“I do.” He kissed her for being so agreeable. “Know what else I’d like?”
“Sex?”
She did have a one-track mind. Mallet laughed. “Always, but for right now, let’s finish eating and then take a late flight on your aircycle. What do you think?”
Kayli let out a sigh. “I could show you the clouds and, when the sun goes down, the stars. I haven’t ridden high at night in a very long time. It will be better if we take the Sky Slider, though. It has an autopilot feature so that we can . . . entertain ourselves instead of steer.”
The future looked bright, with Kayli in his life. Mallet hugged her, and said, “Let’s do it.”
VALDER stewed in silence. From a distance, he saw his good friend Toller walking with his new woman, Nayana. In such a short time, they had fallen very much in love. Toller was nearly as big as Valder, and had been twice as wild, most especially with women. But he’d taken one look at Nayana and his expression had warned away the other men in their hunting party.
He had claimed her the same night they brought her home, and the next day they had cemented their relationship for all time.
Valder envied them. Instead of love, his heart overflowed with resentment and discontent.
While he lingered in the shade of a building to watch his friend on his stroll, children ran up to him with squeals of excitement.
Valder scuffled with them for a few moments, laughing at their antics, pretending to let them tackle him to the ground. They crawled all over him, trying to tickle him, smothering him with their enthusiasm. The boys grabbed his limbs, practicing their fighting moves, while the girls harassed the boys for their exuberance.
There were twice the number of boys than girls, but in his colony they were all rowdy and filled with life, regardless of their gender. The young ones grew up happy and free, the males protecting the females, and the females nurturing the males.
Valder enjoyed them all. A lot. But he had no young ones of his own, no offspring to carry on his name, his heritage.
He should have taken a woman as his own, procreating with her to give his colony a dozen beautiful little children. But somehow, after Raemay, the thought of commitment didn’t settle right.
Most of the children ran to the strange one, Lydina, when they saw her approaching. She almost always had something to show them—a butterfly, a flower, sweet treats, or magic tricks. In her expressionless way, she entertained them.
Valder considered returning her to her own colony. If doing so wouldn’t make him look weak to his opponents, he would have already. That Lydina remained distant and uninterested in engaging the men or befriending the women led him to believe she would never be happy here.
It was intolerable for him to add sadness to any woman’s life. Well, except for Raemay Raine. He wanted her to feel the same sadness, to be as bereft as he was.
Toller and Nayana walked up to him, Toller frowning in anger, Nayana in confusion.
Straightening from his relaxed posture, Valder asked, “What is it?”
“She has something to explain,” Toller said, pressing Nayana forward with a hand at the small of her back.
She dug in her heels and spun around to face him. “And why should I when you won’t tell me why it matters?” Nayana shot right back.
She was a spunky one, Valder thought, perfect for Toller’s dominating personality. It amused Valder that the only people Toller had ever deferred to him was himself, and Nayana.
Because his friend turned red in the face, Valder asked, “Is there something I should know?”
When Nayana didn’t answer, Toller snarled, then said, “The new one, Lydina, is an AFA.”
Ice ran down Valder’s spine. His eyes narrowed and his body tensed. “What say you?”
Toller nudged Nayana again. She hesitated, but when Valder turned his burning attention on her, she pinched her mouth. “I do not know why it matters so much, but yes, I did ask about that one”—she pointed to Lydina—“because she is an AFA, and she looks just like one we have back at our colony.”
“This is now your colony,” Toller pointed out.
“Yes, of course.” It was her turn to roll her eyes. “But I meant the colony from which you took me.”
“She is an
android
?” Valder asked, disbelieving such could be true.
Nayana pulled back in real surprise. “You truly did not know?”
Feeling like a total fool, Valder said nothing. He didn’t want to frighten Toller’s woman with his reaction to such a deception.
Toller said to her, “You are sure of this?”
“Yes. The one who looks just like her belongs to Kayli, Raemay’s oldest daughter.”
Valder took that disclosure with an equal measure of shock. “Oldest daughter? But I understood that to be Idola.”
“Idola is second oldest. Mesha is the youngest.”
Raemay had three daughters? In one big step, Valder closed the space separating him from Nayana. “Idola is not oldest, and yet she will inherit? How can that be?”
Toller pulled Nayana to his side, offering protection that was not needed, but served to comfort her in the face of Valder’s rage.
She cleared her throat. “I am not sure why you need to know this—”
Toller squeezed her, and spoke with quiet assurance. “No games, woman. This is not a matter to drag out.”
She scowled at both men. “Only because I know you will not harm any of the women of my colony . . .” She hesitated, and asked, “Correct?”
Rigid enough to snap, Valder nodded.
Toller, irritated by such a remark, snorted. “You should not even need to ask.” Then, in a lower voice, he said, “Have I not treated you quite well?”
She gave a sly smile. “Yes you have.”
In no mood for their bliss, Valder growled, regaining her attention.
“As the second eldest daughter, Idola is the name carrier because Kayli is a soldier and therefore cannot inherit.”
Raemay’s daughter, a soldier. Valder held his fists so tight, his knuckles ached. He might have encountered her during their scrimmages and not even known it. If the women didn’t wear those useless helmets, he might have recognized features similar to Raemay’s.
Unaware of his thoughts, Nayana continued. “That is, Kayli could not have inherited before. But much has changed since the outsider came.”
“How so?” Raemay had duped him, was probably even now laughing at his gullibility in believing an AFA to be a flesh-and-blood woman.
If he were as ruthless as he wanted to be, he would not have suffered guilt over Lydina’s assumed unhappiness. God, how it galled, knowing that he’d worried for the emotional damage done to a fabricated being incapable of real emotion.
If he were a coward who raped women, he would have known immediately that she was an android.
He’d wanted Raemay to believe such vile things about him. And why not? She had not believed the truth of his nature, had not cared that he was loyal and honorable and that he loved her . . .
“Answer me, woman.”
His barked order made Nayana jump. Toller narrowed his eyes over the slight, but after a whisper into Nayana’s ear, she nodded and relaxed again.
“Before the outsider, no soldier could ever form a union. The career path was believed too risky to involve family.”
“By your Arbiter’s order?”
“Yes. But he changed that by joining Kayli in union. Now . . .” Nayana shrugged. “It may be possible that Kayli will inherit after all. She is already Claviger, even though she has been claimed by Michael.”
“Michael?”
“The big one,” Toller clarified. “The stranger.”
So it was probably his plan to dupe Valder. The man had come in and accomplished much, accomplished what none other had managed since Raemay left him: to make a fool of Valder Wildoon.
As the silence stretched on, a plan formed in Valder’s mind. He could strike a single blow, and cause much devastation.
By taking Kayli Raine.
She was Raemay’s rightful heir, her oldest child. Raemay would be destroyed to lose her.
Kayli was in union with the outsider, a placeholder for him within the colony. Without her, he’d be nothing to them.
And as Claviger, her colony needed her more than they needed Raemay, the Arbiter. All of the people relied on her for leadership against attacks.
Once Valder had her, the outsider, Raemay, the entire colony would be lost.
Valder showed his teeth in a look no one mistook for a smile. “In the morn, we ride.”
Toller nodded. “Then tonight, we plan.”
Valder watched as Toller took Nayana’s arm and led her away. Neither man paid any attention to her shrill protests.
KAYLI woke before the sun, felt the weight of Michael’s arm around her, his warm breath on her shoulder. She smiled with a bone-deep contentment she’d never known—and was afraid to trust.
Being this way with him scared her, when so little ever had.
But with him, she was a different person. She no longer knew herself. What she felt for Michael kept her from prioritizing her duty as she should. Now, her thoughts divided between responsibility and a predominance of happiness.
Over the past ten days, since the eve of their union, they’d fallen into a wonderful routine. They rose early, showered and dined together, talked endlessly about everything, and then saw to the business of the colony.
Each day included strenuous training. Michael didn’t let up on any of them, including her. But she loved it. She loved testing her strength and endurance, her speed and reflexes. Learning new things about her body, her capabilities, was thrilling.
When it rained each afternoon, Michael found a place to cuddle with her, and sometimes more. Often he had Hauk transport them to her vessel, sometimes to her house. He showed her the ecstasy of long, leisurely lovemaking as well as the urgency of a frenzied mating that he termed a “quickie.”
She loved it all.
She loved him.
In the evening, they swam in the lake. And they discussed things important to her, things important to him. He shared with her his old dreams, and dreams that were new. She wanted to share, too, but all of her dreams now included him, and she worried that she might smother him with her feelings.
Each night when they returned home, he made love to her.
Home.
It had so much more meaning now. Not just in the physical sense of a comfortable dwelling where she resided with her man, but in the sense of well-being, the sense of belonging.
Little by little, Michael had accumulated belongings of his own, so that her house was now his house, too. He had several changes of clothes sharing space with hers in the closet. An old-fashioned razor that he insisted on using hung on their bathroom wall. On her shelves she found manuals and menus he’d created for the trainees. He even had his own pick of music and media.
And strangely enough, he liked flowers. He often left a bouquet for her in the dining areas or in their sleeping room. Sometimes he placed a single bloom on her pillow; she’d awaken to the sweet scent and find him watching her.
She’d thought being Claviger defined her.
Nothing defined her more than the things she felt for Michael. She’d loved before, of course. Her family, her friends. Her work.
But this was so different, so all-consuming. It changed everything about her.
“Hey you.”
At the sound of his deep, sleepy voice, she turned to him with a smile that came from her soul. “Good morn.”
He stretched, showing her a breathtaking display of thick muscle and sinew. After he resettled into the pillows, he dropped a hand to her thigh, caught her gaze on his body, and asked, “What are you thinking?”
Seeing no reason to lie, Kayli admitted, “That I enjoy my man.”
His brow went up. With his hair so rumpled and beard shadow on his face, he looked roguish and unbelievably sexy. “Your man, huh?”
“Are you not?” She lounged atop him and played with his chest hair. Everything about him was so masculine, so appealing.
Her morning mood was such that she had to test him. Just a little. “You do belong to me now. You realize that, don’t you?”
Smiling, he cupped her backside with both hands. “Damn, but I do love a possessive woman.”
Every time Michael used that
L
word, her heart ached and her stomach clenched. Never had he said, “I love
you
,” only that he loved things about her body or her personality.
Was it the same? She didn’t dare think so.
Unsure if she should laugh or not, Kayli waited and her silence stole his grin, turning him somber.
“Hey. What’s wrong?”
Making one small admission would be preferable to laying out her heart. “I suffer some guilt.”
Concern softened his touch. “Why?”
“I shouldn’t be so blissful.”
“Blissful, huh?” Judging by his expression, he liked the sound of that. “And why shouldn’t you be?”
Resting her elbows on his chest, she propped up her chin. “Members of my colony are still held captive, Michael. I should be concentrating on a plan to free them, to bring them home. I should be—”
“Bullshit.” Michael sat up so fast she didn’t have time to scramble away. He lifted her, plopped her to the side of him, and scowled at her. “No one has done more than you to try to figure out this mess. We’ve prepared so that when he attacks again, we’ll be ready. But you know as well as I do that for now, that’s all any of us
can
do.”
If only that were true. He had done much, but she’d been very ineffectual. “You’re preparing everyone, and you thought of sending the AFA. That has at least bought us time. But it has been weeks now.” She pushed the sheet away and stood. “It eats away at me, wondering when he will come again, who he will take next.”
“Look, babe, I love how dedicated you are, but—”