But when her hand reached lower, he caught her in a firm grip.
“I think our shower is over, baby.”
He turned the water off and took a fresh towel, encircling her head and rubbing the water from her hair. He continued down her back, her sides, the towel brushing against every part of her, teasing, enticing.
When he knelt in front of her, she took his face in her hands. She wanted to return the love he was giving her. She brought her lips to his with all the passion she felt, and he matched it, groaning and grabbing her beneath her arms.
He rose and lifted her with him so she could wrap her legs around his waist. The sensation of his hardness brushing against her softness was overwhelming, and she wanted more of it. She was burning for him, sensual need tightening the muscles at her core.
He strode out of the bathroom toward the bed. He gently tossed her onto the mattress, coming down over her. His kiss was fierce, passionate, and left her dazed as he positioned his hips between hers.
She waited, ready, poised on the edge of something unnamable.
He slid into her firmly, releasing a strangled groan as she gasped. Pleasure ignited within her as he began to move, and she clung to him as he used his body to stroke her, drive her higher. Her core gripped him more tightly as he continued to move, every muscle tensing as the ecstasy mounted, driving her closer to the peak once more.
“Come, baby, come for me,” he ordered from above her, sliding one hand down her stomach to find her again.
The pleasure hit her hard and fast, and she screamed, convulsing around him, unable to believe that such pleasure existed.
He withdrew and sank down beside her, drawing her into his arms, both of them still shuddering with the force of their release.
He was right, it didn’t matter what parts of him were flesh.
He was a cyborg, but inside he was all man.
And he was hers.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Roihan
Roihan woke hours later, Aria’s body soft against his beneath the sheets.
“Is it time to get up?” her voice mumbled from under the covers.
Some things never changed. The memory of her scream of pleasure made him smile.
“Not quite yet, I believe you and I have a bit of catching up to do.”
He didn’t bother with preliminaries before he moved on top of her and gritted his teeth as he slowly nestled himself into the cradle of Aria’s thighs.
Her body shivered against his in the chilly early morning air, so he tucked her close, sliding his arms beneath her back and holding her heartbeat to his own.
“Again?”
“This used to be your favorite time.” He didn’t care that she’d forgotten—he’d remember for both of them.
Their eyes locked, and she tilted her lips closer so they brushed his as she spoke. “Then let’s see if it still is.”
As he sank into her slowly, he forced his eyes to stay open even though they were heavy with pleasure. He needed to see her, to watch her, as he seated himself inside her body.
Her cheeks flushed.
Her lips were swollen and parted.
Her eyes dark with need.
He loved her without restraint.
When he pulled back, her body tightened around his, and she let out a tiny whimper, which turned into a moan as he pushed back in, making sure to hit her favorite spot. Slowly and deeply, he played her body, pushing her right to the edge before pulling her back.
He hadn’t forgotten a thing.
The feeling of rightness made his vision blur. She was his heart, his home, his life.
His Aria.
He would fight for her, die for her, do whatever was necessary not to lose her again.
Her muscles began to tighten around him, flexing, fluttering, her short fingernails digging into his shoulders.
He marveled in the sensation, marveled in the bite of pain. Loved her with his every breath. He fought to keep going, to take her pleasure higher.
He lowered against her, driving deeper, giving her more of himself, until she cried out a third time.
And then the rippling of the wet heat that surrounded him became too much. He shouted as the orgasm overwhelmed him, his entire body shaking as he gave in to the ecstasy. He watched her face through narrowed eyes, her expression tightened with pleasure so great it was almost an expression of pain.
My Aria.
And at that moment, he loved her more than ever and would continue to do so, regardless of whether she got her memories back or not.
What was past was past, what was gone, forgotten.
He fell onto the mattress beside her, drawing her shaking body close. “I love you, baby.”
Her reply was soft, hesitant. “I love you, too, Roihan.”
An hour later, a knock at the door was an unwelcome surprise. Roihan opened the door and slipped out into the wide hall to find Tordan. He felt almost boneless, replete and relaxed for the first time in as long as he could remember. "Did Aielle get the crystal to work?"
"No, she's still working on it,” Tordan replied. “But I was parsing through the information I downloaded from the Ardak computer. I know where we can find a large amount of the sucrose you are looking for. The humans make it."
"The humans? How do you know?"
"I went with my father to negotiate and trade with them several times. They grow crops of vegetables and then extract the sucrose using hot water."
"Why would they do that?" Aria asked.
Roihan turned, having not known that Aria had opened the door behind him until she spoke.
Tordan peered over Roihan's shoulder at her and shrugged. "Who knows? I think they use it as a sweetener instead of honey. Some of them are addicted to it. But I’m glad they have it because it suits our purposes. And if they are all suffering from the red dust as we are, they will be happy to give it to us in exchange for the antidote."
"We should procure it now, so we'll have everything ready when Aielle is finished with the crystal.” Aria suggested. “Besides, we have nothing else to do until it’s finished."
"I'll come with you," Tordan offered. "And we might bring some others for backup."
Thirty minutes later, Aria, Roihan, Valdjan, Simban, Mordjan, and Tordan loaded into the ship.
“This looks familiar,” Valdjan noted dryly.
“Yes,” Mordjan replied. “But this time we brought the big guy.” He indicated Tordan.
“Hopefully, that will make a difference to the humans,” Tordan replied. “My father used to trade with them and was well-known to the human king, but I’ve only been there a few times.”
Aria closed her eyes briefly and powered up the ship, and Tordan went silent, listening. "It's so quiet. Quieter than the smoothest cart."
"It's true," Aria said, opening her eyes. "I was in admiration of the technology, as well." She turned to Tordan.
“What else do you know about the humans?”
“My father said they were . . . unpredictable. They hold no allegiances for long—sometimes siding with us and sometimes against us for no other reason than momentary emotion.” He paused before adding, “My father and Ardair, my mate’s father who has passed on to the upper realms, theorized it was because their life spans are so short.”
“How short?” Simban’s brows were creased.
“Only about eighty to ninety years.”
Aria gasped. “That’s all? Why?”
Tordan looked up toward the ceiling of the ship, his brows rising when he realized its height. “No one knows. My own suspicion is that they’ve lost touch with nature, making war with each other and obliterating the environment. For the past century, Ardair refused to deal with them completely.”
“They sound horrible,” Valdjan uttered, Simban nodding in agreement.
“Yes. Legend says that when the humans first arrived ten thousand years ago, they were destitute. Their planet, Earth, had exploded due to their misuse of weapons technology. Th
ey vowed to have peace on our planet, but my father feared that they’d begun to make the same mistakes again. We’ve been lucky that ancient elven magic conceals our land from them, so they haven’t been able to find it.”
“I always wondered why no humans came to visit,” Mordjan commented. “That must be why.”
“Look,” Aria chimed in, “we’re already here.”
Tordan whistled at the continent out the window. "It took my father and me two weeks to get here by horseback over land and ship by sea."
“Shall I land the ship in front of that castle?” Aria asked from above them.
Roihan looked up to see her surveying the ground from the captain’s console.
Tordan frowned. “I would love to, but I think not. We don’t know what our reception will be here.”
“If you feel it's better to be stealthy . . .” Aria examined the landscape below, tapping her fingers on the computer console. “I can set the ship down behind that hill." Aria pointed. "We’re still close to the castle, but there is an escape route through the trees, and we can get to it relatively unnoticed."
"No arguments from me," Roihan said. "I’m not here to make friends. Let's get this sucrose and be done."
As Aria landed the ship, Tordan strode to the entrance to the control room, blocking them from leaving. He raised a hand in warning. “Listen, we might not be here to make friends, but we aren’t here to make enemies, either. When you get your ray guns, set them to paralysis rather than energy blast. Please try not to kill any humans if you can help it, even if they try to kill you.”
Valdjan’s brows rose, and he looked at Roihan, who shrugged. He didn’t know what Tordan thought they would be walking into.
They followed Tordan down the corridor to the weapons room. Roihan set his ray gun to paralysis, reminding Valdjan to do the same.
They went up over the hill and came down at the back of the castle. Tordan, who was in front, motioned them to get down as they came to a clearing. They dropped behind a stack of fallen tree trunks, listening.
“Ardaks,” Tordan commented silently.
“What are Ardaks doing here?” Roihan asked.
“And how did they get here so quickly?” Tordan added. “They didn’t come by water. Do they have another flying ship?”
“Spaceship,” Roihan corrected softly, peeking over the logs but trying to stay low so they wouldn’t see him.
“Quiet,” Aria hissed. “I can’t hear what they’re saying.”
The two enormous Ardaks were in a grassy field behind the castle, circling each other, pacing in measured steps.
“You know the king is wrong. He's killing countless beings across the galaxy, decimating entire planets. Why are you standing for this?"
"The empire is everything—the king is always right," DeathWatch growled back.
"That is not the case, and you know it." There was a click in the pacing steps. “Ouirer,” she silently told the others. “Only his footsteps could make that clicking noise.”
“We know who he is.” Tordan’s voice was dry.
"I'm telling you, DeathWatch, this is a travesty. And enlisting the help of these . . . humans?" Ouirer snorted in disgust. "Giving them the antidote is not going to win you the favor of the king."
“The humans are the first beings on this planet to have any common sense. They promised us the crystals for the antidote.”
“We have to do something about this.” Aria stared at him. “Ouirer is on our side.”
“What the hell do you want me to do?” Roihan responded.
“I agree. There’s no way in hell I’m getting between two dueling Ardaks,” Tordan said firmly. “Let them kill each other. They’ve done enough to our people.”
“Yes, but . . . it sounds like they have the antidote.”
“How do you think the humans will get the crystals? You think they’re friends with the elves?” Ouirer’s growl was incredulous. “They lied to you, DeathWatch. You won’t get anything from them.”
DeathWatch’s lip curled in a snarl, and his claws came out. "I'm not going to listen to any more of your babble, Ouirer. You should have died with the rest of the traditionalists in the Great War. All your talk of peace. In all this time you haven’t learned. There is no right, there is only might.” He roared then, long and loud.
“At the moment you have neither,” Ouirer said firmly. “You’re just one Ardak negotiating with a bunch of humans. May your descendants forgive you.”
“Do something!” Aria looked as if she would jump from their hiding place and race into the fight.
“Stay down!” Roihan commanded, grabbing her arm. “They will kill us before they kill each other!”
“My descendants will be part of the greatest empire in the universe!” DeathWatch roared. “But your line ends here, Ouirer. As well as you. You’ve outlived your usefulness by many lifetimes."
Aria shook off Roihan’s hand and stood.
Son of a bitch!
Chapter Thirty
Aria
Aria stood from behind the tree trunks in time to see DeathWatch draw his weapon and fire at Ouirer.
“Noooo!” she screamed helplessly at DeathWatch. “You coward!”
Ouirer turned toward her, and she could see the welcome on his face. "Aria."
For one moment, their eyes met and held. But Ouirer’s expression melted into one of pain. He looked down to the blood spreading across his stomach. DeathWatch’s aim had been true.
At the same moment, DeathWatch roared and clutched at his stomach, his shocked gaze going to her. “You shot me, you worthless excuse for a cyborg.”
Numbly she looked down to see the ray gun in her own hand. She had fired without even thinking about it. She shook off the shock and began to run. "What have you done?" she screamed at DeathWatch, closing the distance toward Ouirer as fast as she could. "You killed him!"
DeathWatch fell to his knees, his shock slowly turning to arrogant anger. "I am your creator. Your loyalty should be to me."
"My loyalty is to those who do the right thing," she said, realizing it was true. "And even though I don't have a memory, I know that siding with the humans and killing everyone else with the Red Death is wrong."
"Why do you care?" His voice was harsh but growing weaker. "You're immune to the Red Death."
Aria's mouth gaped open.
"Oh . . . you didn't know!" He hacked a laugh. "You didn't think I'd build an army and not make them immune to the Red Death?" He coughed. "Didn't you wonder . . . why you never got sick?"
Aria couldn't even process that information, it was so mind-boggling. She knelt beside Ouirer. Blood was pumping out between his fingers, and tears came to her eyes. "Ach, we need to get you to the ship."
"No, daughter," he replied, the formal term causing a tear to slide down her face. "DeathWatch was right. It's better this way."
"But—" She started to argue, but he silenced her with a look.
“Help me . . . take this off.” He reached up to pull off a chain he was wearing around his neck. She helped him unhook the clasp, and then he weakly pressed it into her hand. There was a large gold charm on it, and it took her a minute to realize it was a computer key. "I was injured, so it took me a while to get back to the base. By the time I returned, you were gone." He closed his eyes for a moment. "There is . . . so much . . . I wish I could tell you."
"What is it? Try to tell me, please."
He took a shallow breath. "You cyborgs are the key . . . to defeating the king." His breathing became more labored. "There are others who know what he's doing . . . is wrong. You . . . must find . . . the rebellion."
He clasped his hand around hers. "Put this key around your neck. It has the codes to release you. To bring back your memories. You know so much more than you think . . ."
His breath trailed off, and he exhaled his last. His great head lay back, eyes unblinking.
Tears sprang to her eyes. “He’s dead.”
Roihan laid a hand on he
r shoulder.
“What in the hell was he talking about?” Mordjan asked. “A rebellion? We’re immune to the Red Death?”
“We need to find out whatever is on that chip,” Tordan said.
Aria took a few moments to grieve for her only friend and mourn the loss of knowledge and friendship.
But then shouting filled the forest, and humans came running out the back of the castle.
“What do we do now? If the humans have sided with the Ardak king and they have the cure, I doubt they'll willingly give us the sucrose," Roihan said, pulling out his gun.
"Grab the ray guns from the fallen Ardaks and get to the ship," Tordan instructed. "We don't need the humans to get any technology they don't already have. Especially if we're going to fight them in a war."
Roihan ran to DeathWatch while Aria grabbed Ouirer’s gun, and they sprinted back to the ship as quickly as they could.
Two of the fastest humans were quick enough to grab the docking bay door as it rose, and Tordan fought them off.
Aria let the ship hover above them, knowing they could do nothing. “We still need to get that sucrose.”
"Do you have a way to pick up a large amount of something with this ship?" Roihan asked.
"Of course, that's how we get water." Aria snapped her fingers.
"Then let's just find their store of sucrose and take it,” Valdjan said.
Tordan rubbed his forehead. "I hate doing it that way, but it doesn’t look as if they are open to negotiations at the moment.” They all turned to watch the scores of humans running after the ship and screaming, some stopping to check on the two fallen Ardaks.
Aria used her visual cortex scanner to find the sucrose, a large amount of which was being sorted in a barn behind a farmhouse.
She closed her eyes for a moment and a clear force field went down through the barn, sucking up the sucrose into a compartment on the ship.
Humans ran out of the farmhouse toward the barn, screaming.
"I'm sorry," Tordan said quietly, looking solemnly down at them. "Very sorry."
“We have what we came for,” Aria announced, her voice subdued. “Setting course for Renwyn.”
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