“Do you mind if I ask a few questions first?” he asked, his whispered words brushing his lips against the skin of her neck along with the heat of his breath. Hanna shivered, unable to help herself as gooseflesh rippled down the front of her chest, tautening her nipples against the teasing brush of his body.
“I can’t answer everything, but I will…”
“…answer as best as you are able?”
Hanna tried not to moan softly when he moved his mouth to her ear as he spoke. “Yes,” she acknowledged breathily.
“You don’t want me to be your slave, do you?” he asked, the answer having already slowly become clear as he had pieced together all that she had been saying to him, although without ever saying it directly.
“I can’t tell you any more about that than I already have. Not until…”
“…I make my choice. I think I am beginning to see a pattern here.” Vejhon drew back so he could look down into her face, those startling blue eyes still managing to stand out starkly despite the soft blues of her skin tone. “If I were a thinking man, I would think that you want exactly that, but you can’t say so until you are certain I won’t run off and spill the beans to someone else. Anyone else. Yet, you won’t force me onward when you very well could. You own me, as you said. My physical body is yours to do with what you please. You went through so much trouble to make certain I had firsthand experience with the evils of your world…my guess is you traded a little part of your soul away in the process. Why back down now?”
“I am just doing what I have to do to protect my House. But it isn’t worth much if I have to become like those…like those who…”
Vejhon watched her run into walls of conflict like hovercraft crashing full bore into buildings. She wanted to say things but her conscience was working overtime now, forcing her to edit herself so that she didn’t give away any influencing information. However, she didn’t have to say anything more for him to get the gist of the point. She wouldn’t enslave him against his will, and she would gladly enslave him if he volunteered for it.
He found himself dropping his eyes to the dark lips that had caught his fascination early on. “Clearly you are going to get things you want and need if I follow you into that room,” he remarked, looking back into her eyes, “but what will I get? What possible advantages are there for me? And I mean besides what evils I won’t have to face on the other side of your gates.”
“Isn’t that enough?” she asked, her pupils wide and troubled.
It was, and he knew she was counting on that to be enough. Thus her actions so far. “Perhaps. Humor me and tell me more.”
“I can’t,” she insisted. “I can’t tell you more. I have nothing else to entice you with. Not now.”
“But you will later?”
“Perhaps,” she echoed. “It will be entirely up to you.”
Now that, Vejhon thought, sounded all too intriguing. What was more, the color along the cheekbones of her face darkened to a shade of lilac that, if he wasn’t mistaken, was the equivalent of a blush. He reached out with a thumb, tracing over the warm shading slowly as he thought about the significance of the reaction. He decided then that since she couldn’t satisfy him with specifics, he would keep his questions to the basics.
“Will this cause me harm?” he asked, barking out the question like he would have done in an interrogation.
“I believe…in the long run, no.”
Hmm. Not a promising wording.
“Will it go against the basic principles I hold?”
“I don’t know you well enough to make that judgment, but if you are who I feel you are, then it will suit you more than you can ever realize.”
“Will I be a slave or will I be free, Hanna?”
She blinked, but didn’t hesitate as she reached up and touched gentle fingers to his face. “In truth, you will be both, Vejhon. And neither one of them will be easy for you. But I can promise that you will learn to manage a balance and you will see the value in living both ways.”
Cryptic as ever, but probably a far better offer than he would find anywhere else on this planet. And in the end, there lay the gist of his dilemma. This planet. Was this where he wanted to spend the rest of his life? There had to be other places. Better places. He wasn’t sure he believed her when she said there was no other way for him to leave, though he did think she believed that.
“Have you lied to me about anything? About the retrovirus? Any of it?”
“I wouldn’t do that.” She looked offended enough to be believed. Then there were also those nakedly honest eyes of hers.
“Okay, then, I have just one more question.”
Vejhon didn’t miss a beat. He lowered his mouth to hers, catching her surprised little cry between his lips as his hands tilted her head to match her to him. He felt her hands come up to catch him at the backs of his arms, her nail tips clutching at him. It was as though he had cut through an invisible tether she had been using to hold herself in place. The tremulous caution of an instant ago disappeared and she surged up into the kiss and his body as though she were starving for him. Now this was what he’d always expected from her. The aggression of a woman who commanded her own fate. She opened her mouth, stroking her tongue along the seam of his lips, and it was as though she had painted him with fire. When he opened to taste her, it was like swallowing the flames whole. She burned over his senses, her taste as sweet as her scent and just as sultry.
Hanna moaned softly when he swapped aggression with her, his entire body shoving her back into the door that already hugged close. His tongue sought hers, tangling erotically in a trade for taste and sensation. Why? she wondered. Why had he done this? Initiated this? What was his query? What was he trying to learn from her?
He could feel her thinking, the wild questions and confusion running through her. He found it satisfying, really, that the shoe was finally on the other foot. Let her wonder, he thought with an inner smile as he drank deeply from her lush mouth.
Vejhon left her mouth at last, drawing for breath as hard and quickly as she did, acknowledging the way his entire body had lit against her like dry tinder. It would be damn hard to keep control with her, he realized as he shifted his hips and body against her, knowing she was aware of the blossoming erection she’d inspired just with a kiss. It was impossible not to want her that drastically. His thoughts flashed with violent speed through the details he’d captured in his mind, images of her and the moments she had most tormented him with her breathtaking sensuality. She had drawn him in just a little bit each time, each event almost simplistic on its own, but when layered together they had an incredible impact.
For Hanna, her body felt starved, her sexual nature roaring with its extreme needs. She knew very well what her appetites were like, but this wild hunger for him felt so insatiable. It frightened her in as much as it excited her. She knew what he would choose. Either by instinct or desperation of need, she came to understand that he would come into her world. The very idea of it sent rivers of liquid heat rushing down the length of her body.
Jhon didn’t want to leave the intense warmth of her, but he was aware that a task awaited him, and he sensed he would need his wits intact for it. She dazzled his mind and body far too easily, and he could see the appetite lurking hungrily in her eyes. Hanna was also trying to rein in that need, the struggle represented in her gasps for breath and the damp perspiration on her skin. Not to mention the powerful grip of her hands on his arms.
Then, she suddenly caught her breath and stiffened. He watched her cock her head to the side so she could see around him, making him aware that they were not alone any longer. Vejhon turned slightly away from her to find Najir standing behind him. He was a respectable distance away, but Jhon still tensed. He took the other man’s measure quickly, trying to decipher his stony expression and the tautness of his body language.
Jealousy.
“My Lady.” Najir greeted Hanna with a stiff nod. “Are you certain this is wise?”
Hanna gently extricated herself from Vejhon, stepping clear of him with great poise as she came around one giant to face off with another. She reached out to rub a hand down Najir’s forearm in comfort, smiling at him compassionately.
“It won’t matter in a few moments, Najir.” Hanna turned to look back at Jhon. “I believe he has decided to join us.”
Najir frowned as he bit out the statement, “Just yesterday he made threats against your life.”
“So would you, if I had done to you what I had done to him.” Hanna didn’t understand why he was suddenly challenging her like this. Hadn’t he been the one urging her forward not too long ago? What was behind his sudden interference?
Hanna reached to take Vejhon’s wrist in her other hand so she became strung between the two warriors. “If you recall,” she said, “it only took you two days to begin to ease into my world, and I think you would have come around sooner than that even if you had not suffered so much on the auction block.”
The two men traded looks over the dark head of the woman between them. “Don’t take this lightly, Colonel,” Najir spoke up abruptly, the warning in his voice ringing clear. “You cannot have regrets later on. There is no changing what you are about to do. Trust me when I tell you, doubt cannot and will not be tolerated. Neither will betrayal.”
“No more so than it was in the military I used to serve,” Vejhon countered.
“But there you had a cause. Something close to your heart that made it easy to be loyal. Here you have nothing but your own survival motivating you. What she is about to give you is a gift beyond your wildest imagination. I won’t have you casting it back into her face because you desire revenge against her.”
“Najir!”
“No, Hanna,” Najir barked back sharply. “He needs to understand.”
“I think he does,” she argued.
“Do you?” Najir bit out, looking back to Vejhon. “Do you comprehend even the littlest bit what is happening? The gift she is giving? The gift I am giving?”
“Najir,” Hanna said, this time softly and with no little pain as she visibly squeezed the hand she held. “Dearest, please…”
“Hanna,” Vejhon interrupted her, “I think his question is fair. And my answer is no…not really. She’s been vague and cautious, unable or unwilling to say anything with any detail. Just as you have been. But if I didn’t appreciate the impact of my choices before, speaking with you has made the difference, Najir. My life has been a nightmare for months, and you’re right, it’s self-preservation that motivates me to a degree. However, while you strove to show me what potential there is lying beneath the surfaces of this House, I believe it is your loyalty and your steadfast faith that has convinced me that there is value in the idea of making a life for myself here. If I am mistaken, Najir, I hope you have the honor to tell me so.”
Hanna’s head turned back sharply to Najir, her breath holding still as Najir was handed one last chance to be selfish, to think only for himself. She knew he wouldn’t, knew he would rather die than do the dishonorable, but what she feared was that it was a cruel temptation, and that it would come with pain he didn’t deserve.
“Very well,” Najir spoke up at last. “That is all I needed to know.”
Like everything else, the statement was perplexing and cryptic. Jhon didn’t know what to make of any of it, but he was ready to get it all over and done with…whatever it was.
Najir stepped around his mistress, standing beside Vejhon at the door and waving his hand over the sensor. As the entrance began to open, he turned to the newcomer, placed a hand on his back, and said calmly:
“This is going to hurt.”
11
The statement was accompanied with a powerful shove forward into the room from the center of Jhon’s back. The warrior stumbled forward at the unexpected tactic, but recovered quickly enough to round on Najir with fury.
But Vejhon froze in mid-movement as the occupants of the room caught his attention from the corner of his eye. His entire body rippled tightly with tension and out-and-out fear response as he turned his head to find himself staring into the glistening green-yellow eyes of a dozen or so enormous cats. Jungle cats. The breed was alien to him, but there were feline familiarities from his own planet that identified them easily, like paws and claws, long carnivorous teeth, massive sleek bodies built for speed and power, cunning and hungry eyes that could nail any prey in place. Only never had he seen a breed so big. Their golden and spotted coats shimmered sleekly over bunches of pure, incredible muscle unlike anything he’d ever seen before.
Jhon whipped around to look for Hanna, confusion roiling inside of him. She was there, but he noted that Najir was not and the door was closed behind them. There also was no visible sensor for opening the door from this side. There were other doors leading out into a lush hothouse and then potentially gardens beyond, but there were a great many teeth and claws between here and there.
The cats had been sprawled lazily around the enormous room, some on lounges, some on tables or up high in the empty bookcases, but most on the floor in a pile of tails, ears, and fur, either sleeping or busily bathing each other with large pink tongues.
However, the instant he had stepped into the room, they began to stir. The first to rise was a big spotted bastard, its shoulder width and boxy musculature indicative of a male even before its sex became obvious when he stood up.
Once the male rose, the rest followed. Leaping down from perches, drawing up onto massive paws, they all became completely focused on Vejhon and Hanna.
“Hanna, what the fuck is this?” he demanded through his teeth, afraid a shout would startle something he didn’t want to startle.
She seemed to ignore him as she stepped around him and walked into the midst of the big cats. Jhon watched with disbelief as she trilled to the animals as if they were pets and began to stroke each one on their heads between large ears or over spiky whiskers. The room filled with low roars of appreciation, huge sinewy bodies crowding around her to rub against her, nearly knocking her down in their crush to show her affection.
“Yes, my loves, I’m here,” she cooed softly to them. “I missed you, too. I’m sorry I’ve been so busy. You see, I have brought you a new plaything.”
Vejhon stiffened in shock when she looked up at him and a full dozen heads turned to take his measure with enough uncanny intelligence in their eyes to make him believe they understood her perfectly. He watched with horror as the group began to move toward him as one, those growls, huffs of deep breath, and now the punctuating roar vibrating louder and louder against him.
“Try to remain calm, Jhon. Remember, this won’t hurt for very long.”
Vejhon had a hysterical urge to laugh.
“You conniving, deceitful little bitch,” he choked out.
As if they understood him, the pride of cats roared angrily at him, swiping near him with massive paws. He backed up, but the wall was fast behind him, forcing him to look into eyes that looked so eerily like his own.
“Relax,” she coaxed him as she moved forward among them. “They only want to know you better. If you insult me, they will become violent. You made a choice, remember? You have to trust your own choice and trust me.”
“I didn’t agree to die!”
“Actually, in a sense you did. You agreed to put your old life to death and make way for a new one. They are merely the instrument of that death and rebirth. Don’t fight them. If you hurt them, it will end badly. Please. Please, trust me and try to stay calm.”
Vejhon made the incredible mistake of looking into those uncannily believable blue eyes. Like some kind of hypnosis, the effect they had on him was instantaneous. It was surreal and ridiculous, but she made him believe her. So long as he held on to her eyes, the crystalline blue so pure and honest, he had faith.
When the first paw grabbed him, he hardly felt a thing.
Jhon’s eyes opened with a light flutter of lashes.
The universe screamed.
He grabbed for his head, slamming his blinded eyes shut and blocking his ears from the scream of noise blaring madly around him. The sharp movement wrenched open his skin in long tears along his side and hip, the slingshot of pain making him roar out loud.
“Shh, Jhon, I’m here now,” a low, familiar voice soothed him with soft concern and tenderness as careful, delicate hands fell onto his bare skin, feeling cool against the burning of it. “Easy, Jhon. Try to relax. It will calm in a few minutes, I promise you.”
Hanna. He knew instantly it was her, though not because of her voice. The smell of her was everywhere, as though he were awash in it. He remembered it clearly, recognized it even at this intensity. Sweet sex and sensual chocolate, and deeper than that a bewitching musk that lured and tempted, spearing him with a memory of her lying splayed open on a bed, hot, wet…waiting.
All the noise and light faded as he focused the only sense he owned that wasn’t rebelling violently, focused it on that intoxicating combination of aromas, turning his head toward it. His cheek touched skin and he shifted just a little farther so he could open his mouth and taste her with a long, slow lick of his tongue over the warm, silken softness of her.
He heard her gasp in surprise, and then hitch up a breath as his sampling of her skin began to climb toward the deepest concentration of that unbelievable scent. He skimmed and laved delightful warmth and soaked in the little sounds she made, until he hit fabric. He couldn’t help his rough sound of frustration, nor the instinctive rooting for access that had him abandoning his covered ears to the onslaught of noise just so he could use his hands on her.