“Okay.” Nnora held up her hand. “And your point is…?”
“A thousand years ago, upon your marriage, you would have taken the throne with the prince as your consort—not the other way around.”
“While I find this fascinating, it is way off the subject of Dev’s suitability as a husband. Could we get back to that?” Before the words were totally out of her mouth, she regretted having used the diminutive of the prince’s name. She just knew her audacious sib would pounce on her mistake. She could almost see Dohsan’s teasing radar pop up.
“Dev?” Dohsan purred, coming to a state of alertness. She straightened out of her slouched position. “Have we gotten intimate enough to use short names?”
Her cheeks heated, but she refused to rise to Dohsan’s teasing. “You were about to tell me your other reasons…?”
“All right, already. He is devoted to his subjects and he fights for causes. Which is right up your alley—you being such a sucker for lost causes.”
She bristled, but before she could comment, Dohsan had already resumed. “No arguments. You really can’t deny that only a crusader would be teaching in that low-income Grunt school of yours, Nnora.
“But my main reason for thinking you two made for each other is—and this one is a doozy—he is as bossy as you are. I predict a lot of fireworks between you two.”
She gritted her teeth. “Those don’t sound like marrying reasons to me!”
“I wasn’t finished!” A stubborn expression hardened Dohsan’s pretty face. “But I could be, if you want to keep interrupting…”
Nnora flung her hands up in surrender. Seemed her little sister had a touch of bossiness, herself. “My apologies to you, Miss Priss. Please, continue.”
“I am very serious about this, Nnora.” Dohsan had a hurt look in her eyes.
She rose and moved to sit next to Dohsan. “I can see you are and I’m very sorry, Dohsan. I realize you are trying to help me. This has been a hellacious day, but that’s no excuse for me to take my bad humor out on you. Please, forgive me—and tell me what you feel about the prince.”
“He believes the family unit is sacred and should never be broken. If the situation ever came up where you and your children were in danger, he would find ways to protect and cherish you and his children without having to send you away.
“No matter how much you and Father skirt the issues, we all know you don’t want to come home because deep down, you have never forgiven him for losing you. All these years, you felt betrayed and abandoned. You need a man that will make you feel safe and loved. I believe the prince is that man and I think you should marry him.” Dohsan’s voice held a thoroughly adult firmness.
She sat speechless, stunned by Dohsan’s insightful comments. She’d never wanted her little sister or brothers to learn of her lingering feelings of abandonment, of being an outcast, outside the family circle, the only one sent away to be raised among aliens, where her height and—to Human eyes—strangely colored eyes had set her further apart. Separated from her people, isolated, different from her foster family…alone.
“I like him, Nnora,” Dohsan said quietly, oddly sincere with all her brashness discarded. “I told him he had my blessing.”
A hysterical bubble of laughter rose in Nnora’s throat. She ruthlessly suppressed it. “Then you marry him.”
“Oh, I’m not queenly enough for him. Besides, I don’t want to rule a planet or two. I just want to rule the man I mate with.” With that, every ounce of Dohsan’s set-aside sauciness returned. She stood to her feet, twirling a sexy jig about the room. Laughing out loud, she swung her hips and shook her shoulders, setting her breasts to swaying.
“You are incorrigible!” Nnora rolled her eyes, laughing along with her sister.
“Yes, I am. And I’m willing to teach you everything I know.”
That caught her attention. Young as she was, Dohsan was a fount of knowledge concerning all things sexual. She’d probably forgotten more than Nnora would ever learn about Rb’qarmshi sexuality. “You are? I mean…you will?”
For once, Dohsan didn’t tease her about the pitiful note of hope in her voice. “You betcha, big sis!”
“Then I have a few hundred questions for you.”
Chapter Thirteen
Dev ran a finger through the red line marring his once pristine bulkhead, his anger gathering like thunderclouds before a storm. His brows creased as he traversed corridor after corridor, finding the garish demarcation on almost every partition. He rubbed his forefinger and thumb together, and the waxy, shiny stuff smeared and clung to his fingers. Without thinking, he wiped his hand on the leg of his flight suit, transferring the scarlet smudge to the light blue material. His eyes narrowed, anger and confusion warring within him.
“GanR’dari, what is this—this disgusting…uzak?” He glared at his second-in-command.
“I do not know, Chyya, but I believe the Chyya’va could tell you.” ‘Dari stood stiffly.
“You think Nnora did this?” He smothered an angry exclamation, thrusting his nose close to the smear and sniffing. “It does not smell of her. I would have thought this kind of juvenile prank more along the line of what Dohsan might think up. What possible reason could Nnora have to disfigure my ship like this?”
“Let’s see…reasons to disfigure your ship… Well, there is the fact that you kidnapped her,” his friend and closest companion drawled, ticking the items off on his fingers. “That you seated her, bringing her to loud, multiple climaxes. This occurred in a thin-walled room adjacent to the room where you had your keen-eared warriors stationed. You announced before a shuttle full of warriors your intent to mate her fully—in our presence—should she dispute your claim on her…”‘Dari paused and bit his lip.
Dev knew he was fighting the urge to burst into laughter. He trained his eyes on his second-in-command. Leaning against the bulkhead in a deceptively relaxed pose, he crossed his arms and ankles, waiting for his ex-friend to deliver the punch line.
“But you have done nothing to piss her off in the last hour, Chyya, so I would not dare to hazard a guess at what reason the Chyya’va could have to return an insult to you,” ‘Dari deadpanned.
“I will ignore those smart-assed remarks, my friend, as it would not do for the Chyya’va to be without a bodyguard in these unsettled times,” Dev deadpanned right back.
“Thank you, Dev.” ‘Dari swept a low bow.
“Do you think the marking is meant to be permanent?” He returned to the problem of the oily markings, troubled by visions of his crew forever scrubbing at the never-fading stains.
“Judging from the ease with which you just transferred it from the bulkhead to your flight suit, I would say…not.”
Dev glared at his second-in-command, sure ‘Dari hid a smirk behind that bland look of his. He glanced down at his ruined uniform and sighed heavily. “Where has my Princess gotten to?”
GanR’dari shrugged his massive shoulders. “If I might make a suggestion…?”
Dev inclined his head. “By all means.”
‘Dari pointed down the brightly marked corridor. “Follow the uzak.”
Breathing a foul imprecation, Dev strode off in search of his life-mate.
* * * * *
In Dohsan’s cabin at the end of the lipstick trail, the biology lesson continued. “So,” Nnora asked, “even when I am not in pava, that fluid can still be secreted from my breasts?”
“Yes, though the ‘gift’ doesn’t release every time you are seated. It happens only if your mate is skilled enough to make you come, much like a regular orgasm.” Dohsan rested her arms back along the spine of the couch. “But isn’t it a glorious feeling when it happens?”
“And what would you know about how being seated feels like, young woman? You are a little young to be playing at sexual games. Besides, aren’t the males too young? Have some of them reached sexual maturity?” She was more than a little shocked Dohsan’s apparently intimate knowledge of the highly erotic act.
Dohsan purred, stretching her body in a sensuous slither. “You really must lose that Earth-influenced small-town mentality, Nnora. Even boys who haven’t grown their stones are capable of softening their terat, my innocent big sister. Just because I haven’t entered first heat doesn’t mean I’m not mature enough for seating-play.”
“I wish you wouldn’t call our pava by that horrid term. It makes us sound like animals—cats or dogs, unable to control our sexual urges.” Nnora still had a struggle to accept that she had no power over her cycles. She would much rather she suffered the normal pangs and pains of a human woman’s menstrual cycle. Bleeding monthly might be messy and inconvenient, but it sure beat the physical pain and horniness she’d suffer on a daily basis for the next year or so.
“We are animals, Nnora,” Dohsan quipped insouciantly. “And why should we control our urges when giving in to them feels so much better?
“I feel sorry for you. I really do.” Dohsan came to her feet to hug Nnora tightly. She reseated herself, flinging her body down in a typical teenager’s loose sprawl. “Still, if you haven’t already found out how hotly delicious foreplay can be, I’ll wager the prince soon finds an excuse to tutor you on the subject.”
“I don’t need tutoring, I need explanations.” Nnora’s temper was fraying along with her patience. “I need to know what game Father is playing, what the prince is hiding from me…” She trailed off, rubbing at the back of her neck, trying to relieve the building tension. “This is all so hard to take in—”
Dohsan broke in, laughing suggestively. “Believe me, hard is the ooooonnnn-ly way to take it in.”
The pun hit her and Nnora wrinkled her nose at her sister. “That’s not what I meant and you know it. You’ve just told me I can only get pregnant once every three years. And that, although the prince’s chemical makeup is now linked to mine through the enzyme we exchanged when he seated me I am only sexually predisposed to him, I can still choose another to mate with until we…uh…totally—”
“Fuck. Yep, and you know what that means…” Dohsan’s grin was down right gleeful.
“Watch your language.” There was no heat in the remark. She met Dohsan’s encouraging grin with one of her own. She could use this information to turn the tables on Dev. At the least, she could make him sweat, worrying that she might choose one of his men as her marriage partner. “It means that I’m in the driver’s seat!”
“Neat pun sis, but remember…” Dohsan’s voice took on a cautioning tone, “That kind of pleasure is addictive. If you are thinking about using the prince’s needs against him, you’d best be prepared to withstand your own.”
Nnora waved the warning aside, her excitement rising. “This is wonderful, Dohsan. This means I have some control. I have choices in this situation.”
Her sister frowned. “You always did, Nnora.”
“That’s not true, little sister, and you know it. Father signed those contracts without even talking with me. Do you have any idea how that made me feel?”
She didn’t bother waiting for Dohsan to respond. “I felt like he was throw—sending me away again. I felt abandoned and alone, as if—” her words ended in a wail, and suddenly she was crying, sobbing her heart out. Horrified, she twisted in her chair, hiding from her sibling’s pity.
Two slim arms encircled her, rocking her. After a few moments, Nnora looked up to find Dohsan’s vivid lemon-lime eyes awash with sympathetic tears. Ducking her head, she turned into her younger sister’s arms, holding on tightly.
For once, Dohsan did not tease her. Her arms tightened round Nnora in a convulsive hug.
Nnora rested her head on her sister’s shoulder. It was the first time she had ever relinquished the ‘elder sister’ role. She felt closer to Dohsan than she ever had before.
“As if we would have let Father do such a thing again, Chyya or not! I was there for the formal signing, Nnora. While it is true Father signed the contracts, signifying his consent, there is a blank line on those papers where your name must go to make it all official.”
“What?” Her head snapped up from Dohsan’s shoulder. “You mean he lied to me?”
Dohsan chuckled. “Well, whaddya know? I didn’t think the stiff-necked prince had it in him to pull a stunt like that!”
Anger, hot and furious, blazed through Nnora. She sat up, scrubbing at the tears that had spilled onto her cheeks. “He’s going to have something knocked out of him.” She gritted her teeth. “That low-down, sap-sucking, snake-bellied shark! According to him, our marriage is a done deal, all but gift wrapped and delivered. I swear, Dohsan,” she vowed darkly. “Glendevtorvas is not going to get away with this.”
“Wow!” Dohsan breathed, eyes sparkling, probably in anticipation of the coming fight. “You really sound pissed.”
She widened her eyes in feigned horror. “How could he do such an underhanded thing when he promised Dad to woo you in all honor? Tsk! Tsk! Are you telling me he brought you no flowers? Sang you no mating song?”
Nnora glumly shook her head at the thought of all the traditions she’d missed.
“You mean he didn’t go down on bended knee and quote bonding poetry?”
“He didn’t even propose!” Nnora remembered and fumed all over again. “He stormed into my bedroom like he owned it, told me I was going to belong to him, stuck my nipples in his chest, and before I could recover from that admittedly cataclysmic event, jerked off in front of me. Hell, he even demanded I help him…several times. To top that, he snatched me out of my apartment against my will, and then bragged about what I had done to him in front of his men!”
“No…really?” Dohsan bit her lip in an effort to conceal her hilarity at Nnora’s innocence. She would have paid money to be a fly on the wall during that confrontation! The most hilarious element was that her elder sister lacked the slightest clue of just how telling the prince’s actions were.
Dohsan might not have known Devtorvas long, but she had picked up enough information about him to know his emotional reaction to her sister must have knocked him for a loop. To screw up so…royally, he had to have been pole-axed by Nnora, which must have flabbergasted and angered him. He was, after all, a male used to being in command. Finding himself out of command had to be a little disconcerting for him…to say the least.
She wished, for the umpteenth time, there was some way she could open up her older sister’s eyes, make her see her own radiant inner and outer beauty. Repeated telling didn’t work—she’d been telling the stubborn woman how beautiful she was since the first day they’d met. No one—not her mother nor their father—had been able to make a dent in Nnora’s human-conditioned, iron-cast mind.
Yet, even by human standards, Nnora was strikingly beautiful. She simply had no idea how many Earthling men tracked her with hungry eyes and lolling tongues, drawn by her queenly stance and enticing curves. Nnora persisted in seeing herself as a gawky, hulking ogress when Dohsan knew her to be the fairy princess in the story, the one who gets her man. Come hook or crook, she planned to see that Nnora got the man she wanted.
Somehow or other, I need to get Princey-boy to declare himself in the most romantic way possible. Dohsan tuned out Nnora’s continued accounting of Devtorvas’ many sins while she turned several scenarios over in her head.
Deep down, she knew, Nnora didn’t believe the prince could be smitten with her. She didn’t believe herself worthy of his love, because most of her life, with the exception of the Brewsters, people around her, like her ex-hubby—who should have been a dead ex-hubby in Dohsan’s not-so-humble opinion—had treated Nnora like yesterday’s trash. Humans had done almost irreparable damage to Nnora’s self-esteem.
How can I get Nnora to see even a glimpse of what the prince finds so fascinating about her?
Princey-boy-toy wasn’t her cup of tea, but since he seemed to float Nnora’s boat, that was good enough for Dohsan to give her blessing. Meanwhile, on the QT, Dohsan would make damn sure big sis had a paddle…and a life jacket just
in case her boat sank.
Chapter Fourteen
Dev’s eyeballs felt gritty and hot with steadily building rage. The further he followed the brazen path of scarlet desecration, the angrier he became.
How dare she deface his beautiful ship, his Blazing Star in such a fashion? He’d be damned if he’d tolerate this statement about their relationship. While he had no wish to break Nnora’s wild and wonderful spirit, he fully intended teaching her a thing or three about respect—and about keeping her feminine defiance within proper, private bounds!
The two guards at Dohsan’s cabin door braced to attention at sight of him, saluting smartly. He nodded, noting the shocked looks on their faces. He did not often venture down into crew’s territory, so he could understand their reactions to his unannounced presence.
Sighing inwardly, he thought of the future. His crew might as well adjust. He knew Nnora—if she had her way—would have him doing many unaccustomed things.
He was dismayed to find Nnora’s trail ended at her sister’s cabin. Dohsan’s presence was one of the many things he had withheld from his princess. The thought of just how displeased she likely was had him hesitating at the door. Rejas! Nnora would have his cherzda and sirat in a vise if that precocious, vixenish little sister of hers had blabbed his other news.
Sending an awkward plea star-ward, he took a fortifying breath. Gesturing for the guards to step aside, he released the manual lock and opened the cabin door—
And stepped into chaos.
Sixteen high-born Rb’qarmshi colonial fem were crowded into Dohsan’s tiny cabin. According to Devtorvas’ tortured eardrums, they all seemed to be talking at once…at the top of their lungs.
Like any self-respecting male Rb’qarmshi, the prince had a healthy dread of being the center of attention for so many fem. Hoping to escape their notice, grab Nnora and run, he hugged the wall, sidling around the perimeters of the room.
He had almost reached his unsuspecting goal when a lanky fem whose towering height, white hair and pale tangerine eyes—closely resembling the norm on Rb’quarm—spotted him. The fem pointed towards him, her shrieks alerting the other women to his presence. The entire flock advanced on him, murder and mayhem in their eyes.
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