CarnalPromise (16 page)

Leaning back, Hunter rested against the wall and watched the
other two talk. Because of Hunter’s tracking skills, he’d been assigned to find
Jinn and now Craddock. Hunter had always been good at finding things. A
natural. After absorbing the technologies this galaxy had, he’d finally proven
to be an asset to his father’s people. Thank God. As advanced as the Svendians
were, Hunter had been afraid he could never fit in, but he’d been the one to
find his aunt, even without the acute sense of smell that the Svendians and the
Vulgarians had.

A light shuffle of feet sounded in the hallway outside the
open door, drawing Hunter’s attention away from the tête-à-tête. Hypatia stood
near the entrance. Hunter eyed the female with appreciation. Today she wore
nipple clips under her sheer overlay, which flowed from her shoulders to the
floor. The jewelry accented her perky, naked breasts. A small triangle of cloth
barely covered her cunt, just enough to hide the dark hair of her pussy.

Turning sideways, she leaned her shoulders against the wall
by the door jamb and lifted her leg to place her foot on the wall, causing her
back to arch. Her nipples pushed upward in the air. Hunter nodded, taking in
her fair form. From this angle he could see her tight, rounded nude ass and
examine the supple form of her legs.

Gazing at him from under lowered lashes, she ran a hand down
her lush body, caressing her side and the cheek of her rear with a slow hand.
Hunter smiled. She was showing off for him, probably because he had been one of
the ones that saved her.

She slid her hand around her front and touched herself.
There. At heaven’s gate.

“Jesus,” he muttered. His cock pulsed. He swallowed, wanting
to go to her but Rurik still talked. Would they be leaving soon?

He glanced at the other two in the room then back at
Hypatia. The woman crooked her index finger, waving at him to come. What did
she want?

His dick jumped again. Hell, he knew what she wanted. At
least some of it. Hunter did a quick check of his father and Sophos. Knossos
would be here soon. He would come with them but it sounded like Hunter had time.
He stood. “Father, you mind if I go to my room for a while?”

Rurik glanced at him then noticed Hypatia in the doorway. He
smirked and did a small shake of his head. “No. Go on. I’ll find you.”

Good, Hunter thought, because the more he looked at this situation,
the more he wondered what the fuck Hypatia had been doing wandering in the
hellholes of this planet in the first place.

* * * * *

Jinn looked worried. At least, that’s the way Drakkar read
her. After a moment of letting him hold her, she’d pushed him away. He wanted
to say something but he dared not because he’d probably say the wrong thing.
Instead, he’d pulled her back to him but she shook her head, as if asking for
some time to herself. At first, the rebuff offended him then he reconsidered, thinking
she probably needed to be alone to collect herself. He’d given her scarcely
little breathing space since he’d found her but what did she expect after the
run she’d had him on?

Still, she was going to a new planet, a new people. Many
would despise her once her cover was revealed. He couldn’t blame them. He knew
how raw some of their pain and loss still was but Jinn was his mate. He had to
make this work. Cushion her somehow against the people’s enmity. Yet how could
he protect her when she’d committed herself to the path she had?

He couldn’t be near her when she submitted to the trials and
in the Warrior’s Way she would be challenged like no other training she’d had
before. Even without anyone knowing her background, she’d be pushed and cajoled
to her limit. How would she respond?

He walked to the ship’s head, deciding this a good time to
relieve himself, and growled under his breath. Frustration had become his
closest companion of late. He wished to hell the issues that irritated him
would damn well go away. That all this, the peace treaty, Jinn and his bonding,
would be behind him so they could go on with their lives.

Patience
, he schooled himself, remembering Sophos’s
placating words.

Patience hell. He was tired of being patient. He jabbed the
button that would bring the toilet out of the wall.

The patter of smaller feet came behind him. He glanced over
his shoulder. Jinn had followed him to the receptacle. The ends of the sheet
dragged behind her.

“I’m just troubled.” Her petite voice trembled.

“I can see that.” He lowered his drawers and pulled out his
dick, peeing into the can.

He held his body toward the stall but kept a peripheral view
of her. She pressed her lips together and watched him.

He huffed then turned his head to catch her eye. “You could
talk to me, you know. It would help me to understand what you’re worried
about.”

A corner of her mouth twisted downward. She leaned against
the bulkhead and glanced away then cleared her throat. “I’ve always been liked
by my comrades. I won’t find that kind of companionship on Vulgaria.” Her voice
sounded strained.

He shook his penis then stuffed it back in his pants. “I’ve
seen you do a lot of brave things, Jinn, even in the short space of time I’ve
known you.” He wanted to say that some of them were foolish, at least for her,
but prudence led him to be silent. After cleansing his hands, he strolled to
her and brushed her cheek with the back of his fingers. “I didn’t think you’d
be afraid of my people.”

Blue fire flashed in her eyes again. “I’m not afraid.” She
straightened and, with the edge of the sheet bunched in her hands, crossed her
arms. “I just like to have friends. Especially when the males in my life are
acting like asses.”

“I see.”
A challenge.
He pressed his mouth shut to
make sure he didn’t smirk. He admired her spirit. He hoped that flame would
never diminish. He wanted their children to have what burned in her. However,
he’d prefer not to face her ire, especially right now. Problem was he didn’t
know what to say.

With one quick motion, he swept her up in his arms.

“Omph.” Air rushed between her lips as he cradled her bosom
to him. “What are you doing?”

“Taking you back to bed.”

“What?” He heard the protest in her answer.

His lips twitched but he didn’t want to smile and send the
wrong message. “Sometimes taking action helps to find the answer.” He carried
her back to the sleeping quarters.

“Says you.” She pushed against his chest. “You’re going to
make love to me again.”

“Yes.” He couldn’t help but smile at that comment. He liked
making love to her.

“You think that will make me forget?”

An accusation. Irritation. The emotion weighed heavy in her
response, yet the rest of her body told him something else. He schooled his
face so his eagerness wouldn’t show.

“Oh, my God. You do, don’t you?”

It wasn’t really a question.

“Put me down.”

Drakkar laid her on the bed and crouched over her.

“I don’t want this right now.” She pushed against him.

He took her wrists and held them against the mattress.
“Jinn, I may not be able to read your mind but, trust me, I can still read your
body. You want me.” He could smell her blossoming scent.

She struggled. “You dumb-assed prick.”

“You want me to seduce you.”

“Like hell, you pigheaded bastard.”

He leaned forward and kissed her. She mewed under his touch
yet pinched the features of her face together as if in torment.

“You arrogant sonofa…”

He kissed her again. This time more deeply. “It isn’t
arrogance if you can back it up.”

Before she could spout more invectives at him, he covered
her mouth with his, coaxing her with his lips until her resistance faded and
she kissed him in return. “I hate you,” her wet lips whispered against his.

“I know,” he croaked. “You’ve said that but I’ll take all
your enmity if the result is that you’ll stay with me and be mine until we pass
into the next dimension.” He swallowed as the depth of his need shook him. “I
can’t live without you, Jinn. I wouldn’t even want to try.”

She pressed her sweet lips together. Her eyes shone with
tears. “But you’re using the bedroom against me. To bend me to your will.”

He shook his head. “Not intentionally. I’m only doing it to
make you see that you need me as much as I need you. The bond between us is
unusually strong. Stronger than most of our peoples’. We need each other.” His
throat threatened to close. “I don’t think I can survive if I lost you again.”

Her eyes flicked over his face, taking in the truth of his
words, he was sure. A tear leaked from her eyes.

“Don’t cry,” he hushed her and, releasing one hand, brushed
the wetness away. “Jinn, I want you happy.” He frowned. “I’d like to get to the
point where you come willingly to me and not fight me at every turn.”

She sniffled. “I don’t want to fight you.” She shook her
head. “You don’t understand.”

He lifted her chin. “Then make me.”

She pulled away. “You’ll only try to control me and I can’t
let you do that.”

“Why not?” he rumbled in a low tone.

“Would you want someone controlling you?” Her glazed eyes
pierced his, speared him with the accusation.

He pressed his lips together and swallowed. No, he would
not, but he wasn’t going to admit that. He winced. “That’s not exactly what I
meant.”

“Then what did you mean?” Her voice held an edge.

He caressed her cheek and softened his tone. “I meant that
if I understood your problem, I could help you.”

She huffed in that haughty feminine way of hers. “First, I
don’t need your help. Second, I know men well enough. You would come up with
some idea, thinking it was the right solution, and then try to implement it
without even asking what I wanted. I can lead my own life, thank you.”

This wasn’t going in a direction that Drakkar liked.
“Beloved…”

“Don’t ‘Beloved’ me. You know it to be true. You think
taking control over my life will protect me. Trust me, it won’t.”

Drakkar released a slow breath, trying to tamp down the
unease he felt. Jinn was in her warrior mode and her desire waned. She must
feel threatened. That would be the only thing that would subjugate her need of
him. He should have anticipated that. They were almost to Vulgaria, a planet
that hated Svendians. He should expect that she would be defensive. Still, the
strength of her commitment to being a soldier…

He knew the risks she took. He couldn’t tolerate that. She
would get herself killed and him along with it. He couldn’t let that happen.

He forced an impassive look on his face, belying the fear he
harbored inside. Then a thought occurred to him. Rurik’s foresight had been
keener than Drakkar had realized, yet he doubted the headmaster was even aware
of it. With Jinn’s commitment to the Warrior’s Way, not only would she be
occupied for many moon cycles, she would be faced with the worse tests their
planet could muster. For many a man, this had been a sobering reality, the
participant pushed to their limits and finding that no one person was
unbeatable.

That was the biggest lesson he had learned—and the one that
had made him so successful against his once greatest enemy, Rurik, now his
brother-in-law for all intents and purposes.

Somehow, he felt Rurik, too, knew that truth, that any man
can be defeated. It was a matter of discovering how, although Rurik’s lesson
had been achieved through some other means. Drakkar could only wonder what
those means were and if they were learned at the expense of his people. He
gritted his teeth. He couldn’t let the past interfere with the future.

Calmer, Drakkar cleared his throat, spoke in a smooth,
calming tone to placate Jinn. “Then I’ll ask of you the same that you requested
of me this last sleep cycle.”

“Which is?” Jinn’s eyes narrowed in suspicion.

He forced a smile. “That until the trials start, we not
discuss this, since we obviously have different thoughts regarding you and how
your life will be fulfilled on Vulgaria.”

“You expect me to lose.” Her lips thinned and she jerked her
head to the side, he was sure so as not to look at him. Another tear leaked
from the corner of her eyelid. “I hate you,” she whispered. “I hate you for
what you’re doing to me.”

“I know,” he murmured against her neck, “but you can’t help
but want me. As I’ve said, I tried myself to deny our bond before I claimed
you. It didn’t work.” Drakkar kissed the soft skin that fell under his lips
with the tenderness of a feather. He needed her. God, how he needed her.

He pulled away a moment, studied the lines of her beautiful
face, hoping to read her thoughts through the emotions that were revealed.
“We’ll make our life together beautiful, Jinn.” His voice grew hoarse. “We have
to.”

She sniffed as a few tears fell. He kissed every spot where
the drops rolled off her cheeks. Freeing her hands, she slid her arms around
his back and grasped him to her, burying her face into his chest. “Oh,
Drakkar,” she murmured. “I wish…”

He rested his body halfway on hers and cradled her to him.
He said nothing, not wanting to break the spell of the moment, sensing she
needed the time to think this through on her own.

“Make love to me, Drakkar.” Her voice broke. “Make me forget
for the moment all else.”

That he could do. He kissed Jinn, slowly, with the deepest
passion he could muster. She was his. At least in this, she would accede to
him.

She moaned in desire, sucked in her breath with a slow
count, a small, quiet sound of a want fulfilled. She needed him. Deeply. He
could sense it. And it was more than the drive to mate. She craved comfort,
security, but from what? He didn’t believe she was afraid of him, not any more.
And although she was anxious about going to Vulgaria, and he was sure, about
being tested in the Warrior’s Way, Drakkar believed there was something else,
something deeper because of the angst that she had shown before all this. But
what was it?