Star warrior complete a.., p.37
Star Warrior Complete: A Scifi Alien Romance Bundle, page 37
“We need to be very careful,” I sent to her.
“You’re telling me,” she thought back at me. “What are we going to do about this?”
“We’ve been given an invitation to Dovar’s next party. He seems to think there’s something he needs to talk with me about. I think it would be a very good idea if we were at that party.”
“Are you sure you can trust him?” Talia thought back at me. Though I was distracted for a moment by feeling her eyes running up and down my body appreciating it. I never could get used to feeling her appreciating me in such a way. It felt odd, but at the same time it also never failed to arouse me.
Which was a distraction I did not need right now. I threatened to block the mental link and she moved her eyes back to my face. Though the smile on her face told me what she was imagining. That and the mental link that threw some very distracting images through my head.
The link was a blessing and a curse at times.
“I don’t trust him at all,” I sent back to her. “But I also don’t see that we have a choice. If we’re going to find a way to take on the emperor and survive then we need to find allies. Otherwise you’re welcome to get one of the fighters and spool up the faster than light drive while you’re pointed at the palace. Might as well end this sooner rather than later, right?”
The thoughtful look on Talia’s face was dangerous. I held up a warning finger to let her know that had been a thoroughly sarcastic thought. She stuck her tongue out at me for my trouble and I rolled my eyes. It was as though we were carrying out an entire conversation using rude human gestures she’d taught me. A sort of uncivilized wordless conversation that didn’t need the mental link to be understood.
“I know,” she thought back at me. “We need to try and find a way to survive this, but it’s not going to be easy.”
“No one ever said battle was. I know one thing for sure, though. I trust Dovar more than I do your benefactor. Ergohl is digging too much,” I thought to her.
“Maybe, but I can’t help but trust him,” she sent back.
Talia sighed. “So I suppose this means I’m going to have to find something acceptable to wear to a ball, right?”
It took me a moment to switch back to a spoken word conversation. It had been some time since I’d been part of a mental link and there were still times that I had to adjust to sending messages back and forth that way.
“Yes, I suppose you will,” I replied. Then I switched back to sending thoughts through our link. “Though you might want to dress in something that allows you to hide a few weapons. It seems like your entire social life since coming to this world is made up of various Livisk trying their best to kill you.”
Talia stuck her tongue out at me again. I probably deserved that.
13 Politics
Talia:
“How in the galaxy did you manage to hide any weapons in that outfit?” Jorav asked, disbelief dripping from his voice.
“Trade secret,” I said.
I patted the thing down. It was a nice compromise between the faux battle dress that Livisk women favored at these gatherings and a more human looking dress. The sort of thing I’d had to pay out the nose for, or I guess it would be more fair to say that Jorav had to pay out the nose for it.
“But there’s…”
Jorav looked the dress up and down again and I shivered. I remembered that moment a couple of days ago in his office when I’d very nearly gotten him to finally lose that incredible control he always maintained. Very nearly.
I sighed in frustration. This was killing me. It was entirely too long until we were going through with the bonding ceremony and I was going to go crazy if I didn’t get some action soon. And from the odd look Jorav gave me he was reading that thought loud an clear. I felt arousal building inside him, but I didn’t bother to try and tease him.
For one we had a party to get to and we couldn’t be late to this one. For another I knew the big idiot would only let me down again. Damn it.
“Our time will come Talia,” he said. “You simply have to be patient. One of the glories of the bonding ceremony is it makes you wait for that which you most desperately want. You know what they say. Having is not so pleasing a thing as wanting.”
“Whatever you say, alien man,” I said. I held my arm out and he wrapped one beefy arm in mine. A beefy arm that felt so good pressed against my body. Again with the distractions. I pushed the distraction away, but it was difficult with him standing right there looking oh so yummy.
“So you’re not going to tell me where you’re hiding your weapons?” he asked.
“Not on your life,” I said. “I like you and all, but there’s a chance I might have to use one of those hidden weapons on you someday, and I wouldn’t want to ruin the surprise.”
Jorav grunted and a mixture of amusement and apprehension came through the bond. As though he wasn’t sure whether he should be laughing or watching his back. Good. That was a good attitude for him to have around me.
“You know that dress looks very interesting on you,” he said. “I wouldn’t mind trying to find where you’re hiding your weapons, if you know what I mean.”
I nearly missed a step as we moved out onto the dock that hovered a good ways up along the tower. Hovercars whizzed past all around us filled with Livisk going about whatever it was Livisk did in their day to day life on this dirtball of a planet. I looked up at Jorav and raised an eyebrow.
“Why my dear sparkly blue alien,” I said, batting my eyelashes and doing a fake ancient American South accent that was completely lost on him. “You’re being so forward. A girl might almost think you were interested in things.”
As we stepped onto the hovercar that arousal flared inside him again. I cocked an eyebrow again. Oh yes. Someone was feeling the burn of desire running through him. Images from our conversation that day I’d nearly worn him down went flashing through his head. Very interesting. Very interesting indeed.
The door to the hovercar hissed shut behind us and I was on Jorav in a flash. I pushed him back in the first convenient chair as all around us the skyline shifted an the car took us through the air towards Dovar’s palace. I figured we had maybe ten minutes before we got there, even allowing for the amazing speeds the hovercars used.
Okay, so I said I wasn’t going to put the moves on my sexy alien. I guess I lied, because with the way he was looking in those sparkling battle dress pants that looked like something straight out of some cheesy ancient science fiction movie before science fiction became science fact for humanity had me thinking things. It didn’t help that his own desire was feeding into my mind and creating that feedback loop of emotional turmoil that always sent me over the edge.
So I did what I did best when I was turned on by my sexy hunk of alien man meat. I moved in on him with a seductive smile that I hoped would drive him wild. From the way he looked me up and down it seemed that it was doing the trick.
“My dear Jorav,” I said. “If I didn’t know any better I’d say you just hit on me, but of course you couldn’t have done that because there’s no way you would risk breaking your precious vows before the bonding ceremony, right?”
More desire bubbled up in his mind. Oh yes. This was going right where I wanted it to. I swung a leg over either side of him and plopped down right on top of him, and the moment I did my eyes went wide as I realized I was giving him a hard time in both the literal and figurative sense of that phrase.
“Oh my,” I said, again in that fake ancient Southern accent. I tried to sound faintly scandalized, though again I was pretty sure the whole performance was completely lost on Jorav. Stupid aliens and their lack of knowledge of earth pop culture. “It seems someone is very happy to see me. Are you happy to see me, Jorav?”
Jorav took in a sharp breath. He looked me up and down and his gaze took in my entire body. I was given over to the odd sensation of feeling aroused at the sight of my own body which was still a new experience. Sure I always thought I was a pretty good looking gal even if I wasn’t anything special, but with the way the mental link worked I found myself seeing myself through Jorav’s eyes and it was always a trip since I’d never really thought of girls that way aside from a few desperate dalliances back in my academy days.
He still wasn’t making any moves though. I was tempting him, but I wasn’t pushing him over the edge. Well it was time to change that. I grabbed his massive blue hands that always dwarfed my own and placed them at my side. Moved his hands up and down so they ran along the silky material of whatever strange Livisk thread the tailor had used to put this thing together.
“Feeling any weapons yet Jorav?” I asked. “Go on. Frisk me. Really let me have it.”
I didn’t have to force his hands up and down my body for long. No, in a flash his hands were all over me. That desire flared like a nuclear explosion in his mind and I knew he was mine. I knew I had him. His hands explored my body in a way they hadn’t since the last time we lost control in that alley right after an assassination attempt.
Of course that time I’d been the one reluctant to do anything because of a lingering loyalty to humanity. A lingering loyalty Jorav and his magic touch had long since taken care of, thank you very much. If I’d known how long it would be until I got to feel his touch like that again then I probably would’ve let him take me a couple of times in that alley, and loyalty be damned.
I leaned down and nibbled at his ear as my own hand snaked down between his legs. I felt at that hardness between his legs. A hardness that was so similar to human men and yet different in its own way. Different in ways I looked forward to exploring with him.
As soon as he got over this strange alien prudishness.
“We could just blow off this whole thing tonight,” I said. “Just you and me floating over the city. It could be just like that first time, minus the whole nearly plummeting to our deaths thing.”
Oh that fire was so hot. It burned so bright. It was so gratifying to feel a man wanting me, needing me, that much. Then it stopped and I knew what was coming. Somehow he managed to clamp down on that nuclear fire threatening to burst free. His hands stopped their exploration and moved down to my waist. He picked me up so I was grinding against thin air and not against his wonderful manhood. I kept at it, though. I was so frustrated. I needed this so bad.
And I knew in that moment that I’d been absolutely right before we even stepped onto the hovercar. There was no point in even trying to tempt him. It was all going to end in tears. Or at the very least it was going to end with him giving me a lecture about why we couldn’t do that sort of thing before the bonding, never mind that I didn’t give two fucks about what passed for good manners in Livisk polite society.
“I’m sorry Talia,” he said in a strangled voice. “I truly am, but we cannot miss this meeting tonight. If we were to snub Dovar then…”
Something came through the bond. Something that surprised me. He seemed genuinely worried. Not quite to the point of being afraid, but the worry was there nonetheless. And I figured that if there was something out there on this world that could truly worry him, especially when he didn’t even take the emperor coming after us too seriously, then I should probably be worried too.
Just a little.
I shook my head. “Fine. As long as you don’t…”
“Tell you that what we were about to do would be violating ancient Livisk tradition?” Jorav said. “I wouldn’t dream of saying anything like that.”
I stuck my tongue out at him. It was the only thing I could think to do. He returned the gesture and it looked very odd seeing this amazing interstellar warrior who was feared by his own people and would’ve been feared by humanity if anyone there had any idea who the hell he was or how good he was at the business of killing his enemies.
I took some comfort from knowing just how good he was at killing his enemies. I hoped he would be able to use that talent on whoever was moving against us now. The emperor. Nobles. It didn’t matter. If they tried us then they would discover too late what everyone else who tried to kill us had discovered.
The day they decided to cross us was the day they decided it was a good day to die.
I felt more than a little frustration at being pushed away once more. Frustration that I was starting to channel into a ball of anger gathering in the pit of my stomach. I almost hope we would run up against some of those people who were coming against us tonight. I was angry enough, and frustrated enough, that I needed something to fire a weapon at.
I just hoped our luck held and someone really did try to kill us tonight like they had every other time we went out into the city. I was almost looking forward to being attacked because it meant I got to shoot at whoever dared step in our path.
Jorav shook his head. “If I knew that keeping you from… that… would turn you into such a bloodthirsty warrior then I would have cut you off long ago and sent you directly at the emperor. He wouldn’t stand a chance against you in your current mood.”
I wheeled around and poked a finger at his chest. It wasn’t much of a poke, but he still stepped back as though I’d just come at him with a knife rather than my finger.
“Be careful about making little jokes like that. Remember you’re the source of that frustration, and the source of my frustration would do well not to remind me of that,” I said.
Jorav held his hands up as though he was being held at gunpoint. Or knifepoint. Or at the point of some dangerous weapon. Which might be the case. With the way I was feeling, all coiled and tense and desperately needing to fuck or frag something, it wasn’t a good night to cross me.
It only added to my irritation that I could tell Jorav was more than a little amused by this whole situation. It was all I could do not to show him where I was hiding away one of my secret weapons so I could use it on him and see if he had something to laugh about then.
The only thing that saved him was the hovercar rounding a particularly large building and bringing us within sight of a palace that looked almost as extravagant as the imperial palace where the emperor was throwing his never ending parties. Of course “almost as extravagant” was a relative thing. The palace didn’t hold a candle to the decadent opulence of the imperial palace, but even if it was a pale imitation it was still the next best thing in this city.
“Someone has envy problems,” I said.
“Indeed. You’re looking at the personal palace of house Dovar. They were the ruling family once upon a time. Can you tell?” Jorav asked.
“They’re certainly trying to pretend that they’re still a big deal,” I said.
Jorav came up behind me. I was acutely aware of his body so close to mine. I could feel his breath. I thought I could feel the warmth radiating off of his body. It felt good. It drove me wild. I closed my eyes and for a moment I allowed myself to imagine him pressing me down against the control panel and taking me as the enemy’s fortress grew larger in front of us, though it was just a passing fancy.
I’d noticed the more time I went without the good loving from Jorav, though, the more frequent those “passing fancies” had become. It was going to be a real problem if I went without for much longer, damn it.
“So why are they allowed to build a big palace while everyone else has a modern tower thing they hang out in?” I asked. “Seems like the emperor wouldn’t like someone challenging him architecturally like this.”
“Dovar is one of the only ancient families who hasn’t managed to lose their fortune and their lives in the centuries of power struggle on this world. They’re wily and dangerous, and I want to impress that on you,” Jorav said. “I know that I’ve told you there’s danger every time we go to one of these things, but never have I meant it more than tonight.”
I waved a dismissive hand. “You’re right. You say that every time and so far there hasn’t been a single time you were right.”
“Your disregard for my warnings is precisely why I feel like I need to warn you at least one more time,” Jorav said. “Even though I know you’re not going to listen now any more than you have before.”
I wheeled around and stood on my tiptoes to give him a kiss as I saw the hovercar starting to change course and move down towards a sky dock on the sided of the Dovar palace. You couldn’t feel the direction in these things because they generated their own artificial gravity field that made sure the floor was always down no matter what position the hovercar took. I’d discovered that in a very practical demonstration the first time Jorav and I had a little personal time together.
I pushed that thought away. Thinking about our first intimate time together would only lead to tears and frustration, after all, considering I desperately wanted a repeat performance that I wasn’t going to get.
Not that I had much time to think about that sort of thing anyways. The hovercar set down on the sky dock and the door opened. A servant and an escort who looked very much like a guard of some sort were waiting for us. Both bowed deeply as we stepped off onto the sky dock.
I shivered as I stepped out into the open. It was an involuntary reaction that I hated. I couldn’t shake that danger feeling every time I stepped out into the open like this. As though there were countless weapons out there pointed at me ready to kill me at a moment’s notice. There were certainly enough people on this world who wouldn’t mind seeing me dead that it wouldn’t surprise me.
But if something like that was really going on then surely someone would’ve taken a shot at me by now. I suppose I could take some comfort in the simple fact that I was still alive, though that was cold comfort.
I felt something from Jorav. Something that almost seemed like an evasive nervousness. It was a new emotion I’d been picking up from him ever since we agreed that we weren’t going to mask our thoughts from one another anymore. Though I couldn’t understand why he’d be feeling that way now of all times.
I looked up at him and smiled. “Shall we?”
“We shall,” Jorav said.
