Devoured: Brides of the Kindred 11 (6 page)

“But I suppose it’s better you’re not,” he
continued.

Okay…guess
I’ll keep my mouth shut.

“After all,” he continued. “It’s only
because you’re a puppet that I can really talk to you. I can tell you
things…things no one else may know.”

He looked at her, searching her face with
those gorgeous eyes. Tess looked back, fighting to keep her expression
impassive though her heart was pounding again. She wasn’t sure if she should
answer him or not but he seemed to be waiting for some acknowledgment of his
words.

“Yes,” she murmured at last, deciding that
less was probably more.

“I can do things with you.” The fire was
suddenly back in his eyes, making them blaze with the same hunger she’d seen
when he first chose her back at the Pairing House.

“I…um…yes, I guess…” she whispered,
starting to feel nervous.

“
Forbidden
things,” he rumbled.

“Um…
what?
What kinds of…of forbidden things?”
Tess
couldn’t help it. She knew her reaction wasn’t what it should be or would be if
she was a real Pairing Puppet but the words just slipped out.

His eyes blazed.

“I want to hold you…to touch you
everywhere. And I want to
taste
you.”

“I…I…” Tess had no idea how to react. What
exactly did he mean when he said he wanted to “taste” her? It wasn’t what she
was thinking, was it?

“Take off your clothing.” He was already
tugging at the black lace negligee-dress she was wearing and before she knew
it, Tess found herself down to her bra and underwear.

At
least you have on a nice, matching set,
the little voice in her head pointed out helpfully. Both
bra and panties were black satin, shiny and smooth with little bows in the
front.

“I…but I…” she started to protest, but the
big warrior was already rubbing his cheek against her skin. The gesture was
both animalistic and strangely sensual. For a moment he reminded her of a cat—a
really freaking big one. It was almost as though he wanted to scent mark her
all over—to claim her as his own.

Tess felt tongue tied—unable to stop him
as he rubbed his face between her breasts and then down to her trembling
abdomen. She was still frozen, even when he laid her gently on the bed and
continued down, sliding past her belly button to rub his cheek directly against
the black satin crotch of her panties.

“Gods,” he murmured, inhaling deeply, as
though he wanted to breathe in her scent. “You smell so fucking good.” He
looked up at her again. “I want to taste you, little one. Want to rip away this
tiny little garment and spread your sweet pussy with my tongue.”

“Y-you do?” Tess stuttered. His hot words
made her feel like her entire body was blushing.

Slowly, he nodded. “I’m going to spend
hours between your legs, mapping every secret fold, making you come over and
over again. Gods…” He inhaled, his eyes burning. “I can smell how hot and wet
you’re getting. Can’t wait to taste your honey right from the source.”

Oh my
God…oh my
God!
Tess felt utterly exposed even with her underwear still
on. She could feel the big warrior’s hot breath through the thin material of
her panties and though she didn’t want it to, her body was reacting to him, her
nipples getting hard and her pussy hot and wet in a way that scared her.

Shouldn’t
be feeling this way. It’s dangerous…wrong…

Pierce never wanted to see such signs of
arousal in her—never wanted her to show pleasure or suggest anything new.
Anything like
this.
In fact, he had
never done what the big warrior was describing except for that one time when
he…

Is
this what you want, Princess?
a mean little
voice—the voice of her ex—whispered in her ear.
Something new? Something kinky? Something only a little
whore
would want?

No,
don’t think of it. Don’t remember!
Tess told
herself fiercely. She clenched her fists at her sides and stared up at the
ceiling, willing the memory away.

“What’s this?” The big warrior sounded as
if he was frowning.

Tess looked down and saw that he was staring
at the small, white scar on her inner thigh. Seeing the mark brought back the
memory she’d been trying so hard to suppress. The heat she’d been feeling
turned to ice down her spine and her stomach clenched in a sick knot of
tension.

“I thought you said you were new. That you
were a prototype,” the warrior said, frowning. “But this looks like a scar—an
old one. Who did this to you, little one? Who hurt you?”

Suddenly Tess couldn’t take it anymore.

She wriggled away from him and scrambled
off the bed. Snagging her dress from the floor, she started pulling it on with
trembling fingers.

“What…?” The warrior was still on his
knees in front of the bed. He looked up at her, frowning in confusion. “What
are you doing?”

“Okay, all right, you got me,” Tess babbled.
“I didn’t want to blow my cover but I can’t…can’t do this. I’m not a Pairing
Puppet. I’m sorry—I’m
really
sorry.”

His face grew dark and he stood suddenly,
towering over her.

“You’re
not
a puppet? What are you—some kind of a spy?”

“What?
No!”
Tess backed away from him, her heart pounding. God, why did he have to be
so
big?
She had an idea that her
dress was on inside out and backwards but she didn’t care.

“What were you doing at the Pairing House,
posing as a puppet?” he demanded.

“I was hiding, all right?” She was backing
away from him now, fumbling for the door. The anger on the big warrior’s face
was frightening. She had seen that look before often enough in Pierce’s eyes to
know what it meant.
Trouble coming…
It was written all over his face, brewing like a storm. And she wanted to be
out of the way before it hit.

“I
told
you things,” he said, his deep voice throbbing with anger. “I did things…
forbidden
things.”

“No, you didn’t—not really!” Tess
protested, still feeling for the door. “I mean we really didn’t even…”

“We did enough. On my planet the things we
did…the things I told you…” He shook his head. “You let me break the ancient
taboos. Let me believe you weren’t real—that you would keep my secrets.” He was
still advancing on her, his face like a thundercloud.

“I’m sorry!” Tess had found the door at
last but it wouldn’t open. “Look, I’ll go, okay?” she gasped. “I’ll leave the
Mother Ship. I’ll give myself up to the authorities and I’ll never come back, I
swear. You’ll never have to see me again.”

“You can’t—” he began.

But just then, to her vast relief, the
metal door panel at last slid open. Tess practically fell out of it, into the
narrow street.

“Wait a minute.” Moving much more quickly
than such a big man should have been able to, he was suddenly out the door and
had her by the arm.

“Let me go!” Tess yanked against his big
hand but she might as well have been pulling against an iron handcuff. He
wasn’t hurting her but it was clear he wasn’t going to release her either. “Let
me
go!”
she insisted again.

“No.” He glared at her. “You’re coming
with me.”

“What? No!” She was still pulling against
his hand but he was already marching her down the narrow street. There didn’t
seem to be any hope of escape. Tess felt despair wash over her. “Where are you
taking me?” she asked.

He shot her an angry glance.

“You mentioned wanting to go to the
authorities. I’m taking you to one of them now.”

Chapter
Eight

Commander Sylvan looked confused when the
door to his suite slid open.

“Yes, Garron? How can I help you?” His
eyes flickered down to the girl with long reddish-brown hair and dark eyes
Garron had by the arm. “And…who is this?”

“I don’t know who she is but she’s been
hiding in the…in the Pairing House.” Garron had to force the words out. It
shamed him deeply to admit he had been visiting such a place, even though among
the Kindred there was no stigma attached to it.

But even more humiliating were the things
he had said and done with the girl when he thought she was a Pairing Puppet.
I held her—took her in my arms and held her
close to my heart, body-to-body,
he thought. Such contact was forbidden on
Pax, where he had been raised. The Rai’ku, did not believe in any kind of
physical contact between people unless it was a male and a female during
breeding time. They kept to themselves and did not touch one another, except to
clasp arms occasionally when sealing a bargain.

And he had done more than just hold her.
He had rubbed his face over her skin, breathing in her sweet essence, marking
her for his own. Not only that but he had told her he wanted to
taste
her. The stigma attached to such
an act was unspeakable—the shame unfathomable. And he had not only admitted
that he wanted to do this, he had actually started to
do
it. He would have if she hadn’t jumped up and run from him. If
she hadn’t admitted—

“I’m sorry,” the girl said, breaking his
train of thought. “I know I shouldn’t have been there. I was just…I had no
place else to hide. I had to get away from my—” She shook her head. “I’m
just…I’m really sorry.”

Commander Sylvan frowned. “Perhaps you’d
better explain. Are you here because you’ve been dream sharing with a Kindred
warrior? Maybe you came to look for him?”

For a moment the girl’s eyes widened and
Garron felt a strange sensation in the pit of his stomach. The girl in his
dream—the one he could never quite see. Could she be…? But then she shook her
head.

“No…nothing like that.”

“All right…” Sylvan cleared his throat.
“And Garron says you’ve been hiding in the Pairing House?” He looked at Garron.
“And you found this out when you…”

“I went there to…to…” Garron could feel
his cheeks getting hot.

“Never mind,” Commander Sylvan said
hastily. “There’s no need to answer that. In fact—”

“Sylvan? Sweetheart?” Sylvan’s mate,
Sophia, suddenly appeared behind him. “Is everything okay?” she asked, looking
anxiously at Garron and the girl.

“I’m not quite sure,
talana.”
Sylvan frowned. “Garron has brought this female—”

“Oh, are you a friend of Garron’s?” Sophia
looked at the girl curiously.

“No, not exactly.” The girl shook her
head, her dark hair flying. “I’m just…I was hiding but I didn’t mean to…to…”

Sophia’s face grew concerned. “You look
kind of shaken up…?”

“Tess,” the girl said softly. “And yes,
I’ve had better days.”

“You poor thing. Come in and let me get
you a cup of tea. I have a few friends over—if you’re new to the Mother Ship
and want to meet some nice girls to hang out with.”

“She’s not here to make friends with other
females,” Garron burst out, unable to stand it anymore. “She is a liar and a
criminal—hiding in a place she should not be and violating the trust of those
who visit there.”

“I’m sorry.” The girl lifted her chin
defiantly but her eyes were suspiciously bright. “Like I told you, I had
nowhere else to go.”

“Who’s this?” A new face suddenly appeared
at the doorway. Garron saw with a sinking heart it was Becca, his brother
Truth’s new bride. “Hey, what’s going on?” she demanded, her eyes flicking from
the shirtless Garron to the disheveled girl whose arm he still had locked in a
tight grip. “Who is she and what are you doing to her, Garron?”

“Nothing.” Garron knew when he was
defeated. He liked Becca and valued her good opinion. There was no way he
wanted to stand here and explain that he’d been duped by the bewitchingly beautiful
human female while seeking a sexual release. He dropped the girl’s arm and
stepped back. “Nothing at all.”

Sylvan shook his head. “I still don’t
understand. What is it you want me to do, Garron?”

“I…I…” Garron shook his head, feeling
foolish and impotent. “I just don’t think she should be allowed to live…where
she’s been living. She ought to be sent back down to Earth.”

“Oh? Where have you been living?” Becca
looked at the girl with evident interest.

“I…” The girl shot him a glance and shook her
head. “Maybe I’d better not say.”

“Maybe you should come in for a cup of
tea. Or do you want some coffee?” Sophia and Becca were already reaching out to
pull the girl into the suite.

Garron felt himself dying inside as he
watched her enter Commander Sylvan’s suite. He knew how females talked among
each other. Now everyone whose good opinion he valued would know his darkest,
most secret desires.

“Garron?” Becca was looking at him now.
“Do you want some coffee? It’s nothing at all like the
chii
you gave me on Pax but it’s still pretty darn good.”

“Apologies but no, Becca. I…must go,” he
growled. “Now.”

Without another word he turned and left,
cursing the fate that had led him to pick the little Earth female and make her
privy to all his most perverted fantasies. What had possessed him to act and
speak as he had? And how could he ever look anyone on the Mother Ship in the
eyes again?

It’s
exactly what you deserve,
whispered the little
voice in his head—the voice of his guilt.
You
swore to always love and cherish Nella’s memory and look what you did—or tried
to do. Have you no shame? No regard for the memory of the one you swore you
loved?

The voice was right and Garron knew it.

“Forgive me, Nella,”
he whispered, running a hand through his hair. “I will take this
as a warning. I swear I will never forget you or betray your memory again.”

* * * * *

“Um, did you know you have your dress on
backwards?” the girl with long brown hair and green eyes asked as she led Tess
into a plush living area scattered with oversized, overstuffed furniture.

There were two other girls sitting on the
couch. One had blond hair and silvery gray eyes and the other had red hair much
brighter than Tess’s and was clearly pregnant. In fact, she looked ready to pop
at any time.

“I think it’s inside out too,” the other
girl, who the Kindred warrior had called Becca, said. She had creamy mocha skin
and the most gorgeous face but her best feature had to be her eyes which were
kind and understanding.

“Probably.” Tess gave a shaky laugh. “I
was uh, kind of in a hurry to get it back on.”

“And why did you have it off in the first
place?” The pregnant redhead raised an eyebrow at her and gave her a sardonic
little grin. “As if we couldn’t guess. See, Becca? I told you Garron would find
some lucky girl. With those eyes of his, there’s no way he could stay single
for long.”

“Um, it’s not actually like that,” Tess
said. “I mean, I didn’t even know his name until just now. You said it’s
Garron?”

“What?” the blonde girl exclaimed. “Didn’t
know his name? Then what were the two of you doing?”

“Nothing!” Tess assured them hastily. “I
mean, we would have but I admitted I wasn’t a Pairing Puppet before things got
too hot and heavy.” She sighed unhappily. “He was still
really
angry with me though. Not that I blame him, I guess…”

“Back up…slow down…” The pregnant redhead
made a “time out” gesture. “You were pretending to be a Pairing Puppet?”

Tess felt her whole face get hot with
mortification.

“Well,
yes,
but I wasn’t, uh, performing Pairing Puppet activities, if you know what I
mean. I was just hiding out at the Pairing House and your friend, uh Garron,
thought I was one of the puppets and picked me by mistake. I didn’t want to
blow my cover so I went with him…” She shook her head. “I never really intended
to…to
do
anything with him.”

“But you did anyway?” Becca asked gently.
“It’s okay, honey—there’s no judgment here.”

“I appreciate that but we
didn’t
do anything.” Tess shook her head
vehemently. “I mean, he took off my dress and unbuckled his belt but then he
just…just
held
me.”

She closed her eyes briefly, remembering
the feeling of warmth and safety she’d felt in those powerful arms. Why
couldn’t he—Garron—have just been content to hold her a while longer? The
warmth of his big body, the dark, spicy scent of his skin…it had been so…so
nice.
For a moment she almost wanted to
cry but she pushed back the stupid emotion.
He
thought you were a Pairing Puppet, of course he wanted to do more than just
hold you!
she scolded herself.
What
did you expect?

“So he just
held
you?” the redhead said flatly. “Really?”

“Honestly—I know it sounds unbelievable
but it’s true,” Tess said earnestly. “But the way he reacted when I admitted I
wasn’t…what he thought I was, well, you would have thought we did a lot more. Not
that we did—because we didn’t. I mean…”

“I think I know why he was so upset,”
Becca said. “I’ll tell you if you want to know. But first we should introduce
ourselves.”

“Oh yes, I’m so sorry!” the girl with
brown hair exclaimed. “You must feel like you’re on trial and you don’t even
know us! Everybody, this is Tess. And I’m Sophie and this is my twin sister
Liv.” She pointed to the blonde girl who did have remarkably similar features.
“And this feisty pregnant redheaded lady is Kat.” She nodded at the redhead who
smiled at Tess.

“And I’m Becca,” Becca said, smiling. “Oh,
and this goddess bringing us a plate of scrumptious goodies is Lauren.” She
nodded at a woman with creamy brown skin and the most striking amber eyes Tess
had ever seen. She was coming in from the front hallway area and carrying a
huge tray loaded with cupcakes, brownies, donuts, and other delicious looking
baked goods. After a week spent living on alien food, the sweets made Tess’s
mouth water.

“Hi, Lauren, where did you come from?”
Olivia said.

“Just dropped by to say hi,” Lauren
remarked. She frowned. “Hey, Sophie, is there something going on? As I was
coming up to your suite, one of the lower ranking guards was right behind me.
He said something about an urgent message for Sylvan.”

“Oh, who knows?” Sophie threw up her
hands. “Ever since he’s gotten on the Council it seems like
everything
is urgent. It’s probably
nothing.”

“Well, if you say so.” Lauren still looked
uneasy.

“We see the baked goods but where’s the
baby?” Liv asked, gesturing to the tray in her hands. “I’m dying to see her
again—she’s
adorable.”

“Aziza’s just down for a nap so I can’t
stay long.” Lauren smiled and deposited the huge tray on the coffee table in
front of the very pregnant Kat. “I just wanted to run these by because I heard
Kat was dying for something sweet.”

“When is she not?” Liv said dryly. “But
seriously, Lauren, you’re supposed to be still recovering from having the baby.
You shouldn’t be up and around and baking everything in sight.”

“I love it,” Lauren said. “Besides, it
gives Xairn an excuse to bond with Ziza. He was scared to death he would break
her at first—he would barely touch her.”

“Oh, seriously? That’s too bad!” Sophie
said.

“Yes, well, that didn’t last long.” Lauren
grinned. “The first time she cried while I was up to my elbows in cake flour,
he
had
to pick her up. Once he
realized that he wasn’t going to drop her, he started falling completely in
love with her.”

“And I bet she loves her daddy too,” Kat
said, laughing.

“Let’s just say she already knows she’s
got him twisted around her little finger,” Lauren said. “Not that Xairn
minds—that man is absolutely foolish about Ziza.”

“I just bet.” Liv sounded a bit wistful.
“I love the way Baird is with Daniel but I can’t help wishing I might have a
girl next—even though I know the odds are way against it.”

“Never mind womb mate—you can borrow Kara
anytime you want,” Sophie said comfortingly. “But only if you’re willing to
take Kaleb too. He cries anytime they’re separated.”

“You guys, I think Tess is feeling a
little left out,” Becca said gently, interrupting.

“Oh, sorry doll!” Kat exclaimed. “We’ve
all just known each other forever and any time we get together it becomes a
total gab fest. Just have a seat and grab a…ooh, Lauren—are those éclairs?”

“Fresh and homemade,” Lauren said proudly.
“I’m thinking of selling them in the shop. Let me know what you think of them.”

“No problem!” Kat pounced on the gooey
treat and took a big bite. Her eyes rolled up in her head and she moaned in
apparent ecstasy.
“Mmmm…”