“Come with me,” Jazon said as he stood and motioned her over to the lift.
Once they were in the transport and driving toward the nearest shops, Tracy asked, “Why did Captain Agata call you sir?”
Jazon parked in front of a covered market. “Because this is my mission,” he said before getting out and opening her door.
“It sounded like you outrank him the way he said it.”
“I do.”
His answer had her feeling even more ashamed of the way she had treated him. After almost an hour of shopping, Tracy had the clothing and toiletries she needed. Jazon tried not to watch her. Tracy’s emotions had become a part of him, and it was painful. He feared he had empathically bonded to a female who couldn’t stand the sight of him. Even when his shirt had been off at the beach, all he had sensed from her was embarrassment and shame. He had foolishly hoped she would soften towards him, but now he feared her prejudices ran too deep. Jazon’s gaze whipped to the dressing room where she had been changing. She was no longer there. Finding her mind, he looked through her eyes at her location and ran.
“Let me go!” Tracy yelled as she tried to squirm free of the hands holding her arms.
“Lady Tracy, calm down. Lord Radford sent us to rescue you on behalf of Master Strass,” one of the men said. Lord Radford was Strass’ father.
“I don’t need to be rescued! I broke it off with Strass. I’m going to attend the university!”
“Then, you may tell him that in person,” he said.
Tracy struggled to free herself from the two hired guards. Once they had docked, the guards had hunted Tracy down and dragged her from the clothing store’s back exit.
“You can’t force me to go with you! I’m an adult!” Tracy yelled.
The guards were angry that she fought them and that they were unable to subdue her mind.
“Lord Jarreau disagrees. He moves that your bereavement has made you irrational,” the man said as he and the other guard forced her into a transport.
Jazon waited until Tracy was safely within the transport before striking. “My lady says that she does not wish to go with you,” he said.
Tracy tried to open the door but was locked inside. Lord Radford only hired the most formidable guards, and there were two of them. They would beat Jazon to death in the alley, and it would be her fault.
“Jazon, run!” she yelled at him through the closed window.
One of the guards pulled a blaster. “Go on about your business, merchant. You are out of your depth. The young lady belongs to the son of a very powerful man.”
“Too bad he couldn’t afford guards with brains,” Jazon said.
“Excuse me?” one of the guards asked.
“You two boys are out here all alone with me. There are no witnesses. Give me the woman, and no one has to get hurt.”
“The suns must have gone to your head. Get out of our way,” one of the men said as he reached down to open the driver’s side door.
Like the strike of a snake, Jazon banged the guard’s head against the transport twice before shooting at the other guard while using the unconscious man as a shield. The guard charged at Jazon with his fist swinging. Jazon moved out of the way as the man’s fist hit her window, smeared it with blood, and rocked the transport with the force of his blow. Tracy watched in shock as Jazon quickly rendered the man senseless with one punch. Then, he reached down and placed his hands to either side of the man’s face. After several moments, he released him. Then, he punched him once more. When he opened the door for her, he offered her his arm.
“Let’s complete your transaction and return to the ship. Now, we can assume that Radford and Jarreau are working together.”
Tracy was too stunned to speak. In the clothing store, Jazon acted like nothing had happened. Then, back on the ship, he carried her things to his room.
“I’ll share my storage space with you. Please, excuse me.” He bowed to her and left.
Tracy stood there in complete turmoil. A few minutes later, she felt the ship lift off from the planet’s surface. It took her a while to regain her composure.
The men had gone to unload the large land transport and refused to allow her to help, so she busied herself in the medical bay and tried to make sense of her father’s notes. She kept hearing his voice in her mind telling her that nature always found a way to heal itself. One of the sea stars began eating a mussel. Staring at one of her father’s scribbled pictures, she began to think it looked more like an embryo than a sea star’s stomach.
“Oh.”
She could just make out the word “plasmin” which had been scribbled and was barely legible. She didn’t think anyone but she or her father could have made the word out. After researching the word, her father’s notes on sea star regeneration-associated protease began to make more sense to her, but it was beyond more than her very basic understanding. To a knowledgeable scientist, her father’s findings would be of interest, especially to one specializing in cloning.
Tracy stared sadly at the sea stars in their tank. He had found a link between sea star regeneration and the quick cell differentiation of humanoid embryos. She imagined that whatever exactly it was would mean clones that could be grown faster.
“Time for dinner,” Lieutenant Vasco said. “Is something wrong?”
Tracy looked up at the rather average-looking, brown-haired, brown-eyed man. “I think I successfully transcribed my father’s notes.”
“That is excellent. What did you find?”
Tracy told him along with Captain Agata and Jazon, who had joined them in the medical bay.
“With whom would your father have shared his discovery?” Captain Agata asked.
“He would have told the professor in charge of his department who may have shared the information with a wealthy academy donor, Lord Radford.”
“That boy’s father and the man who hired men to take you?” Jazon asked.
Tracy nodded. “Excuse me.” She got up and went to Jazon’s room to be alone. Had Strass only been with her because his father had told him to go out with her? She had never mattered to him. She felt so stupid. She washed her face and joined the others for dinner.
That night, like those previously, thoughts of Jazon kept her awake. She sat up on the couch and buried her face in her hands. Tired of her guilt and shame, she decided to make an effort to make things right between them. Getting up, she went to his door and signaled for entry. Jazon answered the door in an odd pair of knee-length pajama bottoms. She forced her eyes up from the line of dark hair trailing downward and up to his eyes.
“Can we talk?”
“Yes, Lady Tracy,” Jazon said.
Tracy blushed at his formality. He offered her a chair, but she stood and paced. “I need to ask your forgiveness. I’ve behaved terribly toward you, and my shame and embarrassment consume me. You have already saved me twice now, and all I’ve done is call you names and berate you. Every time you call me ‘lady,’ I cringe because I’ve not been a lady to you. I’ve been a beast. You are honorable and brave. I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive my ignorance. That you are a hybrid was terrifying to learn, but more frightening was the knowledge that I was ignorant and callous to think of you as I did. I was wrong about you, and I am deeply sorry.”
Tracy now looked at her toes peeking out at her from beneath the pantlegs of her pajamas. Bare man feet came closer. She focused on the short brown hairs on his toes. Jazon lifted her chin. He looked confused.
“Your feelings of embarrassment, shame, and disgust I thought were directed at me.”
Tracy shook her head. “I’m so sorry, Jazon. If my father were alive to meet you and had the chance to get to know you, the kind of person you are, and what you stand for, I think his opinion of hybrids would have changed.”
Jazon’s mind and emotions were chaotic.
“I assumed you knew my thoughts, but considered me to be beneath contempt for my behavior,” Tracy said.
“I h
ave shielded my mind from yours to protect myself. What I said to you in front of Strass, I meant. However, I know that there is no hope for one such as me to earn a place in your heart. You could never desire me, but all I can do is ache for you.”
Tracy could feel his naked, aching longing as it battered against her soul. She could see it in the black depths of his eyes. He had always been on the outside, shunned. She wouldn’t do that to him. His gaze slid from her down to the carpet between their feet. To him, that bit of carpeted space between them felt like parsecs.
“Jazon, why would you think that I wouldn’t want you? Aside from the noble characteristics which you have displayed, you are very attractive.”
“I’m a strong empath, Tracy. I shield my thoughts from you and yours from mine, but I can’t free myself from your emotions. Just this morning at breakfast, you felt disdain for me.”
Tracy thought back to that time. “No, I was thinking how frumpy in my ruined clothes I must have seemed to you.” Still, he didn’t look up at her eyes. “Jazon, I’ve laid awake at night longing for you.”
He shook his head. “Tracy, I forgive you for every cross word you’ve ever said to me. It’s alright. I’d be happy to start over and be friends. However, a beautiful young lady from a good family, such as yourself, could never want me. I’m just a hybrid. I wasn’t born. I was made. We were outcasts in this sector, illegal creations. My brothers and I have become citizens of the Parvac Empire. We have rights, now. It’s our home.”
Tracy had listened to his words, but there were some she just couldn’t believe. Incredulously, with her heart pounding, she said, “You think I don’t want you?”
The ache between her legs was hard and unbearable. She pushed her pajama bottoms and underwear down and then stood on top of them. Then, brazenly, she took his left hand in her right. Tracy pulled his hand between them and pressed his fingers to her wet, aching center.
“Look me in the eyes and tell me I don’t want you,” she said breathlessly.
Jazon was shocked from his own personal torment. Against his fingertips, he could feel her soft, wet folds. He looked up into Tracy’s eyes and caressed her with his fingers. She shuddered. Jazon dropped all of the telepathic walls he had erected between them and was bombarded by her truths.
“I wanted to take you in sand on the beach. I’ve wanted you each night.”
He took his fingers from her to lift her shirt from her. His cock threatened to tear itself free of his pajamas. He pushed them down his hips. Her eyes widened as she looked at his girth. Jazon was many times bigger than Strass. She thought maybe she should apologize to Jazon before they were intimate. Strass had only ever criticized her lovemaking efforts. Her eyes roamed over Jazon. She had never seen a man completely unclothed. Jazon’s lips touched hers, and her thoughts fled.
Never before had a woman wanted him. Tracy wanted him desperately. She had come to admire and respect him. He struggled not to bury himself within her. He would teach her to crave his touch. He had to make certain that no one would ever be able to please her to the extent that he could. Jazon lifted Tracy gently and laid her on his bed.
“You are so beautiful. I have longed to touch you, if only just your hand. Instead, I will caress you with my lips.”
Tracy shivered and tingled from his touch. “Oh! Jazon!” She clutched at his hair.
He lifted his mouth from where he suckled at her tender breast. Jazon grinned at her. “If you think that’s something, wait a moment.”
He held her gaze with his as he puckered his lips and blew air on her nipple. Then, he blew a trail of air down to her center. Tracy resisted as he pushed her thighs apart. A deep blush brightened her cheeks. Her eyes squeezed shut, and she shattered when he licked her. Tracy struggled to remain quiet with the force of her releases. The sheets were knotted in her hands. When she feared she couldn’t survive anymore, Jazon inched his way up her body. He placed his tip at her entrance, and as her folds clamped around his head, instinctually he telepathically bound her mind to his, and then he bound their souls as he surged forward. Several things seemed to happen at once. Jazon felt her hymen give way. Through his shock, he concealed the pain of it from her. Then, on that first thrust, he came hard. With the force of his release, surprise coursed through him. Tracy had lain with Strass, but the boy hadn’t had enough to take her virginity. Tracy was his. He would never let her go. Jazon felt humiliated as tears began to fall from his eyes.
“Jazon?”
“I’m sorry. My control faltered.” He pulled himself from her and laid on his back. He had mentally bound her to himself without her verbal consent.
Boneless, she straddled him and kissed away the dampness on his cheeks. He had bound them to each other. Without marriage negotiations or a contract, he had bound them together to satisfy a primal need. Jazon loved her. He couldn’t bear to be parted from her. She knew these things were true, because his thoughts had merged with her own. Empathically, she could feel the reason for his tears. No female had ever desired him as she did, had never seen him as her rescuer and hero. Tracy only saw him as the man he had become. “I love you, Jazon Ponidi. I won’t ever let you go, either.”
Now, his female was offering him comfort. “Tracy, I love you with all that I am or ever will be.” She nestled her head contentedly under his chin. “I vow to be the man you deserve me to be. I will make you proud to be my wife, if you will accept me.” Jazon held Tracy close and waited for an answer. Then, he turned carefully onto his side and pulled the blankets up over them both. He would have to wait until she awoke to ask her.
Chapter Six
When Tracy awoke, it was to a delicious soreness. A satisfied smile lifted the corners of her mouth. Jazon had claimed her as his woman. Joy unlike anything she had ever felt bubbled up inside of her. He was a solid, warm mass behind her verifying that the incredible passion he had shared with her the night before had been real. A blush heated her cheeks at the memory. Her hybrid warrior excelled at protecting her from sea snakes and commanding his own. Jazon’s laughter rumbled through his chest. Tracy lifted up and kissed his stubbly jaw. Then, she pressed her face to his neck and inhaled.
“You are even more beautiful when you wake. I had thought while you were sleeping that you were the most beautiful creation that I had ever before witnessed in the universes.” Jazon meant the words and through the new bonds they shared seemed to caress her soul with the power of his love. She laid against him and let his feeling for her wash her clean. “Tracy, take me as your husband. I beg you. Any attempt to live my life without you now would fail.”
She ran her palm over the hard muscles of his chest and moved the sole of her foot up and down against the crinkly hairs on his leg. She drew in a breath when her motions left her juncture open to his hairy thigh.
“You bound us together last night. I am yours, and you are mine. We can never be parted, or we would both be broken pieces. Our minds and emotions are joined like two sides of a shell. Our souls will create together our own pearl as we overcome each grain of sand together.”
Jazon, who Teagan had nicknamed Knife, died in Tracy’s arms. Her love, desire, and acceptance had killed him. Jazon tumbled Tracy beneath him and rolled pleasure through her as he made slow, passionate, love to her. After they had showered, dressed, and had breakfast, Jazon went down on his knees before her as Parvac males did.
“Lady Tracy Heintz, I formally offer myself and all that I am to you. Will you accept me as your husband?”
Tracy’s heart thudded in her chest as she looked down into Jazon’s black eyes, now ringed with white sclera. “I will.”
Her words were cut short as Jazon surged to his feet, took her into his embrace, and kissed her until she saw stars. He knew what she had been prepared to say. She was promising to be loyal and obedient as all Eriopis females vowed to their husbands. Jazon helped Tracy sit on the couch and then fumbled with his vid-screen. His hands shook and in embarrassment, he wiped at his tears.
�
��Allow me,” Captain Agata offered.
Jazon handed the device to him. Captain Agata had a wife who had given him a daughter. He pulled up a standard Parvac marriage contract. In the contract, Jazon gave Tracy the standard half of his credits. She would want for nothing. In his former life as an outcast mercenary with his brothers, he had amassed a fortune doing the dirty work of the rich and powerful. Captain Agata returned the vid-screen to Jazon. After giving it a glance, he pressed his palm to the screen and handed it to Tracy.
Her thoughts had cleared from his kisses. Being a pragmatic young woman, she sat and read the entire contract. “Jazon! This is too much! How do you have so many credits?” She was shocked by his wealth which pleased him.
“You will want for nothing. On Parvac, you may purchase whichever home you wish. There are universities in the Empire where you may continue your studies. You may do anything you desire. I am bound in service to the Imperial family. Where Princess Probus goes, I must go. When, like now, I am ordered to complete a mission, that is what I must do. You will have the freedom to either join me or remain in the Empire.” Jazon felt sweat beading beneath his armpits. What if she changed her mind?
“It is a standard marriage contract for the Empire, Lady Tracy,” Captain Agata said.
Tracy said, “I don’t need any enticements to marry you other than yourself.”
Jazon grinned at her as pride bloomed in his chest. “Then, accept me. To offer you less would be unseemly.”
Tracy pressed her palm to the screen. Jazon felt like he could fly. He smiled up at Tracy before hiding his face in her lap. He felt her fingers in his hair. Jazon had a true home all of his own in this woman. “I need to complete my mission so that I can take you home. I can’t wait to show you off at every ball.”
Tracy laughed. Jazon lifted his head and frowned. His expression prompted her to ask, “What’s wrong?”
“I need to keep you safe.”
“That’s what you’ve been doing. You saved me from Strass, a sea snake, and Lord Radford’s guards.”
Jazon: An Omnes Videntes Novel Page 5