Promises to Keep
Page 21
Sarah stared open-mouthed at her friend. "You have a baby?"
"Yep, born six months ago.… I tell you, I could have used you that day." She gave Garran a speculative look. "Maybe if things work out you’ll be around for the next one?"
Sarah suppressed her sigh. Now her best friend wanted their marriage to succeed. Was she the only one able to take a neutral position?
She glanced at her handsome husband, prone on the bed and felt the urge to join him there. Even she couldn’t stay neutral around him.
Still, she had something to get out of her system. "Could I have a moment alone with him, please?"
Karen eyed the two of them and smiled approvingly. "Sure, we’ll be outside the door."
Maxxa accepted Garran’s approving nod, and followed her to the hallway.
Once the door was shut, Sarah stepped closer to the bed. "How are you feeling?" she asked solicitously.
"Better, wonderful now that you’re here." He smiled bravely at her, letting the sheet slip down his bare chest. Sarah felt her resolve slip with it and swallowed hard. She wanted to run her hand down on his smooth skin and play with the hard brown nipples and curly hair that decorated it.
Instead she folded her arms.
"You might have told me about Karen and what really happened to the Earthforce ships."
His jaw clenched. "I couldn’t until I knew you would stay. It’s a secret."
"A secret every Gaian knows."
"Well, yes," he admitted reluctantly.
"So, you didn’t trust me with it? You called me your wife, were all set to drag me off to bed this afternoon, but couldn’t tell me that my best friend was still alive?" Inexplicably tears formed in her eyes and impatiently she dashed them away.
His mouth turned into a thin line. "I thought it was the best thing to do."
"Best for who, Garran? I’m beginning to wonder if you want this marriage of ours any more than I do."
"Of course I want it. Sarah, you’re being over-dramatic." He waved an impatient hand.
"Are you so sure, Garran? It seems to me you’ve done everything you can to sabotage it. You’ve lied to me, tried to rape me.…"
His skin flushed deep red and the monitors above his head beeped frantically as the blood pressure suppressors sped into action. Sarah watched their actions with a compliancy that alarmed her. Never before had she jeopardized a patient’s health.
But he was so infuriating!
The flush in his face faded, the suppressors completing their job. "I was not going to rape you. Gaians aren’t capable of rape!"
"Could have fooled me. What would you call what happened?"
"You weren’t saying no, Sarah. You wanted me as much as I did you."
"Perhaps I did," she admitted. She had wanted him. Still wanted him, the truth be told. "But tell me, would you have treated a Gaian woman the same way?"
He didn’t like that question, he flushed and didn’t meet her eyes. "I wouldn’t have had to," he said finally.
"Because a Gaian woman would have fallen into your arms, right? And if she didn’t you’d have put up with it because it was her choice. But I don’t warrant the same treatment, right Garran?"
He returned her glare. "That’s right, Earth woman."
Sarah’s tightly controlled temper snapped again. SLAP! Once more Garran’s cheek was bright red and Sarah’s palm ached from the force of a blow. He stared at her in shock, then raised tentative fingers to touch his injured cheek.
Tears streaming down her face, Sarah cradled her hand. "That was for lying to me, Garran, and for not trusting me. Maybe I’m not what you want in a wife, but that doesn’t give you the right to treat me this way. If I wasn’t good enough to be your wife then you shouldn’t have married me in the first place."
She shook a furious finger at him. "The lying ends now, the insults as well. Let me go or treat me with respect, those are your choices. I won’t accept anything else from you."
She turned on her heels and was out of the room before he could get a word in.
* * * *
"You want to explain to me why it is that the most gentle woman I know keeps hitting you, Garran?"
Karen’s voice grated on Garran’s nerves, grinding them nearly as harshly as his own thoughts were doing. "I don’t know, Doctor. Maybe she’s not as gentle as you think. Maybe I bring out her true nature."
She paused in mid notation on her p-tab, lips quirking as if she’d heard a joke she didn’t dare laugh at. Amusement twinkled in her eyes. "You could have a point. For one thing Sarah did a pretty good job of defending you against the assassin in that corridor. If she hadn’t you’d have died."
Garran shut his eyes. That had been a revelation, all right. Karen had gotten the entire story from Maxxa, and had, of course, delighted in sharing it with him.
Not only had his wife not been injured during the battle, but she’d saved his life, risking her own in the process.
So, of course, the first thing he did on seeing her was insult her. He rubbed his sore cheek. Next time maybe she’d hit the other one. This one was taking too much abuse.
Karen wasn’t finished talking. "Another change is in how she’s reacted to you. The Sarah I knew wouldn’t have let a man get close enough to attach to her. She never had a sensual nature."
"I’m not responsible for that. She’s been dreaming of a lover for years, long before I came along."
"Really?" Karen looked honestly surprised. "She certainly didn’t when I knew her."
"Maybe you didn’t know her as well as you thought. Or maybe she met someone after you left."
"Possible...." She didn’t seem convinced. "Turn over, I need to check the wound."
Garran acquiesced, turning carefully. He hadn’t seen anything of Sarah since she’d stormed out of the room hours ago. "Where is she now?"
"Maxxa took her back to your quarters. She said something about being desperate for sleep."
Probably desperate to dream of her unknown lover. For a moment Garran wished the man really was flesh and blood so he could punch him out. How hopeless was that, to be jealous of someone who didn’t even exist?
He could feel Karen’s light impersonal touch on his back. Sarah’s felt so different, leaving trails of sensation that fired his body. Just thinking about her.… Sweet Gaia. Good thing he was on his stomach so Karen couldn’t see how he was reacting.
Ping, ping.… Garran groaned and buried his head deeper into the pillow. He’d forgotten about the tattletale monitors.
Karen’s soft laughter told him he’d been caught. "Seems to me Sarah isn’t the only one having sensual thoughts."
"Just tell me I can go back to my quarters, Doctor." He needed to get back to Sarah before she did something like pack and move out.
"Not quite yet. You came close to dying, Garran. I want Jeffrey to look at this before you go back to annoying your wife."
He closed his eyes. "I’m not trying to annoy her, Karen. I want her to love me. How do I that?"
"You could try being lovable."
Lifting his head, he favored her with his best glare. "How would you expect me to go about doing that?"
"Treat her like a lover. For one thing, how about NOT calling her ‘Earth woman’ like it was something you found under your boot?"
He nodded. He hadn’t meant it that way, it was more a way to tease her, but he could see how Sarah might not see it as an endearment.
"You could even get her a present."
A present? That sounded like a good idea. "What kind of present?"
Karen stood with her hands on her hips. "Goodness, Garran, haven’t you ever given a woman anything? Think of something she’d like, something that shows what you think of her. What would send her the right message?"
Something she would like. Something that reminded him of her. Grinning, he turned over and checked the time. It was just coming up on first shift. People would be awake. "Get me a comm-link, will you Doctor?"
* * * *
Somehow the bed had seemed too empty without Garran’s presence, and for once she hadn’t even had her dreams to keep her company. Still exhausted, she struggled into her robe and slippers and opened the door to the lounge.
Sammul was on duty and had dealt with the outer door, collecting something from someone who saluted and left as soon as she appeared. As the big man turned, Sarah stared at what he had in his hands.
It was a plant, a big one in a pot. He put it down in the middle of the room and stood back as Sarah kneeled to examine it.
Glossy green leaves covered the branches, which, oddly enough, had thorns scattered along the woody stems. At the end of each branch was a flower, a living red-gold flower.
There was a note attached. "If I can’t take you to the roses, the roses will come to you. Thinking of you--your husband Garran."
Sarah fingered the petals of one of the roses, silky soft. The scent was amazing, heavy with a touch of sweetness, a hint of spice. "It’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen."
"It’s an Earth Flame rose. They are pretty," Sammul told her.
This was the flower that Garran had said reminded him of her. The color was similar to her hair. But the rest of the plant?
She laughed. "Maybe he’s saying I’m prickly." She gingerly fingered one of the sharp thorns, pricking her finger. She sucked the blood from the pin-point wound. "I guess he has a point."
Sammul seemed to be watching her. "Doctor Sarah, are you going to stay with the General?"
Sarah sobered. "I don’t know Sammul. Why?"
"Well, it’s just that you’re so good for him. I don’t think anyone has seen him as happy as he’s been with you. Ever since his wife and little girl died he’s been like a man dead. I think he blames himself."
She stared at him in shock. "Why would he do that?"
Sammul hunkered down on the floor next to her. "Well, I heard that he was supposed to be there that night but stayed on the ship instead. There was talk that maybe the Earth ships were targeting him."
Sarah’s blood ran cold. "They’d destroy a whole school just to kill one man?"
"They knew how to punish us for wanting our freedom. Killing the girls hurt us badly. So many guys wouldn’t get a wife and we need to be married." Sammul smelled one of the flowers. "I’m glad that the General got you."
She caught the wistful look in his eye. "You want a wife, too, Sammul?"
He grinned at her. "Yeah, when the time is right. I just hope the time is soon. Speaking of time, I suspect that we’ll be able to bring the General back here this morning so maybe you should get dressed."
Sarah took a glance at the chronometer, nodded and rose to her feet. "I guess I should."
Chapter Twenty-one
Garran walked into his rooms on his own two feet--at his insistence, arriving with an entourage. Jeffrey and Karen accompanied him, holding their daughter Killy, plus Symon and Bethan, with Maxxa’s hulking presence for protection. Both bodyguards took up positions at the door, a firm reminder to all that no further lapses in security would be permitted.
Neither man had forgiven Garran for sneaking out of the garden with Sarah.
Smiling, Sarah greeted her friends and cooed over the darling baby. Killy, every bit the charmer, sat placidly in Sarah’s lap, making soft noises until one noise and the subsequent smell made it clear that even Gaian babies needed their diapers changed. Karen swooped in and hauled her offspring off to the small sanitary off the side of the lounge.
Garran took that opportunity to take Karen’s seat, next to Sarah on the couch. She’d tried to ignore his pull on her, how strongly she wanted to be close to him. Calling to mind his scornful words from earlier helped...seeing the contrite and uncertain expression on his face now didn’t.
He looked sorry and Sarah had to fight the urge to take hold of the large hand resting on his thigh.
His glance took in the rosebush in the corner of the room, its blooms perfuming the air. "Did you like it?" he asked.
She nodded. "It was a lovely gesture."
Garran leaned forward. "Not a gesture, Sarah. A symbol. I want to start over. You were right, I’ve been going about this all wrong."
"Wrong? How?"
"You said I hadn’t seen you as a person as much as a prize, and you were right. I want you to want to be with me."
"I haven’t helped much. I shouldn’t have hit you."
She thought she saw his lips twitch. "True. Perhaps we can make peace with each other." He ran the back of his hand along her cheek. "I’m willing if you are."
"Here we go, all fresh and clean." Karen plopped little Killy into Garran’s lap. The eight month old stared up into his face and laughed, the sound so familiar that it caught Sarah by surprise. Garran gazed into the tiny child’s face obviously enraptured.
He’d make such a good father. The thought was immediate and compelling and Sarah’s heart melted watching her husband play peek and boo with the child.
Karen tapped her on the shoulder. "Sarah, I was wondering. Garran mentioned how you had a filestore with the latest Earth news. Could I borrow it for a while?"
"Sure."
Leaving Killy to entertain Garran, Sarah led the way to the bedroom. As Garran had before, Karen was impressed with the machine. "Just make sure that you keep it away from Garran, or you’ll find it in a hundred pieces in no time. The good thing will be that an improved one will be in your hands days later."
"The bad thing will be that my information could disappear. Not that some of it probably shouldn’t be lost," Sarah told her friend. "That broadcast of Garran’s for example."
Karen shook her head grimly. "I still can’t believe that Earthforce put that out on the global bandways. Without knowing that we were simply capturing and hiding ships and their crews, it would have sounded evil."
"It did what it was supposed to do. Make everyone on Earth so angry that Earthforce had no trouble continuing the war long past the point it made any sense to do so."
Sarah had thought long and hard about why that message from the Gaians had been publicly released and this explanation made the most sense. Earthforce hated to lose a fight and Earth’s government had wanted to keep hold of the Gaian colony and it’s wealth of untouched resources.
Riches and power--that’s what the war had been about. Only the Gaian respect for life and technical ingenuity had kept millions from dying. As it was, the losses were still hardest on the Gaian side.
And on Garran. Sarah sighed as she watched Karen hoist the filestore by its handle and carry it to the lounge. She lingered behind to take a long look at the holo-image of Garran’s family.
He’d lost everyone he’d loved and it had been hard on him, turned him into a man that would wage war. But now he wanted to move on, to create a new family with her. Garran wanted to be an engineer again, to build instead of fight.
He wanted children. She could see it in the way he held Killy, the longing in his face.
There were still problems between them, but he wanted to start over with her.
Sarah eyed the bed that had seemed so empty last night. One time sleeping with a man and she could no longer find comfort in sleeping alone.
Garran wasn’t going to change her life. He already had.
From the lounge the sound of cheerful voices came. Too many voices...she and Garran needed some privacy.
It was time to begin again.
* * * *
For a moment Garran wondered what Sarah had said that caused everyone to leave. One minute he’d been sitting with Killy in full gurgle on his lap, the room crowded with his friends, and the next thing he knew Killy was snatched away and he was looking at everyone’s amused faces as they slipped through the door.
Eve
n Sammul and Maxxa were going. He had to admit, he was impressed. Sarah clearly had methods of persuasion he’d yet to experience.
But he was beginning to look forward to them.
After showing the last of the visitors out, she turned to him and pointed to the bedroom. "In there, Garran."
Oho, it was like that, was it? He smiled but didn’t move. He wasn’t going to be that easy.
Sarah cocked one eyebrow and folded her arms. "I told everyone you needed some rest."
Leaning back, he stretched his legs out and linked his hands behind his head. "But I’m not tired."
Both of her eyebrows arched upward and she smiled. "Good."
Her one word answer had an immediate effect on him, his body tightening to the point of pain. It was all he could do to maintain his nonchalant posture. "Why don’t you come here, Sarah mine."
She did, moving slowly toward him from the door. Her hips twisted under the simple skirt and Garran found his eyes riveted to that seductive sway. His breathing quickened, keeping time with her metronome movement.
Heavenly Gaia, what a woman. Earth-born or not, it didn’t matter, not in the least. She was his woman and apparently intent on seducing him, not relying on him to make the first move. Not that he was objecting. The way she was moving right now, she could have first, last, and all moves in between.
It was all he could do to stay still and watch her approach without jumping off the couch and meeting her halfway.
She reached his legs and moved over them, slipping her knees up on the couch until she sat across his lap. The swells of her sweet breasts were within grasping distance, her face inches from his.
Garran gave up keeping his nonchalant appearance and focused on breathing instead. As she put weight in his lap, his pretense of disinterest couldn’t be maintained anyway. She shifted, moving across his arousal, and he groaned aloud.
With a glance at his crotch, Sarah smiled knowingly. "No, you don’t seem tired at all."
That was enough. Garran seized her upper arms and pulled her tight against him, feeling the hard pebbles of her nipples against his chest, the pillowing softness surrounding them. Her mouth was in kissing distance now and he wasted no time in taking full advantage, locking his lips onto hers.