Tagan's Child

by ammyford1

  “Sorry, have I missed anything?”

  He smelt divine and I suddenly felt unsteady on my legs.

  “No, not at all,” the King replied.

  “Do you want to take a ride with me? The King has lent me one of his classics,” Ahran said, addressing me directly, his tone was cool but the anticipation in his eyes was unsettling. He was assaulting pretty much every one of my senses and I questioned how I could have possibly thought I could keep my distance. I just about managed to keep my head and tried to act like a responsible guardian. “Will you be alright travelling with the King and Queen on your own?” I asked Toby. I knew it was emotional suicide being alone with Ahran, but I just couldn’t help myself.

  “Ye-es,” he said in a drawn out tone which implied I was being over-protective. I was pretty sure he was trying to make a good impression. I stroked the top of his head. He seemed more grown up somehow. At least I still had him. For now. He looked up at me and beamed. He had taken everything I had told him on board, sensibly and calmly and even though he didn’t fully understand the long term implications of his newfound status he had accepted it without reproach or tantrums. But then what eight year old wouldn’t be seduced by the idea of royal grandparents, a palace with an Olympic size swimming pool, tennis courts and a cinema room?

  Ahran was looking at me expectantly, waiting for my answer. A shadow of doubt touched his features. How could he doubt me? If things had been different, I’d be declaring myself to him from the rooftops but I was never going to be able to tell him just how much I felt for him. All I had was today.

  “Yes okay then,” I replied, throwing caution to the wind and I was rewarded with one of his heart-stopping smiles.

  The King, Queen and Toby got in the first hovering car and Ahran and I got into the Jaguar, which although was super sleek, had four wheels like a conventional car. Ahran had been right, for all their evolution and technological advancement there definitely seemed to be a certain nostalgia about Earth.

  “Who’s in the other cars?” I asked, feeling awkward around him.

  “Bodyguards.”

  “Oh, of course.” It would take me a while to get used to the trappings of a royal lifestyle.

  “You are beautiful,” Ahran said softly. Suddenly, all thoughts of who was in what car vanished as I turned towards him. I blushed but revelled in his attention. I wanted to reach out and touch him, kiss him, be held by him.

  “I’m looking forward to when we can be on our own properly,” he said, his words full of promise.

  I didn’t answer as our eyes met. I had allowed myself this day, knowing that the King and Queen were my unwitting chaperones, but spending time alone with Ahran was out of the question.

  “I love it when you blush,” he said teasingly and placed his hand on my thigh. His hand felt hot through the thin fabric of my dress and it sent little shock waves down my leg. I was unprepared for the sudden contact.

  The King’s cars moved off.

  “Ahran,” I said breathily, my eyes closing involuntarily. Before I knew it his lips were on mine. I tried not to respond but I was beginning to learn that my body worked entirely independently of my brain where he was concerned. My lips accepted his eagerly.

  “You and the memory of those lips were what kept me going when I was being beaten to a pulp at Bazeera’s castle,” he said against my mouth.

  The memory of his suffering was a painful one. I touched his top lip with my tongue and he responded with more demanding thrusts of his own. I was desperate for the taste of him. His kiss had ignited a white hot flame within me and every cell in my body throbbed for his touch. I didn’t know what the hell I was doing. All I knew was that I was powerless to stop.

  “God Sophie, carry on like that and we won’t make it to the beach,” he threatened deliciously, breaking away. I could feel the heat spreading down my neck. I noticed with satisfaction that he too had a tell-tale flush high across his cheek bones. Allowing him to kiss me was like signing my own death warrant and not only had I signed it, but I’d done it with a flourish. I had no will power, no sense of self-preservation, and now that my barriers were down I just craved more. I took his hand and laced my fingers with his. I smiled not quite trusting my voice.

  “Just so beautiful,” he said.

  My eyes feasted on him, taking in the masculine set of his brow, the strong downward sweep of his nose, his well-defined cheekbones set squarely above equally well-defined jaw bones and settling on his devastating lips which were set with a hint of a satisfied smile. If I closed my eyes I could pretend that this was my forever, that his was the face that I would wake up to every morning and those were the lips I would kiss every night before I went to sleep, but I knew if I did, it would only be deluding myself. I fought the tears that were starting to sting. “We ought to get going or they will be wondering where we are,” I said in a small voice.

  “You’re right. But the hours until I can have you to myself are going to be long and challenging,” he said as he gently ran his fingers down my cheek. He was staring at my mouth as if he was about to go in for a second delicious assault.

  I closed my eyes to the pain in my chest. I couldn’t let him know about my plans to leave and as selfish as leading him on was, I justified it to myself that after all the anguish I had suffered in my life, I deserved these last few hours of happiness. But once today was over, I wasn’t going to stubbornly cling on only for him to eventually realise that the price for being with me was the ruin of everything he had dreamed of and worked for.

  We drove out of the palace gates and in the direction of the lakes.

  “You are going to have to behave yourself this afternoon Mr Elessar we don’t want to raise the suspicions of the King and Queen just yet,” I said as light-heartedly as I could muster. The more I discouraged his advances the better chance I had of resisting him.

  “I want them to know how I feel about you,” he said, looking at me as long as it was safe to do so.

  I looked away, I couldn’t bear to see the depth of emotion in his eyes. “Can we just keep it to ourselves for the time being? Toby’s got a lot to take in at the moment and besides there is something nice about no-one knowing.” God, I hated myself for using Toby as an excuse, again.

  “I understand, but you don’t realise how difficult it is for me to keep my hands off you. It was all I could do to stop myself from grabbing you and whisking you off over my shoulder when you walked into the sitting room this morning.”

  “Believe me, it’s not easy for me either.” If only he knew just how true that was.

  “Okay, I promise to behave myself providing we can spend the night together.”

  My pulse quickened at the thought of a night with him but this was out of the question. “Toby, will be in the next room,” I protested.

  “Come to my room.”

  “Someone will see me.”

  “Sophie, give a guy a break,” he said in good-humoured frustration.

  I was running out of excuses. “Okay, I’ll see what I can do.” I had no intention of going to his room and I had the rest of the day to come up with a reason for not spending the night with him. I had to change the subject of us; it wouldn’t take too much more for me to crack. “You haven’t told me anything about Toby’s rescue. What went wrong at Bazeera’s? How did you get captured?”

  Ahran looked sheepish. With his reputation, getting caught obviously didn’t sit comfortably with him. He sighed. “Galius, Elaya and I had decided to access the castle using an old network of tunnels underneath it. We thought it was best if we split up. Galius and Elaya took the north and west tunnels but the tunnel I had chosen, was disused and had collapsed halfway in, so I had to turn back. Galius had given us a map of the tunnels from his army days, but it was inaccurate and led me into a well-used service tunnel. I was caught with nowhere to hide by two armed guards. It was a stupid mistake and I shouldn’t have made it.” Ahran was shaking his head at his rookie error.

  “We
all make mistakes Ahran, don’t be so hard on yourself,” I said, touching his arm instinctively.

  “I couldn’t believe my bad luck, you and I had just got together and I nearly got myself killed. Thank god for Galius, I shall be indebted to him for the rest of my life.”

  The sharp, vicious little knife that had lodged itself in my chest over the last couple of days twisted agonisingly. I turned and looked out of the window so that Ahran couldn’t see the tears I could no longer hold back.

  We drove in silence for a couple of minutes as I tried to rein in my emotions.

  “Sophie, are you okay?”

  “I’m fine,” I said, my voice wavering.

  “Are you crying?” he asked, he started to pull the car over.

  “No, no don’t stop, we’ve been too long as it is.”

  “But you’re upset.”

  “Please, I’m fine.” My plea sounded panicked but I knew I didn’t have the strength to resist any kind of further probing on his part. “Talking about Bazeera just brought it all back for me, that’s all,” I said, sidestepping any further questions. I started to look in the glove box for some tissues so that I didn’t have to make eye contact with him. “Keep going, Toby will be wondering where I am.” My search proved fruitful and I wiped my eyes. I was going to have to be stronger than this or Ahran would realise that something was wrong and that wouldn’t help my ‘cut and run’ plan at all.

  He hesitated before finally doing as I asked and continued on to the lake. He glanced at me several times during the remainder of the journey. I kept our conversation light but I sensed he wasn’t convinced by my explanation. We turned down a sandy track which led down to the lakes. There were two other vehicles parked in the car park in addition to the King’s cars. Ahran switched off the engine but didn’t move. “You can talk to me, you know that don’t you?”

  I nodded and stared out of the windscreen giving myself enough time to mask my raw emotions before I turned and looked at him.

  He leant forward and kissed me. It was a tender kiss, one that sought reassurance, but as much as I wanted to give it to him I couldn’t and pulled away before I lost myself to his lips again. I closed my eyes to the hurt look on his face and got out of the car.

  We made our way along the beach towards the royal group at the other end. It was a beautifully warm day and the water shimmered invitingly. We passed two other couples, but apart from a few cursory glances they paid little attention to the unusual group of people that had taken up their position next to the rocks at the other end of the bay. Whether they recognised the King and Queen I wasn’t sure, although it wasn’t every day a group of people picnicked surrounded by a handful of men in suits. Ahran was quiet as we approached our party.

  “There you are.” Leylana broke away from her meticulous attention to a series of sandcastles she and Toby had started to build. She wore a black swimsuit with a scarlet sarong tied at the waist and she looked up at us from under a wide brimmed hat. She reminded me of Jackie Onassis.

  “We took the scenic route,” I said, feeling like I owed her an explanation for our late arrival. I had no idea whether there was a scenic route though. I was distracted by Ahran as I watched him join the King who was sitting on a deck chair absorbed by some kind of electronic tablet.

  I sucked in a breath and turned my attention back to the elaborate row of sandcastles they had built. “So what do we have here?” I asked. Toby never did things by halves, especially where construction was concerned. Leylana had followed my eyes to Ahran and looked up at me with a knowing expression on her face. Dammit, I really needed to try and be less obvious.

  “Well, we seem to have created Dinara’s newest line of defence here, haven’t we Toby.” She chuckled, clearly enjoying herself.

  “Yes, I can see that,” I said.

  Toby’s attention returned to a hole that was growing bigger by the minute.

  “Wow Tobes, you really mean business.”

  He didn’t look up and carried on digging as he spoke. “I need to make this hole big enough for two people,” he replied breathlessly.

  “So you’ll be joining him in the cavern he’s creating?” I asked Leylana

  She laughed. “No, I think I’ll be handing my role of assistant engineer over to Halsan once the hole is completed.” She looked over at Toby adoringly.

  “You must be hungry,” she said, standing up and attempting to brush off some of the sand sticking to her legs.

  “Oh, when you’re ready, there’s no hurry.” My insides felt so screwed up, food was the furthest thing from my mind.

  “No, let’s have lunch. Halsan has to eat every three hours or he gets grumpy,” she said as she rolled her eyes. She went over to the baskets to start laying the food out on a table that had been set up on the sand. We had enough equipment for a party three times our size. It reminded me of my childhood trips to the beach with my grandparents. Every possible scenario had to be catered for and it would take two trips in the car to transport everything they needed; windbreaks in case it was windy, blankets in case it was cold, deck chairs as well as sun loungers and enough egg sandwiches to feed an army. I came to the conclusion that it must have been something to do with being grandparents.

  I took Toby down to the water’s edge to wash the sand off his hands. “So what do you think of your new grandparents?”

  “I like Leylana but I’m not sure about the King.”

  “He probably just needs a bit of time to get to know you. It’s all as new to him as it is to you.”

  Toby shrugged as if to say, ‘I’ve accepted that I am half alien and heir to a kingdom in a completely different universe, I can’t see what his problem is’.

  I couldn’t help but smile.

  We re-joined the others. The picnic was lavish and there wasn’t a soggy egg sandwich in sight. Ahran came and sat next to me and I struggled to concentrate on swallowing; I was too acutely aware of his knee brushing mine. I drank a glass of cool, sweet wine a little too quickly in an attempt to calm my nerves and made a concerted effort to live in the moment.

  Once we had finished eating, Toby managed to persuade Ahran and Halsan to play ball with him. Halsan even dived for the ball a couple of times which brought whoops and cheers from me and Leylana. Ahran had stripped down to swim shorts, displaying his heart-stopping body and I was an avid spectator making the most of the opportunity to drink him in until the last seconds of play.

  Halsan ducked out and sat back down. I laid down on my beach mat to sunbathe. There was only so much of Ahran’s half-naked body my blood pressure could take. I was however, thankful for my sunglasses because it meant I was able to continue to watch him more covertly. He moved with such ease and was lightly tanned all over which I think was more down to his natural skin tone than any lengthy time spent in the sun. He was a god among men and the memory of his body on top of mine, moving with mine, made my mouth go dry and caused heat to flood between my legs.

  I was all over the place. One minute, I was happy to make the best of the day, the next in the depths of despair only to be shortly followed by such a driving, brain scrambling attraction for him that it made me want to pant. I rolled over to force myself to tear my eyes away from him.

  “Toby seems to be enjoying himself,” Halsan said.

  I propped myself up on my elbows to look at him, happy for the distraction. “I think I can safely say that coming to the beach features in Toby’s top three things to do,” I said with a smile.

  “He is such a lovely little boy,” Leylana interjected as she handed Halsan a Panama hat; it was such a normal, wifely thing to do. “He reminds me so much of Tagan in his mannerisms.” A wistful look settled across her features.

  “He is pretty special, I have to agree,” I said

  “The kidnap doesn’t seem to have affected him too much,” Halsan added.

  “I’m sure it has affected him more than he is letting on,” I said.

  I shrieked as a shower of freezing cold water
rained down on my back and turned around to see who the perpetrator was. Ahran stood over me with a big grin slapped across his face.

  “He told me to do it,” he said, pointing to Toby and doing a convincing impression of a guilty school-boy passing the blame. Toby stood next to him dripping wet with an equally wide grin plastered across his face.

  “Well, you should know better,” I said, directing my mock scorn at Ahran.

  “Ah, don’t be like that,” he said in his sweetest voice, “come and have a swim.”

  I loved it when Ahran was playful. Oh, what the hell!

  I jumped up suddenly. “The last one in is a lemon!” I teased and ran as fast as I could towards the water. Momentarily, I had forgotten I was a mere Sapien and had just taken on a full and a half Ramian. Both easily caught up with me and took me down into the water as I began to wade in. I gave as good as I got and spluttered and splashed back as hard as I could. The three of us spent the next ten minutes enjoying ourselves, dunking each other and stealthily grabbing each other’s legs under the water. For the first time in what seemed like a lifetime, I forgot my fears and worries and lived in the moment.

  Chapter 24

  Toby returned to the beach to resume his hole digging and I floated on my back as Ahran powered out some front crawl. Out of the corner of my eye, I watched the play of his powerful shoulder muscles as he rhythmically broke the surface with each hand. He turned and headed in my direction.

  “You should carry a health warning in that bikini,” he said, approaching me. “All hot-blooded males in a 10 kilometre radius beware.” The look on his face was predatory and it made me shiver deliciously.

  The top half of my bikini was a little on the skimpy side. My chest was more ample than my bottom half and it meant I always struggled to get bikinis that fitted without showing an indecent amount of flesh. This bikini was no exception.