“Eli, you know I trust you, right? I trusted you enough when I was certain I was going to die to ask you and Kaoti to protect my family.” Eli dipped us down into the water up to my chin. When he lifted us back up, I stared out over the endless waves. “Were you following orders?” I tilted my head back enjoying the feel of the water against my scalp.
“Yes, but I enjoyed hurting them. I enjoyed making them suffer. They tricked and tormented you. They made you afraid, made you fear for Thunderdrop, and made you feel helpless. I made an example of them for anyone else in the Sector who might think of treating you in such a way.”
“Hopefully, there will never again come a time when you believe such drastic and harsh measures are ordered. I don’t like that at all. They were being punished according to our laws. I got paid restitution and everything.”
“No, they were being punished according to human laws. Those barbarians laid hands upon the Princess Teagan Alaric Montgomery Lee of House Probus of the Parvac Empire. They received punishment for crimes against the Imperial family in accordance with our decrees.”
“Then, why wasn’t Licinius punished?”
“Has he ever neglected to treat you like a princess?”
“No.”
“He is simply doing his best to win a day of your notice a year. I am grateful to him that his attempt to replace me as your Inquisitor failed.”
I smiled and kissed his nose. When we walked through the water and back to the shore, our paths diverged as I went to Yukihyo and Neema, and Eli went to find his uniform.
Eli gave Drex Licinius a huge grin and a salute as he walked past him on the beach. Drex had been reclining on a lounge chair under the shade of tree while watching Teagan cling to Eli in the water. Now, he followed Eli.
When foliage obscured them from view, he asked, “You had your hands all over her?” Licinius was enraged. He shoved against Eli’s chest.
Eli twisted and took Licinius down behind some thick green shrubbery. Water dripped from Eli onto his adversary. “Don’t talk of her body. She hasn’t accepted you. You have no rights to her. When you speak to me, remember we are equals, but I could kill you now with a few handfuls of sand. I know more ways to kill than you do, and I’ve had much more practice. So many thoughts for how you could die have passed through my mind since your failed attempt to turn her against me. With the tiniest amount of encouragement, I could have had her ordering your death. However, I know what she does to you. You always think of her, dream of her. You want to keep her safe and see her smile. You want to stroke her hair and please her.” Eli shifted his lower half away from Drex when his thoughts of Teagan began to affect his anatomy, but he kept his forearm across his throat. Eli enjoyed watching Drex gasp for air. “Instead of encouraging her to rid herself of you, I explained to her how I imagine you must feel. My debt to you for the outcome of your failed manipulation is repaid, but get in my way again, and no one will find you.”
Eli released a purpling Drex from the chokehold in which he held him. Drex gasped and struggled to fill his lungs. Eli squatted in front of him and stared into his eyes. Drex gave a nod. Eli stood and held a hand down to Drex Licinius to help him rise.
Luca Braga remained utterly still and hidden from view as he watched the exchange. He let out a relieved breath after the two deadly inquisitors had gone. The inquisitors were the men who went after anyone stupid enough to forsake Parvac’s laws, and that included generals and admirals as well as dock workers. Luca had no desire to squander his time in an infirmary recovering from violent mutilations at the hands of either of the inquisitors. He needed another plan to get close to the Princess. Luca dropped into a defensive crouch at the sound of a man quietly clearing his throat behind him.
“Oh, it’s you,” Luca said as he relaxed.
“What say you to the two of us working together?”
Luca raised an eyebrow in speculation.
I sat in water that was only deep enough to cover the hair between my legs. Smiling and yelling, Neema crawled and splashed her way through the water to me, but became distracted by a shell and stopped to examine it. I dared a look at Yukihyo. He grabbed my ankle and slowly dragged me closer while growling like an ice bear. Then, he kissed me. Laughing, Neema crawled to me and began covering my left leg with handfuls of wet sand. We played until Niklos’ plaintive cries were carried to us on the wind.
After lunch, Fitz said, “Teagan, I have a surprise for you. First, maybe you would consider wearing this?” Fitz held out to me on his index finger a few tiny scraps of cloth.
“Oh, Fitz.” Sighing, I went into the bathroom and put on the tiny dark-blue two-piece swimsuit that covered less of me than my undies. Self-consciously, I returned to the main room. Nico let out a low whistle. “Yukihyo! Stop that!”
“No,” he said as he captured me on his vid-screen. “Quaid should see what he is missing.”
Thunderdrop chirped at me and went off to hunt. The rest of us followed Fitz out to the beach.
“Here you are, my darling.” Fitz handed me a glossy white board. On one side was a web design with a large blue silk spider painted near its center.
“Wow!” I said as I ran my hand over the spider.
“I plan to teach you how to glide across the waves. It’s relaxing and lots of fun, two things you could use.”
Nico and Phillip already knew how to surf, but it was new to Yukihyo and me. By the time I started to get the hang of it a little, I was tired and felt half drowned. I laid back on the board and allowed the waves to take me back to shore. Fitz popped up near my head and kissed me.
“What do you think?” he asked.
“I love it, but I am so tired.”
For the next few days, we surfed each day, enjoyed the food, and were pampered in the salon. Also, I had managed to avoid Licinius. The babies spent their days in diapers or nothing at all.
I was on the floor with Neema helping to put shapes into their correct cutouts on their box.
“Mommy, you,” Neema said as she handed me the triangle. She didn’t like the triangle.
A strong breeze cooled the room. Thunderdrop had attached lines to the ceiling and swung in and out through the open walls on the wind. Pierce and Lorca were packing our things for a stay at the Jiri Estate. A big storm was coming, and Fitz wanted us to be in a safer location. Phillip was in a mood.
“What?” I asked him as I rolled over onto my back and looked from the white soles of his feet, up his blonde hairy legs, and to the frown on his handsome and usually charming face.
“These damn Parvac females are what’s wrong.”
“Did you get into an argument with Sophia?”
Phillip frowned even more. “Explain something to me. Why is it that women here can have all of the husbands they want, have discrete sexual relations in public, run around naked, but refuse to enjoy a pleasurable dalliance with a loveable doctor unless he marries her first? What the hell is that all about? I’ll tell you what it is. It’s torture.”
“Then, why don’t you marry her?”
“Are you crazy? If I marry her, she’s the only woman I can have, ever.”
“Well, it’s the opposite in the Laconian Sector. The next time we’re there, marry a couple of women and bring them back with you.”
Phillip grew thoughtful. “Good idea, Cupcake.”
Yukihyo came in and sat on the floor with Neema and me. “Are you ready to go bye-bye?” he asked.
Neema grinned at him. I giggled at her. She was so cute with her four teeth. Thunderdrop detached his line, crawled to my foot, and up my leg to my shoulder. He was bored with the island. After hunting the lizards to near extinction, his only amusement had been spying on Licinius, Luca, and Dario. The latter two were planning something. Violet rested on a couch beside us. She hadn’t stopped smiling since we had arrived. Kaoti was spoiling her rotten, and I did my best to help. I knew all too well how exhausting it was being pregnant.
“See you there,” Violet said as Kaoti pi
cked her up.
Kaoti had arranged for a private shuttle to take them, along with Izaac, Jezzie, and Traviz, to the Jiri Estate. The thought of getting back on the yacht had made Violet throw up on Kaoti’s bare feet. I snickered to myself just thinking about it. Kaoti narrowed his eyes at me which made me laugh harder. Izaac referred to Kaoti in my mind as “Bodyguard Barf Toes” which made me completely lose it. Laughing with me, Neema crawled onto me and bounced the air out of me. I had to roll over, cuddle, and kiss her to get her to stop.
“Let’s go before it gets any rougher,” Fitz suggested.
Thunderdrop crept back to me after Yukihyo had Neema in his arms.
At the Jiri Estate, servants were shuttering the windows. Thunderdrop jumped from me to go explore. After the children were fed and down for their naps in the nursery, Fitz finally introduced me to Pane, his lizard. Pane lived in a beautiful terrarium with sand, heated rocks, a tiny waterfall that fed a bowl-sized pond, and real plants.
“You’ve got a good thing going for you here, Pane,” I said as I bent over to peer at the three-legged lizard. Pane seemed agitated to me. “Is he okay?”
“He can sense the storm and is frightened by it. Pane’s sense of safety is a fragile thing.”
Becoming still, I said, “I guess Pane and I have that in common.”
Fitz wrapped me in his arms and kissed me. “Well, I can do something to help Pane.” Fitz took a tiny tube of yellow fabric from a drawer beneath the terrarium, picked up Pane, and carefully slid the tube over the lizard’s head, arm, and stub until it was around his body like a little, tight, strapless top.
“What is that?”
Pane had calmed. Fitz placed him on one of the warm rocks.
“It is a compression sleeve. It keeps him from becoming frantic during storms. My love, if you can spare me, I’d like to check on my plantation. I’ll be back before the winds pick up.”
“Okay. Please, be careful.”
Nico and Phillip convinced Yukihyo to record them as they surfed the big waves that had begun to pummel the shore. I roamed around the large house. My new father-in-law, Finn, was in his office giving orders to his adjuncts for storm preparations. A light rain had begun to fall. Images of big green leaves and horrible wet rain that splattered eight legs that lifted up and down to shake off the droplets filled my mind.
“Poor, baby. I’ll come get you.”
I grabbed a rain poncho and went outside. Slipping off of the veranda in the same spot that Thunderdrop showed me, I began walking through the jungle that was the Jiri idea of a yard. The black soil which had already been moist began making squishing noises under my flip flops. The lightly falling rain that reached me under the trees dampened my exposed skin. The rain made little piths of sound as it fell against thick, large green leaves before it rolled off to mix with dirt and then splatter onto my feet and ankles.
“Thunderdrop! Where are you, baby?”
In response, I saw an image. He was huddled under a bush trying to avoid the rain. Thunderdrop hated getting wet.
“Princess, why are you out here alone?”
I jumped but calmed as Zared became visible. “Thunderdrop needs help getting back to the house.”
“Yes, I know that but not why you entered the jungle without an escort.” Zared sounded short-tempered and angry.
Pissed at his tone, I ignored him. “Thunderdrop!”
Zared put his hand out to halt my progress, closed his eyes, and said, “This way,” before walking at a pace I had to struggle to match. When a soft, wet branch smacked me in the forehead, I had had enough.
Angrily, I asked, “What the fuck is your problem?”
He stopped and turned. “Me? How should I feel? No matter how hard I try, I can’t banish you from my mind. I feel your pleasure when you take it from your husbands. However, your release is not mine.”
“Zared, we have talked about this.”
“No, you have given me excuses that even you do not believe.” He kept walking, and I followed.
The rain increased in its intensity. A desperate chittering reached my ears. “I’m coming, baby!” I rushed forward and knelt in front of a large, low, wide-leafed bush and held up my poncho so Thunderdrop could escape the rain. He clung to my shirt underneath the poncho.
“Chitter chitter chitter!”
“I know. I’m sorry. Maybe you could explore inside until the weather clears.”
“Chirp!” Thunderdrop said in agreement.
“Well, shit,” I said as the rain started to fall even harder.
Zared pulled out his vid-screen and scanned our immediate area.
“Chitter chitter!” Thunderdrop said when the poncho failed to protect him and a raindrop hit him in one of his eyes.
“This way,” Zared said as he led us off to the left. He held aside the branches of a bush revealing a sheltered overhang with enough room for the three of us to crowd together. We sat with our sides touching. Puddles formed inches from our toes.
“There. See? You’re okay,” I said as I peeked under the poncho at the eight black eyes that stared back at me.
“Chirp.”
“It should stop for a brief time in a few minutes. Then, I will lead you back to the house.”
I could feel Zared’s irritation. “How long do you intend to stay angry with me?”
“I am not angry. I love you. You are healthy, happy, and well-provided for. That is all I wish.”
“Oh, cut the crap.”
Zared’s solid black eyes met and held mine. “That is the truth. I love you. My life is yours. I live for the sound of your voice and the brush of your thoughts against mine. Each feeling you have, I share. At night, when you sleep, I can see your dreams. The boundaries you have placed between us are imaginary.”
He stopped clenching and unclenching his hands and turned using them instead to hold my face. He saw through my fears and worries, my cultural shock over my husbands as I struggled to accept my true heredity, and the powerful physiological need to mate that I couldn’t suppress.
Zared said, “I understand because as you are driven, so too am I driven to be near you.”
Zared’s eyes, lips, and desperate sincerity were my undoing. My hand snuck up, and I entwined my fingers in his damp, long, grey hair. Thunderdrop crawled from the neck of my poncho and crawled up into the farthest corner of the shelter from the rain. I leaned closer and took Zared’s lips. Deep need, desire, and agonizing loneliness brushed across my awareness along with his lips. Then, I felt Zared’s panic and fear that was shadowed by an awkwardness he attempted to hide by distracting me with a stream of endorphins. He searched my mind.
“Zared?”
Embarrassment and shame slipped to me through our bond even though he fought to hide it. Fighting to understand as my own sexual need clawed at me, I gripped at his waist.
“You are the only woman I have ever touched.”
Zared knew what to do and how to accomplish it, and shook with his eagerness to do so. His need and frustration had my thoughts spinning.
Pulling off the poncho, I said, “It’s better without the clothes.”
Zared captured my lips and held me to him with his hand at the back of my head. In seconds, he was all muscular flesh that steamed when drops of rain hit him. With less dexterity, I freed myself from my clothing and gasped as Zared found me with his fingers and then entered me. He sent intense pleasure through me making me come with such force and successive rapidity that I began to black out. He stilled and slowed the pleasure he spun through me to a thin strand as he learned to move in and out of me in rhythm. Zared’s eyes became confused and distant as he sped up his thrusting. With a knowing smile, I flooded him with passion until his eyes rolled up, and he surged forward burying himself inside of me.
Wrapping me in his arms, he held me close. A barrier I hadn’t realized existed broke between us. A desperate need for love and acceptance in Zared had been met by me. He knew that I wanted him and returned his love e
ven though I was too terrified to admit it. Zared’s eyes had solid white sclera, but those became riddled with a worried orange.
“Hurry. Dress. Someone approaches.”
Quickly, we dressed ourselves in our dirty, wet clothing and were seated as the footsteps trudged nearer.
“Princess, what brings you out to such a private and secluded spot in a storm such as this?” Inquisitor Drex Licinius asked.
“Chitter!” Thunderdrop hopped from his perch to my shoulder. “Hiss!”
“Thunderdrop got caught in the rain. We were just waiting for a lull before going back.”
Rather than the breezy attire of Thalassa, today Licinius wore the black T-shirt, pants, and boots typical of Parvac military. I narrowed my eyes at him as heedless of the rain he walked slowly back and forth in front of us.
“If I should mysteriously vanish, a thermal recording of your secret tryst will go to every news program in the Empire.”
I stared at Licinius in horror. Zared and I weren’t married. I’d just cheated on Yukihyo, Nico, Quaid, and Fitz Jiri, and on Jiri property no less. I was becoming one of the promiscuous sluts about whom Nico had told me when we’d first met.
“They might interpret your actions in various ways: as a new mother overcome and rendered helpless by her hormones; as a callous adulteress dissatisfied with her husbands; or as the pawn of a Laconian hybrid intent on destroying the Empire from within,” Licinius said coldly.
“What do you want?” I asked as tears fell over my hot, embarrassed cheeks.
“Shall we discuss it over a private dinner once the storm passes?”
“Fine.”
“I look forward to it. Don’t worry. I will not breathe a word of this betrayal to that Laconian husband of yours, Lord Yukihyo, whom you profess to have such a deep and eternal love.” Licinius looked up at the jungle canopy and smiled. “Would you look at that? You have a short respite before it pours.” He smiled and held his hand down to me to help me stand. Thunderdrop scurried back under my poncho. Licinius drew me close and kissed me. “I will see you soon,” he whispered to me. “Take the Princess to the house. Should she become ill from these conditions, I will hold you responsible,” he said to Zared.
Omnes Videntes (The Space Merchants Book 4) Page 22