Until those dainty, fragile fingers pushed against his chest. Much harder than he’d expected, which was why he allowed her to create the small amount of space between them. Space he ached to fill with his own body as he pressed her back into the wall and claimed the mouth he wanted to taste again.
“What’s wrong, Veruca? Tell me and I’ll fix it,” he promised, grabbing her hands where she still touched his body. The fingers that had pushed him away mere seconds ago were now stroking the leather over his heart as she stared at him with a confused look on her beautiful, round face.
She blinked at him, as if coming out of a stupor, before shaking her head. Her expression morphed from one of confusion to one of anger in the blink of an eye. “How are you doing that?”
“Doing what?” he asked, perplexed at her resistance to what he knew she could feel. The mental link to his mate was new but strengthening with each beat of his heart. He could literally feel her presence if he searched for it deep in his own being. It was just a flicker right now, but given time, the brightness of their union would be a beacon home whenever he’d need it most.
“Making me—” She stopped talking and skewered him with a look. “Can you please back up?”
Matrix looked down at where her hand was still petting his chest and smirked. “Are you sure you want me to do that?” he asked.
“Yes,” she snapped, pulling back as if his chest had suddenly developed thorns.
“If that will give you ease,” he said, moving back slightly, even as he wanted to cover her.
“Luce,” she called out, her eyes slightly panicked as they stayed locked on him. “I’m gonna go ahead and head out now. K?”
Matrix bit back a smile as he listened to his mate make arrangements to leave him behind.
As if he’d simply let her walk out of this room without him.
“I don’t think—”
“Do not worry, Lucy,” Matrix interrupted, keeping his eyes on Veruca as he spoke to her friend. “I will make sure that Veruca finds her way back to our accommodations without haste. Sparx?”
“Yes?”
“Sorry, brother, but you’re back in charge. Have Colby send word to Gunninng. My second in command needs to be aware of this new development.” He couldn’t stop from smiling when her eyes narrowed further on his. “We may be indisposed for a short time, however, so don’t expect us in the dining hall for dinner—or even breakfast, for that matter.”
When Veruca gasped with indignation, Matrix had to bite his lip to stop a new smile that threatened to escape. The sound did something to his insides, making him want to hear it again. He wanted her riled up because he couldn’t think of anything better than personally calming her down.
Chapter Fourteen
Rue pounded her fists on the muscled back as she was carried over one of the Djaromir’s shoulders. She’d tried pinching, smacking, and pummeling. So far, he’d managed to ignore her. Spitting hair out of her mouth, she let out every bit of her frustration in one long angst-filled screech. The sound filled the tunnel around them, sending out echoing reverberation that reminded her of a bad imitation of a velociraptor.
“Are you almost done?”
Rue clenched her jaw so hard she was amazed her teeth didn’t shatter. She couldn’t believe this was happening. How dare he toss her over his shoulder like a sack of fucking potatoes and cart her away from her friend as if he wasn’t kidnapping her?!
“Still not talking to me?”
She bit her lip to keep from telling him to fuck off. Nothing she’d said so far had done any good except egg him on. She was done. From here on out, she was going with ignoring him completely. No screams, no threats, no smacks.
“Come on, Veruca,” he said, accompanying her name with a pat on the back of her thigh. “I know you have questions.”
“I’m not talking to you,” she huffed, her stomach feeling less and less comfortable the longer she was bent over his shoulder. Instead of the extra cushion around her waist making the position tolerable, Rue felt as if her rolls had turned against her, trying to cut off her breathing.
“Are you sure about that?” he asked, a smile in his voice. He rubbed the back of her thigh again, this time a little longer. “I’m sure you have questions, and as your mate, it is my responsibility to guide you through this.”
Rue made a face at his back.
His stupidly muscled, beautifully tapered back.
“Veruca,” her name came out on a disappointed sigh.
She frowned at his boots as they slowed to a stop. Lifting her head, she saw that they weren’t anywhere close to her assigned apartment near the other volunteers.
“Why did you stop?” she asked, unable to keep her lips zipped.
Before she knew what was happening, he was sliding her off his shoulders and into his arms. Cradled like his bride being carried over the threshold, Matrix held her tightly.
Rue immediately breathed easier in this position, but it also brought her face-to-face with the dude who was driving her crazy. Literally. His too-pretty face was only a couple of inches away. The intimacy put her on edge, as if she were waiting for something. Kind of like when she was opening a can of biscuits and waiting for the pop of the can.
“Is that better?” he asked, transfixing her with his gorgeous blue eyes.
She wasn’t sure why, but every time she gazed into them, she found it harder to look away. The color took her back to her favorite memories as a child when she’d dive into the bright-blue waters at the public pool. The flashback made her smile, the memory a highlight of an otherwise sad childhood.
Her parents hadn’t been physically abusive in any way. They’d always provided her with shelter, food, and access to an education. Those three checkmarks were the easy items her folks had been able to give to her. It was the rest of what came with being a parent that they’d been missing.
Considering they hadn’t been much older than kids themselves when she was born, she cut them some slack.
Rue had been a surprise to her parents, fresh out of high school. The news of her pending arrival had apparently surprised her bio dad enough it sent him running in fright. From neighbors, she learned that the two of them were likely better off. A few years ago, Rue had been told he’d been picked up for boosting cars and was heading to prison for a long stay.
Her mom hadn’t been much better. Rue had simply had the misfortune to be a surprise baby to an eighteen-year-old with no idea—or desire—to take on the role of Mom.
Rue fell into the habit of taking care of herself and others at an early age. She was the one who ran to the store for milk and bread after being handed a wad of bills from her mom. While other seven year olds were using their red wagons to play, Rue was hauling groceries home in hers.
With a mom who worked long hours, she was a latchkey kid. She had a set of grandparents and an aunt who she knew were around from their holiday appearances. Long ago, she’d wanted to know them with some semblance of the normal family life that she saw and envied when it came to her classmates. That daydream quickly fell apart when Aunt Marisol backhanded an eight-year-old Rue across the face for taking the last cold pop from the fridge at Easter dinner. Rue and her mom kept away from her grandparents’ house after that. They didn’t need those people anyway.
When she was ten, her mom married a regular at the diner where she worked. The traveling salesman hadn’t even known about a kid until after he’d proposed. Not that he’d complained about her presence for long. No, her new stepdad quickly saw the lay of the land and found ways to “put her to work.”
By the time she was twelve, she was picking up cigarettes and beer at the Piggly Wiggly along with the other household staples. Most would have thought it unusual, but the manager had seen her shop alone for years and didn’t even bat an eye.
Even as a twelve-year-old she knew her life was sad. At least until Lucy moved into the neighborhood.
“What has made you smile?” he asked, his face only a few
inches from her own.
“Lucy,” she answered automatically, forgetting the planned silent treatment. She knew from past experience that there was nothing a cocky jerk hated more than being ignored.
Not that it mattered now, considering she couldn’t keep herself quiet for nothing.
“Lucy,” he echoed with a nod of his head. “She is like family to you?”
“No,” Rue said immediately with a swift shake of her head. “She’s more than family.”
At least in her case.
“Can you explain that for me?” Matrix asked, a curious expression on his face. He began walking again—this time without her protesting—holding her comfortably in his arms. “I’m not quite sure I grasp the meaning of more than family.”
“Family doesn’t mean shit, sometimes.” Rue heard the bite in her words but was unable to help it.
“Explain.”
Rue looked up at the abrupt order, surprised to hear anger in his voice.
“I’m sorry,” he said, although his expression seemed agitated. “I did not mean to snap at you.”
“What’s got you upset?” she asked, fighting the strange urge she had to somehow soothe him from whatever was obviously bothering him. Without thought, she raised her hand to gently stroke the scar that ran the length of his cheek.
Matrix turned his face into her palm, pinning her with a look she couldn’t quite decipher.
“You,” he answered huskily before dropping a soft kiss on her palm.
It took a hot second for what he’d said to sink in.
“I have you upset?” she screeched, unable to keep the shock—and hurt—contained. “How—what—huh?”
“I’m not upset at you, mate.” Matrix shook his head as if she were crazy. “I’m upset for you.”
“I’m so confused,” she said, wrinkling her brow. Not only was she confused about what he was babbling about, she was also unsure why the idea of him being mad at her had hurt her feelings.
She didn’t care what he thought of her, right?
“Family does mean shit, Veruca.” The sound of his boots echoed in the cave tunnel. “It makes me angry to hear that your family has let you down. I saw the weight you carried the moment you kicked open the door to the command center, and no, I’m not talking about you literally helping Lucy while she’s injured. I’m talking about the weight of responsibility you wield as if it were a shield to keep everyone but Lucy back. You’ve always been the caregiver, haven’t you? You’ve always needed to be.”
Rue opened her mouth and then closed it, speechless at how eerily accurate he was when she’d said very little.
“How—”
“Hush, Veruca,” Matrix whispered, followed by a quick kiss on her stunned mouth. “It is your turn now. I’m here to take care of you.”
Chapter Fifteen
Matrix watched his mate open and close her perfectly pink lips that had tempted him from the moment he’d adjusted her into his arms.
While she’d been raging against him earlier, pounding against his back, he’d taken the time to reflect. Focusing on the bits and pieces of conversations he’d heard or had where someone had talked about Veruca. His brain dissected every piece of information he recalled.
Sparx mentioned Lucy’s best friend a few times, but Colby, Sparx’s second in command, had gone on and on about the woman. He’d found it annoying at the time, but now he treasured the insights it gave him.
Colby had talked so much about her that Matrix felt he already knew her. For a time, he’d thought the younger Djaromir must have found his mate and just not realized it yet. When he’d once suggested as much, Colby had practically laughed in his face, assuring him that he had absolutely no desire to claim the female. Colby cared for her more like a brother to a sister.
This was good fortune for Colby as Matrix would have had no problem in maiming his friend if he looked at her sideways.
Blessed to him by the stars. His sweet obsession.
“What the fuck are you talking about?”
Matrix chuckled at the disgruntled look accompanying her words. He knew she most likely thought the look of disgust she was currently wearing was unappealing, but he would argue the opposite. The fire in her eyes made him ache to make it burn brighter.
“Don’t laugh at me,” she said softly. The flame he’d lit earlier was fizzling under his attention.
“I’m not laughing at you, Veruca. I promise,” he vowed. His heart ached at the thought that he’d inadvertently hurt her feelings. For a female so prickly, his mate was more sensitive than he’d expected her to be. Not that he was complaining at all, considering he would benefit from her passionate nature. “I would never laugh at you. The sound I made was simply one of happiness.”
“You’re happy?” she asked, her brown eyes guarded as she looked up at him through her lashes.
For as much as Matrix felt that he knew her from Colby’s stories, he sensed this vulnerable side was one that she hadn’t shared with others. At least, she hadn’t with Colby or anybody she’d met since arriving. The others had described her as abrasive, tougher than the other females and therefore less appealing. Their descriptions were so far from the mark that it was laughable.
Yes, she was different than the others, but that didn’t make her less attractive. Matrix considered her strength and conviction sexy, not a turn off. He could also see behind the façade. She was strong because she had to be, not necessarily because she wanted to be.
“Of course, I’m happy. Aren’t you?” Matrix slowed as he came to the door he believed was her apartment. “This is it, right?”
Veruca looked around and nodded.
“Can you?” Matrix jerked his chin at the lever that held the door closed. With both of his hands holding his mate, he didn’t want to take the chance of reaching for it himself. He knew he couldn’t drop her; he was just reluctant to disrupt her comfort.
“Oh, yeah.” She reached out and snagged the handle, giving him a strange look.
“What?” he asked, unable to read the expression she was wearing. Their mating link was too new for him to get more than a hint of her emotions. He hoped the link would strengthen sooner rather than later. He could tell he was going to need all the help he could get when it came to his feisty mate.
“I—” She stopped and shook her head. “Why are you happy?”
Matrix moved into the apartment, pleased to see Fyeir had prepared them same as he’d done in Gunninng. The females had been given rooms near the dining halls to supply them with enough heat to be comfortable, which he could feel warming the space nicely. He eyed the couch in the main living area before his attention focused on the door to the bedroom.
Considering she’d been trying to cause him physical harm not even ten minutes ago, he figured getting her to talk to him would be easier done in the living room. Moving to the couch, he sat down with her on his lap.
“How much do you know about mates?” he asked as she adjusted her ass against him.
Veruca’s startled brown eyes shot up at his question, her wiggling stopping as she stared at him.
“Mates?” she rasped, her eyes wide and round.
Matrix frowned at the trickle of panic he felt flow from her through the tenuous link they’d begun to develop. It was weak but there, teasing him in the fringes of his senses.
“Calm, Veruca.” Gently urging her head to rest against his chest, he let out a sigh of relief when she physically relaxed in his arms.
“How—why are you doing this?” she demanded, planting her chin on his chest with a somewhat still mutinous expression. Her nostrils flared as she breathed deep.
“What do you mean?” Matrix shrugged, not knowing what she was asking. “Why am I taking care of you?”
When she nodded sharply, he answered as honestly as he could. “I’m taking care of you because it is what I need to do.”
His words weren’t exactly eloquent, but that was all he had. Luckily, the glare on Veruca’s face sof
tened even as the confusion lingered.
“I don’t know how to explain to you what is happening between us, other than to show you. This link that I know you feel between the two of us will only grow stronger. When you are upset, it upsets me. When you’re sad, I’m sad. Earlier you asked if I was happy, and I said yes. You make me happy. All I want is the same for you.”
His mate eyed him suspiciously.
“How much do you know about mates?” he asked, repeating his earlier question.
Veruca bit her lip, flashing him a glimpse of the tiny gap that separated her two front teeth.
“I didn’t read the pamphlets that they gave us—partially because the pamphlets we were given were more like encyclopedias and I didn’t think any of this crap was real—”
“Sparx mentioned something about that,” he interrupted with a frown, trying to recall exactly what his friend had said.
“Yeahhhhh.” Veruca let out a long sigh, giving him a look of apology. “To be fair, it made more sense to believe that you guys were drugging women versus buying into all that crap we were told about mating. I mean, c’mon on. Two people that can’t stand being separated because they crave each other? Pfft. This isn’t a fairytale, Warlord Matrix of Gunninng.” Veruca rolled her eyes. “It sounded like a bunch of hooey the moment I heard it—and that’s me being nice.”
“How do you explain Lucy, then?” he asked, trying to understand her reluctance to accept the reality of her new life.
“Ughhh.” Veruca groaned and rubbed her forehead. “I know, I know. I just—I’m still getting used to all of this.” She waved her hand around the room. “I know it’s real now, but I’m still trying to get my bearings. This just seems so crazy to me. Don’t get me wrong, I trust Lucy, so if she says that it’s real then it’s real. I just saw how she reacted when the clock ran out and she needed Sparx. She wasn’t making that shit up. You couldn’t pry them apart with a crowbar if you wanted to, and, honestly, she’d probably fight you if you tried. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her happier than I have this last week, and if this whole mating business is the reason, then I guess I’ll have to deal with it.”
Miners of Djaromir: Matrix Page 8