The Envoy (7 page)

He stood and joined her, standing very close so their bodies touched lightly at chest level. He picked up her hands and joined them in his, then placed them on his chest so she could feel the muscles there and touch the place where his heart beat in his chest. ‘Sex isn't just physical,' he told her, surprised at the intensity in his voice. ‘Every creature in the universe mates, but humans have always used this ritual for so much more.'

She wrinkled her nose, and the gesture was so cute and surprising that he wanted to kiss it. ‘For more what?'

‘To express love,' he said, running her hands and his down the length of his torso before moving them onto her pale skin. ‘To make a connection. To create family.'

‘All species use it for offspring,' she scoffed, although he noticed her breath hitched satisfyingly on the last note as he dragged their hands over both her breasts, tugging them down with the weight of his hands, and lightly pulling at the nipples as he moved to her tummy.

‘I didn't say offspring,' he whispered against her ear, leaning forward to smell her hair and the spicy musk of her skin. ‘I said family. It's different.'

‘How do you know?' She stepped back a little, and he could see she was trying to catch her breath against the little shivers that ran across her skin as he breathed against her ear. ‘You never had a family.'

‘I lost mine,' he agreed, not wanting to let her escape, stepping forward to touch her again, and this time turning her with his hands so he could run them down her back, buttocks and thighs. She felt so different to X; so long and lean, but her skin was incredibly soft. The feel of it heated his hands where he touched her. ‘But my foster parents showed me what it meant.'

‘And love?' The girl turned, presenting her front to him, arching her back and tilting her breasts towards him in a clear signal:
more
. ‘Did the woman from the vidfile teach you that?'

He thought about the day X had said goodbye to him. ‘No,' he said, and he knew, finally, that it was true. ‘But she was lovely, for a while.'

Then he didn't want to talk anymore. Because this lovely, surprising, fierce woman was looking at him with such open longing and hope that all he could see and smell and think about was her. He wanted to take all the things he knew and show them to her. He wanted to make her moan and weep and come screaming while she fell apart in his arms. ‘Come here,' he said, placing his hands at her waist and lifting her up onto his hips, before carrying her over to the wall and placing her against it.

‘I am here,' she said, wrinkling her nose again.

This time he did kiss it, then he trailed hot kisses down her cheek, giving the snake the evil eye as he passed it, before heading down to her neck, her shoulders and then her breasts, where he dragged first one milky white breast and then the other tattooed breast deep into his mouth, sucking and biting at them as she arched in his arms. There was no skill or artifice in her. Her green eyes shone pleasure at him as he moved lower and licked and sucked at the sweet flesh hidden inside that mound of red hair.

His cock groaned and strained as he tasted her, and he knew he wanted to take it slowly, make it worth her while, make it beautiful and memorable for all the times her life might be horrible, later. If she survived. But her legs were wrapped around his shoulders and she was begging him in some language he didn't recognise. Finally, she seemed to come back to herself and she spoke. ‘I need to feel it now,' she commanded, dragging him back up to her by his hair.

‘You need more before that,' he insisted, patting that light triangle of hair before plunging a finger into her and showing her how good and varied and wonderful all the different sensations could be.

‘No I don't,' she whimpered, pushing against his hand. ‘I want to feel it properly. I want you to show it to me.'

‘There is no “it”,' he whispered in her ear. ‘Sex is not a single event. Not one moment. It's an experience.'

‘Well,' she continued, and he could hear the stubborn set in her voice, ‘I want the culmination.' She sighed. ‘You know what I want.'

He couldn't help but laugh at the petulance in her voice. ‘You want this?' He pressed his cock against her, pushing inside, knowing he shouldn't, knowing he should take longer, make it better, but powerless to resist her demands and his desire to take her.

‘Yes,' she breathed, a huge smile spreading across her beautiful, terrifying face. ‘Yes, that is precisely what I want.'

He pushed farther and harder into her, feeling her flesh resist and her excitement mount. God, he was really going to embarrass himself here; how long could he last? She was so beautiful, so sweet and warm and open, he wanted to plunge into her and never surface again. At least she had nothing to compare him to.

Finally he could hold back no longer. He grasped her face in his hands and watched her as he drove into her. She matched his rhythm, driving back against him, exactly the right size, the perfect shape, the right match for him. Her cries grew formless and louder as her muscles tensed against him, and he felt her let go an instant ahead of his own release.

He buried his face in her neck and grasped her buttocks in his hands as they moved together into some other place where bounty hunters and deserters alike could live long and beautiful.

By the time it was done they had moved from the wall and were lying panting on the floor. He kicked open a stow with his foot and dragged a thermal blanket from the recess.

‘Now,' he said, running his hand across her belly and up to cup her breast. He had never seen or felt skin like hers, the softness of it. He wanted her again. ‘Before we start to kill each other, we need to do that again. The right way.'

She sat up and hooked a leg over his stomach, pulling herself over to straddle him. She started to settle down against his cock and he groaned as he wondered how many times it would take before he could take it slowly, and how he would ever have the energy to fight her afterwards. ‘That was the wrong way?' She frowned.

She wasn't trying to make a joke, but he laughed anyway. ‘No way.'

Reetor had lost all sense of how much time had passed. His whole body fuzzed and melted on the thermal blanket. Maybe this had been her strategy all along, to exhaust him and addle his wits, so he would have no chance against her in the fight that was to come. His stomach clenched at the thought. Could he really fight her, after what they had just shared?

Could he kill her?

It would be obscene to end beauty like hers, and all because she had no choice in what she had to do. It came to him again: there had to be another way.

But he didn't want to think about it yet. He just wanted to lie here, with her resting on his bicep, nestled in against his body, and run his hand down the silky length of her back, stroking and patting and imagining a life where she was his, and not promised to some Temerite warlord. Most of all, he wanted to know more about her.

‘Who taught you English?

She tensed against him. ‘Is this the custom?'

He frowned. ‘Is what the custom?'

‘Is it the custom to share information after mating?'

He laughed, and couldn't resist squeezing her against him a little. ‘Sometimes,' he admitted, trying to find the right words to explain to her why he wanted to know. ‘When you feel close, you want to get closer.'

‘We couldn't get very much closer than this.' She wriggled against him to underline her point and he groaned.

‘If you keep doing that, we won't be having a conversation about anything.'

She laughed, drowsy and sweet. ‘You want more?'

Did he?
Hell, yeah.
But he wanted something else first.

‘I want to know who taught you English.'

‘Why does it matter?' She edged away from a little, and all of Reetor's nerves jumped to attention. Was this it? Was she going to roll away from him and attack?

He had to get this right.

He cupped her face in his hands. This was not a ploy. This was not an attempt to win her over. He wanted to know, whatever happened next. ‘Because I've never met anyone like you.'

‘No one has ever met anyone like me,' she objected, her voice cooling. ‘Xhozei has never met anyone like me; that's why he wants me for his collection. It doesn't mean we —'

He put a finger to her lips and with his other hand pulled her long frame against his. ‘I'm not done.'

She stiffened, then relaxed against him.

He took a deep breath.
Here goes.

‘I've never met anyone like you. And you affect me, somehow. I don't want this to end here today. And not just because I don't want to die. I want to know you. And it's not because you're exotic, or novel. It's because you're the bravest person I've ever met.'

She smiled into his eyes. ‘Because I can dispatch a Medusio?'

‘No.' She frowned and he sighed. ‘Well, yes, of course, that. But more because you were so alone, and you survived. And you're so…' He grasped for the right word. Why was it so damn hard? ‘You're so whole. Determined. And strong.'

She dipped her head and rested it against his chest.

Long moments passed, and he fretted that it had come out wrong. But if this was the end, he was going to enjoy it. He stroked her back softly as she lay against him, and marvelled again at the silkiness of her skin.

Finally, she brought her head up from his chest. ‘There was a woman,' she said, her voice so soft Reetor had to strain to hear it, even at such close quarters. ‘An old woman. I don't know why they kept her. She performed menial tasks on the slave farm. She was the only other person from Earth there.' There was a long pause. ‘She told me what I was.'

‘She took care of you?' Reetor's heart lightened. It seemed there had been someone for the girl, after all.

‘No,' the girl barked, her voice breaking a little. ‘She was broken. But she pointed me in the right directions. The rest I did alone. The material is there — about Earth — if you look in the right places.'

Reetor pulled her into him again. So much loneliness. He wanted to make sure she was never alone again, but as he squeezed her against him, she took a sharp breath.

‘Your injury.' His mind raced. They needed to hurry. ‘We need to get you to help.'

‘We?' She pulled away from him and rolled to sit cross-legged, close to him. ‘That was not the plan.'

He sat up as well and took her hands. ‘There could be a new plan.'

‘Because you don't want to die.' Her face was set hard.

‘Because I don't want either of us to die. Not today.'

She didn't speak, but studied his face intently.

He tried again. ‘You said you want away from them.' He held up his hands in appeal. ‘You said you want them all dead.'

‘There is no away from them.' Her voice was hard. ‘There is nowhere to run.'

‘It's not true,' Reetor objected. ‘I found a place. A place I could be safe.'

She frowned, and gestured to the console. ‘The place in the video? You will not be safe there anymore.'

‘But you could be,' he said, squeezing her hands hard. He believed it. X would want this girl, he knew it. Her knowledge, her skills … and the Enforcers had never found him, there in the Bunker on Tyver. ‘You need to take the chance. I can take you there.'

‘They'll kill you,' she said, reaching over to place the flat of one hand against his chest. ‘The file was clear. If you return, you're dead.'

He swallowed hard. ‘I'll take my chances.'

‘For me?' That frown creased her smooth forehead again, like a blemish he wanted to smooth away.

‘For the chance to know you a little better.'

She edged forward and placed herself in his lap, her legs wrapped over his, their faces almost touching.

‘I'll come with you,' she said, reaching up to touch his hair. ‘But not to there.'

He started to object but this time she placed her finger on his lips and spoke softly. ‘Where were you going?'

His stomach churned as he thought about the mission. It was so important. ‘I have to do something, but I can take you back to my people first. It will be very dangerous'

She shook her head. ‘I'm good at dangerous.'

‘No.'
No way.

‘You don't have any choice,' she said, her mouth setting into a skinny line. ‘It's the only deal we're doing here today.'

He thought about the Avengers down on Hydra, doing the vientamite run.

Could he take this woman to them? What if she was playing for higher stakes with her Temerite masters? Could he expose them like that?

He looked at her hard. He didn't know her, but he did. She was lethal, but she wasn't evil. And she wanted a way out as badly as he did.

And somehow, for some inexplicable reason, he trusted her.

‘Okay,' he said finally, pulling her against him. ‘But I'm driving.'

Thanks for reading
The Envoy
. I hope you enjoyed it.

If you'd like to know more about me, my books, or to connect with me online, you can visit my webpage
rosbaxterink.com
, follow me on twitter
@RosBaxter
, or like my Facebook page
www.facebook.com/RosBaxterInk
.

You can also follow me through my publisher's page here
www.escapepublishing.com.au

Reviews can help readers find books, and I am grateful for all honest reviews. Thank you for taking the time to let others know what you've read, and what you thought.

You've just read a book in my
New Earth
series. The other books in this series are
White Christmas
(a stand-alone short novella) and
The Seek
(a full-length novel). Each of these can be read separately.