Insatiable (24 page)

Carina held out a piece of fruit to a little girl nearby. “Are you hungry? I have an extra purri, fruit, and I’m stuffed.”

Her eyes widened and she grabbed it. “Thank you, miss.”

“Of course. Thank you for helping me not waste food. I’m Carrie.” She nodded at the little girl, who neatly halved the fruit with a foldaway knife and gave the other part to another child nearby.

“I’m Kell. This is my sister Darla.”

Daniel shifted but said nothing to interrupt the scene. She knew he kept watch for her safety and trusted he wouldn’t interfere with her unless it was necessary. Since he was a control freak and a bossy one at that, she wasn’t entirely certain what he would classify as necessary though.

She sat on the ground where the girls had a pick-up game with metal spirals and a bouncy ball. “Oh! I think I know this game!”

Kell grinned at her, and the other two children who had been a few feet away, came over to watch. At her back, Daniel pressed a small loaf of sweet bread and another piece of fruit into her hand.

She distributed them carefully and casually as her insides melted at his sweetness.

“It’s called springs, and it goes like this.” Kell bounced the ball and grabbed the little metal springs. “First one, then two, and so on. You have to grab the springs when the ball is in the air or you lose.”

“I’ll watch you play until I understand it better,” she said, watching and smiling. There were few people he knew who seemed to be as sweet and giving as she was. Probably no one else more so than her.

 

 

N
ow that they’d made it through that trip and were waiting for the next, he watched her as she sat on a bench in the sunlight. On the last transport, he made a mental note to see if Abbie could help Carina find a way to work with children when they got her settled in Ravena. She had a way about her, a gift, and he wanted her to be able to use it. Gods knew she could make a difference in the lives of many children if given the chance. And it would give her a purpose, roots in her new life.

They were one slip away from getting the fuck out of the Imperium, and he couldn’t wait. It still wasn’t totally safe, he’d have to watch closely until they got at least to Nondal, but it wouldn’t be nearly as bad as it was just then. He jammed the rest of the sandwich he’d been snacking on into his mouth and crumpled up the wrapping.

“We’ve got friends,” Andrei murmured.

“I noticed.” Two men had followed them from the transport to the main portal. They’d been watching Daniel, Andrei and Carina for some time, and he didn’t like it. At the same time, they were already dodgy people, so it was possible they were just looking to rob them instead of sic the Skorpios on them. Robbery would get one type of response, betrayal and attempted murder would be a whole different reaction.

“Still hungry?” she asked, looking to him with a smile. She held out another sandwich.

“You got an extra?” He warmed as he took it and made quick work out of unwrapping and eating it.

“I got
two
extras. I gave you three to start with.” Her smile was mischievous. “Knowing your gargantuan appetite, a girl has to keep on her toes.”

Andrei snorted but said nothing. Daniel poked his ribs with his elbow.

“I like to stock up when I can. As long as my pants button, I can’t see why anyone should be so fascinated with my eating habits.”

She put her head on his shoulder. “Don’t pout. I’m fascinated by most things you do.”

Without thinking, he put her knuckles to his lips and realized it was okay. She’d won through his defenses in such a short time, but he enjoyed that she teased him the way she did. It meant she wasn’t afraid. He wasn’t sure what it would do to him if he ever saw fear of him in her eyes.

“We’ll need to board soon,” he murmured after finishing his food.

“Why don’t you go ahead and take the bags. We’ll be here when you get back.” Andrei knew Daniel would want to handle the recon himself, knew he’d want someone with Carina at all times.

Daniel stood, grabbing everyone’s bag, knowing, of course, that Andrei had everything important on his person. They could walk away and be fine, if necessary.

Carina’s eyes widened for a brief moment, but she didn’t argue. If they were going to make something of whatever they had, she’d have to accept the inherent dangers of his job, even if she was unhappy about it.

“I’ll be back shortly, sweet.” He didn’t bother to resist bending down to kiss her. Her happiness rushed through him when she threw her arms around his neck. “Stick with him, all right?” He indicated Andrei, and she nodded solemnly.

He deliberately took his time, ambling along toward the line of transports in docking bays, readying to leave. The security presence was high outside the inner ring of the departure decks. Mobile lockups had been installed at every portal city across the Imperium, their sources had said.

Their papers had held up at each stop so far, and Daniel thanked the gods for such good connections. But their luck may not hold for much longer; he knew that. He’d already had to take out several people, had nearly been arrested twice and Carina had been knifed. Just because they were nearly out of the Imperium didn’t mean it was time to let up on vigilance.

The populace was more resentful than he could remember in the other times he’d been there. Broken, too. Polis and private contract security had been arrested themselves after terrorizing the locals in some ’Verses. There was a feeling of lawlessness in the air, even as the streets were filled with troops.

Instability was wearing on the Imperium, and he wanted out before it all crashed down around them.

He’d paid bribes, and they’d been able to get through the checkpoint without a hitch, but just outside those high walls, Daniel could hear the loudspeakers and the shouts of the soldiers. There had been rumors of more explosions and scores of stories about relatives who’d been hauled off by the authorities, never to be heard from again.

Focus. That’s what he needed just then. So he pushed all the other stuff out of his head as he approached the decks for their transport. Theirs was a decent-sized cruiser. Not a crate with eight people to every cabin, or worse, warehoused in giant rooms with bunks to the ceilings. Not luxurious either. Either extreme would be out of character for their cover. But they fit right in the middle.

He showed his ticket to the woman at the ropes, and she passed him through, giving him the room assignments and sending him a smile that said she’d be happy to show him other things, too.

Instead, he smiled back, but kept going, taking in the area, where things were, who was supposed to be where and what, if any, weaponry the ship’s crew had. His and Carina’s cabin was small, but not as bad as it had been on the private transport. A bed, a chair, a table secured to the wall.

He ran a sweep for listening devices. Found two and left them in place for the moment. He’d wait until they began to enter the portal, and he’d jam the signal to make it look like a system glitch.

He knew this particular transport was owned by a company friendly to Federation interests. Knew they had smugglers’ holds, too. Even better, he knew the location of several, including the one just above his head right that moment.

This would suit just fine. He locked the cabin door behind himself and headed back out, catching sight of one of the men he’d seen earlier. It seemed they had a tail, which did not please him, though he was not surprised.

As he rounded a corner going down the ramp out to where Carina and Andrei waited, he halted, lashed out and threw the man who’d been following them against the wall, Daniel’s forearm pressed to the other man’s throat.

“Just what do you take me for?” Daniel growled at him.

“Get off me! What are you doing?” the man wheezed as he struggled fruitlessly.

“If you continue this, you will die. Now, my question.” Daniel’s focus was on this man, on his pulse, on the sweat on his brow and on his dancing, darting eyes. The roar of calm slid over him, and he pressed harder, cutting off the man’s air to underline his first threat.

He stood as people walked past without even a second glance. Daniel pressed, taking him close enough to blacking out before finally letting go as the first tendrils of death curled.

“Shall we do this again?” Daniel kept his gaze burning into the tail.

“Just, you looked soft.” The man’s panic stank.

“You meant to rob me and my family?”

“Just looking. You can’t blame a guy for looking. Now I know, right? Now I back off and look elsewhere.”

There had been nothing but this path, Daniel thought as he continued to hold the man in place. He had to show the man that he would not tolerate being targeted at all and had driven the point home in the only voice a man like that would hear.

“You so much as look in my direction, and I will be very vexed with you. If you even
think
about my wife, I will gut you while you watch.” He pushed back, pressing on the man’s throat one last time before turning and stalking away.

Carina saw him coming, felt the wave of his rage, saw it on his face. Andrei squeezed her hand once and stood, bringing her with him.

“Is everything all right?” she asked, feeling rather breathless at whatever show of masculine force he was exhibiting. He was so very large and threatening, and she found her knees a bit wobbly. She liked it.

“Fine.” He put an arm around her, and she pressed her face into his chest. She felt alien in her skin just then, never so completely lost in another person like she was at that moment. She was sure he and Andrei shared some pointed looks and sneaky communication about whatever had brought all this protective instinct to the surface, but she didn’t care. He’d protect her, and that’s all that mattered. She trusted him to get her to Ravena alive.

He began to walk toward the transport, stopping here and there at the stalls, grabbing food, of course, and—she stilled—a scarf for her.

“I know you’ve been getting cold.” He handed it to her in its vibrant blue glory. “Is it all right? I can get another one if you don’t like it.”

She sent him a watery smile as she wrapped it around her neck. No one had ever been this nice to her. This man was not related to her; he wasn’t trying to get something from her father. He was a man with a job to do, but the way he treated her was above and beyond that job. He bought her a scarf. Because he noticed she got cold.

“It’s perfect. Thank you.”

He smiled. “It pleases me to see you happy,” he said against her lips as he kissed her.

“The two of you are going to make my teeth hurt,” Andrei grumbled, but Carina caught the edge of his smile. He wasn’t as hard as he wanted people to believe. Beneath that smooth exterior, a sort of darkness lived. Lived in Daniel, too, she knew. But both men were far better than they believed themselves to be.

“You could have had Nyna, you know. But you waited too long.” Daniel kissed the top of her head as he teased Andrei.

“That rat Marcus stole her out from under my nose.” There was no heat in the words, just a bit of regret.

“Nyna is one of my sisters.” He’d begun to simply answer her questions before she asked, knowing her so well. That made her weepy, too.

“I take it Marcus is her beau?” She looked Andrei up and down and wondered what man could outshine that.

“Her husband. They really are good together.” Andrei shrugged. “She’s too good for me.”

“I doubt that. Not that I’m not sure Nyna is lovely, but you’re a good man, so I doubt anyone is too good for you.”

He ducked his head, letting his hair, which he’d left loose, fall forward to cover his face.

As they went up the ramp to enter the transport, she noted Daniel’s posture had changed. He stood taller, spine stiff, and his gaze moved around the area, taking in everything and everyone. He was her protector now on a completely different level.

One man caught sight of them, the same man who’d been on the mercenary transport, and paled. Daniel sent him a raised brow, and the man scurried away in a hurry. She had a feeling this was the cause of Daniel’s earlier anger.

“You see him again anywhere near you, and you tell me. Understand?” Daniel demanded after they’d fully boarded and headed to their room. Andrei was right behind them. She was surrounded by a wall of maleness bent on protecting her. She breathed easier for that.

Andrei said he wanted to take a nap, and Daniel wanted to get in their cabin to hole up, so she followed dutifully, not minding the fact that they’d be alone at last.

He paused and turned her around, her back to his front. Bending down, he spoke in her ear. “Look over there, across the bay. Do you see that couple near the water tanks?”

She obeyed and saw them. A shiver bloomed, turning warm and loose. They embraced, the man pressing the woman against a wall in the corner. They wouldn’t have been visible to most people, but where she and Daniel stood provided a perfect angle.

One of the man’s hands slid up inside the woman’s uniform shirt, and she arched into him. Carina could see the woman’s mouth open on a gasp as she lifted her leg, her thigh at the man’s hip.

The man pressed forward; Carina imagined he was grinding himself against her, cock to pussy. Knew she’d been right when the woman’s fingers dug into his shoulders as he continued to grind.

Her breath shallowed as she watched, her nipples hard, her clit sensitized. Daniel spoke, his lips at her ear. “Does that make you hot? Is your pussy wet? He’s going to end up in pain that way; a man can’t come like that. Well, most of us can’t. She can, though. Look at her. His hand is in her shirt, his fingers are on her nipple, tugging and pinching. Drawing her closer until she comes. But she can’t make any noise, or they might be heard.”

Across from where they stood against their own door, the woman arched more fully, her movements frenzied, and then her head fell on his shoulder. He kissed her passionately, and they broke apart, hands held until they had to go separate ways.