by Celeste Raye
He had faced off with his father, the father he was now on his way to meet, and all General Bates had said was that she should never have tried to fly for Federation.
Blade had spat out, “You’re right. She should not have. She should have flown against them instead.”
She should have. She would have been better suited for that, and he blamed not just the Federation, but her father—but her father was already dead and beyond his ability to make him pay for Lauren’s death.
The ships around him dropped their cloaking devices. His breath came out in a relieved sigh. He had known it was his crew. His sigh was relieved because he was weary to the bone and thinking about Lauren had tired him down even further. He needed rest: lots of it. He had had a bad few weeks before the Revants had shown up and announced they wanted open warfare with the Federation and their departure had set into motion a series of events that had left with little chance to sleep.
Of course, bedding Tara when he should have been sleeping had been a fault his own, and one he would not wish to take back either.
But right then he needed sleep.
Blessed sleep and a ceasing of the heartache that made his heart nearly stop every time he remembered the woman he had loved so much, and whose death he had witnessed and been unable to stop.
He stood there, waiting for that familiar ache to hit and destroy him the way that it always did, but it didn’t come.
Instead, his mind went back to Tara. To her body and her ability to read him like a missive she alone understood the message of. Her nature was not wild or daring like Lauren’s had been but she was brave, and she was strong.
She was also a woman he would not want to see harmed and he damn sure did not want to have to watch her die while he stood by helplessly, unable to lift a finger to stop what was happening to her.
War would kill off so many. He was prepared to die fighting the Federation, but until just that moment he had not considered that he was no longer the only person that he cared about.
Oh shit.
He had somehow got his emotions tangled up, and she was the cause of that. He cared about her far more than he would have liked to admit and he knew that that was dangerous.
He had to harden his heart because the truth of the matter was that they were likely going to die in some battle or another, and even before that happened, they might be separated by the battles that would, all too soon, rage across the universe. There would be safe zones, and he should stash her in one and pray he made it back to her alive.
Safe zones?
What safe zones?
Nowhere in the universe would be immune to what would happen when he and the others who were ready for war declared it. Innocents would die. The losses and casualties would be high, and the promise of a peaceful and free future aside, he had to reconcile that fact to the mission, and he had not done that yet.
He was an honorable man despite his criminal bent, and he knew it. It was honor that had triggered his anger toward the Federation. It was the Federation’s lack of honor that he hated the most, that and their enslavement of people who had every right to be free in the first place.
The Federation killed off those who would be free because for them, there were only two types of beings in the universe: the powerful and the weak. The Federation believed in upholding the ways of the former and subjugating the latter.
He would be free, or he would die.
But was he really willing to see her die too?
Chapter 10:
“It’s so beautiful here.” Tara stared at the grass she sat on, and her hand went down to run across that turf. The grass swayed and waved, and the smell of flowers and trees and the wind all lifted her spirits.
Jenny, who was mated to Marik—a Revant who, like the human Jenny, was a natural healer—smiled at her. “Oh, I know. Every time I look about myself, I think how lucky I am that I no longer live Below.”
Below. The underground section of Old Earth, where the poorest and most miserable had lived because of their caste. Tara looked down, suddenly ashamed of the fact that she had never known hardship like that. “I was sorry to hear that Old Earth was destroyed.”
Jenny sighed, but she smiled too. “We all were, but maybe it was necessary. I hate that so much life was lost. We tried, we did. It was awful—the war and the destruction—but the lives we saved were worth it. That and the fact that we stopped the Gorlites and killed off their entire race, something that should have been done centuries ago.”
Tara’s head came up. “I can’t believe that the Federation really had a pact with them. I mean, I know that they did, but…Gorlites?”
It was true. The Federation had made a pact that had allowed that loathsome race to take ships and kill off entire planets without consequence, and all while calling them a menace that needed to be stopped. She knew that, but it still boggled her mind. In the weeks since she and Blade had arrived at Revant Two, which was now acting as a meeting place for those who would rebel and fight, she had been stunned by all the stories of all the ways that the Federation had betrayed its citizens.
Talon and his mate, Jessica, stepped out of a building nearby, and she raised a hand, but they turned the other way and kept walking, their heads bent together and clearly unseeing of her gesture.
Jenny said, “How are you and Blade doing?”
Tara shrugged. He had basically avoided her like the plague since they had arrived on Revant Two. He was always busy, working hard on making plans for the first strike, which would happen in just a few days, and she knew that he was busy and worried with the things that war would mean, but she still found herself rushing toward him and trying to get his attention whenever she could.
“Not very well. I finally heard about his lover, the one that the Federation killed, a few days ago from his father and I wonder, I really wonder, if whatever was between us was just a matter of convenience for him. If it mattered at all.”
She had not meant to make such an admission. She really had not. Yet she had, and she knew why. Jenny’s nature, so sweet and kind, and her natural ability to pull out whatever harmed a person had loosened her tongue.
Jenny patted her knee. “I know how you feel. Men can be hard to figure out. It seems what they want most is the thing they run from the hardest.”
Was that what Blade was doing? Running from her because he wanted her? If only there was a way to find out for sure.
There was one, but it would involve the heavy risk of rejection, and she was not sure she was ready for that.
But if she wanted him, and she did, perhaps risk was the only thing that would win him over.
She said, “I think you may be right. I have to get going. I’ll see you later.”
Jenny stood. Her blonde hair glinted in the sunlight, and her walk was easy as she headed in the opposite direction. Tara watched her go for a minute, then her attention was diverted by the sight of Blade striding out of the same building that Jessica and Talon had exited just a few moments before. She headed for him, her feet working quickly to take her across the grass and dirt paths to where he stood.
He stopped, and a small smile came upon his handsome face, but it didn’t quite meet his eyes. She lifted a hand and said, “You look tired.”
“It’s been a trying few days,” he admitted softly. “How are you?”
“Good. I…” Oh, what the hell? It was either risk it or never know. She leaned in, her mouth landing softly on his.
For a moment, he just stood there, his arms at his side and his mouth loose, and then he was kissing her back so hard that her lips felt pulped and bruised, and she loved it.
He broke the kiss off and growled out, “I…I have been avoiding you because I thought that perhaps you needed time to recover and grieve, and because…because I was not sure why you ever slept with me in the first place. I did not want to take advantage of you.”
Her breath caught, and her bold answer made her heart pound like someone had shot it full of so
me drug. “I want you to take advantage of me. A few times.”
His eyes lit up. The smile turned to real laughter. His hand found her waist and slid around it. He leaned against her and the loose tunic and trousers he wore transferred heat from his body to hers. “Then we should probably go somewhere far more private.”
“I have a hut to myself. It’s small but…but there’s a pallet.” It was true that her hut was small. Revant Two was a primitive planet that was just beginning to sprout into something. She led the way, walking fast because desire was pouring through her and making her whole body react.
They reached her hut and went inside. The door closed and he swung her around and into his body for another kiss.
That kiss left her mind whirling and her body traced with fire. Their bodies collided and the urgent press of him against her made everything else fade away. His hands trailed down her body. His fingertips pressed into the highly raised knobs of her spine, traced the column of her spine before dropping lower to the pert slopes of her ass cheeks.
He gathered those full cheeks into his large hands and kneaded them through the fabric of her dress, lifting and massaging them as her crotch met his, and the thick hardness of his member pressed into her belly.
Her gasp was one of sheer delight. His tongue slid into her mouth again, bringing the taste of the water he had drunk earlier and the faint tinge of mint and herbs. The shape of his teeth met her tongue for a moment, and then their tongues were parrying and thrusting, meeting and parting. Every breath was a precious thing, all sweetness and heat that made her nipples stiffen and her juices start to flow from within her core and spread along the puffed surfaces of her inner and outer lower lips. She wriggled against him, her eyes closing as that kiss grew even deeper and his hands went lower, yanking at the hem of her dress before tugging it upward.
He had to break the kiss off to get her dress over her head, and she took advantage of that to shed his tunic from his skin. She watched with greedy eyes as his body came into view. Her fingers fumbled against the buttons of his trousers, and his staff sprang into her hand.
Her fingers stroked against that flesh, satin over steel. The heavy veins wrapping that shaft pulsed and his head was dusky and filled with blood. Tara went to her knees, eager to please him and equally eager to taste his skin in her mouth.
Her tongue slid over his engorged head, bringing a low moan from his lips. His hips slid forward, and her mouth opened, taking that rigid member down her throat. His scent, slightly starchy and all male, filled her nose as his hands cupped her head and brought her face even closer to his thatch of coarse hair. That hair tickled her nose as she swallowed down his cock and then struggled to bring her mouth off and away from it. His grip relaxed, and she bobbed her head, breathing hard before taking him again.
Blade’s hot rod slid past her lips again. Her tongue licked along the skin of his shaft, and a slightly salty fluid filled the back of her throat. His groan was rough and raspy, and his fingers went taut in her hair then released her head so she could back away and then suck him down her throat again.
She pursed her lips, applying more pressure. Her fingers went to his sac, and she stroked the balls within it, feeling them lift and thicken as he reached a higher peak of desire.
He said, “My God that feels so damn good, but I need you to stop now.”
She didn’t want to stop. She wanted this; she wanted to feel him spilling his seed into her mouth, but more than that she wanted to feel him inside her, his body taking and filling hers. She sat back, one hand still wrapped loosely around his shaft.
Blade reached down and hauled her to her feet, lifting her off the floor and toting her toward her pallet in an unceremonious and hasty way that took her breath away simply because at that moment she could feel his strength, that incredible strength of his, and then she was on her back on the pallet, and his mouth was on her nipples, teasing them and making her squirm against his body.
Her words were a whisper. “Please. Please, I want you so badly. I want to feel you inside me.”
She did want that. She needed that. His fingers dipped between her legs, and then he moved lower yet. His fingers moved through the hair that covered her pussy and found the wet seam of her lips before plunging inside her in one fast and unapologetic pump that made her gasp and writhe against the rough linens covering her pallet.
His tongue streaked along her clit then bore down, massaging it from left to right in a way that made every thought fade from her mind. She could not think; all she could do was press herself upward, seeking to get even closer to his tongue as his fingers plunged in and out of her body, and her oils spread and leaked across his tongue and fingers.
Friction built, and then it built again. A high keening wail rose from her mouth, and she grunted, her ass cheeks straining as she lifted higher off the bed again, her fingers gripping at his hair and her inner thighs shaking. Her juices spilled, coating his face and her inner thighs before running down the cleft between her ass cheeks.
The scent of sex filled the air of the small hut. Her breath came in and out, ragged and harsh and her belly quivered with each flick of his tongue and entry into her that his fingers made.
He moved upward, leaving her hovering on the edge of a climax. Her legs wrapped around his body and her hand found his thick and pounding staff. He was inside her in a single breath and they moved together, thrusting and yielding and taking as the heat and friction grew to a level too intense to bear and then shattered and broke, making her inner walls contract and loosen and her body go first rigid with the strain and then limp and loose with satisfaction.
Blade braced himself above her, his body shaking and taut, then he thrust forward one final time. His dick shivered and beat within her walls, sending long bursts of hot seed into her.
He gasped and fell forward, his weight all on her body, and she let her body relax even further so she could take that weight and not be smothered under it.
He muttered, “Sorry,” and moved away a bit. His hands pulled her into his body, and she lay there, still tangled into him and smiling gently.
He said, “I’m an idiot.”
She asked, “What do you mean?”
He sighed loudly and then chuckled ruefully. “I…I’ve wanted to come to you so often since we have been here but the talk of war and the prep has been hard. I had that to deal with, but more than that I had to fight myself. You see, I was in love once, long ago.”
“I know. Lauren. Your father told me about her.” She looked into his eyes. “He said that her death was what changed you, and he could not blame you. That he knew that you had seen firsthand what the Federation was capable of and unlike him and most others you didn’t look away or excuse their actions as being something that was done for the greater good. That you saw it for what it was, what they had done. Cruel and calculated and wrong. She was a spy but they made an agreement with her and they didn’t keep it, and you saw that meant that the Federation lacked honor, something he had not been willing to admit just then.”
His smile was pained. “I spent a lot of time thinking that it was her that I mourned the most, but now I know better. It was the loss of my belief in the Federation that caused me so much pain. Oh, it hurt, that loss. I loved her, and I turned that love into a catalyst for revenge and death, and I wish I could say I regret it, but I don’t because I do see the Federation for what it is. It is a cancer on the world and one we have to excise now before it kills off everything still healthy and good.”
She swallowed hard. The feel of his skin against hers was so right and so real, and she wished they did not have to talk about war, but they did.
“We go to war soon.”
“Sooner than we planned. The people of Meridia have begun firing on Fed ships this very morning. It was premature, yes, but they had the perfect advantage, and they took it. They slaughtered an entire armada because they had the element of surprise on their side. The Feds have always believed their chokehold o
f that planet and its outlying systems so complete that they relaxed their grip and forgot that the Meridians were once one of the most war-like planets in the entire universe.”
Dread roiled up. “So what now?”
He said, “I have to go to Meridia. The planet’s not celebrating; they are waiting for the Fed to strike back, and when they do, it will be hard. They know that, and they will need help to battle off the next wave.”
She took a deep breath. “I can help on the ground. I can help with the wounded and the supplies and so on. And…” her voice trembled, “I can count the dead so that they are remembered. That was my job, you know. To log the dead.”
His eyes stared into hers. “You’re brave, and I wish I could leave you here, but everyone is needed. All across the universe, the planets are firing on the Federation. The people of Meridia set off the chain reaction we set in motion by placing warships and armies throughout the universe.”
She was afraid. So very afraid but there was no going back now. This war had been coming for centuries, and now it was at hand. She gave him her best smile even though it shook on the corners and fear stabbed its way into her heart. “You better not die on me.”
His fingers traced her jaw. “I was about to say the same thing to you.”
She whispered, “When do we go?”
“The ships are already loading.”
No. Not this soon! She shrank back from that, but she knew there was no choice. She had known the day he had told her what he was going to do that war was inevitable and that if she was to stay with him, she would be caught up in it.
The truth was that even if she had not stayed aboard that ship, she would have been caught up in that war.
“Then we should get dressed.”
He nodded, and then he kissed her again. But that time his kiss felt like a kiss given to say goodbye.
Tara ran across burning land and earth. The thick coils of fire from the bomb that had dropped a hundred yards from where she had been standing shot upward toward the sky. She coughed and pulled the top of her tunic over her mouth and nose as she cowered back against a wall just in time to avoid being cut down by laser weapons being aimed at the troops fighting on that side of the street, the rebel troops on whose side she stood.
