Bearing Armen - Book Three

by Brenna Lyons

  She didn’t actually remember agreeing to allow him to seal printing. Alyssa imagined that it happened in the heat of the moment. Her only clear memories of the event came down to Tom’s pleading with her to save his sanity and his—bliss, relief, gratitude?—at the moment it was done.

  Though it had been a frightening concept that the only way out of their union would be killing Tom, it hadn’t been an awful place to be. He’d still been loving, attentive, committed to keeping her mired in pleasure...until she got pregnant.

  At that point, Tom had become restive. Alyssa had assumed he was simply settling into the changes her pregnancy had forced on them: the move to the manor house, introducing her to his family, and settling into hunting with other Warriors again when he’d been solitary for so long.

  Added to that had been the tension between them over her grandmother’s house. Tom had been incredibly insecure; he’d seen her refusal to part with her home as an indication that she’d leave him someday. Considering the consequences to him if she chose that, Alyssa understood his fear.

  More than once, she’d wondered if his upset with her had caused his inattention. No one had ever accused it, but everyone agreed that Tom had made a mistake he never should have made.

  And, I’m playing with that fire again?

  But she wasn’t. Daniel wasn’t Tom. He hadn’t touched her until she’d touched him, though he’d clearly wanted to. He hadn’t stated his need to make her his mate. He’d requested to kiss her, to touch her, to make love to her. Tom hadn’t been a fan of requesting anything. He’d been printing; he’d needed, not wanted.

  Alyssa had heard about Warriors’ sexual appetites. They had sex often, with just about any willing, adult woman that crossed their paths. They met them in barrooms, loved them, and left them quickly.

  How appropriate.

  She deserved a little fun, and there was no reason not to get it, with Daniel or any other Warrior who appealed to her. Maybe she’d become one of their blade chasers.

  Her heart stuttered at the thought of Warriors parading through her bed. Maybe not a blade chaser, but if Daniel showed up again, she wasn’t going to balk at a flesh and blood cock taking the place of her vibrator.

  Chapter Thirty-eight

  February 26, 2050

  Alyssa turned at the sound of a brisk knock at her door, crossed the room, and checked the peep hole. Her heart pounded at the sight of Daniel Hunter, memories of his hands and mouth making her weak-kneed. She unlocked the door and pulled it open.

  He held up a bag from The Book Swap, a local used book store that Gi had frequented, bulging with books. He met her eyes, looking sheepish. “I thought we might discuss some fine literature.”

  The urge to laugh bubbled up, followed by another urge. Alyssa wrapped her hand over his shoulder and rose up on her toes, silencing Daniel with a brush of her lips over his. For a moment, he stared at her, his eyes so hungry she felt her stomach flutter nervously.

  “May I come in?” he asked.

  Her stomach gave another twinge as Daniel guided her inside, only then realizing that she’d nodded in answer to his question. He swung the door shut, dropped the books on the foyer table and locked the door without looking at it.

  “I shouldn’t do this,” he whispered, his hand cupping her jawline and tipping her head up. “Ani knows I want to, but I shouldn’t.” His lips closed on hers.

  Alyssa didn’t argue that. She didn’t ask what he meant, but her gut told her he was wrong. Neither of them had any reason not to do this, and despite his comment, he wasn’t leaving.

  By the time they came up for air, they were at the foot of the stairs. Her entire body was alive in sensation, more alive than she’d ever felt.

  “Are you thinking of Tom?”

  She couldn’t follow the logic of that question fully. “No. I’m not.” It wasn’t a lie. The furthest thing from her mind was Tom Armen.

  Daniel scooped her up in his arms, then hesitated. “If you don’t want this...”

  “I do.”

  The stairs fell behind them in a whirlwind of motion. Alyssa gasped as he deposited her in the middle of her bed, as gentle as blown glass on a pillow. The anticipated press of his body didn’t come.

  She opened her eyes, watching breathlessly as one shirt button after another slid open behind his nimble fingers. Then both layers of black glided off over his shoulders, skimmed down his side and dropped to the floor. The sudden realization that she was straining to follow the shirts’ progress sent her gaze back to his chest.

  God, he’s beautiful.

  Daniel’s chest was broader than Tom’s had been, smooth save the thin T of curls, nearly devoid of scars.

  “Alyssa?”

  She untied her short robe and slid it off her shoulders. Her nightshirt followed, and she tossed them both off the bed, focusing on Daniel again.

  He hadn’t wasted the time. His running shoes had been kicked away, and he pulled his socks and jeans off his feet together, the twin weapons hooked directly to a mundane belt sliding with them.

  Her eyes locked on the thick length of his cock straining up in readiness. The empty ache took up the cadence of her heart, and she arched her back clumsily, offering herself to him.

  Daniel groaned, sinking to the bed beside her, but the urgency didn’t materialize. His mouth parted hers slowly, his hands tracing her curves like a blind man reading Braille. Her body obliged him; her tightening nipples, rising goose bumps, and slick core giving him plenty to explore. And he did, until she thought she might explode from his hands alone.

  Alyssa stroked his length, trying desperately to entice Daniel inside. Still, he denied her. She ripped her mouth from his and slid further down his body, guiding the head of his cock inside...then further as he moaned softly, ruffling her hair.

  Her muscles gripped him, her numb confusion about whether he was much larger than Tom or she was simply out of practice washed away by waves of delight as he turned her beneath him and surged inside. For a moment, he lay still, probably allowing her time to adjust. Alyssa had heard of men doing it, though she didn’t really understand why they would. Her body was screaming for more.

  “Daniel.” She begged him with that one word for what she wanted.

  He shivered at something she couldn’t name. “Are you ready for me?” His voice was rough, sending tremors of sexual energy through her.

  Alyssa nodded frantically.

  His hips slid back, then forward...again and again, forcing her to climax that quickly. Her scream of pleasure had him groaning, his hands gripping low on her hips, his cock working her tirelessly until her lessening climax ignited a second time.

  “Dobler help me,” he pleaded, as she pulled at his buttocks, forcing him deeper. “Again. Let me feel it again.”

  She started stuttering out her denial. She’d never come twice with Tom. How could she a third time?

  Daniel’s control seemed to shatter; his hips thrust hard and fast, and she bowed with a howl, as he brought her over again.

  “Oh, yes,” he growled, his come pumping in time with her renewed contractions.

  They lay together in a comfortable silence, Daniel’s body wrapped around hers, his sweat-slicked chest a delicious assurance that he wasn’t a dream. Alyssa wrapped her arms around him, closing her eyes to the whisper of his beating heart.

  * * * *

  Daniel chuckled at her even breathing, turning gingerly to remove his weight from her. Alyssa followed, her body conforming to the lines of his, her hand laid across his lower abdomen, her little finger teasing at the nest of curls and firing his cock to life again. It brushed over the soft skin of her hand as if seeking more of her, any of her it could reach.

  He took a deep breath, arguing his way out of the urge to wake her. He examined her pale face and lush body. She was so responsive, beautiful, intelligent... She was everything a man could want in a woman.

  A spike of jealousy took arousal’s place. Gods, what he wouldn’t do to
have the months with her that Tom had!

  Tom... Anger flashed out, shoving jealousy aside. Tom had always been sloppy, but this went beyond any stupidity he’d shown before. The fool had every Warriors’ dream life: the trust and love of a passionate wife, a son on the way... And, he’d thrown it all away in one of his signature moments of inattention. Worse, he’d left Alyssa in a new and frightening world, carrying a child, a widow when she should have been protected and loved by a responsible husband.

  Alyssa shifted against him, murmuring Daniel’s name in her sleep. He stroked her cheek, the need to be the one who protected and loved her rising up as it had every time he’d touched her, from that first night in El Oso Oro on.

  Daniel ground his teeth in frustration. Was it possible that she would allow such a thing after losing Tom as she had?

  Facts poured into his mind, bringing confusion with them. Alyssa never called for Tom, even unconsciously. She never mentioned her dead husband. It wasn’t simply that she didn’t want to talk about him. It seemed she rarely thought about him at all, even when faced intimately with another Warrior less than three months after his death.

  “Why?” he whispered. Daniel had no doubt that the fault wasn’t Alyssa’s, but why wouldn’t she think of him?

  Had Tom been sloppy and inattentive in other areas of their lives together?

  I can’t, Daniel. I’ve never... Never more than once...

  Daniel shivered in renewed arousal. He’d nearly come from that pronouncement alone. Tom had been her first, but Daniel had given her an experience she’d never had with her husband.

  “Now, I just have to prove that I’m better for you in other ways.”

  And, I have to find out what went wrong with Tom.

  Chapter Thirty-nine

  March 17, 2050

  Alyssa sighed at the feeling of Daniel’s lips against her neck, tipping her head to the side as he trailed them toward her shoulder blade. His hands traced the lines of her body, making her knees tremble in a sudden weakness. She closed her eyes, drinking in his gentle touch.

  “Tell me about Tom,” he whispered.

  Those words were like ice water in her veins.

  Daniel raised his head, his muscles tensing. “Alyssa, please. I have to know.”

  “Know what?” she managed.

  “What went wrong between you? I know something did.”

  She forced herself not to shudder, though she did tremble. “What do you mean?” Was he going to accuse that the stress of her refusal to give up this house had caused it, after all? Please, God. Not that. I don’t think I can stand it.

  “Why don’t you talk about him?”

  He’d tried several times. Never this directly since the first time, before they’d made love, but he’d tried to get her to talk about Tom.

  “The memories aren’t that great,” she offered in half-truth. “And...there isn’t much, is there? Just a few weeks.”

  “I guessed that. Why do you tremble every time I bring him up?”

  Alyssa pulled from Daniel’s arms, turning to face him, her back to the sink. Her heart beat double-time.

  His eyes narrowed, and he cocked his head. “You’re honestly afraid of him.”

  “No.” On some level, she knew she was lying.

  “Then you’re afraid of me.”

  “No!” Oh, but he was even more dangerous to her in some ways.

  Daniel reached out to pull her into his arms; Alyssa hesitated for a moment but let him. Part of her argued that it was stupid to get this close to someone who had the power to destroy her. Another part argued that a man so tender could never destroy her.

  But, their laws... She wished she knew what those laws said. What little she did know would damn her in ways she could only imagine in nightmares. Alyssa didn’t know the precise wording, but it was something about hunting: poaching a Warrior...or maybe baiting one? A woman who made promises she might break was against their laws. She knew that. Since she knew her entire marriage to Tom had been a sham, had she been poaching? Baiting?

  “Is it me or all Warriors?” he asked.

  Maybe this was her chance. “You’re not exactly stable men,” she reasoned. “That’s why your punishments are so harsh.”

  “You’ve seen unstable Warriors.” He seemed to consider that, repeating it under his breath a second time.

  “Of...of course. I mean, all Warriors are—”

  “No. We’re not. Not all of us. Not nearly all of us. Was Tom unstable?”

  “Tom was...” She swallowed a lump. “He was a Warrior,” she offered weakly.

  Daniel eased away, staring down at her in confusion. “I don’t know what that means to you.”

  “Your needs... You don’t just want things like...like children. You need them.”

  His gaze went to the rounding landscape of her womb, his breathing going ragged. “My gods, what did he do?”

  Her face heated at his assumption. “He just explained his needs to me.”

  “No. It’s not like that, Alyssa.”

  “But, you go crazy if—”

  “No,” he thundered.

  Alyssa jerked away two steps.

  Daniel winced, motioning for peace. “I’m sorry. It’s just... This isn’t your fault.”

  “What isn’t?” she breathed, avoiding his offered hand, wary though she hated herself for the reaction.

  “Tom told you he’d go mad, if you didn’t give him a son?” His words were slow and measured, as if he had tenuous control of himself.

  Alyssa nodded, backing off another step in case he lost that control, her heart pounding so hard she felt faint.

  Daniel ambled to a chair at the table and dropped into it, his expression passing from pain to anger to misery over and over. He glanced at her, settling on worry. “Sit down, Alyssa,” he invited.

  She hesitated, anticipating the calm before the explosion.

  “Please. You have nothing to fear from me.” He motioned to the seat across from him, indicating that she could have all the space she felt necessary.

  Alyssa settled into the chair, bracing her hands on the edges. “Tom...did something wrong,” she guessed. “Something worse than being out of contact and leaving Armen range to see me again.”

  “Wrong? Criminal is more like it.”

  Her head spun. Alyssa buried her face in her hands. Criminal? What other laws had he broken? What would they have done to him if they’d known it?

  She vaguely noted water running in the refrigerator dispenser. A cold glass brushed her hand.

  “Drink this. It will help.”

  The icy water revived her, though she still felt numb inside. There were so many questions she should ask, and she couldn’t find the words to ask a single one.

  Daniel squatted next to her, brushing the hair from her forehead tenderly. It was so at odds with what she knew of Warriors that it seemed all the more soothing for the novelty.

  “If the other Warriors had known, his punishment would have been harsh.” He traced the line of her ear, then her jaw. “He might have been killed for it. I won’t lie to you. This isn’t a little thing we’re talking about.”

  “Killed?” she murmured. It hardly seemed possible that he could have done something that warranted that.

  “Do you want this child?”

  “Want?” Daniel wasn’t making sense. “Of course, I do.” It was the only good thing to come of her marriage to Tom.

  He drew her toward him, kneeling up so she nestled to his bare chest. “Be sure. Don’t just say it. Our laws say we may not create life without our mates’ permission to do it.”

  “He had permission.”

  “Which he lied to get. Tom convinced you. He was dishonorable. If you don’t want the baby, our laws will allow you to terminate. It’s not right to force you to this.”

  Alyssa sat back, her hand laid on his chest, her thoughts and emotions in a riot. “All because he lied?”

  Daniel covered her hand with his own,
nodding. “A woman’s choice is paramount in every move a Warrior makes. It’s essential to our laws. We can’t create life without her permission, freely given, and lying to get it means the permission wasn’t freely given. Nor is convincing her to it allowed. She isn’t free, if she’s coerced.”

  She tried to digest that revelation, while Daniel continued.

  “We can’t seal printing without her free consent to it. We can’t even—”

  Daniel choked, staring at her in apparent horror. Too late, Alyssa realized that her shock must have told him more than she’d wanted to.

  “Gods, no,” he pleaded.

  She looked away, tears pooling in her eyes.

  “He convinced you to let him seal?”

  Alyssa didn’t answer. Though his reaction indicated that she was safe, there was no way to know for certain.

  “He rushed you to it.” That wasn’t a question.

  Refusing to answer was easier.

  “Did he convince you to bed, as well?” Daniel growled.

  She found it impossible to meet his eyes. A knot of tears rose in her throat, and she fought for breath.

  “Jee, how could you allow this?”

  Alyssa sobbed. The blame was going to fall on her, after all. “I th-thought...” she stammered.

  Daniel pulled her into his lap, rocking her against his chest. His voice cracked. “Understand this. What Tom did was beneath contempt, Alyssa. He would have been killed for it. There is no question of that.

  “A warrior who cannot control his curse is no better than a beast. A warrior may not take an unwilling woman, even if she is the woman of an enemy or an enemy herself. Neither shall a warrior use his whiles to sway an unwilling woman to some form of willingness to bed her. Such a move is dishonorable in that it exploits her innocence and does her injustice.

  “That’s what the rules of sanction say. No better than a beast, and if he were here, any Warrior would kill him as a beast for this.”