Kaitlyn O'Connor (27 page)

“Me also,” Shara said glumly.

“I guess nobody
‟
s getting it,” Karen muttered, her amusement vanishing.

* * * *

Kael was so focused on kicking himself for his blindness that it was sheer dumb luck that he found the very thing that would bring a smile to Lau-ren
‟
s face. He froze, staring at it hard for a moment to be certain it was what he
‟
d thought and then lifted his gaze to survey the others. None of them had noticed his discovery and after a few moments, they wandered from view.

Bending, he retrieved the strange looking hair comb and examined it carefully for flaws. It was certainly not new, but it did not look worn and it was the most unique grooming comb that he had ever seen. It would
‟
ve been far better to make something especially for her, and he would, 118

but she would be pleased with this to groom her beautiful hair.

Turning away, he headed back to the lift and took it up to the control room, eager to give his
shimone
the gift he had found for her. To his consternation, she was not in the room—none of the women were.

After considering it a moment, he decided to check to see if the women had gone to the gathering room for some reason and headed back to the lift. That room was also empty, however, and uneasiness began to gather inside of him. He debated whether to begin to search for her in earnest, but decided that he would check the cabin where she had sleeping first and the bathing room.

He was disappointed that she was not in the bathing room. He had begun to have some very pleasant thoughts about finding her there. Leaving again, he headed to the cabin to see if she had gone to take a nap.

He jolted to a halt, however, when he reached the cabin and went in. Lau-ren was there, but she was not sleeping. She whirled with a gasp of surprise when he entered, clutching something to her chest.

“Oh! You startled me!” She paused studying him. “Did you need to talk to me about something?”

He was studying the brown box on the bed, trying to recall why it seemed familiar when he knew he had not seen it before. At the question, he looked at her, though.

She stared at him guiltily. He knew that look. He just could not decide why she would feel guilty.

Loren smiled at Kael uneasily. “Daeman found my bag.”

Kael felt as if someone had abruptly punched him in the stomach. “Daeman?” he repeated, glancing from Lau-ren to the „bag
‟
that did not look like a bag to him, and then back again.

“The…uh…I don
‟
t know what race they are. The red skinned gladiator?”

Fury surged through him like a tidal wave. “Know Daeman. Why…?” He broke off. He
knew
why Daeman had brought her the bag.

And she had accepted the gift.

“I will kill that bastard!” he growled. Throwing down the paltry gift that he had found that he had thought would be a very good gift until he had seen what Daeman had given her, he turned on his heel to stalk from the room, intent upon finding Daeman. Lau-ren flew at him from behind, throwing her arms around his waist. He halted, stared down at her arms, and then peeled them lose.

“Kael! Wait!” Loren said, dancing in front of him when he set her aside.

He halted when she blocked his path, glaring down at her furiously. “Move!” he growled.

She jumped all over when he bellowed at her, but she didn
‟
t move. “Why are you angry?”

she demanded plaintively. “Just tell me that!”

He grasped her waist and lifted her up, intending to set her aside. The moment he lifted her up, however, the lifted her legs and dug her heels into his waist and grasped his shoulders.

“Don
‟
t! Don
‟
t ruin it, Kael! Please?”

He hesitated. “Take him
, shimone
?”

“Oh Kael! I want you. Don
‟
t leave. At least don
‟
t leave angry.”

119

Anger and confusion collided in his expression. “Why take his gift?”

Loren released a huff of irritation. “Because it was
my
damned bag! I had it when I was taken! Daeman found it and brought it to me. I don
‟
t understand why you
‟
d be angry about it!”

Kael swallowed convulsively, recalling abruptly that he had slung the gift he had brought her down in anger instead of giving it to her. He pulled her tightly against his chest, shifting one hand to cup her head. “Make me crazy, Lau-ren,” he muttered, nuzzling her face in search of her lips.

A thrill went through Loren. “Good! You make me crazy, too,” she murmured, tilting her face to meet his lips. A harder thrill went through her when he captured her lips beneath his and his essence invaded her, sent a rolling wave of heated delight along every nerve ending. She
‟
d missed his kisses more than anything she thought, and it took no more that the feel of his mouth on hers, the taste of him, his touch, to resurrect the desire she
‟
d felt for him the first time he
‟
d kissed her, the heady excitement and anticipation. Her heart began to race with the buildingexhilaration. Heat blossomed between them as he made love to her mouth with his tongue, creating a cloud of their mingled scents and sending Loren into a dizzying lethargy.

He turned, carrying her back to the bed and sprawling on it with her, clearing away the things she
‟
d strewn across the bed as he nestled in it with her and found her mouth again, stroking a shaking over her as he explored her flesh. His eagerness made her own surge higher and she moved restlessly against him, stroking her hands over him to fill her palms and fingertips with the feel of his smooth skin and the tensile strength of the muscles beneath.

He broke from her lips. Sucking in a harsh breath, he rode the column of her throat downward with his lips to the valley between her breasts. He kissed her there, stroking the patch of skin above her heart with his tongue and then nipping at the swell of her breasts on either side while he searched her bra for the opening. He
‟
d just grasped one strap and shoved it from her shoulder when she finally managed to find the clasp and release it.

“No like dis ting,” he muttered as he brushed the thin fabric from her breasts and massaged them.

Loren smiled, lifting her eyelids to watch his face as he cupped her breast and teased the tip with his long fingers. “I won
‟
t wear it again,” she murmured.

He smiled as he lowered his lips to capture the bud. “Wear. I take off.”

She couldn
‟
t think of a response—or much of anything—once he
‟
d caught her nipple between his lips and curled his tongue around it. A blitz of heat traveled through, arrowing through her belly and directly to her warming core, heating it so that it wept for him.

She pulled at him, urging him to come inside of her, but he resisted the lure, teasing the nipple he held captive with his tongue and the suction of his mouth until she was gasping for breath. And when she
‟
d reached fever pitch, he burned a trail with heated kisses from the peak of that breast to the other until she was so feverish with need she
‟
d begun to thrash restlessly beneath his touch.

Lifting his head finally, he studied her face from beneath hooded lids and moved upward again to recapture her mouth, slipping a hand along the center of her torso to her belly and then cupping her sex. She spread her legs to give him easier access as he stroked her cleft, moaning into his mouth when he found her clit and teased it with the tip of his finger.

He broke the kiss, studying her face intently as he teased it mercilessly. “Kael!” she gasped after a few moments when she thought she couldn
‟
t stand the torture anymore. “Come inside 120

me—now!”

She felt his jerky movements as he tugged his loincloth off. He tossed it aside, shifting even as he did so into the cradle of her thighs and she felt his cock glide along the slick surface of her cleft. She looked up at him as he probed the mouth of her sex and found him looking down at her, curling his large frame around her to watch her face as he surged against her.

He waged a tug of war against her resistant flesh. The mouth yielded finally to swallow the head, but she felt herself slipping up the bed when he thrust again. Shifting his hold on her, he locked his arms tightly around her and thrust again, conquering her channel by agonizing degrees that made them both breathless with anticipation. She closed her eyes tightly as he filled her and she could feel his thick flesh inching deeper, stretching her flesh until she
‟
d sheathed him.

He paused panting for breath and withdrew almost as slowly as he
‟
d claimed her. Sparks of pleasure rippled through her and she lifted eagerly the moment he
‟
d withdrawn to feel him enter again. He reclaimed her molten core more swiftly with the next thrust, retreating and delving deeplywith a cadence that lifted her higher and higher until she felt her climax looming. She closed her eyes tightly, tried to close her mind to it, wanting nothing more than to feel the movement of flesh inside of her, but the moment she sealed herself in darkness her body leapt forward, trying to grasp the ecstasy that beckoned.

She gasped, found herself straining to reach culmination when only moments before she
‟
d been struggling to hold it off, and felt herself reach the precipice. For several heart stopping moments she seemed to teeter on the edge and then she fell over, sucking in a sharp gasp and arching against him as her climax caught her and rapture blossomed and spread outward.

He began to thrust in earnest then, riding her climax to his own, shuddering and releasing harsh, choked grunts as his body yielded up his seed. Warmth filled her at the knowledge that he
‟
d found pleasure in her. Lifting her arms with an effort, she draped them around him, stroking his back soothingly as he shuddered in the aftermath and struggled to catch his breath.

He eased away from her finally, withdrawing his flesh from hers, and settled beside her, bringing her close to his chest. She rubbed her face against his hard pecs, listening to the reassuring beat of his heart as it slowed to its normal rhythm, basking in the delight of his arms.

* * * *

For a time as Kael lay with Lau-ren pressed snugly against him, his entire focus was on her and the euphoria he was floating in in the aftermath of his release. When it finally drifted through his mind, though, that it was the first time he had actually gotten to hold his lover in the aftermath of their coupling, was in fact the
only
time he had coupled with her beyond the time of the spawning, his mind began to drift to less pleasant things.

He had not considered when he had been so distraught to discover that he had not prevented harm from coming to her how it must look from her viewpoint. He had been too consumed with guilt and rage each time he looked at her and saw how battered she was to think straight, to think past his own anger and frustration that he had let it happen by failing to act quickly enough. He had not been able to push from his mind the terrible thought that, if he had been any slower, she might be dead now.

That
thought had tormented him the most, the images his mind produced when he saw the bruises all over her, for those looked bad enough it took no great leap to imagine worse. Rage 121

and frustration always followed, for there was no way, now, to avenge the attack.

He supposed, in a sense, they had when they rescued her, and yet he had not been thinking about revenge at the time—except toward Lecur—and because he had not, there was very little satisfaction to be had from it. He could not feel purged of his rage that they would use their superior size and strength to
take
what had not been willingly offered, without any regard for the damage they were doing. That outraged him on so many levels it made him sick.

In truth, he had not had a very high opinion of many of the gladiators before the attack, however well they acquitted themselves in battle, but he was appalled that they were far worse even than he imagined. Fighting skills were not the sum total of the measure of a man.
Strength
certainly was not when it was primarily a gift of birth. Honor and integrity were the true measure of a man and any who were willing to prey upon those weaker than themselves were animals—not men.

Those thoughts brought him to Daeman and as soon as his mind turned upon that path, his satisfaction waned and the first threads of anger began to wind themselves through his mind. The Deisen in general and Daeman in particular ranked among the very few other gladiators not Hirachi that he had respected and trusted—at least to the extent that he had been willing to include them in his plan of escape. After his own people, he had gone first to the Deisen to destroy their collars, because he had come to see that, despite their physical differences, the Deisen were very much like the Hirachi in their strong sense of honor and fairness. There were as many differences in their way of looking upon things and their customs, he suspected, as there were similarities, but, as warriors, they had earned his respect.

If he had not trusted them, he would not have allowed them access to the ship.

He looked down at Lau-ren and saw that she was sleeping. The urge to stay and enjoy simply looking at her and feeling her warm against him was strong. To stay and slowly awaken her and couple with her again was stronger.

The urge to confront Daeman was stronger still, however. It had been as clear as day that Lau-ren had no understanding at all of their customs. A woman of his culture would never accept a gift of any kind from a man she was not willing to welcome in any other way. It was the gift itself. They all struggled to make or find a gift worthy of the object of their desires, something to show that they would be a thoughtful lover. It did not matter how rich or cunningly made the gift was. What mattered was whether or not the lover had thought it worth his time and effort to discover what would please
her
the most, what she liked or what she needed most.

Lau-ren might well believe that Daeman had gone to such extraordinary lengths to find the very thing she had told them she wanted most merely out of kindness. She might believe that he had merely found it and remembered that she had wanted it.

He knew better. He had searched for it himself many times. Even that first day, when he had been more focused upon insuring that there was no threat aboard the vast machine with them and finding what they all needed to survive it had been at the front of his mind and he had looked. He knew without asking that Dakaar and Balen had also looked.

They had not found it because Daeman had found it first and had hidden it so that he could give it to her himself. He had not done
that
only to be obliging! He had been searching for a way to find favor with her.

It was not his place to tell his lover who she could bestow her favors upon and who she could not. Her body and spirit were her own. He was well aware of that and he did not feel 122

particularly threatened by Daeman in the sense that he feared the Deisen might oust him from his place, although those thoughts had run high in his mind when he had first discovered what Daeman had done. Despite the rage he had first felt, though, he knew he either earned his place in her heart and mind or he did not, that no one else could take Lau-ren
‟
s regard from him. Only
he
had the power to keep it or lose it—and allowing jealousy to rule his mind and make him behave badly was the surest way to lose her.

Lau-ren did not seem to understand that she had encouraged Daeman to believe she would accept him, however, and in that sense his actions became a deception, an attempt to take advantage of her generosity of spirit and her kind heart. He had no intention of allowing that. It
was
his place to protect her—from any potential threat—and he would know whether Daeman presented one or not.

If he did not understand and respect that Lau-ren was giving far more than the use of her body as a handy receptacle to ease himself on and dump his seed, then the bastard would not touch her if he had to break him in half and stuff him in the garbage dump himself! Easing from the bed to keep from waking her, he bent down to retrieve his loincloth and strode from the room purposefully.

He met up with Dakaar and Balen in the corridor outside. Both men looked at him with a mixture of hopefulness and resentment that he had beat them back to Lau-ren. His face tightened.

He could certainly sympathize with their need when he had felt desperate himself, but they were not going to retain her favor if they put their own needs before hers. “She is sleeping. She is weak from so little food and the baby she carries,” he said tightly. “Keep that in mind.”

Dakaar and Balen both glared at him indignantly.

“I know how to treat my lover,” Dakaar said coldly.

“It is easy for you to say,” Balen pointed out, “when you have just come from her arms!”

“True and true. I am only reminding you and pointing out that you might receive a warmer welcome if you give her a little time to rest. Disturb her if you are so determined to make asses of yourselves!”

“Where are you going?” Dakaar asked when he had digested that.

“Daeman was before all of us,” Kael growled angrily. “I will see what his intentions are.”

Dakaar and Balen exchanged a look of outrage and disbelief and hurried after him.

“He is courting
our
woman?” Dakaar demanded angrily.

“She is only yours if she says that she is yours,” Kael reminded him.

“She
did
say that!” Dakaar retorted angrily. “If I had not allowed my anger to rule me….”

“But you did,” Balen said pointedly.

Dakaar turned to glare at him. “What is this about the Deisen?”

“He waited until we were occupied trying to find gifts for her to apologize for our thoughtlessness and gave her the box that she had been wanting.”

“The brown box that looks the same as the loincloths and is this big?” Dakaar demanded, making the shape and size with his hands as Lau-ren had.

“That box—which was filled with many things.”

“Why?” Balen demanded suspiciously.

Kael sent him a sardonic look. “I will beat the answer out of him and then we will know.”

123