Chapter 20
A long time later, after he had exhausted her with his lovemaking, he pushed her hair off her face and drew her into his arms. “I have read the manuals and talked to the warriors with breeders.”
“Okay.” Please let him not have discussed our private lives. She couldn’t stomach the thought that he could be that kind of creep.
“It is proven that a breeder thrives when she is cuddled regularly,” he told her seriously.
Madison hugged him closer, enjoying the feel of his warm body. She bit the inside of her cheek to hold back the smile, took a deep breath, and then burst out laughing. She laughed until she was helpless to do anything but cling to him. He merely held her tight, not seeming bothered that she laughed at him. It felt good laughing again after the tragedy of the last few days.
At last she stopped and lay quietly, stroking patterns over his chest.
“I am glad you are pleased with your warrior’s honor. We will cuddle after fucking, every morning before I give you breakfast and every night.”
Madison started laughing again. It seemed she was on a hug schedule. “I love you, Viglar, I must be crazy, but I love you to bits.”
He was quiet for a long time and she worried that he would never recognize the emotion, even if he felt it. How could he feel love with the way he was raised?
“I love you until my chest aches sometimes. I am a Zyrgin warrior, I do not need to be crazy to love you.”
Madison bit her tongue, hard. She could not start laughing again. She held him tight and traced the defined muscles and veins in his abdomen. Her warrior was seriously ripped.
They lay silent for a long time. Madison had never been so satisfied and relaxed. Her muscles ached, a pleasant ache in all the right places. She still wondered what happened to Rory, and she missed Rachel, missed the friend she had been before she became fanatical about killing the Zyrgins.
Viglar lifted her chin and leaned over her. “Remember when I bit you. When you tried not to speak to me for a month.”
Madison glared at him. “You’re spoiling my post-coital peace.”
“Do you remember?”
“Yes, and I would’ve given you the silent treatment if you didn’t use unfair means to make me talk to you.” She covered her neck protectively. “You’re not gonna do it again.”
“I do not need to do it again for many years. The venom will ensure that you live for many centuries,” he said.
She stared at him and knew he could see the horror on her face. “But I don’t want my ears to get that big.” Ears and noses never stopped growing. She’d endured enough teasing for having red hair and freckles. She didn’t want to be the freak with the big nose and elephant ears. The silence from her warrior registered and she blinked to find him leaning slightly away from her, staring at her.
She never thought she’d see Viglar stumped for words. He opened his mouth once and then closed it again. After they’d stared at each other for what felt like hours, with the silence in the room becoming chilly he stroked a careful finger over her ears.
“I am the best doctor in the known galaxies. The Zyrgin wanted me for his personal physician. I can ensure your ears remain the same,” he told her.
She loved his confidence. “And my nose.”
That big finger moved and traced the bridge of her nose. “Your nose as well.”
“Can you rid me of my freckles?”
“No.” He stared her in the eye and, somehow, she knew he was lying.
She tried to grab his ear, but it was too recessed into his head to get a good grip on. “I know you are lying to me. Why won’t you fix my freckles? They’ve been the bane of my existence since I was four, when Tommy Wilson held me down and connected them with a pen.” She gritted her teeth at the memory. She’d walked around looking like a road map for days.
Viglar jumped up so fast she nearly rolled off the bed. “Where do I find Tommy Wilson?”
He sounded so menacing, all the hairs on her body stood up straight. “I think I heard he died, a long time ago.” Sometimes you had to lie for the greater good. Poor Tommy had grown up to be a pretty decent guy and was the father of three little girls.
“Do not lie to me, breeder.”
She clutched her chest and widened her eyes dramatically. “I would never lie to my warrior.”
He got into bed again and arranged her against him. She knew from the tense way he held his body that he was thinking of way to find out if one Tommy Wilson really died. Distraction was needed. Fast.
“You said I will live for centuries?” She casually stroked a finger down his abs. She never got tired of touching him. Of feeling those abs on his abs. Following the raised veins on his body to intriguing new places on his body. Maybe she had another few hours in her left.
“Yes, do you accept it now?”
“It would be wonderful, I think.” She couldn’t imagine living for so many centuries without some serious problems cropping up. For one thing they might get sick of each other. “What if we get bored with each other?”
“My breeder has hair the color of an eyeball. I can never be bored.”
She wasn’t going there. If he could love her with hair he thought the same color as eyeballs, she wouldn’t complain. “I’m flattered that you would take me with such ugly hair.” She tried to pinch him in revenge for his condescending tone but couldn’t get a grip on his tough skin.
“You are a very lucky human,” he said.
Madison stared at him. Again, she didn’t know if he was joking or dead serious. She tended to go with the latter option. “We need to work on your sarcasm meter.”
“We have centuries to work on that,” he told her, either oblivious to what she meant or uncaring.
“You know, if anyone had told me I it was possible to live that long a week ago, I would not have believed them, but I would’ve thought it a wonderful idea. Now I keep thinking of all the implications. Maybe humans just weren’t meant to live that long.”
“What troubles you about our longevity?” He rubbed her hair between his fingers. For a guy that claimed her hair was ugly and the color of an eye, he sure liked to touch it a lot.
Madison pleated her shirt and then smoothed it over her legs. “I would outlive my family,” she said, not looking at him. She couldn’t imagine not talking to her mother on the TC every week. Never seeing her brothers again. She’d remain young when their grandchildren were old and dying. She’s have to relinquish generation after generation to death. Just the thought of it already broke her heart.
He was quiet for a very long time. She had the strangest sense that he wanted to tell her it would be a good thing to outlive them. From where he was coming from, family was not a good thing. Any family that could reject you for your choices was not worth having, in her opinion.
“There is no way for me to prolong their lives.”
She stroked a hand over his chest. “Can’t you bite them? Just a little.”
He very subtly reared back. “It will not work on them.” Distaste was in his voice.
“Why not? It works on me and I’m human too.”
“I have sex with you.”
“Oh.”
“It is more than that. My glands will only produce the venom for you and at certain times.”
“So your teeth won’t have venom, even if you bit my family?” She tried not to sound teary and naggy. The guy just told her he made her practically immortal, she should celebrate.
“No, I can promise your family and their descendants my protection.”
“Thank you. I appreciate that more than you can imagine.” It would bring its own sets of problems with some humans shunned for accepting anything from the aliens.
She wanted to cry at the thought of losing her family one by one, to remain young while they aged. But at the same time she couldn’t resist the thought of living long enough to find the cure to most illnesses. If she had centuries, she could accomplish so much. “Don’t you ever get bored, tired of living so long?”
“No. I knew if I was chosen for Zacar’s team, I would go to a planet where I would meet my breeder.”
“So what did the women look like on the planet you meant to conquer before you got thrown off course?” She had visions of green skinned beauties lounging around in skimpy clothes.
“They were tall and muscled and strong. They would make good breeders.”
“Instead you got a scrawny woman with hair the color of an eye. I bet you wished you’d ended up on that planet.” So she was fishing. She was just human.
“They did not have spots, and I prefer your sticklike body.”
“Wow, what a compliment, you are so romantic.”
He preened, there was no other word for it. “I have studied the manuals and am now a very good warrior to my breeder. I will teach the other warriors by example.”
“Yes, and your humility is a credit to you.”
He nodded quite seriously. “If you wish it, I can still be the Zyrgin’s personal physician. It is a very prestigious position.”
She sat up and pressed her palms flat on his chest. “I thought you didn’t want to do that job. That you preferred the adventure of conquering another planet.”
“I would do it for you.”
Madison smiled down at this serious Zyrgin who’d captured her heart with his arrogance and good heart. She kissed him, a long sensual kiss. “You really are a good example of how a warrior should treat his woman,” she murmured against his lips. “And thank you for offering, but I don’t see myself living in a palace. No thank you. I’d probably throw up on the emperor’s boots.” Madison shuddered just at the thought of it.
Viglar drew himself upright and grabbed her close to him. “You only throw up on my boots.”
She had to bite the inside of the cheek not to laugh. At this rate, she soon wouldn’t have cheeks left anymore. How such an intelligent man could be so deadly serious when he said things like that was beyond her. “If you insist, I’ll aim for your boots only.”
He nodded. “I insist.”
She threw her arms around his neck and hugged him tight. “I love you so much, Viglar.”
He pressed her closer. “I cannot think of a life without you in it.”
Madison couldn’t imagine a life without him in it either. They’d get to know each other, work together, make love. Suddenly all those centuries she’d dreaded before stretched before her like one long, loving adventure.