“The ring. The one she used on you?”
“She gave it to me…said she wanted to level the playing field.” Vejhon grimaced. “I swear, I had no intention of using it. Not after knowing it firsthand. I just forgot I had the thing on.”
“And it sounds like Hanna forgot to dial down the dose,” Najir said grimly. “She must have gotten one meant for a man our size and race. The PAN are notoriously more sensitive than we are and Hanna in particular has a…unique chemistry. On the plus side, she will process it out quicker than we would.”
“Good.” Jhon paused to study the other man for a moment. “Our race?”
Najir looked up in surprise and rapidly reviewed what he had said. Damn. A slipup he couldn’t afford. Worse, one Hanna couldn’t afford.
“I mean aliens in general.”
Vejhon had interrogated enough prisoners in his time to know when someone was lying to him, and Najir was lying big-time. Why? If Najir was from Wite, why lie about it? He would think the man would celebrate seeing a fellow patriot after a decade of living in this alien culture.
“I see,” Jhon said nonchalantly. “How long will we have to keep her in here?”
“Until she stops crying at least,” Najir said softly, his large fingers reaching to lightly touch her forehead. It was a touch of such simplicity, but it also reflected a depth of affection Vejhon instantly recognized, simply by virtue of never having known it. Not to receive, and certainly not to give. He watched carefully as Najir frowned when she shook him off. “Still very raw,” the other man murmured, completely oblivious to how much he was giving away.
Love. Najir loved her. Not the adoration of slave to master, as Jhon had thought, but as a man loves a woman. Did Hanna return the feeling? If so, what was her purpose in having Jhon there? She’d locked herself in those restraints fully expecting him to use her body however he liked. She’d eagerly made the offer, so she must have felt free to do so. He made no mistake about her wanting him. She had kissed him with pure need and desire, had devoured him like she was starving for him…all this before the accidental stimulant. It may not be her only desire for him, but it was a central one.
If it was for the sake of variety, why select a male nearly twin to that which she already had conquered and was devoted to? Or maybe, he thought with a sick sensation in his belly, he was to play stallion for her, providing fertility Najir could not.
No. She had had the opportunity to use him as such without needing to bother with how he felt about it. Regardless of the goal he couldn’t see, he didn’t understand Najir. If he loved this woman, why would he purchase his own rival? He had to have known the risk he was taking bringing a second male into her sphere; why had he purposely done so? As Vejhon looked down at Hanna, he couldn’t help but become angry with Najir. What kind of man would give away, or even so intimately share, a crucially prized possession so easily? Jhon felt a furious sensation of surety that if he were ever to finally know love for a woman, for anyone really, he would never be so cavalier about it. He would never risk the loss of that love and he would do what he did best to keep it secure. He would fight. Any way he could.
After a few minutes, Jhon managed to calm his overworking thoughts. He seemed to feel better as Hanna relaxed, easing away from the worst of her pain as they gently turned her between them, trading her weight. Hanna stirred, reaching out of the water to close her hand around Vejhon’s forearm.
“A good sign,” Najir informed softly. He moved to rest her feet against his thigh as he reached to get soap and a bathing cloth. He built a lather in the cloth, then held it out to Jhon. Their eyes met across her body and the other man nodded down at Hanna. “She needs to be cleansed.”
Vejhon suddenly recalled what had happened only minutes before Najir had entered. How had the other man known…? Understanding dawned even before the question could be completed. Taking the cloth, Jhon submerged it in the water.
“I take it there is an observation window into the room.”
It was a statement, spoken low and carefully, but in no way in doubt of itself. Najir cursed himself for a fool, but he didn’t lie this time. He gave the man that much respect.
“I was out training with the security forces. When I found Hanna missing, I overreacted. If you recall, you have threatened to kill her several times. Not to mention making the attempt on me.”
“I recall,” Jhon agreed.
“I shouldn’t have invaded your privacy. Hanna will be unhappy with me if she knows I had done so while you were together…more so when she realizes I have given this detail away before she had the opportunity to tell you herself. Rest assured, Hanna and I are the only ones with access to that room…and I will never use it again. You have my word.”
There was a bitterness to the oath, and Jhon instantly forgave Najir the trespass, as well as accepted his word as bond. It was clear that the slave had gotten a good enough lesson in respecting privacy without Vejhon losing his temper over the matter. It must have been like a knife in Najir’s gut to watch the woman he cared for so deeply play palette to another man’s sexual art.
“This won’t bother her?” Jhon asked as he began to wash the canvas of her body clean of any remaining traces of their encounter.
“Not anymore. She’s stopped weeping and she initiated contact with you.”
“But she is still in some form of shock,” Jhon noted as he drew her back against his chest gently to better balance her.
“Exhaustion is more like it.”
Najir let her legs rest freely in the water and rose to his feet. Jhon watched the other man get out of the tub, water streaming from his clothing as he crossed to the wardrobe and pulled out one of the embroidered shirts from within. He returned to the tub just as Jhon finished his task. Together they raised her up to Najir’s hold, her wet hair plastered to her back and body everywhere. To Vejhon’s surprise, Najir didn’t bother with drying her before quickly pulling the shirt over her, hair and all, and buttoning her up. Was he now, suddenly, trying to shield her from Vejhon? It made no more sense than anything else, considering recent events, but Vejhon knew that somehow all these odd actions and discrepancies added up to a singular thing. A single secret between Najir and Hanna that he wasn’t privy to…but was somehow going to become a part of.
“I’m going to take her to her room,” Najir said. “She will sleep for a while, so don’t be disturbed if you don’t see her for some time.”
Jhon could only nod, not seeing how he had much choice in the matter. This time he was very certain of the emotion he felt because he had felt it before. The twinge of jealousy rode through him like a whip, the hardest snap of it coming as the door sealed behind Najir’s exit with her.
But jealous of what? Of their freedom to come and go? Of their knowledge and understanding of things he was in the dark about?
Jhon couldn’t escape the feeling that although those were excellent reasons, they didn’t quite touch on the truth.
Najir walked the short way down the hall to Hanna’s room. Once within, he brought her to her bed and stripped her of the sodden shirt. He retrieved towels to dry her with, patiently patting dry the length of her hair. Then, holding it aside, he gently dried her back and the silver rosettes that spotted her between her shoulders, all the way down the length of her spine.
The man he had purchased for Hanna was too shrewd by half. It wouldn’t have taken him long at all to realize that none of Hanna’s race had these marks…and certainly not much longer than that to figure out why.
Hanna awoke with a startled gasp, sitting up quickly. There was no describing her relief when she realized she was in her own bedroom. That relief lasted all of two seconds; then she saw Najir sitting beside her bed, his dark eyes glittering in the sunlight of what she hoped was only one day later than when she’d last been awake. He didn’t look very happy. Or angry. In fact, his expression was like stone, something she wasn’t used to seeing on him at all. Not since he’d first arrived in her home.
“How much damage have I done?”
Najir broke his tableau of stoicism to give her a brief smile. He rubbed the back of his neck, telling her he probably hadn’t left her side for a minute.
“I can’t say for certain. I don’t know everything. I came in…later.”
Hanna narrowed her eyes to slits of suspicion.
“When later?”
“Later than the stim, sooner than I wanted to.”
Najir had become too used to showing his emotions to her over the years. His voice stumbled over the sentence just enough to tell her she had done exactly what she hadn’t wished to do. Hanna quickly left the comfort of her bed and drew up the lengthy skirt of her nightdress so she could climb into his lap like a young girl, wrapping her arms around him in comfort.
“I never meant to cause you hurt,” she said softly beneath his ear. “You shouldn’t have gone in the observation room while I was alone with him. You knew what you might find.”
“I wasn’t thinking of that, was I?” he snapped, his words harsh and mean. “I was too busy being scared to death the barbarian would hurt you as he’d promised! It was too soon for you to go in there without some sort of security. And it was utterly insane for you to let him have that ring!” Najir grabbed hold of her hair and pulled her back by it so he could let her see the fury in his eyes. “I don’t even want to know how else you tried to ‘level the playing field’ for him,” he hissed softly, “because knowing you I can only guess too well!”
Hanna freed herself from him, scrambling off his lap when her affection was so angrily rejected. She wasn’t used to it and it stung, but she supposed she deserved it. She couldn’t have everything as perfect as she prayed for. She couldn’t make this transition without hurting Najir. She couldn’t keep Vejhon without keeping him a slave, and she couldn’t free him without the result of enslaving others she loved more than even her own life.
“It worked, didn’t it?” she countered softly, keeping her back to him as she wrapped her arms around her suddenly chilled body. “How could I get his total trust unless I offered it first? Especially after what I did?”
Najir watched her cross to her dressing area. She chose something to wear and quickly changed into it. Then she sat down to run a brush through her hair, grooming herself meticulously as he watched. He had done this often, sat and watched her do these simple things. They had been moments of great pleasure and contentment for him; now it simply made him grieve.
Hanna looked up and met his gaze in her reflection glass, his expression choking a sound of dismay out of her. She threw down her brush and ran over to him, dropping to her knees between his feet and resting her damp face on his chest as he welcomed her hug this time.
“Tell me what to do,” she begged him. “I will do anything for you, Najir, if it will bring you peace. Tell me to free you, and I will find a way. Tell me to find you a mate worthy of you, and I will search the universe tirelessly. Do you want to be rid of this House, rid of me? I will send you to live in the country places. No one will bother you if they think you keep the residence for me. Tell me!”
“I want…” He sighed long and low. “I want what I have always wanted. I want you to be happy. I want you safe and secure. I want to give you what you were cheated out of when you made the mistake of buying me.”
“Najir!” she gasped, utterly horrified. “I never thought, never once, that I made a mistake! I would have bought you had you been a woman, for mercy’s sake! Anything to put an end to that nightmare of an auction. Please! Don’t treat the last ten years so cavalierly. You will break my heart. Or is that what you want? To break my heart like I have broken yours?”
“No,” he said hoarsely. “I wouldn’t wish this feeling on my worst enemy, never mind a woman I love so dearly. And you are not responsible for the state of my heart, Hanna. You made it very clear that nothing could come of us. And I have accepted that. I will be fine. Yesterday just…caught me off guard. I don’t know why,” he said with a grimace. “I knew you would win him over quickly. How could he not find you as irresistible as I do?”
“Mmm, now you are flattering me to make up for yelling at me.”
“True, and yet it is a truth, too. There is chemistry between you. You have him thinking…feeling in ways I doubt he is used to. I’m not certain he has had much use for emotions other than those of anger. Probably because he lacked opportunity. He is capable of them, though; I could see it in the way he handled you when we were bringing you out of the stim. Guilt, concern, care…but it squeaks on him like rusty hinges on old gates. And Hanna”—he took her head between his big hands and looked dead into her eyes—“don’t wait any longer than you have to. He is shrewd. Too much so. You must catch him between the point of trust and too much knowledge. On him, it will go by much too fast if you aren’t careful. It was not wise to be nude with him.”
“I thought my back was going to be to the wall the whole time. I didn’t expect…but you’re right, I cannot afford to be careless now. Not when I am so close.”
“And Hanna…I am not leaving. I can’t, you know. I have invested too much time in this House to abandon it when it is about to undergo a rebirth such as this.” He brushed back her hair and kissed her forehead. “And as much as it might hurt to love you, it will utterly destroy me to leave you. One I can get over, the other I cannot.”
Hanna nodded gravely, turning her head to kiss his palm. “So you stay.”
“And I stay out of the observation room from now on. Vejhon knows of it, by the way. I let something slip. Stupid of me. But I gave him my word I wouldn’t invade his privacy again.”
“It’s all right,” she said. “I don’t care if he knows. Not now.” She stood up, adopting a brisk attitude. “Anyway, I have a day’s work to catch up on. See Jhon has all of his needs met…unless…” She trailed off awkwardly. Hanna simply didn’t know how to avoid including her right arm in everything she did. “I can get someone else….”
“No. He mustn’t have any unnecessary exposure, you know that. I will handle it. I am better now that we have talked.”
“And we will talk again whenever you need to.” She swore softly, reaching to squeeze his hand. “I swear it. Whenever you need.”
“Just as I am here to do whatever you need, whenever you need.”
“A guard.”
“A guard? Damn me, Hyde, you have to do better than that!” the Baron barked.
“All right, then,” Sozo acquiesced with a huge grin as he propped a hip onto the desk Majum was sitting at. “How about a guard at House Drakoulous with a very big family of young brothers and sisters?”
“I hope you’re getting to a point very soon,” the Baron groused, slouching in his chair to reflect how unimpressed he was so far. After his encounter with Hanna on the steps of the Chamber, after what she had said to him, he wanted the smug bitch to bleed from her eyeballs.
The captain knew his friend so well. He even began to chuckle, braving the deadly glare it elicited.
“Very well, then,” he said quickly, holding up both hands in gracious surrender. “How about a guard at House Drakoulous with a big family of young brothers and sisters…all of whom are in your dungeons at this very moment?”
Majum jerked upright in his chair so fast that he almost sent it shooting out from under him. Sozo gave in and rollicked with laughter as the other man shot to his feet, and grabbed him by both arms.
“Great ghosts! I know you know better than to fuck with me about something like that!”
“Never,” he assured.
“How many? How many are boys? How young? What did you tell the guard?”
“There are six altogether, and four are boys. They range in age from nineteen summers to twelve summers. And before you ask, the boys are nineteen, seventeen, fourteen, and twelve. The girls are sixteen and thirteen.”
“Damn me, thank the gods for commoner proliferation! That slut whelped them out hot on each other’s tails, didn’t she? What of t
he guard? I suppose you lied and told him we wouldn’t hurt his little family if he did what you asked him to?”
“Not at all,” Hyde chuckled. “I told him we’d stop hurting his family as soon as he did what I asked him to.”
Majum threw back his head and laughed at that. “That is priceless! All the better if you told him who has them. My reputation does proceed me.”
“As you so proudly like to remind me. And yes, though I didn’t give a specified name, the implication was quite clear.” The captain shrugged. “On the off chance he’s stupid enough to tattle to his Master, he can’t testify as to who I was, as I was in disguise, and who you are, because your name was never mentioned. We merely bury the bodies and the evidence and like magic…instant immunity from harm.”
“Genius! Pure genius. But I do hope you haven’t already figured out your plan for breaching the Drakoulous House. And I haven’t decided yet if I will assassinate the bitch herself, or her two confections. I will need time to choose.”
“Oh, not to fear, my good Baron. You have plenty of time to think. And to play with your new guests. I would never deprive you of that so quickly. Where’s the fun in it?”
“Let me guess, Hyde,” the Baron chuckled. “You want the girls.”
“Well, sixteen is a mite long in the tooth for me…but I could find it in my cock to make the exception.”
The quip made Majum laugh all the harder.
“And the thirteen-year-old?”
“She’s a fine, round little thing and she stinks of virginity. Aye, I’ll take her for certain.”
“Done! Perhaps we can do one of the eldest brothers side by side as you take a girl. We’ll see first who is most protective of whom. Then we can see the look in their eyes as their best-loved sibling is done beside them, eh? Damn, I’m hard just thinking of it,” Majum pointed out, rubbing a fierce palm down along his obvious erection.
“Why think when we can do?”