GalacticFlame (15 page)

The man who hadn’t left her.

Far from it.

“I can see,” she rasped hoarsely, her throat bone dry.

His smile was all kinds of gentle—so much more than she
deserved—when he eased the jellied remains of a fimordh from her clenched hand.
“I’d say you’ve been out to it for some time.” He lifted a water bottle to her
lips and instructed, “Drink slowly.”

She took a mouthful and immediately choked. It was the
sweetest liquid she’d ever tasted. She struggled into a sitting position.

“Easy,” he said in a soothing tone.

She squinted at the flesh-colored bandages, probably some
kind of shield material, wrapped around his chest. “Are you okay? What
happened?” she croaked.

“I hit some rocks exposed by the storm’s wind and rain.” He
shrugged, but she noted it was a careful gesture, his lips whitening with pain.
“My fault, I should have known better.”

She closed her eyes, reading between the lines. He’d been
preoccupied—devastated—at learning the true identity of his so called intended.
Dear lord, how much more pain would her web of lies attract?

Her eyelids flicked apart, her stare automatically moving
past him to where Trasean and Auron stood, watching impassively.

How they must hate her too. It didn’t matter that she’d
never meant for things to get this out of hand, didn’t matter she’d never meant
to hurt anyone in the process. She’d wanted to save her sister a whole lot of
pain, but in doing so she’d created a whole lot more.

Her focus returned to Genesis. How did he feel about her
now? She bit into her bottom lip. Did she want to hear the answer? She wasn’t
yet that brave. “How did you find me?” she asked instead.

Genesis jerked his head to the right, where Colin lay on his
side, panting. “Your
zadmet
found our camp. I knew you were in trouble
the moment he made an appearance.”

“Made a ruckus, more like,” Auron growled.

Genesis nodded, and for a moment his eyes gleamed with
repressed humor. “We followed him here.”

She stared at Colin, amazed her animal friend would go to so
much trouble. “Animals love my sister, not me,” she whispered.

In truth though, Bonnie had been one animal who’d divided
her time and devotion equally between her and Aline. Perhaps she’d never given
herself enough credit when it came to her furry friends.

“Seems to me they like you a whole lot,” Genesis remarked
drily.

She nodded. Simon and now Colin had both risked their lives
for her. Affection filled her chest. But right then she had far more important
things to think about and discuss. She’d already put it off long enough. She
held Genesis’ stare. “Can we talk?”

He nodded, capping the bottle before gathering her carefully
in his arms and pushing to his feet.

She sucked in a breath, horrified he was overdoing things by
lifting her.

Trasean stepped forward. “My Prince, I don’t think you
should—”

“I’m fine,” Genesis injected roughly, facing the two men.
“It’s just a physical injury, it will heal.” His eyes narrowed, searching. “But
I know you two are far from fine.” He dragged in an unsteady breath. “Go. Find
your intended.”

It was Eden’s turn to suck in a breath, horror overtaking
her from the inside out. Genesis had given Trasean and Auron permission to get
her sister, despite everything?

He jerked his head in the direction she assumed they’d left
their
cercannes,
his attention still on the men whose expressions gave
away their eagerness to leave, despite their obvious reservations about their
prince’s health. “The craft is waiting. I don’t need to tell you that our
people hope you both will repopulate the province, where you requested to live
with your intended.”

Auron nodded. “Our seed will soon grow in her belly.”

Eden bit back a horrified gasp even as Trasean shared a self-satisfied
smile with Auron and added, “It will be no chore. She appears to be a very
spirited and beautiful woman.”

She’s more than that…much more!

She looked up at Genesis, silently willing him to change his
mind. But he appeared all too pleased by his men’s eagerness, all too happy to
send them on their way. “Safe trip, my brothers,” he said with a grin.

The men’s stares fell on her, but it was Trasean who advised
in a softer voice, “Rest assured, Princess, we will love and protect your
sister with everything we have.”

She couldn’t respond, couldn’t even plead with them not to
go. And then it was too late when they swung away and strode toward the nearby
craft that began to shimmer back into its normal color.

Her eyes widened at just how close the craft had been before
she’d stumbled and blacked out. Hell, if she’d taken another twenty steps she
might well have smashed into the craft instead.

“The craft’s shield walls chameleon their surroundings,”
Genesis explained, “the walls can also open up so that anyone—like you—who
might stumble across it, would only see through it and to the other side. A bit
like the louver windows you have on Earth. A perfect concealment.”

His voice became a distant monotone as she watched Trasean
and Auron stride toward the craft. A doorway formed even as the shields
fashioned a step. The two men boarded the craft and she turned stricken eyes to
Genesis. “Please tell me this is all a bad dream.”

His eyes softened, but there was steel beneath. “They will
make your sister wonderful husbands. She will be very happy.”

She shook her head. “Only one of us was promised. You can’t
break that oath.”

His nostrils flared. “I broke that oath the moment I had
Trasean and Auron promise not to reveal your true identity. As far as my people
are aware, you are the first born.” He turned around. After taking just a few
strides he placed her on his
cercanne
. “No matter what has happened, no
matter when you were born, I no longer have any doubt that you are my
intended.” His eyes burned. “You’re the one I want, no one else.”

Somewhere deep inside, joy suffused her body, but for the
moment at least the dark emotions lashing at her were far more prevalent. She
lifted her chin, her eyes clashing with his and her heart walling up at his
obvious pain. “You knew everything I did was to save my sister!”

He stared at her, his eyes sharp, knowing. “Was it, Eden?”

She didn’t back down, though everything inside her shriveled
just a little as she said hoarsely, “You gave Trasean and Auron not only your
permission to retrieve Aline, but your blessing too.”

“Would you deny your sister the chance of happiness?” The
back of his knuckles scraped along her jawline, his stare almost savage with
its intensity. “The same happiness you’ve found here.”

She jerked her head away from his touch. Calling Colin, who
immediately bounded behind her on the
cercanne
, she said to Genesis,
“Just…take me home.”

Chapter Twelve

Eden peered over Genesis’ shoulder with a disbelieving stare
as he slowed the
cercanne
on approach to his camp.

His people were lined up in front of their
donyas
,
leaving a pathway as they waited expectantly for their prince’s arrival. But it
was the cheer that went up the moment they saw she was a passenger that had joy
push back the numbness that’d stolen over her after seeing Trasean and Auron
embark on a mission to find her sister.

She dismounted from the
cercanne
and Colin jumped
nimbly to the ground, staying close to her feet. The men and the women crossed
their arms and bowed their heads, showing respect for their princess and future
queen.

Warmth and a sense of belonging infused her. She’d been
forgiven now she’d served her time.

Genesis dismounted and then bent to lift her into his arms
once again. She shook her head. “No, I can walk.” At his assessing glance she
added, “I want to walk.”

He stepped back, face unreadable when he nodded. “Of
course.”

She managed a smile as he helped her dismount. At the
proffered crook of his arm, she hesitated, then placed her hand on the silken
warmth of his skin before walking with him past the small crowd of his
followers…her followers too now.

Did they know they accorded her the esteem of royalty when
it was Aline who deserved that honor? Aline who deserved the amazing man at her
side.

“Eckn’a, sa Sheehar
,” the Earth woman, Katy, said
proudly in
Carechian
before translating unnecessarily, “welcome, my
Princess.”

“Thank you, Katy,” she said with a smile, looking almost
eye-level to the tall and voluptuous woman. “I’m glad to be back.”

But once in the privacy of the blessedly cool
donya
she wasn’t quite so sure. Glad wasn’t something she felt knowing Genesis
supported Trasean and Auron in the finding of Aline. Did it count for nothing
that she’d risked everything to keep her sister on Earth and unattached?

Genesis’ eyes fairly burned between her shoulder blades when
she left him with Colin and ducked through the hanging shield that separated
the main room with its table and chairs,
sylak
plant and two
panka
lamoras
from the bathing room.

She pulled her dress over her head, a heavy piece of
fimordh
plunking to the floor. She scooped it up, running a thumb along its
fleshy stalk. It might have sent her blind when she’d least wanted it to, but
it’d also undoubtedly saved her life from an unrelenting desert heat.

She rolled the stalk in her hand. The plants on this world
really were amazing and she still had so much to learn. It was with a pang in
her belly that she realized she really didn’t want to return to Earth—and not
just because of her love for Genesis. She dropped the
fimordh
and
automatically lifted a hand to trace her necklace, acknowledging the gift from
Genesis represented everything she wanted on this world.

Stepping into the water, she closed her eyes on a sigh as
she sank into the soft caress of warm water until she was completely submerged.
Staying under for as long as possible while her pores undoubtedly rejoiced, it
was only when she emerged from the water, gasping in a lungful of air, that she
became aware of Genesis standing in the bathing room with considering eyes.

“I thought I was alone,” she said coolly. Crazy that after
being alone for so long she felt as though she needed that very solitude to
think things through.

One of his hands lifted and he unfastened whatever held the
bandages in place. “And here I thought you’d had enough of being alone,” he
drawled, “and were in need of rescue from drowning.”

The strappings slithered from his chest, exposing nasty
purple-and-blue-mottled bruising. The need for solitude melted clean away as
she stared with horror and croaked, “Dear lord, you lifted me like that?”

His eyes held hers as he slowly peeled off his pants,
exposing his long, hard cock that jerked free and was thankfully devoid of the
bruising that colored his upper torso. Then he was stalking down the steps and
into the water, his presence managing to suck the spaciousness right out of the
room.

She swallowed. Yearning stirred to life within, a longing to
take hold of his broad shoulders and lean forward to kiss him until all the
lies and regrets were a thing of the past. Until it was just the two of them
with absolutely nothing standing between them…except for his cock.

Her face cracked into a smile at the thought even as Genesis
got all serious looking and reminded huskily, “You wanted to talk?”

Her smile faded. God, that request seemed so long ago,
barely remembered.

“No more talk,” she said. “At least…not right now.”

He dropped into the water until only his head was clear,
level with hers. And with his eyes still holding hers she had to wonder if the
water wasn’t a conduit to all the longing sparking between them, a desire that
was open and honest—had always been the one thing that was open and honest.

Her pulse fluttered, her blood warming and the breath
catching in her throat.

His hand moved through the water, sending ripples out one
after the other. The brush of his fingertips on her hip was as light as the
touch of a dandelion, yet it sent a bolt of heat straight to her core even as
it pulled the oxygen right back into her lungs.

As one, they merged together, the water surging around them
and half-carrying them to the rim of the huge bath. His lips covered hers and
she opened under him as though a flower to the sun, a little moan escaping her
throat. She’d never get enough of him, not in her lifetime. Not ever.

As his tongue pushed into her mouth, she twined her legs
around his hips. The velvet press of his cock against her belly created a
shiver in the vicinity of her navel before radiating straight to her womb.
Wanton. Primal.

His thumb brushed along her clit and she jerked from him,
then melted slowly back to his capable touch. Shock waves of lust burned
through the nerve endings of her clit as he massaged her sensitized flesh,
strong circular motions that brought her quickly to the edge, before gentle
strokes kept her a heartbeat away from ecstasy.

The bastard.

And all the while he kissed her, the tip of his tongue
dipping into her mouth, exploring, tasting, his other hand cupping her buttocks
and kneading until she distantly wondered if she should demand her right to
come right there and then, no penetration required.

But then the wondrous pressure of his touch withdrew and his
hand moved to rest on her shoulder, gently guiding her downward. His cock
brushed the opening of her pussy and her belly fluttered with anticipation. She
didn’t have time to enjoy the delicious sensation.

His hips thrust forward. Her mouth fell apart, her breath
expelling on a hiss. She might well have been a virgin all over again with his
shaft filling her pussy to the threshold of pain and a little beyond.

But then her muscles adjusted, giving a little under the
strain. She looked up. Genesis’ jaw was clenched tight. She wriggled, watching
his eyes burn molten and a muscle in his temple stutter into life.

She locked her arms around his shoulders and drew herself up
a little, his shaft suctioning free, inch by glorious inch. His teeth gritted
and she realized he only barely withheld from climaxing.

She smiled a little smile, suddenly wanting to see him lose
complete control, wanting to see a part of him that wasn’t under the restraint
of his formidable discipline. And a small part of her wanted to be reassured
that he too could be influenced under the right conditions, that she wasn’t the
only one who could forget everything in themselves that mattered.

She dropped back on his length. His groan was barely
disguised as his glittering eyes slid half-closed, then focused on her breasts
as they slapped the water when she took up a rhythm that increased on every
downstroke, the sloshing water unable to drown out the sound of her panting
breaths and the inarticulate words he uttered in his native tongue.

His cock throbbed inside her once, twice, before an orgasm
exploded from him, his warm seed shooting deep. Seating herself on him fully,
she watched ecstasy rework his face into blissful angles and lines even as she
continued to rock on him a little, her inner muscles squeezing his shaft as he
shuddered into her, his balls draining dry.

“Gods, Eden,” he said hoarsely, “I couldn’t hold back.”

Her smile was all on the inside at the knowledge he’d been
so taken by surprise he hadn’t even had a chance to shock her into coming with
him. “You lost control,” she teased, “am I bad for liking that?”

He cupped her face and kissed her slowly, tenderly. Pulling
back just a little he searched her eyes and said, “The only bad thing is that I
came and you didn’t.” He stepped back and carefully disengaged from her. With
an arched brow he added, “I can’t have that.”

He slipped under the water and her legs automatically
disentangled from around his hips. She leaned back on her elbows at the edge of
the pool. A wry smile curled her lips. If he was offering oral sex, she
wouldn’t be saying no, she’d already discovered that his tongue and mouth were
wicked instruments of pleasure…

But when he resurfaced and commanded her to spread her
thighs wide, it wasn’t his mouth that covered her eager flesh. Instead, tiny
pulsations pinpointed her clit. She gasped, jerking startled eyes to the
kio
kio
plant he held to her already sensitized cunt.

“Told you I’d take pleasure in showing you later,” he
rasped.

Her head fell back before she could utter a protest as
pleasure throbbed through the tiny bundle of nerve endings, leaving her
writhing against the vibrations until an orgasm shot through her body, then
another and another, a relentless pleasure that wouldn’t let up until Genesis
was satisfied he’d paid his dues.

He released the
kio kio
with its vibrating tentacles,
but she was too boneless and sated too care. She could only wind her arms
around his neck when he lifted her into his arms and planted a kiss on her
mouth.

The world revolved as he turned her around. One of his hands
released her for a moment, allowing the water to take much of her weight as he
reached for something. The
kio kio
? Her eyes widened. There was only so
much pleasure she could take! But when he instead collected the
fimordh
she
wasn’t quite sure whether to be relieved or disappointed.

He rolled it between his thumb and forefinger before looking
down to her. “I never commended you on making use of the plants made available
to you.”

“And I never thanked you for the book of plants, it was
invaluable.”

He smiled. “I will be sure to let my father know. He spent
many months transcribing all his knowledge onto those pages.”

“Your father,” she breathed. But of course! She’d listened
raptly to her own father who’d talked about the three great kings, one of who
was a genius botanist. Maddox Lek’hane. Genesis’ father. “I’d like to meet him
one day.”

He nodded, his smile widening as he carried her from the
water and up the stairs. “I would like that too. I’m sure you two would have a
lot to talk about.”

It wasn’t until he’d bent to retrieve her dress and his
pants, a grimace of pain etched into his face for a split second, that she
recalled his injuries. “Put me down,” she whispered, horrified at her own
selfishness.

But he’d already straightened and was striding through the
hanging shield toward the fur when he murmured, “Indulge me. My body is close
to healed…and I love nothing better than holding you close.”

Her heart pitter-pattered at his words. How could she argue?

Colin pulled his long body out from under the
caltronian
pelt
as Genesis lowered her onto its soft thickness. The
zadmet
turned his
back on them and proceeded to lick a paw while Genesis used his pants to dry
her with slow, tender strokes.

She smiled and then blew out a contented sigh. She lifted a
hand. Genesis flinched a little but didn’t pull back as she traced his nasty
bruises, which had faded in the short interim since she’d last seen them.
Whatever concoction his men had given him had sped up the healing process many
times over.

Her throat dried. Just how severe had his injuries been to
start with?

He might nearly have died and it’s all my fault.

She lifted her stare, her breath catching at the open
adoration in his eyes. Wonder suffused her soul. She’d done nothing to deserve
this man and everything to make him despise her. “You should hate me,” she
whispered, echoing her thoughts.

“I could never hate my intended,” he stated calmly.

Helplessness for a moment chased away the awe. “But I’m
not—”

“The shields don’t lie,” he injected. “They knew you were
mine…knew you were my intended.”

He began to dry her off again, his hands gentling as he
brushed over the soft skin of her belly. She pressed a hand over his, stilling
the motion. She sucked her bottom lip into her mouth and then blurted, “I’m not
pregnant.”

Hell, despite his forgiveness, the reality was she’d failed
him in every way, this was just another to add to the list.

His smile dissolved her unpleasant thoughts and somehow
warmed her right through as he said, “We have plenty of time to make children,
Sheehar
.
Besides, there is much I want to share with you before starting a family.”

Her hand clenched over his even as hope surged within. “I’m
sorry I lied to you.”

He turned his hand so that his fingers clasped hers, his
expression serious, intent. “I’m not. Not anymore.”

She pulled back, eyes going wide. “What?”