Before taking a quick dip in the large pool that passed for a bathtub, she straightened their room, made the bed and folded the clothes that he’d left scattered around the floor. She was aware that as soon as she left, there would be someone in to clean up, but she felt compelled to do it herself. There were no maids in the orphanage and definitely not in her small apartment back in Michigan.
She donned her training jumpsuit. The special material let the wearer’s skin breathe while providing protection from the penetration of sharp objects. With her new jango strapped to her back and Lo’Ren by her side, she left for the training field.
She had to give it to Taio, ever since Lo’Ren started shadowing her, the other females in the palace were being nicer. Even now, as she walked through the halls, the females she passed nodded to her. Eva hesitantly returned their greetings. These same females had previously turned their noses up at her. What a difference a week made, she thought.
She didn’t know what the big deal was. So what if she liked to be able to take care of herself? Apparently, that belief made the local female population avoid her as if she carried the plague. Plus, if they could accept Lo’Ren, they should accept her. Lo’Ren was pink with hot-pink hair, for God’s sake!
“When is Taio going to give up this idea that his whore can train on the same field as warriors?” Coyl said as Eva led her training simulator out to the field.
Ignoring him as she had for the past couple of days was getting harder by the day.
“Whores are good for one thing only.” Coyl laughed, holding his hand between his legs.
As the days progressed, his audience had significantly dwindled from a handful to two. Briefly, she had thought to tell Taio but had decided against it. If Taio found out there was trouble on the field and it was because of her, he might take her training privileges away. If she had to suck it up and deal with this asshole, she would, in order to keep her training time.
She turned her favorite training simulator on and started through the warm-up exercise. Without warning, the simulator immediately jumped from the warm-up stage to stage four, the most advanced stage. She was in a world of trouble.
The large tail whipped around, knocking her down. She fell to the ground. The sand and dirt temporarily blinded her as it mushroomed around her. As it cleared, her vision was of a large, scaly foot that tried to smash her head in. She rolled out of the way. The simulator had definitely been tampered with.
“Help!” She leaped to her feet as she avoided the green foot that landed inches from her face.
As she struggled, Coyl and his friends laughed and smacked each other on their backs. Her only hope was to try to overtake the simulator. With every move she completed, she tried to turn the stupid thing off. Appearing out of nowhere, Rasha lunged at the simulator’s back and disengaged it. The simulator froze with its claws reaching out to grab her. She wanted to throw up.
“Eva, why would you set it for the most advanced setting? It could have killed you.”
She leaned over and put both of her hands on her knees, trying to catch her breath.
“You think? I set it to the warm-up stage. It jumped to level four without me programming it,” she said between hard breaths. She began coughing, her body trying to clear the dirt, dust and sand from her lungs.
“It cannot jump to level four without being preset for it.” Rasha tinkered with the simulator’s control console.
“I didn’t set it to kill me.” Her voice dripped with sarcasm.
Straightening, she brushed the sand and dirt from her clothes. Aside from a few scratches and small cuts, there wasn’t any major damage done. Nothing that couldn’t be explained away as regular training injuries. Taio would not hear about this if she could help it.
Coyl and his friends moved farther off, still laughing and smiling, clearly finding the humor in her near-death experience.
Rasha followed Eva’s eyes to the laughing men and started toward them.
“Rasha, please don’t go over there.” She ran to his side, pulling at his arm. “If you do, it’ll only cause more trouble for me on the training field.”
She trotted next to him as he continued his pursuit. “More trouble than trying to kill you?” he asked.
He was right. She wanted to train and not get killed in the process. She nodded her head in response and stopped. Rasha made his way over to Coyl in five long strides.
“You will go to your room and stay there. You will await my direction,” Rasha said. Coyl turned in her direction and growled. Rasha pulled his jango from its sheath and pointed it at him. “If you come near her again, I will kill you.”
“You aren’t going to make me leave the palace for that whore!”
“Leave the field, Coyl, and take your accomplices with you.”
“I was just playing a joke!”
“A joke? She could have been killed!”
“That’s why the training field isn’t meant for females or whores.” Coyl spit on the ground. “Taio should learn to keep his whores in his bed. His father always knew the place of whores.” With that, Rasha smacked the guard with the broad side of the weapon, sending him flying.
She turned and walked away, feeling embarrassed and humiliated. Taio was sure to forbid her from the training field now.
Chapter Fourteen
Eva stood at the kitchen door, feeling defeated and depressed. She had surely lost her only outlet on this rock. If she were home, she would have opened up the fridge and let loose.
But she wasn’t home, and instead of her refrigerator door, her feet led her to the next best place, the palace kitchen. She could have gone back to the royal quarters with Lo’Ren and pigged out, but if Taio was there, she would be forced to explain what happened. Right now, she wasn’t in the mood.
“Eva, what are you doing here?” Eva blinked in surprise as a round woman who towered over her turned her way. “Why aren’t you on the training field?”
Hours later and with a belly full of a substance close to ice cream, she officially felt better. The cooks had been more than welcoming to her. Now all she had to do was go back to the training field, although it was the last place she wanted to be. But of all the stupid things she could have done, she had forgotten her jango there. Taio had it specially made for her, she wasn’t going to be humiliated and lose her jango all in the same day.
Maybe I can ask Ship to have Lo’Ren pick it up for me? Lo’Ren had left with a stomachache a little while ago. The chilled milk substance hadn’t set well in her new friend’s belly.
Turning the corner, she stopped short of colliding with the last person she had ever wanted to see again, Coyl.
Her eyes immediately surveyed her surroundings. Coyl had two other guards flanking his sides. The four of them were the only people in the hallway. His eyes were bloodshot red and focused on her.
Shit, trouble. Where the hell is Taio?
“Excuse me.” She tried to bypass him and the other guards.
When she stepped to the side, Coyl stepped, blocking her. She pursed her lips and stepped left; he growled low in his throat and again matched her step.
“Let me pass. I don’t want any more trouble than you’ve already caused.” She tried again to step around him. He blocked her path and chuckled.
“You are not going anywhere, whore,” Coyl snarled.
Her gut churned. She knew instantly Coyl had come looking for a fight. She could handle one, maybe two, but three royal guards? She’d seen them train, royal guards were some of the best warriors she had ever seen. She straightened her back. All she had to do was hold them off until Taio came.
“Call me what you want, but we both know who has the pussy. I don’t need to bring reinforcements to fight you.”
Coyl laughed again. “I didn’t bring them to help me fight. I brought them so we could take turns breaking you.” He grabbed and fondled his cock. The other two laughed in unison, slapping each other’s backs. “We are going to use you up, whore.”
<
br /> Eva tsked and turned to the other men. “If he promised you that this would be easy, he lied.” She put one hand on her hip and the other on her chin. “And maybe when I’m done breaking all of you, I’ll give you over to the rest of the guards for a good fucking.”
All three snapped their eyes back to her, one letting out a feral growl. She loosened her stance, expecting it to get worse before it got better.
One of the males looked over at Coyl warily. That was all she needed to determine he was the weak link of the group.
Light on her feet and without making a sound, she sidestepped and planted a fierce kick to his knee. Crack. The guard’s howl erupted throughout the air.
The kick shattered his kneecap. Her face scrunched in anger, knowing that all it would take was a few hours in the healing tank to completely heal him. Bummer. At least this fool would be in excruciating pain until he got there.
That thought gave her pause to smile.
“Crazy bitch,” Coyl snarled. His friend lay writhing in pain on the ground.
“Just in case you need help keeping score, I have one and you have zero,” she said.
Coyl rushed forward with a war cry.
She stepped to the side as he ran past her, planting a hard elbow on his back, hitting him in the kidney.
“Humph,” he said.
The next guard swung at her head. Ducking under his blow, she grabbed his testicles firmly in her hand, gripping harder against his struggles. Obviously she didn’t have a firm enough hold on him if he still thought to move on his own, she thought.
She used his testicles to steer him around, keeping him planted firmly between her and Coyl. Every time Coyl tried to come around, she moved the guard to block his way. Using the guard as a barrier, Eva reached around with her free hand and punched Coyl, knowing each punch that connected would do enough damage to eventually slow the crazed guard down.
She punched and punched, using the unfortunate guard as a shield, until finally the brute begin to sway. The pain in his testicles too much for him to bear any longer, he dropped to his knees and slumped over.
Coyl looked at the man on the floor, then back to Eva.
“Two to zero.” She plastered a smile back on her face.
Coyl flared his nostrils, clenched his fists and slowly advanced forward. Eva kicked at him, trying to land another blow to the knee. What worked for one might work for the other.
No such luck. Coyl caught her foot.
“Did you think it was going to be that easy?” he said mockingly.
“Yes.”
Using his hand to stabilize her foot, she swung her body around, grabbing his shoulders and propelling herself up to his neck, sandwiching it between her thighs. Startled, he let her go and reached up to grab her legs. Tightening her hold, she used her knees as a vise around his neck.
Taking his head in both her hands, she dug her fingers in his hair. With one fluid movement, she jerked his head to the right.
Coyl went still and dropped slowly to the floor.
She made the slow descent with him. Only after her feet touched the ground, with Coyl’s head hitting right after, did she look up to see Taio, Rasha and Jor’Dan standing in front of her.
Taio surveyed the scene before him. One of his men lay in a crying heap, holding his knee. The man obviously needed medical attention, but he could wait a little while longer.
The other man was unconscious, his hands between his legs and knees drawn up in a fetal position.
Coyl was no doubt dead. Taio had watched the light leave the guard’s eyes as Eva snapped his neck.
Then there was Eva. She stood with her legs spread apart, arms at her sides. Her head was down slightly, her hair in a disheveled mess around her face and her eyes watching him.
It was the same look she had when he found her on Xenaris. Her mind still in battle mode, not yet fully back from where it had gone. Locking his eyes with hers, he walked forward slowly. Her breath increasing with each step he took.
Reaching her, he picked her up and held her in his arms. Prepared for her to fight against him, he held her tight. Her body tensed briefly, and then with a slight shudder, she began to shake violently in his arms.
“Clean up this mess and get them to the infirmary.” He walked away with Eva safe in his arms. “Slowly.”
Without a word, he walked through the palace halls. He didn’t expect her to talk to him and he didn’t try to make her. Instead, she kept her head buried in his chest and her body trembled.
After Rasha told him what happened, Taio had gone to Coyl’s room to ban him and those who helped him from the palace. Only after reaching an empty room did Ship put out an alert. He, Rasha and JorDan had run through the palace to save her. The entire time, he thought his heart would explode. The thought of not reaching her in time had him in a panic.
Holding her tighter, he brought her closer to his body. He spent the entire trip cradling Eva in his arms, thinking about how vulnerable she actually was. He was responsible for her and had almost lost her.
Everyone in his path moved out of the way. They didn’t need to know what transpired, but they knew something was wrong. Their king had murder in his eyes. He reached his private quarters and paused only momentarily as the scanner made its verification. Mazel met him at the door, but he shooed her away before continuing to his bedroom.
Once there, he gently laid her on the bed. She put her head in her hands, hiding her face from him. He tugged gently at them, trying to move them out of his way, but she held them firmly in place. Soft sobs came from behind them. Leaning down, he placed a light kiss on her shoulder.
Then another.
And another.
He trailed kisses all down her arm. Lingering at her elbow, he gave it a little nip, working his way to her hand. He trailed kisses from her wrist to the tip of her fingers. There, he slowly let his mouth cover two of her fingers and pulled them between his lips, running his tongue across the tips. He slid his tongue between two fingers and flickered where they joined, feeling her fingers go slack in his mouth.
From behind a hand, she moaned, until finally her hands slid away from her face, revealing dark lashes that were wet with tears.
He abandoned her fingers and leaned over her. “You are so beautiful, little one.”
He placed light kisses around her eyes and followed the tear tracks down her face to her swollen lips. Releasing a groan, he pulled her swollen bottom lip into his mouth, sucking and pulling. “You are so very strong.”
“I was so scared.” Eva reached up and cradled his head with her hands. “I thought they were going to kill me.”
“I am sorry that I was not there to protect you.” He stroked the side of her cheek. “Why did you keep this from me, little one? I would have banished Coyl from Sonis the first time he started trouble.”
“I’m sorry. I should have told you. But I was afraid you would stop me from training.”
He cocked his head to the side. “I might have.” When she started to object, he cut her off. “That was before. You have proved to be one of the finest fighters on Sonis.”
“You really think so?” she whispered.
“One of the best. But you are still mine to protect. I won’t let anyone hurt you.”
“Promise?”
“Yes.”
He crushed his mouth over hers, parting her lips with his tongue, his meeting hers. She pulled him closer to her. Her tongue tangled with his. Taio slid his hand under her shirt, finding her breast.
Eva moaned as he touched and caressed her, slowly massaging, enjoying the feeling of her soft skin against his large, calloused hand. When he took the pad of his rough thumb and teased her erect, plump nipple, Eva moaned under his touch and arched her back.
“Let go. I will protect you. You will never be alone again,” he whispered.
He latched on to her other nipple, pulling and sucking, as she buried both hands in his hair. Taking his hand, she guided it to the spot he loved to ru
b most. Her clit. There, he slowly rubbed the hard nub. Moaning, she spread her legs wider before finally wrapping her ankles around his back.
He used his fingers to massage her nub and then dipped them deep into her weeping sheath. Her walls gripped his finger as he slid in and out. She bucked beneath him, bringing her hips up to meet his finger, begging for more. He sucked and teased her nipples, enjoying how she reacted to him.
Only for him.
He slid another finger inside to join the other. She instantly threw her head back and gasped, her walls contracting around them. Gliding them in and out a few more strokes before he finally had enough, he couldn’t wait any longer.
She let out a small whimper of protest as he removed them.
“Please…more.”
Instead of giving her what she begged for, he moved onto his knees. He grabbed the top of her pants, pulled them down and flung them across the room. He discarded his own shirt and pants even faster. His cock bounced and twitched, anticipating the snugness and warmth that awaited him.
Eva’s eyes glazed over as she stared at him. His muscles flexed as his body readied for her, moving in for the kill. Positioning himself between her legs, he held her by the knees and urged them to open even farther to accommodate his size. His cock grew even harder as he watched her dripping wet pussy.
Leaning forward, he pressed the head against her tight, slick opening. He leaned in more, pressing the head farther inside. He inhaled sharply as the head finally breached the tight entryway of bliss. He pulled out just a little and pressed forward again, going a little deeper than before.
She whimpered as he continued his merciless descent until he was halfway in. Only then did he stop, close his eyes and let them roll back in his head. He could travel the universe and never find a pussy as good as hers.
Dangerously Mine Page 9