The first person she saw was Rio.
Talan stopped, surprised. She’d come to see Judith, thinking that Rio would be gone by now.
Rio stood up, held out his arms. “Hey, rich girl.” He gathered her to him in a hard hug.
Talan thought about her last meeting with him, and her face heated, but she was in too much of a rush to worry about it.
“Rio,” she said. “Can I talk to you?”
He grinned. “Any time, babe.” He locked his arm around her and led her to a table in the corner. Judith, with a smile of welcome, brought them drinks.
Rio grinned at Talan and leaned toward her. “Please tell me you want me to fuck your ass again.”
“No. Although—” she moved her glass, blushed “—that was nice.”
“It was more than nice. But what did you want to ask me?”
“Whether you knew a Sha reem called Brandt. A level one.”
Rio lifted his brows. “I know him. Not well.”
“Do you know where he lives? I want to talk with him.”
He looked still more perplexed. “Why do you want a level one after you’ve had a three?”
“Because I want to ask him a question,” Talan said. “If you know where I can find him, please tell me.”
Rio drank his ale, closed his hand over hers. “I’ll do better than that. I’ll take you there.”
He led her to an apartment that was not far from the bar. They walked, Talan telling the bodyguards to take the litter and go to a nearby rest station to wait for her.
The day was hot, with the sun scorching overhead and the wind dry and scalding. Talan’s sun-protective clothes helped, but she was still sweating by the time they reached a somewhat faceless white building.
A little courtyard in the center, unprotected by shields, provided tiny relief from the heat. The courtyard held a fountain and greenery that someone obviously cared for.
Brandt lived in the apartment at the back of a breezeway. Rio rang the buzzer and the door opened right away.
“Rio?” A tall man with Sha reem-blue eyes gazed at them from the doorway. He had chestnut brown hair and his face bore the sculpted handsomeness of the Sha reem. He was obviously older than Rio, but not by much.
“What brings you here?” he asked Rio. He was curious, not unfriendly.
“My lady does,” Rio said. He put his arm around Talan. “She wants to ask you something.”
Brandt gestured them inside. “Come in out of the heat. What can I do for you, my lady?”
Rio ushered Talan through the doorway, then the door thankfully closed against the heat.
Talan brushed the sand from her robes. “Actually, I wanted to ask—”
She stopped. A lady had come through a door behind Brandt. She was a pretty woman in her forties, dressed in a sleeveless tunic. Her brown hair, which bore only a thread or two of gray, had been pinned up in a casual twist.
She looked at Talan, and her brows rose the slightest bit.
“Lady Ursula?” Talan asked.
The lady smiled. “I used to be called that. Who are you?”
“My name is Lady Talan d’Urvey. I am Lady Petronella d’Naris’ adopted daughter.”
Her look turned astonished. “You are Lady Pet’s daughter? My, how time flies. I saw you once at a charity ball. You were a tiny girl, so adorable.” She smiled, returned to the present. “What brings you here?”
“This.” Talan pulled a disk from her robes. “It’s your diary. I found it when I was researching.”
Lady Ursula took it gingerly. “My diary.” She looked at it a moment. “Oh, my. I forgot all about this.”
“What is it?” Brandt asked in his Sha reem-deep voice.
“I wrote everything down about how I met you.” Lady Ursula’s cheeks grew pink. “And the few weeks after I met you.”
Brandt looked intrigued. Rio grinned. “Ooo, I’d like to read that.”
“No,” Talan, Brandt, and Lady Ursula said at the same time.
“Fine.” Rio held up his hands. “Everyone gets to have fun but me.”
Talan ignored him. “The diary ended, but—” She looked from Lady Ursula to Brandt. “It didn’t end, did it?”
Brandt slid his arm around Lady Ursula’s waist. She snuggled back against him. “No. It didn’t,” she said.
“You stayed with him,” Talan said.
“She did,” Brandt answered. He pressed a kiss to Lady Ursula’s hair. “Lucky for me.”
“I loved him,” Lady Ursula said simply. “When I realized that, I packed my things, said goodbye to Lady Ursula and social acceptance and came here to beg him to let me stay.”
Brandt smiled. “Which I did. Gladly.”
“You’ve never regretted it, have you?” Talan asked.
“No.” She touched Brandt’s cheek. “Never.”
“I’m glad,” Talan said softly.
“Did Lady Petronella send you down here?” Lady Ursula asked. “To look at Sha reem? She was the only one I knew of who didn’t pretend that Sha reem did not exist. She was always an odd sort, was Lady Pet.”
Talan gave her a pained smile. “She still is an odd sort. But no, I really came to give you your diary. And discover whether you had a happy ending. I’d hoped so.”
“I did.” She patted Brandt’s hand where it rested on her waist. “I highly recommend falling for a Sha reem.” She glanced at Rio. “Is he the one for you?”
“No,” Talan said quickly.
“I hope not,” Brandt said.
“Hey,” Rio protested. “Standing right here!”
“No,” Talan said again. “It’s Rees.”
Brandt’s eyes widened. “Rees?”
Lady Ursula looked puzzled. “Have I met him?”
“No,” Brandt answered. “You’d remember if you had. He’s mysterious as they come, even for a Sha reem. Are you sure, Lady Talan?”
“She’s sure,” Rio said. “She could have me, but no. She’s gone on Rees. Go figure.”
Lady Ursula smiled again. “Well, I hope you’ll be very happy together.”
“Thank you, Lady Ursula. Please be well.”
Lady Ursula gave her a little bow. “You follow the Way of the Star, I see. Be well, sister.”
Brandt said goodbye in the normal way. He and Rio exchanged good-natured insults, and Rio led Talan away.
She caught a glimpse of Brandt pulling Lady Ursula into his arms before the door shut.
Chapter Seventeen
“Rio, please help me find Rees.”
They walked out of the courtyard, back to the main street. “I don’t know where he is, Talan,” Rio said. “When Rees doesn’t want to be found…”
“I thought he was helping you.” She glanced around, lowered her voice to a hiss. “Helping you go off-planet.”
“He is. But contacts are one thing, money is something else. The better my chance, the more it’s going to cost. I haven’t come up with enough yet.”
Talan looked at him, startled. “I didn’t think of that. If you need money, Rio, you can have all you want.”
“What—?”
“As my gift to you,” she said. “I want you to be happy. But right now, we must find Rees.”
“I agree. But like I said, he’s hard to find when he doesn’t want to be. I haven’t seen him in a couple of weeks.”
She dropped the hem of her robe to the dust. “Do you think he’s gone?”
“Gone where? Sha reem can’t leave the planet.” Rio shook his head. “He does this, sometimes, Talan. I don’t know where he goes. He just goes.”
“But he comes back.”
“Eventually.”
She picked up her skirts, gave him her best Lady Talan look. “Then take me to his apartment. He’ll have to come back there sooner or later. I’ll wait.”
Rio looked her up and down. “You’re as crazy as he is,” he announced. “But all right.”
She waited in his apartment for two days. Rio offered to stay and keep
her company, but Talan said no.
Rio tempted her, but she wanted to be alone when Rees returned. She didn’t mind snuggling into Rees’ bed, burying her face in the pillow he used, showering in the water shower that cleansed his body.
She told Lady Pet what she was doing, and Lady Pet, while not cheering her on, did not stop her, either.
“Follow your heart, darling. But come home soon. I love you, too.”
Talan kissed her fingers and pressed them to the screen, then turned off the monitor.
By late afternoon of the second day, she was restless but determined to see Rees again, to talk to him, to explain.
It would not be dignified to grab him by the tunic and babble to him what she’d decided, but to hell with dignity. Dignity meant loneliness.
She was lounging on the sofa, reading books from his small collection, when she heard—or thought she heard—his step in the hall.
She put down the book, crossed to the door, and opened it.
She saw no one. In the corner, the lift tube was rising.
“Rees?”
Her heart beat faster. He couldn’t have known she was waiting in his apartment, could he?
Would she be fool enough to chase him down the street? She thought maybe she would.
She hastened up the emergency stairs and into the foyer. It was likewise empty. She rushed out into the narrow street, looked up and down.
The street was unusually deserted, but she swore she heard footsteps hurrying around the corner. She ran to look.
The sandstorm, predicted all morning, swept at her from the other end of the street. Before she could even run back around the corner again, it was upon her.
Her breather, the apparatus meant to save her life, was hanging by the door in Rees’ apartment.
Sand choked her. It tore at her robes, trying to peel them off her. She could not see, she could not hear.
She groped for the nearest wall, thinking she could follow it to a doorway. But as much as she crawled, she could not find a wall. She fell to her knees, reaching desperately for sanctuary.
I love you, Rees.
She thought it as hard as she could. She’d never have the chance to tell him, but maybe her thoughts would linger here.
Rees had showed an ability to read emotions. Maybe he’d be able to read hers on this corner in the dust.
She crawled, her lungs burning for air. The skin on her hands and face grated away, blood stinging.
She kept crawling, her sense of survival hoping that maybe, just maybe, she’d bump into a doorway before her lungs gave out.
Someone grabbed her, hauled her up from the ground. A hand pulled her head back by the hair, and a breath mask was shoved onto her face.
She gulped air. Breath-mask air always smelled musty, but at the moment it was the like sweetest perfume she’d ever known.
The strong hand held her steady, and then suddenly removed the mask.
At first she panicked, and then the mask came back. She took another breath of air. The mask went away again. She understood. Her rescuer was sharing his mask with her.
She held onto him. His body was hard and tall, and she knew he was Rees.
Her heart beat hard with joy. His arm went around her, and he pressed the breath mask over her face.
He pulled her with him into the sand. She went willingly, knowing that even with the breath mask, they had to get indoors.
A door was only a few yards away. The breath mask was over her nose and mouth when the door opened and the two of them stumbled inside.
They were in the foyer of his apartment building. She must have crawled down the length of the street, not toward a building at all.
Her heart froze as she contemplated how near death she’d come.
She lowered the breath mask, brushed the sand from her eyes. Her hand came away with a smear of blood.
“Talan.” Rees scooped her to him, holding her hard.
“I was waiting for you,” she said, her voice grating. “I thought I heard you.”
“You did hear me. Gods, Talan, I never thought you’d follow me with a storm coming.”
“I forgot about the storm. I’ve been reading books. Why didn’t you come in?”
He smoothed her hair from her forehead. “Let’s go downstairs.”
He would not say anything further. He got them both downstairs then led Talan into his bathroom and turned on his water shower.
With hands as gentle as only Rees could make them, he undressed her and got her into the shower.
He stripped down himself and entered the shower with her. He used a cloth to clean the blood from her face and hands.
Talan started to shiver. She was cold, and the water falling over her body held a pleasant warmth.
Rees was gorgeous when wet. His hair was dark with water, and water beaded on his lashes. His skin was slick and cool. His cock had already risen, and water clung to the dark blond curls surrounding it.
“How did you know I was here?” she asked.
“I can sense you,” Rees said, his Sha reem voice, even neutral, working its magic. “I’ve always been able to sense you.”
“So you went away. You didn’t want to see me.”
He looked at her. “No, I didn’t.”
Her heart felt like there was a hole in it.
He wiped the blood from her face, put the cloth aside. He stood there looking at her, his wet body inches from her own.
She couldn’t help herself. She drew her fingers down his hard-muscled arm, bumping them over the little chain that said he was Sha reem.
She had no courage, but she made herself speak anyway. “I came to tell you that I love you, Rees.”
Rees shook his head. His eyes had darkened, but he held himself from her. “You feel what I made you feel. I can make you think you are in love.”
“I haven’t seen you for nearly three months,” she said. “Can your Sha reem suggestions last that long?”
He shrugged, muscles working. “We had a lot of sex, Talan, in your rooms. Rio was there, too. It probably lingered.”
“That’s what you think, Mr. Sha reem. I’ve been away for two months, in the middle of the desert sea, in a cloister with a dozen women. You cannot tell me that your Sha reem empathy or chemicals or whatever it is can span two thousand miles and eight weeks.”
That stopped him. He frowned.
“You see?” she said. “You don’t know everything. When I was out there, alone, meditating, I realized I love you. I love you deeply. And not just because you put a spell on me.”
“Talan—”
She folded her arms. “Stop talking, please. You woke me up, Rees. You made me realize what it was to live and to feel, and not just think. You made me realize I wanted love in my life, and that I wanted it with you.”
He put his hands on her shoulders, using his Sha reem touch to loosen her. “Talan, I’m—”
“ Sha reem. I know. And more than Sha reem. You’re the infamous R294E8S. But you know what?” She stood on her tiptoes, cupped his face in her hands. “You’re all of those things, but you’re not any of them either. You’re Rees. And I love Rees.”
“Baby—”
“I’m not finished. Lady Ursula gave up everything to be with her Sha reem. And she never regretted it one jot. She defied convention, and she’s happy. Lady Pet defies convention. I used to be embarrassed by her, but I’ve realized convention can stifle and cheat you of life. I don’t want that.”
She kissed his parted lips. “I want you, Rees. I want your smile and your beautiful body and the way you want me to feel good. I would give up everything I have for that, even live in a hovel. What am I giving up, anyway? The chance to live a cold life with cold people who turn on you the moment you put a foot out of line? I don’t want that. When I was out in the cloister, I realized that. I want warmth, and I want you, and I want to love you, and I want—”
Rees put his hand over her mouth. “Talan, would you stop talking for three
seconds?” He let out his breath. “I love you, too, baby. But I don’t want you living in a hovel. Can you understand that?”
She nodded. She reached up and pried his hand away. “We don’t have to live in a hovel. I have lots of money. We can live wherever we want. We can live here. It’s nice.”
He started to laugh. “This from a woman whose furniture rearranges itself for her.”
She waved that away. “Oh, it doesn’t matter. I want to be with you, Rees, not my furniture.”
He held her face in his hands. His touch was warm, soothing, entrancing. “But remember what happened? I nearly went crazy with you. There’s nothing to say that won’t happen again.”
“What calmed you down? Rio?”
“Partly.” He smoothed his thumbs across her skin. “Mostly remembering that I loved you.”
“Well, then. All you have to do is remember that you love me.”
He smiled, the shower water dripping down his face. “That easy, is it?”
She gave him a sly look. “Well, we could always ask Rio to help out.”
His eyes darkened. “You’re mine, Talan.”
She kissed him, and the kiss turned deep. He gathered her to him, his hands sliding down her slick, wet back.
She felt his heartbeat quicken, his tongue roughen inside her mouth.
She broke the kiss. “Are you sure about that?” she teased.
He growled low in his throat. “Mine, baby. All mine.”
She slid her arms around his neck. “Besides, Rio’s going off-world.”
“Only if I can get him there.”
“I told him I’d provide the money for it. All you need do is set it up.”
Rees looked down at her, brows raised. “You’d do that?”
“Why not? He helped you when you needed it. He probably saved your life. I’m happy to help him out.”
Rees held her close. “You’re an amazing woman, Talan.”
She lifted her face to his. “Does that mean you want to stay with me?”
“Hell, yes.” He kissed her, his hands moving to her ass. “Every day of my life. Gods, Talan, I don’t know what you did to me.”
“Whatever it was, I like it.”
“You can’t change your mind now.” His voice became lower, sexy, enticing. “I let you go once, and it nearly ripped me apart. I can’t let you go a second time. I hope you came to stay.”
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