“I’ll need you to let me know before she leaves her room in the morning.”
Again, Hauk balked at his decision. “Er . . .”
“It’s okay, Hauk. I won’t forget that your loyalty is to her.”
“Yes.”
“And I’m glad.” It assuaged some of his worry to know that Kayli had Hauk protecting her, especially since she wouldn’t let Mallet take that position. Yet. “Trust me that this is in her best interest.”
“If you are lying, I will do reprehensible things to you.”
Mallet laughed. “I’m glad she has you, Hauk, I really am.” He looked around, and realized the moon had settled behind clouds; it was now pitch-black, and he didn’t have a ride. “I don’t suppose you can show me the way home?”
In the next instant, Mallet found himself in his room on the spaceship. “Damn it, Hauk, warn a man before you do that.”
Hauk had nothing to say to that.
“Well, since we’re here already and I’m nowhere near ready to sleep, how about you get me one of those media viewers Kayli had at the hospital and some tapes on her fighting techniques.” He rubbed his hands together. “By morning, I want to be familiar with all her best moves.”
IT had been a sleepless night for Kayli, fraught with worry about the future and memory of what Michael had done to her.
Now, as she finished dressing, lack of sleep, frustration, and overwhelming curiosity got the better of her.
She wanted to curse Michael for bringing this on her, for making her doubt herself and her abilities, for wanting him in her life despite his dismissal of those things most important to her.
For making her ache all night long, wondering over the touches and sensations he’d already evoked, and those that might have followed had he not forced her to cut him out of her life.
Closing her eyes, she again felt the gentle touch of his rough fingertips, the power of his warm palms, and the rasp of his damp tongue over places she’d seldom ever thought about, much less touched.
Breathing a little harder, she put her fingers to her ear—but it wasn’t the same. Today, without Michael’s stimuli, it was just her ear.
Just her breast.
Just her . . . body.
It was Michael who had made her lips so sensitive to his, he who had made her ache and then later, filled her with the most delicious wash of feeling that exploded with immeasurable pleasure.
How he’d done it, and if it could be achieved with anyone else; that’s what she needed to know.
Not that she was anxious to be with any other man. In her current frame of mind, still ridiculously hurt over what felt like a betrayal, she couldn’t imagine the intimate involvement. No, with Michael banned from her life, she would naturally accept her old lifestyle back—alone as a warrior. Besides, the thought of anyone else touching her was repugnant.
Today, being calmer, she hoped to talk to Michael, to convince him to stay in the colony, while remaining separate from her.
To distract herself from her preoccupation with his possible reaction, she ordered Hauk to fill her room with some of her favorite music. It was loud, raw, with a heavy beat that helped to give her a new focus as she opened her media viewer.
Biting her lip, she called forth the images she thought might best satisfy her inquisitiveness. Settling back in a chair, she curled up her legs, crossed her arms over her knees, and rested her chin there.
Huddled like that, she watched generic depictions of unknown men and women in a variety of sexual acts.
The images, while somewhat clinical, were fairly forbidden, and she’d die if anyone knew of her interest. But now, with her own personal knowledge of the thrill of carnality, the threat of being caught wasn’t enough to keep her from watching.
She was in a daze, her lips parted in intrigue and her heart beating a little too fast, when Michael said from behind her, “If I’d known you were into porn, Kayli, I sure as hell could have supplied some better stuff than this crap.”
She screamed.
Her attempts to bolt were hampered by the chair’s crazy shifting efforts to accommodate her.
With a roll of his eyes, Michael caught her arms and lifted her free.
Humiliation rolled over her in suffocating waves. Her breath strangled; she felt light-headed with shame.
The second her feet touched the floor, she shoved him back and gasped, “How
dare
you?” That wasn’t enough to stifle her mortification, and she charged forward to thump him hard in the chest, repeating,
“How dare you?”
Under normal circumstances—meaning any circumstance other than this—she was a calm, collected, deliberate woman who handled situations accordingly.
That Michael grinned at her, slow and easy and, oh yes,
amused
, only made her temper detonate.
She pushed up her sleeves as she backed up to put fighting space between them. “You have no business—no right—transporting yourself into my private quarters unannounced.”
His blue eyes glittered in challenge. “I know.” He made the mistake of glancing down at her body, and Kayli kicked out.
The strike landed hard on his shoulder, knocking him sideways. But he didn’t lose his balance, didn’t fall, and did not stop grinning.
“Oh ho! It’s like that, huh?” He took a stance. “Just take it easy, Kayli. Everyone likes a little porn every now and th—”
Her next kick landed on his ribs, and he gave a satisfying “oof” of surprise.
“Not bad,” he rasped, still watching her, still unconcerned with her mood. He straightened in what she knew was a deceptively casual stance.
His arrogance infuriated her.
“It’s your fault,” she told him, to keep his attention divided. “What you did to me last night left me wondering about what else there might be to do.”
The look in his eyes grew heated. “Is that so?”
As she circled him, she gave a slow nod.
He kept her locked in his gaze. “You didn’t have to resort to bad sex tapes to get answers, you know.”
Left shoulder lifting, she shrugged. “Hauk has divided loyalties now, so I couldn’t continue to ask him.” She curled her lip. “And as . . .
nice
as that was last night, I’m not discussing sex with you ever again.”
His eyes narrowed. “Wanna bet?”
Michael’s unwavering confidence pushed her, and she switched up, kicking with her other foot. While it threw him off a little, he blocked it with his forearm so that it didn’t do any real harm.
As he straightened again, his smile grew. “So we’re going to do this, huh?”
She didn’t answer. She wouldn’t give him any forewarning of her intent.
“Clear the furniture, Kayli. Then we’ll see what you’ve got.”
Keeping her eyes on Michael, she ordered, “Do it, Hauk,” and the furniture all tucked away, leaving the room mostly empty.
He flexed his neck, preparing himself as they circled. “We have a problem, you know.”
“Several,” she agreed. “The intruder didn’t restrict himself to the appointed time. He slipped in unannounced, and undetected.”
His brows lifted with approval. “Smart girl.”
“Like it takes a genius.” She punched, he ducked, and she ended up behind him. Before she could take advantage, he whipped around, caught her arm, and dropped her to the floor.
She rolled away so he couldn’t get on her.
Then she smirked. “I always heard that the big ones were slow.”
He lazily redirected his stance, and waited.
Kayli couldn’t tell if her taunts got to him or not. He did a great job of hiding his emotions—as any good warrior would. “I’ve already called a meeting to warn everyone of the danger. We’ll take added precautions, of course.”
“Such as?”
Noting that he stood more on his right leg than his left, she considered her next blow. “I’ll program Hauk to alert us to anyone new entering the town.”
“He can do that?”
“Yes.” She eased forward. “But first he’ll need to be refreshed on everyone who is a legitimate part of our colony, so he doesn’t send out any false alarms. We have plenty of members who come and go, you realize.”
“How long will it take Hauk to get programmed on everyone?”
She shrugged again. “At least several hours, maybe up to a day or more. It depends on how quickly everyone responds to the directive. He’ll have to scan all the locals and take into account new residents as well as those that have moved on. It’s something that I now realize we should have been doing on a regular basis instead of waiting for a breach. I’ll prepare a new order for that today. In the meantime, I’ve ordered a rotation of defense personnel to watch the perimeter—”
So fast that she knew she’d have to eat her words about his size slowing him down, Michael shot in on her. He grabbed her in a double-leg hold and she went down hard on her behind.
Her anger was such that she wanted to hurt him, and she did. While he wrangled for a better hold to control her, she landed several elbows and fists to his shoulders and neck, and got in one good knee to his ribs.
He took each blow without making a sound, and she almost immediately regretted the flash of anger.
That is, until he flattened her out, stretching her beneath him.
Breathing hard, still teeming with resentment, Kayli dared him with narrowed eyes and clenched teeth.
He surprised her by saying, “I watched more footage last night of you fighting. You’re good, but your moves are predictable and easy to anticipate.”
Regrets were forgotten; she head-butted him, making him curse while she indulged a big, taunting smile.
Obnoxious brute. “Apparently they’re not
that
easy to anticipate.”
With his hands locked around her wrists, he levered up on his forearms. That kept his head away from additional attacks, but it also pressed his hips in tight against her.
Oh God. She knew this was how he’d enter her, if they had sex. And she could almost feel the press of him pushing into her body, how he’d fill her. Her nipples tightened and her heart tripped.
“I’m trying to talk with you, Kayli.”
“I don’t want to talk with you.” She struggled to ignore his big, hard body touching her in all the most relevant places. It proved impossible. “I don’t want to be protected by you. I don’t want a union with you.”
“Well that’s too damned bad, now, isn’t it.” He came down, nose to nose with her, almost smothering her with his incredible weight. “You brought me here, lady, and I’m not leaving, so deal with it. And so help me, if you club me again, I’ll turn you over my knee and paddle your sweet little ass. Just see if I don’t.”
Such an outrageous threat made her gasp, but as soon as she recovered enough to speak, she struggled against him. “If you
ever
—”
“Yeah, I know.” His mood nearly matched her own now. “You’ll get pissed and cut me off. From everything. How original for a woman.” His scorn was a live, palpable thing sizzling between them. “And here I thought you were different.”
She leaned up to scream in his face, “I am different, damn you!”
Eyeing her, he tsked. “I’ve been a bad influence on your language.”
Oh God. She wanted to kill him. She wanted to have sex with him, too. But right now, killing him took precedence. “Get. Off. Me.”
“Not just yet.” He settled more comfortably again, and instead of squeezing her wrists, his thumbs caressed. She still couldn’t get free.
And her body wasn’t in agreement with her mind anyway.
“Now,” he asked, “can we agree to talk like two reasonable adults?”
Giving up, Kayli went limp on the floor, lifeless in his hold. She rested her head back with a sigh and stared at the ceiling. “I keep explaining to you, Michael, we have nothing further to discuss.”
“I’m still here, babe. You took me from everything familiar to me, and now, over one lousy dispute, you want to kick me to the curb, leaving me floundering about all alone?”
How could he sound so reasonable? That wasn’t the situation at all, and yet . . . it sort of was.
“There’s no reason for you to flounder and you know it. Numerous women have already made it clear that they’d love to be aligned with you.”
“Even your sister, huh?”
Oh, that hurt. “Leave Idola out of this.”
“Why? She’s a terrible flirt, at least according to Mesha. She did make a few moves, but mostly out of habit I think, not any real interest in me.”
Kayli doubted that. How could any woman not be interested in him?
He leaned closer, put his nose near her neck, and began softly nuzzling.
She heard him inhale, slow and deep.
“Michael,” she squeaked, almost desperate to interrupt him. His warm mouth touched, light as a butterfly, against her sensitive skin, and his breath teased over her, raising goose bumps. “I would have you still help the colony. We need you if you’re willing. But our association—”
“Our union.” His voice was gentle, persuasive.
“No.” She hated to say it. “That’s over.”
“Why? Because I screwed up? Hate to break it to you, doll, but it’s going to happen again and again. I’m human, and I have flaws.”
“No, really?”
“Brat.” He smiled, making the insult sound like an endearment. “Being overprotective, especially toward you, is something that’s bound to repeat. All I can promise is that I’ll try to give you room to do your own thing, but only if you’ll allow me to give you better instruction and be a part of any threat you face.”
“We’ve been over this.” And then, because it had eaten away at her all night long, Kayli turned her head to look at him. “I have a question for you, Michael. Will you give me an honest answer?”
Wariness had him pulling back a few inches. “Let’s hear the question before I commit.”
Did she really want to know? Yes, she had to know. If he cared for her, if he loved her a little, then maybe they could work through their differences as he suggested.