Adira's Mate (6 page)

“
Then let’s hope for a friend. I
don’t want you to suffer any more than you have already,” she confessed and let
her hands run up his chest. “So how long do we have before we get to a moon
where we can change things out? Do we have time to, ah, complete this bond?”

“
According to the instruments, we
don’t have a lot of time. After that, we should have time, though this is not
exactly my idea of a place to complete something so sacred. I suppose we could
make do if you’re of a mind to.” Fin’s hands moved to cup her bottom, lifting
her up against his body even as he pressed in closer to her. “It isn’t
something to be rushed,
Adira
. So we should wait at least
until we get ourselves sorted out to sending out a
Craegin
signal.”

Adira
bit her lip. “
Perhaps we should wait until
after we’ve gotten to your home so that we know if I am to live.” Even though
she dared to hope, a part of her still fully believed that she would die. She
didn’t for a moment think that his people would allow her to live, not with her
being part of the enemy.

“
Perhaps we shouldn’t,” he said.
Lowering his head,
Fintan
brushed his lips along her
cheek. “It would help your cause if we were already bonded, and married,
Adira
. Less chance they would dare to do anything.”

“
But more chance that they would
cause
you issue.”
Adira
tilted her
head up and brushed her lips to the side of his cheek as well. “I don’t want to
have you harmed because of this, because of me. You’ve already suffered too
much by the hands of the
Imarian
people.”

“
Don’t worry about me,” he said
quietly. “I, on the other hand, will worry about you. As is the right I am
given by being yours.” A small shake to the ship had Fin pulling back. “Damn. I
may need to take us in manually. Will you be all right back here while I land
this thing?”

“
Yes, I’ll be fine.” She reached
out and touched her fingers to his cheek once more, then pulled back. “Go. Go
and do what you need to do, okay? Keep us safe. I trust you.” Oddly enough, she
did. She trusted him a great deal.

He gave her hand a gentle squeeze
before leaving her.

Chapter Six

Their stay on the moon was short,
thankfully.
Fintan
did what he needed, then got them
moving once more. This time it was on a more direct path since they were now
reading as a
Craegin
vessel. He’d told her he had
sent off a message as well to his best friend. His hope was that the man,
Bracken, was close enough to come and collect them so their journey wouldn’t
take too long.

He’d found her fussing in the
medical bay once they were on their path once more. His arms had slipped around
her from behind, and drew her in close. Fin didn’t say anything, just held her
close and brushed light kisses over her neck.

Adira’s
hands moved to his arms that
were wrapped around her middle and she leaned back against him. Her eyes closed
as she soaked in the pleasure of having his arms around her body. She enjoyed
this, a great deal. “So, now we are simply waiting for your friend to hopefully
pick us up?” she asked quietly.

“
Yes, if he is in the area. Even
if he isn’t he should get the message relayed to him. At which time he will
make his way out here. I’m uncertain how long I’ve been gone exactly, so I’m
quite certain Bracken will come across the galaxy to ensure it’s really me.
Then he’ll likely smack me for taking so long.”

“
I’m so sorry!” she said with a
frown. “I didn’t realize that you didn’t know the date.” She then gave him the
galactic star date of 289.6987. “I don’t know when you were taken, but that’s
what the date is now,” she told him as she stroked her hands over his arms,
holding on to him as she did so.

He was silent for a long time.
“Three months,” he finally said. “Bracken is definitely going to beat me for taking
so long to get my ass home. Though I doubt he could have done much better,
given the circumstances. We shall see if he gets here first or not. I’m almost
hoping it is him first, instead of one of the others who wouldn’t know respect
if it smacked them in the face.”

“
Well I’m hopeful that your friend
is the one that will show up as well, if only so that the first person you see
from your home world is your friend.” She turned in his arms and braced her
hands on his chest. “I like you. I didn’t want to like you when you took me and
I certainly didn’t realize that I would trust you easily, but I do.
On both counts.”

“
I should likely tell you this
now, so the air is cleared between us before we continue our journey forward. I
had zero intention of causing you harm,
Adira
. When I
took you in the corridor, I’d hoped you wouldn’t fight back so you wouldn’t
realize how empty my threats were. Not once have I ever harmed a woman, or
child. I really wasn’t prepared to break that streak with
you,
though I will admit I had a couple of additional plans up my sleeve should you
have proven unmovable at the time.”

“
I guess a part of me realized
that.” She was silent for a few moments,
then
she
said, “I still can’t figure out where the other two dead came from. I killed one
but you had only tied up two. Why would the man have said that there were three
dead?” She knew that was totally random, but she was curious as well.

“
They may have very well killed
them for letting me break free. That and the fact I tied them up in a manner
fully intending to humiliate them, and
whomever
found
them. I think I’m responsible for those deaths, even if they weren’t by my
hand. I was so
…
annoyed by the entire situation
that I lashed out in the only way I could at the time. Had I just shot them and
been done with the entire thing I’d likely have missed you, though.” He frowned
slightly as he stared down at her. “That would have been a shame.”

“
I never would have known you. I
never would have found the other half of my soul.” She never truly would have
been fulfilled. Yes she might have found someone to care for, someone to marry
and have a family with, but there would always be that missing piece of
herself.

“
They say the universe has a plan.
I can’t claim to have any idea why the universe believed locking me up to be
tortured for three months was a good part of the plan, but I can admit that
coming across your path was worth it.
Some of it only,
though, definitely not all.
There are parts I truly wish I could remove
forever from my memory.”

“
I can only imagine,” she
admitted.
“The things that you survived.
I hate that
you had to go through that. How are you feeling, by the way?” She flushed as
she remembered his injuries. She had all but attacked the poor man by falling
into his lap and kissing him and he was injured and likely hurt to have to even
think about doing anything with her.

He tapped her lightly under her
chin. “You’re worrying again,” he commented. “I’m healing,
Adira
.
It will take some time, but every hour it’s more and more. My people heal
faster than your people do, and being able to touch you helps, at least in my
mind if not in my body. I have some aches, and my knee still throbs, but
nothing is truly painful any longer. I’d ask if you were a mystic, holding me
under some spell, but I wouldn’t want to offend you by suggesting such a
thing.”

“
If I am one, then you must be as
well. I am completely yours, every touch that you give me, every single time
that you even look at me, I find myself aching to come closer to you. I need to
be closer to you. I look at you and I
need
. It’s the oddest of
feelings.”

“
Definitely strange,” he agreed.
Lowering his head, Fin brushed his nose lightly to hers. “I happen to like it.
Though I worry what others may say. I don’t rightly care what they may think,
but it’s what they say that has me concerned. I’d rather you weren’t hurt by
their stupidity, and misguided concerns.”

Adira
shrugged. “
I’ll survive. I have survived a
lot in
life,
I think that I will be able to handle
their words against me.”
As long as it wasn’t against him.
As long as it didn’t affect him she would survive, somehow and someway. “I
don’t care what people think about me as long as you like me.”

“
I most definitely like you,” he
said. His fingers slid over her throat lightly, stroking up and down her
fluttering pulse. Then he pressed his palm to her skin, his fingers wrapping
lightly around her neck. “I have a great many plans for you,
Adira
mine. Many of which we will need to discuss at some
point.” Fin moved his lips lightly across hers to her other cheek, where he let
them drift back and forth over her skin.

“
And when do we have this
discussion?” She swayed into him, her eyes closed and hand on his chest. She
felt as if she had been waiting for this man to come into her life from her earliest
moments. “I am more than willing to fill all of your needs.” She hoped so, at
least.

“
Once we are picked up and secure.
I don’t like the idea of wandering about in this crawler. It screams
Imarian
, and makes us a target for any who decide to ignore
the broadcast going out. It’s why I’m hopeful Bracken finds us before anyone
else. At least he’ll know for sure it’s my words, and not something the
Imarian
scientists cooked up as a trap.”

“
And if it is someone other than
your friend that finds us first? Will they part us and imprison me while
locking you into your quarters while they try to figure out what is real and
what is a trap?” That was something she could easily see happening and it
scared her to her toes. More than ever, she was hopeful that it would be his
friend that found them.

“
Or make us disappear in a cloud
of shrapnel.” He gave a lazy shrug. His lips continued to ghost over her skin,
moving toward her ear. “It’s hard to say. There are many who would love to open
up a slot so they might get the chance at running their own destroyer. There
are only so many top positions, and it’s hard to get there without killing one
off or hoping one is taken out in some manner. Sadly we’re rather easy pickings
out here. I’ll have to change our course in a few hours, send another message
to Bracken, and cross my fingers once more that we don’t meet up with someone
I’ve pissed off over the years.”

“
By the stars, Fin, you are truly
a man full of secrets, aren’t you?” she asked with a grin. “I can imagine that
you have to be hard to kill.” Petr was one such being as well. He was a Fleet
admiral and had been targeted more than once by the
Craegin
and even by those under him. “I understand what you mean, though. Sadly, when
you reach a certain position everyone wants what you have and will do whatever
they must in order to have it.”

“
Very true,” he said. His lips
brushed over her earlobe, and she felt the bite of his teeth.
A light tug before he released it, and drew back a little.
“So, what are our plans for the next two hours before I need to make a course
correction?”

“
I have nothing planned at all.
Our meal is cooking slowly in the baking unit,” she told him and tilted her
head to the side to give him full and free access to her. “What do you think we
should do in order to pass the next two hours?”

“
I think we should talk,” he said.
Rubbing his thumb up and down her throat, he leaned back a little further. She
watched as his gaze slid down her body, then up once more. “I’m sure we have
any number of things we could discuss.”

“
I agree.” She took a deep breath,
pulled back slightly, and tugged his hand. “Do we talk in the sleeping quarters
or on the flight deck? Which would be more comfortable for you?” She looked him
over and nodded. “I’m worried for you, Fin. You choose where you would be most
comfortable, please.”

“
The sleeping quarters, I think. I
can put my leg up in a comfortable position, and you can sit in close.” When
she tugged on his hand again he finally, slowly released her throat. Turning
his hand, he caught hers in his and tugged her behind him out into the
corridor.

When his hand moved from her
throat, she swallowed. “Is it wrong that I liked you touching me like that?” It
was something she hadn’t wanted to think about, just how comforting she found
his hand upon her throat, how safe she had felt and needy as well.

“
Not in the least,” he told her.
In the sleeping quarters he settled onto the bunk, a pillow under his leg, and
the others at his back. “Come, sit,” he said, patting the spot next to him.

Taking the seat that he had
offered her, she settled in close to him. Her head on his shoulder, she closed
her eyes, reveling in the feel of her hand upon his chest and the heat of him
surrounding her fully. “What is it that we should discuss?”

“
Anything you wish,” he told her.
“I’m sure you have a number of questions, about a great many things. Choose
something you require an answer to and I’ll do my best to give you that answer.
You ask a question, and then I will ask one in turn.”

“
So
…
you
have your own destroyer. What is your ranking?” She didn’t care, but it was the
first question that popped into her mind. “Since you have your own ship you
will be able to have me with you when you are
offworld
,
right?”

“
I’m ranked as a general in our
Armada, and yes, you can come with me wherever I go. Though generals rarely are
on a destroyer, I prefer to be in space as much as I can to ensure that I don’t
get sucked in by someone’s political agenda on our home world.” He ran a finger
up and down her arm. “What all was entailed in your position?” he asked softly.
“You needn’t go into any great detail, or too scientific on me, but I am
curious as to what all you were in charge of.”

“
You sound just like my brother,”
she mused with a smile. “He stays in space as much as he possibly can as well
so that he’s not cornered by some eligible girl and her equally desperate
mother or so that he’s not drawn into some political debate.” She was stroking
her hand over his chest as she spoke. “As head of the Medical Ministries, I run
all of our medical facilities. If there is a breakout of illness, I’m called
in.” She shrugged. “Largely I’m the one who moves the paperwork. I hate
paperwork.
With a passion.”

“
I’ve never been highly fond of
paperwork either. Thankfully there’s usually someone else that can attend to it
instead of me. Though some I can’t escape because of security clearances. What
is your next question,
Adira
?”

“
Have you ever backed away from a
fight?” she asked and looked up at him.
“One that you weren’t
sure of winning without a tragic loss of life.
Would you ever back away
from one?” By the stars, she prayed that he never had to face off against Petr.
“My brother, he’s in our military services as well.”