The Dracons' Woman (25 page)

Trey smiled and kissed her on the nose.  “Why would we let you walk when we can cuddle you in our arms instead?” he asked as he slid her into the gigantic bed.  Lariah was too sleepy to answer, so she just shrugged a little as she felt Garen slip into the bed next to her, then roll her gently to her side before maneuvering her body on top of his.  She rested her cheek against his chest, yawning once more as she felt Trey and Val climb into the bed on either side of her.  As soon as she felt all three of her men close to her, each of them touching her, something deep inside of her that had been tight and tense since her mother’s death years before relaxed.  Lariah sighed and fell into the deepest, most peaceful sleep she had ever known. 

Neither Garen, Val nor Trey wanted to leave the bed.  This was the first night the four of them would sleep together and they wanted to treasure each moment of it.  But they also had a duty to protect the woman they all loved.  After awhile, Trey slipped out of bed and left the room.  He was back a couple of minutes later, his eyes glittering with barely suppressed excitement.  The three of them gently pulsed a tiny thread of magic into Lariah to ensure her rest was not disturbed during their absence, then they all left the room. 

Garen saw Tiny lying outside the bedroom door with a mournful expression on his face, and he stopped to pat the dog on the head.  He stood up and gestured, smiling as the huge dog leapt to his feet, tail wagging happily as he hurried into the bedroom.  Garen watched as Tiny looked over the edge of the bed, and then, satisfied that Lariah was there and safely asleep, he curled up near the door, laid his head on his paws with a sigh and went instantly to sleep.

Garen felt a sense of added security knowing that Tiny would always look after Lariah, especially when they could not see her themselves.  Even as weak as the animal was, he would be a formidable opponent should anyone threaten her.  Garen looked forward to the time when Tiny regained his full health, both for the dog’s sake, and for Lariah’s.  Satisfied that Lariah would not awaken, and that should anyone threaten her Tiny would warn them, he hurried to the study where Trey and Val were waiting for him.

By the time Garen entered the study, Trey and Val had the vid message ready to play.  Garen sat down and Trey started it.

The face of a middle-aged human male came on the screen.  The man was bald, his head shiny in the dim lighting behind him.  He had deep worry lines around his eyes and mouth.  After a brief, formal address and introduction of himself, he said, “First, I wish to apologize for the short delay in responding to your message.  Our enemies employ many sophisticated ruses, and our message authentication routines take a little time to run.  As you know, the Xanti are particularly good at faking vid messages.  Now that I am sure that you are who you say you are, and as Jasan is a party to the Intersystem Convention on Law Enforcement and Counter-Intelligence, and once I notify you that everything I say to you is to be considered a State Secret under Article 45 of that treaty, I can speak openly with you. 

“Second, please accept my thanks for the information that Lariah Daniels is well.  I had verified that her shuttle reached Jasan several days ago, and I was able to tell that she had not accessed the account I set up for her.  Therefore, I had no way of knowing if she’d established herself on your world, which caused me some personal concern.”  The Director paused here, and his eyes took on a haunted expression.  “What was done to that young lady was…” he paused, swallowed hard, “horrific, all the more so as she is part of our agency ‘family.’”  He paused again, cleared his throat.  “She deserves peace and safety and happiness.  I hope you give her that.”

The man lowered his eyes for a moment and clenched his jaw.  There was no doubt that the emotion on his face and in his eyes was real.

“I have double encrypted this message with a source code as the decrypt key so that only the viewer who sent the original message can see this.  We are currently running an operation to trap Loggia.  In fact, by the time you receive this message, I hope to have information on the final outcome.  I will send another message when I receive the next update on its status.  I’m sorry, but I just can’t disclose further operational details at this time.  I know I have at least one mole inside my organization.  Maybe more.”  He smiled grimly, “By the time I next update you, I expect to have them identified.  And dealt with.

“Again, thank you for the contact.  Please be patient.  I will get back to you as soon as I have more definitive information.”

The screen went blank, and Trey turned it off.  They sat in silence for a little while, each lost in his own thoughts.  Finally Garen stood up.  “The message will get here when it gets here.  For now I want to be in bed with Lariah.”

Trey and Val smiled in agreement and followed Garen out of the study, Trey flipping the light off behind them.

Chapter 11

Lariah awoke alone in the gigantic bed, the bright morning sunshine streaming through the open windows.  She sat up, smiling as she stretched luxuriously, pleased to note that, like the guest room, this room had a door that led out to the patio and garden.  She hadn’t noticed that the night before.  She blushed at the sudden rush of memories.  Tiny thumped his tail on the floor and nudged the door leading out to the garden with his nose.  Lariah laughed.

“Can’t wait to get out into that fresh air, can you?” she asked as she slid off the bed.  She spotted a soft green bathrobe lying across the foot of the bed and slipped it on, smiling at the thoughtful gesture as she crossed the room to open the door for Tiny.  She felt a mild buzzing sensation in her head that she was quickly becoming familiar with, and laughed again, a little ruefully this time. 

“Sorry boy,” she said as she opened the door for the large dog.  “Just don’t do it in the garden,” she told him as he rushed out the door and headed for the low garden wall.  She watched as he leapt easily over the  barrier, and rushed up the low hill behind the house toward a grove of trees that he had selected as his
private facility
area.

“Good morning, my heart,” Val said as he stepped out onto the patio from the living room, a large cup of steaming coffee in his hand.  He set the cup down on a table and wrapped his arms around Lariah, kissing her deeply.  When he was finished, Lariah’s knees felt a little weak.

“Good morning,” she replied when she got her breath back.  Val grinned at her and she swiped playfully at him. “I think it’s going to be a beautiful day today.”

Val grinned.  “Well, that’s good since we thought you would like to have your first riding lesson this morning.”

“Oh, that’s wonderful news!” Lariah exclaimed.  “I can hardly wait!  I’ll go get ready.  When are we going?”

“Right after you eat breakfast,” Val replied.

“Oh, I’m not hungry,” Lariah said.  “I’ll get dressed right now and then we can go.”

“No, little love,” Trey said from the bedroom doorway.  “If you don’t eat breakfast, we don’t take you riding.”  Lariah frowned as she turned and stepped back into the bedroom, watching Trey as he approached her with a large mug of coffee.  He handed her the mug, taking the opportunity to kiss her good morning.  When he stepped back she looked up to see Garen standing in the doorway with a grin on his face.  Lariah opened her mouth, but he shook his head before she uttered a sound.

“You know very well that you need to start eating better,” he said as he crossed the room to her, bending down to take his turn at kissing her good morning.

“How are you this morning,
sharali
?” he asked.  “Are you sore anywhere?”

Lariah shook her head and blushed.  “I’m fine,” she replied.  Garen gazed at her intently for a long moment and she dropped her eyes.  “Okay, maybe a tiny bit sore, but honestly, I’m fine.”

Garen continued to stare at her for another moment before nodding.  “Very well,” he said finally.  “We will take you riding, but then you must spend some time in a hot bath.  Do we have an agreement?”

“Yes,” she agreed at once, grinning happily.

“I’m afraid we have not yet had a chance to move your belongings, little love,” Trey said.  “You’ll need to go to the guest room to retrieve your clothing.”

“Okay, I’ll go get dressed and meet you guys in the kitchen,” she said. 

Carrying the precious mug of coffee carefully so that she didn’t spill any, she decided to take a short cut and stepped back out onto the patio and crossed over to the guest room door.  She hurried inside, leaving the door open for Tiny when he returned. 

She opened drawers and slammed them shut, hastily grabbing jeans, shirts and other apparel that the guys had insisted she needed to wear for riding.  Several minutes later she emerged from the bathroom ready for her first experience riding a horse.  She wore soft, pale blue jeans, a blue shirt and brown pointy toed boots.  Her hair was braided down her back and she was carrying a pair of brown riding gloves and a brown hat.  She felt a little silly, almost as though she were wearing a costume.  While the boots and jeans and hats worked well for the guys, she wasn’t used to seeing herself dressed this way. 

“Oh well,” she thought, “If this is what I have to wear to ride a horse, then I’m not going to complain.  I’d wear worse if I had to.” 

Horseback riding was far more fun in real life than she had thought it would be, and she had thought it would be very fun.  She loved the little mare that Val had picked out for her to ride.  A pretty buckskin with a dark chocolate mane and tail, big brown eyes and dainty feet.  Garen, Val and Trey all rode huge, black energetic stallions with fiery eyes and flaring nostrils.  The guys kept her boxed between them as they rode, holding her mare to a slow, sedate walk. Since she had never ridden a horse she didn’t mind that. It was the big stallions that made her nervous.  As the guys explained how to sit correctly, how to control the horse’s speed and direction with the reins and her knees, their horses kept inching closer and closer to her until their riders pulled them back.   At first she thought the horses were trying to get close to her so they could bite her.  Then she caught an odd buzzing sound, paused for a moment and focused.  Suddenly she burst out laughing.

“What is it?” Trey asked. 

“I thought those big horses of yours were trying to bite me, the way they keep trying to get close to me.  But in fact, they are just trying to get close to this pretty little mare.  They are all trying to get her attention, and she is playing hard-to-get.” 

Garen laughed.  “Well, can you blame them?  Any time there is a new lady in town, the men always compete for attention.”

“New lady in town?” Lariah asked.  “You mean, this is a new horse?”

“Yes, we bought her especially for you,” Val said, grinning.  “Do you like her?”

Lariah was overwhelmed.  She wanted to tell them they shouldn’t have spent so much on her, that they didn’t have to buy her things, that they didn’t need to do so much for her all the time, but she knew that wasn’t what they wanted to hear.  They had done it to make her happy. 

“I love her,” she said, smiling.  “She’s perfect.  Thank you all, so much.” 

The guys all looked pleased, and she knew she had said the right thing.  “What is her name?” she asked.

“Nahia,” Val replied.  “However, she is yours now, so if you wish to change her name, that is your choice.”

“What does
nahia
mean?” Lariah asked.

Val smiled.  “It means ‘desire’,” he said.

“I think Nahia is a good name,” she said, blushing.

When they returned to the stable Lariah was pleased with herself, but tired.  She wanted them to teach her how to take the saddle off of the mare and care for her, but they refused.  They turned the horses over to some men in the stables, and promised to teach her more another day. 

By the time they got back to the house Lariah was very sleepy.  She had slept well the night before, but horseback riding was more exercise than she had thought it would be.  After a quick lunch she excused herself and went back to the guest room where all of her things still were.  She grabbed a quick shower and climbed into bed, wishing for a moment that she had the energy to walk across the house to the bed she had shared with her men.  Before the thought was complete, she was asleep.

Frith Yanger was not a happy man.  He had not been happy his entire adult life, but that was not the point.  The point was he was not a happy man now and it was all the fault of that uppity red-haired bitch the Dracon brothers were panting after.  Because of her, he had lost  his home and his easy income, been banished from the planet with little more than the clothes on his back and what he could cram in a carry bag, and the piddly amount of cash he’d been able to strong arm out of his stupid sister’s idiot husband.  All because some nosey little bitch decided she didn’t like the way he handled his own property.  Who was she to interfere with his business anyway?  If those damned Dracon brothers hadn’t been there, he would have taught her a lesson or two along with that useless damn dog on the subject of crossing Frith Yanger.

But they had been there, and those cocky blue-haired assholes that worked for them had come and made sure he followed their damned decree before he had a chance to figure a way out of it.  The only good part of the deal was that he had a free ticket to wherever he wanted to go.  Problem was, he didn’t really want to go anywhere else.  He’d already spent one whole day trying to make up his mind, and he was no closer to a decision now than he’d been from the start.