Stud (21 page)

With the heat of the day, the wind from the sea began to pick up, blowing steadily from the west. Between the sun and the breeze, Lucy’s clothes were probably almost dry, and if she was intending to hide out in the tent until lunchtime, there wasn’t any reason to prolong the agony. They might as well pack up and get back on the road. Tarq was running out of ideas anyway.

As he’d suspected, his jeans were still wet, while hers were merely damp. He should have jumped at the chance to dunk them in the creek again while she wasn’t watching, but turned them around so the sun and wind would dry them faster instead. He’d been stupid to wash them to begin with. Stupid to try to make her stay with him and maybe have a little fun.
Stupid, stupid,
stupid…

He sat back down on his pallet, realizing that this was the way the sleeping arrangements should have been the night before. If he’d been behaving like a gentleman, that is. But he was no gentleman; it had never occurred to him to let her sleep alone in the tent. Acting like a stag in rut, he hadn’t considered her feelings at all. He’d tricked her, coerced her—probably even made her feel sorry for him—but he hadn’t given her much of a choice.

Tarq didn’t know how long he sat there, staring off into the distance, but when Lucy came out of the tent carrying her duffel bag, the first thing she did was to verify what he already knew.

“Your jeans are dry now. Guess we should get going again.” She set the bag down and stuffed her clean clothes into it. “Sorry I took so long. I-I fell asleep.”

Tarq thought her eyes looked a little puffy, but didn’t comment. “That’s okay. You need your rest.” He got up and shook out his bedroll and then tossed it into the tent. With a touch of the auto-erect button, the tent slowly folded itself up into a neat bundle.

Lucy held up the
scrails
she’d used. “What do I do with these?”

Taking them from her, Tarq spread them out on a nearby shrub, stifling the urge to sniff them. “They’ll be clean in a few minutes.” The fire had all but gone out and the pan of water had boiled dry. He kicked some dirt over the few remaining embers and gathered up the dishes.

“I never did make that tea for you. Not much of a waitress, am I?”

She was staring at the smoking remains of their campfire, not even looking him in the eye. He’d blown it, all right. He just wished he understood why. “You’re a fine waitress. Don’t worry about it.”

After dumping the dishes into the cleaner, he went back for the tent and tossed it into the back of the speeder. Lucy was right behind him and pitched in her duffel bag, along with his jeans. She was obviously anxious to get started again. After a brief deliberation, Tarq pulled out a clean shirt and put it on.
Not
much
point
in
trying
to
entice
her
now…

Tarq glanced back at their campsite. No, he hadn’t forgotten anything. There was no reason to linger. He opened the door for Lucy and helped her climb into the speeder. Despite her apparent lack of interest, his dick was already getting hard.

Might
as
well
enjoy
it
while
I
can
, he thought as he settled himself in the driver’s seat. He’d started the engine and was about to slide the accelerator up when he realized it might be the last erection he’d ever get.
Depressing
thought.
“Ready?”

Lucy nodded. “How far away are we now?”

Tarq tapped the navigation control. “We might make it there before dark.”

“Good. I wouldn’t want to barge in on Nat in the middle of the night.”

“We could camp out again tonight if we get there too late.”

She bit her lip and took a deep breath. “Hopefully we won’t have to. I don’t like putting you to so much trouble.”

“It’s no trouble, Lucy. Really.”

She shook her head. “You’ve done enough for me already.”

There was no point in taking it slow now. Tarq hit the control bar and the speeder shot forward like a rocket.

They stopped once for lunch and again for dinner. Lucy barely said a word either time, and the conversation as they traveled was nonexistent. Tarq kept the speeder at full throttle the whole way.

He kept checking the navigation system, wishing that the town of Yalka was getting farther away instead of closer with each passing moment. The tiny arrow crept inexorably closer to the grid of streets on the map. Tarq was staring at it so hard that he would have missed the turnoff to Natasha’s place if Lucy hadn’t been watching for it.

“Slow down,” she said. “I think this is it.”

Tarq could see it now. Having kept his eyes fixed on the track in front of him or on the navscreen, he hadn’t noticed the change in the terrain. Trees were no longer stunted and the rocky, barren wasteland had risen up and given way to fields of green. Despite this, it still looked like the road to nowhere.

“Are you sure?”

Lucy nodded. “Five olive trees growing in a cluster next to a big rock. You can let me out here.”

“I’ll take you all the way to the house.”

“No,” she said firmly. “I don’t want anyone to see us together, and if anyone asks, you haven’t seen me. I don’t want you to be blamed for any of this.”

Tarq almost snarled in frustration. “I’m not letting you go by yourself. What if your friend doesn’t live here anymore?”

“She would have told me if she was moving, and there’d be no reason for that. She said she was happy and that their farm was doing well. No, she’s still here. Don’t worry about it.”

“I can’t do that, Lucy.”

“Oh, yes, you can. If you hadn’t found me, I’d have been going down this road alone anyway. I can’t see that it would make any difference.”

Tarq thought it made all the difference in the world, but then he remembered he’d already promised not to tell her what to do. And if she didn’t want to be with him, there was no more to be said. He couldn’t force her to love him.

Bringing the speeder to a halt, he watched her tap the door release icon, still not quite comprehending that she was actually leaving him.

“Don’t get out. I can manage it from here.” Climbing out of the speeder, she reached into the cargo space for her bag and slung it over her shoulder. “Thanks for everything, Tarq. Take care of yourself.”

“I will. You do the same.” Tarq was amazed that he could speak at all. “Be sure to register the babies with the Zetithian Birth Registry when they’re born. It’s… important.”

“I won’t forget.”

Something had to happen. Some miracle or some force of nature would intervene and make her see how wrong it was for her to simply walk away from him.

But nothing did.

With a firm nod, Lucy turned and headed off down the trail, and all Tarq could do was watch her go. She never even looked back. Tarq knew that because he waited until she was out of sight.

And then he waited some more.

Chapter 14

Lucy could barely see through the tears in her eyes as she walked down the lane that wound through the hills to Nat’s house. She’d known it was a long way off the main road, but after about an hour, she began to wonder if this was the right place after all. By the time she reached the house, however, her tears had dried enough that she could see quite clearly.

Except there wasn’t a house. Each and every building on the place had burned to the ground.

Walking through the ruins and still not quite comprehending the scope of the disaster, she was sure that farther on there would be a snug new house and her friend would be there to welcome her.

There was nothing. Not even a fence post was left standing. The silence was profound, broken only by the relentless wind whistling through tall unmown grass. In Nat’s garden, weeds had sprouted among the remains of the last season’s vegetables, obscuring the tangle of vines and dried stalks. To the east, the hill she stood upon sloped downward to a smooth hollow, only to rise up again where it met the distant foothills of the Eradic Mountains. Lucy knew it had once been sown with wheat and corn, but nature was already reclaiming it, turning it into a vast meadow of grasses and wildflowers.

She blinked and turned around slowly. If the house had simply been empty, she might have stayed there, but a feeling of malicious intent pervaded the area, warning her that this was no longer the safe haven she imagined. Whatever had happened here hadn’t been an accident, and she was terrified that Nat and her husband had perished in the fire.

Lucy realized then just how much she had counted on Nat being there for her. Somehow, knowing that this refuge existed had made her life more tolerable. Now that crutch was gone, leaving her feeling bereft, unsupported, and frighteningly vulnerable.

Normally unflappable, Lucy was unable to suppress a scream when a bird fluttered up from the ground nearby. Heart pounding, she ran to the shelter of a shade tree. Pressing her back against the wide trunk, she was momentarily reassured that at least nothing could grab her from behind, but as she gazed at the western sky, she was stricken with a new fear. The sun was already nearing the horizon. It would be dark soon, and this was the very last place she wanted to spend the night.

Fear spurred her into action, and Lucy hurried back down the lane, covering the distance to the main road much faster than she had before. If she kept moving, she might make it to the outskirts of Yalka before dark.

More than ever, she missed the security Tarq’s presence had given her. If only she hadn’t been so determined to escape from him, he would have brought her here in the speeder, and then they would have gone on to Yalka. He would have been much more difficult to walk away from then. He wouldn’t have left her to fend for herself in the new town; he would have helped her find a place to stay, would have assured himself of her safety before he went on his way again.

But she would never see him again. Given the speed he normally traveled, the odds of catching up with him were slim to none.

Still, this was no different than it would have been if she’d been on foot, as she’d pointed out to him. She would have arrived in Yalka exhausted and with no one to help her. At least she still had the money he’d given her. Without that, she truly would have been lost—a destitute pregnant girl roaming the streets of an unfamiliar town, she would have been at the mercy of anyone who happened to find her.

Shuddering, she realized then how foolish she’d been to leave her home, even with money in hand. What if she were robbed?

“Don’t make it any worse than it is, Lucy,” she said aloud, needing the comfort of a voice, even her own. “You’ll get through this, just like you’ve gotten through everything else. It will be a little harder, that’s all.”

Good words, perhaps, but they didn’t do a thing for her courage. Then she remembered her pistol. Reaching into her pocket, she pulled it out and checked the settings. Fully charged, it was set on heavy stun.

Gripping the handle, she walked on toward Yalka. As she approached the wooded area to the north, Lucy spotted a flash of metallic green nestled among the trees. Tarq’s speeder. He must’ve decided to camp there for the night instead of going on into the town. With a sigh of relief, she quickened her pace.

When she heard angry shouts, she started running.

***

Lucy might have walked away from him, but a couple of hours spent without her made Tarq more determined than ever. He wasn’t giving up and going on his merry way. She was his mate; the raw, empty feeling inside him was proof of that.

Though she would know he was lying through his teeth, he fully intended to show up at the house the next morning asking for directions to Yalka. She would assume that he was making sure she was safe without letting on that they’d been traveling together, but he would also meet this friend of hers, perhaps enabling him to drop in for the occasional visit while he was in town.

While this would have been the most reasonable approach, the longer he sat staring into his lonely campfire, the more the idea of flying back to Natasha’s farm and kidnapping Lucy began to appeal to him. This preoccupation left him unwary, which might explain why five human males were able to sneak up on a Zetithian. By the time he spotted them—and their knives—it was too late to run.

Armed only with a mug of hot tea, Tarq did manage to get one of them across the face with the scalding brew, but all it did was make him mad.

Tea dripped from an unkempt beard as the man wiped his eyes. “Fuckin’ Zetithian! You’ll pay for that.”

Tarq shrugged. “Pay? I’ve got money and a speeder. Take them. I don’t really give a damn.”

“Oh, we’ll take whatever we like,” another man said. “But we aren’t gonna let a stinkin’ fuckwad like you set foot in our town.”

“
Your
town?”