But more important than that was his promise to Sonya. He had asked her to trust him, and he sensed that she would. But the plan he had concocted before had been for buying time to concoct asolution.
Now the time was gone, and the solution was still not apparent to him.
He felt in his heart that Sonya wouldn’t give in to Choarn.
But he couldn’t allow Choarn to even touch her. Not now. She was his, his possession, his mate. Maybe he ‘loved her.’ It was impossible to know, because that concept seemed as foreign to him as the concept of being a mate for life seemed to her.
He stormed through the corridors, evidently broadcasting the rage inside him, because everyone cleared the way.
CHAPTER13
She dreamed of him. Lengthy, erotic dreams. Vivid, complex… she felt as if they had actually coupled again, like he was inside her just as she reached her mind-blowing climax, but the moment was never-ending, never-satisfying. She could smell him, feel his touch, even the pulse of his blood beneath his skin. In the back of her mind, as the dream played out, were the coherent thoughts that shelovedhim.
But do you love me?She asked this question of him in the dream and put her hand to where she assumed his heart would be to absorb his answer, but all she received in response was the message he had written on her back.
Trust me. Trust me. Trust me.
She looked into his eyes in the dream and the currents of blue electricity began to shine like steady lamps, growing in luminescence and heat, filling her visual field, becoming too bright… everything became the blue-green color that pervaded all in the underground caves, but much, much too bright.
In her dream, she squeezed her eyes closed, and suddenly she realized that she was awake. The line had been crossed and the dream fell away. The heat around her body was falling away, as was the cocoon of comfort. It was suddenly cold and empty, and her arms were flailing about. She felt like she was falling.
She opened her eyes. There was a muffled sound of heavy breathing. A sway beneath her, a sense of motion. A light breeze moving over her body. Blue and green, green-blue, puddles and drips, shimmering light. The ground was moving beneath her.
She was held up at the bend in her waist. She smelled the odd rainy soil and musk scent that she attributed to Rychor. Her hands brushed over skin.
“What the hell?” she said aloud.
“Do not speak.”
This was Rychor’s voice, and she was with him.
Trust me.
Okay,she thought.
She let herself be carried by him. His arm was wrapped around the back of her thighs, the muscle firm and sensual against her. She craved his touch moving up from there, as ridiculous as it seemed in the moment. She wanted to feel his hand wrapped around her thigh from behind, pulling her to him to sheathe his cock inside her.
Abruptly, he stopped. He set her down on her feet, still gripping her by the shoulders. He had to bend down to look at her in the face, his eyes moving quickly to study her.
“Sonya,” he said. “We don’t have much time.” He held something out to her. “Put this on.”
She looked down at the object in his hands. It was her exo-suit… no, not hers, but one issued by her company.
“What…?” she said.
Rychor produced an instrument from somewhere and looked at her almost frantically, before sweeping her to the side with his broad arm. She stumbled along with the sweep, holding the suit, letting it fall open from the folded bundle it had been in when he gave it to her.
The name tag said J Stevens. Vaguely, she recalled that was a missing crew member from the previous team.
“What…?” she asked, bewildered.
But a sudden, violent flare of light made her jump and clamp her mouth shut. It was a phosphorous-like flare up, emitting little heat, and Rychor had clearly caused it.
When the smoke, which smelled vaguely sulfuric, dissipated, the door that had been there moments before had a large rectangular portion of it missing.
She looked back at Rychor, who glared at her. “Put the suiton.”
She looked behind her, and this almost made her laugh. It was such an amateur-hour thing to do. Then she shook the suit out hurriedly and stuck one leg into it, then the other.
