The Healer's Kiss: Book Four of the Forced To Serve Series (5 page)

“No,” Chiang said flatly. “Because it would be a lie. This is a risk for both of us. You’re going to have to accept that if you spend the night in my bed.”

Boca huffed out a shaky breath and climbed onto the sleeping platform despite the knot of tension in her belly. Lieutenant Zade was right about one thing. If she was afraid of Chiang’s desire for her, even when he was drugged and mostly incapable, how would she handle being wanted again by the kind of male she detested?

She had to figure it out, had to find a way to shore up her defenses. Dealing with bonding advances was every female’s curse on Lotharius.

Boca scolded herself mentally for her fears as she stretched out cautiously beside Chiang’s naked length. She put her head on the edge of his one long pillow and one of her hands on his chest so she wouldn’t fall out of the bed.

“I trust you not to harm me, Chiang of Greggor,” she whispered.

“I’m glad you can’t see the images in my head right now then. I’d like nothing more than to wrap your very long hair around my wrist and hold you in place with it while you ride my bonding organ to oblivion,” Chiang said in a husky whisper. “Or I can ride you. It matters not to me who’s on top in the race to pleasure.”

“Shhhh…” Boca whispered back, hand trembling as she patted his chest. “You distract me with your talk of wanting.”

“And you distract me with your trembling denials when I
feel
your want,” Chiang stated. “Have you never been an equal with a bonding partner before?”

Boca stopped stroking. “No. The males I mated knew my Sumerian capabilities and used that knowledge to demand what they wanted.”

“When it comes to pleasure, all creatures want the same things. What about what you wanted?” Chiang asked.

“Since my early days with Rogan, I have not felt pleasure with a male until you forced me to do so during the Sumerian first commitment,” Boca admitted. “Do not think to use this admission against me.”

Chiang’s hand came up to cover hers. He wondered how he was ever going to get Boca to set aside her bad memories. All he wanted was for her pleasure to be as great as his. He could hear the resentment of the desire she felt for him in her tone.

“Must bonding always be just another form of conflict in your eyes, Boca Ador? Can it not just be a simple act of equal giving and receiving?”

Boca put her forehead against Chiang’s arm. “Is that what bonding is for you?”

“Usually,” Chiang admitted. “But
giving
has become even more compelling when I think of bonding with you. I wish you could trust this as a truth.”

“I have no trust left to give you, Chiang of Greggor,” Boca whispered, “but I have other gifts.”

“You will not pleasure me without letting it be reciprocal. And yes, that is a demand of our bonding time together. Consider it a formal mating request if you must,” Chiang said tightly, frowning down on the top of her head as she continued to hide her face from him. “Are we of an accord, Boca Ador of Sumeria?”

“Aye,” she whispered, trying not to be agitated. She did not like the pressure to perform. “May I pleasure you—
us
—now.”

Chiang rolled to the side until he’d captured the tiny female in his arms. He held her as lightly as he could, fighting the urge to crush her to him and make sure she never left his side until they were both sated. Worried that the slightest wrong move would send her fleeing again, Chiang lay still as Boca scooted deeper into his arms, pushing herself against the front of him. Never had anything felt so right. When she settled finally, Chiang moaned as his hands roamed her back, marveling at her tiny size and how much he wanted inside her.

“Must you always growl whenever you hold me?” Boca rasped, fingers squeezing his flesh that barely gave under her hands. “It destroys my concentration. And it—frightens me. There—I have admitted it.”

“
Growl
?” Chiang repeated, surprised at her words. “I do not growl.”

“You make a terrible sound like an animal in pain,” Boca declared fiercely.

“I make no sound,” Chiang denied just as fiercely back. “I think I would know if I was making a sound.”

Boca rolled her eyes as she’d often seen Gwen do, but that only served to lift her gaze to Chiang’s sincere one above her head. Did he truly not realize he growled with her?

“You growl,” Boca stated again, peering up into his gaze. She felt the rumble in his chest as he started to laugh. “This amuses you?”

“The fact you think I growl amuses me,” Chiang said. “Is this your idea of pleasant bonding talk? If so, it could use some work. This still feels like arguing to me.”

Boca put a hand on his chest and pushed until she leaned back in his arms. “I’m sorry that I’m not as sweet and accommodating as your other females.”

“Are you sure you know what that English word means well enough to use it in speech? I assure you ‘accommodating’ is not one I would attach to any description of you,” Chiang teased.

“
Enough
,” Boca practically yelled, hearing herself sound exactly like Gwen had that day with her. She became more irritated when Chiang only laughed tiredly again. “You’re making me very angry, Chiang of Greggor.”

“Raging fires of Helios, Boca. If I’m amused, it’s at myself. Your pathetic efforts to seduce me are still making me regret I took that cursed sleep aide. What a desperate male I have become to settle for a reluctant bonding partner. Perhaps we are being evenly tortured,” Chiang said on a chuckle.

Then he felt a small hand reach up to his scalp and wrap around his largest braid before yanking his hair hard as she glared at him. It had the effect of bringing his body to immediate attention despite its drugged state.

“Ouch,” he said, more in shock than pain. “Do you want me to defend myself from being attacked by a fierce Sumerian warrior?”

Her hot, ravenous mouth on his wiped every humorous thought from his mind. When Boca pulled his tongue deeply into her mouth, and wrapped hers through the middle of his split, Chiang heard himself make a sound. It was unlike anything he’d ever heard before.

His body conceded to Boca’s demands without so much as a pang of regret. He wanted her to never stop kissing him in just that manner. No female had kissed him so intimately since he’d left his own planet, and no female’s tongue had ever tamed him until now.

Her free hand ran down the middle of his chest sending dancing fire and waves of pleasure coursing through the rest of him. Whatever her hands touched vibrated in answer. Shades of Kellnor, he wanted her hands to move lower, but he couldn’t free his tongue to say so. And he would not force her—not this time—but he had to have her soon.

Agile for a large man, Chiang rolled and sat up with Boca wrapped around him, lifting her tiny form fully into his lap, not even conscious of having done so until they were both upright and his arms had locked her in place on him.

Through it all, Boca never broke their searing kiss, her tongue stroking the middle of his until he was willing to do anything she asked in exchange for the pleasure her kiss promised. Something in his energy must have reached out to her because she finally broke off the contact.

Chiang wanted to crush her to him in response and beg her to keep torturing him.

“Cease struggling and calm your thoughts,” Boca ordered huskily, going back for more.

One hand in his braids turned to two. Chiang couldn’t recall any female holding him captive with only her mouth, and yet the one in his arms was certainly doing so. When Boca quivered, he wrapped her closer, one of his hands weaving itself in her long, unbound hair as he let her torture him as thoroughly as she wished. When it hit, the vibration Boca had created tore through both of them simultaneously, bringing an abrupt halt to their tangled tongue kiss as they both called out with the pleasure. Chiang rocked against her to add to it, wishing with all that was in him that he could be within her. But he would not take what was not being offered.

“I concede your victory. You have a very aggressive tongue,
mea aprinsa putin razboinic
,” Chiang declared, stroking her back and falling back down on the bed with her now relaxed body draped over his still naked one. She was so small, he barely felt her weight on him.

Boca smacked Chiang’s chest, irritated that he kept speaking words she could not understand. “Speak English,” she demanded. “Not Greggor.”

Chiang laughed at her irritated tone. “I called you
my
fierce little warrior
.”

Mollified by his announcement, Boca lay down on top of Chiang’s large body, spreading her arms and legs around him, trying to cradle all of the giant male that she could. How she wished some of his great strength could be hers.

“Let us hope I can live up to that description,” Boca said sincerely. “I do not feel so fierce right now.”

“Since you have rarely known reciprocal bonding, I will explain its effects. Pleasure tires the body, but tomorrow you will feel stronger for having been thoroughly relaxed through the sleep cycle. To morally support you, I will come watch you toss the cocky ensigns on their arses,” Chiang said, rubbing her back, only to be stopped by the hygiene straps. “I hate these blasted things.”

“So do I,” Boca admitted, too pleasantly tired to lie convincingly.

“May I liberate you from them?” Chiang asked.

“Do as you wish,” she conceded, feeling the straps ripped away in seconds and thrown as if they were of no substance at all.

He was growling again, but it didn’t bother her as much when his hands covered the now completely naked skin with even more soothing strokes. It had been a long time, and she had forgotten how good it felt to be sated from pleasure. Then there was also the comfort of Chiang’s hands kneading her back and working their way lower, massaging her hips and helping her forget the pain of hitting the mat over and over that day. His touch was indeed a gift.

“Your hands are full of healing,” Boca said sleepily. “This is a profound truth, Chiang of Greggor.”

“Sleep,” Chiang ordered, frowning at her pronouncement, even though he was glad it was true tonight. “Healing is a choice I make each day. I was once a warrior too. Now rest.”

“I was trying to give you a compliment. Cease your orders, Greggor, and never say again that I am more commanding than you,” Boca said, eyes drifting closed.

She felt Chiang laughing as he gently rolled her off him and pulled the edge of the pillow down under her head. Shortly after, a light covering was tucked around her. It was impossible not to smile.

“I am sufficiently soothed now,” she whispered, unable to keep the smile off her face or out of her voice. “Be at peace and go to sleep yourself.”

Chiang’s answer was a kiss on the top of her head as he pulled her hair out from under the cover and laid it along the front of her until it reached her belly.

Boca fell asleep to the soothing rhythm of Chiang stroking the front of her through her hair.

And even though it no longer bothered her, the Greggor
was
growling.

Tomorrow she would find a way to prove it to him.

Chapter 4

“Can I sit in the co-pilot’s chair?” Malachi asked.

“If you wish,” Dorian replied, thinking it was a good idea because he’d rather have the demon where he could keep an eye on him than sitting behind him in a passenger seat doing who knew what kind of scheming.

The spiritual arrogance that had made him brag to Liam and Ania about not fearing being alone with Malachi died swiftly in the reality. Only now did he realize what a responsibility he had taken on when the only control he had over the demon was that Liam had ordered Malachi to obey him explicitly. Watching his awestruck flight mate checking out the shuttle’s interior with a child’s interest did little to ease his mind.

Malachi settled into the seat beside the wary Lieutenant Zade, gazing raptly at the controls. “I spent most of my existence on Norblade and was never put into a shuttle pilot host. Now I wish I had been. Flying this craft looks very interesting.”

Dorian nodded to acknowledge the question. “I learned for the pleasure of learning but discovered I was a natural. When I was first commissioned as an ensign, I spent a lot of time transporting passengers back and forth, including Peace Alliance Ambassadors like Ania was in her former job.”

“Yes, I know,” Malachi said. “Ania has many fond memories concerning your occasional meetings over the centuries. I made sure she got them all back when I removed my energy blocks. My host is quite fond of you.”

“And I am fond of her,” Dorian replied, “even though her wisdom often makes me feel like a child with no understanding at all. It’s the effect a great teacher always has on a pupil, no matter how much time has passed.”

Malachi watched Zade’s sure movements, fascinated with how adept the Siren was. “I hope it doesn’t worry you too much if I confess to being excited about making this trip without one of my keepers along. Of course, my list of do and don’t commands left little room for me to get into any significant trouble on this short trip. From Chiang’s description, I gather the Paladin XII is a much larger ship than the Liberator.”

“Yes. Odd coincidence that it is, we are heading to the descendant ship of my first one. My first commissioned contract was on the original Paladin,” Dorian said, reminiscing as he momentarily forgot he was telling his story to a demon.

“How long does a ship last before another replaces it? The metal of some planets can last for centuries, even in space. You hardly seem old enough to have lived through eleven descendent ships.” Malachi smiled at Zade’s look of surprise over the comment.

“Creating the Peace Alliance involved the sacrifice of the first few ships. The others remain in service I suppose.” Dorian favored his flight mate with a smile. “I’m over six hundred Earth years old. How old are you?”

“I really need to figure out an answer to that query because I am often asked. Truthfully, I do not know. I ceased tracking time in that manner after the first millennia of my mist form. Being able to report age serves no point when your existence is endless,” Malachi said on a laugh.