“You’re being awfully calm a about what happened down there,” she said. “What I did.”
Except he wasn’t calm at all. The moment she’d touched him, she’d picked up on the tension radiating from him like the aftermath of an ion bomb explosion. He’d obviously spent the last day and a half watching over her rather than looking after himself. It was rather sweet. Not too many people had ever gone out of their way to be sweet to her. It felt good. A warm and fuzzy kind of good.
“I promised to protect you. That’s what I did,” he said.
“As I recall, when you told me that you also ordered me to stay out of a fight. I didn’t.”
He rose to his knees and bent over her. “No, you didn’t. By keeping quiet and not telling me what we might face down there, you jeopardized the mission.”
“Judan.”
“No, listen. I regret you didn’t trust me, Myrina, but I understand why. You are not the type of person to, how do you say in English, ‘back down from a fight’.”
“A Little Warrior.”
“My Little Warrior,” he said.
“Glad you figured that out.”
“What I, as you put it, figured out, is that I should have apologized the other night. We are now even, because for a little while, I didn’t trust you, either. I sensed the warrior spirit inside you the first time we met. I just didn’t realize until yesterday that you’ve spent your whole life fighting. It was foolhardy of me to forbid you to fight. To change who you are.”
She pulled on his shirt, tugging him a little closer. “Are you sure I’m not still asleep? I could have sworn you just said you were wrong.”
His eyes crinkled with laugh lines. “Not wrong, Little Warrior. I just, how do you say, revised my game plan.”
“Oh?”
“I respect your need to do what you have to do to keep people and environments safe, but from now on I stand with you.”
I will keep you safe. She heard the words as clearly as if he’d spoken them aloud. He seemed willing to endanger himself to safeguard her. He was saying they were now definitely a “we”, a partnership. Yet she’d sent him down to the planet without warning him of the dangers. She hadn’t been operating as a “we”, and yet he’d still protected her.
Her fingers came to rest on his left pectoral. He wasn’t invincible. So, who protected him?
“Tell me,” she whispered, tracing the length of each line. “Tell me how you got the scars.”
Chapter Fifteen
The muscles under Judan’s skin jumped reflexively at Myrina’s request. For a second his eyes were shuttered, cutting her off from his emotions. From him. She waited and finally he glanced down at her hand where it rested against him. Because of her illness, her hand looked unnaturally pale, a sharp contrast to the healthy green of his skin.
“I told you I was a pilot,” he said.
She nodded.
“Nearly four years ago I was returning home after making a delivery to an outpost. My cousin and her husband were stationed on a satellite trading post not far off my route so I decided to make a surprise visit.”
The moment he mentioned his cousin, Myrina knew the story was about Zane, the little boy whose picture she’d seen in Judan’s office. Since the boy hadn’t looked much older than four, she guessed he’d been a baby when Judan had made his visit.
“First no one answered my hail or request for docking privileges and then I discovered one of the satellite’s docking bays was wide open.” Judan was saying. “I sent out a subspace distress signal, but decided I couldn’t wait, so I docked my ship.”
Myrina nodded again. That sounded like him. He would follow standard protocol procedures and then rewrite the rules to suit himself and go in alone. “What did you find?” she asked.
“Near total destruction. It looked like a laser gun had been let loose on the place. Holes had been punched through walls, equipment smashed, goods scattered. There’d obviously been a few fires. I was amazed the environmental controls remained intact given the amount of damage. I couldn’t find anyone.”
Myrina grazed her fingers over the scars again. “Let me guess. You didn’t retreat.”
Judan shook his head although he didn’t look as if he was happy with the decision he’d made. “I headed up toward the control room to see if I could find any clues about the attack on the station and why it had happened.”
He covered her hand where it rested on the damaged skin with his own. “This happened when I tried to bypass a blocked passageway. A beam in the ceiling broke apart and crashed down, nearly crushing me. I don’t know how long I was knocked out. When I came to I’d lost a lot of blood. I could barely walk, but I needed to find help.”
“You found someone?”
“They found me. My cousin’s husband and a couple of other members of the trading post plus two children. Space pirates had attacked without warning. Somehow they’d managed to sneak past the satellite’s warning sensors. The trading post had been outmanned and outgunned.”
“What about your cousin?” She really wanted to ask about Zane. He had to have been one of the two children he mentioned. How had the boy and Judan survived while the parents hadn’t?
“She and the other members of the trading post had been taken hostage. They were being held in a docking bay on the other side of the trading post while the pirates loaded their ships. The three adults I met had been launching a rescue attempt when they found me. I was too weak to go with them.”
He caressed her arm and then let his hand and his gaze slip away.
“I took the children and retreated to the docking bay and my ship. A while later a couple of blasts rocked the station. No one else appeared. I had no choice. I had to leave with the children before the place blew apart.”
She heard the gut-wrenching anguish in his voice as if he again had to make the same decision now instead of four years ago. Rubbing the back of her hand along his skin, she offered him a little comfort. And looked into those gorgeous green eyes of his.
The crazy thing was, she’d always thought she would know for sure what love felt like when she encountered it. And now, one look into his eyes—the eyes she’d stared into countless of times, the eyes that had watched her every chance they got—and she smacked face first into the certain knowledge that she loved him.
Well crap. She loved him. Pure and simple. Though there was absolutely nothing pure or simple about it. How had this happened? And, more to the point, what was she supposed to do with it?
She reached over and grabbed the edge of his shirt, pulling him close. “You took a calculated risk and did all right,” she said. “You saved the kids.”
A grin tugged at, but didn’t quite reach, his mouth. “And the moral of the story is?” he asked.
“Whatever you want it to be,” she whispered back.
She tugged him closer. Close enough that his hair, which had been uncharacteristically tame up to that point, spilled around them. Close enough to kiss. She kept it light and a little teasing.
“Myrina,” he growled low in his throat and licked the seam of her mouth.
One little kiss and she was out of breath. One little kiss and her breasts ached for his touch. One little kiss and…
“Why don’t you come in here so I can thank you properly?” she asked him.
He chuckled and his shirt came off. His boots followed in record time. He dimmed the lights. And then he crawled into bed with his leggings still on. She sighed and snuggled close. Probably just as well. Her brain might be willing, but her body was still in recovery.
He turned on his side to face her, sliding one arm beneath her to cradle her head against his broad shoulder. He wrapped his other arm around her. Then her arms slid up and around his neck, aligning their bodies from head to toe. He pulled her into a snug embrace. She sniffed, filling her senses with the familiar scent of alam and her man.
They held each other for a long time. She threaded her fingers through his hair, luxuriating in
the vibrancy of the strands as they tangled around her fingers. Starting at the base of her spine, his hands kneaded the tension from her back. Slowly she began to relax. Her skin warmed beneath his caresses, creating a delicious sense of lassitude. In the silence she became aware of the steady beat of his heart. Her own echoed the rhythm. Reassuring her. Affirming life. She’d made it.
What’s the moral of the story?
Whatever you want it to be.
He’d told her one heck of a bedtime tale. She hadn’t intended to open old wounds, figuratively speaking, just learn about the scars. They made quite a pair, though, given their recent escapades. Both of them were stubborn to a fault when it came to this rescue business. The thing of it was, this time they’d both come through with less damage. They’d been, perhaps not invincible, but definitely stronger together, which was one heck of a moral.
His finger skimmed along her jawline, lifting her chin. The kiss, when it came, was unbelievably tender. No more than a brushstroke across her lips. His tongue traced a highly inflammable path along her mouth. She bit her lower lip, not sure how long she could hang on.
“Jud—”
“Shh,” he said with a brief shake of his head. Two fingers reached up to silence her then stayed to trace the edge of her mouth. She couldn’t resist and her tongue darted out to taste him. He took her action as an invitation and gently inserted his fingers, both of them, inside her mouth.
“Show me,” he whispered.
She closed her eyes, savoring the taste of his skin. She suckled his fingers, drawing them deeper inside her mouth. Her tongue glided along each smooth length, teasing him and herself with memories.
He groaned and pulled his fingers out before dipping his head to taste her again. Lips on lips, the faintest touch of his tongue skimming across her teeth. She gasped when one wet finger brushed across her already swollen nipple. Involuntarily, her body arched, thrusting her breasts into his waiting hand. He smiled against her mouth and stroked the other nipple. Her body jerked and this time she felt it. His erection straining within the confines of his leggings. She tried to wiggle closer and he got her meaning. His hand clamped around her butt and he notched his shaft in the V of her legs.
A moan, her moan, echoed in the barely there space between them. Her pelvis tilted and she bucked against his erection.
One, two, three strokes and a low groan rumbled deep in his throat. Though she would have preferred his bare shaft, her clit welcomed the friction from rubbing against the cloth of his leggings. Four, five caresses along his cock and his breathing turned harsh. Tiny beads of sweat glistened on his chest and she set to work licking him clean.
His hand slid south to her thigh, pulling it high over his leg. Opening her to him. His fingers dipped beneath the edge of her panties and stopped.
She’d stopped licking, her face buried against his chest while she tried to control her breathing as she waited. It was an exercise in futility. She arched her ass, hoping to bring his fingers closer to her hole, but they remained the same tantalizing distance away. Close enough to make her wet with wanting, just not close enough to satisfy her. Her heart pounded erratically against her chest. She lifted her leg higher, grinding his erection in a desperate attempt to bring herself nearer to climax. He caressed her back, his hand gliding across skin slick with sweat. Finally, his fingers moved closer, grazing her folds and coming to rest at the entrance to her hole. Her pussy clenched, coating his fingers with cum.
“Are you sure,” he said, his voice harsh with passion.
“Yes, please,” she whispered back.
Without another word, he pushed two fingers inside. Her entrance was slick, allowing him to push deep. She cried out and tightened her hold on him when he began to pump. Slow, gentle strokes that stoked the flame higher, stirred her body to a greater sense of urgency. Each time she caught the rhythm he changed it, driving her to distraction because she still couldn’t quite reach that next level.
His thumb roamed northward, inserting itself between her butt cheeks. She bucked, moaning in anticipation. He waited until he’d nearly pulled his fingers out of her pussy. Then he caught his downstroke and pushed his thumb up her ass, stuffing her holes.
On a half moan, half scream she climaxed. Ripples of light and energy coursed through her system at faster-than-light speeds and her body shuddered violently.
A while later she became aware that Judan had rolled onto his back and she was draped across him. She blinked and lifted her head to study him. He was watching her.
“Are you all right?” he asked. One of his hands traced lazy patterns across her back.
“I’m fine,” she said and contrived to look serious. “Just concerned.”
He frowned so she gently nudged his erection with her knee.
“You seem to be in a predicament.”
He grinned and rolled over, tucking her beneath him. His hair cascaded like a fiery waterfall around them. “That seems to be a regular state around you, Little Warrior.”
“Judan.” She might have started this conversation by teasing him, but she wasn’t a tease. Her only problem was, she wasn’t sure she had the energy to do more than talk.
“It’s all right,” he said. “This time was for you.”
I love you.
The words burst into her brain, barely giving her time to catch them before she spoke out loud.
Tell him.
No. I can’t tell him, yet.
The feeling was too new to her. A secret she wanted to keep and take out to look at when she was alone before sharing it with anyone else. With him.
Besides, she’d discovered something else in Judan’s arms.
She really hadn’t had a clue what love looked like. Because if she had she might have seen it a lot sooner.
Judan might claim he didn’t understand the word, but he loved. Her. Zane. His family. He was a man who demonstrated his love with actions, not words. Maybe all he would ever be able to say was “I want you”, but she knew what he really meant.
So she’d keep her words tucked away and give him the ones he understood. She met his steady gaze, reached up and caressed his cheek.
“I want you, Judan Ringa,” she said.
His body trembled slightly. He rested his forehead against hers and closed his eyes. “Thank the Third Moon,” he said.
She tilted her head and brushed a kiss across his lips. “You have a real thing for this Third Moon. Is she a goddess or something? You keep invoking her name.”
“What?” He opened his eyes and lifted his head. “The Ketiga Bulan?”
“Your ship?” she asked, confused.
He shook his head. “Ketiga Bulan, the Third Moon. My favorite of the Three Sisters, the moons of Dakokata. I named my ship for her.”
“And you believe she helps you?”
He nodded. “She led me to you, didn’t she?”
* * * * *
Two hours after landing in the Dakokatan capital of Bandar Besar the following morning, Myrina knew exactly how the live specimens she often studied must feel like.
Moments earlier Judan had arrived at his apartment, where she’d been waiting for him, with two other Ktua, a man and a woman, all of them looking very official in their quilled capes. She was very glad she’d worn her TLC uniform this morning and then, as a courtesy, had asked Judan’s permission to wear it. She might not be as ornately dressed, but at least she looked like a scientist.
A scientist under microscopic scrutiny.
From the moment they’d walked through the door, both Ktua had been openly assessing her. As politely as possible, she’d studied them back. Aside from their capes, their most notable feature was that neither of them wore wigs.
Judan immediately removed his cape and came to stand beside her, placing a hand on the small of her back. A proprietary gesture that didn’t go unnoticed, especially by the man.
“Myrina, these are Ktua Barrin and Longi,” he said. “They’re here to verify the Rakanasmara bet
ween us.”
“Verify?” Well crap.
She shot Judan a startled glance. Once they’d touched down, he’d stood out in the middle of the landing field, directing the transportation of the Outposters to a nearby medical facility. Fortunately all of them, even the more critically ill patients, were responding well to treatment once they were away from the poisonous environment on Hitani. In the midst of loading a fourth hover transport, a young man in uniform had approached him. Judan had accepted the tightly rolled sheet of paper, broken the seal, read the contents and left. Vand had been the one to bring her to Judan’s apartment.
Until now she hadn’t thought about the nature of the urgent business Judan had been called away on. It was a little disconcerting to realize that she—they—had been the subject under discussion.
“Didn’t you show them the results of the genetic testing I did? I don’t think there’s much dispute I have the Dakokatan trigger for Rakanasmara.”
“The genetic connection is only the first step in Rakanasmara,” Ktua Barrin said. She was a tall, dignified-looking woman who, Myrina guessed, was in her late sixties. Given the faint traces of white in her hair, Myrina also surmised she’d recently lost her life partner.
“A series of rituals confirms compatibility between a couple,” Ktua Barrin continued, “And ensures that each person understands what it means to be a life partner.”
“So, what does that mean?” Myrina asked, totally confused. Granted Judan hadn’t explained Rakanasmara when they’d first met, but from the beginning he’d told her repeatedly he wanted her and later that he’d observed the rituals as part of his wooing of her.
Ktua Longi stepped forward. He was slightly younger than the woman, no more than sixty. And in his case, his brown hair was liberally streaked with blond highlights. A man in his prime. But, unlike Judan or Ktua Barrin his eyes were a pale green, a shade or two lighter than her own.
“It means,” Ktua Longi said with a gesture towards her, “that during the ritual phase it is rare but possible for either party not to accept the other as their life partner. As long as any of the rituals are not completed in the order prescribed, the Rakanasmara cannot be verified and the partnership is dissolved.”
Love Partner Page 20
