Authors: April Zyon
“Good,
I look forward to all of those projects. I look forward to giving you a list of
things I want done and laughing when you pull me into helping you complete that
list. Whatever happens, though, it will happen because we belong together and
we will have a good time together.
Right?”
“Absolutely.
Try not to worry so
much, little one. We’re good together.
Made for one another,
even.
We might have bumps in the road but you need to trust in us. In
the love we have for one another and the same love that will grow through the
years.” Catching her chin, he tipped her face up for a hard, quick kiss. “Why
don’t you pick something else from the vids? This really isn’t all that good
and we need to do something that won’t exhaust us too much.
Especially
if we’re going shopping.”
A shudder tore through him, and he made a
face.
She
laughed just a bit and moved in closer to him. “Well, if we do go shopping, I
have a feeling you will enjoy it a great deal. Maybe we’ll be able to share
some time together in the changing rooms.”
“Considering
they’ll need to measure you and have you choose fabrics and styles I seriously
doubt there will be a lot of time out from under the dressmaker’s eye. We can
hope, but I wouldn’t get too hopeful. They tend to take such indiscretions
rather personally.”
“Oh,
I don’t know. I have a feeling we’ll be able to have some time alone,
some time
where we can be naked together.”
Laughing
softly, he gave her a squeeze. “We’ll see, Sadie. But don’t be too disappointed
if it doesn’t happen. Besides, we’ll be coming back here where we can get naked
and not have to worry about someone discovering us.”
“Ah
yes, good point.”
Although her husband was nothing if not
creative.
“So…do you really think that the home is the best home for
us?” she asked, thinking about the ancestral home again. “We both deserve to
have a place to call ours and only ours, don’t you think?”
“I
think it will be the place for us. It might also be another point to push your
mother on, too, the fact we’re moving into your ancestral home. The same one
she just attempted to sell out from under you without the permission to do so.
You’d think with it being an original home the realty offices would require the
signature or a letter from the actual owner of the place. I’m assuming your
mother’s name has never once been linked to the land title.”
“No, never.
Grandfather hated
her,” she admitted. “Daddy loved her but Grandfather hated her with a passion.
He loved me, though, and I adored him. I thought that man was the best of all
men.” She looked up and added, “Until I met you, that is.”
“I
wouldn’t mind being second to a man like that. Especially since he apparently
had the good sense to know your mother was no good from the first moment. But
I’ll admit I’m glad your father didn’t listen. Otherwise you might not be here
now, and that is completely unacceptable to me.”
“Well
whatever happened in the past is just the past. All that matters right now is
us. All that matters is that you and I are together.
Now, no
more talking.
Kiss me, mister man,” she said with a grin and pulled him
closer.
“Yes,
ma’am,” he said with an answering smile before his lips met hers.
Chapter Ten
Bracken
reached over to cover Sadie’s hands. Her nervous flicking of one nail to
another was driving him to distraction. Giving her fingers a gentle squeeze, he
eased his fingers between her hands to pry them apart and lace his fingers with
hers. He understood why she was so nervous and impatient. He was feeling the
same but knew better than to show it in the marshal’s offices.
Not
exactly where he wanted to be during the short amount of time they were on
planet. But they’d received the request that wasn’t really a request early that
morning. He had a fair idea what it was about given their rather loud meeting
with Sadie’s mother the day prior. The woman had been beyond furious to know
they’d been wed. The fact that General
Fintan
Daykin,
who dared to marry an
Imarian
, had seen to the
nuptials truly had set the woman off on a whole new level. Originally he hadn’t
planned to use a recording device for their meeting with Sadie’s mother, but
before they’d departed the rented rooms he’d reconsidered. His gut was never
wrong, and it had been of the opinion that getting everything on a recording
was wise. So it had been right once more.
With
her mother so off balance with their appearance, the news of the marriage, and
the fact that Sadie had uncovered her dirty dealings to sell the ancestral home
behind Sadie’s back the woman had revealed a lot of interesting details. Too
late she’d realized what she’d said. But she’d also likely assumed they had no
actual proof of anything. Good thing Bracken wasn’t a trusting sort.
A
copy of the recording had been sent with his report to the marshal directly.
Which likely was why they were now awaiting their summons to the
inner sanctum to speak with the marshal, and only the marshal.
Things
could very well get tricky, but he had the utmost faith in his wife—and the
fact that her mother was truly and certifiably insane.
He
could see Sadie shifting nervously once again, her hand palm to palm with his.
“I’m worried. The woman already has had so much heaped upon her from your
mother and then also the change in the ships’ tags to show that we are
Imarian
not
Craegin
. What if she
decides we’re far too much trouble than we are worth?”
“She
could decide that,” he said. Rubbing his thumb to her soft skin, he tugged on
her hand and brought it to his mouth to scrape his teeth lightly to one of her
fingers. “Or she could decide we’re helping to root out an infection that is
taking over our world.”
“True.
I don’t suppose it’s too much to hope that she’ll know we only want good things
for our people? This is just too horrid. That our families are fighting so hard
to keep us apart. We are good together, right? It’s not the world trying to
tell us that we shouldn’t be together, right?”
“Colonel,
the marshal is ready for you and your wife now.”
Getting
to his feet, Bracken tugged Sadie up and into his arms. “We are perfect
together. The world isn’t telling us anything except for the fact our families
suck, and we’re damn lucky to be as normal as we are. Now let’s go see the
marshal and try to figure more of this mess out. Maybe we’ll even get back to
our rooms at some point before dinner.” Uncaring that there was a witness to
his actions, Bracken gave Sadie a kiss. He knew she needed one, needed to know
that he would always look out for her above all other things.
When
he pulled back from Sadie he could see the wonder in her eyes and the
contentment. Hearing the clearing of the throat behind them, he watched his
little wife jump. Then the blush he loved so much was spreading over her
cheeks.
“Right, meeting with the marshal.”
He
gave her a small smile and nodded. “Yes, that.” Throwing her a wink, Bracken
took her hand in his, tucking it into the crook of his arm. He let all
expression fall from his face as he turned to look at the assistant. Giving her
fingers a squeeze, they began to follow the man to the marshal’s office.
Bracken let Sadie go through the door first, his hand moving to land on the
small of her back as she let his arm go.
Once
they were in the marshal’s office Sadie looked at the woman. He could see her
jaw clenching and feel her hand squeezing his. He got her settled into a seat
and took the one at her side. He didn’t fail to notice when she reached out for
his hand once more.
“So,
I understand that her mother is giving you trouble? And don’t prevaricate.
She’s already contacted my offices. Nine times,” the marshal began.
“To
say the least, ma’am,” Bracken said. He looked over to Sadie but knew she
likely didn’t want to discuss most of the reasons. When he finally caught her
eye he gave her hand a firm squeeze. “I think you should know there’s a lot of
history between our two houses. There’s a lot we still don’t know about, we are
sure, but there are some things we can tell you that may help you to understand
it all.”
The
marshal eyed him up and down before nodding.
Bracken
took a breath,
then
let it out slowly. “Sadie has been
coming round my parents’ home for years. She became friends with my older
sisters since they are all in a certain age range. Early on, we realized we
were destined for one another but through the actions of my mother, her own
mother, and my oldest sisters we were never together in the same space at any
time from that time forward, so we couldn’t begin the bond. I went into the
academy and started my training, believing that Sadie was more or less running
from me, not realizing she had nothing to do with it at all. She believed I was
avoiding her, not realizing that was the furthest thing from my mind.”
The
marshal made a gesture with her
hand,
one Bracken took
to mean get on with it.
“Right, apologies.
Long story short,
Sadie’s mother decided to ensure we didn’t get together and sold her to a man
to be his wife. He was a cruel bastard who ended up scarring her for life.
Thankfully she was strong enough to pull through and made something of her life
as well as getting out of the contract. When we returned to
Craegin
we went to my parents’ home to let them know they wouldn’t be receiving a
stipend from me any longer. It went about as well as one could expect when a
woman, my mother, is told she has to stop living the life she’s always wanted
and return to the one she was allotted. On our departure Sadie noticed a tramp
outside on one of the landing pads with familiar markings. It belonged to the
man her mother had sold her to. He was, to the best of our knowledge, in my
parents’ home at the time we were there.”
“I
see,” the marshal said quietly. “And what was this you’d mentioned, Doctor,
about your mother attempting to sell one of the properties left in your keeping
upon your father’s death?”
“She’s
tried to sell my family’s ancestral home. As you know, Mother married into the
Monterey family name. She actually is from a far lower house than my father
was. In fact she was working in banking when she met my father. He was struck
with her beauty and enraptured by her. She was…” There was hesitation that he
could hear in her voice, then her deep sigh. “Mother can be very convincing
that she’s a loving and caring woman, when the need suits her. She’s a very
manipulative woman.”
“I
see. Well that explains quite a lot. The agency that watches over all your
holdings sent in a report to my offices. Your mother has tried this before with
other holdings, apparently. She has also attempted to garner more funds than
the monthly allowance she receives from your father’s estate. In all cases she
was stopped, turned away, and a report made. The people you have handling the
estate are very good at their jobs, I must say, and efficient. This is the
first time she’s tried to sell a holding privately. The other times she went
through a realtor.”
Bracken
looked over at Sadie’s pale face. All he wanted to do was pull her into his lap
and hold her close. He hated seeing the hurt from the betrayal. “Madam Marshal,
there is no claim she has to us dissolving our marriage. It’s perfectly valid,
and she’s only doing it out of spite.”
“I
was already under that impression, Colonel. But with the additional background
you’ve provided me I now know there is much more here that my offices will need
to look into.” She looked to Sadie, then back his direction. “It will be
handled. Now, does anyone care to explain to me why I only just found out about
a conspiracy going on within my own damn offices?”
He
saw Sadie blush and heard her starting. “I didn’t realize there was a deep
danger until I noticed the coding packets that were sent out to certain ships
had been changed to signal the ships as
Imarian
rather than
Craegin
. That’s when I saw the code and
knew who did it. It’s a man who thinks that he is above all and has the gall to
leave his name inside of the coding.” He heard her snort and knew her thoughts
on said man in question.
Squeezing
Sadie’s hand gently in warning, he looked to the marshal. “Thankfully she was
able to reverse the damage he’d done, but we need to alert the other destroyers
in the fleet about the latest packets. Sadie will need to work up a patch to
send to them, with instructions on how to ensure
it’s
correctly applied in the event this man was smart enough to encode a separate
defense satellite to each of the ships. We were lucky that only one was
targeting us, and that Sadie knew what his end game was. Unfortunately, ma’am,
I think you have more troubles brewing in this office. We’ve heard rumors for
weeks now that the marshal’s offices were planning a way to reignite the
Imarian
Craegin
war to get rid of
various officers who were not willing to do things the way your offices wanted.
Troublemakers, if you would, ma’am.”
“I’m
sorry to say that he’s right,” Sadie put in there. “Unfortunately there are
certain factions inside of our world that feel reigniting the war would be good
for their profit margins.”
“Without
any consideration for the lives that would be lost, on both sides.” Leaning
back in her chair, the marshal looked out her windows, her view of the city
below them unobstructed by any other buildings. Finally she returned her
attention to them both. “Send me everything you have on this matter. Anything
you believe may be
related,
and anything that may have
absolutely nothing to do with it. I don’t care at this point. I’ll dig through
it personally for as long as it takes, but I want everything.”
“Of course.”
He could see the
hesitation on Sadie’s face when she started to speak. “The jump in activity
started when General Bracken took his
Imarian
bride.”
He knew that she adored
Adira
, so it wasn’t against
the woman. “I truly believe that’s when the hushed whispers that had been a
dream came to the forefront once more. It came to a head, so to speak, because
one of their most beloved generals bled for what they perceived as the enemy.
She’s not and anyone that’s ever seen the two of them together would realize
that theirs truly is a love match, but we know how people are.
Right?”
“That
we do, Doctor, that we do.” Standing, the marshal came around her desk. Bracken
got to his feet and tugged Sadie up next to him. When the woman stopped before
them she was looking at Sadie. “Send me everything, even your theories. Only to
me at the direct link you have. I will read through it all and handle this
personally. Expect a few vid conferences for the many questions I will likely
have.” She nodded slowly. “Oh, and congratulations to you both on your wedding,
if I forgot to say so before. Now you’d better get moving, I have a list of
meetings I need to attend this afternoon that is not getting any shorter.”
“Thank
you, ma’am,” he told her. Shaking her hand, Bracken tucked Sadie close to his
side and made for the door.
Sadie
looked up at him when they entered the lift. “That went far better than I
expected
,
to be perfectly honest. And thank you, for
being there with me and talking when I couldn’t seem to.”
“All
part of my job description as your husband,” he said. Pressing the button for
the ground floor, he turned to her and backed her into the corner. Leaning in
close, Bracken rubbed his nose to the soft skin of her throat. He loved the way
she smelled, always so sexy, warm, and soothing at the same time. “You did just
fine in there, little one.
Better than fine, in my opinion.”
He pressed a kiss to her pulse and smiled when he felt it leap under his soft
touch.
“Please,
do that again?” She tilted her head for him, the skin of her neck pricking with
gooseflesh at his touches. “That feels so good.” Her hand clutched his shirt
and tugged him closer.
Letting
out a soft laugh, he gave her what she wanted. He didn’t mind her request in
the least.
A soft kiss to her pulse, then a flick of his
tongue.
Moving a little lower he pressed another kiss to the spot,
followed by a light scrape of his teeth. At her shiver he slipped his arms
around her, pulling her lush body up against his own. “When we get back to our
rooms I am going to fuck you hard, and fast. I don’t think I’ll even wait for
you to get naked. I’ll just put you over the arm of the sofa, bare your sweet
ass, and take you.”