Fashionably Dead Down Under (37 page)

“Do you require anything for your comfort?”
Synar asked quietly, putting hands in his pockets to keep them off
her. His strong need to touch her again surprised him.

“No. I require nothing more. My needs are
even more simple now than when you used to know me.”

As she talked to him, Ania kept her gaze
trained on the door, and her awareness off Synar’s escalating
discomfort in her presence. She refused to worry about his mental
state. What he felt was not her concern any longer.

“May I speak my truth to you, Synar?”

“You may always speak your truth to me.”

Ania didn’t believe he meant his words, but
she continued anyway.

“I feel an imperative need to discuss what
happened during the inquiry. I want to know why I am required to be
on your ship when you so obviously do not wish me to be here. If
you retain any respect for my former place in your life, I ask that
you make your explanations of those things a priority. Dorian spoke
of me having to make decisions soon. I feel compelled to obtain
knowledge as soon as possible in order to prepare myself.”

“What did Dorian say about the future?” Synar
demanded, stalling his response to her comments.

“Only kind and comforting things,” Ania
answered sincerely, unwilling to fully disclose the details of her
energy reading. “Dorian gave me his compassion. I had forgotten how
nice it could be to be touched.”

Synar looked away, unable to hold Ania’s
accusing gaze, while inside he secretly resented Dorian’s
interference.

Dorian Zade’s offering of spiritual
comfort is not what you resent, Liam,
Malachi sent.
You just
don’t like that a Siren male was touching your female. You should
have seen how happy he made her. Providing such comfort was beyond
my ability. How could you leave a female who needed you that
much?

Be silent
, Synar ordered.
You do
not know my feelings on the matter.

I’m not sure you do either
, Malachi
replied.

Liam frowned. He wanted to touch Ania. He
wanted to hold her. He wanted it now. Yet he could not bring
himself to embrace Ania knowing the demon was a witness to his
desire. The idea that Malachi would be hearing everything, sharing
everything, bothered Synar more than he could set aside.

Dorian had cautioned him when he first bonded
with Ania that there was very little heat in the Pleiadian female
for him. But he hadn’t needed his intuitive friend to know Ania’s
physical desire was lukewarm. He had been very aware that after
many centuries of setting aside the physical side of herself, Ania
never had reached the point of being more than mildly aroused by
their physical bonding.

Yet her lack of desire had not put him off
from formally mating her. He had been convinced that Ania was all
the mate he would ever want or need. While part of him had been
irritated by her reticence, another part had considered her
coolness a challenge. The first time they had actually shared a
bonding vibration had rivaled the moment he’d earned his captain’s
rank. Every experience after that first one eclipsed all others
he’d shared with any female.

He had no regrets in mating Ania. His regrets
were only about not stopping Conor’s men in time to really save
her.

“I’m not upset that he helped you. Dorian
just should have checked with me before he came to see you,” Synar
said, knowing it wasn’t fair of him to hold such a view.

Ania turned away to keep him from seeing her
irritation. “My friendship with Dorian is centuries older than you
are. I will not allow it to be disrespected no matter what you
think of me. My interactions with him are not your concern.”

“I am not talking about your friendship with
Dorian. You are I are still mated, Ania. It is disrespectful to let
another male touch you other than to render aide,” Synar declared,
all but choking on the hypocrisy of his words. Irrational or not,
he didn’t want Dorian touching her. In fact, he didn’t want any
other male touching her. Ever.

“Your accusations are invalid since you and I
are no longer mated, Synar. To pretend we are is an illusion that
serves no one and I will not be a part of it. The last two years of
pretending were quite enough, even in my long lifetime. Check your
records. Our mating agreement has been formally severed.”

She had drafted the mating dissolution form
the day Synar said he might never come back for her. After the
commissioner announced Synar was still legally responsible for her,
Ania had decided to move forward with the dissolution. Sending the
form and getting the acceptance back in a mere instant had barely
hurt at all. It had seemed the only logical thing left to do to end
a relationship that was over in every other way.

“I have seen no dissolution notification,”
Synar said, a bit shocked that Ania would take such an official
action without first informing him of her intent to do so.

Then he found himself morbidly wondering how
the Pleiadians could accept a formal dissolution of their mating if
they no longer considered her a live entity. Bureaucracy was always
confusing, no matter how advanced the planet. By Pleiadian laws, he
owned Ania’s body, if not the spirit within it now glaring at him.
Coming out of his musings over the matter, Synar realized he’d been
staring the whole time and swallowed hard at the anger radiating
from her.

“Why did you feel the need to dissolve our
arrangement after all this time? Is there someone else you wish to
mate?”

Ania shook back her hair. If there had been
another male, she would not have waited until now to dissolve
it.

“My bonding availability is no longer your
concern. I simply refuse to deceive any creature deliberately, even
those of your crew that I do not yet know. While I packed at my
parent’s house, I filed the dissolution form. It was acknowledged
instantly. Trust me, our separation is legally, as well as
spiritually, real. Isn’t that why you put me in my own space?”

Ignoring Ania’s angry pronouncement, and not
ready to discuss their sleeping quarters, Synar turned his
attention from the technical details to the bigger issue he needed
to understand.

“What else do you know about the outcome of
your inquiry?”

Ania turned her back to him and pretended a
great interest in the contents of her room. It kept her anger from
escalating to a point of wanting to attack him.

“The details were not published before we
left. The best of my intuition has been stripped from me in the
last two years. But what knowing I do possess tells me you have my
answers. I am being as patient as I can be in the circumstances,
Synar. I want to know what is going on.”

Curse Malachi, Synar decided. He was behind
Ania knowing. He was supposed to be suppressing her awareness. Was
the demon truly so determined to shed Ania’s body that he would
hasten their confrontation? There was no available host body on the
ship for the demon to use in place of hers. If Ania chose her
death, Malachi would have to go into the amulet. In the amulet
would be nothing but a void. So what could Malachi be planning?

I am planning to get the truth out so we
can all move forward. The female and I are both weary of the
secrecy. And yes—I would risk the Creator’s wrath to tell her
myself. I obeyed you without question while we were apart, but I am
out of patience as well, Liam. Do what is right and tell your mate
the truth
, Malachi ordered.

I will not accept her death as an option.
You will remain in Ania until I say otherwise,
Liam
declared.

How is it that you know so little about
the female you mated? Her spirit is ancient and weary of life’s
constant struggle. You took away her primary reason to want to live
longer when you left her. She never got over you,
Malachi
declared in return.

Synar resisted for a few moments more, hating
to admit that Malachi’s communication about Ania was reassuring,
even if accompanied by a threat.

“Your indecision is energetically depressing.
Are you planning to make me wait another two years to know what has
come to pass?” Ania demanded.

“No. You’re right. No more waiting. We will
meet in the briefing room after the evening meal. What I have to
say will not be a comfortable revelation for either of us, but. .
.you have a right to know.”

“Thank you, Synar. I wish only to know the
truth that belongs to me.” She bowed her head respectfully, but not
before she watched Synar flinch from her words. Then Ania watched
him leave as abruptly as he had arrived.

Feeling a fluttering inside her again, she
rubbed a hand over her midsection to soothe it. Anxiety and stress
were steady companions lately. She was tired of feeling so
emotionally fragile. It was not at all how she thought of
herself.

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Robyn Peterman writes because the people inside her
head won’t leave her alone until she gives them life on paper.

Her addictions include laughing really hard with
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A former professional actress with Broadway, film and
T.V. credits, she now lives in the South with her family and too
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