Forbidden Worlds - Box Set (28 page)

He smiled. “Bastard definitely. But crazy? No. Crazy would be hopping in a shuttle with you and getting my brains bashed in the minute my back was turned. Or maybe in your case having my balls cut off and put in a jar for the highest bidder. You’ve got me over a barrel, Ms. Rule, because you’re right. I wanted those embryos. I still do, and you’d better hope you’ve really got them. I’m not going to sully myself by explaining what might happen to you if you don’t.”

She tossed those raven curls, leaned back in her seat and crossed her long, seductive legs at the knee. “Oh, go ahead. Threaten me all you want. I’m telling you the truth, and you’ll find out soon enough. Hathan put anesthetic gas in the air filter that night. I woke up in some dilapidated shuttle with him laughing about how clever he thought he was and how rich I was going to make him. I managed to escape, and I’ve been running ever since.”

Kane lowered himself into one of the seats across from her and crossed his arms over his chest. Wouldn’t that be rich? If she wasn’t lying, then what did that make him? He’d walked away without a second thought about her safety, just assuming she’d duped him and hating himself for it more than he hated her.

“And it took you two months to track me down? That’s sloppy work.”

She huffed at him. “If you’d followed your posted itinerary I could have been on you inside of three days. But no, you went and cancelled every trip you’d booked for months. You didn’t even leave a credit voucher trail that I could follow. The only reason I ended up on Decatur was because a man on Laguna mentioned your name to one of the staff engineers. Apparently you’re a big man on your little colonial rock. Pumping your own money into building the medical center…cozying up with the colonists. Some people see you as a hero.”

“And you see me as a mark.”

She held her tongue, but the dark fire in her eyes told him she had plenty to say on the subject. He’d get it out of her if he wanted it, but right now, he wasn’t sure he could stand to hear any more.

He stood up. “I’ll be flying. Yell…real loud…if you need anything.”

She yelled all right, for a good, long time.

* * * *

The anger turned to exhaustion pretty quickly and then to a giddy euphoria that had her giggling like a teenager. The security cuff he’d used to bind her to the chair was so old, it was practically an antique. With her free hand and a pin from her hair, she could pick the lock any time she wanted to.

That thought made her laugh. Was he testing her? If she broke free, would that prove to him she couldn’t be trusted?

She sat on that thought for a long while and glared at the door to the cockpit. He’d probably fallen asleep up there. She could let herself loose, and let him wake with her standing over him. What if she goaded him into the kind of tussle that led to hot, sweaty sex? Once he had her again, once he tasted her, she’d be able to make him understand. If she could wrap her arms around him and kiss him, he’d know that she was telling him the truth.

Hmm. She laughed again. That was a perfect idea and she’d execute that plan just as soon as the searing, biting pain in her belly subsided.

Terror washed over her at the thought that she’d miscalculated the time the embryos had left. Once the containers burst, there might be nothing left to save. She screamed his name once and then blackness took her over.

* * * *

The bottom dropped out of Kane’s self-possessed stoicism the moment he entered the passenger cabin and saw Nola slumped in her seat. Her quick, agonized scream drew him immediately, but he still wasn’t fast enough. She was unconscious by the time he reached her.

The self-hatred that had plagued him since their last parting had never been so sharp as when he gently unfastened the wrist cuff and gathered her in his arms. Her head lolled and a barely coherent murmur escaped her dusky lips.

“The babies…my boys…”

The words stabbed deep. Did she really think of those stolen embryos she carried as something more than contraband?

He brushed hair from her eyes and settled her across the cushions of the nearest flight couch. There might not be time to get all the way to Enviro-Guard in his slow shuttle. He’d need to hitch up to a starliner fast and shave as much time off the journey as possible.

“Don’t worry…they’re going to be okay. You’re going to be okay, Nola. I promise.”

He hoped it was the truth.

Chapter 8

Darkness became light, garish and piercing. Nola moaned and tried to sit up but gentle hands steadied her. A woman’s voice spoke words she didn’t understand, yet she heard herself mumble a response before blackness seized her again.

* * * *

The gentle hum of some electronic machinery lulled her, making her think words in strange rhythms. The air smelled sweet, then medicinal. Cool fingers feathered a gentle touch over her brow then disappeared.

* * * *

A deep voice spoke reassuringly to her. She tried to place it, but nothing connected in her mind. All she wanted was to sleep.

* * * *

“Where are they?” Nola came awake fast and completely with a sharp scent in her nose. The white blur all around her became the crisp linens of a hospital bed and the sparking white walls of a medical ward.

“Where are who?” The soothing voice was familiar. This woman had spoken to her before and guided her through the cold darkness. A nurse, swathed in white, wearing the biomedical insignia of Enviro-Guard on her uniform sleeve, appeared at the edge of Nola’s vision.

“The bab…the embryos. Did they survive? How did I get here? How long—”

“Relax, Ms. Rule. Everything is fine. All twelve embryos survived. One container had begun to break down, but we were able to remove them using non-invasive particle beam reconstruction. We expect you to make a full recovery.”

Relief washed over her. Her little boys were safe. And they were no longer hers to care for and protect. The sting of tears hit the back of her throat, and she fought to swallow the ridiculously emotional reaction. “Where are they?”

The nurse gave her a quizzical look. “Who?”

“The embryos.” Impatience made her words brusque. “Have they been put in stasis?”

“I don’t know, Ms. Rule. They belong to General…Mr. Kane, and he made arrangements with our administrator to handle the embryos. You’ll have to talk to him.”

“Can I? Where is he?”

The nurse looked mildly sympathetic as she busied herself checking the various instruments and machines to which Nola’s bed seemed to be attached. “He’s not here. I’d be happy to have a message transmitted to him on your behalf.”

“He left?”

The nurse nodded.

“Of course.” Nola leaned back against the pillows and closed her eyes. “No message. Thank you.”

“You rest now. By tomorrow you’ll be cleared to go home.”

Home. Nola made no further comment to the nurse. She didn’t dare ask where home was supposed to be now.

* * * *

The trip back to Enviro-Guard after his brief return to Decatur seemed to take forever. He’d only been gone a few days, but all the while he’d worried she might be gone when he got back.

Now his shack on Decatur had two rooms and a serviceable back porch that overlooked the river bank. Of course, the place didn’t hold a candle to the estate that Earth-Sec had set him up with on Valadia upon his retirement. There would be plenty of time to go back there, once the colony was established and the hard work was done, but for now there was still plenty of ditch digging…and even a little church building to keep him occupied.

He doubted she’d be pleased with it. Nola belonged in a palatial setting, surrounded by servants, dripping with jewels, and Tarrant Kane was more than prepared to give her that…but first he needed to know if she’d be happy living in a shack.

He’d never felt this kind of anxiety before. He’d often spent sleepless nights concerned over the details of a mission. His gut had churned at the prospect of losing a regiment or even a single man to the enemy for the price of a bad decision, and he’d often felt the weight of responsibility so heavy on his shoulders it made it hard to breathe.

But he’d never worried that a woman would want to come home with him.

When she stepped into the lobby of the Surgical Care Unit at Enviro-Guard Station, his heart began beating a cadence in his chest. They had a long way to go to get to where he wanted to be, and the journey would begin now, if he knew the right words to say.

She noticed him immediately, and her eyes hardened just a little.

Now it was his turn to beg.

He crossed the shiny tiles of the lobby and met her at the discharge desk. The security staff practically saluted him as he passed their station, and for once, he ignored them.

“You look…well.” He wasn’t used to stumbling around physically or verbally, but suddenly his tongue felt like lead.

She smiled ruefully. “I’ve looked better, I’m sure.”

“How do you feel?”

“Well enough. Thank you for believing me.”

“Thank you for finding me.”

Silence fell around them, and they stared—her at some point over his shoulder, him at the floor.

“I need to book passage somewhere…and at the moment I don’t have any money, so I guess I’m going to be asking you for another favor.”

He nodded. “I’ll take you anywhere you want to go. After a short stop on Decatur. If you don’t mind.”

“I’m at your mercy.” Was there a lilt of amusement in her voice? It certainly didn’t show in her eyes. He resisted the urge to lift her chin and make her look at him.

“The embryos are all viable,” he said.

“I’m glad. Will you be…um…growing any of them soon? That seems such an odd way of putting it, doesn’t it?”

“No…not soon. When I’m finished on Decatur, perhaps. I think I need to understand myself a little better before I start raising a clone.”

“Hmm. I agree.”

The awkward silence stretched again, and Kane finally gave up on the small talk. He took her hand and tugged her back across the lobby. “Let’s go then. I hope you won’t mind modest accommodations for a few days.”

“Define modest.” Again, that vague hint of life in her voice gave him hope.

“An outdoor shower and two square protein bars a day, at least until the next supply ship drops off more packaged meals.”

Her skin paled. “For how long?”

“As long as you like.”

* * * *

Nola hadn’t quite known what to say to Kane during the flight back to Decatur. The jump ship got them there in half a day. After greeting the colonists who all seemed both relieved and happy to see him, Kane took her back to his…dwelling. It could loosely have been called a bungalow, though it bore barely any resemblance to the opulent structure she’d enjoyed on Sensuron.

He’d expanded the shack, and inside now there were two beds and two chairs placed at opposite sides of the miniscule table. A back door afforded an expansive view of the winding river around which Decatur’s first independent post-war colony had sprung up.

“I’ll get you passage on a crew transport that will be good for any time you like,” he told her while he stripped off his flight jacket and draped it over the back of one of the chairs. “But I don’t think you’ll have to worry about In-Teron anymore. A veiled threat to expose their bio-crèche program should anything happen to you, should keep them off your tail for a good, long time. In the mean time, make yourself comfortable. Enjoy the scenery. That’s about all there is around here so far.”

He left her on that note, strolling away down the dirt path in his sleeveless shirt, muscles bunching, his back poker straight.

Nola crossed her arms over her chest and watched him go. This was a new twist. She’d expected to be summarily dismissed once the embryos were safe, or at the very least given a whore’s ransom—just enough money to get very far away from him.

Instead he’d taken her to a mud hole and left her staring after him while he sauntered off to build a school or a grain silo or some other archaic structure. He’d used his connections to keep her safe from In-Teron and given her a free pass to leave him whenever she chose. This was obviously another test. Like the wrist cuff. His trust was the issue at stake. Would she stay put and deal with living quarters smaller than an average escape pod, rations that would barely keep a servo-bot alive, and a view of a nameless river, above which swarms of plump, winged bugs danced and chirped until all hours of the night?

No sane woman would last a minute.

The message was clear. If she wanted him, this is how she would have him. The only way she would have him.

Nola Rule had never, ever turned down a challenge in her life, and she wasn’t about to start now.

Chapter 9

The first two days were interesting. Kane observed his houseguest’s careful consideration of the logistics of their surroundings. She moved gracefully, always leaving plenty of room for them to skirt around each other. She spent her evenings on the back porch, eyes lit by the glorious colors of the Decatur sunset, then retired to the spare room with a polite good night.

On the third day, she sat nibbling on a protein bar and tracing lines on a hastily drawn map of the settlement. He indulged in the growing need to feel her near him by leaning over her shoulder. “What’s this?” Her supple body tensed at his proximity.

“I was looking at the plans for the colony. I’m wondering why the school is so close to the river. Shouldn’t it be on the far side of the settlement, over here?” She pointed to an area of higher ground that hadn’t been designated yet.

“I didn’t make the plans. I just do the work that needs doing. You’d need to take up a question like that with Breson. He’s the governor.”

“Maybe I will. It just seems like it would make more sense to put the school farther away from the flood plain.”

He took a chance then, a leap of faith, and pulled the transport ticket he’d purchased for her out of his pocket. He placed it on the table next to her sketch. “Here. The departure date is blank and so is the name, just in case you prefer anonymity.”

She didn’t look at him. Merely took the ticket and folded it, then placed it in the pocket of the spare pair of breeches he’d acquired for her. He wondered if she’d still be here when he returned from his day’s work, and part of him wanted desperately to ask for assurances, but he couldn’t. He wouldn’t. Yet.

* * * *

“I don’t know how I ended up volunteering, but I managed to get myself a job doing cargo inventory,” Nola announced when Kane returned from his shift a few days later.

She watched him while he washed his hands in the sink and splashed cool water along the taut muscles of his arms. Good lord. She’d thought he was perfect when she first saw him on Sensuron, but compared to now, his body had been soft then. He’d become six feet of coiled muscle, covered in sun-weathered skin. Just watching him move made her clit tingle, but she still didn’t dare tell him she dreamed of him joining her on the narrow bed in the spare room. She longed to stretch her body beneath his and take him in, but more than that, she longed to know what exactly he wanted from her.

When he turned around, amusement danced in his eyes. “You’ll never get rich volunteering.”

“No. I don’t suppose I will.”

“The colonists can use all the help they can get. By the end of the season the new settlers will be arriving. What did Breson say about the school?”

“He said they put it in the only open section of land available at the time. A committee would need to decide whether or not to move it. But he thanked me for my interest and said it was a valid concern.”

“Ah.” He dried his hands and flung open the porch door to let in the night air. “Did you ask him about getting your own shack?”

“Are you kicking me out?”

“No. I just thought you might like some more room.”

“Room for what? My extra pair of boots?”

He stood framed in the doorway, hands on his hips, his back to her. “I suppose.”

“I’m going to bed. If you want me out, I’ll be out by tomorrow night.”

She didn’t wait for a reply. They’d danced around this too long. She preferred their game on Sensuron. If he wanted to know what she was about, all he needed to do was tie her to the bed, strip off her clothes and fuck her senseless and she’d tell him anything. Hell, he didn’t even have to tie her up.

She made sure to slam the door loud enough to rattle the sparse wooden frame. Let the place fall down around them, she decided. At least then she wouldn’t have to deal with this mind game of his.

In fact, she wouldn’t deal with it. She’d been quiet and obedient for more than a week now, her days taken up with trying to figure out how to keep busy while Kane worked, and her nights taken up with dreams of the embryos she’d carried. She couldn’t stand any more uncertainty.

When she flung open the door of her room, he stood there barely an inch away, eyes dark, breathing labored.

Had he been about to come in?

“What?” she said. “Do you want me out now? Is that why you’re breathing on my door like a wolf? Whatever it is you want from me, Tarrant…I can’t figure it out and I’m tired of trying. I—”

“I want you.” He pulled her into his arms, crushing her against his chest. Her breath caught, and something deep in her core flared to life. Her heart fluttered, and beneath her clothes, her body readied for him.

“You have a funny way of—” Her protest died when he covered her mouth with his. The kiss was anything but sweet. He dominated her with it, controlled her. The force of it buckled her knees, and, step by shaky step, they worked their way backward toward the bed.

They broke apart, gasping. “You want to fuck me? Why didn’t you say so sooner? I’ve been ready…all this time I’ve been ready for you.” She leaned back, breathing heavy, and let him shove his hand under her shirt.

Her body trembled.

“I want to fuck you…and I want to keep you. I want you to belong to me.” He pulled open the small buttons of her shirt, freeing her breasts to his inspection and his demanding touch. She arched, spreading her legs to make room for him between her thighs.

“I’m yours for as long as you want me. One night? A month? You want someone to…ah…” His mouth closed over one hard nipple, and the sensuous pull made her instantly wet. She surged against him and guided his hand into the waistband of her pants.

“I want you, all of you. All the time.” His fingers slid over her mound and a sudden insistent pressure on her clit made her body go taut. He tore her pants open. “But I don’t want the woman I met on Sensuron.”

Nola cringed at a sudden pain in her chest. He wanted someone better than she could ever be, but she supposed she’d do for now. It didn’t matter anyway. She had him above her, in her. He thrust two fingers inside her and she bit her lip against the exquisite need to come for him. She held while he pumped in and out and bucked her hips to help him slide her pants down over her thighs. “Who do you want then? I can be anyone for a night, Mr. Kane.”

He withdrew from her, leaving her shaking and bereft. She watched him while he rose and stripped, freeing an erection that looked so much larger than she’d remembered. “I’ll tell you who I want.”

He parted her thighs, dipping his fingers quickly into her moisture and spreading her own juices over his cock. “I want the woman who risked her life for my children. I want the woman who cried for the babies that Enviro-Gaurd took from her.”

He was in her before she could respond. Before she could form words or even a thought, he put himself inside her and gathered her against him. She threw her head back and drew in a ragged breath that turned into a moan when he began to move.

“You want them, too, don’t you?” He whispered the words in her ear, his voice fierce with some emotion that tore at her heart. A sob bubbled up from deep inside her, and she wrapped herself around him and cried.

“You want them. Nola…you want those babies.”

Yes!
She wanted to say it, but she couldn’t speak. To admit that in the eight weeks she carried those embryos she’d come to love them was too painful to contemplate now.

Instead, she rode the wave with Tarrant, trying to nod and acknowledge her desperate need, trying to fight off the desire of her body to shatter into a million pieces. If he came in her she’d be lost to him. Lost forever.

Before she could form words, he captured her mouth again and drugged her with a kiss that left her barely able to think. While she floated, drawing careful breaths to fight the tears that threatened, he thrust once more and exploded within her.

Her own climax curled up from deep within her like a flame, burning its way outward from her core. She keened as her body clenched, embracing his hot cock, drawing his seed into a womb that ached for its emptiness.

Above her, he stilled and one ragged sigh escaped his lips. “Nola…”

“I want them.” The words spilled out of her, barely audible. If she’d thought for a moment that he might not have heard her, she would have tried to take them back. The confession stung like salt in a new wound. She wanted this man, in her bed, in her life, in her body. She wanted his children to grow under her heart and to hold them in her arms. “I want to give you your sons.”

His body stiffened in her arms for just a moment, and she feared she’d said the wrong thing. Would he get up now and leave her body to cool alone in the tiny room? She held her breath for his reaction.

Slowly he shifted his body, rolling to one side to relieve her of the weight of his muscular frame. Then he snaked his hands up to cup her face, brushing away the strands of dark hair that tickled her cheeks and the unshed tears that blurred her vision.

“I know. I’ve known since I got you to Enviro-Guard. They told me you could have gone elsewhere to have the embryos removed. There are plenty of high priced medics who won’t ask hard questions of a beautiful woman who needs a favor. But you didn’t do that. They also told me about the reconstructions…and that you were one of the POWs that In-Teron…reclaimed after the war.”

Nola looked away. She hated to talk about it, to think about what she owed In-Teron or what they thought she owed them for rebuilding her broken body after the attacks on her home colony. She’d become no better than a slave to them and now she was finally free.

“After all you’ve been through, you could have just disappeared. Had the embryos removed and discarded.”

“They’re yours. I couldn’t…I couldn’t destroy them.”

“Neither can I…but—”

“I understand. You don’t want them right now. There’s time. Any time you want me to. I’ll carry them for you, if you let me.” Her voice broke, and Tarrant lowered his lips to her forehead. He placed kiss after gentle kiss on her face, working his way down to her mouth. She let him taste her, claim her and when he met her gaze again, her vision had cleared enough to make out the strange expression in his eyes.

“I want you to give me a son…but first, let me give you one. The embryos are clones, but they can still be infused with your DNA as well. They could be ours.”

Nola’s breath rushed out of her, leaving her in a vacuum, gaping at him. She’d never considered—

“Or…we could save a little time and infuse our own DNA.” A curious smile tilted his lips, and Nola’s heart fluttered.

“You want me.”

“I want you.” He laughed and looked around the miniscule bedroom. “All this could be yours, if you’ll have me.”

“Is that a proposal, Mr. Kane?” Nola searched his eyes and the sincerity she saw there tore at her. Did she deserve this? Did she dare reach for something she’d always thought beyond her grasp?

“It is. But I warn you, this simple life grows on you. My estate on Valadia covers two time zones, but I’ve never felt as comfortable there as I do here. The same might happen to you.”

Nola considered that. The chirping of the night bugs that hovered over the river outside had grown almost deafening since sunset. The humidity had made the air thick and still and bathed them in sweat far beyond what their lovemaking might have produced. “Highly unlikely,” she admitted with a tentative grin. “What happens if it doesn’t?”

Tarrant gathered her in his arms and settled her head on his chest. “That’s a risk I’m willing to take.”

THE END