heartofthebetrayed_195-8e3.htm

by Heart Of The Betrayed (lit)

  "It has not gone unnoticed, your affection for this Reeka. Be warned, the order applies to you as well." Meekta watched him expressionlessly.

  Garret slammed the door shut as he stalked from the room.

  Outside, he looked around desperately for Dana, anxiety gnawing at his heart. Where was she? How reckless had the interview made her? He knew what she was like, knew her so well. He had no doubt that she had every intention of disobeying the order. He had to find her.

  "Greetings, friend," a voice like velvet said from a doorway on his left.

  Whipping his head around, he met emerald green eyes in a calm, almost beautiful face.

  He recognized the golden-haired man in the neat, long-sleeved tunic and pants immediately.

  "Kiile! What are you doing here? Never mind, have you seen Dana?"

  "In here."

  Following him through the door, Garret didn’t miss the besotted expression on a serving wench who caught a glimpse of the Argon. He wasn’t surprised. The Argons were a sensual race, sexuality exuding from their very skin, making them irresistible to many races. Their sexual prowess was legendary, yet they maintained control over their relations with other races. The Argons were close friends of the Daamens.

  Entering the room, he found it empty except for Kiile and a fuming Dana. "Lass, are you all right?"

  "Don’t touch me! I’m so furious, I could punch someone!"

  "She nearly did," Kiile said in amusement. "I saw her storming past, grabbed her arm, and yanked her in here."

  "Thank the stars you did. I was worried sick when she stormed out. Dana, try to calm down."

  "Calm down? Are you out of your mind?"

  "We can’t sort this mess out while you’re upset."

  "I will not betray Rominac! He’s my brother and needs my help! They all do!"

  "I understand, but what is there to do?"

  Silence fell upon the room while the trader and warrior gazed at each other. Kiile watched thoughtfully.

  Finally, she stated, "I’m going to Orkra."

  Garret grabbed her upper arms. "You will be an outlaw again! Do you know what that entails? No seeing your sister warriors again, hiding from bounty hunters--"

  Her face paled but she remained steadfast. "He is my brother."

  "You’ll have broken a direct order of the Intergalactic Peace Council, Dana. The Council’s soldiers will personally hunt you down and bring you back for trial."

  "Not if I get to the Outlaw Sector first."

  "My God, listen to yourself! Is it worth being an outlaw again to save he who abandoned you in your hour of need? Rominac may be dead for all we know, and ’twill be Diago you rescue! Think, Dana!"

  All fury drained from her face and her voice softened. "Rominac may be alive. I can’t betray him. I can’t leave him as Diago did my mother and I. It is not in me to do so." Taking his hands, she squeezed gently. "You say you love me for who I am. Would you love me for turning my back on the beliefs that have made me?"

  The heart in his massive chest thudded heavily. "I’ll always love you, no matter what."

  "Do you love me enough to let me go and do what I must?"

  Strong arms whipped around her to pull her to him and he pressed his cheek to hers. "What of me, Dana?"

  "Don’t make me choose, I beg of you. Either way, I wrong someone. Either way, I don’t win."

  "You have chosen already. You go to Rominac."

  He felt her tears against his cheek even before she spoke.

  "Loyalty goes, but my heart stays here. I love you, Garret. I always have and always will, but betrayal runs deep and if I don’t go, I can’t live with myself. If you love me, you will understand." And I will die a little every day without you.

  The strength of his arms crushing her to him was almost painful, but she didn’t pull free. She held him just as tightly and felt the shudder sweep through the powerful body.

  His lips brushed her cheek softly. "Aye, I understand, and I love you enough to go with you."

  "Go with me?" She pulled back in shock. "You can’t!"

  Releasing his hold on her, Garret turned to Kiile. "I trust that what you know won’t be repeated."

  The Argon raised his hands and smiled. "I heard nothing."

  "Garret, I won’t allow you to come!" Dana tugged desperately on his hand.

  Turning back, he cupped her cheek. "Do you love me enough to allow me to come and do what I must?"

  "This is not the same!"

  "Isn’t it? Betrayal has no part in my future, either. Where you go, I go. I love you that much."

  Even as her heart melted at the words, she shook her head. "What of your future, your trading--"

  "My future is with you." A faint teasing light was in his eyes, as he chucked her under the chin. "We can start our own trading business in the Outlaw Sector. You can protect me from the outlaws and pirates while I make us a fortune."

  "What of your family?" She made one last attempt.

  "They’ll understand, never fear. And they can visit us in our new home--"

  "How can you jest at a time like this?" She thumped his arm, a tear slipping down her cheek.

  "Because love and laughter make life worth living, and when you’re not with me," he kissed a tear away, "I don’t laugh anymore, and my love goes with you. So, you see, I must be with you."

  Kiile’s smile widened when they embraced, even though sadness filled him. Within a matter of hours his friends would be branded outlaws, yet he wouldn’t stop them. They had made their choice and he would support them.

  Garret led Dana over to him. "We have to leave."

  "You do realize that once you leave, your ship will be tracked until your destination is known?"

  "Damn!"

  "The soldiers will easily overtake your trading ship in their fighters, but I do have a solution."

  They looked at him inquiringly.

  "My fleet craft is docked not far from your ship. No one is aboard, it’s fueled up, and is the fastest in the galaxy. Take it."

  It was hard to talk past the sudden lump in his throat, so Garret merely gripped the smaller man’s hand and nodded.

  "My pleasure." Kiile grinned at Dana. "Can’t trust these damned outlaws, you know. They’re everywhere."

  She looked down at him seriously. "If ever you are in need, Argon, post a notice in a tavern in the Outlaw Sector. Word will get to me, and we’ll come."

  "As in your outlaw and mercenary days." He sobered. "Take care, friends."

  After they left, he said to himself, "You’ll need it."

  He stood by the porthole and ten minutes later saw the fleet craft fly into view, then vanish into deep space. Knowing how fast his fleet craft was, Kiile estimated that his friend would land on Orkra two days before the soldiers did. Two days to find Rominac, try to stop the war and get away.

  It was an impossible mission.

  ~ * ~

  Four hours later, Dana of Reeka and Garret of Daamen were officially branded outlaws, and a troop of Intergalactic Peace Ship soldiers were dispatched after them.

  Seventeen

  Two hours after take-off, Garret set the automatic pilot on in the control cabin and decided to see if Kiile kept the small dining cabin stocked with fresh food. Bypassing the smooth marble table and two straight-backed chairs, he approached the upright cool box and surveyed the many dishes of food behind the glass doors. Oh, aye, his friend certainly did. They’d eat well.

  Turning around, he studied the long, wide sofa and the soft fur rug on the floor. They’d be comfortable, too.

  "Dana, there’s everything we could wish for in this craft. ‘Twill be a comfortable journey!"

  When there was no answer, he stepped into the small passage separating the control and dining cabin from the bathroom and one sleeping cabin.

  Seeing her in the doorway of the sleeping cabin, he asked, "What’s wrong?"

  "Nothing. There are two bunks made up with satin covers and many pillows. Kiile’s partial
to satin, isn’t he?"

  She walked over to him and he stepped aside to let her into the dining cabin.

  He chuckled. "Like all Argons, he delights in anything considered sensuous. We’ll have to try some of what he told me and see if he... speaks... the truth..." His voice trailed off softly.

  She turned around and their eyes locked, awareness flaring to life between them.

  They were alone. In deep space. On a mission that might end in their deaths.

  "Dana." He took her hand. "I love you.

  "And I love you."

  Pulling her into his arms, he kissed her gently. "I’ll never let you go."

  "If anything happens to you because of me--"

  "Hush, my sweet. Let me show you just how deep my love goes."

  Raising her hand, he brushed his lips against her knuckles before releasing her hand to slide his own beneath her elbow. Bringing her arm up level with his face, he turned it so that the vulnerable inner arm was exposed. Slowly he lowered his mouth again, keeping his gaze trained on her face.

  Heart starting to beat heavily, Dana held her breath. What was he going to do? Surely he wasn’t going to... He was. The touch of his lips on her wrist sent her pulses leaping wildly. As he advanced up her arm, he left a damp trail behind him, hot and tingling.

  When he came to the sensitive inner flesh of her elbow, he grazed it with the tip of his tongue and with satisfaction noted the reaction.

  Hazel eyes darkened, a mixture of awakening desire and anticipation in them, together with a touch of fear and uncertainty. His gaze dropped to her lips, soft and moist and slightly parted. He wanted to taste of their sweetness again but patience, he reminded himself. He would get there. The path he followed up the shapely arm starting to tremble in his hold was... delicious.

  It seemed to take an incredibly long time for the man to finish pressing those light, hot kisses up the length of her arm. By the time he’d reached the curve of her shoulder, the tingling had transferred itself to the pit of her stomach, only now it had changed to something more, something heavier. And when those wickedly sensual lips traced the curve of her shoulder and grazed her neck, her knees went strangely weak and it took all her willpower to remain standing.

  Goose bumps sprang up over her arms, and she swallowed when his mouth lingered over the pulse beating so erratically in her throat. His long hair trailed over her shoulders, mingling with her own tresses, and down to caress the swells of her breasts.

  His tongue laved the pulse-point, sending a shiver through her, then he resumed his slow, torturous path up her sensitive skin, sliding over the determined slope of her small jaw line and brushing across her cheek, his breath light yet electrifying against her.

  Unable to take the sweet torment any longer, Dana turned her head, her lips finding his unerringly.

  It was the reaction he’d been waiting for. Garret captured her mouth, molding his lips to hers, tasting the sweetness of them, but as always, it wasn’t enough. He needed to taste the honeyed depths and his tongue ran along the seam of her lips, coaxing her firmly to open to him, which she did, and his tongue plunged inside, tasting, possessing and reclaiming her mouth.

  She clung to him, her arms around his neck, pressing close and closer still until there was nothing between them but clothes.

  One hand at her trim waist, the other between her shoulder blades, Garret held her hard against him. Fire licked along his veins and he dropped the hand at her waist to her bottom, pressing her against his hardening loins. The sensations that seared through him caused him to groan his longing into her mouth. Removing his hand from her back, he brought his palm up between their bodies to cup a soft breast.

  In the light, cotton tunic, free of any constraints, the fullness of one of them filled his palm, firm and round and generous. Massaging it gently, he was rewarded by the hardening of the nipple.

  It was as though a piece of sensuous string mystically joined her breast to the pit of her stomach, for the feel of the large palm cupping and massaging her breast spiraled desire down there.

  She moaned a protest when his hot mouth left hers, only to have it turn to spine tingling pleasure when he started to press open-mouthed kisses to her throat. It was as though every touch of his lips branded her, igniting the sparks deep inside, and setting flames of desire flickering in her veins.

  When her hands swept up beneath his vest to smooth across the hard muscles of his back, Garret felt the touch clear down to the soles of his feet. How could he not, when her nails raked a gentle path around each side of his waist, meeting on his flat stomach to glide up and out, her smaller palms coming to rest on the flat male nipples on his chest? A bolt of desire shot straight through him when the sides of her thumbs grazed his nipples over and over, producing an ache that rippled straight down to his manhood.

  His staff jutted up between them, pressed to her belly, and he couldn’t stop himself from thrusting once against her, feeling the friction ride up his staff, making it lengthen and harden even more. The ancient, primitive need of man for wench, to dominate, to brand her intimately as his, surged through him.

  She felt the change in him. While still tender with her, his movements now held more purpose. The hand at the neckline of her tunic was unlacing the ribbon holding the bodice together, and dimly she realized that he was backing her across the cabin, even while kissing her. When her feet sank into the fur rug, he stopped and brushed a kiss across the bridge of the haughty little nose. "You’re trembling, my love. Are you frightened of our joining?"

  "Is that what we’re going to do?" she whispered shakily.

  He gazed down seriously at her. "Is it not what you want?"

  She bit her bottom lip. Was it?

  "If you don’t want to, if I’m rushing you--"

  "Yes."

  His arms loosened. "I’m sorry, lass. I--"

  "I mean yes, I do want it. Our joining." She did. Very much so. But... "I do fear it, I admit. A little."

  "A lot." He drew her close again, a disarmingly crooked smile on his handsome face. "You’re shaking like a leaf, my love." His eyes were tender, hands gentle as he drew them up her sides. "Don’t worry. I’ll take care of you."

  Then he lowered his head, kissing her again, capturing her mouth. Expert hands stirred the smoldering embers to life deep within her, turning her blood to molten lava.

  The lace from the bodice was pulled free and the material fell to her waist. Hard hands cupped naked breasts, kneading and feeling, sending quicksilver sparks of desire shooting through her.

  The seat of the sofa nudged the backs of her knees and she found herself lowered down to sit on the edge of it.

  In one quick motion, Garret shed his vest and dropped to his knees between her thighs, using his body to widen them as he moved forward, placing his hands on her thighs and leaning forward. Capturing one hard rosy nipple in the heated depths of his mouth, he closed his lips around the sensitive nub and sucked firmly.

  Arching back, Dana gasped in wondrous shock at the incredible sensations that flowed. Needing something to hold onto while her world dipped and swayed around her, she grabbed the broad shoulders of the man kneeling before her. When his hot mouth left one breast to fasten onto the other nipple, pulling it deep inside and teasing it with his tongue, she thought she’d surely die.

  How much more incredible pleasure could she handle?

  She found out when a large hand suddenly cupped her womanhood, a long finger sliding easily beneath the fragile material of her underwear to brush the curls protecting her secret places, a secret place that was rapidly growing hot and moist.

  Shifting his finger, he linked it into the sides of the material and with a quick, sharp twist, ripped the sides open.

  "Garret, what--?" Her bemused and alarmed question was cut off again by his mouth, and he swallowed her uncertainty, replacing it with only thoughts of him.

  Once again he cupped her womanhood, this time without the material barrier, and his finger slipped e
asily between the moist lips to slide over the hidden treasures beneath.

  Startled, she pulled back from his mouth. "I don’t think... ooh..." She ended on a moan when his searching finger found the tiny nub and rubbed it gently.

  Tangling his other hand in the soft blonde tresses, he pulled her head back with care so that he could see every emotion that crossed her face. "Don’t think, sweetheart. Go with the flow. You trust me, don’t you?"

  "I... I... aye but..." She gasped and bit her lip as the long, skillful finger trailed downwards and came to a stop near the entrance to her body. "Oh God, Garret, I don’t know... What are you doing to me?"

  Teeth flashed whitely in the handsome face so near her own.

  "Do you like it, my love? Does it make you feel hot?" He ran his finger over the entrance, feeling the heated wetness. "I see it does." His voice was husky, raw with his own need.

  The throbbing of his manhood was almost painful, straining against the front of his tight pants, and he had to fight down the urge to simply drag her to the floor and plunge into her, to pound into the sweet, beckoning depths of her body. She was so ready, he knew by the heated moistness that coated the finger he suddenly slid deep inside her. Seeing her arch back in ecstasy heightened his need, making his blood surge thickly through his body and up into his shaft, swelling it, making the head pulse urgently.

  Clenching his jaw, he concentrated on bringing Dana to the peak of pleasure, thrusting his finger in and out of her gently but firmly, while his thumb rubbed and pressed the small nub higher up within her cleft.

  She dug her fingers into the flexing muscles of the shoulders of the man who had taken control of her body so easily, so masterfully, and when his mouth nuzzled her breasts, taking the straining peaks one at a time deep into his mouth, it nearly pushed her over the edge. Of what, she didn’t know, but it beckoned to her, inviting her to step off the edge and fall into a mindless pit of swirling passion.

  Soft breasts rose and fell quickly and he knew she was on the edge of climaxing. Now it was time to take her, while she was ready, while her maidenly fears were replaced with desire.

  When those wicked, magic fingers left her, Dana almost whimpered, opening her eyes to gaze beseechingly into grey eyes darkened with barely suppressed passion. How could he leave her swaying on the edge of an unknown, pleasurable abyss?