Tara The Great [Nuworld 2] (24 page)

she actually managed to flip the man twice her size and weight off his feet, causing him

to land hard on the ground.

The guards completely lost it.

Tara stood over Darius, breathing hard. She studied the rippling muscles gleaming

from sweat and saw how his shirt pressed to his chest. His curls stood in every

direction, and the blond locks fell to his shoulders as well as sticking to the side of his

face. Gray eyes swarming with emotion met her gaze, and Tara knew at that moment,

Darius had the same thoughts she did.

She wanted him, but no longer as a sparring partner. And he felt the same. More

than anything, Tara wanted him upstairs, in their bedroom. She wanted him naked, and

she wanted him in her. The sensation of need that ripped through her took Tara’s

breath away, and almost made her knees buckle.

At a point much earlier in her life, Tara realized that often when she sparred,

especially with a man, she found it sexually arousing. She’d never discussed this with

anyone. She didn’t have to. Many stories were told how the great warriors were

conceived after their parents had spent an evening physically tearing at each other. In

her teenage years, she’d been accused more than once of flirting with a boy as she

sparred with him just to get him sexually aroused. Then she’d walk away.

Now memories poured into her mind as she recovered. The heat between her legs

made moving difficult. She hadn’t wanted Darius like this for quite a while. He looked

incredibly seductive in his long brown leather pants with his shirt hanging sideways,

just enough to show off the hair on his chest. She wiped sweat and drool from her face,

a face she was sure was covered with lust.

But wait a minute! Reality hit Tara harder than a punch to the face. She was furious

with him. He’d committed an unforgivable crime. How long should she make him

suffer? How long must she suffer?

Darius rose slowly, smiling as if he’d been told a good joke. In fact, it was a grin of

pure pleasure. And it was seductively wicked.

Tara braced herself as Darius took a moment to glance at his guards and at Patha,

who was still looking down at them.

Referring to Patha’s earlier comment, Darius called to him, “I don’t know, kind sir.

Fifteen minutes might not be enough time, I’m thinking.” He turned to Tara and

whispered, “So you want to play, do you?”

He threw himself at Tara and she met him with a hard punch to the stomach. He

took the punch without a hint of reaction and threw her over his shoulder.

She flipped her body, but he managed to hold onto her as he ran toward the back

door. The entire shift of guards on duty stood out in the backyard whooping and

hollering as they cheered their lord on. Tara tried to grab the doorframe as Darius

entered the kitchen, startling the two young girls standing there and sending them

screaming and running for the pantry.

He made it as far as the bottom of the staircase before Tara managed to squirm

loose and jump to the floor. Darius plopped down on the bottom tread of the wide,

curving staircase and threw back his head laughing.

She kicked him hard in the shin.

“Ow!” He grabbed his leg and looked up at her with an evil leer. “That hurt.”

“Good.” She glared at him.

He leaned forward putting his head almost level with hers. “It’s good to see my

lady’s got some play left in her.”

“Then why’d you quit?” She still glared at him. But it was hard to keep her eyes

from roaming over his body that was sprawled lazily across the bottom of the staircase.

“I haven’t quit, no.” Darius reached for her.

Tara jumped back and he grabbed air.

“Keep your hands off me,” she said through clenched teeth.

“Ah, your eyes say something completely different, they do.” He pulled himself up

and hovered over her. Taking her chin firmly in his hand, he forced her to look at him.

“I have the right to you whenever I please.” He stroked her chin with his finger. “And, I

will have you tonight.”

“Darius, Tara, come here now!”

Patha’s voice broke all the magic, all the possessiveness that had made Tara’s knees

feel weak. She could swear Darius jumped at the sound of her papa’s voice. He turned

and hurried up the stairs. But not before giving her a look sealing his words, his

command.

Tara felt warmth travel through her as she held his gaze in that brief moment. And

it dawned on her that her attack had driven him as wild as it had her.

Her punches might as well have been foreplay.

Talk about a plan backfiring!

Chapter Thirteen

“We did it, Tara-girl.” Patha looked quite excited. “One of the flying motorcycles

the Lunians use is on its way.”

“Excellent!” Tara grinned with satisfaction as she moved to the screen displaying

the message. “Who obtained it?”

“Frig, a young man with an excellent future as a warrior.”

“The Runners of my generation shall be great warriors,” Tara said, and gave Patha

a hug.

Two other Runners sat in the room huddled together over the landlink at the other

desk. One of them turned to give Tara his attention.

“What is it?” She still smiled. The thought of having an opportunity to drive a

flying vehicle caused her adrenaline to pump almost as much as sparring with Darius.

“This last program ran successfully. All we need to do now is put it through a trial

run,” Pago spoke calmly.

Tara had known the Runner all his life, and had babysat him when they both were

younger. Pago and Torgo spent time together occasionally, and Tara could see the two

becoming good friends.

“Maybe we can communicate with Frig?” Tara still smiled as she looked over

Pago’s shoulder at the landlink.

Darius moved his comm to his ear. “Torgo, get up here.”

Tara hadn’t noticed the boy wasn’t in the room. He was the one who’d written this

new program. She mentally agreed that he should be the one to run it for the first time.

Torgo was there in minutes. Tara immediately noticed how bad he looked. Not

from the roughing up his brother had given him. That hadn’t left a mark. There were,

however, deep-set dark circles under his eyes. His stare was blank, unconcerned. His

blond curls seemed darker, more individualized, as if sweat from lack of showering had

defined his hairstyle. Fortunately, he didn’t smell. She could tell by his sad eyes that he

missed Syra and was terrified at what might be happening to her this very minute.

“Your communications program is ready for a trial run, it is.” Darius patted his

younger brother on the back cheerfully as he entered the room.

Torgo looked at him in surprise.

“See if you can open a communication with Frig. He’s the Runner bringing back

one of those flying devices, he is.”

“Really?” A glint of hope appeared in the form of a half-smile. “Okay.” Torgo sat

down and successfully opened a line with the warrior.

Tara joined Patha and Darius outside when Frig returned. The Lunian vehicle

wasn’t a bike at all, but more like a glider. And that is exactly the name it took. Tara

could think of no other way to describe it. There was room for one person to sit in it. It

had two wheels and the seat had been placed over the motor. Unidentifiable metal

made up its body, and this particular one had been painted blue. A clear dome lifted to

allow the driver to climb into the seat, then automatically lowered when the vehicle

started. The wheels pulled up under the metal when the bike hit a certain speed and an

overdrive button was pushed. Tara sulked a little too obviously when Patha suggested

Darius be the first one to take it for a trial run.

She patiently waited—okay, impatiently—for her turn as Darius flew all over the

meadow, taking the glider to incredible heights and diving like a daredevil. Patha did

the same. She saw his face at one point as he did circles in the sky, taking the thing

completely upside down.

Tara enjoyed her turn, however. The glider moved at a speed she hadn’t dreamed

possible. She cruised across Gothman countryside, hovering ten feet above the ground

as she drove twice as fast as her bike could travel.

Suddenly a scene from her vision obstructed her view of the countryside. The

ground below her dimmed, and she clenched the handlebars of the glider when

suddenly she couldn’t see.

Her vision cleared, but she no longer saw Gothman countryside. The glider no

longer hummed underneath her.

She was climbing out of the Lunian underground cave after having seen Syra

raped. The same awful feeling she’d had in her gut during the first vision flooded

through her. Why was she reliving the moment?

Tara watched the Lunians walk around the campsite, and the sun blinded her as

she moved out from under the canopy. Her hand automatically went to her eyes to

shield them as she looked at the mountains and sky. She felt herself fall, as had

happened when she’d had the vision the first time.

Tara’s sight blurred. When it cleared, she looked at an open field. Turning her head

to the left and right, she watched the rocky ground grew closer with each second. Tara

screamed when she realized she would crash, and quickly veered to avoid the

oncoming ground.

The glider maneuvered easily, avoiding large tree branches. Tara’s heart pounded

as she worked to regain knowledge of her surroundings.

Suddenly she had a revelation.

Tara turned the glider sharply and headed back to where Darius and Patha stood

waiting for her. She’d enjoyed the contraption as much as they had, but now she

needed to get back to the ground. She had to tell them what she’d just figured out.

As Tara climbed out of the glider, Patha and Darius stood several feet away

grinning widely as if they’d just shared a good joke. The two of them glanced at each

other, and Darius nodded slightly, patting the older man’s back.

The bond between them kept her on the alert. She felt certain there was very little

Darius didn’t share with the old man. Patha had become like a father to Darius.

“It’s quite a machine,” Patha said to her as she walked toward them.