The Stubborn Lord (12 page)

If lips could search and plead, his were doing just that. For the longest time, he simply kissed her, holding her trapped against the side of the house. Slowly, his body came up against hers, brushing softly before pressing firmly. His hips rotated toward her, moving along her stomach. He slid his hands down the side of the house to grab hold of her ass. With a measured show of strength, he lifted her off the ground. She moved her hands from his face to his neck. She held on. Her thighs parted naturally to accept him.

Their legs tangled in the long length of her skirt. She fell back against the house, propped up by his hands. His lips followed her briefly before pulling back. The bulky material between them made it difficult to wrap her legs around his waist. Yellow intensity swirled in his gaze, molten hot like liquid gold. She felt the fire in him, the passion, and it was all directed at her. The intensity of that moment both frightened and exhilarated her. She tried to speak, but her brain couldn’t form a coherent word and all that came out was a soft, breathy moan.

“Come,” he said, more of a command than request. Her legs dropped a little too quickly and she was glad the house was there to keep her from falling.

“Where?” she whispered, her body weak like the cloth doll she had as a child. He took her wrist and pulled her around the side of the house. When they reached a small enclosed area, part wall, part trees and brush, he drew her against him once more.

“Is this safe?”

“Yes.” He kissed her softly. “Do you hear the birds?”

She nodded.

“They change their song when the Var are in the forest. There is something about the scent of a cat shifter that sets them off. I will know if we are not safe.” He tried to kiss her again, but she pulled her face away.

“Bron didn’t know. He was captured. Wouldn’t he have heard the birds?”

Alek’s expression fell. He looked as if she had slapped him. “You are justified in questioning my family’s honor in light of what happened to Bron. He should not have been captured as he was. We have been fighting the Var our whole lives. There is no explanation as to how he was overtaken by them unless the gods intervened. To be fair to my brother, not everyone can detect the more subtle differences in the birds’ songs. I have a special gift when it comes to understanding animals. I’ve had it since I was born. It is why I am the Top Breeder of the ceffyls.”

“I did not mean to insult your family. I am sure your brother is a fine fighter. Perhaps he didn’t see the Var because it is the Tyoe who took him.” Her sanity started to come back as his kisses dried from her lips. Desire and fear warred inside her. “The Tyoe are advanced.” Before he could comment on her choice of words, she quickly amended, “That is to say, they have technological advancements you do not employ on this planet.”

“We have not had any conflict with the Tyoe, so it would seem unlikely. We have dealt with the Var since before anyone can remember. I do not have answers, but I will not stop until I find them.” He touched her face. “I will protect you with my life, Kendall. You have my word.”

“I am not foolish enough to dismiss such a gesture. While I remain here, I will gladly accept your offer of protection. I am not equipped for planetary survival. I’ve only read about it.” She leaned unconsciously closer to him. “But I hope protection does not become necessary.”

“Planetary life is not so bad.” He cupped her face and gave her the smallest of smiles. Lids fell heavily over his liquid gaze. The gold color captured her attention, drawing her in to him. The side of the house felt intimate, secure, even as they were outside surrounded by trees. “There is something to be said for having a home that does not move.”

“Technically planets move. We’re moving right now.”

He closed his eyes and chuckled.

“I think I can feel the ground shifting. I feel a little lightheaded.” She slid her hands onto his arms. “I think I need to hold on to something.”

His eyes didn’t open as he leaned his face closer. She felt the heat of his body, the tickle of his breath against her lips. He waited for her mouth to touch his, letting his lips hover just beyond final contact. How could she resist?

This time when they kissed she knew there would be no stopping their consummation. The rush of denied desire built once more, untamed and raw. She pressed her mouth to his, moaning into an instantly deep kiss. Their lips ground passionately against each other, almost painful, yet somehow still pleasurable in their desperation.

The hard, cool stone of the house kept her upright as his body molded into hers. Every sensation magnified itself until her nerves stung and her thoughts swam in her head. The full length of her body tingled. Her arms restlessly moved as she tried to touch him everywhere at once. She tugged at his shirt. The smell of dust stirred around them and she gave a soft moan.

His kiss lightened, becoming gentler, as if the sound of her voice made him aware of how delicate she was. Kendall didn’t feel delicate. She felt needy and confident. She wanted to rip off his clothes, throw him to the ground and forget everything else. The mindless temptation was too much to fight. Reason left her until the only reality was the man before her.

Alek slid his hand along the back of her thigh and hitched up her leg. She pulled at his clothes. The warmth of his hard flesh met her fingers as she explored his chest beneath the tunic shirt. He flicked his tongue over her mouth. Their bodies became a frenzy of movements. His hands seemed to be everywhere at once.

Before Kendall could think, she found herself stripped of her clothing with loud rips and tears of material, and his naked body against hers. Pleasure, hot and sure, flowed over her. The attraction she felt for him seemed destined to be.

Kendall pulled her mouth from his, breathing hard. Destined to be? Did she suddenly believe in twentieth-century Earth stories of true love and destiny? Fated mates? True love? Soul joining?

The answer
yes
tried to whisper its way through her brain. She knew better. Deep down, logic knew better. This was lust, not love. This was passion and pleasure, not a matter of the heart. There was no such thing as one true love. How could there be? With all the people in the known universes, and those they hadn’t even made contact with, how could there be only one person meant for another? Alek and his people seemed to believe it. Maybe that was why she was thinking such nonsense. Or perhaps it was the way he was kissing her neck, licking and biting and moaning as he did so.

All the teasing of flesh accumulated into a jolt of excitement as he drew his body to hers. He lifted her off the ground, holding her against the wall as he opened her legs. The press of his shaft along her sex sent chills over her skin. He did not lift his face from her neck as he thrust forward. Like a well-trained marksman, he hit his target without first testing the depths. She stiffened as he filled her, stretching her muscles to fit his larger size. A low, animalistic growl escaped him and he barely gave her time to adjust before he began to move. He thrust, in and out, working his body against hers. His hips found a steady rhythm, taking and giving at the same time. Each grind of their bodies bespoke of hunger and need.

Alek rode her hard. He kept her pinned to the unforgiving wall. She could but take what he gave her.

It was over too quickly. Kendall didn’t want the moment to end and yet, as her orgasm hit her like a rogue fuel cell igniting, she had no choice but let it explode. She tensed, trembling and stiff at the same time. As her body clamped onto him, his low grunt resounded against her moist neck. He jerked his release into her, keeping his body deep inside hers.

A long, hot, sticky moment passed before he let her go. Her feet slid to the ground and leaves crushed beneath her shoes. Logic tried to invade her thoughts, but she didn’t want to think. Unbidden, she yawned. The relaxation of her climax triggered sleepiness.

“Come,” Alek said softly, urging her to follow him toward the front of the house. “It is quiet inside and you should rest.”

Kendall merely nodded.

* * *

Kendall stared at the wall, so exhausted she could barely move. Alek had left her alone so that he might bathe. He’d insisted she rest after being awake for so long, and that she could bathe when she awoke.

A small trail of light entered through the bottom of the bedroom door. It felt strange to be sleeping on a planet, with light, so much light. Space was dark for the most part, and her body was used to a strict schedule dictated by timed lights located high on the wall inside each metal room. Green was morning. Yellow meant afternoon. Red meant it was time to sleep. Here, there was just green-tinted daylight. She realized her body waited for the darkness that wouldn’t come, for a red light to signal that her day was done and that it was all right to be tired and to sleep.

The room was big, as was the bed. She huddled near the edge, wrapped in thick blankets to make her world feel smaller. There were no temperature controls, so even though it wasn’t too hot or too cold, it wasn’t exactly right. Then there was the noise. It was faint and rare, but it was there if she listened hard enough. Every once in a while some wild creature outside would yell or screech outside. So she stared at the wall, watching it, her mind unable to shut off as she imagined how thin and fragile the building stone was compared to the reinforced metal of a ship’s haul.

When she’d been with Alek outside, in a frenzy of passion and lust, she had felt something. It wasn’t a feeling she wanted to analyze too closely. She was an educated, logical, practical woman. In extreme situations bonds could form between people. She was on a new world, stressed, worried about Margot, desperate to save her sister, and Alek was the only person to show her kindness since her repossession.

There was something else bothering her too. They’d called her abduction a
repossession
, not a seizure of property. One could only repossess something they had possessed to begin with. She’d been too stressed by her situation to think about it before, but a repossession order only could mean this wasn’t the first time her father had gambled and lost her to the casino. Only, the other times, he must have won—or bought—her back before she found out about it. Somehow, the knowledge made her feel all the more alone in the world. How could the man have risked her like that? He knew the kinds of things that happened to enslaved women in the universe. She was lucky she had been sold to a legitimate marriage broker. She could have easily ended up in a Kintok sex-slave ring and forced to spend the rest of her life on a pleasure ship, indulging their clientele’s fetish games before ultimately being launched into deep space like trash when she became too used up to earn a profit.

When the stress of her thoughts had eaten a hole through her stomach and chest, she was forced to close her eyes. She couldn’t move even if she’d wanted to. The only thing that awaited her on the other side of sleep was the nightmares that could have very well been a reality.

Chapter Eight

Alek let Kendall sleep. The poor woman looked completely worn. She didn’t move when he crawled into bed next to her for a few hours, or when he crawled back out. It was no wonder. She’d been awake for nearly two days. The nights were a bit brighter up here, so it was possible she hadn’t even noticed the hours that passed. Alek was used to working for days at a time and hadn’t thought much about it. He should have been more conscientious of his new bride.

They had gotten a late start when they’d traveled up the mountain. Then his leaving to save Bron, the fight, making love, the aftermath of making love… It all added up to some very long hours. Alek smiled. At least it had ended well. Very well.

He stood alone next to the front door watching the distant skies. The forest sounded normal. There were no Var roaming the woods this morning. Everything in his gut told him that the Var were not responsible for Bron’s abduction. Could it be the gods had punished them for their botched ceremonies? Would he be next? Plucked off the ground and buried somewhere as punishment? Or was there a less mystical reason?

The Tyoe.

Alek frowned. He knew nothing of the Tyoe race. Such things they left to Mirek to deal with.

Alek loved his home world, so it wasn’t hard for him to imagine another race of aliens wanting to take it for themselves. The location of Qurilixen in the star system made it isolated with very low space travel. People generally didn’t come to the planet unless they had a reason to. The Federation left them alone. The carefully cultivated decision to appear low-tech—while aesthetically pleasing—had the added benefit of hiding their true defensive power to the rest of the universes. It was the same reason they didn’t let it be known they were shifters. In the old days, some liked to capture his kind and force them into militaries. He remembered sitting around campfires as a young boy, listening to his elders debate the idea of hiring outside corporations to bring brides to the planet. In the end, it had been decided their need for women outweighed the risk of lost privacy. No women equaled no future generations to protect the privacy of. Not all generations would be so lucky as to have a ship filled with single women crash in the forest, as had happened once in the past. Those who were against the Galaxy Brides contract cited the incident, saying the gods had provided for them. Not everyone was willing to take that chance. In the end, the compromise had been to carefully dictate the terms of any information distributed about their kind. Galaxy Brides didn’t care, so long as they got their annual shipment of ore to fuel all their ships.

“I thought I sensed you awake,” Bron said from the door. Alek had heard him moving around inside the house.

“I am considering the Tyoe,” Alek answered.

“Then you heard what my wife said?”

Alek nodded.

“That will save me having to explain it. That’s why I came out to talk to you.” Bron took his place next to his brother, leaning against the wall and looking at the sky. “I thought you might have heard what she said. However, I did question her more about it. Aeron came here to try to protect us. I have no reason to doubt her concerns.”