Spooning and the silk drape of a gown. Both from Goro. The barbarian had a sweet and caring side. Or he was working me. My life had turned into one big bag of confusion. It's like I had shot into a new world in outer space, a world of wonder, horror, lust, and love. The universe seemed ripe for the picking, But I am the object of contention. I am the dress. I'm running for my life from Voldon's bad ass, into the arms of the sexiest male I could find that my father would certainly despise. But why did I end up incapable of trusting my barbarian? Bound for eternity through an act that would make most people back home shudder.
There was no way out of this. Especially after he left me to sit alone, bored, in this strange barren place for an entire day. Starving. Just where was the food replicator? And how does the dress become proactive?
A wave of nausea shook me.
Not the blood lust again.
Goro's arm jerked where it draped my side, protectively, as if he detected her symptoms.
Or was he dreaming?
His feet shifted erratically.
What was he running from?
Goro bolted upright and stared at the wall.
Okay. I studied his profile where he sat in some strange act of vigilance. "Bad dream?" Probably a starvation-induced night terror.
Another wave of nausea twisted my gut.
To eat or not to eat… That's the question.
"No," he said. "I think we should have brought the crystal skull."
I did not hear that. And wasn't I the one with that gem of an idea vetoed by the dictator? "You're dreaming. Lie back. Shut your eyes. You won't remember any of this in the morning."
He just sat there.
Looking awfully worried. Well, it was too late to fret about the skull. "Goro." I snaked my fingers around one of his steely elbows and pulled his back down onto the blanket.
He stared at the ceiling's smooth rocky surface.
What brought on this change of heart? "Goro?"
"I haven't slept much. I should try to sleep." He raked a handful of fingers through his hair.
He looked so vulnerable. So lost. Why? "What did you dream?"
"Sometimes my dreams come true."
"But Shandul said psychics can't see the future." Was this another game?
He rolled onto his side and lovingly slid his palm across the fabric covering my ribcage beneath my breasts. But he never made eye contact with me.
What type of Hell unfolded in his dreams? "Shandul says nobody can see the future, Goro."
His brow knotted.
What bothered Goro this much in a dream? What could have possibly been so bad that the last Xquine warrior can't sleep and wants to go back through a wormhole and do what his mate insisted on doing? Men just don't admit their wives were right. Wouldn't he appear to be weak or stupid? That's so not Goro. "You're starting to worry me." Maybe the priest did something to him.
"That's not a bad thing." His orange gaze slid to mine. He studied my face. Slowly, ever so slowly, he laid a warm palm against my cheek and rubbed a circle into my skin with the thumb's pad. "But it's my place to worry. You know so little about the universe that I don't want you to get upset when I can deal with whatever Destiny drops onto our path."
He was so caring. But I have a brain. I'm not a gown. "I can think, Goro," I whispered.
A smile stretched his mouth wide. "That's why I chose you."
I'd rather hear the choice was born out of love. But maybe I'm just a stupid flower girl from Earth. It was time to don Crazy Darla's black leather.
He settled down laying his head on his folded arm, running his fingers through my hair and over my forehead.
Such a gentle touch. If only he spoke those words… I love you. Or I've always loved you. Those would really be nice to hear now. "Just tell me about the dream."
"Why?"
"Because it was impressionable enough to push a man to do something his mate couldn't convince him to do."
His same mask that just smiled broke into a chuckling grin.
He was so relaxed. So calm and soft spoken.
His fingers massaged my scalp.
This was almost where we were before The Seeker blew. Both of us wanting to touch, dreaming of lying together, afraid that someone would catch us smiling at each other. This moment was a happy place for lovers. But dare I trust this sensation as being loved?
"Shandul said something in private that has me going back over everything. Thinking. Calculating. What if I made a mistake? What if we left some sort of sign that we'd been to Dalna? And what if we lead Voldon right to the cave?"
His indecision was so genuine. But such a sign of weakness. A flaw. He would really hate hearing that. And the only way I'd survive this tour of duty would be to rely on Goro as my Rock of Gibraltar. I laid a palm on his muscled arm.
His gaze turned inquisitive and met mine.
He didn't speak. Nor did he need to. I could just stare into his orange gaze the rest of the day.
"Shandul mentioned think of the child." His whisper was so faint.
Shit. Did that mean I'm pregnant? "Are you implying anything?"
Chapter Seventeen
Why did the mention of pregnancy suddenly kick me in the ass? Darla slid her gaze to the ceiling in her personal quarters where she stretched out beside her husband's warm body deep beneath the surface of Saturn's moon, Titan. A baby meant their new life hiding out somewhere in the universe to ensure the risky pregnancy made it full term. Goro's baby. Or was this just Goro's ploy to get what he wanted? I need my kick-ass black leather. And Crazy Darla. "What did Shandul mean? He said psychics can't see the future. Right?"
"I didn't know how you were going to take the news. And I have no idea if the priest's point referred to a pregnancy unknown to us. But here we are, contemplating the reality that were-assassins are highly sexual creatures. Especially since we've engaged in numerous sexual encounters." He sighed, grabbed my hand from his warm skin, turned my palm upward, and planted the warmest, softest kiss in my palm.
My belly melted into a puddle.
Blood lust or not. This was the man I fell in love with. Goro with wild hair. A hungry Goro. That damned hunger is going to be my end.
"Darla, Shandul told me my life as a commander has ended. A new phase of my life has begun."
I could have told him that. If my mate thought I was sharing him with a freaking starship full of manipulative people, he was crazy. The last thing I needed was more stress than marriage to The Cause's mastermind. Pregnancy or not.
Pregnancy?
My heart sank to take the place of my liquefied gut.
Do I have any symptoms?
"Darla?"
I'm in the middle of nowhere. I studied Goro's standard stoic gaze.
He was a commander. At least if I bore him this child of legend, he was strong and smart enough to keep the baby alive. Wasn't that the point of life? Marry the toughest guy around so your children would survive to marry too and have more children to carry on the family's genetic legacy?
"Darla?"
"What?"
Something caring danced around his black pupils.
He squeezed my knuckles against his bare drumming chest. "Do you feel any of symptoms of pregnancy that earth women experience?"
I wouldn't know. But would a woman who needed to control a man tell him what he wanted to hear? Or what got her where she wanted to be? Just where do I want to be? Was there any sense in returning to earth? That promise was obviously
Goro's ploy to get me back through the wormhole. So what now? "What changes if I think I am pregnant?"
"Everything."
What a simple compound word that reveals so little yet resonates so much. "Like what?"
"We can stay here. This sanctuary is a secret known only to free-thinking operatives. It's a holy place. A sanctuary for those needing to stop and recuperate. A Jennian haven of love and light. We're welcome. Yet, something tells me we should leave. Find a warmer place to raise our child. We c
an hide somewhere on the other side of the universe. Raising a child inside a frozen moon might prove detrimental to the child's health given the lights go out. We have other options though. We could seek shelter on a starship. Arken would have no qualms taking us aboard to protect the child of legend. There's the aspect of safety in numbers with Arken. Or we can find a place on a planet where nobody would think to look for us. Tell me what sounds most appealing to you."
I get to choose?
Goro squeezed my hand again. "What will help you feel most comfortable?"
Oh his comforting actions.
Tears threatened to warm my eyes.
He is letting me choose. I blinked back the tingling heat of wonder combined with shock, before my view of his chiseled chest completely smeared. Maybe everything he said all along was true? "Can I think about it until tomorrow?" Anything to keep from further discussion with rising tears. I inhaled to suck them all back into hiding.
"Yes."
Oh to marvel in the fact I get to decide.
So many choices…
Where does a woman begin? And he waited, letting me choose. He wasn't so much the barbarian now. Just a man with all that amazing packaging. My man. Uh, alien. But can I touch the skin that I yearn to caress without feeling a prisoner? I reached out and placed a palm against the warm pliable skin of his breast.
His heart drummed beneath my hand.
It beat for me whether or not he said it was for his extinct planet.
His muscle tensed.
Oh, he was so strong. So alive.
Gods, to fuse us together into one loving mass. Again. This time knowing he meant what he said. Just to pull him deep inside me and keep him there. To feel safe and loved. Yes, loved by Goro. And that's what our baby needed.
He leaned over, ever so slowly as if he wanted to tease me with the wait, and finally devoured my soft wanting mouth with his.
Desire bolted through my core.
Was all of this the blood lust? I want it to be more. I want us to love each other. Do I get to love this man because I choose to, universe?
* * * *
Goro struggled not to fill his mate with his seed too quickly after he pulled the slinky gown over her head. But the heartfelt glint in her eyes indicated something had finally clicked for her. And no warrior could fight back the urge to hold and devour his mate in order to show her that he loved her.
"Touch me, Goro," she begged as he thrust his shaft's tight head across the doorway to her slick heat.
Her legs bent more, dropping her knees to the mussed bedding at my side like a queen raising her castle's portcullis to me. Invitingly. But she'd have to be patient, or I'd never get to touch her. Showing her what he felt was essential to proving my love though. I planted a kiss where the blood pounded at the bend in her neck.
She hissed and thrust a handful of fingers into my hair, holding me there, arching those wonderful mounds of her breasts against my chest.
Such magnificent treasures shouldn't be neglected. I slid a palm between her chest and arm, across her back, and held the breasts in place where her back arched, just so I could march my mouth to one taut bead of a nipple. Just to latch onto the nub and nibble until she writhed. That's what I wanted. Her writhing. Begging. Groaning with her hips pleading for attention.
Her body squirmed with delight.
I kissed across her exotic terrain to the other nipple and treated it with equal respect, setting her legs snaking around my waist to squeeze her demands into every inch of my middle.
Impatience could be a virtue. Not to an Xquine warrior. I slid an arm between her thigh and my skin to force her to release her hold. So I could venture lower. To show her what I felt for her.
She groaned a rebuke but dropped her legs back to the bed and clutched at my shoulders with scraping fingernails.
I kissed down the place between her breasts where they anchored to her heart, down to her flat belly, to her navel. Her breaths became so choppy that I had to place both palms against her belly and calm her by petting her.
"Oh, Goro."
Her hips would have bucked wildly if I hadn't pinned them down with my chest where my arms almost rooted into her groin. Right where she seemed an unreal beast with limbs shooting back and projecting forward in some strange concoction of nature where our limbs almost joined. She was more than desire. She was my passion. My every reason for existence. And I wanted to revere her enough to show her what she meant to me. But her moist heat tempted me to taste of my mate, not humor her.
No tasting until I'd devoured her navel. I ran the pad of a thumb around the soft edge of the imprint of her humanity, the place a child connects with its mother, where the truth of humanoid dependence upon others was tattooed upon the individual for all to remember that nobody can dwell alone and live a complete life, that life requires something to fill the void of existence. Something like Darla.
She moaned, rolling her chin back, grabbing at the blanket for comfort.
If only I can fill my heart with her need, I'd never go thirsty. I dipped my tongue into that well of a soul and dug like a man mining for gems.
She wriggled and cried out.
Gripping the bedding. Hopefully, she climaxed. Because I wasn't finished with her, and she deserved to feel adored over and over again. I slid the tip of my tongue across the rim of her navel and down the soft flesh of her lower abdomen, crawling away from the warmth of her body, letting her rise like an Xquine woman ready to take what she wanted from her mate.
Darla shoved up with her arms, arching her breasts high, spreading her knees so wide that she plainly wanted me there touching and tasting her soul's salty essence. The fingers of one of her hands grabbed my hair and shoved my nose right into her sex, against her wet heat where I paid homage to my mate, sucking the altar of her soul.
* * * *
Darla thought her life would end when Goro's tongue tickled her breath away inside her navel. That was before he ate her. Nobody could have warned me how impossible it was to sit and just let a man treat you to the most exquisite form of pleasure. I had to hold onto his hair or I'd fall off the bed while the stars blurred the darkness behind my eyelids.
Ecstasy's wave hit me like a tsunami. It crashed against me, drawing me underwater, dragging me along so deeply entrenched that I couldn't come up to gasp for air. And all I wanted to do was shout for Goro to help me. But he was there somewhere beneath the silent waves that drowned my words, with me, touching me like I was a goddess.
The wave dumped me on the bed in a gasping heap.
I could feel him rise and carefully place his hands where he wanted to move. Up. Toward me.
The bed jostled more.
But I couldn't open my eyes. Couldn't make my heart settle down.
The warm hint of his presence heralded he lowered down overhead. His soft massaging mouth settled on my neck again. But I couldn't find a spark of energy to move. To utter a sound of defeat so he could feel the champion. All I could do was lie there and let him have his way with me. It didn't seem like a problem for him. He gently cuddled against my body like I was the only food for his soul.
How could this notoriously wild Xquine warrior be so loving? I slid an exhausted humming arm around his shoulder and tried to pull him close to me, so close that our hearts became one. Or just to hang on in case he decided to vanish.
His warm mouth disappeared. His hips thrust his firm shaft deeply inside me in one swift intoxicating motion.
I gazed into those eyes that burned. For me. His stare wouldn't release me. Held me there. Forced me to watch the passion overtake his features while he drove another smothering tidal wave into my being. The water pressure mounted and threatened to suck the life from my soul until I couldn't think about anything but Goro's fiery eyes. And then he roared his deep dark jungle sound, releasing the force of the suffocating water to allow air to flood the space between us and fill my lungs. He sank onto my quivering chest, pumping and pumping into me with his incredibl
y hard pulsing cock. And all I could do was lie there beneath my barbarian, accepting the joy of defeat.
What else could he use to make our life complete? I held him until he seemed capable of breathing again. But he didn't seem able to pull himself away. His amazing weight blanketed me with protection and outright regard.
I'd grounded a barbarian.
Or he'd grounded himself. There was no way his actions could be misconstrued as anything but love. I slid her palms down his muscular back and back up again, massaging him. My man. My mate. And I finally know he loves me.
* * * *
Goro could sense Darla's change of attitude in the way her hands petted his body. Like she prayed. She paid my oxygen-starved muscles homage. Her touch was going to lull me to sleep. Not good when I still hadn't spoken with Shandul. But her behavior showed they might have met on common ground. I'd given her choices as well. Any moron studying earth history would know twenty-first-century earthlings held independence sacred. And what had I given her? Commands. Those days were long gone with The Seeker.
Given ample time, Titan had revealed more than he expected. And today the priest might divulge yet another secret. At least, one more meeting allows me the opportunity to disclose I found a crystal skull. No more secrets. What would Shandul say?
"I'm hungry." Darla sighed and squeezed me in an embrace. "There wasn't a food replicator in here yesterday. There's not much of anything really. This place is kind of strange. We get a heater and bed." She scanned the empty room. "For the record, I love this gown."
The temperature crystals still burned, a cool blue now, indicating a night-day cycle. A measurement of time. Devros knew I needed to give her time to feel she was making her own choices.
"I don't want to stay here, Goro. You're right. If anything happens on this moon, our butts are ice cubes. There is no grass or flowers or warm sun to lie beneath. Our child would never find shapes in the clouds. I remember one day when I was very young when I saw the clouds form a castle in the sky." She laughed. "It probably didn't really look like a castle."
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