Rahal’s arms closed tightly around her. His claws worked in and out, but didn’t touch her. “That’s so wrong in so many ways, and not just because I hate the thought of all you suffered as a child. A felinoid shouldn’t try to harm a kitten or stoop to hiring an assassin. It takes a real sick mind to do both. We just don’t think that way.”
“No murders on Mrrwr?” Karn, who’d butchered the planet’s name, sounded dubious.
“Of course we have murders, but they’re crimes of passion. Someone pisses someone else off, claws and fangs get involved, and things go too far. Face it…” he laughed again, but it sounded more like a defense against screaming, “…most of us aren’t patient enough to hire an assassin and wait for an elaborate plot to be hatched. We’d forget why we wanted the person dead before it actually came off.”
“You’ve plotted a lot,” Xia said, not sure why she was arguing the point. Was it better to think the person who’d arranged her family’s murder and then coolly watched it happen was sane?
“That’s different. I was plotting things I was going to do myself and there was a lot of action along the way. Sitting back and waiting for someone else to do things is boring, which is probably why the crazy bastard wanted to see the job go down. But it’s actually good in a way. We should be able to figure out who Xia’s birth family is since killings like this are so rare on Mrrwr. Though we may have to go to Mrrwr ourselves so we can sort it out in person. It takes a lot to embarrass one of us, but a crime like that is both appalling and tacky, so it would have been hushed up.”
Xia wasn’t sure if the thrill that ran through her was fear, excitement or both. Probably both.
Karn shook his head. “Too dangerous for Xia. You don’t hire Nitari Belesku, even a young Nitari Belesku, because of a lover’s quarrel. This was something bigger—politics or money—and Xia may still be in danger if she goes home.” He leaned forward. “Do you remember your family name or anything about your parents?”
She shook her head then remembered one useless tidbit. “My father had gray eyes, like Mik. I don’t know if that’s a real memory, though, or something I want to believe, like there’s a cosmic reason Mik and I found each other. And I think my mom had coloring like mine. But I can’t remember their faces. I can remember the assassin and I can remember the creepy guy who plucked me from the dark place and wanted to kill me, but not my own parents.” Damn it, she was crying now, couldn’t stop herself.
Crying wasn’t safe. Crying meant you were weak, that they could hurt you…
Only, Rahal and Karn wouldn’t hurt her. They’d comfort her as best they could, then try to find a way to help her deal with the problem. She knew that much.
That made it possible to weep.
Rahal leaned forward, kissed away a tear.
Karn asked urgently, “What can you tell me about him? I have contacts.”
“Not on Mrrwr, I thought,” Rahal commented, but Karn didn’t seem to hear him.
Xia tried to remember, but those long-blocked memories only seemed to surface when they were ready, so she didn’t have much to offer. “I’m sure he’d visited before, but I can’t remember his name. I may never have heard it; I was pretty little so grown-ups weren’t all that interesting unless they had candy or toys. Dark hair, brown, I think, with silver in it—I guess he was an older man, though everyone seems old when you’re only four—and brown ears and blue eyes. Really blue eyes, not like yours, Karn, but almost like sapphires.” She pointed toward Rahal’s seal lying on the desk as if it were worth nothing.
“That’s an uncommon color for a felinoid,” Rahal said. “Not unheard of, but rare enough to be memorable. Maybe it would mean something to someone.”
“Maybe,” Karn said, but his voice was pensive, his thoughts obviously far away.
Chapter Eighteen
Xia was definitely Cal’s target, the woman his clients wanted found. According to the documents stored in his head, the assassination attempt—the assassination, even if the seeming primary target escaped—had taken place at an outdoor party, a small gathering for the prime minister’s family and friends. He should be figuring out how to get Xia to go to Mrrwr with him, meet her family, set him up to collect the rest of his reward.
Instead, he’d told Xia and Rahal that Mrrwr was too dangerous and he’d meant it. No marling way he’d take her there until he had some answers.
He’d found the woman he’d been looking for, but his gut told him his investigation was only starting.
Cal had never had direct contact with the supposed clients. That wasn’t uncommon when the client was a VIP, but now he was wondering about that. The information he was given had all the proper clearances and official-data imbeds and all that, but the more he knew felinoids, the more it didn’t seem like the way they’d work. If Madam Prime Minister Merrin had wanted to hire him to find her missing grandchild, she’d probably have contacted him herself and the hell with protocol as humans knew it. The properly documented data stream could be a smoke screen to deceive a human.
He kept flashing to the felinoid who’d set up the job, the dark-haired man with the insanely blue eyes. He was too young to be the one who’d almost killed Xia as a child, but could be his son or another relative, carrying on the family feud. He’d been odd for a felinoid, cold and restrained. Cal had put it down to his position working with other species who might not appreciate felinoid exuberance, and that still made sense as an explanation. But so did the explanation that he wasn’t quite right in the head, or at least had been raised by someone who wasn’t, that he didn’t act like a normal felinoid because he wasn’t one.
Cal needed more information. Needed to investigate in a way that wouldn’t be easy on Cibari, off the law enforcement grid.
Or he needed to come clean with Xia and Rahal, admit who he was and why he was here—not to mention who Xia was—and hope they’d turn their clever, devious minds to helping him figure out the puzzle, figure out whether Xia returning to Mrrwr would be a homecoming or just one more place where people wanted to kill her, only with less backup than she had here.
Right. That might work if he survived telling them the truth. Xia was a mess, with all those repressed memories bubbling up, and Rahal didn’t even need the excuse of trauma. The whole damn galaxy knew Rahal Mizyar wasn’t afraid of blood on his claws.
He’d have to figure out how to tell them the truth in a way he’d have a chance of surviving. Meanwhile, he’d be poking around, calling on contacts, trying to find out more about that marling diplomat’s family and past, find a way to reach Madam Merrin and find out if she even knew about his investigation.
A sense of urgency overwhelmed him. Xia was safe now in Rahal’s arms, so it was a good time for him to slip off and start his work. He’d be using Cal’s resources, not Karn’s, but the end result would be the same and it was something he could offer Xia honorably without compounding his lies.
He rose and decided to excuse himself by telling as much of the truth as he could. “Like I said, I have some contacts, even on Mrrwr. I’m going to follow up on a few things.”
He took a step toward the door. He thought he was actually going to make it.
Then Xia reached out and placed a hand on his thigh. “Don’t leave,” she said, her voice choked with tears. “Not yet.”
Cal gulped. He glanced down at her hand. He’d seen it in lethal action yesterday, but now it just looked small and graceful, and sexier than ever, knowing how lethal it was.
He glanced away from the hand, but then he looked at her tearstained face and Rahal’s concerned, angry one. Stars, so beautiful, both of them. He had to get away while he could still think clearly. He had no right to feel what he was feeling. Any connection he had to them was based on a lie that, sooner or later, he was going to have to reveal. He’d always thought of himself as an honorable man, but he’d lied his way into their lives and beds. Sure, i
t was to reunite a family and maybe keep Xia from self-destructing, but it was also to make a bundle of money. And both the more laudable motives rested on lies and half-truths possibly designed to bring Xia closer to someone who wanted her dead.
Xia was lovely and damaged and brave. Rahal was fierce and frightening and funny and tender in ways Cal couldn’t understand. Cal had come to care for them way too much. But he hadn’t earned being with them.
Still, he wanted to be with them.
Not just sexually, although Xia’s touch burned through his clothes, seared up his leg and zinged through his cock. He wanted to quit being Cal Janssen, responsible freelance law enforcement professional, and become Karn the Viking permanently so he could stay as part of their lives.
Sooner or later the deception was bound to fall apart. It would hurt them both, and Xia, at least, had been hurt enough. Maybe Rahal too, based on a few things he’d said today to Xia. Cal made himself take another step toward the door. “You’ve learned some scary shit about your past, Xia. I might be able to get you some answers. Figure out if you have surviving family, for one.”
“I have a family already. It would be nice to know at some point if I have other family, but I don’t need those answers right now.” He hadn’t seen her move, but she was touching him again. This time her hand was closer to his groin and that was definitely deliberate. “I want you and Rahal. I want to stop thinking. I’m cold and in the dark. I need you both to warm me.”
His cock was responding but he made one last, valiant attempt. “The sooner I send a few messages out, the sooner you’ll know what’s going on. You know I’d love to play, but better to strike while the iron is hot, whatever that means.”
“You’re not going to be striking any iron, hot or not. Not right now. Xia needs you. You’re staying.” Rahal’s voice was good-humored but it had shifted somehow. His body language had changed. Sprawled on cushions with a beautiful, tearstained woman curled up in his lap, Rahal was suddenly the warlord issuing a command.
Stars save him, it was a command that every cell in Cal’s body wanted to obey.
Honor be damned. He’d already tarnished himself thoroughly, what was a little more?
With a groan, he fell to his knees and crawled to the cushions where Xia and Rahal were curled. It was a short distance, one he could have covered in one or two long strides.
But crawling felt right, especially when the two felinoids drew him into their shared embrace. “I think,” Xia said, her voice sounding almost normal for the first time that morning, “we’re all overdressed for this party.”
Karn groaned again and started shucking his clothes.
In the warm, lush palace, Xia felt chilled to the bone. In the brightly lit room, darkness pressed in on her. She knew now what was going on when she felt small in cold, damp blackness. Knew she was reliving childhood horrors, definitely the fountain, maybe something more, something still buried where she couldn’t help hoping it would stay.
But she wasn’t a trapped child. She was an adult.
And something very adult would keep the darkness at bay, especially sexytimes with two men she’d come to trust in an amazingly short time.
Right now, it was about more than just the sex, though she needed that fiercely right now. She needed their light. For a couple of guys whose reputations were not exactly cute and fuzzy, Rahal and Karn added brightness to her life. Just their voices, the way they looked at her, made her feel safe, secure, bathed in sunshine.
Yeah, she was in trouble. Safety didn’t lie in other people, not even people she really liked. Mik was the exception and now that she was an adult, she didn’t rely on him for safety, just backup.
Good sex was clearly making her soft. Later she’d either have to puzzle it through or find a way to run like a startled gingoid from the men who were turning her inside out. But for now, she needed this. Needed a mouth crashing down onto hers, rough but sure hands on her skin; hard, sleek bodies under her hands. Needed Rahal’s tail flicking softly over her belly as his claws dug into all the right places, not drawing blood but deliciously threatening to. Needed Karn’s mouth and Rahal’s, each on a nipple, licking and suckling, teasing and tormenting, and needed a cock in each of her hands, hard and growing harder as she stroked.
Cold and darkness retreated, replaced by the blaze of passion. A different heat rose with the passion, though, a warmth that centered not in Xia’s quivering clit or wet sex, or at her straining nipples, but came from somewhere deep inside her.
Hearts regulated the movement of blood throughout the body. They didn’t regulate emotions. She knew that as well as she knew a half-dozen ways to stop a heart from beating. But she knew what people meant by the metaphor. Right now, she understood it better than she ever had because she’d swear the sense of warm connection radiated from her heart.
Should she believe in the instinct that told her Rahal and Karn were more than just playmates? Xia liked almost everyone, but she trusted only Buck, Rita and her fathers. She mostly trusted Drax because he’d been willing to put his life on the line for them. He held Rita’s heart now, though, so she’d made sure to research where a Banjali’s heart was located, in case he hurt her friend.
It was strange that she trusted Karn and Rahal as much as she did, but her ears and tail and the surface of her skin told her it was all right. And it was so easy to let herself be blanketed in their warmth and light and let lust and pleasure push all the inconvenient, frightening memories back into a box where she could forget them again.
At first, Xia floated in a sea of sensation, not focusing at all on how they were moving, on whose hands or mouth or tongue was doing what to her, on which male body her hands were stroking, just that they were touching each other. Right now details didn’t matter, just the heated, heady sense of pleasure and rightness. Usually acutely aware of her surroundings, Xia was astonished to realize she didn’t know exactly how she ended up lying on top of Karn with Rahal behind her. Then again, she didn’t particularly worry about how she’d gotten there when it felt so good and right to be exactly where she was.
Karn’s cock nestled between her cunt lips as Rahal’s slid between her cheeks. She ground herself against Karn, then pushed back at Rahal, reveling in the pleasure that shot through her. Karn’s clever fingers toyed with her nipples. As she moved between the men, Rahal leaned forward, pressing against her back. He nuzzled the back of her neck then bit down, not lightly like a human lover might, but hard. Xia moaned out loud and ripped one of the pillows because she had just enough wits left to remember it wasn’t a good idea to lacerate Karn without negotiating that kind of play.
Rahal turned his attention next to her ear, rubbing it, blowing into it just right so the downy fur on the inside vibrated. As he did, Karn grasped her hips, manipulated her against him, grinding her against his cock. She clenched even more.
“Need you inside me,” she said, almost a yowl.
“Both of us?” She could hear the smug smile in Rahal’s voice. “Would you like me to fuck your ass while Karn is in your pussy?”
Xia’s brain melted at the thought of those two beautiful men fucking her simultaneously, their cocks almost touching, separated only by a thin wall of aroused flesh. Not like they hadn’t touched directly, but the thought of them fucking her together was hot in a different way, a new kind of intimacy.
She’d played this particular game only once before, and she’d been on high alert the whole time. Sandwiched between two big male bodies, her range of motion was limited and escape routes were hampered, so rather than enjoying the novel experience, she’d been tense, looking for how to break away if she needed to.
Since realizing she was a trained killer, Xia figured she’d just skip that particular variation on threesomes from now on. She’d been lucky that her one attempt hadn’t triggered a panic attack that ended in a bloodbath, just some biting and scratching that the guy
s had thought was kind of hot.
She trusted Rahal and Karn, though. Trusted them maybe unreasonably, but sometimes these things weren’t rational. You just knew, like she had known that night in the alleyway on Lysander that she’d found safety, like she knew when she met Drax that he was worth risking her life to protect. They wouldn’t let anything bad happen to her. They knew she might be a bit like playing with explosives, and would…okay, not proceed with caution because that was so not their style. But she trusted them to protect themselves, and protect her from herself.
She also trusted they’d show her a very good time.
Words seemed half the galaxy away and she had to swim through syrup to reach them, but she finally did. Luckily, she didn’t need very complex words.
“Hell yes.”
Karn was inside her while the breath that carried her words still hovered in the air, with a quick thrust that suited her mood completely. She leaned forward and kissed him as she lay down, pressing herself against his belly. She raised her tail and arched it out of the way, and Karn parted her ass cheeks with his hands and held her open for Rahal.
In contrast to Karn, Rahal took his time, prepping and lubing and teasing at her opening. It was driving her half-mad. He circled her anus with one lubed finger until she squirmed and twitched, clamping down on Karn’s cock, and begged, “Oh come on. Pretty please.”
Then, with excruciating care and slowness, he inserted one finger.
She pushed back against it. “Come on! I don’t break that easily.”
One more finger.
“Oh!” she exclaimed. “That would be why you were taking your time. So full…” she had to sort out the words, “…so good, but really full.”
“I can feel his fingers,” Karn said. “An extra caress. Just imagine how good his cock will feel.”
“Don’t want to imagine. Want to know.”
Bad Kitty Page 14
