A Hero's Bargain

by Forrest, Rayne

  The rabbit was about to become dinner. He set the stunner as high as it would go, set the notch, and fired. His supper hopped over to a new shoot and nibbled at it instead of falling over. Damn.

  He rechecked the weapon, but all the diagnostics said it was working properly. He picked up the Eliminator, flipped off the safety, and fired.

  He’d have to find something else to roast for dinner because the rabbit had vaporized.

  The results of his little test were not what he wanted. He wanted more options than just the two he had—kill the errol with the Eliminator, or let the errol continue to terrorize the village. Stunning the bastard, and trying to reason with it, was out of play now.

  Maybe. Hopefully, he’d have an opportunity to try the stunner on the errol before having to resort to vaporizing it.

  Perhaps Tyree would volunteer to be stunned.

  More likely not.

  Ryder secured both weapons in his pack. It was time to get back to the village and face Saba. She would be curious about his meeting with Tyree, if the headman hadn’t already reported it to her.

  The afternoon was warm, tranquil. He rather hated giving up the solitude of the woods, so very much like those of his ancestral home. Earth was a long way off, and no one would come looking for him on Adena. He’d be buried here, some day, but there was no point in dwelling on it.

  He rose and stretched, feeling rested, the effects of the toxin gone. He hoped they stayed that way. He didn’t need something like malaria that could flare up without notice.

  The village was quiet when he passed through the gate. He noted the presence of guards in the towers, no doubt watching for the errol’s return. Maybe even his return, too.

  Saba’s door was open as he approached her hut, her voice soft as she spoke to an unseen visitor.

  “There. You’ll be fine. Next time, check the flowers for insects before you pick them.”

  A child answered. “Yes, Saba. Thank you.”

  “I need a hug for payment.”

  There was a moment of silence then a little girl Ryder guessed to be no more than five years old scampered past him and ran across the village yard. He turned back to the hut. Saba was standing in the doorway watching him. He motioned after her patient.

  “Cute kid.”

  “Yes. Where did you go? What did you and Tyree quarrel over?”

  “Who said we quarreled, angel?”

  She pointed at something sitting in the corner in shadow. “Tyree brought you a pair of boots. He is not pleased with you.”

  Ryder leaned toward her. She bent over backwards away from him. “I’m not happy with Tyree. And I’m the one with the weapons.”

  Her eyes widened. “You threatened him!”

  “It was mutual.” He straightened. His back was still too stiff to bend like that for long. “Let me try on the boots.”

  “No! Tell me what was said and then you can have the boots.”

  “This village operates on blackmail, did you know that?”

  “What’s ‘blackmail’?”

  She really didn’t know. He grinned at her. “Never mind. How about I kiss you and you give me the boots?”

  “I don’t want to kiss you right now, Ryder. Can’t you just tell me?”

  “Can’t you just give me the fucking boots?”

  They stood staring at each other. She finally blinked at him. He backed her inside and kicked the door closed. Let Tyree see that and stew.

  She yelped in protest when he lifted her off her feet and dropped her on the bed. She tried to roll away but he caught her and sprawled over her.

  “Now kiss me, angel.” He lowered his lips to the soft skin of her throat. Her arms came up around his neck. He trailed kisses upward until he reached her mouth. Her lips parted under his, first in acceptance, then more willingly, and finally she returned the kiss fully. He pulled away.

  “Now let me have the boots.”

  “You are impossible.”

  “Most likely.”

  She buried her fingers in his hair and pulled his mouth back down to hers. Her tongue teased his lips with a bold stroke. He opened to her and let her lead. To hell with the boots if she wanted sex. He cupped her breast. She moaned into his mouth. He started to swell.

  “Saba. We should stop this. This is going to lead to us taking our clothes off.”

  She wrapped the leg he didn’t have pinned down around his waist. “I do hope so.”

  He started pulling her tunic up. She pushed at him and he rolled off the bed and slipped out of his pants. He was fully erect. Her eyes were riveted to him while she hurriedly stripped. He yanked the blankets down and pointed.

  “On your knees.”

  Her eyes flicked up to his for the briefest moment then went right back down to what really interested her.

  “I don’t understand what you want.” She licked her lips. He stroked himself for her edification. She knelt on the bed and reached for him. He joined her on the bed, overbalancing them. They hit the mattress in a jumble of arms and legs.

  She’d understand what he wanted in a few minutes. She’d have a clear understanding of it before he was through. He’d work his way to it in a manner she couldn’t refuse, and hope it didn’t surprise her too badly.

  He cupped her heat and a flood of moisture hit his palm. If this was her response to being angry with him, he’d piss her off more often. Her fingers closed around his shaft and he gave up speculating about everything that didn’t involve giving her pleasure. He coaxed her onto her back.

  Her breasts were beautiful. She wasn’t necessarily generously endowed but that didn’t matter to him. Her breasts were perfect for her. He licked the smooth, ivory skin around the aureole feeling gooseflesh rise under his tongue. He drew one tight brown peak into his mouth and suckled. Her hips started rising and falling. She pulsed under his hand. He slipped two fingers inside her.

  Ryder wanted to taste her. He needed to taste her. She didn’t flinch as he kissed his way down her belly. Her scent, so feminine and so rich, made him crazy. He touched his tongue to her and her hips rose to meet him. He slipped his hands under her bottom and fastened his mouth to her. Her thighs spread wide.

  He teased at her gently, alternately sucking and caressing with his tongue and his lips. Finding her most sensitive spot was not difficult. The swollen, little nub begged for him to minister to it and he could not disappoint it. Her hips rose up to him.

  Saba grew restless beneath his mouth, alternately limp and tense as her arousal grew. She pulsed beneath his lips with increasing strength. He rose over her and turned her unresisting onto her stomach. He pulled her up to her knees and covered her body with his. While cupping her firmly, he slid into her. She shook in his embrace.

  He started to move inside her, slowly at first, pulling almost completely from her body then sinking deeply into her slick welcome. Her inner flesh clutched at his.

  “Ryder.” His name was a long, low moan on her lips. Her hands fisted in a pillow. She slammed back against him and cried out. She was almost there. He gave her all he could and knew it was enough.

  He pumped into her, aware of the moisture that rained down her thighs. Her body greedily gripped his cock making little white lights sparkle in his vision. The muscles in his abdomen burned, screaming at him to stop or to come. He could do neither, not yet. Not until she took her pleasure of him. He’d pass out first.

  She suddenly sucked in a deep breath and cried out his name again, pushing back against him.

  Oh, thank all the gods. His climax seized him, pulling him deeper into her heat. He thrust into her, hard. His balls tightened in that incredible mix of pain that was pleasure and he spilled into her. The world around him reeled as bliss took him.

  He came back into himself, drenched with sweat and shaking as badly as she was.

  “Go down, Saba. Down.” He let some of his weight fall on her in case she couldn’t hear him. She took a sobbing breath and dropped bonelessly to the bed. He eased down
beside her, knowing her silence would last only until she caught her breath. He draped an arm over her and kissed her damp hair.

  She opened her beautiful eyes, so full of disquiet. “Ryder, we have to talk.”

  Yes, they did.

  Chapter 17

  Saba searched Ryder’s face for some clue of what he was thinking. She couldn’t even guess. He was unreadable and that left her unsure about pursuing a conversation with him. She’d always heard the other women saying that right after coupling they could get a man to do whatever they wanted. As she looked into his alert, interested gaze, she just wasn’t convinced.

  “What’s on your mind, angel?”

  “Tyree confessed he quarreled with you. Please, tell me what was said.”

  “That’s cutting straight to it, Saba. I admire that. Let’s just say Tyree and I understand each other better and better all the time. Just remember that regardless of what was said, he brought me boots. Boots you haven’t let me try on.”

  He was baiting her. She didn’t like it, but she had to get him to agree that the errol had to die. She had to keep her composure.

  “He asked me if you’d forced me to…” She drew a quick breath. “To do this.”

  His look darkened. She hurried to clarify her response to Tyree.

  “I told him you did not force me. I told him I enjoyed it.”

  Surprise swept his features. “Have you enjoyed it, angel?”

  Her cheeks burned hotly. Ryder had to know she enjoyed it. All of it. He just wanted to make her say so and she didn’t want to. He brushed another kiss to her temple.

  “It’s okay. You don’t have to say a word. You can be a stubborn female any time you want to be.”

  “Your permission is noted. Trust I will remember you gave it.”

  He snorted. “I just bet you will. What else did Tyree say to you?”

  “You must tell me what he said to you, too.” She was losing control of the conversation and she wasn’t sure how that had happened. He was infuriating.

  Ryder rolled onto his back, settled himself on the pillow, and patted the spot next to him. “Come up here so we can talk.”

  Saba wished she had the inner strength to refuse, but she didn’t. Being in his arms, soaking up his warmth, was just too alluring. She didn’t like herself much for needing him when she knew he was using her.

  After he killed the errol, she’d find the strength to walk away from him. Somehow.

  But was it so very wrong to have him for this little while?

  She nestled in the shelter of his arms, laying her hand on his chest. His heartbeat seemed too fast. With gentle caresses she worked her fingers up to his neck and felt his racing pulse. Concern warred with curiosity, but she’d not turn healer just yet. She’d get him to talk first since he didn’t appear on the edge of a heart seizure.

  “I’m here. Talk, Ryder Vaughan.”

  He sighed. “All right. I’ll go first. It’s probably the only way to make this contrary female I know tell me what I need to learn.”

  “It is.” She kissed his nipple. He chuckled softly. No doubt he thought it a ploy on her part to make him more agreeable and he’d be correct. She did it again for good measure.

  “Tyree is upset that you and I have been together.”

  “Yes, he is. And he is probably even now staring at my closed door, as is everyone else who may want to see me.”

  “That’s just tough. If there’s an emergency, they’ll pound on your door fast enough, won’t they? Angel, it’s pretty clear to me that I don’t have much choice. I’ll confront the errol.” He rolled, sliding down to be face-to-face with her. Their thighs touched.

  “You and Tyree want me to just go and kill it on sight. There’s a big problem with that. I’m not a killer.”

  How could he be so stubborn? Her patience with him stretched thin again.

  “You don’t understand what it can do! You have weapons that can rid us of this scourge!”

  “Wrong. I have one weapon that doesn’t work…”

  She pushed herself upright. “What do you mean?”

  “Get your boney elbow out of my ribs,” Ryder wheezed at her.

  She shifted and succeeding in landing her elbow in his stomach. The breath went out of him in a little ‘umff.’

  “I’m sorry. I’m sorry.” She struggled to sit while he was pulling her back down. He suddenly shook her once.

  “Stop!”

  She froze, staring at him in disbelief that he would treat her thusly. Who did he think he was?

  “Just stop, Saba, and listen to me. Don’t jab me in the ribs again and don’t put your knee anywhere near my balls again.”

  Oh Wae. Had she done that? No wonder he’d reacted poorly. She started to apologize.

  “Shush!” He leaned toward her, coming nose-to-nose with her. She snapped her jaws firmly together. The corner of his mouth twitched in what might have been the beginning of a smile.

  “Are you ready to listen to me? That is what you wanted, right? For me to talk?”

  She nodded. He pulled back. “Good. Why don’t you pour us a wee bit of that wine you’re hoarding?”

  “If you continue to drink it, I won’t have a hoard left.”

  “You’ll be making more this season, won’t you? After I do Tyree’s dirty work.”

  “The future is not ours to see. Perhaps I will make wine, perhaps not.” She slipped from his grasp and off the bed to get them a very small cup of the wine. She didn’t dare not get him what he wanted.

  He’d said his weapons didn’t work. What were they to do now? What was she to do? If his weapons were damaged in the crash, it was not his fault. Her mind raced to myriad conclusions, but the truth was the village was in danger. She handed him the mug and sat on the edge of the bed, forcing herself to be still.

  He sipped from the cup then looked at her. “Tyree and I do understand each other, angel. He doesn’t like me much and I understand that. He’ll likely try and kill me when the errol is gone.”

  His words sent shards of icy fear into her heart. She shook her head vehemently.

  “No. He would not do that. I know he would not.”

  “Angel, you don’t know jack shit about men. From where he’s sitting, I just took a women he had culled from the herd for himself.” He took another sip. “He was too slow claiming her, wasn’t he?”

  She bristled at the implication she was nothing more than cattle. He saw it.

  “Go ahead and scream at me. You know you want to.”

  “You have no idea what I want. No idea at all.”

  He almost smiled and tucked his male bits down and crossed his legs over them.

  “I’m sure you believe that but I assure you, I’ve got a much better grasp of what’s going on here than before I took that little walk into the woods.”

  She took in his enigmatic gaze, aware of the sudden tension in him. It made no sense. There was nothing in the woods just outside the village that would be of any help to him. The Ramalho maintained the forest for the abundant plants and wildlife.

  At least they had before the errol came.

  “What do the woods have to do with this?”

  “Saba, tell me what the errol looks like. Tell me what you saw it do.”

  * * * *

  She couldn’t lie to him outright. He knew that about her. Still, the way she paled and listed to one side caught him off-guard. He grabbed her before she slid to the floor.

  “Don’t pass out, angel.” He pushed her head down. She fought against him, flailing her arms and catching him painfully in the ribs again. He managed to get his arms around her, stilling her movements. She shook in his embrace.

  “Just tell me.” He spoke low and soft, hoping to reach her. “Can you just tell me what you saw?” She began sobbing in earnest.

  Stupid. That’s what he was. Stupid to push her so fast. Stupid to ask her and not just tell her that he’d spoken to Jennica. Stupid to believe she had to face what she’d seen. He
gathered her onto his lap and rocked her. She clung to his neck like a person drowning and wept.

  The storm passed slowly. He cast about for something for her to use to blow her nose and finally had to ask her. She pointed to a stack of neatly folded cloths on her shelf. He eased her gently on the bed and retrieved one for her, grabbing the bottle of wine, too. She blew her nose and thanked him before pointing at a little basket in the far corner. Ryder gingerly dropped the used cloth in it, and turned to find her gaze on his groin again.

  “It doesn’t bother you at all to walk around unclothed, does it?”

  He smiled down at her. “No, not really.” He brushed a lock of hair from her face. “I’m sorry about your mother. Truly.” He poured some wine and handed it to her. She took two fast swallows and handed it back to him.

  She looked so fragile lying against the pillows, so vulnerable. He devoutly wished he didn’t have to pursue this conversation with her, but he had to know if what he suspected was true. He eased back down on the bed, relieved she came to him and wanted to be held. Ryder wrapped his arms around her.

  “It’s so hard to remember it and worse to talk about it.” Her voice was muffled against his chest.

  “Because talking about it makes it too real?”

  She nodded. “How did you know? What did Tyree tell you? If your weapons are damaged, what will we do?”

  He pulled her closer. “What was said hardly matters now. I’d be doing a disservice to repeat what was said.”

  Ryder rubbed her back, hoping she’d let go of it and he’d not have to confess it was Jennica’s revelations, and not Tyree’s. The last thing he wished for was for Saba and her aunt to be at odds with each other. She took a quick, deep breath and relaxed a bit more against him. He snagged the blanket and drew it over her body before he clarified a few things of his own.

  “Only one of my weapons seems to be damaged. It’s the one I would have preferred to use.”

  “What does that mean, Ryder? Your other weapon is not as strong?”

  She was quick, he’d give her that, but he had no intention of discussing his dislike of the more powerful Eliminator with her.