Chapter Six
MANDY SURELY HAD a screw loose.What do you want to talk about?Geez, this wasn’t high school. And she wasn’t sitting around with a couple of girlfriends. She couldn’t believe the way things had twisted. Spirited away from the Franciscos and the resort with no one the wiser. Perfect. All alone with two of the sexiest men she’d ever met. Great. At their mercy in eastern Ussed where barbarians ruled and offworlders could be killed on a whim? Not so good.
She should have been more alarmed, being with two virtual strangers. But she’d been attracted to them from the start, and their gentleness, so at odds with their capability to cause harm, fascinated her. As did the notion she couldn’t be anywhere safer from Mike and his goons.
Yet…something about the way they watched her, the proprietary way they had of getting rid of her food, stealing her away from the resort, and making her decisions for her. That didn’t sit well. Had they not saved her the headache of escaping from Mike Francisco, she’d have let them have it. But at this point, she couldn’t return to the resort where she’d surely be missed.
She’d have to deal with Zehn and Lore, lull them into complacency, then take off when she had a better idea of her exact location. Because, hello, it was a jungle out there.
She rubbed her belly, hungry all of a sudden.
Zehn and Lore narrowed their gazes at her movement.
“What?”
The pair exchanged a glance, then Lore left.
“Where’s he going?”
“To get us something to eat.” Zehn settled his large frame onto the ground, his back against the wall of the hut, his legs splayed out, taking up a good portion of the interior of the place. “Tell me, Mandy of Earth, why are you unmated? How many years have you known?”
O-kay, so they weren’t going to talk about the weather, then. “If I answer your questions, will you answer mine?”
He nodded. “I have nothing to hide.”
At least the barbarians displayed their fierceness openly, unlike those at home who’d put on a good face while using her. Which made her wonder where she would go once she escaped Ussed. She couldn’t see hiding out by herself on the planet, not with random barbarian clans roaming the jungle. She couldn’t return to Earth, not with an invisible collar tethered to her neck. Thejusticesystem—yeah, right—would hand her back to her owners, no matter that her servitude hadn’t been legal or moral.
It seemed Ussed’s eastern lands would have to suffice for a while more.
Zehn waited with expectancy.
“To answer your questions, I’m twenty-four years old. I don’t have a mate because I haven’t found anyone I’d want to tie myself to.”
He watched her with an odd expression on his handsome face. Such a square jaw, and those piercing golden eyes.
She swallowed a sigh. “What?”
“Do all the Earthers have psychic ability?”
“It’s no big secret. Most of us do, though the majority of us are fairly weak.” Perhaps they hadn’t sensed her inner strength.
“But not you. Your fire burns bright.”
Crap.With any luck, they wouldn’t try to use her the way those on Earth had. “I can spark little things. I have a smattering of pyrokinesis, but not much.” And was that one whopper of a lie.
“This is an untruth.” He shook his head but didn’t seem upset. “In time you will trust us.”
“Well, you did kind of kidnap me.”
“Should we take you back?” He asked as if he knew the answer to that one. Before she could answer, he followed up with, “What did that Earther want with you?”
She debated whether or not to tell him. Though most barbarians didn’t want anything to do with offworlders, Mandy had been burned too many times to give anyone blind trust. “I think he has a crush on me.” At Zehn’s blank look, she said, “You know. He wanted to join with me.”
“And that is why he assaulted you? Because he wanted to join with you? Is this some strange type of Earther mating ritual?”
“Um, yes. No. I mean, some people like to get a little rough. I don’t though. That’s why I didn’t want to be with him.”
“Hmm.”
