Romy?
she sent him, not sure if he would hear her or
not.
Sit tight and don’t leave the hovercraft. Don’t worry,
veyou
.
This will be over soon.
Both pleased and a little astonished at his thoughts in her
mind, she nodded, then replied so he could hear her,
Be careful
. Focused
on Romy, she saw the odd bands of energy that before had been splintered within
him. Now the energy intertwined, creating a bright, thick shield that encased
him from head to toe.
“Trotter’s pissed. You might as well just give her to us.”
The largest of the Otra approaching sniffed, and his eyes widened. He mumbled
something to the others, and they all angled to look at her. “Fuck Trotter.
She’s in Selection. Tell you what. You give us the female, and we’ll make it
sporting.” The malicious grin on his face made her want to pound him into
tomorrow. He looked at the male nearest him. “Fifty creds says he makes it
around the bend before I blow his ass up.”
“You’re on, Pachi.”
The others laughed, but Romy shook his head. “Fellas, I
don’t want to hurt you. But I will. Tara Drake is no longer Trotter’s concern,
or yours. Back off and you’ll live longer.”
“You’ve got to be shitting me.” Pachi’s eyes narrowed.
“She’s in Selection. Just how the hell do you think you’re going to leave with
her against four tougher, stronger men?”
Pachi thrust out his hands and energy lit his fingertips.
None of her friends had ever seen the energy she often saw in the Otra. She
could only hope Romy saw it.
Romy, look out.
As soon as she spoke, she saw that
the warning hadn’t been necessary.
Romy put up a hand at the same time Pachi shot a second wave
at him. Deflecting both bursts, Romy forced the rebounds at two of the silent
muscle in the group, knocking them unconscious.
Pachi fumed, as did the remaining Otra on his feet. “You
fucking freak. Fica, toast his ass.”
Fica grinned and his eyes turned
white
. Startled, she
watched in awe and fear as lightning met his outstretched hand.
Romy sighed. “Seriously, is this the best you can do?” He
stared hard and the Otras’ hovercraft exploded. Fire shot high into the sky and
metal flew everywhere, except for the small shield around her and Romy’s
vehicle. Romy then turned the lightning bolt sent his way into the ground and
mentally lifted Fica several feet in the air before throwing him into a nearby
tree. A loud snap indicated he’d probably broken a bone, if not several.
“I’m giving you a last opportunity to leave.” Romy’s voice
did that odd echo thing again.
Pachi looked alarmed. “What the hell
are
you?” He
backpedaled. “I’m leaving.”
“Go.”
“And I’m not coming back. If you’re smart, you’ll get out of
here while you can. Trotter’s got it hard for the female. And he won’t stop
pushing the Majesty while he’s making so much currency.”
“I know.” Romy pointed to the woods. “Now get the hell out
of here before I remember how you looked at my
iriu
.” His fingertips
sizzled, and a tree next to Pachi crackled as lightning hit a low-hanging
branch from out of nowhere.
Pachi took off, running hard.
Romy waited until they could no longer see Pachi, then he
settled back into the hovercraft as if nothing had happened.
Tara stared at him in shock. The man had set fire to trees,
blown up a car, and deflected energy blasts he too could apparently see. And
he’d completely melted her resistance to boot. How the hell had he done all
that? Was he controlling her now? And would she know if he were?
“Don’t be afraid of me, Tara,” he said quietly, driving the
vehicle back onto the main road. “I’m not like other Otra. But then, neither
are you.”
She shivered, more due to his nearness than the power he’d exerted
to protect her. She didn’t want him to have control over her. He’d called her
his
iriu
, and she knew enough about the Otra that they took their mating
very seriously. How could she belong to someone she knew so little about, and
that seemed to have more power than any one man had a right to? She didn’t want
a partner who could read her mind or force her will. But could he read her?
I’m going to jump out of this vehicle as soon as you slow
it down
. She let the thought linger in her mind but didn’t broadcast it.
Romy slowed at an intersection without a worry and didn’t
speak. If he’d thought to prevent her from leaving the vehicle, slowing down
hadn’t been wise.
“You can’t read my thoughts, can you?” she asked.
“Not yours, no. Not unless you want me to. For some reason,
around you, I’m both stronger and weaker than I normally am.”
“Explain.” Damn, a glance at him had her aching to feel him
inside her once more.
His eyes flashed with heat before he concentrated on the
road. “Most Otra have one or two psychic abilities.”
“Your
psychei
.”
“Right. It’s
an ability that shows itself early in
Otra. Most of our kind can manipulate energy in small amounts and share
thoughts if both parties willingly agree. Otra clans typically communicate
without words, a closeness of familial and affectionate ties.” He let go of the
controls to squeeze her knee. “But there’s usually one particular ability that
stands out. For instance, my oldest brother forecasts the future. My other
brother moves things with his mind.”
“Telekinesis.”
“And I…”
“You?” she prodded, feeling oddly protective of him. She
sensed his hesitance, his concern that she wouldn’t like what he had to tell
her.
“I can do a lot of things. Scary things.” His mouth turned
down. Trotter would have been bragging about his power, but Romy didn’t seem to
like it.
“Like what? Setting fire to hovercrafts? Calling on
lightning? Lifting men up without a finger and throwing them into trees?”
“Yeah, that. I’m not sure exactly what I can do. Every time
I think I’ve reached my limit, a new doorway opens. It’s hard to keep my energy
suppressed. It’s draining. I know it makes my family uncomfortable, and I hate
that fear I can sense but can’t see. If my family, who loves me, can’t handle
my power, think how others will see me.” He looked at her again. “I don’t want
to be a monster.”
“You’re not. You’re odd and annoyingly persistent, but
you’re no monster.”
His wide grin made her feel worlds better. “It pleases me to
hear you say that. Especially because I think you’re much of the reason for my
recent control. From what I’ve seen, you have a dampening effect on other Otra.
Trotter couldn’t compel you to sleep with him, Min couldn’t read your thoughts,
and Daket couldn’t work his telekinetic energy around your place at all.”
She blinked. “Then how did you just do all that to those
guys?”
He drove into the northern section of town, well away from
the shipyard. “I don’t know. The first time I met you I felt at peace, able to
command my energies easily. The more I’m around you, the stronger I feel. It’s
as if you’ve cast a spell on me,
veyou
,” he said thickly, his emotions
buzzing around the vehicle. “I feel so much around you.”
Her stomach dropped. “So the attraction, the connection
between us, it’s because my energy levels yours?” Nothing more?
“It’s more than that.”
Yet she felt foolish wanting anything else. Love? Affection?
From a man she’d just met?
One who worked for Trotter?
She groaned. Her
taste in men had not improved.
He pulled into the parking lot of a grand hotel, one of the
more expensive uptown, and turned off the vehicle. Then he turned to face her,
and she tried to equate the patient, charming man in front of her with a
murderous drug dealer.
Romy caressed her cheek with a finger. “Energy is a fact of
life in the universe. Humans treat it as if it’s not there, but our kind knows
it is. We feel it, live it, embrace it. It’s in all things. When a man and
woman resonate with harmonized power, we call to one another. Call it fate,
destiny, chemistry, but our energies are fine tuned to each other, Tara. You
can sense that, can’t you?”
She nodded. “But what does that mean?”
“It means you and I have been matched by the universe. We’re
joined now. Mostly.”
“Wait. What?”
His gaze shifted from her face to her throat, and to the
part of the blanket shielding her chest from his sight. “
Veyou
, I don’t
want to scare you, but I’m feeling such a wave of heat it’s all I can do not to
fuck you in here, in this miserable little conveyance. The Testing, the
Selection, all of it is a natural progression to a permanent joining.” He
swallowed hard and glanced away. “I realize this is sudden. That it’s all too
much, too soon.” He took a deep breath. “I would give you time to think this
through, but the universe doesn’t make mistakes. You’re ready to bond, as am I.
And I want you.”
“How convenient.”
“Not at all.” He huffed. “I’m here on important business
that I—”
She saw her opening and took it. “Yeah, let’s talk about
that. Your boss, Jonah Trotter, a man running Majesty and corrupting half the
city. So your important business is
selling drugs
?”
“Shit.” Romy wiped his face with a large hand. “It’s not
what you think. I’m not who you think I am.”
“Oh?”
He swore again. “Dammit. Look, I’ll tell you the truth. All
of it. We can talk about this upstairs, or I can fuck you in here. You might
not like me right now, but your body wants me all the same.” His voice lowered.
“I can feel how much you need me. Your Selection would make it easy to control
you, Tara. But I want you of your own free will.”
“I thought you said it was fate?”
His grin caught her off guard. “Fate’s a bitch, but in this
case, she and I agree. I couldn’t have picked a better mate than you if I’d
tried. Look deep inside you,
veyou
. You’ve seen the real me. Hear the
truth.”
A force pushed against her mind.
Read me. See what and who I am.
Romy opened himself
to her, and she saw an energy that was clean of malice and decay. She didn’t
need to heal an addiction or a battered heart. In him was the same loneliness
she felt, the same love and devotion to family, to right wrongs and protect the
innocent. But could he lie about these things? After all he’d done to the other
Otra, knowing how much power he wielded, could she trust him?
Only you know what you should do. I offer myself to you,
without regret, without falsehood. I would have you for my own, Tara Drake. I
am Romec Talson ’Or Fal, and I am your mate.
Talson?
Yes. And if you want to know the whole of it, say yes to
me. To the Romy you know as no other ever has.
She stared at him, could feel and see his frustration as he
waited for her next move. The thought of what he would do to her in his room
should have spooked her. Hell, she didn’t know you could make love in some of
the ways on his mind. But she couldn’t help feeling intrigued, hungry, drawn—
to
him
. To Trotter’s drug pusher who wasn’t a drug pusher, if she could
believe him. A Talson?
He’d said she was in heat, so shouldn’t she have wanted one
of those other Otra sniffing around her? And what about Trotter? He was
certainly good looking, powerful and near her all the time. Yet she hadn’t
wanted him or any of the others. No male, human or otherwise, but Romy. And the
fact that’d put his life on the line to defend her eased much of her wariness
about him. Not once had he threatened or tried to hurt her. Not like the other
Otra in the shipyard.
She still wanted him. Her
psychei
, as he called it,
felt so in tune with his. She wanted to feel that connection between them and
to study it, to see if it was real. But more, her intuition told her he was it.
The One. The reason she’d been waiting in Port Chase so long.
“Tara?” he asked again, his voice a low growl.
His desire increased her own. “Oh what the hell. Let’s go
upstairs and you can tell me what you’ve really been up to next door. But how
we’re going to manage it with me wrapped in a blanket I don’t—”
One minute she sat in the hovercraft, the next she wavered,
blinking at a shift in color and space, caught in Romy’s strong arms within a
strange hotel room.
“Oh right.” She let out a gasp. “You can teleport.” She drew
in a deep breath and inhaled power and male. A spicy perfume that reminded her
body she needed more from Romy than his
psychei
.
He grinned. “We’re here,
veyou
. And now, you’re all
mine.”
Chapter Six
Tara barely had a chance to note the dimness of the room,
the plush carpet and expensive drapes in scarlet and gold before her gaze
caught and held on Romy stripping to nothing. Golden skin drew taut over muscle
that bunched and flexed when he moved. His cock was huge, thick and long. And by
the moisture beading at his tip, he wanted her just as much.
He pulled off her blanket and backed her to the bed. She
fell into it and stared as he moved to join her.
“Hold on one second. I want to know the truth.” It killed
her to stop his advance, but she had to know. “Romy
Talson
?” She knew
about the shipping family. Hell, everyone in or near a port town knew about
them. The Talsons were an Otra family, part of the ’Or Fal clan that had
founded a shipping dynasty. For over a hundred years, they’d ruled the skies.
It had taken them longer than anticipated to buy out the
Barkins, but many had seen their arrival as a blessing. Until Trotter had shown
up and proved to be a cancer to the city.
Romy sighed. “You can’t tell anyone about me.”
“Who am I going to tell? Trotter?”
He narrowed his eyes. “Your brother. I mean it, Tara. I
trust you with the truth, but this has to stay between us, at least for now.
Trotter has eyes and ears everywhere.”