The door behind Rurik opened just as they came abreast and Krat stepped through into the passageway.
“Sir, the king and Lady Beatrice’s legal guardian are here, waiting for you in your private quarters.”
Rurik frowned.
“We’ll return to my ship until dinnertime, I think,” Nadiah’s father announced. “It will give both you and Nadiah time apart to think through the consequences of your choices. I promise on my honor to return for a shared meal. I do not want to leave things unsettled.”
“No.” Rurik caught Nadiah’s hand up in his. “Nadiah, we need to speak privately before you go.”
“You can talk to her at dinner,” her father countered. “You two are not going somewhere alone right now.” Did he know that talking would be rapidly passed over for physical relief? Probably.
And why was the king here now, along with Beatrice’s guardian? Why couldn’t everyone just let Rurik and she decide their own fate, their own future? Nadiah felt a wave of exhaustion flood through her. After two days of being lonely, now she actually thought she might need some time alone—away from her father and maybe even away from Rurik.
She squeezed Rurik’s hand to reassure him.
“You go speak to your father. I’ll go with mine and…” she gestured down at the oversized shirt she was still wearing… “and get properly dressed. I promise we’ll return for the third meal of the day.”
She’d get dressed up in something from her mother’s closet. If she was going to meet the king and face Beatrice again, she wanted to look her best. At the moment, she looked like she’d been kidnapped and sexed up. She was going to need a little more polish to get through the evening.
***
After a long bath, a session under the hairstyler and a raid into her mother’s onboard closet, Nadiah felt like a new woman. She gazed at the petite woman in the mirror and a sophisticated, sexy woman gazed back out at her. Her hair was swept up in a coiled twist that emphasized her long neck. She was still short, of course, despite shoes that also added three inches. She wondered what Rurik would think when he saw her dressed like this? She twirled and watched the glittering, silky fabric of the dress, the color of the Illysian tropical seas, swirl around her ankles. She was looking her best now, something she felt would be needed in the next few hours.
At the knock on her chamber door, she crossed the room and hit the panel button to open the door. Her father stood, equally handsome in his formal attire.
“Ready for the spectacle,” he asked.
“As I’ll ever be. Is Uncle Kugen coming?”
“No. He’ll stay with our ship and monitor the situation from afar.” Kugen had the enhanced capability to read minds at a great distance.
She followed her father out to the hopper, they boarded and rode the short distance to the Anskarian royal warship in silence. Before they disembarked though, Nadiah’s father stopped her.
“Nadiah. I hate to say this, but I know that if I didn’t, your mother would eventually give me grief over it.”
“Yes?”
“I didn’t conduct a deep reading, out of respect to you, but I sense Rurik’s feelings are torn between his desire for you and for his duty to his family.”
Her chest constricted. “And you think, now that his father and Lady Beatrice’s guardian are here, he’ll cave under pressure to mate with her instead of me?’
“Actually, I don’t believe he wants that to happen, and his feelings for you are genuine, otherwise I wouldn’t even still let you be here. But I do think that the contract his family has signed concerning their planned mating might be harder to dissolve than he thinks.”
She felt tears welling up. “You want me to be prepared to lose him?”
“No, I want to know whether you want me to…intervene.”
“And by intervene?”
“Use my powers.”
“Oh, Daddy,” she choked up.
“Now, now. No tears. We don’t want that beautiful face to look anything but radiant when we open the door.”
He gently brushed away a single tear that clung to an eyelash, ready to fall.
“By the way, I want you to know that I’ve never seen you look lovelier. You are so much like your mother. I only want you to be happy. If Rurik is what will make you happy, I want to do what I can to give that to you.”
She smiled softly. “He’s not a possession, Daddy.”
“He is to you. He’s your heart, isn’t he?”
Nadiah caught his big hand in hers and raised it to her lips to press a kiss against it.
“When I was waiting for him to come out of medical, I wondered a lot whether the explosive way he made me feel was just physical chemistry, my out-of-control mating call affecting us both. But while we were held captive, he was so gentle and caring towards me. It kept reminding me of the way you care for Mom. Then, when we were rescued, he didn’t let go of me until he had to. Even when they were prepping him for medical, he was issuing orders for Krat to protect and care for me.”
“How did he do that?”
“I don’t know actually,” she said, well aware that Rurik had seemed to be communicating with just his mind. “Krat referenced some kind of artificial communication technology.”
“You probably don’t know, since you haven’t had time alone to talk about it, but…Rurik’s mother is actually from Kadis. Dugar is one of the planets that took in refugees during the mass extermination era that took my father’s life.”
“What? Why didn’t he say…”
Her father grinned. “I think he probably had other things on his mind.”
“So, he’s telepathic too?”
Her father shook his head. “I suspect he’s not a strong telepath, Nadiah. And there is little chance he will ever be able to read you. I suspect he’s only able to project his thoughts to a select few individuals who probably have some Kadisian blood in them as well. But now that you mention a technological device, I will do a little digging to find out if the Anskarians have developed some way to enhance mild abilities, and to expand the skill to non-psychics.”
“Like Krat?” She had wondered at the man’s slightly darker features. Rurik was as light as a humanoid could be, so his mother’s darker blood must have be hidden under the more dominant Anskarian traits. If she and Rurik had children, they’d likely be pale and blonde as well.
Her father looked deep in thought. A sign that he could be reaching out and searching the minds of individuals on the Anskarian battleship. Then he shook his head again and looked down at her, apparently setting his concerns aside for the moment.
“Ready, Pumpkin?”
She nodded. The hopper’s side panel raised, and her father jumped down, turning to hold his hand out to help her down.
Rurik waited alone on the tarmac for them, looking deeply relieved to see them, to see her. He didn’t take his eyes off of her. Her father gallantly handed her over to Rurik and turned to stroll ahead towards the central ship, diplomatically giving them a little privacy and space.
Relatively alone together for the first time since that morning, Nadiah discovered what it felt like to be assaulted by the man who loved her. Heedless of the disruption it did to her perfect hairstyle, Rurik yanked her into his arms, cupped the back of her head and pulled it to the perfect angle for a deep kiss. And what a kiss!
When he finally relented and released her, she knew she was looking far less cool and sophisticated.
“Nadiah, you look utterly beautiful.” Rurik raised her hand to his lips, but instead of kissing the top, as she knew was custom, he turned her hand over and kissed the delicate skin just above and inside her wrist. A shiver of desire coasted over her. The flush that warmed her body wasn’t all biological mating urges; it was emotional too.
Rurik look handsome in his dress uniform of black and silver. Very princely. Nadiah felt again the uncertainty of being the daughter of a rogue slave-rescuing father with no royal blood and a runaway Earthling. It must have
shown on her face.
“You will make the most stunning princess in the history of the Anskarian reign. I will be the envy of my brother and all my cousins.”
Nadiah took a deep breath. “If your family allows it.”
Rurik winked at her. “If you’d just mated me when I wanted, we’d already have cleared that hurdle. But don’t worry. I’m am confident that you will charm my father, who has a penchant for Kadisian women, and no matter what, your father will ensure his daughter’s happiness. Much in the way that I will.”
“You still want to mate with me then.”
Rurik looked surprised.
“Do you think my intentions are so fickle that my declaration to mate you isn’t serious? Strike that. Of course, you would. I’ve proved unreliable in my contract with Lady Beatrice.”
He had the integrity to look embarrassed. His pale skin did little to hide the telltale red in his cheeks. Even though he was a huge warrior, and a prince, he was still young and developing his confidence.
“Nadiah, it is I who am worried that you won’t mate with me. I’ve been less than honorable towards you. I’ve taken advantage of your innocence and our circumstances. I worry that you may still come to resent me for what has happened.”
“Rurik. When I think of leaving you, I can’t breathe. When I think of you mating with someone else, I want to fling myself into a sun and burn away the pain that I feel. I can’t just get on a ship and go back to the life I had three days ago. I’m not that innocent girl anymore.” Just a short time away from him again had made her realize how much losing him would hurt.
“And that’s my fault.”
She laid her hand over his mouth. “No. It’s my fault for going off without letting my father and mother know. My entire life, they’ve drilled into me the dangers of the galaxy. I don’t know what truly compelled me to steal away on the stinger that day, but some part of me feels like it was because I was ready to find you. I was ready to become an adult. To form a relationship of my own. And then, I met you and despite our circumstances, you made me feel less alone, you made me feel safe.”
“I will always keep you safe.”
Nadiah smiled up at her white knight. “I believe that. It’s just I’m not sure what I bring to this mating.”
Rurik stepped back and held out her arms for his perusal. She knew she was bright and vibrant from the top of her shiny red head to her teal gown to her gold and silver sandals.
“You bring joy, and noise, and color, and excitement into my life.” He caught a loose red curl tumbling free from her updo and twirled it around his finger. “You bring yourself. When I’m with you, I feel hot, caught up in emotions I have only read about in books. My people are great warriors, but they are cold, like our planet. Maybe it is because you remind me of my mother—warm, soft, a little bit messy, smelling like flowers—and, unlike my mother, you have the sexiest body I’ve ever seen, I know I cannot be happy without you now.”
“Oh, Rurik, that’s…ah…sweet.”
“We should make our way to the dining hall,” he murmured as he led her to approach her father, who waited at the entry to the main passageway.
She clutched Rurik‘s hand tightly, so he squeezed it back reassuringly. They moved closer toward her father.
“It’s true that the meeting my father and Lord Halten, Lady Beatrice’s guardian, was difficult, Rurik told her. “They didn’t understand why I was breaking the contract. But my father mated for love himself, bucking his father’s request for an official, royally-contracted mating. He could not deny his eldest son the choices he’d made himself.”
Nadiah felt herself breathe more easily at Rurik’s explanation. If the king mated for love, he would want the same for his son.
“We are not completely in the clear yet,” Rurik cautioned. “Lord Halten and Lady Beatrice still seem to think they can force the contract forward. I imagine, your father could assist us with the matter.”
“I assure you,” he promised as they neared her father, “the royal family of Dugar would be most grateful to their blood allies, including other KhaRya from Kadis. Rather conveniently, Lord Halten and Lady Beatrice are unaware of your father’s special extended abilities.”
“It’s your decision, Nadiah,” her father told her, overhearing the last part of their conversation. “But, if I do change the outcome of these negotiations, then, sweetheart, you’ll have to make a decision too. It’s not fair for us to terminate the political contract, if you aren’t going to choose to mate Rurik yourself. And frankly, the sooner you follow through, the better. I’m not going to follow Lord Halten and Lady Beatrice around to make sure they don’t get their minds changed back the normal way once they get back down to Dugar.”
Nadiah nodded. She knew in her heart that she wouldn’t have come back to Rurik if she didn’t want to mate with him. And if he was willing to risk his own secret by risking her father’s then she was willing to risk it too.
“Let’s do it,” she said, glancing shyly up at the male who she’d only known a few days.
The joy that lit his face lit her heart.
“Let’s get through this meal as fast as possible,” Nadiah’s father grumbled. “I’m missing my own mate, Nadiah.”
“Your father might be the Slaver Slayer, but I’ll be forever grateful to those who captured us and put us into a cell together,” Rurik said.
Nadiah grimaced and looked around to see if anyone besides her father had overheard. “How did you know that my family fights against the slave trade?” she whispered.
“Your father may be underestimating his future son-in-law’s telepathic abilities.”
“You can read my mind?” Nadiah exclaimed in dismay.
Rurik smiled wickedly. “No, not your half-Earthling mind, Freckles. Only the minds of some powerful KhaRya.”
Her father scowled.
She couldn’t stop the giggles that rose up, nor the pleasure she felt when they made Rurik yank her close for another breath-stealing kiss. Apparently, this telepath had the same irresistible attraction to Earthlings as her father did.
***
Maybe traveling long distances in space wasn’t so bad when one had a lover to share it with, Nadiah thought as she gazed out through the window in her private suite on her father’s ship. The constellation Crennellaian spread out in all its dynamic beauty before her. The colors varied from pink to purple to deep indigo. It made her think of a spread of Pomorian posies blinking bright on a shadowed Illysian hillside. Or all the lights that had decorated everything on Dugar during the Julan celebrations. She and her father had gone down to the planet to share in the culture’s winter festival for two long, but luxurious weeks. Rurik’s parents had embraced her and accepted her into the family without reservation. Meanwhile, her father had been busy with his undercover dealings and she suspected that the Anskarians were now invested in the work to eliminate the galaxy of slavery.
But this was her honeymoon, not a mission. She’d have to take Rurik out to the Illysian high country after they landed to show him all the colors.
Under her head, Rurik’s furry chest rose steady and sure. She stretched luxuriously against his strong, warm body, his beefy muscles relaxed in sleep. She decided she’d like to wake him up, so she shifted down between his legs and contemplated his half-erect cock. She cupped her hands around the base and it immediately swelled up, rising in stiff magnificence. She leaned down and took a long lick up one side.
That’s as far as she got before he hauled her up his chest and kissed her soundly on the lips.
“My sweet wife is insatiable,” he murmured into her neck. “She won’t even give her mate time to recover from the last bout of lovemaking. A man needs a solid sleep. Especially if he’s going to meet his mate’s mother in just a few hours.”
“We’ll never get a moment alone once we reach Illysia. I want to take full advantage of our time on the ship.”
“In that case,” Rurik rolled her over and took charge. �
�I think I need to engage in one more work out with my recovering tongue.”
He slid down between her legs, pushing them up and out. His thumbs spread her petaled lips open for his tongue and he licked down the length of her opening and back up, circling her bud. Trapped on a ship in the dark with a giant warrior wasn’t so scary after all.
About the Author
Want to escape? Selene Grace Silver writes contemporary, paranormal and science fiction romances that follow extraordinary characters on the path to love. She earned an MA in creative writing and is a member of the Romance Writers of America. Publishing romances since 2012, She believes in two true things: love and the power of stories.
Her science fiction series StarDaemon explores the love lives of a group of hybrid humanoids rebelling against institutional slavery during an intergalactic political collapse. Her paranormal series Witches and Warlocks of Los Angeles shadows modern day sorcerers who must master their powers to shift dimensional reality and find their soul mates, in order to defeat a centuries-old enemy. Finally, her contemporary romances follow lovers traipsing across the geographical and geological boundaries of the Western Hemisphere, from the sunny coasts of Southern California to the rainy Highlands of Scotland, to the frozen plains of the Upper Midwest to the cobblestone streets of Europe. No matter where Selene’s characters go, their journeys end in love.
Website: http://selenegracesilver.com
Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/Selene-Grace-Silver/e/B009FCUFIQ/
The Climate
of Love
Blaire Edens
Prologue
UNITED CITY, SECTOR 4, EARTH 2567
“She’s the perfect candidate: a career military scientist who specializes in environmental science, a tested pilot and astronaut.” The colonel closed the folder and dropped it onto the mahogany desk. His voice was clipped and direct. “I think you should choose her.”
Baby, it's Cold in Space: Eight Science Fiction Romances Page 41