by Lori Foster
He took her small hand into his mammoth mitt, gave it a clumsy, ungallant shake, and released her. “I’ll be helping Kayli with that, yeah.”
Nonplussed, Idola flipped back her hair to show her breasts to advantage.
And Michael looked.
It might have been a reluctant, even grudging glance, but he was male and therefore not immune to a woman’s ripe charms.
Putting her hands on her hips, Idola showed off her small waist at the same time. The draped fabric of her short dress was sheer enough to tease while still protecting her modesty.
“I promise that I would please you well in a union.”
His brows shot up, and then he … laughed.
Not a subtle snicker, or a quick chortle. No, he laughed out loud, robust and hearty, as if he’d just heard a fabulous joke.
Raemay couldn’t believe it. The boneheaded Philistine had no sense of propriety.
Wiping his eyes, he said, “Sorry, sugar,” without any sincere remorse. “Luscious as you might be, it just ain’t gonna happen.”
Though she fought it, tunnel vision closed in on Raemay. She saw everything slipping away. Everything important. Everything she’d worked so hard to conceal, to protect.
“Mesha!” Because she’d sounded far too shrill, Raemay took a breath to moderate her tone. She even worked up a smile. “Come forward, my dear, and meet our guest, Michael Manchester.”
With a sigh, Michael shook his head at her. “You can bring her on, Raemay, but I’m telling you right now, it won’t matter.”
Beside him, Kayli closed her eyes. At least she recognized his behavior as reprehensible.
Mesha, already swaying toward Michael, faltered for only a second. A blush climbed her neck to her cheeks and on up to her hairline. It didn’t help that she had her hair up to show her slender neck and pale shoulders in the low-cut gown. Unlike Idola’s, the dress wasn’t short, but it parted in the middle so that with each step her shapely legs showed.
With a nudge, Raemay got her moving forward again.
“Save it, honey,” Michael told her. “It’s a great show, but you’re wasting it on me.”
Kayli gripped his upper arm, yanked him down toward her, and groused something into his ear. But he only smiled and shrugged, and when she tried to separate from him, he hauled her right back.
Putting a hand to her stomach, Raemay fought to quell the queasiness churning there.
Michael’s direct blue gaze zeroed in on her. She saw it there, in the depths of his soul, what he intended.
“All right, Raemay.” His smile didn’t reach his eyes. “Are there more girls lined up somewhere?”
Too sick to speak, Raemay just nodded.
One brave, and possibly nosy, council member stepped forward. “The rest of the women are through the doors in the antechamber, sir. Just there.” He pointed at the ornate double doors.
Michael started in that direction. “Let me have a look then, so we can get this over with.” He dragged Kayli along beside him, his steps so long that she had to rush to keep up with him.
He pushed the heavy doors open with laudable ease, and was enveloped in the collective gasp issued from the many eligible ladies in their colony.
Raemay knew it was his phenomenal size that caused the women to react so. Of course, he was handsome, as well. She’d even find him attractive if he wasn’t so mammoth in height and muscle.
His brows lifted at the vast gathering. “Damn, got a lot of them, don’t you?” He looked over his shoulder at Raemay. “And they’re all virgins? Seriously?”
He made a jest of them. He ridiculed them and all they held dear. Her throat burned with anger, but she said evenly enough, “Yes, they are pure, as is proper for one out of union.”
Glancing down at Kayli, he murmured, “No offense, babe, but damn. A hundred or more virgins? That’s like a wet dream, except that I’m awake.”
Raemay’s mouth fell open at such a crude disclosure.
Her daughter, lacking her reserve, offered up immediate retaliation. Kayli scowled, and landed a solid punch to his shoulder.
Raemay held her breath, fearful of his reaction to a physical assault. What should she do? Should she try to intercede on Kayli’s behalf?
She was still pondering protective measures when, to her surprise, he caught Kayli’s fist, kissed it, and smiled.
He wasn’t in the least injured, or even a little offended or angry.
Still holding Kayli’s hand, he said, “And hell, I’d go along with it, except it doesn’t suit my purpose in the long run.”
Still riled, Kayli asked, “What purpose?”
Pretending not to hear her question, Michael donned a charismatic smile and waved to the women. “Sorry, ladies. You’re all knockouts, no doubt about it. I’m sure whoever nabs you in a union is going to be thrilled. Thing is, I’m off the market.”
Hearing her worst fears confirmed, Raemay groaned. He was a buffoon. An imbecile with brawn. But she was the Arbiter, a woman of power. She would not tolerate this farce any further.
“Sir,” she got out through gritted teeth, “I’d have a word with you.”
“Sure thing, Arbiter.” He gave her an insolent bow. “You can even have more than one, but it won’t change anything.”
Rage and insult burned through Raemay, helping to mask her fear. She knew it was inevitable, but still, the second he got close enough, she tried her best to reason with him. “I must point out that despite the differences in our worlds, your behavior is inexcusable.”
“I find offering up virgins to be inexcusable, so I guess we’re at an impasse, huh?”
She wouldn’t relent. “You have made a mockery of a most serious ceremony for my colony. You have rejected my daughters in a callous manner—”
“Now there’s where you’re wrong.”
Raemay took a step back. “What are you saying?” Was there hope after all?
Both Idola and Mesha, expressions buoyant, took an anxious step forward.
The brute squeezed Kayli. “I didn’t mean to mock anyone. I probably lack the finer social skills you’re used to, but then, you had to have had some sort of background check on me before bringing me here, right?”
What could she say? She’d known he was an uncouth caveman, but Kayli had insisted, and as Claviger her opinion counted a lot with the council.
“I knew you lacked sophistication, yes.” Raemay put up her chin. “But that offers no excuse for deliberate cruelty.”
“I meant to be decisive, not cruel, so acquit me of that, okay?” He squeezed Kayli again. “I made my choice, but I figured you had your own ideas about that, and I didn’t want you saying I hadn’t taken the time to at least look at all the … options.”
Crushed by what she knew was to come, Raemay folded onto a settee. She sent Idola and Mesha an apologetic glance. “I see.”
Finally finding her voice, Kayli shoved away from him. “Well, I don’t see, not at all. What are you doing? What is this purpose of yours?”
“I’ve chosen.”
Kayli’s eyes widened, then a mask came over her features, hiding any emotion at all. “Who is it?”
As if he hadn’t just destroyed years of careful planning, Michael grinned, looked around at them all, and announced loudly enough to deafen ordinary men, “Kayli Raine, I choose you.”
All the oxygen escaped her body in one giant shock wave. No! Surely Michael hadn’t … of course he hadn’t … or had he?
Colorful dots in rainbow hues swam before Kayli’s eyes, gradually closing in to pinpoint black as her mind and body went limp with the thought of losing it all, everything, even her reason for existing.
From far away, she heard Hauk’s voice saying, “Er, Mallet, I do believe she’s about to faint.”
“What the—!” In the next instant, her world dipped and swayed as Kayli felt herself scooped up by solid arms, cradled to Michael’s big hard chest. “Hey, easy now, sweetheart.”
Sweetheart? No, she
was not his sweetheart. She wasn’t any man’s sweetheart.
She couldn’t be.
Her pulse raced so fast it made her tremble; she continued to feel woozy with disbelief. Her palms got sweaty and her skin itched with incredulity.
“Probably overcome with joy,” Michael murmured, and even to Kayli’s dazed senses, he sounded amused and mocking.
“Perhaps,” Hauk agreed uncertainly. “But I somehow doubt it.”
Joy? Kayli thought with near hysteria. How could she feel joy when he wanted to make a union with her?
Oh God, oh God. What was she to do?
“I do like how in tune you are to her,” Michael praised Hauk. He didn’t walk anywhere with her, didn’t seem to strain with her held in his arms. He just stood there, at his ease.
Conversing with Hauk.
With a large part of her colony looking on.
“All polymorphous computers can decipher a wide variety of signals,” Hauk explained, “be they networked, verbal, coded, or physical.”
“And are there a lot of polymorphous computers around here?”
“No.” Hauk’s voice thrummed with pride. “I am the only one in this colony or, for that matter, any of the surrounding colonies.”
Kayli could not believe how cavalier they both behaved, while her entire universe crumbled out from under her.
“Here,” her mother demanded in shrill, almost concerned tones. “Put her down over here.”
“I don’t mind holding her,” Michael said.
“You’re the reason she’s in a dead faint!”
“No,” Kayli protested, her voice sounding thin and high. “I didn’t faint.” She wouldn’t do something so weak. She’d never fainted before, and she wasn’t about to start now.
Michael grumbled, but he carried her to the settee and lowered her gently to the padded cushions. The seat immediately shifted around her.
Needing a moment to compose her thoughts, to grasp her disappointment and hide her dismay, Kayli rested her head back and kept her eyes closed. She felt limp, but her thoughts churned in a fevered rush.
With malicious accusation her mother said, “Look at what you’ve done to her,” and took Kayli’s hand to pat at it.
“I shocked her a little, that’s all.” Michael’s hand, much larger and warmer than her mother’s, cupped her face. “Come on now, Kayli. Open your eyes and talk to me. No more playing possum.”
He knew! Somehow Michael realized that she’d already regained her wits. But she just wasn’t ready to face him yet.
“She doesn’t want you!” Raemay shrieked. “Surely, even a man as dense as you are can determine that much.”
Oh no, Kayli thought, from bad to worse. Michael was not a man to accept such insults, but as offensive as her mother could be, she was still the Arbiter.
Kayli lifted her lashes and found Michael looming over her, his face a study of deep concern.
Ha!
A concerned man would not have done such a thing to her. Brows coming down, she said, “I’m fine.”
His palm flattened to her abdomen, keeping her still when she would have sat up, and sending a jolt through her already traumatized system.
“Take it easy, baby. Warriors aren’t supposed to lose consciousness over a little thing like a union. I don’t want you rushing yourself now.”
Her eyes closed again. A little thing? How could he say that? A union with him would strip her of everything important to her, all she held dear. Didn’t he understand that she’d long ago resigned herself to her life, accepted it, and embraced it?
If he stole that from her, she’d have nothing. She wouldn’t be herself anymore. Worse, she didn’t know who she’d be.
As if her mother divined her thoughts, she clapped her hands to call attention from the council and colony members.
“Everyone, please. Quiet now.” When everyone went silent, Raemay looked at them all. “If our guest claims Kayli, then we have some very serious ramifications to consider.”
Like an impending storm, Michael crackled with energy. “More serious than your daughter’s health?”
“She said she’s fine.”
“I am fine,” Kayli assured them both, and again she started to sit up.
Again, Michael held her still.
Her mother rallied. “If you take Kayli in union, she will no longer be eligible for the position of Claviger. She will no longer claim control of Hauk. He will belong to me again, as is right and proper.”
Putting her hands over her face, Kayli struggled to accept the loss—and then Michael said, “Not so fast, Raemay. I haven’t finished yet.”
Kayli dropped her hands to stare up at him. “There’s more?”
Dear God, what next? Would he claim her vessel, too? Not that it mattered. It went with the position of Claviger.
Unconcerned with destroying her life, Michael winked at her, and his hand on her abdomen caressed. “It’s your fault I didn’t get it all said right up front.”
Her temper simmered. “My fault?”
“Yeah. If you hadn’t keeled over, I wouldn’t have gotten distracted.”
Raemay rushed into speech. “What else is there to say? You claimed her, she can’t possibly refuse you, knowing what it’d mean to our colony, and so—”
“I want Kayli,” Michael repeated, as if those words didn’t nearly put her into another faint, “but I have stipulations.”
Stipulations?
Kayli felt new hope.
Shoving Michael’s hand away, she sat up to pay attention. “Go on.”
“Stipulations?” Her mother gasped in outrage. “You’re not allowed stipulations!”
Undaunted by Raemay’s statement, Michael touched Kayli’s chin. “You’re okay now, honey?”
“Yes, of course I am.” She’d settled small riots, handled virulent disputes, and faced off with the warring colony.
Never had she “keeled over,” as Michael put it.
Embarrassed over such a weak display, Kayli straightened her shoulders and lifted her chin. “I’m quite all right, I promise you. I didn’t get enough sleep last night, that’s all.”
His expression softened. His touch softened. In front of God and everyone, he bent and kissed her lips. “Good.”
In the next instant, he reverted back to a demanding warrior. “I’m taking Kayli—and Hauk.”
“But—” Raemay said.
“I’m taking over as the head of defense,” Michael said. “That means Hauk is mine.”
Kayli’s heart sank. “You’re taking my position?”
He didn’t look at her, but instead addressed Raemay and the Council Mavens. “I’ll do this, but only with Kayli at my side. Because of her experience, expertise, and term of service so far, she’ll retain the official position of Claviger.”
The words felt like a punch to Kayli’s solar plexus. Pride kept her from staggering, but inside, she shriveled. What use would her position as Claviger be without any real authority behind it?
She’d be utterly useless.
A tense hush fell over them all, and why not? Never had anyone dared to make such outrageous demands. For as long as Kayli could remember, the rules had been followed to the letter.
Damn him, she’d earned the right to be Claviger, to control Hauk, to head up the defense.
Except … Her shoulders slumped as she forced herself to face the awful truth. She had sought out his help, because she couldn’t handle the current situation on her own. And luckily for them all, he was willing.
In fact, his quick adjustment amazed her.
He took charge with ease, accepting the challenge, mixing things up without any hesitation or apprehension. He stood there before them all, defiant, confident in his decisions—rather amazing.
Kayli’s lips felt stiff and cold, but she managed to speak. “A position for me, even in name only, can not be assigned just because you deem it so. Such a thing is not done here.” Such a thing would leave her feeling like an utter
fool.
Michael folded his arms over his chest. “It’s done if they want my help.”
Raemay laughed. “Given your behavior, I’m no longer so certain of the worth of your contribution.”
The members of the council inhaled—and waited.
Though he spoke to everyone, Michael stepped away from Kayli and approached Raemay. “My contribution will be to end the sacrifices.”
The crowd stirred, encouraged by his confidence.
Raemay drew back. “That’s impossible! We’ll be destroyed if we try such a thing.”
He shook his head, refuting that. “My contribution will be to bring back those women already taken—if they want to return.”
Raemay backed up two steps, then caught herself and stood her ground, shoulders back, expression stony. “You dare to doubt their dedication to this colony?”
Michael let that go. “My contribution will be to train the defense team to defend the colony against further attacks and kidnappings. I spent a few hours in the media room and I have a grasp on what needs to be done. When I’ve finished training the warriors, no one will have to be afraid, because we’ll be strong and capable.”
“We?” Raemay taunted with a sneer. “You make outrageous demands, and you think that makes you one of us?”
His conviction didn’t waver. If anything, Raemay’s derision only made him more determined. He gave her a chilling look, and stated, “I’m going to call on the men of the colony, too.”
Raemay floundered at that outlandish claim. “The men? But … why?”
Michael rolled his eyes. “Why? Because they’re a part of the colony, too.”
“They’re not warriors!”
“Yeah, well maybe that’ll change.”
Lips parted and eyes wide, Kayli stared at Michael in stupefaction. He not only flaunted his disregard for their long-established rules, and harassed her mother, but he planned to enroll the men in defense?
The wives would never stand for it.
The council would send him back to his own time.
She had to do something—but what?
“Hauk,” she said, near panic.
“We examined every angle,” Hauk assured her, “and it’s a solid plan with a high probability of success.”
Oh, perfect. He’d won over her computer.
