Chapter 4
Overwhelming weariness pulled Reyna down on her bed. How could she carry this secret? She couldn’t reveal it even to Rose.
She picked up her notebook and started scribbling her impressions of the planet and the people so far. She jotted down every reference she heard to family connections. She kicked herself for not asking Haya more about Clan Assan when she had the chance. Dana Barr, the genealogist on the other team, would have to get that information.
Still, the secret of Haya’s connection with two Assan brothers was a priceless discovery. Would she ever be able to capitalize on it? She might find, in her investigations into this Clan’s history, that such a secret would be better left out of her official report to the Allied Command. The Allies already thought this male-dominated race was backward and in desperate need of an education in the proper treatment of women.
Whoever heard of a woman falling in love with two men—and brothers, at that? Haya said Callan knew perfectly well how his wife longed for her old lover. What if the situation had been reversed? What if Warku won that fight and Callan had been driven from his home so Warku could marry Haya?
Were there really women living on this planet, married to two men at the same time? The very idea rankled all Reyna’s sensibilities. What had the men on this planet done to their women, to twist their values so radically?
Then again, Reyna couldn’t judge. Her own values about men and women warped the very instant she set foot on this planet. No wonder the Allies women grew bigger than their men, if bigger men made women act like this.
She started to lie down when a light knock sounded on her door. That must be Rose, come to talk over their progress so far—not that they’d made any. When she opened the door, she found Damen standing there.
He looked around the room. “Aren’t you going to invite me in?”
“Do you want something?”
“I want you to invite me in.”
She stood back. “Come on in, if you want to.”
He sauntered into the room. He inspected every detail like he’d never seen the place before. “What are you doing at the moment?”
“I just got here. Haya was showing me around, and I just sat down to take a load off my feet. What are you doing at the moment?”
“At the moment, I’m talking to you. Where did you go with Haya?”
“She showed me another entrance to the Keep on the eastern side of the mountain, but I already knew about that. Tanner told me about it. Then she took me way down inside the lower levels of the Keep to a big dark cavern.”
His head shot up. “She showed you that? She shouldn’t have done that.”
“Why not? Is it secret?”
“Not anymore, I guess.”
She waited. “Is there some reason you wanted to see me? Is there some reason you’re here, in my private bedroom?”
“I wanted to see you. I wanted to get near you, just like I did in the passage.”
“Well, now you’re near me.”
He came up close to her. “Not close enough.”
His body radiated overpowering energy. That energy blasted into her bones. It demanded her attention. She couldn’t move away from it. She could offer only the lamest excuse. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“Why wouldn’t it be a good idea? Anyone can see the way Rohn looks at Rose. She took him back to her room under the pretext of giving him a medical examination. They’re probably doing the same thing right now in her room.”
“Doing what same thing?”
He laid his hand on her cheek. His touch burned into her skin. Sparks jumped across from his fingers into her flesh. Did his skin have some biological properties that made it electromagnetic?
He ran his hand down her neck to where her cleavage showed above her shirt. “They’re touching each other, making each other hot. They’re rubbing their bodies together to please themselves.”
Reyna’s head swam in a drunken delirium of emotions and sensations. His touch brought her body to life. Her genitals ached, and the muscles along her inner chasm pulsated with throbbing desire to join with him. Her nipples pricked up under her shirt, and he definitely saw them this time. He let his hand trace down her breast, and he stroked their sharp points through her shirt.
“You want it, don’t you? You want me to touch you and own you. You want my body inside yours. Don’t deny it.”
If only she could tear herself away, she could deny it all she liked. She couldn’t, though. His touch brought her to her knees. She gazed up into his eyes. He knew exactly what he was doing to her. He started this at the table where no one could see. Now he would finish it, and there was nothing under the sun she could do to stop it. She didn’t want to stop it. Her soul cried out for it.
He growled under his breath. His other hand found its way to her hip, and he pulled her against him. “Tell me you want it. Tell me you want to scream my name.”
She swallowed the lump in her throat. “Someone would hear us. Someone would know. Rose would know.”
“No one can hear you through these walls. You can scream all you like.”
“You said you heard what Whitney said through the door of your room.”
“I lied. I was standing down the passage where you couldn’t see me.”
That drove her away from him. He lied? “So, you weren’t in your room.”
“My room isn’t in that part of the Keep. No one lives in that part of the Keep.”
She stared up at him. “How could you lie like that?”
“I wanted to get near you. I wanted to get between you and that straw man.”
“Don’t call him a straw man. He’s smart and kind and talented.”
“You don’t want smart and kind and talented, though, do you? He can be just as smart and kind and talented as you want him to be and still be a straw man.”
“I don’t like you calling him that.”
“Okay. I won’t call him that anymore. What would you like me to call him—a scarecrow?”
“Just call him Whitney. He’s earned that much, at least.”
“All right. Whitney.”
“I wish you hadn’t lied to him.”
“Do you wish I hadn’t interfered with your conversation? Do you wish I had stayed away from you?”
“No, I guess I don’t.”
He took a step closer. “I saw the way you looked at me when you touched my medallion. Your face changed color.”
“Your face changed color, too.”
“Did you like touching it? Did you like touching me?”
Her face changed color again. “Yes.”
“Did you like me touching you at the table? Did that excite you?”
“Yes. It excited me, and it also confused me.”
“Why did it confuse you?”
“Because I liked it. I didn’t expect to like it.”
“I wanted to do a lot more than that, but I thought perhaps Whitney wouldn’t appreciate it.”
“No, he definitely wouldn’t. I’m surprised you considered him.”
“I have no choice but to consider relations between my people and the Allies. My father would be furious if I offended anyone on your team.”
“He doesn’t seem to show any scruples about offending us.”
His eyebrows shot up. “What does that mean?”
“He keeps arguing with Rose about the Allies’ intentions. All your people have been hostile toward us since we got here. No one will tell us anything, and none of you men will even talk to Tanner and Whitney.”
“I talked to Whitney.”
“You know what I mean. You won’t give us the information we need to complete our mission. You won’t reveal anything about your people to us.”
“What would you like to know? You can ask me anything.”
“You’re different. You’ve talked to me, but I can’t help thinking you’re doing that for another reason.”
His face twisted up into a wry grin. “And what reason would that be?”
“You just said you wanted to get close to me.”
“I did say that, and I do want to get close to you. If answering your questions gets me closer, I’ll do it.”
“What other way is there?”
He loomed over her in all his massive power. “By touching you the way I did at the table—and other ways.”
“What other ways?”