“Maive.” I leaned forward, resting my forearms on my knees. “Your interest in me has never made sense. I’m a hideous, scarred ex-mercenary.” I pointed to my horn. “With more battle scars than I can count. You deserve someone kind and gentle and wise, like the man who first won your heart. Not a brute like me.”
She rose and crossed the small distance to me and surprised me by settling on my lap. She looped her arms around my neck and smoothed a hand over my broken horn. I couldn’t feel my horns anymore. When I had been younger, they had nerves, and they grew. Had I been younger when I broke this one, it would have grown back long and strong and a proud, gleaming black. I wanted to move my head away from her touch, to take her attention away from something I found slightly embarrassing.
“Gilrox,” she said. “When have you ever not been kind and gentle and wise?” Her hand shifted from my broken horn down to my cheek and held it there, directly over a narrow, raised scar that ran from my eyebrow across my cheekbone. One of many. So very many. “I have not yet met this brute that you describe. I’m inclined to think he retired along with your old life. Because I know whoyouare here, and I have very much fallen in love with you.”
“Have you now?” My arms came around her, sliding over her curves possessively. “I don’t know how that happened, but I’m grateful for it. Because I’m utterly in love with you.” There was something absurd about the fact that I had announced this to theguild before I had said it to her, but there it was. Now everyone knew.
“Now, are you going to take me to that bedroom or not?”
I stood, lifting her with me, cradling her against me, and carried her to the bedroom. “You’re not going to change your mind, are you? Come to your senses?” I laid her on the bed and kissed her, allowing the feelings to come, the sensations to spread through my body; waking up some parts, dulling others. “Because I think that might kill me.”
She chuckled, low in her throat. “I’m not going to change my mind. I’ve given this a lot of thought.” She gasped as my mouth trailed over her neck. “But you should know, I have not done this in a very long time. So long I can’t even say I’m out of practice.”
I moved lower, following her curves, tracing the swell of her breasts and the gentle curve of her waist. “I could say the same. Not that I had a partner like you, but there were—” I cut myself off there, and shook my head. “What I’m trying to say is, forgive me if this is clumsy. It has been a long time for me, as well, and I’ve never been in love before.”
She grinned up at me. “I’ll be gentle with you, Gilrox.”
“You’re so merciful, Maive,” I drawled back, nipping an earlobe.
She chuckled, but we stopped talking after that. Our clothes came off slowly, with care. The reckless randiness of my youth replaced with the slow satisfaction of learning the sensual side of this one perfect female. I could take my time, knowing that I wouldn’t embarrass myself. That was one advantage of being older.
Her hands explored me as much as mine explored her. I moved lower, setting my mouth upon the soft, sweet heat at the core of her. I sank into the sound of her pleasure, the soft moans. My skin delighted in the feel of her hands all over me. Touchingme. Learning me. Stroking me.Stars, how long had it been since anyone had touched me like this? I was starved for it.
When at last I slid inside of her, it was like coming home. We moved together in the great, ancient way of things, her body accepting mine and claiming it at the same time. I was careful. Soverycareful not to hurt her. I watched her expression and her reactions, alert for any sign of discomfort. I saw only pleasure and wonder. It amazed me that I, a man who had known only violence for so long, could bring such pleasure to a woman like Maive, who was powerful in her own right, soft when she chose to be, light when she had the luxury to be. That she chose me, of all men, to invite into her bed was a gift I’d never take for granted.
We found our completion together in a mind-bending moment that threatened my sanity and wrenched noises from both of us that I had never heard before. There were simply no words. We lay there afterward, side by side, breathing like we had just finished one of my more rigorous training sessions. I couldn’t conjure anything coherent other than a grunt and something that sounded likeyes, but even that was ambiguous.
She snuggled up against me, one arm thown over my chest and her head resting on my shoulder. I couldn’t see her face from my angle, but I could feel her breathing grow long and slow, her body turn boneless and soft as she slipped into sleep. I lay there for a long time, listening to her breathe, feeling the gentle rise and fall of her inhalations, breathing in the delicious scent of her. I had spent so much of my life protecting things because it was a job. This was different. I would protect this woman to my dying breath. I would protect her if it meant losing everything. This was where I was supposed to be. This was who I was. Perhaps not when I was a fighter, but perhaps then, too. Then, I didn’t know any better. Now I did. Maive belonged to me and I to her. It was as scary as it was true.
I finally let myself fall into sleep beside her. It was the deepest, most peaceful, most gratifying sleep I’d had since I was a child, before the invasion of Belaga. Perhaps I slept so well because my soul knew that finally, it was home.
Chapter
Twenty-Four
Always have a plan for the pet
The village lookeddifferent than it had three months ago.
A Rivonok scout doing a preliminary pass would find exactly what it appeared to be: a small fishing settlement on the habitable strip of an unremarkable outer-quadrant planet. Hexagonal buildings, a harbor, a market square with a few stalls. Ordinary. Quiet.
I walked through the center of the village aware of where every surveillance device was. I knew which trees had concealed explosives embedded in their root systems and which buildings had hatches cut into floors and spy holes in the walls. I knew where the trip lines were, what they triggered, and which section of the north path had been rigged to produce a sound like a very large thing falling over. That one wasn’t a weapon, but it made a noise loud enough to tell everyone within two clicks exactly where the intruders were.
Pasek was explaining the food situation.
“Braija’s point was that if we’re stuck waiting for several days, people will need to eat. She’s preparing ration packs. Simple, travel foods.”
“That’s practical,” Maive said.
“She’s already started.” He paused. “She also said, and I’m quoting directly, that if the Rivonok destroy her ovens, she will deal with them herself.”
“I believe her,” I said.
“So do I,” said Tregen. He walked on Maive’s other side with his arms behind his back, his limp barely noticeable on the flat path. He had recovered well. “I’ve seen how she lit into the Durbok when he shorted her on salt, once. He never did it again.”
A few villagers acknowledged us with a nod, a fist to the chest, as we passed.
“Walk me through the sequence again,” Maive said. She had a small board in one hand and had been making notes. This wasn’t because she didn’tknowit. She’d helped design it. The board was for anything that came up in conversation and needed adding.
