Kidnapping Keela (13 page)

“Do I have to kiss him?” asked Solima, and everyone laughed at her expression of disgust.

“No,” said Marruk with a grin. “If he were to kiss you I’d have to challenge him to a duel and that would just lead to complications. But you can dance, and when you’re both old enough he can ask me again if he may kiss you.”

“I hope I’ll never be soooo old. I think kissing is disgusting.”

Marruk pretended to look hurt.

“Does that mean that you don’t want to kiss me any more?” he teased, suppressing a chuckle.

“It’s different with you,” Solima assured him earnestly. “You don’t slobber.”

Again everyone laughed and against her will Keela had to admit that Marruk had a side to him that she would not have credited him with. She had indeed grasped at her rescue that he loved his little daughter, but she would not have thought that he could be so playful and funny. That did not go with the arrogant macho man that she saw in him.

“They’re coming!” Solima suddenly cried excitedly, jumping up from her chair and running towards the women.

They all turned round and Lory and Charly were actually walking towards them, accompanied by Kordan and Amano. Kordan was an icey, enormous man, a good half a head taller than Marruk. He wore his hair, in contrast to all the other Carthians, cut as short as a hedgehog’s and his eyes were icey-blue and unsettlingly cold. His angular face, with his wide chin and sharply chiselled nose, was attractive but without any visible sign of emotion. Keela did not doubt that he was a loyal warrior but as a man he gave her goose bumps of the negative kind. In stark contrast to him was the dark Amano. He looked like the typical Latino off the cover of one of her grandmother’s old suspense novels: long dark hair, dark brown eyes, a deep suntan and a fantastic smile that showed the dimple in his chin.

Charly was waving and laughing as she ran towards Solima. They hugged and Keela looked at Lory who looked somewhat more sullen. Kordan, who was walking beside her, was talking to her - because of the distance Keela could not understand what he was saying, but it must have been something that Lory did not agree with because she stopped and turned to Kordan, and with her finger poking his massive chest, she was talking to him heatedly. They were looking at one another angrily, then Lory turned away from him and walked on. Kordan shook his head and followed her, his expression rigid.

“It looks to me as if Kordan has finally found his match,” said Berka, laughing. “I’ve never seen a woman dare to openly argue with him.”
 

“Lory’s used to dealing with rogues and villains. She’s an FBI agent,” explained Keela.

“What’s an FBI agent?” asked Mortociar.

“The FBI is a special police investigation department where we come from. Those are the hard lads, umm, and girls of course, who sort out really bad people like terrorists, serial killers etc. They’re better trained than normal police.”

“You mean she’s a warrior?” asked Berka, fascinated.

“Umm, similar. I’ve seen her fight. She’s got a few mean moves. I wouldn’t mess around with her.”
 

“I’ll happily leave the
messing around
to Kordan. He’ll put his foot down with your little friend.”

“Little? Lory’s almost one meter ninety. And as far as him putting his foot down is concerned – I wouldn’t be so sure,” answered Keela.

Solima, Charly and Amano reached them at the same time as Lory and Kordan. The king got up and smiled aimiably at the two women.

“A warm welcome to you. We’re pleased that you’ve finally reached us safely. I hope you feel comfortable in our home and will be able to recover from the adventures that you’ve experienced.”

“Safely!” snapped Lory quietly, glaring at Kordan.
 

“Thank you for your warm welcome, Your Highness,” said Charly diplomatically. “It was extremely kind of you to send your men to rescue us.”

“Just call me Mortociar, my child. We consider you girls as part of the family. Come and sit down with us and take a little refreshment.”

“I need to make something clear here,” Lory interrupted and ignored the admonishing look from Kordan. “I have
not
come here willingly and I’ve already told this big oaf here that I don’t intend to share a room with him and that I’m not his possession just because I’ve been to bed with him. I don’t know how that all works here but where I come from sex alone is not a promise of marriage. I don’t expect a luxury suite or any other privileges. If I could be given a small room and if someone could help me find a way back to earth I would actually be very grateful.”

“Dear Lory – that’s your name, isn’t it?” began Moreena, and once Lory had nodded in confirmation, she continued: “I’m sorry for any bother that you’ve had to tolerate up to now. I can understand your anxiety. Please take the time to recover and consider your next move well. Of course we’re prepared to help you get home, but this can take a long time. At the moment we don’t even know where your planet is. I will instruct our astronomer to meet with you in order to solve this problem, but we can’t get involved in what’s going on between you and Kordan. As long as you’re here on Karrx7 Kordan is responsible for you and I hope that you can settle your problems and that you will perhaps stay with us after all. You’re clearly mates even if you don’t wish to recognise or accept this right now.”

“Mates? Is everyone here completely mad? I’d rather go into the forest and live there than spend the rest of my life with this… arghh, put me down, you big oaf!”

“Kordan had grabbed Lory and simply thrown her over his shoulder. Lory was struggling and thumping him wherever she could, but Kordan took no notice of it.

“Bastard! Son-of-a-bitch! Put me down…!”

“Aunt, uncle,” said Kordan curtly, as he turned to go, simply carrying off the wild Lory.
 

Keela watched the couple, incredulous.

“Can … can no one do anything about that, really?” she asked, distraught. “I think she really does not seem to want that – he won’t be violent to her, will he?”

Moreena put her hand on her arm reassuringly.

“Don’t worry. Our men never use violence against women. Apart from holding her or carrying her away Kordan won’t do anything to her. And you heard yourself that they’ve slept together, so he clearly doesn’t leave her as cold as she’s now trying to make out. Carthians do not rape. If they had sex together then it will have been because she wanted to as well.”

Keela could feel Marruk looking at her and she glanced at him fertively. For a moment she almost hoped that he would also just throw her over his shoulder and carry her into his chamber. Why did she have to be the only one again that was with a man who did not want her - or at least who had no serious intentions where she was concerned. Berka had claimed Amber, Kordan had obviously selected Lory as his mate and there also seemed to be something going on between Charly and Amano. And her? She was falling in love with an ass-hole who only wanted to shag her. Typical. What was wrong with her?

“Charly, you were with the two of them during the journey, so perhaps you can tell us a little more about the problems between the two of them,” said the king, joining in the conversation.

By now Charly had sat down with Amano and was sipping on a tajaka. She glanced at Amano and nodded in agreement.

“Well, it’s constantly up and down with the two of them. Kordan was after her from the beginning, like a predator after its prey. But Lory is a woman who’s used to giving orders, so she and Kordan bickered non- stop with one another. But I can confirm that there’s definitely something going on between the two of them, and that it’s not only one-sided. We once caught them, by chance of course, um …” Charly blushed and looked to Amano for assistance.

Amano was grinning in amusement, but he did come to her aid by continuing the story: “They were both in the canteen when Charly and I burst in, and they were quite heavily into one another, and I did not get the impression that Lory was needing to be forced into anything.” Winking, he continued: “Even though she was screaming, those were quite definitely not cries for help.”

Berka chuckled and the king hid his amusement behind a little cough. Amber blushed like a tomato and so looked similar to the very embarrassed Charly, who was also bright red.

Keela decided to examine Lory. If she, too, had bite marks, then they were not from cheetahs, as there were none on board the
Cordelia
.

Chapter 9

Y-Quadrant, Karrx7

Royal Palace of the Arr’Carthians

7
^th
day of the month of Manao in the year 7067

Federation Time

Since the arrival of Lory and Charly Keela had not had the opportunity to speak with Lory alone or to find out in any way whether she, too, had bite marks. As usual Marruk was avoiding her and Amber was with Berka the whole time. Solima continued to give Keela language lessons and Charly also joined them for the lessons. She seemed to like Amano a lot, but Keela could not work out how close their relationship was. In public at least they did not exchange any intimacies the way Amber and Berka quite openly did. But Charly was living in Amano’s chambers and also did not seem to have a problem with that.

“So pensive?” came a pleasant male voice next to her. Keela turned her head and looked up at the Carthian beside her who was looking at her with a beaming smile. She knew him - he was Luvoka - one of the officers from the
Cordelia
. She smiled back at him, but did not reply. What was she supposed to say?

“I haven’t seen you dance yet. Don’t you want to?”

“I … To be exact, no one has asked me yet,” Keela answered.

“Would you do me the honour?” he asked with a wink.

“Why not?”

Luvoka held out his arm to her and she placed her hand on it. There were a lot of people dancing but the Carthian led her confidently across the dance floor. Although she did not know the moves to the dance she had no problem following his lead. She realised that it had been a long time since she had had such fun. Without noticing, one dance led to the next.
 

“Do you like the music? I have no idea what sort of music is played on your planet.”

“Oh, we have lots of different types of music. I don’t think that the music that we would play at a garden party like this would be very different from this music. “

“Have you had a chance to get to know our planet a little?”

“To be honest I don’t know very much about the area. Apart from here in the palace I’ve only been to Marruk’s castle so far. During the flight there I saw a little, but unfortunately that’s all.”

“Has Marruk claimed you?” asked Luvoka.

“No, he’s only to take care of me, until I … have found someone who appeals to me.”

“Good. I was afraid that I’d come too late. I was attracted to you from the very first moment, but unfortunately I had to fly back to Xevus3 on the
Cordelia
to rescue your friends. Otherwise I would have approached you much sooner. Of course I don’t want to be pushy, but if you have nothing against it we could do something together. – Get to know one another better.”

“Umm … Yes, why not,” answered Keela uncertainly.

What was she to do? - Spend her life under the roof of a man that she loved but who did not want her? It was time to weigh up other possibilities. She had almost given up on the idea of being able to return home. The king had already declared that they did not even know where earth was and Keela was definitely not in a position to be of any assistance to the astronomer. Lory would not be able to help at all either. They had to accept the fact that they were stranded here and it could have been a lot worse. This planet was absolutely beautiful and had a pleasant climate. The Carthians were friendly and she was treated like a princess here.

A frightening growling sound made her jump. Luvoka stopped dancing and they turned to where the sound had come from, as did everyone else. Marruk came up to her and, judging by his expression and his body language, he was wild with rage.

***

Marruk was leaning against a tree trunk, staring ahead of him. He was not in the mood for a party and if it had not been for Solima he would not have come at all. But she had so looked forward to this party that he did not want to spoil her fun just because he did not feel like it. They had begun the afternoon with games and a barbecue, and started the evening with a large buffet. After the meal the royal couple had opened the dancing on the dance floor made of wooden planks. The night was pleasantly mild and a light wind was blowing. The air was filled with music, laughter and the smell of the burning torches. But Marruk could not enjoy any of this. Apart from him there seemed to be only one other person who was enjoying the evening as little as he was, and that was Lory. He could understand why she was not: his cousin, Kordan was an ass, although he was highly respected by Marruk as a warrior that he would trust with his life. Kordan was absolutely loyal and totally fearless. That, and his ability to fight, made him the best ally in battle - even better than his own brother who was sometimes too hot-headed. Kordan was always cool and calculating. He never lost control. But he was a reserved man and not exactly what anyone would call sociable.
 

He looked across at Berka and Amber who were sitting a little off to the side and had clearly forgotten the world around them. He did not begrudge them their happiness but it also cut him to the quick. He missed the feeling of waking up in the morning next to someone that he loved and knowing that he was important to someone. But there were also dangers. It made one vulnerable and Marruk had sworn to never again subject himself to this vulnerability. Admittedly the relationship between him and Morika had not been the most ideal. They had never argued and he had never had reason to complain about her, but they had never achieved this deep bond that other couples had. That was because the relationship had been more of a political matter. It rarely happened that a couple entered a relationship without having an true connection as mates, but in his circles the advantage of forging a connection between two families was sometimes valued more highly than the true foundation. Yet Marruk had loved Morika and he had done everything in his power to make her happy and to make up for the lack of physical attraction. He had never quite succeeded in doing this.