Creed regarded him stonily. “Right. You’ve said your piece, now get out.”
Flinging around, the little man stormed away, into the daylight to one end of the tunnel.
Taara stared at the edge of the holovid where he’d disappeared. That had been harsh. Of course, Creed had fired him just for making a mistake. She peered back at Creed to find him watching her now, his face still, but his eyes blazing. Whoa, that man had been wrong. Creed was not ice inside, he was an inferno.
“Taara. What’s up?”
She blinked, breaking out of her semi-trance. “Um, I’m so sorry to interrupt. I’ll just go—”
He shook his head once, impatient but focused. “You needed to talk, I’m here. What’s up?”
“Oh. I’m, um, taking the hovie out. You said to let you know. I won’t go beyond the boundaries you showed me.” No, sirree. No mistakes for her, nothing that would engender him speaking to her in that tone.
He jerked his chin in approval although his gaze sharpened, taking in her and the hovie cockpit. “Be careful. Link me if you need anything.”
“Yes, s—um, okay.” She broke the link, her face burning as his brows flew up, his mouth quirking. Great, she’d nearly called him ‘sir’, like he was her boss. Ack, she was such a silly lizard.
Ready to do anything but reflect on the amusement in his blue eyes, she powered up the hovie and put her hand on the accelerator. Then, her tongue between her teeth in concentration, she lifted the lever. The small craft rose off the landing pad and her heartbeat rose with the sensation of floating. Exhilarating and frightening.
“Here goes,” she muttered, and pushed the lever forward. The hovie slid out of the open hangar, and across the paved area outside. The big gates ahead slid open, and she flew out, a few feet above the ground. She was doing it—she was flying all by herself. She gave a tiny squeal of excitement, then bit her lip, hoping no one was listening on Creed’s surveillance system of which he was so proud. She settled for grinning to herself.
Outside the compound she veered right, carefully, because now that she was off the landing pad she half expected the hovie to crash into the large rocks and shrubs that clustered on the hillside. But the small craft lifted over each obstacle without urging, skimming on the cushion of air created underneath by the powerful but quiet jets of air.
Soon she was flying with more confidence, and she headed down the long slope to the river-bottom below. She left the clear domed top of the hovie closed for safety, as Creed had cautioned her that the local hawks sometimes challenged hovies. As soon as he’d described one of the huge hawks diving at his craft with talons outstretched, Taara promised fervently to fly only with the hatch securely fastened.
The river wound with deceptive laziness between its banks, the water translucent green-gold. This was thanks to minerals in the water, according to Creed, and lent a tangy taste to the water. The water they drank was filtered, as the first settlers had discovered the greenish water stained teeth, cloth and eventually skin.
Taara followed the river bank, noting the brush hanging over the water, then veered daringly out over the water. She could see rocks of all colors through the clear water, and even, to her delight, fish swimming against the current and lurking in pools.
A feeling of peace filled her. It was so beautiful out here, so tranquil in the quiet landscape. Not a single other sentient being in sight. She’d lived for so long surrounded by crowds, by the press of beings in a city, she hadn’t realized how stressful that was.
As a child, her family had lived in a small suburb on Serpentia, with the desert stretching out where she and Daanel and their friends could explore and play. They’d even camped once in a while with her parents. Before they died, and her and Daanel’s world was torn away. Well, she couldn’t change the past, but she wouldn’t let anything happen to him.
Then something large and sinuous leapt out of the water in front of the hovie. Taara gasped, her heart stopping and then thumping rapidly. She had one glimpse of a gaping mouth with two fangs, and a length of brown twisting in the sunlight. The creature fell back into the water, and she let out a long breath, hand to her breast. A serpent of some kind, clearly adapted to hunting from the water. Looked to be about as long as she was tall, and as big around as her arm. Dangerous to unwary swimmers, but she’d grown up around vipers of all kinds. Most left humans alone, preferring smaller, easier prey.
This one was much more aggressive.
“Foolish snake,” she scolded, leaning over to watch as the brown form undulated along in the river below. “Thinking you can take on something this large.”
She was also annoyed with herself for being so lost in her thoughts that she’d been frightened by a reptile. She was Serpentian, for goddess’ sake.
The mawwr, now that was different. There were no cats or dogs native to Serpentia and certainly none roaming free on Earth II, only those in private ownership or the few zoos. If the pesky creature came into the house again, she was going to throw something at it and shoo it away in no uncertain terms. Even if it did scare the snake eggs out of her.
The river changed, the sound growing through the hovie’s audioread. Ahead, spray leapt into the air and her heart lifted to meet it. The falls. She smiled in remembered exhilaration. Last evening, Creed had flown her over them and grinned at her as she’d laughed with delight at the sheer rush of flying out over open space, the river dropping away beneath in a shining fall of gold and then a tumble of white spray at the bottom of the cliff.
Then she’d shrieked as the hovie dove, plummeting down to veer upright just over the thundering froth at the foot of the falls. She’d smacked him on the arm for that, and he’d chuckled, a deep sound that shook his magnificent chest. She’d laughed too.
Not as daring without Creed at the controls, Taara veered to the side and followed the more gradual slope down the mountainside, peering out at the falls and the river below.
She frowned as she saw a figure moving along the water under a stand of trees. Long dark hair, brown skin, pink tights. It was Noni. Taara scanned the riverbank in both directions, scowling as she saw no hovie or other form of transport. What was the brat doing so far from LodeStone by herself?
She linked Creed again. He answered immediately, still sweaty and even dirtier than the first time they’d spoken. “Sorry to bother you again,” she said. “But I’m past the falls, and Noni’s down by the river below—alone. Is that safe for her? I’m only asking because she seems to be on foot.”
Creed’s face tightened. “You did right to let me know,” he said, clearly not pleased. “I’ll send someone out to get her. Don’t know who, on shipping day.”
“No,” Taara decided. “You keep your men there. I’ll bring her back.”
“You sure?”
“I am not without skills. She’ll come back with me.”
His expression changed, his gaze warming. “I believe you, Serpentian girl. I’ll link her, tell her to get her ass in the hovie. She argues, don’t rough her up too much, eh?”
She shrugged demurely. “That all depends on her, now doesn’t it?”
“Link me when you get back to the compound,” he ordered.
“I will.” She broke the link, and accelerated, veering down into the canyon below the falls, skimming over the spray and rushing water
She landed on the riverbank under the trees, on damp, shady earth and gravel. She expected Noni to be glaring and pouting, but instead the girl sauntered over to the hovie and climbed in, a smug little smile on her face. Her long hair was wet, and she carried the scent of the river.
Taara thought at first that the girl was merely happy to have spoken with Creed, gotten special attention from him. But the fine hairs on the back of her neck were standing up and she did not ignore her instincts.
“You came clear down here just to swim?” she asked casually as she lifted the hovie off the river bank.
“I’m at home in the water,” the girl said, flipping her w
et hair so that droplets flicked over Taara’s arm. “I swim anywhere.”
Taara did not like the sneer in Noni’s voice, especially after she’d gone out of her way to give her a lift. Thus, instead of avoiding the falls, she sent the hovie forward, low over the water. Just as the spray hit the clear shield, she pulled up far enough to engage the boosters, and lifted the craft straight up in the air in front of the falls. She gave a sigh of relief when the maneuver worked flawlessly.
Then she steered forward over the river until she found what she was looking for. “So, you don’t mind sharing the river with the likes of that?” she asked. She pointed down at the long sinuous form of the river serpent, swimming through one of the pools, a fish now clutched in its jaws.
Noni gasped, and then turned her head to glare at Taara, her full mouth tight. “You’re trying to scare me. But you’ll be sorry for being so mean.”
Taara shook her head in disgust as she flew along the riverbank, the big house and rock wall of the compound waiting on the mountainside above. “You need to grow up. You put yourself in danger by coming out here alone and by swimming without a lookout.”
She’d been a city girl herself for several years, but she still knew better than to give the wild creatures a defenseless target. The hovie was small but it was fast enough to make it back to the compound in a hurry. On foot, Noni would be vulnerable to skrog and to those huge hawks if they decided they were hungry enough to attack a creature so large.
Noni snorted. “I’m plenty grown up. And I don’t have to listen to you. I heard my auntie telling why you came here. You’re just a whore from the city.”
Outrage blazing so hot she feared her skin would burst into flames, Taara yanked back on the controls, and kept her mouth closed only with an effort.
She flew over the rock walls that protected the compound, brought the craft down on the landing pad, opened the hatch and turned on Noni.
“Get. Out. And, you sly little bitch, you’d better listen to this—unless you want to find that river serpent or another like it in your bed one night, don’t give me any more of your mouth.” Not that Taara was going to follow through, but this girl needn’t know that.
Noni shrank back, apparently realizing she’d gone too far, then tried to bluster her way out. “What? You can’t threaten me like this. I’m telling Creed.”
“You do that. Interrupt his work to complain about me. That will make him happy. Better plan would be to mind your business and stay close to your aunt. Let her keep you out of trouble. Perhaps you could even help her do some of her work.”
Her lip thrust out, the girl scrambled out of the hovie. Taara waited only until she’d cleared before scooting the craft into the hangar.
She made sure the craft was correctly powered down and closed up before stalking back into the house. She had reached the pool area before she could calm down enough to think about what she was doing. She stripped off her sleeveless top and skirt, toed off her flats and dove into the pool, swimming across its width under the water before surfacing. She settled into a swift stroke, propelling herself through the water the length of the long pool.
She swam several lengths before she’d calmed sufficiently to think instead of feel. Noni had called her a whore. And wasn’t that what she was, at this point? Logan Stark had sent her here to seduce his brother. She’d done so, and was having sexual relations with him. In doing so, she was being paid by Stark’s bringing her and Daanel to Frontiera and in sponsoring Daanel’s setting up shop in Frontiera City.
Now as she stroked through the water, she considered the irony that another crisis in her life had brought her to this point, where she must pay a price with her body, or risk losing someone she loved. Not that Daniel had been held at laser-point or anything, but the threats had been escalating toward that. And she’d been attacked—lucky they’d just wanted to make their point, not rape her and toss her body on the trash heap.
And it wasn’t even so much that she was profiting by coming here, by having sex with Creed. It was that he thought this was sex, pure and simple. He had no idea she’d been forced into it. And she couldn’t tell him the truth. If she did, she risked losing everything she and Daniel had gained.
And if she had come to care for Creed too, she had to hold that inside. He wanted her to trust him, but he certainly hadn’t said anything about love. She was infatuated with him, for sure. When she was with him, she glowed inside, and when he was gone she wanted to know where he was, what he was doing, if he was thinking of her. Oh, please goddess don’t let it be love that had her longing for him.
Pausing at the lip of the pool, she rested her forearms on the smooth stone, and leaned her head on them. Hot tears splashed down to mingle with the cooler water of the pool.
She was so tired of holding everything inside, of being alone, with no one to confide in, no one to share her fear, her turmoil, even her cautious joy in her relationship with Creed. Stark had forbidden her to confide in anyone, including Kiri, and she certainly couldn’t tell Daanel the truth. He’d be furious with her for doing this without consulting him.
And as for confiding in Creed himself, no. Today she’d discovered he was as hard and ruthless as his brother, in his way. She got that he was the boss and he had to be firm, also that he had been a Zhen warrior, but surely that only made his views of right and wrong more rigid.
And besides, she wanted him to go on looking at her as if she were a rare and precious being that had dropped into his world. She wanted to bask in that look, and in the heat of his big body, not quail from his disgust.
She was trapped, and she’d helped lock her own cage. Angst enveloped her, and before she knew it, she was weeping helplessly, her body shaking with the force of her sobs.
Although muffled by the mist, the sounds reached the man walking into the house, his comlink tuned in to the security system.
Creed stopped short in the passageway, his tired body tensing in instant response. Then he went into action, jogging through the house and around the corner to the pool room. His woman was hurt. Inside the doorway, he scanned for trouble, saw only her. Scowling, he stripped off his clothing and boots, padded silently across the floor, and slid into the pool. He paused only to duck under the water and rinse a bit of the sweat and dirt from his face before swimming across the pool.
Taara was a huddled bundle of misery, still clinging to the edge of the pool, her sobs now softer but still penetrating like the twist of a cutter in his chest.
“Hey,” he said, standing behind her and reaching for her. “What is it? What’s wrong?”
She flinched, and then turned into his arms like a homing bird, her face against his throat, her arm around his neck, legs coming up to bracket him. She was soft and cool and wet against him, her curves sliding into place against his like two sides of a locking fastener.
Creed wrapped his arms around her and lay back, letting the water cradle them both. He crooked his head to peer into her face. “Whatever it is,” he told her, the words coming straight from his heart, “it’s okay. I’ll take care of it.”
She held on more tightly and sobbed louder.
Creed had no clue what to do, he only knew he wasn’t letting go of her. So he used his feet to steady them on the bottom and stroked one hand up and down over the strong but delicate curve of her back.
Finally she calmed and lifted one hand to swipe at her face. “I’m sorry,” she said, her voice thick. “For weeping all over you.”
He shook his head, lifted one hand to cup the back of her head. “No, none of that now. You’re upset, you gotta get it out. You and Noni have another spat?”
She shrugged. “Nothing new there. She didn’t like me being the one to pick her up.”
“That girl’s a brat, no two ways about it,” he muttered. “Wanna tell me why that’s got you so upset?”
She sniffled again and gave him a wary look. Her eyes were very green in her pink face. “No,” she said in a small voice.
&nb
sp; He lifted his brows at that. “O-kay.” That stung, but he guessed she had a right to privacy. They were fucking, didn’t mean they were more.
She wriggled, pulling her legs free. “I need to wash my face.”
“Need to wash my whole body,” he pointed out dryly. “Probably don’t smell very good. Come on.”
He towed her with him as he swam back into the mist and under the spray of the miniature waterfall. This, he could do for her, even if she wouldn’t let him share whatever problem had her weeping as if she’d lost her last hope. Later, he’d get back to that. If it was Noni, she’d be gone tomorrow morning.
For now, he kept a container of gel cleanser on a shelf under the falls and this was his favorite place to wash. Maybe she’d let him wash her, too.
She did. And although it began as him comforting her with his touch, an armful of wet, slippery woman led predictably to his arousal. Which he would have ignored if she hadn’t wrapped her fingers around his cock and wriggled her other hand between his legs, her fingers slick with gel soap. When she bent her head to suckle at his nipple, he shuddered with pleasure.
After teasing him until he was ready to come in her hands, she wrapped one slender leg around him and invited him inside. Creed fell back blindly on the ledge under the spray. Surrounded by the constant splash of water, they were enclosed in a pocket of dim, wet warmth, nothing but touch to guide them. He lifted her onto his thighs and drove into her clinging heat with a groan of relief. Then, holding her close, he found her mouth with his and kissed her as they rocked together.
He’d try and wait for her, but wasn’t sure he could this time. Just when he was about to lose it, come his brains out, her pussy began to squeeze around his cock and the secret caress drove him over the edge into ecstasy. Down that long, dark, sweet tunnel to the core of her where he could let himself go, let his pleasure explode in her and know they fell together.
Creed of Pleasure; the Space Miner's Concubine (The LodeStar Series) Page 14
