Karru gave her a measured stare, as if weighing her words and then gave her a sharp nod as he raised his voice so the driver could hear his orders. “We will go to Jhoari G’Zeri’s lodgings.”
* * *
A single question lingered on the tip of her tongue.
That inquiry had stayed in place as Karru carried her to his vehicle, then remained when a handful of guards piled in after them. And the uncertainty had still hovered as they all drove to her quarters, climbed the steps, and then filled her rooms. She had been good and hadn’t spoken when he transformed the tiny space into the large apartments he created for her.
When he carried her into the bathing room and immediately made way for the large pool she’d fallen in love with, she had to get the question off her chest. They were alone, all the guards remaining outside her bedroom door so it was time for a come to
God of All
meeting.
Fatigue still pursued her, pain and throbbing aches continuing to sap her strength, but she wouldn’t be denied.
She did let him carry her into the water though. She’d use the guy while she had him, she wasn’t stupid.
But the tic the warmth surrounded her and cradled her in the liquid, she launched into her questions. “What the hell was all that? Who the hell are you on Palia? Why the hell did you start calling me a different name?” She was on a roll and lifted her hand. “And what the hell is with this Terran wallpaper look I’m sporting?”
He skirted her gaze, tearing his eyes from hers and he focused intently on her body. He remained silent as he carefully stripped her, easily tearing the cloth that hid her skin. She wanted to shy from his looks and ignore the way she heated and ached for him despite the frustration he caused. Was she mad? Sure. So much had happened and a lot of it seemed connected to him.
“Karru? What’s going on?”
He focused on her and then looked away once again as he released a heavy sigh. “On Palia I am the Jhoari. I came to Rilli to observe and see if your federation was mature enough for us to come to an agreement. I could not send another into this situation. I was meant to remain anonymous. No one was to know of me or my race.” He grimaced. “Then there was Varr and…” he did look at her then, “you.” He carefully supported her with one arm while he rained water over her nude and injured body with the other. “I told you we were in search of females.”
“Yes.”
“Many, many years ago, a millennia in Terran years, we were at war. Species continued to attempt to take what Palia held.” He narrowed his eyes. “They quickly learned their folly, but not before we suffered losses.” Visible heaviness settled on his shoulders. “Females. Our birthrate was carefully balanced at that time, for every male there was a female and occasionally one outnumbered the other but at a very small margin. With the warring and constant loss, our people decided to… disappear.”
“You can’t just make a planet disappear.”
A teasing smile graced his lips. “It seems we can. And it was not a single planet.” He furrowed his brow. “Palia is not one. It is… a collection. We have fifteen planets and eight small moons.”
Wonder filled her. “Fifteen…” Her voice was thin. “And eight…” He shrugged as if it were nothing. “You’re an empire! And that’s why everyone sees your kind as a myth. An entire culture, not just a single planet disappeared overnight. I never…” She shook her head. “The story was never clear, just that there was Palia and then there wasn’t. No history or telling of where it went. It was like Terra’s stories of Atlantis. Everyone believed it existed, but no one understood what happened.”
“We exist.”
“O-kay. And why do you keep calling me a different name? It’s like yours but not.”
He grasped her decorated hand, carefully dipping it into the water to clean it of any lingering blood and then he cradled it in his palm. “Partially because of this and also because you are my sweet one.”
That wasn’t enough for her. “And? Gimme more than that.”
“Despite our desire to remain hidden, there are always those who take an oath of secrecy and leave Palia. We cannot begrudge them companionship or love. We cannot begrudge them relationships and families.” He raised his gaze from the twining vines and met hers. The truth was there, lingering in his multicolored eyes.
“But I’m Terran.”
“In part.”
“And the other?”
“You know the answer to this question already. Palia. On your father’s side. We believed your line was lost to us and yet here you are.”
“I’m…”
Karru drew her closer, their bodies flush and her curves nestled against his hard muscles. “Mine. You are mine.”
“I…” She what? Was overwhelmed? Anxious for him?
Both.
“You are satisfied with my appearance. You allowed me to give you pleasure and you enjoyed my touch. You believe I can protect you.” He looked too damn cocky.
“I said all that already.”
“Yes,” he nodded. “I was reminding you. Those are the first statement of intention for a Palia male and female.”
“What intention?”
He lowered his head and brushed a soft kiss across her lips. “That I wish to make you mine. Permanently.”
“Oh.” That’s all she had. Actually, she had something else. “After two meetings?”
“Had I believed you would accept me, I would have claimed you on sight,” he murmured and then brought to bear lips together once again. Not in a passionate and overwhelming connection, but gentle and sweet. “I have done nothing but crave you from the moment my eyes met yours. And your body, your scent, sweet one… It screams for me.”
He lowered his head further, running his nose along her neck and nuzzling her. “When I first came into contact with you, I knew your wanting was upon you and it called to me. That was when I first believed you were perhaps of Palia. I wanted so badly to answer your body’s call that first night, but I am an honorable male and could not.” He raised his head and grimaced. “I was not as honorable that second night when I touched your intimate places and I discovered you were truly of my home. I took a small droplet of blood for our scientists to test. I wanted to approach your family and petition for our joining.”
A grin teased her lips. “You were going to ask for my hand in marriage?”
He answered her with a grin of his own. “Yes. I wanted you, my sweet one. Unfortunately,” he stroked the back of her hand. “Unfortunately my prick must have introduced some part of me and your body reacted to a Palia male. It is the first step in a claiming, your body announcing its acceptance of the male’s genetic material. It is not supposed to happen until after the male has been welcomed by the female’s family and the touch occurs with permission of her eldest male relative.”
She ignored the sexism that seemed prevalent in Palia society and got to the guts of the matter. “This is because of you?”
He nodded and lifted it to his lips, brushing a kiss over the raised flesh. “Yes, and I regret the pain you endured because of me. Many are petitioning my claim on you.”
“Petition…”
Petition?
Shock quickly transformed to anger. “Who the hell do they think they are that they can petition anything? And how the hell do they know already? You only found me—knew about this—in the last zentic.”
“Communication to Palia is open now. The moment I identified you, those on the planets knew you’d been found.”
Rebecca snorted. “I wasn’t exactly lost. I had been stuck in that stupid place—”
A rumbling growl vibrated her. “They lied and delayed us and will suffer the weight of our displeasure once you have recovered. They would not tell me where to find you and only assured me of your health while we discussed ‘preliminaries.’ I admit to being partly at fault. I did not notify them of your status because I wanted to ensure your safety first. Now that I have you, we shall tell them and they will be aware of their mistakes.”
Her status. Her status as his. Whatever his position, it seemed she adopted his title as well. She didn’t really care about that. “G’Zeri is my family’s surname?”
“Yes, they—”
She pressed her fingertips over his lips. “Will the world end if you don’t tell me everything now?”
“No.”
“Then, it can wait. I just want to enjoy having you here with me and touching you. What do I need to say or do to have you naked with me? I want to touch you like you touch me. I want to…” She cupped his cheek, smiling when he nuzzled her hand. “I want you in my bed. I want you to make love to me.”
Karru was quick to shake his head. “No, it isn’t done. We must first have a mating ceremony. The people—”
“No disrespect, but the Palia people won’t be in bed with me. I’m not mating them, I’m mating you and I want to—” a horrible thought pierced her and she immediately backtracked. “Unless you don’t want to. Unless you changed your mind. You said you pricked me on accident. Maybe this is moving fast…”
He gently shifted his hips, pressing the full length of his arousal against her. “I want you, my sweet one. Never doubt this.”
“Then make me yours. We can deal with everything else later, but I want to be yours now. However that has to be done.”
A wicked grin split his lips. “Far be it from me to deny you. But if someone asks, I will have to tell them you refused to be denied.”
Karru could tell them whatever he desired. She refused to feel shame over her need for him. Not when it would end in some sort of Palia marriage.
“Anything as long as you take me.” He jostled her slightly, one of her deeper scrapes coming into contact with him and she released a low hiss.
That wiped away any ounce of desire in his gaze. “What kind of male am I? I am touching you and pressuring you while you are injured.” He growled low and repositioned her, cradling her in his arms as he turned and made his way out of the pool.
The man squished and squelched like the last time he’d bathed her. She grinned. “We need to get you used to stripping before we do this.”
He grunted. “If I got in there with you unclothed, I would have taken you and broken my honor.”
Rebecca mentally rolled her eyes and remained silent. His kind—their kind—obviously had specific views and she wasn’t going to argue about them now. They could discuss it later. Like after he’d spent a few zentics in her bed.
He padded through the bathing room and straight to her bed, lowering her to the soft surface like he had once before. Except this time when he stayed near, it was to wave some sort of device over her body. As it hovered above her skin, a delicious coolness enveloped each injury. Before her eyes, the skin knitted and slowly healed until a healthy pink glow replaced the bright red smears of blood and scabbing.
“Oh, that’s amazing.”
“The Jhoari always receives the best medical care. Before long, you will complain of the healers’ constant monitoring, but for now, I am grateful for their presence.”
Yeah, she was grateful as well.
What would have normally taken wentics to heal was back to normal within tics. Which meant she was more than ready to…
He continued to wave it up and down her nude body, and she finally reached out for him, placing a hand on his forearm.
That
hand. “Karru… That’s enough. I feel fine.”
His eyes were dark and tortured. “If I had believed them. If I had not tried to—”
Rebecca shook her head. “It’s over.”
“I do not have your easy forgiveness inside me.”
“Well, do you know what I don’t have inside me?” Confusion filled his face and she took pity on him. “You.”
Sexual heat quickly replaced that expression, and the colors in his eyes swirled in response to the change. “Sweet one… They will say that I—”
“That you made me scream your name?” She grinned to let them know she was teasing. “They don’t matter. I understand that on the inside I’m Palia, but I was raised as a Terran. And most Terrans wouldn’t wait for some stuffy ceremony or the approval of others. I’m not joining my life to
them
. I’m joining my life to
you
. So unless you tell me no, I want you here with me.”
All indecision fled him then. She sighed when a different type of tension took up residence in his body, suppressed desire now rushing forward and overcoming him. His hardness pressed and throbbed against the confines of his pants, and she had no doubt the soaked clothing was uncomfortable.
Without second-guessing herself, she quickly swung her feet over the edge of the bed and sat up. The move was completed in a flash. Her hands were at the zip seal of his pants before he could voice an objection. She had the cloth parted in an instant, and then she held him firmly in her hand. He was long and thick, his shaft warm against her palm despite the wet clothing.
He released a series of growls and snarls but didn’t stop her, so she took that as unvoiced permission to touch him. She stroked and caressed, fingers playing over the silken flesh as she teased and taunted them both. He was so like a Terran and yet different. He seemed bigger than most, his length peppered with ridges and bumps that she couldn’t wait to feel inside her. They would stroke places and press against spots that would make her scream in pleasure. She had no doubt about that.
A droplet of what she assumed was the Palia version of Terran cum decorated the tip, taunting her with its presence and she couldn’t resist the temptation. She leaned forward and lapped at the small drop, gathering it on her tongue and savoring the musky sweetness. She ignored Karru’s pleas and begs and merely focused on giving him pleasure. That came in the form in tasting him, caressing him, stroking him from root to tip as she suckled the head of his length. He twitched and jerked beneath her hand, his body spasming with each careful tug.
“Rebecca… Sweet one… Please…” he groaned and she moaned around him. “Palia males do not…”
She took as much of him into her mouth that she could, feeling his tip nudge the back of her throat and then she retreated. Bringing him to such a state he could not speak but merely muttered and begged filled her with feminine satisfaction. She did this. She had a fierce warrior pleading with her and babbling with pleasure. It had her center heating and moistening for his possession, nipples pebbling and hardening for his fingers or mouth. Both. Yes, definitely both.