G’baena knelt at the man’s feet, her gaze lowered to the floor in a position of complete submission. Devlin saw red. If
Del
hadn’t chosen that exact moment to roar in anger and punch the asshole G’baena had called Kam, Devlin would’ve been hard pressed not to kill the man. Who the fuck did he think he was? The displaced assholes were prisoners, not fucking authority figures requiring subservience.
Devlin stepped forward and helped G’baena to her feet but didn’t stop
Del
’s attack on the startled man. Whatever damage Del inflicted, it wouldn’t be enough for Devlin’s liking, and if he didn’t get G’baena out of here right now, he just might be tempted to hold the man down to make Del’s job easier.
The surprise came when G’baena threw a right hook at him. Devlin managed to dodge her furious reaction but let her go as he tried to figure out what the fuck was happening. G’baena stepped into the mêlée, and both combatants ceased immediately.
“
Del
,” she said, the first hint of her anger catching the young man’s attention. “I do not want or need you to defend me against Kam.”
“You are no longer a slave. You don’t have to kneel at anyone’s feet.” He spat the words angrily, his contempt for the other man obvious. G’baena stepped forward, her hand reaching toward the young man as if realizing for the first time that
Del
was truly confused by her reaction.
“I’m sorry, Del. I should explain. Kam is someone very special to me. I am sorry if I upset you by greeting him in the proper G’trobian fashion.”
“Proper?”
Del
yelled.
Devlin could see the young man getting more agitated, not less. He was about to step in when
Jordan
’s loud voice boomed around the cargo bay.
“
Del
, enough! Ben, Trey, escort our guests to the holding cells. Devlin, please accompany G’baena and
Del
back to their quarters. The rest of you, get back to your duty stations. Stand down the red alert.”
Jordan
turned and left the cargo bay, and everyone moved to follow his orders,
Del
included.
* * * *
“
Del
,” G’baena said, hoping that the young man would look at her this time. She’d wanted to take him to the medical bay to have his injuries checked out, but he’d refused angrily.
She glanced at Devlin, hoping that he could help, but he’d been suspiciously quiet on the way back to the cabin. If G’baena was interpreting his emotions correctly, the man was actually feeling quite happy. Neither facial expression nor body language gave him away, but she was certain that he’d been content to see
Del
attack Kam.
But what she didn’t understand was why either of them would feel the action was warranted. Kam hadn’t threatened her in any way, and she’d happily knelt at his feet as he’d trained her to do so many cycles ago. She hadn’t minded falling back into G’trobian tradition for a man who’d once meant so much to her, so she was having trouble understanding why
Del
and Devlin had taken such offense.
“What happens now?” she asked them both. Devlin raised an eyebrow but didn’t open his mouth to speak. “I mean with the prisoners,” G’baena clarified. “What will the captain do with them?”
“Knowing
Jordan
, he’ll keep them in the cells until Judge and G’ntriel return. If he can determine that they aren’t a danger to the crew, I suspect he’ll ask them to join us. We’ve been short-handed for a while now.”
“Devlin,”
Del
said, the anger he was feeling still very clear in his tone. “Will you be staying with G’baena for a while?”
Devlin didn’t look at all surprised. Whatever
Del
was feeling, Devlin was feeling it, too. He nodded to the younger man without consulting with her whether she wanted him to hang around or not. Her own anger started to simmer. They were so busy beating their manly chests like some sort of ancient G’trobian subspecies, neither had noticed how much their attitude upset her.
“I’m going to head over to the gym. I’ll speak to you later.”
G’baena tried not to open her mouth in shock at
Del
’s rudeness as the young man who’d hovered over her protectively for weeks left her quarters without even glancing in her direction. As the door closed, Devlin reached over and pulled her into his embrace. His warm arms settled around her, holding her close, warming the sudden cold she felt.
“He’ll be okay. He just needs to work through everything that happened. The gym is a good place for him to do that.”
“I don’t understand,” she said quietly. “I don’t understand why he’s so upset, or why he’s so angry with me. I can feel his emotions, and yours, but I don’t understand how I managed to upset either of you.”
For the first time since being rescued from slavery, G’baena thought about everything she’d lost from her life on G’trobia. Even though she hadn’t had the freedom she enjoyed now, she did have a place and a function and reason for being. Since joining the ship’s crew, she spent most of her time trying to learn—the language, the customs, how to interpret human and Pendarian emotions—but hadn’t seemed to have achieved very much at all. Other than her very small part in the cargo bay, she hadn’t really contributed in any way. And she felt fairly certain that if G’ntriel had been on board, her meager empathic skills would not have been required at all.
Devlin must have sensed her darkening mood because he cradled her closer and whispered quietly, “It will work out, honey. I promise things will get easier with time.”
“I’m not so sure,” she said as she tried to hold back the tears. Weird as it seemed, she hadn’t cried at all as a slave, but since meeting Devlin, it seemed she couldn’t stop. “Time hasn’t made things clearer so far. If anything, I’m more confused than ever.”
Devlin lifted her into his arms and turned toward the bed, carefully lowering her onto the mattress. He lay down beside her and rested his head on his arm.
“Tell me about Kam. Who is he?”
She took a deep breath, trying to collect her scattered thoughts. “Kam and Ky were my trainers. They taught me how to please Ben and Trey, how to act, how to be not only the perfect G’trobian mate, but also the perfect hostess and partner. My training as the intended royal consort was thorough and demanding, but I enjoyed every moment.” A sad sigh escaped her lips even though she tried to stop it. “It was probably the first time I ever felt really valued. My fathers are very strict and, I have since learned, not too different from the slave traders who bought me. Kam and Ky were the opposite.”
* * * *
About a million questions were running through Devlin’s head, and quite frankly, he didn’t really want to know the answer to any of them. Unfortunately, he’d never been slow on the uptake, and the pieces of her story were starting to click in his head. G’baena had said she was a trained concubine, and, well, considering that she seemed to have an emotional connection to Kam, it was more than likely that he not only trained her in royal etiquette but also in the more intimate duties of being mated to G’trobian princes.
Devlin leaned over and kissed her before he really understood his need to do so. Earlier, he’d been so angry that Kam had insisted that G’baena kneel at his feet, he hadn’t really wondered why she’d complied. Now that he was beginning to understand the story behind her actions, a very large part of his psyche demanded that he claim her, that he brand her as his. He deepened the kiss, his hand trailing up her side to cup a soft breast through her clothes.
He wanted her, here, now. He needed to slam his cock deep inside her, mark her as his, declare his ownership. She moaned softly, and he shifted to move over her, loving the feel of her slender curves trapped under him.
Trapped…under…him.
Fuck. He pulled away from her quickly, rolling off the bed and stepping away all in one movement. “I’m sorry,” he managed to mumble as he ran his hand through his hair in agitation. God, all his self-righteous bleating about a woman belonging to herself and having the freedom to make her own decisions, yet here he was, wanting to own her, possess her, control her. Hell, how did he get so fucked up?
“I’m sorry,” he mumbled again as he turned away. His cock pulsed, pressing hard against the material of his pants, his whole body protesting the sudden change in plan.
“Why?” The poor woman sounded even more confused than she did before. He reluctantly turned to face her. Obviously, she could feel his agitation, his anger, because she stayed on the bed and looked at him with such a sad expression he wanted to pull her back into his arms and comfort her all over again.
Except, whoa…that’s what started this whole fucked-up mess in the first place.
“I don’t understand,” she said again in a small voice. Shit, he wanted to drop to his knees and beg her forgiveness and then bury his aching cock deep inside her and make love to her until the memory of Kam and Ky was erased forever.
Fuck, fuck, fuck.
“I’m sorry, G’baena. I…I can’t do this now.” He winced as the lame words left his mouth. He wanted to explain, but he wasn’t sure he understood it himself. An errant thought slipped through his mind. He almost discarded it until he realized that it was likely the right thing to do in this situation. “Would you like to visit Kam? I’m sure we can arrange something with the captain.”
Damn, he knew he was practically pushing her into the arms of the man he seemed to be going insane with jealousy over, but it was the right thing to do. The
right
thing to do. He kept the mantra playing over and over in his head as he turned to the communicator and contacted the bridge.
“Of course.”
Jordan
’s confident reply came through the communication device. “But I need Ben and Trey to go talk to him first. G’baena, after they’ve spoken to your friend, they’ll escort you to the holding cells.”
“I’ll do that,” Devlin volunteered, trying to sound casual and failing miserably. He tried not to wince at the over-bright tone in his voice as he tried to explain. “I mean, Ben and Trey have other things to do. I’m not on duty for another three hours, so it’s just easier.”
“Sure, Dev. Whatever works.” The communication device beeped quietly, signaling that
Jordan
had severed the connection. Devlin pulled back the sigh that threatened to escape.
Jordan
may have sounded casual and easygoing, but the man simply wasn’t. Devlin had known the captain a long time, and it was obvious his friend had noticed his feelings for G’baena. Now if only Devlin could sort them out for himself.
* * * *
“So that was G’baena.” He didn’t want to talk, but the pilot from their failed little raid just wouldn’t shut up. Kam could barely remember the man’s name, but right about now, he wouldn’t mind ramming a fist in the jerk’s nose. Too bad they were separated by electronic force fields.
“Leave him alone, Tarv. Don’t you have
any
empathic skills at all?”
Glancing briefly at G’nkaral, Kam nodded his thanks. He didn’t want to talk. Even in this cell, he could still feel G’baena’s emotions. A mixture of excitement, anxiety, grief, and caution all filtered through his senses. A part of him wanted to shut it all out, the pain and reminder of his loss unbearable, but he’d been too long without her, too long without anyone he had a true emotional connection to, and he wouldn’t willingly deny his need.
Kam barely registered someone entering his small cell until a deep voice said his name. He still had no idea what kind of ship they were on. Even though G’Bende-anrali and G’Beydeatrey, firstborn and only sons of the kings of G’trobia, were both here, they didn’t seem to be in charge. Kam could never remember seeing either of them take orders from anyone but their fathers, so couldn’t quite reconcile what he knew with what he’d seen.
The cargo bay had been a surreal situation to say the least. He carefully licked at the split in his lip, hoping that the man who’d attacked him wouldn’t get another opportunity. The young man had been so angry, so righteous in his ire, that when he’d yelled to G’baena that she was no longer a slave, Kam had literally and figuratively taken a step back.
He’d never considered G’trobian women to be less than equal, but he could see how an outsider, and perhaps ex-slave, would interpret it that way. G’trobian custom demanded that a woman kneel and lower her eyes, and Kam had never given a moment’s thought to how it would seem to an outsider.
He knew that G’baena knelt before him as a sign of respect. Men were there to protect women, to cherish and provide for them, so respect was warranted. Except… He dropped his head lower as niggling doubts entered his mind. Despite what he and Ky had felt for G’baena, they hadn’t managed to protect her from her fathers’ wrath or from the slave market. Did she actually owe him any respect?