"Starving," he growled and the look in his eyes promised delicious retribution for her teasing.
"Better grab a plate," she said, gesturing toward the cart rolling by behind them.
The predatory expression on his face simplified to a less complicated hunger and he was quick to snag two full plates from the cart, groaning out loud when the food passed under his nose on the way to the table.
Keza snickered, acquiring glasses of lemonade for them both from a second cart. By the time she set the glass in front of him, he’d already begun eating and was making deeply appreciative noises. Grinning widely, she picked up her own fork and applied herself with enthusiasm to the buttons of meat and tender baby vegetables in Nade’s famous sweet sauce.
When they had finished the main course, the salads, and the desert, Chase leaned his elbows on the table and said solemnly, "Your sister is a cultural treasure. She needs round-the-clock security, or somebody’s gonna steal her away."
"She has round-the-clock Harle," Keza said with a smirk.
Chase looked thoughtful. "Sounds like a disease."
"Hey!" Harle objected from behind them.
Keza jumped, glancing over her shoulder, but the smirk on Chase’s face said he’d known the big man was there.
"Smartass," Harle grumbled, lowering himself with a sigh next to Keza. "Sorry to break up your cozy duo, but damned if I can stand the twitterin’ no more."
Keza blinked. "Twittering?"
Harle gave her a disgusted look. "Your sisters and most of the rest of the bloomin’ females in this family. Romantical nonsense turned their brains to mush."
"Romantical nonsense?" Keza asked with care, not looking at Chase.
"That statue business," Harle said with a snort and a roll of his eyes.
Keza lifted her drink to her lips, taking a long gulp without looking at either man.
"What statue business?" Chase asked, his tone suspicious.
"Man, why the hell you gotta go and start ‘em off like that for?" Harle complained past Keza to Chase. "We ain’t gonna hear the end of it, not for a long damn time."
"Harle, you’re pissing me off," Chase said in a warning tone.
The big man looked impatient. "The statue, I’m talking about the statue. The one you said had Keza’s face. You musta heard that story from somewhere, right? Why’d you have to go and—"
"Harle, shut up," Chase said crisply. "Keza, turn what he’s saying into sense."
Keza snuck a glance at him out of the corner of her eye. He seemed irritable not angry, but there was an undertone of tension in his voice and body. He knew something unusual had happened in the garden and from the look of him, he wasn’t happy with it.
Clearing her throat, Keza set her glass on the table and began turning it in her fingers. She watched her hands rather than the men. "He’s talking about one of our oldest love stories. Some historians say it’s just another version of the mythology of our Goddess and Kessu, the fire god. Whatever its origins, the versions of the story that were handed down talk about the lovers Perrin and Estra."
She paused, raising the glass to her dry lips and sneaking a look at Chase. His eyes had narrowed and his expression sharpened. She wondered if she should really tell him. It would only make a strange situation even stranger for him.
"You heard it, right?" Harle asked. Chase shook his head without looking away from Keza. Harle made a rough sound in his throat. "Serious?"
"What’s the story?" Chase’s gaze burned into her.
She shifted on the bench, wishing she was sitting on something a little softer. Clearing her throat, she stared into her glass and said with a shrug, "There are lots of versions. Some are more fanciful than others—"
"Keza."
She grimaced and got on with it. "Most of the versions have the lovers meeting on a beach, night after night. The why of it varies from story to story, but basically the two are having a clandestine affair. Then one night Perrin wakes up and Estra isn’t with him. Some stories have her swept out on the tide, some say she was kidnapped, others say guilt drove her away. Whatever the version, she doesn’t come back. Perrin is heartbroken. He searches for her night and day, far and wide, until he ends up in a temple. He appeals to the Goddess, asking forgiveness for whatever sin he committed that caused him to lose his one true love. Some versions swear that what he saw was the Goddess’s response and some argue that he just went nuts, but all of them say that he, ah…he saw Estra’s face on the Goddess statue."
Chase made a harsh sound in his throat and Keza took another prudent sip of her drink without looking at him.
"The endings vary. Perrin continues his search for Estra, seeing her on every Goddess statue he finds. One ending has him flinging himself into the sea to be with her in death. A few have the Goddess leading him to Estra so he can rescue her from whatever dastardly fate took her away. One of the more popular endings has the last statue he sees becoming flesh and turning into his lost love. But whether they’re tawdry, tragic, or romantic, all the versions talk about Perrin seeing Estra’s face instead of the Goddess’s. So it’s become part of our courtship rituals for a man to tell the woman he wants that he sees her on every Goddess statue."
Having delivered the bad news, Keza shut her mouth and listened to the thunderous silence while staring intently at her empty glass. She felt Chase like a dark radiance, waves of black emotion buffeting her. He sat so still, she was afraid he’d stopped breathing.
"Huh," Harle finally broke the silence. "You really see Keza on the statue?" His voice held a thread of something that caught Keza’s attention. She glanced at him to see bright interest and humor crinkling the corners of his silver-blue eyes.
"Go away, Harle," Chase said in a tight voice.
With a muffled snicker, Harle went away.
"What does it mean?" Chase asked in that same taut tone.
Keza shrugged awkwardly. "It doesn’t have to mean anything. It’s just a story."
"Maybe if I wasn’t dead sure that statue was you first time I saw it. But it was you, and then it wasn’t. It’s your culture, your goddess. What does it mean?"
She gave him a sideways look through her lashes. "That you needed more sleep and less alcohol?"
He caught her chin and lifted her gaze to his. "I slept fine last night and I was sober this morning. Try again."
She searched his intense dark eyes, hesitated, and then said, "Maybe…maybe she was trying to tell you something."
He lifted his eyebrows, his expression ruthless. "Like what?"
Keza swallowed her hope hard and kept it out of her voice. "I can’t help you with that. She was trying to tell you, not me."
He made a rough sound and let her go, turning to stare around the courtyard with a brooding expression. "You got anybody around here who’d drop a halli in my food or drink?"
Keza’s hope shriveled a little. "Do you believe you were hallucinating?"
He shot her a look that said clearly she was being his silly farm girl again.
Her mother’s approach rescued her before things went from bad to worse. "Keza, could you stop off at the med station when you’re through here?" Myelle’s voice was mild, but Keza still felt a tingle run down her spine.
"Sure, Mom," she replied, trying to look casual.
"Why?" Chase asked, his dark eyes assessing Myelle like an adversary.
Myelle returned his look coolly. "For the usual reason. A medical exam." Then she turned and walked away and Keza let out the breath she’d been holding.
"Why does she want you examined?" Chase asked in a sharp tone. "Is something wrong?"
"Not a thing," she said, a helpless smile taking control of her face.
She watched him figure it out in a flash of dark comprehension, a suspended look in his eyes. "Oh. You can tell that quick?"
"We’d have to wait at least a week to see if it’ll take, but the scanner can tell if I’ve got a fertilized egg." She fidgeted with the glass for a moment, sending him quick
looks out of the corner of her eye. "You’re not happy about the idea."
"I’m not—" he broke off, running a hand through his dark hair with a shrug of agitation. "You want a baby?"
She stared at him for a moment, wondering if he was kidding. When she saw that he was serious, she made a low sound in her throat and clasped his face in her hands. "Chase, a child is a blessing, a gift. I would love a child, any child, but to have your baby…" her voice whispered away, blocked by a tightening in her throat. She finished that sentence the only way she could, pressing her lips to his with gentle yearning and sweet seduction.
Gentle and sweet lasted about three seconds. Then Chase yanked her onto his lap, cradled the back of her head in his big hand, and deepened the kiss to the blazing point. Passion roared to life like a wildfire. Keza felt both body and brain melt and shimmer like gold.
She didn’t hear the laughter, whistles, or the applause, aware only of Chase lifting his mouth from hers. She made a low sound of protest then noticed the lines of amusement at the corners of his eyes.
"You’re gonna be mad at me again," he murmured.
She started to ask why before she finally registered the catcalls and Rogue’s shout for an encore. Slapping a hand over her eyes, she groaned, feeling her face flame. Then, to her own surprise, she laughed. Still laughing, she wiggled off Chase’s lap, stood on the bench, and took a theatrical bow. There was a roar of approval and thunderous applause, though half of the courtyard was empty. Her family could make the most noise of any group of people in the universe. Blowing them a kiss and a grin, she jumped down and tugged at Chase to follow her.
When they were out of sight, Chase pressed her up against a pillar and kissed her with a kind of wild, edgy hunger that took her by surprise. Then he stepped back and tugged her into a walk again.
"Wh-what was that for?" she asked, trying to catch her breath and walk in a straight line.
"For that damned laugh," he growled. "There better be a bed wherever the hell we’re going, or you might just find yourself pinned to a wall."
Her heart leapt into a sprint and she felt a quiver run down her spine at the dangerous heat in his voice. It was endlessly amazing to her that he could want her at all. It was impossible to believe that she could make him want her with just a laugh or a touch. This strong, fearless, beautiful man shouldn’t even notice meek, ordinary little Keza. Thank the Goddess again and just enjoy, Sukeza bet Marish, she admonished herself. "Pinned to a wall," she said in a musing tone. "Sounds…strenuous."
He snorted and flicked an amused glance down at her. "Still sore, Sunshine?"
"There could be permanent damage. Not that I notice when you kiss me."
He slipped an arm around her with a purring sound. "Kiss you where?"
An image of his dark head between her thighs made her stumble and he chuckled, catching her before she face-planted on the cobbled walkway. Trying to breathe normally, she leaned into him and sighed, "Anywhere you want."
Instead of kissing her, he looked at the little building in front of them, a crease forming between his brows. "Is this the clinic?"
"Yes," she answered, moving toward the front entrance. "We’ve got a full staff for emergencies, but for most of the usual stuff we just use the auto-scanner. This way," she added when he hesitated.
He followed her into the building with a grim expression. Keza tried not to notice the look on his face or think about what that look meant. She failed on both counts. This check for pregnancy was a reminder of his candidacy, a reminder of the conditions of his imprisonment. She wondered how much he resented her for it, never mind his earlier apology. He was wild and she’d caged him—he had to be bitter about that.
Stepping down a short hallway, she opened a door and entered the scanning room without seeing if he would follow. Sensing her arrival, the auto-scanners powered up and hummed to life. Ignoring the enclosed, horizontal scanner, she stepped onto a little lighted platform.
"Full scan?" a mechanical voice queried.
"Yes."
Lights flickered at the corners of her vision and her flesh tingled in a spiraling sensation down to her toes while the system scanned her for any physical anomalies. She felt it hesitate at her lower abdomen and she bit her lip, butterflies taking up residence in her stomach at the thought of what could be growing inside her.
When the scan was finished, she went to the display to read the results. Lactic acid buildup in her muscles. Fluid and electrolyte balance off a bit. Scattered light bruises from love-bites, some minor tissue abrasion and swelling in her most tender parts. And a fertilized zygote floating down her left fallopian tube.
Excitement and joy zinged through her nervous system, catching at her breath. She wanted to dance and sing. She wanted to giggle like a girl. She wanted to fling herself on Chase and thank him and her Goddess in a very basic way for this gift. She did none of those things, reminding herself that it was too early to guarantee the pregnancy. The little critter had a long way to go yet.
"Any permanent damage?"
Keza turned to see Chase leaning on the wall by the door, arms folded over his chest while he watched her with an inscrutable expression. A lump wedged itself in her throat, making it impossible to reply. Instead, heart pounding and stomach tightening with nerves, she stepped back and waved a hand for him to see for himself.
A muscle twitched in his jaw, but he gave no other indication of tension. Moving with the smooth, prowling stride that never failed to loosen her muscles, he approached the display and read the results. The hardening of his expression and the shimmer of tension in his form punched the breath she was holding out of her chest. A wave of disappointment made her feel weak and gray.
"You said muscle sore," Chase muttered in an ominous tone, attention still fixed on the display. "You never said anything about bruising, swelling, and raw spots."
Consumed as her mind was with her tiny, fragile passenger, it took Keza a moment to figure out what he was talking about. Then she felt her face flush with embarrassment. "Yes, well, I haven’t had many…I’m just not used to—ah…" Taking a quick, deep breath, she let it out in a gust. "Never mind that—it’ll get better. You see that it says I’ve conceived?"
He nodded slowly then turned to look at her with such a darkly brooding expression that she felt her insides shrivel. After a moment’s scrutiny, he stepped over to the dispense receptacle, gathering the remedies for her various ailments. Keza felt her face grow hotter to see topical cream among the items. She snatched the medicine from him without looking him in the face and headed for the exit.
Under her embarrassment was a bitter disappointment that he had nothing to say about the spark of life heading for her womb. Aside from the fact that she’d just confirmed his candidacy, which freed him to live however he wished on Kaska, she’d been hoping for some interest in what they’d created together. She hadn’t expected overwhelming joy, but the stony rejection in the hard angles of his face tore holes through her insides.
He followed her out of the clinic without a word, drawing alongside her as she headed for the main house. In sharp contrast to their walk to the clinic, he kept a cool distance between them that she felt like shards of ice through her heart.
"My mother will want to know," she said abruptly, blinking the sting from her eyes. "You don’t have to come with if you don’t want to."
He hesitated then said something vicious under his breath, before catching her arm in a gentle grip and bringing her to a halt. She looked up at his shadowed face in the deepening gloom of night, wishing for things she couldn’t voice.
Light of Kaska Page 24