Janus' Conquest (11 page)

Dawn Ryder

had seen her welcoming Janus into her body, so there was little point in screaming at the next pair of males who thought the same of her.

Janus stiffened. She watched his neck tense as he stepped right up and loomed over one of the invaders. “Fay is a free female. You have used your Hunter authority dishonorably to enter this dwelling. Get out.”

They left and too fast. Fay watched the way both males abandoned the field in the face of Janus. Power radiated off him—it always had. That was the thing she was addicted to. The strength and the knowledge that he was more aggressive than any other male she had seen. Maybe it was a fatal flaw in her character, but she didn’t want either of the two males who had just scurried out of her front door without a single protest. No, all they wanted was her body, and only if it came simply. Neither of them would have spent months pursing her.

“Yet you used your authority to enter.”

Janus turned swiftly. His face was a hard mask of pure intent until he recognized her and scanned the room behind her for anyone else. His features relaxed as one side of his mouth rose in a grin. “I rang the chime first. Three times.” He stepped towards her and stroked one side of her cheek. His fingers stopped under one eye and traced the dark circle she knew was marking her light skin. “I didn’t think that you might be sleeping at such an early hour. But your bands reported you inside. I was concerned.”

“I see.” Her words were a mere whisper because his explanation touched her tenderly. His demands made her passion soar, but the moments when he took the time to explain things to her invaded her heart with a rich flow of affection. There was no thinking about it. Feelings didn’t wait for the brain to sort them out or decide to accept or decline. The heart simply swelled with happiness, and at that moment she was flooded with affection.

Janus frowned for a moment. “You cannot stay here. It is unsafe.” All traces of tender concern were now hidden in a firm tone of authority. He moved right past her 74

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and brightened the room. Looking around, he took notice of the box she had already packed.

“This is my home.”

Janus looked at her for a moment before he turned and pulled three of her colorful robes off their hangers and placed them on top of the practical ones she had decided to take with her into the penal sphere. “Any Hunter may open that door. I should not have overlooked that fact, but I assumed that my brethren would conduct themselves with honor. It appears some of the younger males have yet to mature past their impulses.

You will come with me tonight.”

“But you may open your door. I will not be able to keep you outside.”

Janus turned and smiled at her. It wasn’t a kind expression. Determination flickered in his eyes as he moved across the room and captured her waist. He pulled her snug with his body. A shiver raced down her frame as the robe she’d donned felt too thin to offer any true protection. She felt so vulnerable with him, as though he held the ability to strip aside her practiced social façades to get at the female who craved him. “I will follow you anywhere you go, Fay. But for tonight, you need rest, so let us not quarrel until sunrise.” The corner of his mouth twitched back up into that boyish grin. “I wouldn’t want to take advantage of you while you weren’t at your fighting best.” He slapped one side of her bottom as he released her and turned back to the box of clothing. He placed two pairs of her beaded silk slippers on top before lifting it.

“Get what else you want and come out. We’re leaving.”

He left her sleeping chamber and it felt like a challenge. She did not have to obey him, but there was a part of her that wanted to. Chewing on her lower lip, she cast a look around the room she had slept in since her birth. Without her father, it was only a place, with little value. Reaching for the photo album, she hugged it close and stepped into her shoes. She could not sleep here anymore, not when the two younger males might return. Emerging from the chamber, she found Janus watching the doorway. A look of relief mixed with approval filled his features as she stepped into the outer room.

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Reaching for her personal bag, she hid the uncertainty that was racing through her. Her life was stretching out in front of her like a vast desert. She had no clue as to what she might find on the journey.

“Come, Fay. Let us find someplace private.”

“All right.” The concession in his order pleased her. Two days ago, he hadn’t wanted privacy, but he was tempering his desires with her own whims. Now he was meeting her in the middle, and that filled her with enough confidence to step away from her family home. It was enough for now. Maybe she might be intent on joining her sire at the week’s end, but for this night she would enjoy the company of her lover.

* * * * *

“They say you were a Hunter.”

Edric noticed the sneer his profession provoked and clenched his teeth against the urge to dress the convict down with a few well-placed words. It would be a waste of time. A look at the male standing in his doorway showed him a scruffy individual, who, from the scent drifting on the evening breeze, didn’t bother to use his ration of water for bathing his body. His was as ripe as two-week-old cheese.

“I’ve been a lot of things. Still am.” Edric kept his hands moving in the steady motion of assembling. It was mindless work and that made it simple to continue to observe his guest without alerting him to the intense scrutiny he was under.

“Yeah. I heard that.” The male looked around the dwelling and sniffed. “You might fit in around here. If you know how to be friendly that is.”

Edric stopped working for a long moment. He met the man’s eyes before he began moving his hands once again. “I like friendships that benefit both sides.”

His guest snickered. “Heard that too. But since you got caught, I don’t think there’s anything you got that I want.”

Edric let a deep chuckle rise up from his chest. The sound came from his enjoyment of watching his bait being sniffed by the local scavengers. This was merely the point 76

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man, not the convict in charge. It was an interview of sorts, but a very important one if he wanted to close his case with convictions. “You have no idea what I have.”

The convict licked his lower lip and stepped closer. He lowered his voice as he cast a look out the open front door to see if anyone was watching or listening to them. “Like what?”

Edric shook his head. “Nothing. Nothing but friends. Isn’t that the only thing a man truly owns? His comrades…contacts?”

Greed shone from the convict’s eyes before he shook his head and looked suspiciously at Edric. “Around here, you got to prove what you say.”

“There’s more than one way to get a point across. What did you have in mind?”

The man’s eyes filled with greed once more. Edric absorbed the expression and stored it in his memory as a lesson. Once you let yourself become lazy, selfishness ruled you. It was something he’d devoted his life to keeping out of honest spheres. Convicts were exiled to protect the honest citizen and this was a perfect example of why that was a just law. He would serve it even more determinedly after this assignment.

“Here.” Reaching under the table he was working at, Edric pulled out a small tin container of preserved meat. He slid it across the table and picked up another energy pack to begin securing it to a base plate. It was simple electronics work. The completed boards would be used for home identification sensors or something similar. Each and every component he was given was carefully counted to ensure he was not pilfering units to trade on the black market.

“Where’d you get meat?” The convict licked his lips and smacked them before looking over his shoulder and hugging the tin to his belly to hide it from the street.

Meat was strictly rationed among convicts to prevent them from building up too much muscle with the aid of high-protein foods. His own shoulders were broad and far more imposing than those of his company. Remaining behind the table was the best way to hide his greater strength and gain the confidence of the convict.

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“Enjoy it. I don’t go hungry. Never will.” Edric tossed another completed circuit into the box and looked up at his guest. “Just remember that I like favors returned. You want stuff then I get something in exchange. Simple friendship.”

“Yeah, I hear you. Fair enough.” The convict stuffed the tin into his tunic and returned to his study of Edric. He sniffed again before rubbing the concealed tin. “I could get used to your friendship.”

He turned and left. Edric fought off the smile that tried to lift his lips. He’d celebrate when the ring was busted out onto a work gang. Convicts were still offered choices.

Even after judgment they could remain in a penal sphere and have better lives than those convicted of high crimes, but only if they reformed and did their fair share of labor each day. Food did not appear on the table, and clean water was not magically flowing into the sphere. All the resources that everyday life required took team effort.

No single member of the population held the right to take more than he gave. That was the foundation of their law. If a convict could not join the effort, he was a felon and deported from even the penal sphere.

They were sent to the outer wastelands for chain-gang duty. It was backbreaking work. They sweated under the hot sun without the shield of a sphere to protect them from gamma radiation. Their skin leathered, and their eyesight suffered but there was work that needed doing if the population inside the spheres was to thrive. It seemed fair that those who could not behave decently ended up exiled. The law-abiding members of the population should not be exposed to their evil ways. More importantly, their genes must be removed from the breeding pool. All convicts were sterilized.

It might appear harsh, but it stabilized the population whose history was rich with unfairness that had lead to starvation and war. You earned your right to privilege by being a team member. Each person gave to the best of their ability. Convicts were tainted by their greed, and Edric was dedicated to their exile.

It was the honest truth that he was going to enjoy this assignment far too much. Of course the only person he owed an apology to was Fay. Leaving her was his only regret, 78

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even if he knew she was past the age that he should feel so protective. His lips did twitch up. Maybe his protection was the barrier that needed lifting so that she might understand more of adult matters. Who knew? It was possible he’d return home to a pledging ceremony.

Now that would please him. Janus would be a fine addition to their family and the idea of a grandchild made him want to chuckle. Family was a man’s true wealth. Edric nodded as he went back to assembling. It was strange the way you learned life’s lessons. It took separation to understand how much he had. He would thank the gods for his newfound knowledge and pray that his daughter was doing as well.

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She had no idea what she was doing.

Fay stood in Janus’ dwelling and simply stared at the hints of its male inhabitant. It was strange to notice it so much more keenly here when she had shared a dwelling with her sire all her life. But she could practically feel it. Relaxing felt impossible as she turned slowly, listening for a hint of a sound to let her know when Janus returned from the back room. He’d carried her box of belongings right through the open living space without missing a step. Almost like a message.

She bit into her lower lip as she decided that his actions were very much a message.

Janus was always direct and she liked that facet of his personality, even if it did frustrate her as often as it pleased.

“What are you thinking, Fay?” Janus’ voice filled the room before he stepped into view. Her cheeks heated with a blush as she recognized how simple it was for him to remain in the darker sleeping chamber and view her. His shoulders filled the doorframe as he lingered in it a moment, judging her reaction to his company.

“That I am insane.” She shrugged as she watched him frown at her reply. “Yet contentedly so. I suppose it’s the same for all senseless creatures. They don’t worry about being out of control.”

“You mean to say, you must be unbalanced to share my company?”

Janus moved away from the doorframe and closed the distance between them. He reached out and combed his fingers through her hair. The motion felt intimate in an odd manner because she had never viewed her hair as attractive. Some females did, but her waist-length brown hair wasn’t thick like many of her friends’ and it had always paled in comparison.

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She rolled her eyes at him. Boyish mischief sparkled in his eyes—she was certain of it. “Stop tugging at my hair. We are not children at study center.”

“I never pulled the girls’ hair.” He offered her a frown that the sparkle in his eyes betrayed as false. Fay cast him a suspicious look and his lips twitched before breaking into a grin. The expression suited his face far better than she might have ever suspected.

Seeing Janus as relaxed was not something she had ever really considered, but it must happen at some time—even to Janus. Everyone needed relaxing and fun. Why else did you devote your life to a profession if there was no fun after your duty hours were finished? Stale existence was bleak indeed.

“I tied their braid tails in knots.”

She giggled at the image. “I believe that.”

“I wouldn’t tie yours.” He wound it around his hand and used it to hold her head in place. “There are far better uses that come to mind.”

He used that hold on her hair to keep her head in place while he leaned down to kiss her. It was a firm press of his lips against her mouth as he kept her captive with her mane. His free hand skimmed over her hip and up her belly to her breast. Her nipples tingled as his mouth became bolder and more demanding. He pressed her lips apart as her nipples contracted into hard little points that poked at her robe. His fingers smoothed over the delicate surface of her breast until they found the hard evidence of her arousal. The hand in her hair tightened a fraction, sending little nips of pain down her neck. But he controlled it expertly, never allowing the feeling to rise into true discomfort. It remained another level of sensation that sent her body surging back towards arousal as his tongue thrust into her mouth, boldly stroking and penetrating.