He touched a hand to his chest innocently.
“What am I doing here? You should be thankful I arrived in time to save you from two bottom-feeding corwors. It just so happened that I felt guilty for abandoning you when you need my help, even if you did demand that I leave. I came in and caught these two before they murdered you. Surely that warrants a bit of thanks?” He said the last with a dignified wrinkle of his nose and olfactory ridges.
Cara immediately felt guilty. That was pretty thankless of her. And he obviously risked his life to draw them off of her.
“I’m sorry, Lerix. You’re right. Thank you. You’re lucky that they missed and got each other instead. What they did to each other looks terrible. You’re lucky that the worst thing you suffered was getting dirty.”
He looked down at the mess as if seeing it for the first time, his eyes widening even further as if in shock.
“That was very close,” he said weakly. “Do you suppose I can borrow the cleansing unit—after I dispose of this mess, of course.”
Wait, what? That didn’t sound right. Of course, it was a different planet with different customs and procedures, so what did she know?
“Dispose of it? Should we be calling the front desk and the authorities?” she asked just to be certain.
He smiled down at her indulgently. “No, the hotel will thank you for not bothering them with this and the city guard as well. Offworlders attempting to murder tourists isn’t something Resort Efkalad or Sashalat will want advertised.”
“Oh, I suppose that makes sense.” Not really, but she didn’t argue. He was the local.
Lerix nodded, his smiled widening at her agreement as he palmed the panel that made the glass door of her balcony slide open at the other side of the room. His muscles bunched as he picked up the first of the large bodies, carried it onto the balcony, hoisted it up, and pushed it over the side. He then picked up the other body and repeated the process.
“Won’t dead bodies outside of the resort alert someone?”
“No. Come out onto the balcony and take a look.”
Cara scooted off the bed and walked outside. Looking down, she saw nothing but dark water. The back of the resort overlooked what appeared to be deep water.
“That scenic view you are enjoying is one that Efkalad boasts widely in all their advertisements. That is the Moforloray Trench, a wonder of Kaidava. It is the only trench known to naturally occur so close to land. Our ‘friends’ just fed some of the giant sea lifeforms that call that place home.”
“Now for the blood in the room,” he murmured. “Please stand by the door and cover your eyes. The light radiating from this device is going to be bright.”
Cara moved to the door and covered her eyes. “What dev—” A light flashed so bright she could still see it through her palm.
“All done,” Lerix said cheerfully.
She blinked and looked around. Every bit of blood, and even the stray hairs on her pillow, had disappeared.
“That,” he said with a smug look, “is what is called a Durini Device. Named after the mated pair who developed it, it removes all organic matter within its blast radius. Unfortunately, when you use it you have to check and make there is nothing made of natural fibers that you want to keep within that same radius, because it will destroy that too. Went through a few fine Morith rugs before I figured that one out.”
Cara crossed her arms. “Do you often have to clean up bloody messes?”
“Vonri, I am a bodyguard. Sometimes you have to punch someone, and it can invariably lead to a bloody nose or two. Sometimes I had to protect my employer. It was my duty to clean up messes after my employer left. You would be surprised what sort of market there is for things like that.”
“You sure looked super freaked out over these guys you threw out the window only moments ago,” she said suspiciously.
“Uh, yeah. Of course. There is a difference between breaking someone’s nose, arm, or a leg, and that,” he shuddered.
“Uh huh.”
“What’s done is done. Time for that cleansing unit,” he said cheerfully as he walked into the adjoining bathroom.
Cara stayed on the balcony for several minutes, staring down into the water before looking slowly around the room. Well, if nothing else, Lerix certainly was handy to have around. She closed the balcony door and crawled back into bed with a yawn. She needed to stay awake and discuss sleeping arrangements now that he decided to rejoin her. Until he got out of the cleansing unit she would just lay on the bed for moment and they could talk when he returned. Cara yawned as exhaustion stole over her. Despite her best intentions, she drifted off as soon as she curled back up in the soft synthetic fibers of her bedding.
***
Having thrown his soiled clothing into the sanitary unit beside the door to clean them, Lerix breathed a sigh of relief as he scrubbed the blood off his scales. The sharp scent still lingered despite how much soap he used but experience told him that the scent would fade and be undetectable by the time they left the room in the morning. He supposed he owed the gods for this one, and it would be proper to go to the high mountain temple and make offerings.
It had been a long time since he’d felt any interest in acknowledging the gods at all, not after his mother left. He couldn’t stomach giving offerings to Vorakahee, the queen of the gods and lady of love whom all Kadesh honor along with her numerous children and her consort Aforamaro, the lord of good fortune and plenty.
What he hadn’t told Cara was that the Durini Device needed not only a large enough space to safely deploy it, which had hindered him from using it on the train, but it was also nigh useless for cleaning up dead bodies due to the stench that never dissipated from the space from the pulverized flesh. That her room was large and overlooked an ocean trench had been a blessing.
Even the fact that she believed his excuses made him inclined to think that Aforamaro himself gilded his tongue with convincing words. For now, anyway. Aforamaro was known to be fickle with such a gift, and lying to one’s mate—a gift from Vorakahee—was an insult to the gods. He would eventually have to be truthful, but that was something to worry about at a more suitable moment.
She wasn’t aware that he was beginning to mate-bond with her, nor had she accepted being mated to him, so while he was on thin ice, he technically wasn’t keeping secrets from his mate.
Concerned that Cara was lying awake with worry in the next room, Lerix didn’t linger in the cleansing unit any longer than necessary. As soon as he felt he was reasonably clean, he turned on the drying cycle and stepped out to pull on his clean clothes. As he stepped back into the room, he realized that he’d had nothing to be concerned about. Cara was sleeping soundly.
He stood at the side of the bed, looking down at her, his hands on his hips and his lips twitching. His tail dragged across the side of the bed with longing. He hesitated, uncertain what to do. He considered pulling a blanket onto the floor, but he was aching and exhausted. Besides, he was fully clothed, and it was not like they hadn’t slept side by side as they traveled by train.
He flicked his tail briefly with indecision but then climbed over his female and under the blanket beside her, curling his body around hers. The scales on his back as it faced the doorway instinctively bristled as he buried his nose into her hair. Quicker than he’d experienced in years, he drifted off into untroubled sleep, his tail wrapping around Cara’s hip.
***
Cara woke comfortable and warm, her cheek pillowed against a silky soft chest that rose and fell with steady breaths, and she could hear the thump of a heart under her ear.
Cara frowned in her half-asleep state. She didn’t remember going to bed with anyone. This chest certainly wasn’t familiar. Cara pried her eyes open and found herself looking at Lerix’s dark red scales. Who knew they would be so soft to the touch? She had thought that his scales would have a rough texture, but instead it was the opposite.
She trailed a finger over a few scales close to her face an
d felt pressure around her hip. Curious, she allowed her hand to drift down to her hip and her fingers wrapped around a thick appendage looped snugly around her. She couldn’t even close her fingers completely around its girth yet knew by touch that it had to be his tail.
A low growl rumbled beneath her ear and the tail squeezed again, the tip of it sliding against her ass.
“Keep playing with my tail and things are about to get really interesting,” Lerix’s low voice rumbled.
Cara snatched her hand back as if it had been burned. How mortifying. She quickly pushed his tail off her, trying to ignore the way the tip accidentally dipped between her legs when it slid off.
“Sorry,” she mumbled as she scooted off the bed.
“Oh, I wasn’t complaining,” he chuckled. “I just thought a fair warning was reasonable.”
“Right.” For a guy who claimed to not have any kind of libido for the last several years, he certainly didn’t seem to have any problem making sexual overtures toward her. She wasn’t sure if it was just to throw her off, if he was messing with her, or if he was genuinely unaware of what he was doing. Some guys were like that, hopeless flirts without even trying.
Deciding that a shower would wake her up, Cara went into the cleansing unit. She stripped and set her clothes aside to put back on. She then stepped into the cleansing unit and allowed herself to soak beneath the shower jets.
The soap spurted on her and as she lathered it against her skin, she imagined Lerix’s hands as her own. That it was his hands rubbing against her skin, sliding down her abdomen and over the flare of her hips. Arousal spiked through her and a dull ache began between her legs.
Gods, this was insane.
“Cara,” Lerix called through the door. She thought his voice sounded a bit strained, but it could have been her imagination. “What are you doing?”
Her breath hitched. There was no way in hell she was telling him what she was doing.
“Washing!” she yelled loudly over the sound of the jets from the showerheads.
“Why do I smell your arousal?” he growled.
Cara groaned in embarrassment, but shouted out the first thing that came to mind.
“Weren’t you the one who said I needed to be aroused to catch Ben’s attention?”
Silence greeted her from the other side of the door, suddenly there was a hard thump before she heard him pace away. What was all that about?
She sped through the rest of her shower, somewhat regretful to cut it short, and emerged minutes later in her room, clean and dressed.
Lerix sat on her bed eating from small platters filled with an assortment of breakfast meats that looked similar to sausages, bacon, and bits of other flavorful meats shredded on the plate, fruit, and what looked like sweetbreads.
“I ordered our morning meal,” he said as if the whole thing at the bathroom door never happened.
She worried her lip. “Lerix, I wish you would have asked first—I don’t know if I can cover this.”
“I paid. Sit and eat.”
Cara sat down slowly. “Why would you do that? What’s in it for you?”
He looked at her incredulously, and somewhat insulted if she didn’t miss the mark.
“I was hungry and knew you were hungry. I also figured that your funds must be running low, especially after reserving this room.”
She winced. “Trust me, this was not an expense I had been anticipating, but I couldn’t think of anything else to do.”
“Ah, yes. Because your dear Ben is here. Well, do not worry yourself. Since you have been keeping your end of our bargain and have been footing the cost up until this point, I will take care of anything remaining until you are reunited with your love.” The last part he said with a curl of his lip, but didn’t otherwise share any of the disparaging thoughts he obviously held.
Cara couldn’t blame him. She knew she was making herself look like a fool. Chasing after a man who not only left her for another female, but who had supposedly been with other women well before his trip.
She needed to confront Ben and ask him the truth of things before she even considered if she even wanted him back. All evidence pointed to Ben being a habitual cheater, and that pissed her off. On the other hand, she certainly didn’t want to get stuck alone on Kaidava. She wondered if she had any hope of getting some money from Ben to pay her way back home if she left him.
“This does not look like the look of a joyful female about to be reunited with her male,” he said flatly.
Cara shook her head and gave him a quick smile.
“Probably because I am none of those things,” she said as she sat down beside him and inhaled the fragrance of their food with pleasure. “This smells wonderful. Thank you.”
His yellow eyes gleamed at her with an intense focus, but he inclined his head in acceptance of her thanks.
***
Lerix wanted to groan, his cock stiff beneath the folds of his tunic and loose pants. He only hoped that she didn’t look too closely at him. There was little he could do to disguise his reaction.
She thought their morning meal smelled wonderful? She had no idea. Sitting next to her, her perfumes were potent. He could barely detect the other male’s essence on her anymore. The rich scent of her arousal still wafted up from her body. He had to assume that it had been some time since last she lay with her intended mate for his scent to begin to so retreat so soon.
It was like that with pheromones. They clung to a being like an impenetrable cloud, but if not renewed the disappeared quickly in the final days.
Now all he could really smell was the scent of her feminine flower. He could dine on her body for hours and hunger for nothing more. His mouth salivated at the very idea of drinking in her hot nectar. He shuddered.
“Try the pale pink fruit there,” he croaked. “You will find its flavor unlike any other. It must have just come into season.”
He swallowed back another groan when she sucked the fruit into her mouth and moaned with pleasure.
He wasn’t going to survive this mating business. Cara was killing him. Bit by sensual bit.
Chapter 13
Once again standing in the opulent lobby, Cara checked out as Lerix stood a few paces behind her keeping watch for Ben, likely the only human man with a Kadesh female in the resort if Viri was right about human men being rare on Kaidava.
A different Kadesh female was working the desk today but had the same level of politely-veiled hostility. Still, she politely clipped out, “I hope you enjoyed your stay at Efkalad.” Cara agreed that she had but was relieved when she rejoined Lerix by the door.
“Anything?” she whispered.
“No. I checked the comm system. They are still checked in but are not answering the room comm, nor have they come down into the lobby—wait, there they are,” he said, his posture going from relaxed to alert.
Cara looked over to catch sight of Ben and his new love as they sauntered around the corner into the restaurant. Shit!
Her mouth dropped open and anger burned in her gut as she witnessed Ben flirt and playfully touch the delicate rose-colored female. It was barely a glance, but she felt an undeniable compulsion, motivated by undeniable anger and no-little hurt, to see more of the female and the betraying asshat she called her fiancé.
***
Lerix narrowed his eyes at the human male as he came off the elevator. The male was as Cara described him. A few heads shorter than himself with sun-bronzed skin and what Lerix assumed was a fashionable and elegant cut to his blond hair. His arm was wrapped loosely around the waist of a Kadesh female, whose tail squeezed around his hips tight enough to almost look like a warning. Lerix felt his brows raise.
Interesting.
He watched them walk casually into the restaurant and turned his head back toward Cara to instruct her on a plan forming in his mind. The space she’d been inhabiting moments ago was empty. His head snapped around looking for his female.
Where, in the name of the gods, did she
wander off to? He was going to spank that female when he got his hands on her.
***
Cara stepped behind a large potted plant just outside the entrance to the kitchen as she watched Ben sit with the Kadesh female. As soon as they sat, her tail wound around his leg, climbing higher as Ben chuckled and allowed his own hand to wander up her inner thigh into the very short skirt she was wearing. Cara felt her mouth drop open at the sight. Were they actually going to fondle each other right there out in the open?
Ben never liked public displays of affection—at all. He always brushed off her attempts in the past. He wouldn’t even hold her hand. The female giggled and playfully swatted his hand just before he leaned in and stole a kiss. As Cara watched, anger began to burn in her gut. He asked her to marry him and never once did anything like that! She’d been a fool when she trusted his explanation that he was intensely private and preferred to keep touches just between them. She’d squashed her own needs and settled for what he offered her in private.
Tears of anger and embarrassment clouded her vision as she stumbled backward, sending her directly into the hapless server stepping behind her at that same moment. They collided with a crash of empty dishes.
“Sorry, sorry,” she whispered to the glaring server as he picked up the dishes.
Cara peeked around the plant and saw Ben frowning in her direction before ducking back out of sight. She definitely didn’t want to be caught spying on them. She decided to get out of there before the restaurant manager kicked her out for the mess she’d caused.
To her increasing mortification, in her haste to leave, she bumped into another server, this one flambeeing a meal for the customers sitting at the nearest table. Cara swallowed back a squeak of alarm when he nearly toppled into the fire. He backed into a female carrying a stack of plates, sending everything flying. Like dominos, all the servers behind her trying to leave the kitchen fell with a great ruckus. Cara winced.
“Sorry,” she called out softly. Scrambling, she darted toward the door before she ended up maiming another server. Or before management got ahold of her.
A Kiss on Kaidava Page 9