The Challenge (36 page)

She ignored him, leaned down and kissed his mouth. “I’ll be back soon.”

He blinked twice. Then twice again.

Maybe he knew something she didn’t. Maybe he wasn’t just being over protective, but when she heard a long, low scream of agony, she didn’t hesitate. The Endekians must have taken the boy, pegging him as the weakest of the group, the one who would talk.

Tessa tried not to think about what they were doing to him, but she couldn’t shut out poor Xander’s screams.

He should tell them what they wanted to know. It wouldn’t matter because she fully intended to kill the bastards before they could make use of any information they extracted.

Swallowing the bitter taste in her mouth, she avoided the men around the fire. With no idea when the guards would be relieved, she had to work quickly. She didn’t trust the Endekian weapons but kept one tucked into her pack. With her knife in one hand, the alien weapon in the other, she waited for the perimeter guards to approach. Just as she attacked, killing one man with a bone crushing jolt to his nose, shoving the bones into his brain, the second Endekian stumbled. Tessa missed his neck and caught his shoulder instead. He let out a short snarl of pain and rage.

Her spinning back kick caught his throat, and then she finished him with the weapon. His short scream had seemed loud enough to her that the others should have heard, but the two Endekians still around the camp fire seemed oblivious to the noise. Or maybe they just couldn’t hear above poor Xander’s scream.

Hold on. I’m coming
.

At Xander’s next shriek, Tessa strode into the tent bold as any warrior.

“Keep the noise down, boys.”

Startled by her appearance, the two Endekians turned away from poor Xander who stood strapped into some contraption. With their attention on Tessa, she fired from the hip then dived to one side, hiding behind a barrel. Her target thudded to the floor, but the other didn’t blindly charge. He took cover behind Xander and held a blade to the kid’s throat.

“Come out legs first on your belly with your hands behind your head or I slice his head from his shoulders.”

“Don’t—” Xander’s voice rose to another yelp as electricity surged through him.

“Okay. Okay. But the floor is no—”

“Do it.”

Tessa tossed the weapon aside.

“Now the knife.”

This alien was no dummy. And he was oh-so sure that he could handle the situation himself because he didn’t bother to call the others for help. No doubt he figured a disarmed female was a helpless female, but he would learn differently.

“Turn over on your back.”

Tessa did as he asked, preferring this position where she could look him in the eye.

“Spread your legs and make your suit transparent,” the Endekian ordered.

“Xander,” Tessa spoke softly. “Please close your eyes.”

The kid complied, and Tessa did as the Endekian asked, praying that he would come closer for a good look. He took one step, then another. Tessa twisted, kicked her boot into his wrist, knocking the gun from his hand.

“
Krek!
” He dived to pin her.

She rolled, changed her suit to black and struck his head with a backfist, stunning him. He used null-grav to regain his feet. She used muscles and was slower. He jabbed with a left hook, she blocked with her shields, counter punched his groin. Then she kicked out his knee. He fell with a short scream. She dived for the weapon she’d dropped and finished him off with one shot.

“Xander, can you walk?” She hurried to the kid, released his feet then his hands out of the metal contraption.

“Yeah.” He staggered against her, gasped in pain at residual nerve damage. “I didn’t tell them anything.”

“Good job.” She thrust a weapon into his hand. “You know how to use this?”

“Yeah.”

“All right. There’re several Endekians left. Two by the fire. One unaccounted for. If anyone besides me comes back here. Shoot them.”

“Wait? Where are you going?”

She sensed command in his tone, as if he had the right to demand answers from her. “I’ve killed seven Endekians—that leaves three more.”

“But—”

She didn’t have time to argue and stepped out of the tent. Two men remained at the fire. She had no idea where the last man had gone. With no mercy, she strafed the camp, caught one Endekian in the chest, another on the next pass.

Too late, she heard a whooshing snarl behind her. Spinning, diving, she rolled, knowing she would take a hit, hoping it wouldn’t be fatal. A shot fired. Not the Endekian’s. Not hers. But the Endekian screamed a death growl before flopping lifeless to the ground.

Tessa peered up to see Xander limping toward her, the confiscated stunner in his hand. “Thanks.”

Xander couldn’t take his gaze from the Endekian. His face was white, his tawny skin tinged with green. He kneeled in the snow, and Tessa held his hair back as he vomited. “Your first kill?”

Xander nodded and wiped his mouth clean with snow. “I don’t regret it, but—”

“Taking a life should never be easy. Now, tell me what happened. Are more Endekians likely to come here to check on the others?”

Kahn noted that she didn’t mention who had killed the others, but he knew. She had reacted like a warrior, and while he could imagine how much trouble his friends would have dealing with her escapade, they all owed their lives to her. Stars, he hoped they realized how lucky they were.

However, as a leader, he well knew that for a Rystani man to owe his life to a woman would rub like an ill-fitting saddle. The backlash might be ugly. And while he wouldn’t condone her action since she’d put her own life in jeopardy, he would defend her to the fullest extent of his authority. She was brave, courageous, and he was lucky to be married to her.

She leaned over Xander’s father. “You should be proud to know that your son never talked.” Then Tessa looked to Xander. “I would like to have a private discussion with my husband. Could you please bring him to another tent for me?”

Kahn had no objections. In fact he was delighted that Tessa didn’t intend to say more in front of his men. With his people so close to starvation, tensions and tempers were high. The less said about her encounter with the Endekians, the better.

Xander used null-grav and left Tessa alone with Kahn in an empty structure. “I’ll tend the others,” he told them before departing.

When Tessa next came within view, she’d changed her black suit to a sexy dress that lifted her breasts and revealed her long lean legs from her toes to just an inch below where her legs parted. And she had a look in her eyes that Kahn had seen before, a mischievous, playful look.

Kneeling beside him, she leaned over and kissed his mouth. He couldn’t respond, but he could appreciate her soft skin, her tender caress, her delicate scent. “You know, husband, it occurred to me that there’s no reason not to use this time together to our best advantage.”

She leaned over him so far her breasts almost tipped out of the top of her suit. Her eyes bright with mirth, she peered straight into his with a brazen heat that made his mouth go dry.

“And now, husband dear, you will find out what it is like to be on the other end of your Rystani customs.” She placed her hand on his
tavis
so there could be no mistaking her meaning. Her psi infiltrated his marriage band, penetrated his shield as she took her wifely privilege. And since he couldn’t so much as flex one muscle, she had him at her mercy.

He stared at her in shock. Now he understood why she’d demanded privacy. He wished he’d paid more attention to how far away Xander had moved him from the others. While he could not yet utter a sound, his voice would return long before control of major muscle groups.

His
tavis
already stretched tight. She laughed a low, musical laugh that told him her threat was not idle. And if his arousal could have been measured by heat, it would have been an inferno. If his
tavis
had been a warrior, it couldn’t have stood up any straighter at attention.

She peered into his eyes and licked her bottom lip. “Ah Kahn, did you know when your eyes dilate and the amber yields to blackness, it makes me very glad I’m female. Glad that I am your wife.”

At her admission that she actually didn’t mind that he’d forced her to wed him, a barrier around his heart dissolved. And he realized how much it mattered to him how she felt. Gladdened that she would say such a thing, he was determined to enjoy this encounter.

As she spoke, she pushed with her psi, drawing every drop of his blood to his straining
tavis.
When he moaned softly at the heat coursing through him, at his heart pounding his chest with need as bright and pure as the stars, his roaring ears barely caught the sound.

However, his vocal chords were slowly returning to normal. Not fast enough. A man could only take so much pleasure. But spilling his seed outside the body of a woman was against custom.

Is that what she wanted? He groaned, determined to hold back. To take what she offered and give her no more power over him. But he failed. She did have power over him. Closing his eyes, he fought down the weakness of being unable to resist her.

About to explode, he gave up the fight. Gave in to the pleasure. Waited with bated breath for the ultimate release—but it never came.

Pressure at the base of his
tavis
saved him or tortured him, stopped him from spilling his seed. Pressure his wife had applied by pressing her fingers down hard kept him right where she wanted him.

By the stars! She would do to him what he had done to her, and he could not stop her.

Sweat broke out on his brow, his lip, his scalp. No man should have to bear so much.

She winked at him. “Ah, if only I could read your mind. I suspect you don’t like this role reversal.”

He found his voice. “The experience is . . . interesting, but not one I would partake in by choice.”

“I don’t remember you giving me a choice.”

Through her psi she sensed his passion had ebbed enough for her to release her pressure hold.