Chapter Nine
“DON’T YOU WISH to first rest and recover from your injuries?” Kahn asked Tessa with more kindness than she’d heard from him since she’d arrived in space.
Apparently, his striking her had hit some taboo that made him feel guilty. Good. Perhaps that guilt would even the match. Although she’d practiced martial arts all her life, he must be double her weight, and his long reach and superior strength gave him a huge advantage.
Still, the bigger the man, the harder he fell.
She could defeat him by using his own strength and weight against him. She had to, especially since she understood that his training sessions in sexual frustration would be endlessly repeated if she didn’t win this bet. The fate of Earth might very well depend on the outcome of this bout because Tessa very much wanted to learn to use her psi. And if she won, he could frustrate her all he wanted while he taught her how to fight with her psi powers
That he’d given her this opportunity, told her of his desperation, but it also told her he had the ability to change. Perhaps if she defeated him this once, just maybe he’d respect her for her different attitude, because the idea of marriage to a man who couldn’t bend, not even to save his world, disturbed her on many levels.
Kahn dropped into a bent-kneed, wide-footed stance that balanced him and gave him the ability to move left or right, back or forward. He cocked his wrists, leaving his hands straight.
Balanced on the balls of her feet, Tessa circled, watching his eyes and searching for an opening. She feinted to the right, spun to her left, and swept his front foot.
To counter her sweep, he lifted his foot and shifted out of reach, but she still jammed an elbow into his ribs.
He grunted and grinned. “Try that again, woman.”
Not frickin’ likely. No way would she repeat a move and give him a chance to grab her. Instead, she lunged at an angle and struck a blow to his jaw. He countered the face strike but missed her simultaneous side-kick to his groin. Only a last minute twist of his hips saved him from a painful injury.
He frowned. She chuckled. “What? You don’t want me to try that move again?”
“Your blows cannot hurt me.”
That’s exactly what she wanted him to think. She needed overconfidence to make him careless.
Master Chen hadn’t taught Tessa only technique, but also strategy, and he’d fed her mind with the belief she could conquer any opponent if she set her mind to the task. While the eighty-year-old master sensei had found a new reason to live as he tutored Tessa, his star pupil, he’d pushed her to her limit. She’d developed an acute awareness of timing, of space, and—most important of all—of trusting her skills. She’d never realized how proficient she had become until he’d entered her in her first and only competition, The World Karate Championship. Tessa had dominated the fighting, winning a title. Shortly afterward, her mentor died, and she’d never competed again.
Instead, she delved into the secret world of the ninja, studying under Master Funishoki. Tessa learned to sneak silently upon an opponent and kill without ever being seen. She was the shadow to be feared in the night. The enemy you never saw or heard. Over three hundred and thirty years ago, she’d guarded Daron Garner, and the sixty-year-old wheeler-dealer business tycoon had shown his appreciation for her saving his life by making sure she’d been assigned to the presidential protective detail.
She’d learned additional skills after the Secret Service recruited her. Now, she would need every one of them.
Kahn was keeping strict control over his temper. Despite landing a series of blows to his neck, chest, and thigh, she hadn’t done real damage. To defeat him, she needed to goad him into an attack where she could use his power against him. But he wasn’t even trying to attack, merely staying on guard and countering her when possible.
“You needn’t be so very careful, Kahn. I won’t hurt you—at least not badly.” She shifted, spun, caught his thigh in a glancing kick.
With his thighs thick as tree trunks, he didn’t so much as budge. Yet the skin reddened as blood rose to the surface. The big man was keeping his word. He hadn’t raised his psi shields, or she wouldn’t have seen the evidence of her accumulation of strikes.
He chuckled but never relaxed the wariness in his eyes. “The only offensive move I plan to make is riding you on our wedding night.”
A trickle of sweat seeped down his brow, and she goaded him. “Let’s hope your stamina at lovemaking is better than when you’re fighting.”
He glowered at her. “I’m also looking forward to your accommodating my every request.”
Perhaps she could distract him with sex talk. “I will deny you nothing.” She performed a spinning back kick and spiked her heel into his chest. “You will stroke my breasts or lick them, and I will be thinking of—” she slammed a side thrust kick at his groin—“pleasing you, so very much.”
Between her words and her blows, she could see anger building in those careful amber eyes. When he finally pounced, she almost didn’t react quickly enough. Almost. Kahn lunged straight at her, coming in fast and hard with his arms outstretched, his hands ready to grab her.
She dropped to her bottom, planted her feet in his stomach and catapulted him over her head. Even as she fought, she realized that he’d adjusted her suit. When she’d dropped, the floor hadn’t met her bottom with a normal force. Even as he’d attacked, he’d protected her.
Forced to give up his plan to grab her, he slapped his palms on the floor, ducked his head and rolled. However, she somersaulted backward and ended up astride his chest, her wrist cocked with a straight-edged knife hand to his throat. “You adjusted my suit.”
“To protect you,” he admitted.
He’d adjusted her suit to prevent an injury, but hadn’t touched his own. Both of them knew she could have ended the fight with the death blow she’d held back.
“You’ve won.” He spoke with respect. “You have what you wanted.”
She expected to see defeat in his eyes, but not regret. At first she thought his disappointment was self directed, but then she realized her error. He used his psi power to regain his feet and was staring at her with confusion.
The uncertainty in his eyes bothered her more than she wanted to admit. She stood and backed away a few steps, saying nothing because there was nothing to say. By defeating him, she’d proven to him that she was everything he didn’t want in a wife.
She could see he wanted no part of her in his life, but she already knew him well enough to understand that his dedication to his people would override his personal preferences.
She kept her voice soft and level. “If you have changed your mind about our marriage, I will accept your decision.”
“I am a man of my word.”
At his statement, tension eased out of her then returned with a measure of uncertainty at his next words. “You must prepare a meal for our wedding ceremony. Also, there is a ritual bathing, and then we place ceremonial bands on one another.”
“When will our wedding take place?”
“You shall have time to rest. We shall marry two hours after you awaken. Be ready.”
She nodded. “I will.”
“YOU ARE INSANE,” Dora told Tessa the moment she awakened after a restless sleep.
“Thanks a lot.” Tessa’s mind whirled with plans. With the revelation of her psi abilities, her attitude had done a complete 360 degree change. She no longer preferred death to living—even if that meant marriage to a sexy alien who didn’t even like her. “Dora, I have no time to waste. What must I do to get ready for the wedding?”
“You must cook dinner. Prepare a ritual bath.”
“Kahn told me. I don’t want him to suspect your presence so if you must leave—”
“Not necessary. I’ve inserted my personality into the mother ship’s systems.”
“That’s great.”
“You have no idea,” Dora bragged. “Watch.”
The computer altered the chamber. A table rose from the floor. Cooking equipment and cabinets materialized right out of the walls.
“Kahn authorized the computer to give you whatever is necessary to prepare for the wedding ceremony.”
“Did that include clothes?”
“Sorry, no.”
Tessa closed her eyes. “Dora, would you please be quiet for a few minutes. I want to experiment.”
“Compliance.”
Ever since Tessa had attacked Kahn with her psi powers, she’d wanted to tap into her mind, again. Until now, she hadn’t had the opportunity. Sitting with her legs crossed on the floor, Tessa closed her eyes. She tried to put herself into the same emotionally fragile state she’d been in when she’d accidentally activated her psi.
She built a mental picture of a steel trap, put herself inside and let the walls and ceiling close her in. All the while she imagined herself in clothing. Trapped in a cage, wearing a dress. With no place to go in her white dress. No free will in her pretty white dress. Her frustration mounted, and with a mental shove, she again merged into an emotional maelstrom.
“Congratulations!” Dora piped in.
Annoyed by the interruption, Tessa opened her eyes, but then she looked down and smiled in delight. She was no longer naked but covered by the simple white dress of her imagination. “This is so awesome. I can’t wait to try again.”
“You don’t have time.”
“I’ll get faster with practice.”
“Right now, you’d better start cooking a meal and drawing water for the bath.”
“Okay. Tell me what to prepare and how.”
“I’m a computer, not a cook.”
“Don’t you have recipes in your data banks?”
“No.”
“How does Kahn prepare our meals?”
“He uses his psi. But he would probably expect you to prepare a meal from the ingredients in the blue cabinet.”
Tessa opened the blue doors and stared at the strange array of fruits, meats, and vegetables. She might as well have been a Stone-age woman in a twentieth-century grocery store. She had no idea how to identify the food or how to prepare it. For all she knew, she could accidentally poison them both.
“Maybe I’ll try the food materializer, after all. What should I do?”
“Kahn stands there and the food appears.”
“Thank you very much. Even I know that,” Tessa muttered. Once again she closed her eyes and envisioned the steel trap. This time she built the image more quickly, called up the frustration more easily. She thought of food inside the box with her. Raw carrots, celery and peanut butter. Pizza and beer. Ice cream with hot fudge sauce. And steaming black coffee.
She smelled the delicious scent of coffee and pizza before she opened her eyes. Pleased by her efforts, her mouthwatering, she raised the cup of coffee to her lips, ready to enjoy that first scalding sip as much as the rich flavor that reminded her of home. Delicious.
She enjoyed another gulp before speaking. “Now all I have to do is keep the pizza hot, the ice cream frozen, and the beer cold.”
“Not a problem. The kitchen comes fully equipped with a warmer and a freezer.”
Tessa placed the foods in the appropriate compartments but kept the coffee to savor as she made preparations. “Do I have time to fix my hair before preparing the ritual bath?”
“If you hurry.”
The caffeine from the coffee kicked in, revving through her veins. “Do you have a mirror?”
“Compliance.”
Tessa pulled her hair into a neat twist onto the top of her head. She didn’t have time to figure out how to make her suit keep her hair in place, but she snagged a food tie from the blue cabinet. “I could do wonders with a curling iron, but this will work.” Tessa pulled a few strands loose around her face.
“You look more feminine.”
“That’s the idea. Kahn has issues with a wife who can defeat him in hand-to-hand combat—without a suit—even if that’s considered an archaic form of fighting here.”
She shivered at the recollection of disgust in his eyes. While she didn’t want to marry, she now most definitely wanted to train her new psi powers and win the Challenge. If that meant marrying Kahn, if that meant having sex, so be it, but she didn’t want him to be revolted every time he looked at her.
While many of her fellow Secret Service Agents also had trouble with Tessa defeating them on the mats then showing up at a cocktail party in a slinky dress, she didn’t understand the problem. She enjoyed looking good. She liked being a woman and intended to show Kahn a different side of her personality.
Sipping the last of the best coffee she’d ever tasted, Tessa surveyed the chamber. “Dora, can you make this room look like a comfortable Rystani home?”
“Compliance.”
The ceiling dropped, and the surfaces became irregular, cave like. Soft, glowing lights lit up the Rystani room with huge, chunky furniture. “Why do Rystani have furniture when they can alter their suits to sit wherever they like?”
“Rystan is new to the Federation. Many of their customs such as old-fashioned furniture and ritual bathing are left over from their pre-psi past.”
Tessa made some changes then asked Dora to place the ritual bathtub before the glowing stones in the hearth. The hologram program even added the scent of cooking food.
“How about Rystani music?”
Dora’s first choice made Tessa clap her hands over her ears.
“Stop. How about something soothing?”
Dora’s second try was more to her liking. The mellow tone reminded her of a flute, the melody romantic. Tessa moved her attention to the huge bathtub next. Circular and wooden, it was only about a foot deep. She tested the water temperature and the rough washing cloths, examined the bucket for rinsing. She spied a rectangular pillow, soap, and drying towels that were hard and scratchy. Again she requested changes.
“You sure are fussy.”
“I gave my word, and I intend to keep it.”
“I suppose in your position I might do the same,” Dora sighed. “I wish I could find a soul mate and get married.”
“Soul mate?” Tessa grinned at Dora’s fantasy. “Let’s not get carried away here. I’m not sure I even like the man.”
But she also knew Kahn had good qualities. He cared about his people. When Kahn had told her about his first marriage she’d seen the pain in his eyes. That he had loved once meant he had the capacity for deep feelings. He might be stubborn, but he was clearly a man of honor.
He had the strength of a warrior and the ability to change his stubborn mind when she backed him into a corner and gave him a way to dodge. He might not like losing to a female, he might consider her skill unseemly, but he would keep his word. To ease him through the concessions he’d made and to help bridge their differences, she intended to rekindle the simmering sexual tension they’d previously shared.
Hands clasped behind her back, she paced, impatient for Kahn to arrive.
KAHN ENTERED the chamber and stopped short in pleased astonishment. Despite his determination to keep a stoic expression no matter what Tessa had done, he couldn’t stop his lower jaw from dropping. She was wearing a pretty white dress. That she’d already made more progress with her psi abilities thrilled him, but he’d figured that once she’d learned, she’d wear some kind of mannish costume, not an attractive dress that showed off her feminine curves. She’d also done something agreeable to her gorgeous black hair, placing it atop her head in a fancy knot. Locks fell softly around her face in a most becoming and almost dainty manner.
She held out both hands to him. “Welcome.”
The contrast between this charming lady and the warrior woman who had defeated him in hand-to-hand combat made him wary. “What kind of trick is this, woman?”
“Did you not think I would keep my word and honor your customs?”
“I hoped you would try.”
“I like to succeed.” Her eyes twinkled, and the bruising from her crash into the bulkhead was not as severe as he’d feared. She stepped aside with a swirl of fabric that drew attention to her long legs and gestured to the room with pride. “Did I get it right?”
The hearth burned brightly with glow stones, the layout so familiar, reminding him how much he missed his home. But she’d added a few touches of her own. A brightly colored blanket over the back of a chair. A painting of a woman and child next to the hearth. Soft music. Burning tapers, and the spicy-sweet scent of something he couldn’t identify that wafted from the kitchen area.
“You have done well.”
“I’m glad you think so.” She spoke easily as if she could slip into this new role without strain. Her obvious confidence in herself as she adapted to this new role surprised him and had him oddly on edge. “I’m going to disappoint you in one area.”
He supposed she would now plead with him to delay the wedding night. “Yes?”
“I used the kitchen materializers to cook the food. I don’t know how to prepare a meal from scratch.”
“I see.” He folded his arms over his chest and told himself to have patience. Every Rystani female child could cook, but she wasn’t Rystani, and she was clearly making an effort to please him.
“There’s more.”
Life with Tessa would never be dull. He raised an eyebrow and braced himself. He wondered if he was destined to spend the rest of his life waiting for her to say or do something unacceptable. And yet, he no longer objected to marrying her as much as he had earlier.
“I had no idea how to prepare a Rystani meal.” She spoke without a shred of shame at her lack of skills, and while he shouldn’t have been shocked by her attitude, he nevertheless was. “I didn’t even recognize the ingredients in the food preparation unit.”
Surely that enticing smell in the chamber couldn’t be the result of a meal preparation failure? But perhaps he should be happy she hadn’t started a cooking fire on the spaceship. “We have no meal?”
“We do.” She bit her lip, as if hesitant to say more. “But it’s Earth food. I’m sorry it’s not what you expected, but—”
“You will serve me now.” Best to get this over with before he dwelled on how Lael had fed him his favorite octar meat spiced with Jarballa. He had to make allowances for Tessa. She’d warned him she couldn’t cook, and she was obviously attempting to satisfy him. He sat at the table and waited for her to bring the meal, determined to eat, even if it was inedible.
Her face serene, Tessa removed a platter of green and orange sticks from the cold compartment. She carried the plate carefully to the table and set it down with a flourish.
“Those look like roots.”
“On Earth, these vegetables are called crudités and are always served at special functions.”
He tried hard to find something polite to say. The nourishment looked as if she hadn’t even bothered to cook. “It’s colorful.”
She dipped a green stick into a creamy brown spread and held it to his lips. Custom dictated that she feed him and vice versa. Cautiously, he sniffed a sweet and nutty aroma. “What is this called?”
“Celery and peanut butter.”
He licked the sauce from the green stick, his tongue glancing off her finger, too. The peanut butter stuck to his tongue but possessed a rich and creamy taste. Emboldened, he parted his lips and allowed her to feed him the green stick with the sauce. The stick crunched pleasantly, the juice a foil for the sticky peanut butter.
“It’s good.”
“You needn’t sound so surprised.” She grinned and dabbed the pad of her pinky on the corner of his lips where a drop of the peanut butter still clung. Seductive eyes locked with his as she brought her finger to her own full mouth and licked her finger with a dancing flick of pink tongue. Then, still holding his gaze, she closed her lips around her finger and slowly sucked off the last juices. Her audacious gesture disturbed him. When he raised an eyebrow, questioning her behavior, she blushed, dropped her gaze and actually seemed flustered.
Stars! One moment she looked as cute as an adolescent flirting for her first kiss and the next she teased him like an experienced woman.
Appearing to recover quickly from her error in etiquette, Tessa dipped the orange stick into the sauce. “Try a carrot.”
She fed him the treat which he found sweet but also caused him to crave more than a drink to quench his thirst. Mere hours ago he’d thought himself the unluckiest man on Rystan for having to marry an Earthling. At first he’d kept looking for a trick, but as she fed him her Earth food, he decided that she was making a genuine effort to follow his customs. And he had the strangest desire to kiss her
“Come. Sit on my lap,” he requested.
“First, let me serve the pizza.” She spun away from the table and returned with a flat pie that was white and red with bits of circular slices of meat embedded on top. She poured two golden and foamy drinks, one for each of them. “This is pizza and beer, my favorite gourmet meal.”
She pulled out a triangular slice from the rest and held up the corner for him to taste. The enticing scent of the pizza alone made his mouth salivate.
He bit into the pizza, and the warm cheese over crusty bread melted in his mouth. He didn’t have to lie about his praise. “Delicious.”
“Beer,” she handed him a glass, “is an acquired taste. But it’s my drink of choice with pizza.”
She held the beer to his mouth, and he found the flavor much like a fermented grain on Rystan. “This is alcoholic?”
“Is that a problem?”
“Not for me. Women on Rystan do not drink alcohol.”
“Oh.” Her eyes dropped but not before he saw first discouragement then anger, then unhappy acceptance. “Okay.”
Clearly she was disappointed that she couldn’t partake of her favorite drink, but she didn’t complain, either, surprising him once again. After the trouble she’d taken to please him with the meal, he didn’t want to deny her during their wedding feast.
“But we are not yet on Rystan,” he conceded, patting his thigh for her to sit on his lap, and held a glass to her lips.
“Thank you.” She drank deeply, as if she needed fortification, but she didn’t seem tipsy afterward, and he reminded himself that he could not keep giving in to her because she was an Earthling. She was living in his world and would have to be the one to adapt.
The wedding feast was much more pleasant than he’d imagined. As if by mutual unspoken agreement, they put aside their differences during the meal. He found that when she sat on his thigh, her side pressed to his chest, he actually enjoyed her touch. When she made the effort, she displayed impeccable manners, chewing with her mouth closed and always offering him the majority share of the choice portions.
However, when she tilted her head back onto his shoulder and boldly looked him in the eyes, he expected her to say something pleasant. Her normal tone was light, almost musical, but grew husky. “For the last hour, I’ve been looking forward to bathing you in the ritual tub.”
Once again she’d shocked him with her lack of modesty, and he frowned. “It is not seemly to talk of such things.”
“Why not?” Her eyes glinted with amusement, and her lips brazenly nipped his neck. “You will be my husband. Am I not allowed to express my desire for you?”
She should not be so forward. What the hell was she doing planting kisses on his neck? He gently removed her from his lap. “You twist my words, woman.”
She stared at him in complete confusion and kept her tone level, but he heard an honest ring to her words. “I haven’t the slightest idea why you are upset.”
Kahn reined in his temper. He had to make allowances for her ignorance of his ways. He had to summon patience and tact—not his strongest qualities. When he’d set out on this voyage he’d expected to mentor the Earthling. He’d expected adversity and obstacles, but never had he thought the journey would be this difficult.
He didn’t know what bothered him more—that she didn’t grasp the reason for his anger over her brazen conduct—or that he’d enjoyed her boldness.