Dangerously Hers (21 page)

Jess stroked his cheek. “I’m so sorry.”

“Don’t be, I’m not. You’re the one I want to spend the rest of my life with.”

She rolled onto her back, pulling the blanket up to her chin.

“Don’t start this again, Jess. It’s you I want and you I’ll be with. We won’t debate about it.”

She had wanted to tell him all the reasons why it wouldn’t work, how he could find someone better than her, but her words failed.

“Do you love me?” he asked.

If she told him no, he would probably leave her alone and find someone else. Someone better than her. But her heart wouldn’t let her lie. “Yes.”

He pulled her back into his arms. “I love you too. See, that wasn’t so hard. You are not alone in this existence. You’ll never be alone again.”

I’ll never be alone again.

She nuzzled into his arms, enjoying the way she fit perfectly into them. “I dreamed about you.”

He lifted his head to look at her. “You did?”

“Yes, you were holding me just as you are now and you wouldn’t let me go.”

He tightened his grip. Her body molded effortlessly into him. “That wasn’t a dream. It was real.”

“Rasha, I want to be with you but I feel like I’d be cheating you out of something better. I can’t give you what you want or need.”

“What can’t you give me?” he asked, seemingly unperturbed.

“You’re the head of the Sonis Royal Guard. You’re expected to mate with someone strong.”

“You are more than a warrior could ever ask for. You are perfect the way you are.”

She shook her head. “Children…I can’t…” She trailed off. “I saw the way you reacted when you thought Marcie was pregnant. You’d be denied that if you were with me.”

He stiffened under her. “I will understand if you want to wait for children. We’ll enjoy our time together first.”

She rolled away from him and sat up on the edge of the bed. “If I could, I would. I want nothing more than to be able to give you the children I know you want, but unless you can go back in time and stop the brothel owner, that bastard, from removing my uterus, then it’s not going to happen.”

He kissed her shoulder. “What is a
uterus
? The report from the healing tank stated you were missing an ovary, a kidney and an appendix, but besides missing those items you are intact—healthy.”

“It’s wrong!” she said. “Those bastards yanked out my uterus so I wouldn’t get pregnant while I was whoring for them. Why the hell would they remove my ovary, kidney and appendix too?”

“The machine is not wrong.”

She twisted the blanket in her grasp. “No, they put me in one of those tanks and when I came out they told me they removed my womb.”

“They either lied or they didn’t know what to take out.”

“They knew everything,” she whispered. They had advanced alien technology. Everything had been right out of a sci-fi movie.

“Jess, do you believe the brothel owners told you the truth? You’d believe them over me?”

She fought through the wall in her mind that guarded the most heinous memories.

When she’d arrived at the brothel, the owners had her get into a healing tank. Once she got out, all her childhood scars had been erased and they had happily informed her she was free of her womb, adding there wasn’t room at the brothel for halfling offspring. They had laughed and cackled as they said it, leading her out in chains to the room that would become her prison.

“I…I…don’t know,” she said, confusion making her thoughts murky.

“Computer,” Rasha called out. “Give me a verbal account of all Jess’ major organs.”

The room soon filled with an accounting of her organs, starting with her brain. By the time the computer listed her stomach, her heart raced. Small intestine, large intestine…her breathing increased. At the mention of her uterus and one ovary, she inhaled sharply.

They had made a mistake? “That…that can’t be right.”

“Computer, does Jess have everything required to bear
my
children?” he said, enunciating “my” as if she would think of having someone else’s.

“Yes, the human female has all the organs needed to bear children for a Sonian male.”

While she struggled to comprehend what the computer had said, Rasha puffed out his chest next to her. “You will bear my children in two Sonis cycles.”

Children? I can have children?
Jess grabbed and squeezed him as hard as she could. “I’ll have your children!”

Rasha grabbed her tighter. “Good. I think we really should get started now.”

Epilogue

Taken: Year 5.5

Jess stood on the field, waiting for her turn with the training simulator. “You’re supposed to be showing me how to use it, not hogging it all for yourself,” she yelled to Eva.

Eva used acrobatic fighting moves Jess had only seen in old karate movies to fight the new Loconuist simulator. Jess wanted to get her chance to hurt one of those assholes, even if it was a replica.

A light breeze caused tendrils of hair to escape from her short ponytail. Her hair wasn’t as long as it had been on Earth but it was a start at regaining bits of her old self.

Rasha left the small training group he was with to stand by her side. “This could take awhile. Once she gets started it’s hard to tear her away.”

As the simulator had been led off the cargo loader and through the halls of the palace, Eva had remarked that she would be the first one to try it out. “To make sure that it doesn’t have any kinks or bugs in its programming,” she had said.

That had been hours ago.

Jess kicked at the dirt. “Well then maybe I shouldn’t wait for her.”

She sauntered toward Eva and the simulator.

“Jessica,” Rasha called. “It is not safe! She has it on the highest setting!”

Jess turned and walked backward. “Don’t worry about me. This is gonna be so much fun!” She turned around and sprinted to the fighting pair.

Without hesitation, Jess joined in by kicking at the simulator’s back, causing it to reach out for her. She ducked and slammed her head in its chest, sending it stumbling toward Eva, who swiped a foot under its legs.

Not wanting to miss the opportunity, Jess stomped her boot hard on its face. “This is for ruining Earth!”

Stomp.

“This is for my dad!”

Stomp.

“This is for—”

“Ally!” Eva yelled. She took her turn to stomp it.

This continued all afternoon long. With every blow Jess landed, she released tension from her body. She snarled, she screamed, she yelled and she cried. Rasha had long since left her and Eva to fight.

By the time Eva shut off the simulator, Jess’ hair hung loose on her shoulders. Her clothes were filthy and sweat poured from her body.

Exhausted, she fell to her back on the dusty ground and stared up into the sky. She watched the animals that passed for birds flying high through the clouds. She lay in silence, breathing heavily and heart beating fast.

Sonis was home now. It wasn’t Earth but it didn’t need to be. And she was okay with that.

On more than one occasion she’d thought of her dad and how much he would have enjoyed life on Sonis. He had always preferred warm climates, the reason he settled in California.

She wasn’t the chief financial officer of a large company but she was something better. She was loved, she was wanted and she was needed.

Eva lay next to her and hooked her arms behind her head to use as a cushion. “You know I shouldn’t have let you fight.”

Jess looked at her. Eva’s face was flushed. The bun that had once been tight and perfect was now loose and tilting to the side. Her training clothes were dripping with sweat and she reeked. But to be honest Jess thought the smell was coming from them both. “Why not? You’ve been promising me a turn on the simulator for months. But I have to admit I am glad the first one I got to fight was a Loconuist replica. I hate every one of those bastards.”

It had taken that long—months—for Lo’Ren to finally clear her from the remedial
Karate Kid
moves to something worth getting out of bed for. Rasha had even had a
jango
made especially for her. She didn’t feel like a warrior quite yet but she definitely felt like a warrior’s woman.

“You really don’t know, do you?” Eva asked.

“Know what?”

“I know something you don’t know,” she sang.

Jess pulled her brows together. “What are you talking about?”

“Have you seen Ship today?”

Jess rolled her eyes. “That’s a rhetorical question, right? Wherever I go, he seems to show up. I swear he’s stalking me.”

“He’s close to Rasha.”

“I know.”

“He would care for Rasha’s children just as he does Taio’s,” Eva said, lowering her voice to a whisper although no one else was in hearing range.

Jess snorted. “Of course he would…” Jess grew silent as her mind wandered, trying to make sense of what Eva was saying, or rather what she wasn’t saying. “Am I pregnant?” Jess whispered.

“Sure are.”

Jess screamed at the top of lungs. Pregnant! She was having Rasha’s baby.

Eva laughed and rolled over to hug her. “Are you okay?”

Jess hugged her back and giggled uncontrollably. “Yeah, I am.” Jess released Eva and turned to watch Rasha and the royal guards training on the other side of the field. “I’m going to be just fine.”

About A.M. Griffin

A.M. Griffin is a wife who rarely cooks, mother of three, dog owner (and sometimes dog owned), a daughter, sister, aunt and friend. She’s a hard worker whose two favorite outlets are reading and writing. She enjoys reading everything from mystery novels to historical romances and of course fantasy romance. She is a believer in the unbelievable, open to all possibilities from mermaids in our oceans and seas, angels in the skies and intelligent life forms in distant galaxies. She has multi-publications in other genres under a different pen name.

A.M. welcomes comments from readers. You can find her website and email addresses on her
author bio page
at
www.ellorascave.com
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Also by
A.M. Griffin

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Fondled and Gobbled: Going Back For Seconds
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Loving Dangerously 1: Dangerously Mine

Loving Dangerously 2: Dangerously Yours

Ellora’s Cave Publishing

www.ellorascave.com

Dangerously Hers

ISBN 9781419946950

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Dangerously Hers Copyright © 2013 A.M. Griffin

Edited by Carrie Jackson

Cover design by Fiona Jayde

Cover photography by tankist276/shutterstock.com

Electronic book publication October 2013

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