair.
She didn’t care, and the realization that, if he could see her, Bryan wouldn’t care either, had her sobbing even harder into her friend’s skirts. She had thought remembering Bryan would give her strength, but it only intensified the horror of her loss.
“I’m sorry, Ambassador,” Myscha whispered, and Ilyna felt a tear land on her temple.
“You must call me Ilyna now, and it’s I who am sorry. He’s going to find a way to make you pay for my transgressions as well, and it’s not fair to you. You’ve always been loyal to me.”
“And I always will be. Was it…was it wonderful?”
Ilyna sighed and rolled to her back, looking up at her friend. “It was more than wonderful, Myscha. He was more than wonderful. I don’t know how our people have survived this long without feeling the things Bryan made me feel.”
Myscha leaned her head down so Ilyna could hear her whisper, “If they leave us unwatched for even a moment, we should run.”
The door opened in a sudden swish, and Ilyna jerked upright, certain that somehow they’d heard Myscha’s words and had come to punish them. She nudged her former companion behind her, determined that nobody was going to hurt her friend, no matter what they did to her.
The bruised swelling on the Minister’s jaw stood out sharply against his white skin, and Ilyna wondered at its cause as she got to her feet, feeling Myscha do the same behind her. She lifted her chin, because they could strip her of title, but they couldn’t touch the person behind it.
A second later she realized the man behind him was Bryan and her stomach clenched in fear. What was he doing here? Did Jerrod plan to punish her by forcing her to watch her lover’s torture? But Dane was behind them, and neither human looked overly anxious.
“I release you from your service to Acela,” Minister Jerrod said formally, and she tried not to stare at the tic in his right eye. “You may never speak or act on behalf of the Acelan government in the future, nor return to Acela for the rest of your days. You are hereby banished forever.”
Ilyna was speechless, her brain trying to keep up with the Minister’s words. Banished? He was letting her go? Why would he go to so much trouble retrieving her simply to release her again?
Bryan stepped around the minister and she collapsed into his open arms. “What’s going on, Bryan?”
“After some rather sensitive negotiations, Minster Jerrod has agreed that you should be allowed to stay with your husband.”
The bruise on Jerrod’s jaw belied his words, but she didn’t care. She squeezed Bryan until he pulled back to look at her. “I love your hair, sweetheart. It looks lighter and fun. You should dye it pink and tattoo my name across your ass.”
“Leave now,” Minister Jerrod hissed, stepping out of their path.
“What about her?” Dane jerked his head in Myscha’s direction.
Jerrod’s jaw tightened in a way that would have made Ilyna tremble if not for Bryan’s closeness. “Myscha will be punished for failing at her assignment.”
“Mutilation? Slavery?”
“Of course not. Myscha isn’t contaminated. She was remiss in her duties, but she didn’t betray her people.”
Dane smiled, baring his teeth. “Try saying that with a mouth full of Cendrick’s cum, Minister.”
Jerrod’s cheeks and neck reddened and Ilyna wanted to cheer as she realized the nature of their sensitive negotiations. “You, sir, are crude.”
“And you, sir, are a hypocrite. Guess which I find more offensive.”
“What will Myscha’s punishment be?” Ilyna asked, stepping in before the two men came to blows.
Jerrod wouldn’t look her in the eye. “She will spend some time in the kitchens, and henceforth be confined to Acela.”
Ilyna’s heart broke for her friend. “Myscha hasn’t done anything wrong. Her job is…was to serve me.”
Bryan slid his arm around her waist and pulled her close. “Let’s leave this up to her. Myscha, do you want to return to Acela, or stay here with Ilyna?”
It wasn’t Ilyna that Myscha’s gaze went to as she considered, but Dane. Ilyna watched her watching the man and knew what her answer would be before she opened her mouth.
“I wish to stay with Ilyna,” she said finally, looking down at her hands.
“Same terms,” Minister Jerrod choked out, and then he swept from the room, his indignation lingering behind like a persistent bad odor.
The four of them were quiet for a moment, and then Myscha said quietly, “Are we really free?”
“Yes,” Dane answered in a low voice. “The Acelans won’t be interfering with either of you again.”
“Where will I go?”
Ilyna turned to her friend, distressed by the plaintive note in her voice. Only minutes ago Myscha had been willing to run away with her. “Maybe you could stay at Ris-K for a while.”
&nb
sp; “That’s not a good idea,” Bryan said, obviously as aware of the sudden stiffness in his brother’s shoulders as she was. “You were there with me, but I don’t think the club’s ready to have an unattached Acelan woman set loose in its midst. Dane’s men would need riot gear. You can stay with us until you figure out what it is you want to do, Myscha.”
“I have a place for her,” Dane said, and Ilyna thought he looked surprised at having spoken. “A small, second-floor unit not far from Bryan’s house. The woman who used to run Ris-K with me lives downstairs. She’s quite advanced in age now, and you could look after each other. It’s very secure, and it would help you and Ilyna put your old relationship behind you and grow as friends and equals.”
Interstellar Sparks Page 5
