“How did he die?” Valder asked.
“A freak explosion in space incinerated his vessel. He and all of his crew were lost. It was not long after Mesha was born. Though he treated the girls well, I knew that he was unhappy that I’d had yet another daughter instead of a son.”
Valder braced himself. “You grieved for him?”
“Yes. He had become more a supportive friend than a life mate. Mostly,” she confessed with sadness, “I grieved for what I would never have.”
Valder stood mere inches in front of her. “When I chanced upon your whereabouts, when I discovered that you had married, that you had children of your own . . . You can not know what that knowledge did to me.”
“I’d say that it made you stupid,” Mallet interjected. “Only a fool would get even with a woman by using other women.”
Kayli nodded. “It was not a good plan.”
Valder didn’t take offense. “True.” He shared a self-deprecating smile. “Though I had wanted you to think otherwise, my actions were not all motivated by revenge.” He put his hands on his hips and paced a little. “My colony is in need of females.”
“You don’t say.” Mallet quirked a brow at Raemay. “That’s kind of serendipitous, isn’t it, considering your colony is short on guys?”
Cautious now, Raemay said, “I suppose that it is.”
Valder again took her hands in his. “I would like to see if . . .” His voice broke, and he cleared his throat. “I believe we can . . . fix this. Compromise, yes? That’s what your visitor suggests. If we sit down and talk, is it possible that we can find a middle ground?”
Raemay drew in a deep breath, her expression a mix of hope and worry. “It would not be easy. As Arbiter, I have many duties. My colony relies on me. I don’t know that I can give up everything I have worked so hard for.”
“I would.” Kayli put her arms around Mallet’s neck and stared up into his eyes. “For my man, I would give up everything, because I love him, too.”
Inside, Mallet’s stomach dropped, but outside, he pretended to falter on his feet. “Woman! You said the word.”
“Love,” she said again, enunciating clearly, half laughing. “I love you very much, Michael Manchester, and if my father had not chosen this morning to attack us, I would have told you so.”
Damn, but she could take his knees out so easily. “Say it again.”
“I love you. I want you to be happy. If you need me to give up my position as Claviger—”
To cut off that offer, Mallet kissed her hard and didn’t want to stop. But he had her mother and father both watching him, so he lifted his head and smiled at her. “No, Kayli. All I need is for you to love me. We’ll work out everything else.”
Valder came forward to slap Mallet on the shoulder. “Formal introductions have gone awry, but I hope it’s not too late to say that I am pleased my daughter has found you.”
“And it wasn’t easy,” Mallet told him, “considering she had to travel back through time.”
Confused, Valder frowned over that, until Raemay said, “I am most pleased, too. At first, his attraction to her nearly panicked me. I knew that if he pursued her, she would become more noticeable to others.”
“To me,” Valder said.
“Yes. I have some deeply ingrained reservations about large, powerful men. But when I saw how happy Michael made my daughter, I started to doubt many of my decisions. He’s bigger than you, Valder, and every bit as dominant, but he takes great care with Kayli’s feelings.”
Valder went to one knee in front of her. “I would care for your feelings, too.”
Kayli squeezed Mallet again. “I think we are proof, Mother, that love can temper longtime beliefs. I never thought something could be more important to me than my position as Claviger. But compared to what I feel for Michael, it is nothing.”
Mallet grinned. Damn, but he’d never get used to hearing her say that. “You see, Valder? Compromise pays off.”
Raemay touched Valder’s jaw. “I don’t know how you could ever forgive me.”
Valder smiled. “I searched the galaxy for you, woman. Do you think I created that colony next door by accident? Do you think I stumbled across you by chance? It was destiny. We are meant to be together.”
Mallet glanced at Kayli, saw that she was smiling now, too. “Yeah, I think Kayli and I will mosey on and let the two of you hash things out.”
“Wait.” Valder, still clinging to a silent Raemay’s hands, turned to his daughter. “I owe you much.”
“No.”
“You are my daughter. And I’m so very proud of you. More proud than I can say. My chest wants to burst when I look at you.”
Kayli laughed with tears in her eyes. “Thank you, but you have other things on your mind right now. You and I can . . . catch up later.”
“You promise?”
“Yes.” She tipped her head. “I’m most curious about you. If you and your men would like to stay over, we can accommodate you easily. Just let me know.”
Raemay said, “I could make the arrangements.”
And Valder, pleased at Raemay’s interest in keeping him around, grinned at them.
When he started to say more, Mallet shook his head. “Later, Valder. One hurdle at a time.” He winked. “Right now, I want a moment alone with my lady.”
THE moment alone took over two hours to get. On their way to privacy, they got waylaid by the colony members who needed reassurance that all was well. Mallet stood back and let Kayli do her thing, putting all at ease.
She really was terrific in the role of leader.
Then Toller, Valder’s good friend and apparently only one of a few who knew of the torch he carried, wanted to know how he fared with Raemay. Mallet wasn’t one to gossip, so he said only, “If you trust him, that should be enough, right?”
Kayli added as an aside, “My mother is much touched by his sincerity.”
Toller grinned at that and went off with Nayana.
Before they could leave, they saw Idola making eyes at a man who didn’t preen for her, didn’t fall at her feet. But he made his interest clear.
“I can’t believe it,” Kayli said. “Idola looks much smitten.”
“Must be something in the air today, huh?” Mallet squeezed her close and said, “Now, for a little privacy . . .”
“Wait!” Mesha ran up to let them know that she hoped to form her own union very soon because it was all so romantic how theirs had worked out.
Beside her, Dormius held her hand and stared at her with adoration.
Mallet looked at Kayli, but she appeared as much at a loss as he was. “I think that’s one for Raemay to figure out.” He tugged Mesha in for a quick hug. “Just don’t do anything right now, okay?”
Dormius, the little rascal, blushed, but Mesha chuckled. “Do not worry, sir. Now go. We’ve held you up long enough.”
Mallet looked up at the sky and said, “Hauk?”
“Where to, Mallet?”
“Anyplace where we won’t be interrupted.”
In a blink, he found himself alone with Kayli near the lake. The sun was high overhead. Wildflowers dipped and swayed in the breeze. Water lapped the shoreline while the surface twinkled like a million diamonds.
Kayli sat on a boulder and watched him. “I love you.”
Mallet smiled as he removed his shirt. “One more time.”
She pulled off her boots. “I love you. More than anything.”
When he was naked, Mallet went to her and helped her finish undressing. “Will you tell me that every day?”
“Yes.”
“At least twice a day?”
She laughed. “Yes.”
Not to press his luck, but . . . “Any reason it took you so long?”
“Many reasons, but they all seem most insignificant now.”
Pensive, Mallet took her hand and they waded waist deep into the water. He pushed back her pale hair, held her face, and kissed her incredible mouth.
It was a peaceful moment that filled him with too many emotions. “Kayli, love, I’d like it if you shared the reasons with me anyway.”
“Okay.” Dipping her hands under the water, she found him. “I feared that I would not keep you happy.”
“I love you.” He closed his eyes. “Of course you make me happy—especially when you do things like that.”
Smiling, she said, “I feared that you were drawn to me because I was most familiar to you. I had taken you from everything you knew and dropped you into a situation that few would have been able to accept.”
“You’re here.” He covered her breasts with his hands. “That’s all that matters to me. The rest is just backdrop.”
“I feared that I would lose my identity and that I didn’t know how to do anything other than be a warrior.”
His brow went up. “Oh, trust me, babe, you know how to do other things.”
Laughing aloud, she said, “You are a very sexual man. That pleases me.”
Before he got totally off topic, Mallet said, “I want you to go on being Claviger for as long as you enjoy the job. You’re damned good at it.”
“I will do that for you, if you will do something for me.”
“Anything.”
“Do not change.” She put her arms around his neck and wrapped her legs around his waist. “Keep being protective of me and everyone else. Keep influencing my people—now your people—with your outrageous attitudes. Continue helping us to train and improve. Tease my mother, care for my sisters, and make love to me every day so that we can procreate and make a family.”
Emotion got a stranglehold on him. “It’ll be my pleasure.” He started to kiss her with all the love he felt.
And Hauk said, “You have twenty minutes kiddies, and then your mother wishes to make an announcement.”
Mallet laughed. “Can I give Hauk back?”
“No.” She tightened her legs around him. “But you can show me again the details of the quickie. And afterward, we will face everyone together.”
“Always.”
EPILOGUE
DREw Black couldn’t believe it when he found Dean and Simon sitting with their heads together on a bench in the locker room. In an hour or so, the preliminary fights would start and they both needed to be out front, schmoozing the crowd and racking up the publicity.
Instead, they were playing show-and-tell with photographs.
Walking beside him, Harley asked, “What do you have there?” He joined them at the bench, took one look at the photos, and grinned. “I’ll be damned. He looks great, huh?”
Scowling with curiosity, Drew walked over to them. “Why aren’t you guys out front? The crowds are screaming for you.”
“They’ll wait,” Dean said, and then he handed a photo to Drew. “Check that out.”
The photo showed Mallet with the slim, gutsy blonde he’d met at the hospital. They were waist deep in a big lake, the woman’s upper body shielded behind Mallet as she wrapped her arms around his neck and peeked over his shoulder. Her hair was slicked back, her eyes were bright with laughter.
Damn.
When Mallet had disappeared, they’d all wondered where he went, and why he’d left with only a note as farewell. The little broad had gotten to him in a very big way.
“Here are a few more.” Simon handed him several photos. They showed Mallet and the woman lounging in some odd chairs, riding some weird looking cycles, and one was even of them sparring. Each picture was a scene of pleasure. “Seems his legs are fine now.”
“Must’ve been one hell of a progressive hospital,” Dean added, “to be able to get him completely healed.”
“She’s cute,” Harley said. “And he sure looks sunk on her.”
“Yeah, he does.” Drew flattened his mouth. “Guess I fucking well better give up on the idea of him coming back.”
“He said he’s not.” Dean handed over a note, and explained, “He’s married now, happy where he’s at, and he just wanted us all to know he’s okay, given the funk he was in when he left.”
Simon lifted his brows. “It’s nothing short of a miracle, I say.”
“I’m damn glad she found him, or he found her,” Dean said. “However it worked out, it worked out for the best. I can see that.”
Harley finished reading the note himself and nodded. “You have to admit, he sounds like his old self again.”
“Strange envelope, though.” Simon held it up for all to see. “It was delivered special courier to the gym, without a return address, by some jumpy fellow who was there one minute and gone the next.”
Drew took the envelope and looked it over. It was all too fucking strange, if you asked him.
“But it’s definitely Mallet’s handwriting on the note,” Dean pointed out. “And he does sound pretty damned content.”
Drew read the note, had to agree with the others, and then smacked it down on the bench. “Now where the fuck am I going to find someone to replace him?”
“It’s been months,” Simon pointed out. “You were still counting on him to commentate?”
“The fans think of him as a hero.” Rubbing his head, Drew said, “So yeah, I was holding the position.”
Harley slapped him on the shoulder. “You’ll figure it out, Drew. You always do.”
“And when he does,” Simon said, sotto voce, “he’ll find a way to make a fortune off it.”
Drew ignored that. “Mind if I hang on to these for a while?”
Shrugging, Simon said, “I can get them from you later. No big deal.”
Dean, Harley, and Simon headed out of the room, talking to themselves, all obviously happy for their friend.
Drew again looked at the photo of Mallet and the woman in the lake, and he shook his head. “Damn it, you lucky SOB, you do look deliriously happy.” Grinning, he tucked the photos and note back into the envelope, concealed them inside his suit coat pocket, straightened his designer tie and, said to no one, “Where the hell am I going to find another fighter like you?”
FAR, far away, in a different time and place, Mallet smiled as he turned off the viewer.
“They have no more need to worry about you.” Kayli hugged up to Mallet’s side.
“Satisfied?” Hauk asked.
Mallet kissed Kayli. “You heard Drew. I’m more than satisfied. I’m
deliriously
happy.”