“There is nothing just about you, Samantha! Don’t you like complications?” Harimal raised his brow. “They can be so entertaining.”
“I like a quiet life.”
“Then you shouldn’t have chatted with Kuno and agreed to meet him.”
“I was set up. You both set me up.”
“It took our pooled experience to lure you out of hiding, that’s true! But once Kuno decided on you, kitten, you didn’t stand a chance. I mean a woman who anonymously bequeaths three million credits to Starwatch—do you truly think you wouldn’t be noticed?”
“Enough, Harimal.” You don’t understand. I mean it—no more.
“John, you said our meeting was fated,” Sam accused, fear slicing through her.
He sighed. “It was fate, karma, destiny. Everything that has happened before and since.”
“But the money bought your interest?”
John’s hand tightened over hers. “Bought, kitten? No way! No one buys me! It inspired me to find you, Sammi. I traced you through various means…”
“Your spies?”
“Mm. And your friends.”
“Who set me up for a Christmas Night date with a sensualator. But what if…what if I didn’t donate the money…? Oh stars!”
What if…a hundred what ifs swirled around her mind. Horror washed through her.
“You see what you’ve done, you stupid bloody cat! If you weren’t my brother…” John’s whisper was coldly furious.
Harimal’s pupils dilated. Not from anger, but anguish. Sam knew that much about felinus.
“Kuno, Sam, I don’t understand. I want to. I mean no offense, to either of you. Please.” He took one step forward, holding out his hand, palm up.
Ignoring Hari, Sam swallowed her tears. “You promise me, John, that the money didn’t matter.”
“Honey-cat. It’s true, the money got my attention. I made it my mission to discover your identity.” His love washed through her, emphasizing his words, his meaning. “When you refused to answer the Starwatch emails, well, I went undercover. I became Kuno, the pearl farmer, someone who could be no threat to you. Just a simple guy, looking for a cyber-chat, living in isolation at Broome.”
“I never put my name on the cyber-date list. My friends did. They added all my interests and the computer matched us. I did nothing.”
John smiled. “I know, kitten. Sue and Rob vetted me, before they would pass on your call sign. When your friends told me about you, there was no way in the universe Johnathan Lucas of Starwatch would let you go, without at least thanking you and shaking your hand. Kuno, on the other hand, had other plans.”
“But, John—”
“No buts, Sammi! I wanted you from the first moment you answered Kuno’s cyber-hail. Even if you hadn’t been on the cyber-date list, I would have tracked you down. When a cat has a kitten in his sights… Trust me! I wanted you for yourself, not because of any damn money, or cyber compatibility. What does a feegling machine know?”
“You wanted me, sight unseen? My friends didn’t post a picture on line.”
“Yep, sight unseen. What do I care for your appearance? What I care for, kitten, is who you are. Love looks beyond skin.”
“I could have been a fright, a bitch.”
“You actually were both to me for a long time. Stars, you have a way with words that would have scared off a human. Lucky for us both, I’m a hybrid.”
Sam blinked back tears. “Yes, lucky for us both. But I was set up! Compromised.”
John stroked her fingers. “And if you hadn’t been set up, if your friends had not loved you enough to talk to me, and if we hadn’t conspired to bring you out of your seclusion… After all I’ve said and done, you don’t trust me, or my motives? Samantha!”
She frowned. Rarely did he use her full name. That he had, meant he was angry, or a very determined cat, on business. Probably both. She swallowed nervously. “I trust you.” She studied him, analyzing her own feelings—the emotions originating from her human frailty, her human ego. She had John-Kuno, his love—what else mattered?
John smiled. “Fate decreed our meeting. You set in motion a series of events when you donated your fortune to Starwatch. I had nothing to do with that!”
“That’s true,” Harimal said, climbing on the bed, nestling behind Sam. He drew her back against him and John moved forward. She was captured between them and held tightly, wrapped in two pairs of arms, legs thrown over her. “Sam, the universe moves mysteriously and destiny is written in the stars. One day I will explain how it is I know these things. Understand this! Hear me! You and Kuno were made for each other. Put aside your affront, your fear. Soul-mates find each other, no matter what.” He paused and laughed gently. “But you put up a fight. I read some of your emails and then a couple of the chats. I told Kuno you’d be a challenge.”
“I was?”
“You are,” the two brothers whispered in unison.
“I am not.”
“You’re still a hissing honey-cat when you need to be. Defending him,” Harimal said. “As is proper for a felinus.”
“I’m not felinus.”
John licked her neck. “Genetically, perhaps not. But who knows, Sam? Shifter blood turns up in the most surprising places.”
“Samantha is special, Kuno, but I sense no felinus within her, at least not her own essence. There’s plenty of you inside her.”
Sam gasped and blushed and the two men laughed.
“Samantha, listen to me,” Harimal said, stroking her temple.
She glanced over her shoulder at him and saw the intensity of his gaze, the determination to be heard and understood.
“Yes,” she whispered.
“The past is in the past. Fate brought you to John, to me. The money was incidental. Trust me. My name is Harimal, I am san-Duran of Chizan and I speak the truth. Do you hear me?”
“Yes,” she whispered, then frowned. What had he just said? Chizan. She mind pronounced it: Sheeeezaaaan. Shock raced through her. “You’ve gifted me the name of the felinus homeworld? Chizan. Thank you.”
John wept quietly. Harimal lightly scratched his brother’s arm.
“It’s my right to gift it to her, Kuno. To gift you both thus. I am san-Duran. Understand this, Samantha. By giving you the secret name of the felinus world, it allows you sanctuary—it opens all doors to you. You are sister-mine.” He bit her nape. “You are marked by Harimal, Prince of Chizan.”
Sam leaned into Kuno and kissed away his tears and then turned to Harimal, her lips lightly touching his. She bit his neck and Hari stiffened against her.
“Alas, I must leave, otherwise, Samantha, I’d accept the promise contained in that kiss.”
Silence descended. What could she say? What could any of them say in the intimacy and layers of that moment?
Minutes stretched in comfortable silence. Then, Sam laughed. “I’d be interested in this campaign you and he mounted against me.” She looked from one brother to the other, frowning. “Didn’t stand a chance, huh?” She slapped John’s leg and he captured her hand, raising it to his lips. He smiled at her, his tawny eyes afire as he lathered her palm.
“Not a chance,” he whispered.
“Of all the insufferable conceited… You’re gonna pay for it, John-Kuno.”
“Is that a threat?”
“Nope, a promise.”
“You see what you’ve done, Harimal? Sam’s going to make me pay.”
“Rightly so! With blood? With tears or some other body-juice?”
Sam flushed and the brothers roared with laughter.
“Kuno, are you going to give the kitten a proper name? Samantha is so inadequate.”
“I’ve some ideas,” John said.
Sam wanted to wipe the smug look from his face. “I haven’t got any say in this, I suppose?”
“Harimal is a Prince. He commands and I obey.”
“Oh, pleeeeze!” Hari snorted. “If only. But if you’re mated to a felinus, Samantha, it�
�s only proper that you have a true name.”
“I’m not mated,” she said.
“Rrrrrreally?” Harimal purred.
“She’s so contrary,” John sighed. “You see what I have to endure?”
“Yes, my heart bleeds for you, saer-tan!”
The closest interpretation would be brother-mine, Sam thought. Yet, the meaning went deeper, the love and intimacy in the words vibrated on many levels.
Hari pushed himself up from the bed. “I have to go now. I hope I’ll be back within the month, unless Father and Uncle have decided I’m to be mated. In that case, I’ll be back immediately.”
“Don’t you want to be mated?” Sam asked.
“One day, when I’m good and ready and with someone I choose.” He slid away from the bed. “Now for my disguise.” He laughed.
“What’s so damn funny?” John demanded.
Hari held up his hands. “You’ve got me so emotional…look how my hands shake. I’m trembling from head to toe.” He drew in a deep breath.
“You’d better talk to the draconis, then,” John said, “and get them to stop your shakes.”
“You don’t talk to dragons, Kuno, you um…” Harimal rolled his eyes. “Just don’t ask!”
Steeling himself, Harimal placed his spread hands over his chest and inhaled, his brow furrowed in concentration. Sam watched as azure light oozed from his finger tips to encase his body.
Minutes later, the glow absorbed into his flesh and Harimal stood before her, now an old man, but as she blinked, she saw it was her Harimal, then he resorted to the oldster again.
“Is this a glamor?” she demanded.
“One I use to avoid entanglements.”
“It’s not working, because I see you as Harimal.”
“That’s because we’ve shared starlight, Samantha, so neither of us can hide our true selves from the other.”
And where are your draconis bodyguards? John asked.
“What bodyguards?” Sam demanded.
“You heard that mind-speak?” John demanded. “You weren’t supposed—”
“Don’t keep secrets from me. If you try to, I’ll get angry! I mean it!”
“Sam is linked to you, Kuno, so she can hear your thoughts. When you’re emotional, like now, you broadcast loud and clear.”
John lifted his hand a fraction from the bed, his fingers weaving in the air in a complicated pattern. Sam frowned. She frowned even deeper when she saw Harimal respond with flicks of his fingers.
Another felinus trick. She glared at each brother.
“Uh-oh. I don’t like that look,” John said.
“You’ll like what I plan for you even less, so tell me what this means.” She mimicked his hand signal.
Harimal grinned. “That’s the rudest thing you can sign, Samantha.”
“I only did what you did.”
“Not quite, kitten.” John chuckled. “You sent an insult…something about a comparison between his brain size and his feena—”
“Well, maybe I did mean to sign it that way.”
“If you did, Sammi, and anyone else but Hari received it, I can tell you that you wouldn’t sit down comfortably for a week.”
“Minimum,” Hari agreed.
“You wouldn’t dare.”
John nodded. “We wouldn’t, but some felinus men aren’t as forgiving. So if you want to sign danger need draconis…” He looked at Hari, brow raised.
“Tell her, Kuno.”
John signed again and Sam frowned. “You did it so fast, I couldn’t follow.”
“I slowed it down for your benefit, kitten.”
“It’s signed deliberately fast and it’s difficult to learn, “Harimal said. “For good reason. So that outsiders never truly understand it. They might think they know the signs, but after a few movements we can detect an imposter.”
“But surely you’d discover an imposter through your other senses?”
“True,” John said, “for most of the time. The signing was invented during the wars, when we were hunted, trapped by drugs and imprisoned. Now, we use it for when we want to keep something private, or when we can’t speak with mind or tongue for whatever reason, then we sign in the air, or, if in darkness, against flesh.”
“Something your assassin friends taught you?” Sam demanded. “Like the meridian killing points?”
“Yes.”
“Kuno, you may show her the signing. That’ll keep you occupied while I’m away.”
“I’ll be fully occupied with other things, Harimal.”
“But you will show me?” Sam persisted.
“What?”
She slapped his thigh. “The sign language. Don’t play dumb with me, John-Kuno.”
“He doesn’t have to play dumb,” Harimal whispered.
“And Prince or no, you don’t insult my John and get away with it.”
The two brothers were suddenly still, intense gazes upon her.
“She’s laid claim to you, Kuno, in my presence.”
“Yes.”
“It is good.”
“More than good,” John agreed.
“Are you going to let me in on this secret? Just how many damn secrets do you bloody cats have?”
“One thousand and one secrets.”
Samantha grimaced. “There’s that magic number again.”
“Yes,” John said.
Sam gave them her bitchiest look but it only made them laugh at her. She sighed and gave up. “So, where were we? Ah yes, talking about bodyguards. What’s draconis?”
“Dragons, the fiercest, most dangerous shifters you can imagine, when they’re on duty. And when they morph—you never tangle with one of them.”
“I’ve never heard of draconis.”
“You wouldn’t. They keep to themselves. Their talons are very useful in a fight, or in bed.”
John snorted. “You haven’t fucked a dragon, Hari!”
“Who says?”
“You’re crazy.”
Harimal’s brows rose. “Me crazy? I haven’t tangled with a Vanara, so we’re even.”
Sam looked from one brother to the other. Men—the same the galaxy over, playing one-up and telling tall tales of conquest. Men, honestly! She bit her lip. From shock or to stop from laughing at their banter, she wasn’t certain. John’s cheeks were flushed, so were Hari’s. Their gazes taunted each other. “What’s a Vanara?” she asked.
“You don’t want to know,” John said.
“Yes, I do.” Sam paused, eyeing each brother. They’d done it to her again—teasing her, thereby distracting. “You gonna tell me what’s going on, or do I get John to tell me?”
“Sammi, you can’t get me to tell you anything I don’t want…aaah….” Her fingers probed between his legs, finding the place beneath his sacs.
Harimal laughed. “Hold out for as long as you can, Kuno.” He leaned across the bed and rubbed his right cheek against Sam’s, then did the same to John.
“Farewell, brother-mine and sister-mine. Take care. Be careful. Kuno!”
“Okay, Okay, I understand.” John paused. “And, Hari, we mightn’t be here when you get back. Sam and I have to go home, back to Broome. Business.”
Hari raised his brow. “You like being called business, Samantha?”
“No, Starwatch business.” John explained about GTC.
“Ah. I understand. You’ll like Broome, Samantha, the water is especially invigorating. Now, I must leave. Kuno, you’ll travel as I decree. San-duran. Remember?”
John nodded tightly.
Harimal strode from the room, the door hissing shut behind him.
John sighed. “Damn!”
Sam glanced at him. “What?”
“I worry about Hari.”
“He can take care of himself.”
“Yes, but he’s my brother. I love him. I know he hurts.”
“How does he hurt?”
“Loneliness, Sammi. Felinus suffer it the most.”
“But cats
are solitary creatures.”
“That’s a fallacy.”
“How can Hari be lonely? I mean, look at him! He has women trailing after him, their tongues on the ground…”
“In lust, not love.” John drew Sam into his arms. “Hari might laugh, tease and fuck, but he’s tormented. I feel his sorrow.”
“He’s going to Chizan, maybe he’ll find his mate.”
John smiled tightly. “That’s the worst of it. He’s returning home without a mate—again. He has certain obligations to our clan. He’ll face their censure and their maneuverings. He wants to do the best for his people, but he just can’t feegle the first pure-bred woman he meets.”
Feegle—that didn’t need an interpretation. In this instance it meant sex, without emotion, without commitment—just a feegle. Sam bit her lip. “I want Hari to be happy, like me.” She turned to him. “Are you happy, Kuno?”
“Yes,” he whispered. “If Hari never finds a woman, Sammi, for his own…?”
“I’ll love him. I promise you. I’ll love him forever, love you forever.”
John’s eyes glittered with tears and he inclined his head.
She slapped him. “And that’s for keeping secrets from me.”
“I…what…? You’re a hissing, spitting she-cat. One moment purring, making me cry, the next minute hurting me.” He arched a brow in challenge. “You gonna claw me or bite me, Sammi?”
“What’s that the felinus say? Claw me, bite me, love me—one thousand and one ways in one thousand and one nights.”
“Yes,” John said, uncertainly.
“I’ll do a bit of biting, some clawing and maybe if you’re really, really good, I might do some loving.”
“What if I’m really, really naughty?”
“Same thing.”
“Sounds good to me.” He reached for her and she eluded him.
“I want to talk to you.” She picked at the quilt with nervous fingers.
What exactly?
Sam lifted her gaze to his and saw the fire in his eyes. “John…”
“We’ve shared starlight, Sammi, we can speak mind to mind, or does telepathy alarm you?”
“I like it, but it takes getting used to…old habits…” She frowned.
“Tongues and mouths are better employed for other things than talking. As our bond grows deeper, we’ll mind-share more and more.” So, what’s worrying you?
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