Chapter Seventeen
Trask left an unhappy mate glaring at him as he walked out the door the next morning. It could have been his warning to be good she’d bristled over, or the answer he’d given when she asked to accompany him to his meeting with Kerr.
“You’ll be discussing me,” she protested. “Don’t I get a say in what is decided?”
“I’ll represent your interest in whatever happens. You are to stay here, where it is safe, and you can’t get into trouble.”
Although he spoke the truth, his order wasn't received well. He understood her frustration at being confined at home alone; she was used to being busy. Except working from daylight till past dark like she'd done on the colony was unacceptable. He didn’t want her exhausted unless he was the cause, which he’d done an admirable job of the last night and twice this. But he couldn’t stay home 24/7 and make love to his mate, no matter how much they both would enjoy that.
He needed answers, so he could release her from what she called, house arrest, which she also used synonymously with the term cruel and inhuman punishment. Reminding her there were much worse penalties than residing in a fully automated comfortable home, exile away from him, for one, had wiped the defiant look from her face.
Even annoyed, she was lovely, with her pouty lips and the spark in her brown eyes, which were beautiful, though he preferred them with flecks of blue and green. And the way she crossed her arms, which plumped up her breasts so the upper curves swelled above the scooped neckline of her dress, something he felt sure she wasn't aware of, or she would have stopped, and blushed scarlet. The mental picture made him want her again, as though he was going through the hunger after their first joining, all over again.
“I wasn't sure I should believe the rumors you brought your Lana home, but judging by the look on your face they were true.” Trask looked up to find Ram standing at the bottom of the steps leading to the capital center waiting for him. When he came alongside him, the Master Warrior who topped him by an inch and outweighed him by about thirty pounds—all of it muscle—slapped him hard on the back. “About time you two came to your senses.”
He made it sound as though their reconciliation wasn't born of necessity, which was sobering. “Make no mistake, Lana came to her senses because she faced a one-way ticket back to Earth. Things between us are better, though hardly resolved.”
“You mean she hasn’t told you what made her flee?” Ram frowned. “I know it wasn’t out of longing for her homeworld or because of her career, both ridiculous excuses. Eryn called it, right off. What she called it I won't repeat, however.”
Trask grunted, though at another time, he would have laughed. Ram’s fiery-haired mate wasn’t known for her verbal restraint. “She hasn’t told me why she bolted like she did, not yet, but I’ll find out. She is already beginning to weaken under my interrogation techniques.”
Ram’s eyes flared before he grinned. “I was going to recommend setting the helper to position two and paddling her butt until she confessed, but it sounds like you have things well in hand. I give her a week before she not only weakens, but crumbles.”
“I don’t know. She’s stubborn.”
“I’ll send Eryn and Cierra around for a visit. My mate can be very persuasive.”
“Lana would enjoy that. She is lonely, and has missed her friends, especially your mate and your daughter.”
They had arrived at Kerr’s private residence by then and met Lothar in the corridor. They were shown in promptly by Janus, the Princep’s steward, and led to his office. Seated at the small conference table with another warrior, Kerr had already started the meeting without them, or so it appeared at first glance.
The other man was a 3D holographic image of Commander Roth who joined them by satellite relay from Earth. From the swivel chair to their Princep’s right, he spun to greet them as they walked in. “I leave for a few months and you shirkers start coming in late for meetings?”
Lothar, a stickler for promptness, checked the clock. “We’re five minutes early, Commander.”
“Not when I’m the first to arrive from galaxies away and have good news to share.”
“Stop grinning like an infant on his birth anniversary,” Lothar shot back. “And tell us your news.”
“Funny you should say that, my friend. Maggie is breeding and we’re coming home.”
“That’s more than good news, my friend,” Kerr said, smiling as broadly as Roth. “At the rate we’re going, we’ll have our population doubled in no time.” His leader’s troubled eyes shifted his way. “Trask, I’m sorry. I didn’t think.”
He shook his head. “If it is meant to be for me, it will happen.”
“But I don’t mean to rub salt in the wound with our happiness.”
“Nonsense, I can be pleased my friends are having success where I am not. My congratulations, Roth.” To shift the subject away from him, he added further, “When can we expect you to return?”
“We leave in a week.”
“So quickly?”
“I want her home when the baby comes.”
They all nodded in understanding. Primarian medical technology far exceeded Earth’s capabilities.
“Who will you appoint in your stead?”
“Kanei. He has been with me since the beginning, has the trust of the human leadership, and is up to the task. Besides, there is a female who has caught his eye, so I don’t think I could pry him away from this crumbling rock if I wanted to.” The commander’s face turned serious. “Things are getting too dangerous here.”
“From the protestors?” Trask asked.
“Violent incidents continue, but I meant the planet. I wasn’t exaggerating about the crumbling part. The Earth has become more volatile in the short time since you left. There was an 8.0 quake on the Eastern Seaboard, with significant damage in New York City, and a tidal wave flooded the New Jersey coastline. The weather outbreaks can’t be called such any more since they are a constant. I don’t think it’s safe for our people to remain much longer. I’m leaving so soon because I won’t have Maggie, or our child, at risk. And I’ve been away from my command too damn long.”
Kerr glanced at Trask. “We have to step up construction.”
“I placed a call to Mr. Kincaid before this one,” Roth informed them. “It’s unfortunate about the mine explosion, and the problems for relocation it poses, but those of us here on Earth don’t have time to wait. I’ve already put an accelerated transition plan in motion. More resources are in transit, additional construction crews, and temporary housing has been sent. By my guess, the people here have a year, two at the most before a global catastrophic event takes place. The allied countries have commissioned a dozen more ships. And if Kincaid can make it happen, we’ll start transitioning nonessential residents next month.”
“It doesn’t sound like Mr. Kincaid has any choice but to be ready,” Kerr said grimly. “We’ll send more resources.”
“We have another problem,” Lothar said into the silence. “There is something strange happening in the colony.”
“Since when?” Trask demanded. “We just left there.”
“Yes, and since then, three humans have gone missing. One was located outside of town—dead.”
A cold knot formed in the pit of Trask's stomach. “My sister is still there.”
Lothar’s gaze met his and he warned in an ominous tone, “Bring her home, General, or double her guard. I don’t like the smell of this.”
Kerr looked at Trask. “I know you returned only a few days ago—”
“But I need to go back.” he repeated, then cursed under his breath. “I won’t be able to bring Lana with me.”
“That isn’t a problem, because you aren’t fated, right?” Lothar asked.
Everyone, even Roth’s holograph shot the insensitive man an irritated look.
“Says the warrior who hasn’t experienced a separation from his mate for over a year,” Ram drawled, the only one other than Trask who knew how difficult it was to endure.
“Oh,” his second-in-command muttered. “That’s right. Sorry.”
Kerr shook his head while frowning at the younger man. “We have a new group of warrior trainees beginning in a few days, don’t we, Ram? With the general on assignment, I’m sure Lothar will be happy to step in and assist in his stead. Trask is usually there often the first few weeks, correct?”
“Yes, and he told me just this morning he wanted to be even more involved. Leading by example, he said, and training right along with them—daily. Lothar, as his second, will be the perfect replacement.”
It was Lothar who wore the irritated expression now. Perhaps his Princep’s lesson would remind him to think before speaking next time. The others chuckled at his expense, except Trask, who was already heading for the door. He had arrangements to make and a mate who was a magnet for trouble to keep safe. How he’d do that while half a sector away, he hadn’t a clue.
***
The last time she’d lain in this spot, on her back, staring up through the skylight in Trask’s giant master bedroom, the wispy, feather-like clouds in the vivid pinkish-purple sky had been a source of endless fascination. Now, they barely registered, her brain too busy sifting through the string of events which had brought her to this point in her life—a prisoner in what was her new home.
Trask believed the Purists who were behind the North Mine explosion on Primaria one year ago, were also behind the Terra Nova disaster. The investigation back then led to arrests, but the architect behind the plot and the leader of their dissident faction had never been identified. The Purists implicated were amazingly stubborn in their silence, even when faced with the harshest of punishments—exile. The threat of banishment from your people—to never, ever be allowed to return was dire enough to make Lana tremble in her bones, and more importantly, comply with something she’d run from for over a year.
She had to wonder at the Purist’s motivation to risk it. Was it out of loyalty to a man or group of men, or perhaps they didn’t know who the mastermind was, and their devotion was stringently to their cause. As xenophobic as it seemed, and as shocking as it was to Kerr and his leaders, it came as no surprise to those from Earth—where bigotry and hatred were hardly new concepts. And even if they had managed to squelch a mass rebellion, overt acts of aggression in a string of targeted incidents continued.
It started with Eva getting shot, but Lana excluded her from the pattern, since she’d been swept up with the escape attempt like the rest of the crew, and the shooter was a jealous woman acting out of spite and desperation. Next, came Maggie, implicated in the poisoning of a ship full of warriors, including her mate. It had come close to tearing them apart, but she ended up saving them in the end earned everyone’s respect and trust, which must have ticked off the conspirators.
Eryn had been the focus of multiple efforts to keep her away from Ram. Falsified test scores, tampered pregnancy tests, and an attempt on her life in the hospital. Later, she’d been manipulated into returning to Primaria while her warrior mate was away, to stand trial on charges of sabotaging the mine explosion. It turned out to be a ruse to get her off the planet where she was kidnapped by a race of alien parasites who would have enslaved her and used her in a manner too obscene to imagine.
These plots had been foiled because her teammates were badass women and their warriors were equally capable. The trend, however, seemed to be continuing with her and these ridiculous charges. But why? Already estranged from Trask, if the intent was to widen the chasm between them, it had failed miserably.
The treaty was a success, however, in both the integration of humans into Primarian society and the founding of the colony. Happy mates existed on both sides and they had made a good start toward their goal of repopulation. And, even though the mine explosion was a backset, progress on Terra Nova continued. At this late date, what was the purpose of these schemes?
There had to be a common thread they were missing which would identify who was behind it all. Unfortunately, she’d been gone from Primaria too long to have all the relevant facts. She needed to talk to someone who’d been here all along to help piece the puzzle together—one of the other original eight. Mailynn, Krager’s mate, or even better, Eva, the Prima.
But how, when she had guards at her front and rear gates?
An idea popped into her head.
Climbing to her feet, she crossed to the window. The fogged glass turned clear when she waved her hand over the sensor; another pass over the side panel made them slide open. Leaning out, she looked down and gulped hard. She’d snuck out of plenty windows as a teen, but never from so high up. Heights were so not her favorite thing. She leaned out farther scanned for other lower options, but because of the vaulted ceiling in the room below this one, there weren’t any.
As she debated the lunacy of not only scaling the wall to get down, but doing so again to get back in, she chewed on her lip. Because she was desperate to clear her name, and get out from this cloud of suspicion, and further, with two days of being home alone doing nothing stretched out before her, she made her decision—to go for it.
After an extensive search for rope and coming up empty, and a fire escape rope not conveniently available, she resorted to a cliched, yet tried-and-true method—knotted sheets. He only had two sets. The fitted bottom sheet, which was made of a thin, soft mesh that allowed the autoregulating bed to sense the sleepers body temperature, wasn’t sturdy enough for her purposes. This left her the two top sheets. She felt a twinge of guilt as she tore the first long strip. More could be made in the replicator in a jiffy, she rationalized, but still felt a tingle in her hind parts as she imagined Trask’s response if he learned what she’d done. But he was gone until late tomorrow. She’d visit her friends, ask her questions, hopefully gain some insight into what the heck was going on, and be back with the mess cleaned up long before his return. And she rationalized further, this could have been avoided if the man had taken two minutes out of their busy sex life to get her a transmitter.
Okay, he had a lot of time to make up for, but he couldn’t stop thinking about sex for two minutes? That excuse wouldn’t fly if he learned of this, she just had to hope he wouldn’t.
While ripping more strips and knotting them tightly together, Lana dredged up a prayer from her memories, a bedtime rhyme from her early childhood which didn’t apply at all but was all she could think of at the moment. After reciting it, she tacked on the most important part at the end. “And please, God, don’t let me land on my fool head.”
With another quick peek to make sure the yard separating Trask’s residence from the next was still empty, she tossed out her makeshift rope.
As she watched it unravel, Lana muttered, “Good grief.” It came up short, the end dangling above the ground not reaching it. She’d still have a drop. From this angle, even leaning from side to side, she couldn’t tell how much exactly, but it was enough to make the butterflies in her stomach start to dance. Although not too much for her to abort the whole crazy scheme. She had a mystery to solve.
Gathering her skirt to mid-thigh, Lana lifted one leg over the sill. Then, with her eyes closed, she grabbed onto her lifeline and threw her other leg over, lowering herself out the window. As she descended, hand over hand, she didn’t imagine falling, her upper body strength and her weight—still below her average—were one thing in her favor. Instead, she tried to gather her nerve for what was yet to come, literally at the end of her rope.
“Remember your basic training,” she whispered. “Soft knees and roll.”
Except she barely passed the obstacle course.
“Lana?”
The faint call from deep inside the house paralyzed her momentarily.
What was he doing home?
Trask called her again, louder.
Unsure what to do, she hung there on the side of the house, halfway down. Did she climb back up before he noticed or go down and act like she’d only stepped out to take a bit of air. The former would require strength that she wasn’t sure she possessed, and the latter would mean she’d somehow gotten passed the guards. Crap! She’d really stepped in a pile of it this time. In either case, she had to decide fast before he noticed the open window with the knotted sheet streaming out.
Too late came the next instant. The sound of boots thudding rapidly on the floor preceded her name in a thunderous roar above her head. “Lana! By the Maker! What are you doing!”
Escaping, obviously—but she didn’t dare say that.
“Get back in here, now,” he ordered, the roar replaced by a growl.
She hesitated a half second then decided, since she’d been caught red-handed, it was best to do as she was told. But her arms were shaking, and when she tried to pull herself up, she couldn’t pry her fingers off the homemade rope. “Um, Trask, I can’t.”
“Why not?”
“I think my arms have given out.”
“Let go. Remus will catch you.”
“Who?”
“Me.” A deep masculine voice rumbled below her. “You can trust me not to drop you, Trask’s mate.”
She looked down and caught a glimpse of a dark head far below her swaying skirt. The butterflies of before now felt like a flock of angry birds. She shook her head. “No, thank you.”
“What do you mean, no thank you?” Trask demanded. “This is hardly the time for games.”
“I’m not playing a game,” she snapped. “I’m afraid of heights.”
Silence greeted her statement. A moment later, his anger hit her like a wave. “Then why would you ever consider climbing out a third-floor window, let alone do it?”
“Yelling at me isn’t helping,” she shot back. “And to answer your question, I didn’t realize it would be quite this bad until I got here.”
He uttered a muffled curse she’d never heard before. “You can’t hang there all day, or you surely will fall. I’ll pull you up.”
That meant going higher. “No! Give me a moment to get up the nerve, and I’ll drop down.”
“The nerve, huh? What were you going to do when you got to the end in the first place without someone to catch you?”
She hesitated, even while suspended twenty feet up. “Obviously, I hadn’t thought this all the way through.”
“By the Maker, woman—”
“Stop fussing at me while I’m hanging on for dear life!”
“Whose fault is that?” he barked.
“Mine, entirely,” she shot back, “but you’re not making this any easier.”
“Pardon me, General. Perhaps you should wait to, uh, debate this with your mate until she is safe on the ground. She’s trembling.”
“Remus is correct. I’m pulling you up; hold on tight.”
The rope moved one jerky foot then two, and soon he was hauling her up more quickly. Suddenly, her momentum stopped with a lurch, and a loud rip.
“Stop,” she squealed. Looking up, she saw her sheet rope had snagged on a sharp edge of the masonry.
“It’s going to tear.”
“You have no choice but to go down, paulova. Remus, get ready to catch her when she lets go.” He cleared his throat. “You’ll have to look up to do so, warrior.”
“There’s a problem here, General.”
That wasn’t Remus. Again, she glanced down. Another warrior had joined the first, standing a bit off to the side. Like the other guard, he quickly averted his gaze, but in that brief moment, she recognized Tarus.
“What is wrong now?” Trask demanded to know.
“I’d have to look up.
“Yes, this is what I said a moment ago. How else would you expect to actually catch her?”
“Well. It’s just…” Remus coughed, clearly ill at ease. “I can see up her gown, General.”
Lana groaned. The women on this behind the times, patriarchal planet didn’t wear underwear. She hadn’t forgotten, having lived with it every day since being with Trask, but lord knows she hadn’t expected to be in such an embarrassing predicament. She quickly crossed her legs at the ankles, but the slight movement caused another loud rip.
“These linens aren’t going to hold much longer,” Trask stated with more urgency. “I’ll be right down. Warriors, please, even if I don’t like it, catch my misbehaving mate if she should fall before I get there. At least then I’ll still have something to spank when this is over.”
“Trask!”
“Hang on another minute, paulova. I’m coming to get you.”
It seemed like an eternity before he grumbled to his men from below. “I’m displeased you’ve seen as much as you have. Go. I’ll handle it from here.
“Yes, General,” they both replied before rushing away. Lana only knew this from hearing the rapid, and she suspected relieved, retreat of their footsteps.
“Drop down, Lana.”
“Trask…”
“Now.”
“But you’re going to spank me.”
“Damn straight I am. But hanging from a sheet that can shred at any moment is not only foolish, it’s delaying the inevitable.”
She closed her eyes and whispered, “You promise you won’t drop me?”
“She did not just ask that,” was his muttered response under his breath. “Mate,” he growled, “I carry weapons twice your weight during daylight-to-dark training drills once a week. What’s more, I spar warriors three times your weight and take them to the mat repeatedly. Catching you from this distance will be nothing. Now, my patience has worn well past thin, so I suggest you let go and get down here—at once.”
Another ominous rip came at the same time she peeled her fingers off the sheets. In a swirl of filmy skirts and a rush of cool air on her exposed skin, she dropped only to be caught in a blink by strong, capable arms and curled into a broad chest. She breathed out a protracted sigh, but it trapped in her throat when he roared next to her ear. “I cannot believe you risked breaking your neck by climbing out a window and while doing so, flashed my men something that is mine alone to see.”
“It’s not my fault you barbarians don’t allow your women to wear panties.”
“You’re actually deflecting blame for what happened just now?”
She said nothing, merely pressed her lips together before she made her situation worse.
“Smart girl,” he muttered as he strode to and through the rear door which stood open. “Let me explain why Primarian males don’t allow their mates to wear such garments. They slow things down when they want to breach their woman—”
She gasped and cut in, “You have got to be kidding!”
Without responding to her outraged remark, he went on. “The other reason is perhaps the most important one of all.” He hooked a kitchen stool with his foot, propped his boot on the rung, and flipped her over his upraised thigh in one motion. Her skirt was over her head in a blink. “Being bare eliminates barriers when punishing his mate’s naughty backside is urgently required.”
A crack rent the air and fire seared across her bottom.
“Ow, Trask!”
Another crisp spank landed on the other cheek.
“Don’t you dare complain. You’ll lay there and take every well-deserved swat.”
“But I couldn’t just sit here and do nothing!”
“The hell you couldn’t. Fifteen months, Lana. That’s how long I waited to get you back. I leave you for one night to do my job, only to return and find you hanging out a window.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t expect you back until tomorrow.” She knew it was the wrong thing to say as soon as she said it, but she was upset.
“Which tells me you’re not sorry at all for risking your life, or for scaring me to death, only for being caught.”
“No, that isn’t what I meant.”
Her protest made no difference. A flurry of brisk, smarting smacks followed as he paddled her butt unreservedly. Firm and efficient, it was like his hand was made of stout oak rather than flesh and bone.
He settled into a rapid rhythm of side-to-side swats and showed no sign of stopping. Her bottom was prickly and blistering hot when he moved to her thighs and started in on them. And he had no problem carrying on a conversation while he did all this, and evidently expected her to do the same because another question was forthcoming.
“How about telling me what you meant, and, more importantly, what in all creation you were thinking with this stunt?”
All the frustration, anger, and misery she held inside, not just the false accusations, but what she’d done those fifteen long months ago, which had all been for naught because she was right back where she started, came out in a plaintive wail.
“I’m a pariah. I can’t walk down the street without getting scowled at, even if I’m with you. And I’ve been here three days and my friends haven’t visited me. No males are going to want their mates associating with an accused saboteur. Adria hates me and so do you.”
She found herself flipped upright with her burning bottom perched on his thigh. His hand was much gentler as he cupped her tear-streaked cheek.
“I don’t hate you, Lana.”
“Well, you should,” she wept. “Even…if…I was only trying…to do what I thought best. I…hurt…you.” She was blubbering and barely coherent between shuddering sobs.
His other hand came to rest on her opposite cheek, and with her face braced between them, he angled her face up. “What was it you thought was best? You never have said.”
Nothing had changed. He was stuck with a worthless, barren, troublesome, despised mate. Okay, the last one was different—but the highest ranking military officer on the planet with an accused terrorist as a mate made things worse. Hot tears rolled down her cheeks as she whispered wretchedly, “You should have let them exile me to Earth.”
He growled, set her on her feet, and rose to tower above her. “Since you are mine, under my authority, the decision how to punish is for me to say, not you.” His hand curled around the back of her neck, and he bent near, nose to nose with her, his eyes dark with anger. “I’m going to find out what you’re hiding, Lana. If not from you, then some other way. No woman comes apart in a man’s arms like you do for me then says it’s all a mistake, that it isn’t meant to be. And I’m going to find out who is behind this conspiracy. Then maybe, when both puzzles are solved, we can go back to what we had before. But even if I don’t, and the mystery is never solved, you are stuck with me. Forever.” He tossed her over his shoulder and started upstairs while he continued his lecture. “And so help me, if I ever find you hanging out a window again or doing anything so reckless and dangerous, you can forget about a spanking. I’ll bind you to the mate’s helper in position number nine and keep you there until you are so weak from coming you can’t be anything other than obedient. It’s either that or board up the damn windows.”
She hung listlessly over his shoulder quietly sobbing as she heard him conclude, “Maybe I’ll do both.”
In their room, he laid her on the bed but left her to go to the window and haul in the sheets, muttering angrily the whole time. He closed the window with a series of beeps, then went to the bathing room. When he returned, he climbed in bed and, with his back propped against the wall, picked her up and shifted her onto his lap. He caught her chin in one hand and used the small towel he had in the other to wipe her face. Despite his annoyance, his touch was gentle and the coolness of the wet cloth felt good against her hot skin.
“Stop crying; you’ll make yourself sick.”
“Okay,” she said obediently, but a hitching tearful breath followed.
Trask bent his head and kissed her lips. “What am I going to do with such a defiant female on my hands?”
She opened her mouth to make a suggestion, but he covered it with his fingers.
“If you say exile you to Earth, you’ll be facedown over my lap for round two.”
She snapped her mouth shut; her bottom was tender enough already.
“Hmm…” he hummed with disapproval. “I meant, what am I going to do with you now? I leave in an hour. I’ll be gone a week, at least. Probably more.
“A week, but where...?”
“There is a problem on Terra Nova.”
Her back stiffened and she sat up straight. “But we just left there. Has there been another explosion? Or an eruption?”
“This is a different issue, but I don’t have time to explain. I’m due at the shuttle port in a few minutes. I came home to kiss my mate goodbye before I left.”
“And I ruined that, too.”
“What I found was certainly a surprise. You’ll have guards posted, as always, and I want your promise to be good.”
“Take me with you. Don’t leave me by myself.”
“Lana.”
“I’ll go stir-crazy, please, Trask.”
“It’s impossible. You know as well as I, you cannot return to the colony.”
How could she have forgotten she was an accused criminal, and once again his captive? More tears pricked her eyes.
“We’ll figure this out, mate. Try to be patient.”
Not a trait she had buckets of, but she nodded. “At least this new trouble, whatever it is, can’t possibly be blamed on me.”
“I’ll explain when I get back, but before I go, I’ll have your promise.”
What choice did she have except to agree? “I can’t say I’ll be sane by the time you return, but I’ll be good. I promise.”
“I know this is hard for you, but it’s how it has to be for now.”
“I understand, but it doesn’t mean I have to like it.”
“Kiss me, Lana, then I must go.”
He didn’t have to ask twice. She sat up, twisting to face him and slid her hands over his shoulders and around to his back. As she was wont to do, she pulled the tie from his bound hair.
“Did I mention I had to go?”
“I don’t care. If this is my kiss to give, I get to do it my way.”
His full lips tipped up in a hint of a smile. Even though she was difficult, and he was domineering, and she was troublesome, and she sassed, and he yelled and spanked—most often deserved she had to admit—when they were alone, or in bed, and she was in his arms, nothing else mattered. It all faded away. Like now, when she slid her fingers into his hair, angled her head, and touched her parted lips to his.
He opened in response but let her have her way. Teasing with little daring licks of her tongue. His patience lasted about a minute then his tongue was plundering her mouth and his hands were buried in her hair, setting her body on fire with only his kiss.
“You are incredibly tempting,” he said gruffly against her mouth. “And though I don’t have time,”—he flipped her onto her back—“I’m taking it anyway because I want you badly.”
“I want you, too,” she whispered against his lips.
“Hands up,” he ordered. “Let’s get rid of this gown.”
She sat up, as he did, and as soon as her arms rose above her head, the dress was off. His hands on her hips pulled her down the bed as he knelt over her.
“Spread your legs, baby.”
She obeyed—in bed was pretty much the only place she did everything he asked without question.
“Now, pull your knees to your chest.”
Lana did that, too, even though her face flooded with heat at the lewd picture she made. But he didn’t find it lewd, from the look in his eyes, he loved it. And he didn’t wait to dive in for a taste.
With his hands on the back of her thighs, pushing her wider, lifting her hips from the bed to point toward the ceiling, his tongue stoked the heat of her desire. He licked and swirled and stroked until she was so wet with arousal, she felt it trickling down her bottom. Right when she thought she couldn’t take another nibble from his lips, he rose above her. His hair swept around his shoulders in a dark glassy fan—so beautiful—and his eyes, burning with the intensity of his desire, did a slow perusal of her body spread open and ready before him. She imagined the lustful picture she made, as his gaze traced from wet and quivering sex, lewdly displayed between her sprawled thighs, to her heaving hard-tipped breasts, to her face flushed hot with passion.
She didn’t think she could want him more, but when his deep, velvet-edged whisper washed over her, she almost came apart. “I’m going to miss you, Lana, do not doubt that.”
Then he freed his cock from his pants, and with it heavy and hard in his hand, he guided it to her wet center and plunged deep. He did it without looking away, his eyes locked on hers, dark green with his need this time, never the same it seemed, but always so damn beautiful.
After a few strokes, he bent to her, his mouth covering hers hungrily. She tasted herself on his lips, but it only increased her need and she opened for his insistent tongue. After a few heady, demanding moments, he left her gasping as he nibbled down her cheek, along her jaw to her neck, and that’s where he stayed, his face buried in her hair as he drove into her relentlessly.
The intensity of his passion took hold and sent her hurtling to a breathtaking peak. Gasping, her fingers dug into his shoulders, clinging to him, her neck arched, and her head flew back as she came.
“Trask,” she breathed as her climax rocked through her. And, in an intended, uninhibited admission, she moaned, “I love you.”
He stilled above her, his head coming up, his cock on the downstroke hovering at the mouth of her channel, almost losing her.
“Don’t stop,” she cried out.
Stroking into her once more, as the intense waves made her shudder, her tense muscles slowly relaxed and her eyes open enough to gaze up at him sated.
“What did you say?”
“Huh?” she asked vaguely, but she knew. He realized she did too.
“Don’t be evasive, Lana. Not about something this important. At the height of your release, you said something. Tell me again what it was.”
“I love you, Trask. And this time, I’m never taking those words back.”
Silence rained for a moment then came the wet sound of him sliding out and plunging deep into her pussy once more.
“As I do you, Lana,” he declared with a raw, rasp in his voice. “I knew when I saw you in the forest you were mine, and I haven’t ever wavered.” He stroked into her faster, his eyes never wavering, either, while he did so.
One hand released his hair to slide to the side of his neck, from there it moved to his bearded jaw, and her thumb glided over his lip.
“Say it again,” he demanded.
“I love you.”
He pumped in hard. “And again,” he ordered.
“I love you, Trask.”
Soon, he didn’t need to order it because she was whispering it with every thrust, her eyes not looking away, as she watched the man she loved, her mate, find pleasure in her body and her arms.
Drowsy from the emotional and physical events of the day, she barely moved when he kissed her once more and rolled out of bed. He dressed quickly, bent over her for on last lingering brush of mouths, lips, and tongue, then he was striding from for the door. Over his shoulder, he said, “I’ll contact Kerr and Ram and Krager and have them bring their mates round for a visit.”
“You’d do that?”
His eyes met hers. “I’d do anything for you, paulova. And not only because I’d hate to have a stir-crazy mate in my bed when I get back.” Then he winked and was gone.
She rolled onto her side and pulled his pillow against her chest. She buried her face in it and inhaled. There were definite benefits to her decision to come back as his mate. Seeing her friends was one of them because she missed them terribly, and she hoped he followed through and got word to their mates. But the best one was Trask, who loved her, and had told her, and thank God and his Maker, she hadn’t destroyed it with what she’d done.
***
Dozing in and out, mostly in, thankfully, where her dreams starred a fierce yet loving giant warrior with gorgeous hair and eyes and a sensuous mouth that could do the most incredible things, something kept trying to pull her from sleep. But she didn’t want to wake up, too enchanted by her dream man and his phenomenal body with its washboard abs and tight ass and the most stunning marking covering half of one cheek and wrapping around his thigh and hip. Lana breathed in deep, trying to catch his scent on his pillow once more. Except it was different, not clean and fresh like she recalled but woodsy.
No, she thought vaguely, trying to place the familiar smell, rather smoky, like a campfire than anything else.
The strangeness of it dragged her up from sleep and to awakening.
She sat up, breathed deeper thinking she was mistaken, then coughed. And she blinked, her eyes burning because her room was filled with smoke—for real.
“Dear God,” she cried as she rushed for the door. It was closed, which was odd, and when she laid her hands on the panel, it was hot to the touch. She whirled, frantically searching for an alternate escape. She flew to the window, opened it and, after drawing in a deep gulp of fresh air, called for her guards.
There was no response, and as she stared at the fifty-foot drop—without her handmade rope, a sure trip to Jarlan’s med-bay with a broken leg or neck or both—she saw no escape out of this way, either. Turning back, she rushed to the bathroom, grabbed a towel, and soaked it in the sink. Planning to use it over her nose and mouth, she returned to the door, and, with no other option, waived her hand over the sensor. Nothing happened. Not even a flash of green or red.
“The power is out,” she said needlessly to no one, coughing each breath. Pressing both hands flat on the panel, she tried to slide the door open but had no luck. She was trapped.
With the towel over her nose and mouth, her eyes watering from the rapidly thickening smoke, she staggered back to the window. She had no choice except jump. The Primarian’s magic Optimed could heal her broken bones, right?
She didn’t quite make it, though, staggering first, then in a fit of coughing she fell to her knees.
Lying prone on the floor, in the center of the room where she and Trask had reaffirmed their love for one another, lungs heaving and spasming as she gasped for oxygen, she’d never dreamed this was how it would end for her.
She pictured him as she’d last seen him, sated, a sexy grin on his lips, his teeth gleaming white next to his golden tanned face, and his eyes warm with affection. in his smile, hovered in front of her. As consciousness faded and blackness crept in, his image grew faint until it disappeared.
At least she got to tell him she loved him one last time.