Petr's Mate (9 page)

He
let out a low rumble that sounded like he was pleased
by
her answer. His words a few seconds
later confirmed it. “Call me whatever you want in the privacy of our quarters,
little one. It’s your right as my bonded. The same right that gives you total
access to me in here.” Petr slid lower, his mouth drifting down to suck on a
nipple as he put his hand back in place at her throat.

She arched into his touch. “And
if I wanted to attack you when we were not in our rooms? What if I got very,
very horny and needed you. Could I come to you and touch you so that I could
have you inside of me again?”

She felt a shudder ripple
through him before he sank his teeth into the curve of her breast. “If you need
me you can let me know and we
’l
l find somewhere private to see to your aches and wants.
There is no need to make my crew jealous of what we have.”

“Okay,
so I’ll tell you when I need you. I’ll make sure you know in the quietest way
possible so we can go and hide
ourselves
and fuck like bunnies.”

He
lifted his head to shoot her a
narrow-eyed
look. “I really must get a copy of your database so I can discover the meaning
of some of these words you use.”

“Bunnies
were these small, furry animals on Earth.” She was still holding the headboard
and shivered again. “They were constantly having sex and birthing new bunnies.
They pretty much ate, slept, pooped, and had babies.” Then it hit her. “Oh
God
.” Her shot she had taken for birth control
wore off
a great
many years ago. “I’m not on anything for pregnancy prevention. Are you?” she
asked, assuming that men could take contraceptives as well in this new timeline
she found herself in.

He
immediately moved to a position where they were able to look into one another’s
eyes. “
Imarian
men in the military are on a regimen
that prevents us from impregnating any woman. The women are on something
similar to prevent pregnancy. When a
man
or woman finds their soul
bond,
they then have the choice to come off it. But even if I were to stop
immediately,
it would take many risings
before it wore off.”

She
let out a breath that she hadn’t
actually
realized she was holding. “Thank goodness. Yes I love you and yes I want a life
with you but I want to have several years just with you. As long as you are
okay
with waiting, so am I.” She had to
learn this time she was in before she even dared to bring a child into the
world. “I have too much to learn before we have a
kid
and goodness only knows I have too much
I want to do with you before we have a
child
.”

Lifting
his hand from her
throat,
he cupped her cheek. “There is no need to rush into anything. You need time to
acclimatize to your new reality. I would never pressure you into anything. When
you are
ready,
say the word.”

“Love
me, Petr. Please.” He was still over her and while she loved it, she wanted
more. She wanted everything.

“Always,” he said against her
lips. Then he proceeded to make her feel loved in every way possible, and a few
she hadn’t even considered.

Chapter Five

“You
really know how to make a man feel appreciated,” Petr said. He shot Samantha
another
look
and shook his head slowly. Poor thing looked terrified. “I do know what I am
doing. So the clenching of the arm rests, gritted teeth, and whimpering noises
you’re making aren’t required, Samantha. You should open your eyes and take a
look around. There
are
only a handful of people who ever have the opportunity to see this field from
this vantage point.” He was trying to ease her worries and tease her at the
same time.

She
shook her head roughly and it made him chuckle. “No, thank you. If you will
recall,
I saw what things like what we
are flying did to my ship.” He noticed she didn’t use the term
asteroids
. “Just tell me when we land,
okay?” She was shaking. That had him frowning. “Cause then I will look
, okay?
”

Easing
up on the power, Petr settled them into
a nice
safe trajectory through the
field. “Samantha, come here.” He put a hand on her
arm
and slid his fingers down to her
wrist. “You can open your eyes. We’re barely moving, and we are in a stable
section. Trust me, please.”

Samantha moved in his lap as he
asked her to do. “I’m sorry. I think it’s going to be a while before I’m able
to look outside of our ships and watch the nothingness that
’
s out there. I know you are more
than capable of getting us from point A to point B, but after so many years
…
” He felt her shudder and knew
what she was thinking. She was recalling the nightmares from the
cryo
-sleep chambers.

He
wrapped one arm around her tight, tucking her head under his chin. “I know this
is hard for you, little one. Thank you for still deciding to come along with
me. It means more than you know.” Pressing a kiss to her
hair,
he rubbed his hand up and down her arm
at the same time he made a minute course correction. “I understand that the
nothingness of space scares you. It does the same for a lot of people. But will
you take one peek for me? I swear it’ll be worth it.”

He
felt her nodding, then heard her indrawn breath. “Petr
…
it’s beautiful. I’ve never seen anything so gorgeous in all of my life.” He
knew she was looking at the rising sun that was coming over one of the
Craegin
planets. The soft pinkish glow was catching the
asteroid field, making the massive asteroids practically glow and sparkle. “I
see why you love this.” She looked at the view, then him. “I love
you,
” she said quickly, hugging him again.

“Told
you it was spectacular.” Smiling, he pressed a kiss to her lips. Then he
checked the
computer
and let out a breath. “We’ll take a little longer on the return trip so I can
show you a few things, but we need to get moving if we’re going to meet
Fintan’s
destroyer in time. If you want to close your eyes
again, now might be the time. I need to apply some speed to get us to the
rendezvous on schedule.” The delay had been worth it for him to see the joy on
her face, no matter how brief it had been.

“Okay, eyes closed is good. Do
you need for me to move out of your lap?” She asked the question while she
snuggled in closer to him. Silly woman.

“No,
stay where you are. I only need one hand to get us where we’re going. I will
need two for landing, but we’re still a good distance from that point.” With a
squeeze to pull her
closer,
Petr adjusted his seat position slightly to give him more reach with the one
arm he had free. He had them
underway
shortly after, the asteroids going past at dizzying speeds. It was probably a
good thing he’d mentioned her closing her eyes. He had the distinct impression
his woman may have had something to say about his flying. Likely at extremely
high volumes.

“I’m
also so nervous to meet your sister. She’s so gorgeous. You all have so much
going for you and then here is me with nothing but my love for you. But then
again, that’s what makes me the richest woman ever in the history of ever.
Right?”

Her
nerves were showing. She always started to talk quickly, and on several topics,
when she got nervous. He’d noticed it a few times since meeting her. “You did
mention it,” he
cooed
.
Stroking his fingers over her arm, he took the crawler into a wide arc around
an asteroid, then used one of the moons of a nearby planet to slingshot them
around to where he needed to be. Ahead he could see the void in space that told
him the destroyer was where it should be. “
Adira
will
adore you for who you are. The fact that you are mine, and make me happy, will
only make her happy. Try not to panic before we get there. Especially since
you’ve yet had to deal with a
Craegin
.”

The
communications crackled. “That better be
you,
Admiral.”

Keying
a
lineup,
Petr shot a quick look at the monitor. “Who else would it be? We will be on
board momentarily.”

“So I see,”
Fintan
muttered. “Take your usual spot.
Adira
is standing by
patiently.”

Petr
snorted at that. “I’m sure she is.” Shutting off the
communications,
he adjusted Samantha in his
lap. “I need my other arm, little one, so you need to sit up as straight as you
can for this next part.”

“I
can get into my seat.” When she went to
move,
he held her close. “What in the world
will they think of us coming in for a landing and here I am in your lap? Wait,
they can’t see in, can they?” He heard the joy in her voice, so he didn’t
correct her thinking. “Okay, you just tell me what you need and I’ll do it.”

“Hold
on, and don’t look until we’ve landed. The way into this landing bay is not for
the faint of heart.” Petr gave a kiss to her
cheek
and pressed her face to his neck. Then
he had to concentrate on the path
into
the landing bay. It was a tight squeeze around a few external parts of the
destroyer. Then he had to come to an immediate stop,
turn,
and ease straight up. He’d done it so
many times he could have managed easily with his eyes closed. But if Samantha
caught him doing it he didn’t think she’d be
euphoric
. Checking his sensors to make
sure he was
centered,
Petr put on enough power to raise up into the landing bay and stayed in a hover
until the doors sealed underneath the crawler. Once he saw the thumbs-up from
one of
Fintan’s
crew behind the
heavy
glass wall, he settled down with a
small bump. She pulled back to look at him and he reached up to brush a stray
piece of hair that fell out of her bun.

Petr lifted his gaze slightly to
look past her head to the opening doors. He gave her a quick kiss to her lips,
then helped her off his lap. Standing, he made sure all the systems were fully
shut down, then tugged her with him to the hatch. There he cupped her cheeks to
give her a deeper kiss since the others couldn’t see them. “Are you ready?” he
asked with a hand over the hatch controls.

She
nodded. “Let’s go, I have babies to play with.”

“Not
babies
anymore
,”
he said. With a
sigh,
he keyed the door to open, then led Samantha down the ramp to where
Fintan
and
Adira
were waiting. The little ones were
obviously not permitted down in the bowels of the ship, but Petr knew they’d
see them soon enough. He caught
Adira
when she threw
herself into his arms. Squeezing her close, he breathed in her scent,
a soft
smell that reminded him so
much of their mother. “I missed you, too, little sister.”

When
he pulled away from
Adira
,
he reached for Samantha. “Hello. I’m Samantha,” she said to the woman and the
huge
man beside her. “Good heavens, you men
are all so flipping tall. How?”

It
was
Adira
who replied, “They are rather tall.
Personally I think it’s a nutritional supplement that they all take. Even my
son is half again taller than his sister.” Petr watched h
is
sister hold out her hand. “I’m
Adira
.
It’s
nice to meet you.”

“Hello. I’ve heard a lot about
you,” Samantha said easily, which had Petr relaxing.

Rubbing his hand up and down her
back, he looked to
Fintan
. The other man was watching
Samantha with something bordering on curiosity. Since
Adira
and Samantha were speaking like they had known one another forever, he let the
two women lead the way and fell into step next to the other man.

****

Samantha instantly
liked
Adira
.
The woman was sweet and personable and she had her at ease immediately. The
only issue was the
massive
man walking behind her. She felt like she was being judged by the man. It was a
little
odd that
aside
from his coloring he and Petr shared
a great
deal of
traits, but more than that they seemed so human.
Yes,
she had expected life outside of their
galaxy, but they had always assumed that the life would be so different from
what was found on Earth. They had made the calculated assumptions that there
wouldn’t be many of the Goldilocks planets such as Earth, that the lifeforms
found would be more like the lifeforms that they, again, assumed lived under
the methane ice of Titan.

While
she was deep in
thought,
she heard a couple of laughing squeals, then a grunt of a sound before two
little blurs raced past her and
Adira
and tackled
Petr. The foursome all stopped and Sam turned to look at
Petr,
who was now on the ground laughing
while trying to listen to the
three-year-olds
that
were chattering a mile a minute with him.

When
they both finally seemed to run out of things to say, Petr turned them both to
face her. “This is Samantha, your new aunt,” he said with a wink at her.
“Samantha, these two little bundles of
infinite
energy are my niece, Morgan,
and nephew, Lennox. Say hello, you two,” he
cooed
to the children.

Samantha
got down to the children’s level and said her hellos. She watched them as they
tried to judge her, to see if she was worthy. She couldn’t help but grin. “Do
you think that perhaps you should apologize to your guard?” she asked them and
reached out to stroke the midnight-black hair of the little girl. “I saw the
way you both worked as a team to wiggle out of his arms. That was
incredible
, but I think kicking him might
have been a little harsh?” She leaned in close and added, “Next time just go
limp if you are being held. You will slide right out of their arms.”

A
snort
above her head had Sam looking
up. “I can see why you are a perfect match for Petr. You two think along the
same lines and are set on corrupting my children,”
Fintan
said. His stance said he wasn’t
happy,
but Sam didn’t miss the amused look in his eyes.

“She
is perfect for me,” Petr said. Then he tickled the little boy until he was
squirming. Pressing a kiss to the chubby
cheek,
Petr let Lennox
go
and stood up.

Samantha
winced, then laughed. “
Well,
we are their uncle and aunt. I know it’s in the manual that we are supposed to
spoil them. If it’s not,
then
you need to update your rule books.” She got to her feet and was shocked when
the little girl slipped her hand into Sam’s. “You are too
precious,
” she told her, then looked at
Adira
and
Fintan
. “They are
perfect. You guys did
superbly
cooking these two up.”

Petr
lifted Lennox into his
arms
and held a hand out to Samantha. “I would not attempt to decipher some of her
words. I’m still working on it myself,” he told his sister and her husband.
“She is not of this time, so many of her sayings make little sense. Something
she is occasionally remembering to teach me. Let’s get these little ones
somewhere we can truly spoil them. Especially since their uncle
remembered
to bring the gifts this time.”

Samantha
looked at the couple that was following them and said, “The whole cooking
thing. I mean that genetically. It’s just something we would say on Earth.
Speaking of, Petr is looking to find out if there are any of my people in
Imarian
space. I was hoping that you guys would perhaps
look in your space to see if there are Earthlings here in this area?” It wasn’t
that she wanted to go to her
people,
but she wanted to know if they had survived or if she was the only one left.