Petr's Mate (13 page)

With
a quick
move,
he pulled Sam into his
lap
and had his arms around her to press a kiss to her lips.
She snuggled against him. “I
have a lot to learn about your people. For example, what will they expect from
me when I go to meet with your leaders?” She was more than a little afraid to
meet his people’s rulers. “And you are sure they won’t want to do anything to
me, test me?” Her people had been rabidly against anything that was not human,
so she wasn’t sure how the
Imarian
people would feel.

“They won
’t
need to do any testing that wasn’t already done
on
Chevon’s
vessel. The doctor
would have submitted everything to the ruling body on
Imara
per protocol. They also have all the paperwork I sent through to notify them of
our bonding. What you will need to know about meeting them we can discuss
later. There is something for you to watch in regards to that. It
’
s a vid we have all non-
Imarian
guests view when they visit. A few old protocols to
be observed, but nothing for you to worry about.” He brushed a finger between
her eyebrows. “Which means you don
’
t need to have this line here, Samantha.”

She felt herself relaxing
slightly and sighed. “As long as I am able to be yours nothing else with the
protocols will matter.”

Giving her another kiss, Petr
hugged her tight. “There is not a lot to learn, only a few important pieces to
keep in mind. For now, go and do your reading. I need to get these reports done
before I find myself buried under the ever-growing mountain.”

Petr
returned his attention to his work and they fell into a companionable silence.
There was no need to fill the void with talk.

From
time to
time,
Samantha would ask Petr questions
but,
for the most part,
she loved being able to just sit there
in his office with him and read over the files. “Okay.” She stood and put the
file down. “I’m hungry. Take me and feed me, please?”

He
gave her that “again?” face but didn’t argue. The man knew better than to say
anything. Not that it didn’t stop him from muttering under his breath, although
she couldn’t be sure what about. Packing up a data pad, he stood after locking
down his computer
system
and moved around his desk to take her hand in his.

“Hey, I’m seriously old and I’m
still trying to catch up on a heck of a lot of meals missed. Give me a break,
mister man.” She squeezed Petr’s hand, then wrapped her arm around his waist,
her head on his shoulder. “You enjoy feeding me, darling, admit it.”

She
leaned up and kissed him, then found herself backed up to one of the walls,
Petr’s hand massaging her ass while his tongue dueled with hers.

Chapter Eight

Samantha
was more than a little scared as they approached the
Imarian
home world. She hid that fear by research. She was constantly going back and
looking over the files, then contacting
Adira
when
she was able to.
Finally,
she found something that was a bit on the strange side. For
this,
she had to go to Petr because it was
in the ancient
Imarian
language, something she still
couldn’t figure out.

Walking
into his
office,
she was frowning. “Petr, can you help me with this?” she asked, then looked up.
“I’m sorry. I should have knocked first.” The young officer was there sitting
on the other side of Petr’s desk and stood when she entered. “I can come back.”

Petr
was up on his feet and coming around to greet her. “No
need,
little one. We were already finishing
up.” The young officer gave her a shy
smile
and left the office. Once the door sealed behind
him,
Petr had the AI go into
lockdown
and full privacy. “You have
that look on your face, Samantha. What’s wrong?”

“I
can’t read this and it’s important. I know that it’s important because of what
was leading up to it.” She handed him the data pad. “I have it highlighted. I’m
at a point where it’s talking about an
Imarian
princess going to marry someone, but I can’t tell who. Directly after this is
the first notation of the war starting,
so
this has to be it.” She was excited.
She knew that this was big, very big.

Taking the data pad from her,
Petr went to sit on the sofa, and Sam flopped down next to him. He sat frowning
at the screen for a time before tipping his head slightly. “His Royal Highness,
the Most Glorious
Kolur
Pall
Olvirsson
of the House
Craegin
. He was the heir to their throne
when they still had one,” Petr told her quietly.

“And did I read the other part
correctly? It was an
Imarian
princess, one of the
heiresses to the
Imarian
throne?” She knew that they
no longer did that, but back in the time it was huge. “And if they were to
marry.” She frowned and shook her head. “Your people haven’t always been at
war. It started because of something that happened along the way to this
wedding.”

Petr was reading more and
holding a finger up. “There is a notation here. I recognize it. We need to get
into the archives. Secretly. Without either of us being locked up for treason.”

“Maybe they will give me access
since I’m basically just trying to find my place? Or maybe that would be a
reason they wouldn’t want me in the archives,” she wondered aloud. “I wonder
how we
’
ll
be able to get the information that’s
missing?
It has
to be something big. It really does.”

“I’ll put in a request for
access on the grounds of showing you more history of our people to assist in
easing your way. There
’
s a small chance they may deny us, but it will be safer to
get legal access.”

She
moved in closer to him and sighed. “We’re almost to your home world, aren’t we?
Have I mentioned I’m nervous?”

“You
did. When we first woke, over the morning meal twice, several times before I
left you to continue researching, and again right now. There is no reason to be
nervous, Samantha. You know all the protocols better than most born
Imarians
do.” Setting the data pad
aside,
Petr shifted, then moved her
so she was cuddled in his lap. “We are on approach to the spaceport above the
planet. Once we’re locked in, and the seals are in
place,
we’ll be able to disembark.
Most of the crew will be getting off for shore
leave
while a small number will remain on board
to cycle out as the others return. We’ll have five
cycles,
or days, as you call them, on
planet during which we will meet the ruling body, and then we can go visit the
local seamstress to arrange for a wardrobe. We won’t be meeting them until
tomorrow. No more than a couple of hours. Then we can leave.”

“Thank
you. And I need to make sure that they will make me pants as well as dresses. I
don’t mind if I have to wear a lot of
gowns,
but I really do want to have
some
pants for while we are here on your ship.” A place she was certain they would
spend a lot of time on.

“They’ll
make whatever you want. Make sure you’re specific about how you want them to
fit you, and they’ll see to it. The seamstresses of
Imara’s
capital city will gladly do anything necessary to please
you
if only to pry open my accounts and
fill their pockets.” He had a smile curving his lips, so she knew he wasn’t at
all upset by the idea of them dipping into his savings.

She snickered at that thought
and shrugged. “Never thought that I would be a kept woman but seems as if I’m
going to be.” She knew he was teasing her and that in and of itself made her
feel better. “And don’t worry, I have no issues with telling people what I
think. But why can’t I just buy clothes off the rack? Don’t your people have
generic clothing lines and shopping centers where you can buy clothes?”

“There
are ready made clothing available in a few shops scattered around
Imara
, but they are more a stand-in until you can get
something made custom. We can pick up a few items from one of those shops, too.
After you have your
wardrobe,
you can still wear them for whenever you don’t want to mess up the others.”

“I think that would be good.
It’s actually kind of nice that your people still use seamstresses. I can’t
wait to see what they create for me and to feel all of the fabric that you have
on your world. I have a thing with touch. I love soft things.”

“It
will be an
experience,
I’m sure.”
Stopping
outside the dining hall, Petr turned to face her and cupped her cheeks. “Just
remember you are all I ever want, or will ever need. The clothing is nothing
more than wrapping deemed necessary by society.” H
e
stepped back to open the doors to the dining hall. A tug on her hand, and he
drew her over to the food.

Her
lips were still tingling when they got to the line with food. She followed him
and accepted the dishes that he pointed out. She was again very thankful that,
for the most part,
the food looked similar to
what she was accustomed to, in a small way, at least.

Sitting
down in their usual spots, they both began to eat. Petr went to work on his
data pad, but anytime Sam asked him
something
or spoke to him he turned his full attention on her. She knew he wasn’t the
sort to ever ignore her, and things like this proved it time and again.

She watched him as he worked and
noticed that when someone came up to their table, he would give them his full
attention just as he did her. Although he also gave her the heated looks that
made her panties wet and typically a kiss or a stroke to her arm.

When they’d
finished eating, he led her out of the dining hall and steered her toward the
lifts. Squeezing her
fingers,
he let her step into the lift before he followed. A quick command to the
AI
and they were soon descending deeper
into the bowels of the cruiser. “I’ve got a meeting that should not take too
long. If you want to look around
engineering,
you can.”

She grinned. “You know me, I
like learning the new places around the ship.” She shrugged. “I like being able
to learn everything that I can and that means I will occasionally find a door
that I really shouldn’t go into but do anyway.” She was notorious for finding
odd places on the ship.

“My only request is to pay
attention to where you wander. There are sections down there marked clearly you
must avoid, little one. They are extremely dangerous, and only those properly
trained should ever enter them. Please take care,” he said softly.

“I will, honey, thank you for
worrying about me. But you have taught me the signs that I need to be careful
of, well, you and your people.” His men and women were practically always
trying to teach her new signs that she needed to look out for.

“We have,” he said. Pulling her
in close, Petr hugged her to him. “A cruiser is not the place for a civilian,
but we make exceptions for the most important woman in the commanding officer’s
life. That would be you, in case you were at all confused.”

“Well, you know, I am blonde.”
She was teasing him, hugging and laughing as she did so. “Besides, I’ve made
friends inside of your crew as well. Not just because I’m your girl, I hope,
right?” Because she looked forward to having the friends she had made liking
her for her and not because of her relationship to Petr.

“My
people are not the sort to like you only because of who you know, Samantha.
While we are all taught to be polite to even those we don’t
like
or approve of, you must admit the crew
would not be able to hide any dislike for long. Gossip around here moves faster
than even you or I can run. They are still trying to figure out who you are,
but they like you for you, Samantha. Continue to be the woman I
love.
That is all you ever need to do.”

“Don’t worry, I will be the only
person that I know how to be, and you love her, so I have to be doing something
right. Okay, well that didn’t even make sense to my own ears.”

“You
are doing everything right, to my way of thinking, Samantha. Never change for
anyone,” he said. Resting his cheek to her
hair,
he gave her a squeeze when they
reached their floor. Petr stepped back, took her hand, and led her along the
corridor.

She didn’t say anything for a
long time. Finally, she nodded. “Good thing that you like me as I am because
I’m way too darn old to change now, you know.” She laughed as she spoke.

His lips were twitching no
matter how hard he was trying to control the movement. “You don
’t
look a day over
your thirty-six human years, so that must bring you some peace of mind.”

“Thirty-six?”
She squeaked a small yelp with that word and reached out to swat at him. “Take
that back. I don’t look a day over thirty-four, right?” It was the whole over
thirty-five that got her. “Silly man, you never tell a woman she looks that
old. Well, at least me. How’s that?” She didn’t know how
Imarian
women felt about their
age,
but she knew how she felt about it.

Petr’s shoulders were shaking,
and he had to brace a hand to a nearby wall while attempting to compose
himself. “You forget, little one, I
’v
e read your file. There is no
hiding from the reality of things permanently etched into a data system.”

“
Oh,
you are so bad.” She was snickering
and shaking her head. “You are so bad.” She liked that he made her forget
everything by teasing with her. It was something she needed to do, just simply
forget everything for a little while. Especially since they were now at his
home world.

With
an arm around her
waist,
he hauled her in close to
him
and nibbled on her jaw. “I apologize for making such an error with your age.
You did say forty, correct?” She felt his lips curving against her skin at the
same time he squeezed her even closer.

“You are so rotten. Good thing
that I love you as much as I do,” she said with a grin.

“Let’s
get through everything quickly so that we can get back to our quarters. Come
the dawn it will be time to disembark to go down to
Imara
.”

She took a deep breath, serious
once more. “Okay. Here is me being serious.” She closed her eyes and centered
herself, then looked back at him. “And you are sure that your people won’t try
to take me away from you, right?” That was really her only worry.

“They attempt such a foolish
thing and it will be the last thing they do in this life,” he told her. His
tone was calm, his voice soft, but she caught the glint of promise for a bloody
death in his gaze. No, her man wouldn’t let anyone part them.

“So
do you have a home that you keep on your home world? Or do you live in a
country home or something like that?” Some of the ways that people acted
reminded Samantha of English royalty on Earth.

“I
have an apartment in the city, close to the port when I need to be prepared to
depart quickly. The family estate is still in my name. I was considering
selling it off since it’s such a large dwelling, and I never use it. Now that I
have you in my life I see the appeal of it being far removed from the city
proper. We won’t be able to go there on this visit, but I’ll arrange to take
some time off soon. Remind me later and I’ll pull out the vid that
Adira
created
some
cycles back. She made it to show off to one of her friends at the time who was
too ill to ever visit us. She is extremely detail oriented, so there is not
much she missed in it.” Putting his hand to the scanner outside of the large
bulkhead
doors,
Petr waited for the scan to complete before inputting a code that had those
large doors sliding open.