Swept Off Her Feet (12 page)

Dev opened his mouth to answer, paused, and then closed his lips on his response. It disconcerted her that she couldn’t figure out the emotion behind the intense look he gave her.

“No, it wouldn’t be in the database. I believe I will save that answer for later,
Nippa
. But do ask me again…during our mating.”

Her mind raced ahead to that looming event. She didn’t know how she would handle the situation when it arose. She wanted him more each passing moment, craved his touch and his smile, yearned for his approval.

He just might turn out to be the perfect man for her. Intelligent, kind, a wonderful lover,
and
he had a body a god would envy. Only two things hindered her complete acceptance: not knowing her father’s level of involvement in this situation and her pending loss of the Brewsters.

She refused, on principle, to be party to her father’s empire-building plans, and she really didn’t want to live anywhere that made visitation with her foster family impossible. As far as she knew,
Rb’qarm
could be a billion light years away. She didn’t say any of this to the prince. She contented herself with a social lie. “I don’t want to know that badly.”

“Oh, yes you do!” Dev smiled wickedly, his tiger-topaz eyes luminous with mocking humor. “In fact—”

A high-pitched beeping interrupted his words. He bent his mouth to a device on his arm, toggled a switch and spoke into it, acknowledging the message he’d received.

“Come,
Nippa
. The shuttle has arrived.”

This time, she accepted his help, allowing him to draw her up off the couch. Tightening his hand on hers, he led her to the open front door, where a sudden wayward updraft caught the hem of her lightweight skirt, swirling it about her legs in a flirtatious dance.

“Another gust of wind like that will have my
cherzda
rising again,” he whispered, leaning into her to keep their conversation private. “That glimpse of your beautiful thighs reminded me of what lies between them.”

White-hot need stabbed through her midriff. She couldn’t speak to reply.

“This is the second time I have rendered you speechless,” Dev teased, then stepped away from her to converse with GanR’dari.

Yeah. Not counting the numerous times I screamed myself hoarse beneath your tongue and terat.

Dev’s second-in-command, busy coordinating the men guarding the approaches to the apartment, paused to attend his commander.

“Is…
everything
…in readiness, GanR’dari?”

The guard sang into a small hand-unit, asking all units to report in, and Nnora had only to concentrate a little to catch the cadence and then the meaning of the words. Since Dev had shot her with that biological teacher, her understanding of
Rb’qarmli
was growing by leaps and bounds.

Aha, a third point she had against His Highhandedness. How dare he take it upon himself to decide how and when she would learn his language? The nerve!

Her attention snapping back to the present, she listened as the captain sang a few phrases more, and then closed the device with a flick of his wrist. Was it an alien cell phone, shades of her favorite show?
She really didn’t want to be beamed up, but it looked like there was no hope for it. She was going on a star trek of her own.

“Everything is in order, and all command-posts reports ready,
Chyya
. We leave as soon as you and your…” his eyes flicked to her and away before he corrected his words, “…the princess are aboard.”

Dev released her hand and placed his arm about her shoulders. “Ah Dari, you see I am unable to control the giddy happiness that keeps bubbling up in me. Your inclination was correct, my friend. You may inform the rest of the men that henceforth, they are to address Princess Glennora as
Chyya’va
, for she shall rule beside me. We will arrange the oath ceremony once we are underway.”

GanR’dari bowed stiffly in Nnora’s direction, right hand over his chest and left hand on his weapon hilt. “My greatest pleasure would be to die in your service,
Chyya’va
.”

She blinked. She gaped at the crazed warrior. “Are you off your gourd? What the hell kind of statement—”

“She is honored, GanR’dari” Dev adroitly interrupted.

“I am? No, I am not!” She dragged her feet as he bodily moved her away from his grinning warrior. Testosterone poisoning! All these men were suffering from an overdose of male hormones. Clearly, they needed the calming influence of a sensible woman. She guessed that would have to be her.

Herding her ahead of him, Dev steered her towards the vehicle hovering at the curb.

“Will you stop manhandling me? I had more to say to that warrior of yours—”

As she yanked her arm away from him, she caught a glimpse of the vehicle parked in front of her apartment. She drifted towards the curb to get a closer look at its underside. The darned thing floated above the ground. It had no wheels. Now that she thought of it, there weren’t any engine sounds either.

“Hey, how does it
do
that—hover like that?” she mumbled more to herself than Dev. She walked into the street to see the opposite side.

He thought he would swallow his tongue. Fear ran like ice through his veins as he tugged on her arm, removing her from the path of an oncoming car. Engrossed in her perusal of the sleek vehicle, she hadn’t even seen it heading for her.

Heaving a sigh, he tucked her tightly to his side, hopefully out of the path of danger and signaled his readiness to depart.

“Let us get underway,
Nippa
.” He hurried her aboard the shuttle. “You may examine the
Lorme
to your heart’s content—another time. Right now, we need to get to the Mothership. I have problems awaiting, situations I need to deal with immediately.”

* * * * *

The spaceship was huge. Nnora watched the immense shape grow to fill the view-screen of the fast little shuttle speeding her towards the rendezvous with her future. It was larger than a 747 jet, but smaller than the Enterprise. Something this big had to be hard to hide—how had the
Rb’qarmshi
eluded the satellites and tracking systems the various governments kept stationed around Earth?

The shuttle pilot, a youthful warrior who looked just this side of gaining his maturity, supplied the answer before she could work up the nerve to ask.

“Isn’t she a beauty,
Chyya’va
?” The boy was plainly in love with the ship. He needed no encouragement to share his enthusiasm. “I still get excited when I look on her. Our shield technology hides our heat signatures, enabling us to approach the less advanced worlds without being picked up by their primitive tracking systems.”

She frowned. She didn’t like the note of superiority she heard in the young pilot’s voice. “I thought Earth had a very advanced tracking system.”

“Don’t they use sonar or radar or a simplistic heat signature technology? In school they called it ultraviolet rays or something.” The boy scratched his head. “I don’t recall the elementary subjects well, I’m afraid.”

She swallowed the impulse to defend the jewel-like world spinning lazily beneath her. Instead, she probed him further. “Okay, tell me about your superior system. How do you deflect our scans?”

“Once we achieve stationary orbit, we project a camouflaging hologram that bends light-polarized ions around the hull. Most primitive planets still use sonar or radar technology, but bounce light or sound waves off us and we show up as a sinkhole, a solar flare-up anomaly, or stellar debris. Heat seeking won’t work either—the ions radiate at sub-zero temperatures, cloaking the ship’s heat in a blanket of cold. Ingenious, isn’t it?”

“Very,” she agreed, and meant it. How would humans react if they ever learned the truth really was out there, looking at them?

“And that’s not all. We can—”

The pilot suddenly jumped to his feet, snapping to attention, his eyes trained on a spot over her shoulders. “Sir!”

She turned, curious to see who had startled the boy so much his skin had blanched. She groaned when she saw GanR’dari standing over the youth, his stern gaze grilling the younger man. “We were having such fun, too,” she muttered loudly enough for the youngster to hear, smothering her grin when she heard him choking at her words.

“Did the
Chyya’va
ask you for information, pilot?”

The young Rb’qarmshi stiffened further. “No, sir!”

“Ah. Then she asked to be entertained?” She didn’t like the sneer she heard in GanR’dari’s voice.

Somehow, without losing his stiff military posture, the poor lad wilted where he stood. “No, sir!”

GanR’dari’s eyes narrowed. “How dare you bespeak the
Chyya’va
without the permission of our
Chyya?
”

“Excuse me,” she butted in. “
Whose
permission?”

“You young fool.” The second-in-command ignored her, acting as if she weren’t even there. He stared at the young warrior in angry disbelief. “Do you have a death wish?”

She threw up her hands. “Okay! I’ve had it! I’m fed up with all this macho bull crap. Stop bullying the boy, sergeant, or whatever the hell your rank is. He did nothing wrong. If you must know, I was about to ask him for information. He probably saw the question marks plastered all over my face.”

“GanR’dari is not bullying him, Nnora.” Dev had left his post at the command center in enough time to catch her tirade. “And none of my warriors are
boys
. They are strong, intelligent, dangerous men who have earned their place among the ranks. A ruling prince may call fifty men to follow him, to give their allegiance to him—and in time—to his immediate family. Each and every one of them deserves the respect due my personal vanguards.”

Dev turned his sights on the pilot, addressing his man in a cold voice. “They also deserve a reprimand when they venture beyond the boundaries of their position. GanR’dari will pilot this craft. You will confine yourself to quarters for the duration of the trip.”

The young warrior saluted smartly, face flushed with shame. “I obey at once! Thank you,
Chyya
. I-I b-beg the forgiveness of my
Chyya
. I meant no disrespect to you or yours.”

“You have it—this once. You are dismissed.”

The young pilot slipped away, quickly distancing himself from the scene of his disgrace. Before he made it to the corridor, the prince called out to him.

“Stay far away from my Earth-bred Princess, Conlan, lest your enjoyment of her company brings about your early demise at my hands. I will not be so forgiving should there be another encounter, for I tell you truly, I find I am of a possessive nature.”

Conlan nodded his head and scurried out of his leader’s sight.

“All he did was speak to me.” The show of rampant male hormones frustrated her. “Where was the harm in that?”

“He broke discipline.” GanR’dari turned sharply to face her. “What a scandal he could have caused. That young pup is lucky our Prince does not hold grudges. That a subordinate would dare to accost a half-mated
fem
—”

“You are in
pava
, Nnora,” Dev broke in to explain. “I have
seated
you, but we are not yet fully mated. Any man, the merest commoner, could kill that forward novice and be well within his rights. It is lawful for a
Rb’qarmshi
to kill any other male who approaches his intended during this interval.

“You need to know that I will not hesitate to destroy anyone who challenges my claim on you. That warrior owes his life to you. He would be lying dead on this deck if you hadn’t taken the edge off my hunger back in your apartment. But he can also blame you for the dangerous position in which he finds himself now.”

“I should have known this would somehow turn out to be my fault.” She snapped, colored hotly at his indiscreet, public reminder of what had passed between them earlier. She was not used to speaking so freely of such intimate matters. In fact, she had never been
involved
in such intimate activities. What she and Ron had done hadn’t even been foreplay for her—or for him, if she were to judge by her memories of his numerous complaints.

“Come sit beside me,
Nippa
.” Dev took her by one arm and half-dragged her behind him, ignoring her sputtered protests. “I have enough on my mind without the added troubles your
pava
sparks among my entourage,” he said in a louder voice.

“Send me back, then. I did not ask to be here.”

He halted in his tracks at mention of her leaving. Jaw muscles knotting as his teeth snapped together, he turned abruptly and snatched her into his arms, ignoring their audience of over thirty men. “I will never let you go, nor send you away,” he snarled. “I thought this afternoon taught you how I felt. You are mine. If any question remains in your mind, I will prove it definitively, here and now!”

Ensnared in the cage of his arms, she beat her fists against his chest, her words pouring out in an angry torrent. “You try it, Buster! You just try it! You’re nothing but a bully, a two-bit dictator, a…a…a despot!”

“Who is this Buster?”

Nnora gritted her teeth in frustration.
How in hell did you insult someone when he didn’t understand plain English?
“You are, you dweeb!” Nonplussed, she brought his hand up to her mouth and bit down on it.
Hard.

He released her with a startled cry, brows beetling as he glared at her. Total silence reined on the bridge, every warrior there waiting to see their Prince’s reaction.

“Furthermore,” she ranted while he examined the damage to his skin. “I’ll have you know I will never meekly surrender just because you threaten me in front of your men. It will take all of them—and more—to hold me down.”

He burst into laughter, shocking her. He hauled her back to his side and nearly smothered her in an enveloping hug, utterly ignoring her renewed struggles to escape his possessive embrace. “Your fighting spirit makes me proud.” Grinning like a loon, he loudly addressed their audience of crew and officers. “I have captured a mighty fighter.”