Temperance (19 page)

Naeve was kneeling on the cool, stone ground, watching Kai, who was holding a lethal-looking sword pointed towards…one scary guy.

Where Kai was intimidating in an I’m-gonna-slice-your-throat kind of way, the air around this man screamed of power and authority. As she let her eyes move to the third person in the room—
a soldier with his sword drawn, protecting this man—
Naeve knew whoever Kai was holding at bay was important.
 

“Naeve!”

The second her name was called, she turned to see Fiona and Audra being escorted into the room by two more men, dressed as the soldier was. When she glanced back to where Bastian lay passed out cold, she wondered what had happened to him. Standing, she watched Fiona rush forward and Audra trail behind her much more warily.

Uncaring of the standoff occurring, Fiona grabbed her in a hug and whispered in her ear, “Thank God. Thank God.”

Naeve looked at Kai, who was peering down at them—his arm still raised, his sword still aimed at the other man.

“Where is Siobhan? Is she awake?” Naeve asked as she let go of Fiona.

“No. She’s back in the room…” Fiona trailed off, looking around, and when her eyes locked on Kai, she froze.

“It’s okay,” Naeve murmured. “He won’t hurt you.”

That was when Audra finally spoke. “He already did.”

Naeve turned accusatory eyes towards the man facing the three of them and felt all of the horror and apprehension she’d first had for him come flooding back. Then she took a step away and watched his eyes harden as he observed the move before severing the connection.

“Unbelievable…”
 

The word was said with such reverence that it seemed to pull everyone out of their momentary trance. They turned to the man at the front of the room and found his eyes on Audra. Automatically, Fiona went to one side of her sister and Naeve to the other.

“I told you before,” Kai warned. “Don’t come any closer.”
 

His voice was steady and his posture rigid, but this time, instead of finding it calming, Naeve found it distressing.

What did Audra mean he hurt them? Has he been lying this entire time?

“Put your sword away, Kai.” The order was issued from the man who looked to be dressed in medieval metal.

A knight’s costume?

“Why would I do that, brother?”

Brothers
, Naeve thought, taking in the information. She never would have guessed. They seemed more like strangers, and they looked even more so.

“Because you don’t know all the facts, and you’re making this much more difficult than it needs to be.”

Kai faced the man and asked, “What happened to Bastian? Or do you even care?”

The knight’s jaw ticked, and then he stated clearly, “It’s not my place to question the Commander’s will.”

“Oh,” Kai scoffed. “Of course not.”

“Put your sword away. Don’t make this day a bloody one.”

Kai turned back to the…
Commander?
Who was still watching the three of them—Audra in particular.
 

“Back up,” he snarled, thrusting the sword forward in silent warning.

The older man brought his gaze to Kai’s and backed away. “You’d do well to take Ry’Ker’s advice, Mala’Kai. I’ve just about run out of patience with you, and trust me, I had very little to begin with.”

Naeve reached for Audra’s hand. The three of them waited in the massive room dressed in clothes that should have been normal but somehow managed to make
them
seem like the strangers.

Kai lowered his arm and slid his sword back into the case hanging from his waist. “Let’s get this over with.”

The gruff statement met stony silence. Then the man climbing the steps to a raised platform started to laugh.

“Oh, so now that you’ve flexed your muscle, you’re ready to make a deal. Is that right?”

“No,” Kai answered. “The deal was made before I left Claremont.”

 
“Was it? I don’t remember Ry’Ker mentioning your terms.”

“That’s because I never told him what I wanted.”

There was a pregnant pause before a low question was asked—one that Naeve barely heard.

“And now you know what you want?”

“Yes.”

She focused on the Commander as he turned to face them all. His dark eyes shifted over to where she and her sisters stood behind Bastian, and Naeve took a moment to glance at his unmoving body.
What had they done to Bastian?

“And what, pray tell, do you want, Mala’Kai?” he asked, pulling her from her thoughts.

Naeve had known all along that Kai wouldn’t have done what he had out of the goodness of his heart. He’d pulled a knife on her and threatened her for God’s sake. But this new information from Audra, the knowledge that he’d hurt her sisters when he’d said he wouldn’t, unnerved her all over again.

“Her,” he said, pointing a finger right at her.
 

Naeve felt her mouth fall open and her eyes widen as she stared in utter disbelief at Kai. Fiona gripped her hand tighter, and Audra started to tremble at her side.

He isn’t serious? Is he?

“Don’t be ridiculous, Kai.” His brother made that comment, and it was the first thing Naeve agreed with him on.

“I assure you, brother, I am not. That is what I want, and since I held up my end of the bargain, I expect to get it.”

“This is not a meat market. You don’t get to just walk in, pick out the juiciest-looking piece, and walk back out.”

Naeve knew she was supposed to speak up and say that she wasn’t going anywhere. But she didn’t even know where she was, so she wasn’t exactly sure
what
she should be protesting. Then it occurred to her that he’d said, “Her,” as in one.

What about my sisters?
 

* * *

Ry’Ker stood by his brother, trying to keep from cramming his fist in his face. He was almost shaking with his rage as he listened to him repeat that preposterous demand.

“Her.”

One of the women? Good luck convincing Li’Am—

“Done.”

What?

“And Bastian,” Mala’Kai added.

“No.”

The answer was final and sure, and it had Ry’Ker’s head snapping back.

“What?” he boomed before he’d realized he was even going to say it.

Apparently, he wasn’t the only one in shock, because the petite blonde who’d just been bargained like a piece of livestock cried out a, “What?” of her own.

Kai held Li’Am’s stare for several seconds but said nothing more. Instead, he strode over to where the three girls were standing.

“You’re coming with me.”

Ry’Ker saw the woman’s eyes widen, true horror filling them as she adamantly shook her head and gripped her sisters as if they could save her.

“No! I’m not going anywhere with you.”

Ry’Ker had no clue what Li’Am was thinking, and as he turned back to his Commander, he saw him watching the exchange between his brother and the woman. He witnessed Kai bend down until he was hovering over the blonde, and she shut her mouth real quick.

That, however, didn’t stop her sister Fiona,
the stubborn one
, from stating, “You can’t take her.”

“Who’s going to stop me?” Kai asked. “You? I believe I showed you out in the forest how ineffective your attempts are.”

Finally, the woman under discussion seemed to find her tongue and asked in a voice that sounded as though she felt betrayed, “Why are you doing this?”

That was when Kai reached out and gripped her arm, tugging her free of her sisters. Ry’Ker was surprised that she went, and he was even more surprised by the way her face softened slightly when his brother ran a finger down her cheek.
 

“I told you once before, little rabbit. I’m a hunter, and I don’t give up my prey—not ever.”

“But I don’t want to go with you,” she protested. But the words were softened by the whisper-like way she delivered them, almost as if she were in a trance as she swayed towards him.

If Ry’Ker hadn’t known better, he would have thought that Kai was working some kind of mind game, something more akin to what Si’Bastian would do. But no, the sensualeer was still out cold on the floor.

“You can make this easy or hard. Either way, you’re coming with me.”

Ry’Ker spun back to Li’Am and got his mouth to finally obey its command and speak. “Commander?”

Li’Am turned his attention to him but offered nothing. He was going to let Kai walk right out of here with her. One of the four women—the women
he’d
been told were needed together and safe.

What the hell is going on?

“Guards!” Li’Am bellowed, and several men marched into the room and stopped behind them. “Escort these two women back to their room and show Mala’Kai and his…guest the exit please. He got what he came for.”

As Kai moved the blonde towards the door, one of Ry’Ker’s men took Fiona’s arm and she let out a shout, “Don’t touch me!” After wrenching it free, she pulled her silent sister close as if she too were being taken away from her.
 

“Naeve! You can’t go with him. What are you doing?” she cried out as her arm was taken again.
 

The blonde didn’t even turn.

“Naeve!”

Ry’Ker was stunned as Fiona continued to call out her sister’s name until the large hall emptied and there was no one remaining except those who’d been there to begin with.

Li’Am, Si’Bastian, and himself.

Naeve followed Kai as he walked her out of the large room and down the long corridor ahead. She could hear Fiona shouting her name behind them, but ever since he’d touched her, it was like she was in a sort of daze and had no will to stop herself from going where he was taking her.
 

As they made their way past several closed doors, she noticed that each one of them had a torch lighting the entryway—but Kai kept walking. His fingers were circling her arm where she’d haphazardly wrapped the blanket he’d given her earlier.
 

When they came to a door at the end of the narrow walkway she finally managed to open her mouth and speak.
 

“Kai?”

He stopped and faced her, and she was shocked by the fierce determination she saw stamped across his serious features.

“What?”

Naeve wasn’t sure what she wanted to ask, but what ended up coming out was, “Why?” She wasn’t sure if she meant,
Why are you doing this, or why me?
Or maybe she meant both.

His dark brows furrowed and he looked baffled as he again ran a finger along her temple. As soon as his fingertip touched her, a heated flush spread over her skin as though it were a fire licking through her veins.
 

“Do you feel that?” His voice was gruff.

Her eyes moved to his, and her thighs clenched in response to his words. Yes, she felt it. That same reaction from earlier in the room upstairs, which only seemed to intensify when they touched.
   

What the hell is happening to me?
 

“I can see that you do. It’s in your eyes.”

She felt inexplicably drawn to him, just as she had seconds earlier when he’d dragged her from the room. He drew his fingers down her cheek to her chin, where he traced the rough pads along her jaw, and took a step forward.
 

Naeve backed up, distrusting her emotions, and felt the wall press into her shoulder blades when she lost her grip on the blanket. It slid down her shoulders and landed at her feet, and when the cool air hit her fevered flesh, she thought it was probably a good thing, especially since she felt as though she were about to burst into flames.

“Maybe it’s been too long,” he mused. “I keep telling myself that… But even so, that doesn’t explain why you are responding to me.”
 

His deep voice was hypnotic as he continued to trail the back of his fingers down her neck, and Naeve felt her body ache in response to the caress. She could only imagine how she must have looked, pinned against the wall, blanket pooled at her feet and eyes glazed over.

She wasn’t naïve. She knew how she looked—aroused.

It had been months since she’d been intimate with someone, and even then, nothing had ever made her feel like
this
.
 

Kai took a step closer, and Naeve heard a metallic jingle—
his weapons
—and sucked in her breath. She wanted to tell him to stop, she was sure, but when his hand flattened against the bare skin above her breasts, her brain short-circuited.

“Does this hurt?”

She blinked several times and wondered why he would ask. How he would know about the dull ache in her chest?

“A little…why?”

“Hmm,” he frowned, and drew his fingers down to flirt with the top of her cleavage. “I’ve done many things I’m not proud of, but I told you I wouldn’t hurt you, and I won’t force you. So unless you’re willing…”

She knew what he was asking, and as she gazed up at the menacing face above her, she felt her entire being yearn for his.
 

This is crazy, isn’t it?
How can I even think it with everything that just happened?