Invasion Earth (15 page)

She took a deep breath and watched Alrik and
Daggar both struggle with the idea. “Your world must change, as
must mine. I think I’m really beginning to understand that. It will
speed things up if you do too.”

“I believe you are asking too much, Laney,”
Daggar said, but she noticed Jaxon had stopped a short distance
away and was listening. Remembered he had a daughter.

“You spoke of your legends. Your gods. I’m
sure you can imagine it would go against my nature not to keep in
fighting shape. Not to make sure my daughters can defend
themselves.”

He nodded, but it was obviously reluctantly.
“I suppose.”

“These are simple enough changes, Daggar.
Things that
are
going to happen whether you approve or
not.”

“We wouldn’t order you not to do these
things,” he said formally, stiffly. She smiled.

“Of course not. But when someone outside the
family asks me to train their daughter, how will you respond? I
have been there before. It will happen.”

Daggar scowled. “Not on Delroi.”

Jaxon cleared his throat and stepped forward.
“Excuse me, my lord. But I believe the Lady Torfa is correct. If it
became known she was teaching her own daughter to fight, others
would ask if they could be included.” He hesitated. “I would ask
this for my own daughter. As you know, my liege, my family lives in
the Borderlands.”

Daggar and Alrik both looked at Jaxon and
their struggle was clear on their faces.

“Nothing need be decided here,” Alrik
eventually answered.

She sighed. At least it wasn’t a flat out no.
She would wait to pursue the issue. Barak reached the ground and
approached them, dropping the man slung over his shoulder to the
ground. His head thumped the packed dirt and she repressed a wince.
The enemy soldier was here to kill them; concern for the goose egg
he’d be sporting was hardly necessary. That thought was banished
when she looked at him, though. Like Barak, intricate tattoos
covered one side of his face and neck.

“Well, I guess that answers
that
question, doesn’t it?”

Alrik squatted down in the dirt next to him
and examined the markings. He looked up to meet Barak’s gaze.

“I don’t recognize him. Do you?”

The spymaster shook his head once and scowled
at the unconscious man. “His tattoos look like a mixture of several
tribes. I’ll have to do some research back onboard.”

Nodding, Alrik stood and turned to Jaxon.
“Let’s load up and get back topside.”

The warrior Captain left to follow his
orders.

“Alrik? Since we’re down here and not far
from my base I’d like to get a few things.”

He shook his head. “Bad idea.”

She arched an eyebrow. “Why? The attack was
by your people and it’s over. Plus they’re unlikely to try again so
soon, especially in the middle of one of our bases.”

Barak interrupted. “I’m not so sure of that,
my lady. Haven’t you wondered how it is I came to be here?”

She narrowed her eyes. “You weren’t on your
way to meet us anyway?”

“I was, but I had to meet an informant first.
One of yours actually.”

“One of mine. Kendall.”

It was a logical leap. Kendall’s base was
closest to this valley, and Britt had semi-retired and relocated to
the southern continent. There were others near by Laney had
utilized to leak information to the Delroi, but none shared the
bonds of friendship with her that Kendall did. If he was surprised
she knew exactly who he’d seen, he didn’t betray it by even one
flick of an eyelash. She admired his self-control.

“What did she say?”

“Only that she’d overheard a conversation
about the demonstration and had a bad feeling about it.”

“Who?”

“Colonel Eldridge and a Commander
Earth-side.”

She looked at Alrik who was scowling. “Did
Eldridge know about the demonstration before he got here?”

“He wasn’t supposed to. And he shouldn’t have
access to
any
kind of communication device.”

“Someone’s working together,” she murmured,
wondering who among her people were so dissatisfied with the treaty
that they’d go with
the enemy of my enemy is my friend
.
Other than Eldridge of course.

“Exactly,” Barak echoed and his gaze seemed
to mirror her own thoughts.

“What happened on the other side of the
valley with the delegation? Do we have comm yet?”

“Yes. All the attackers are dead over there.
Their position was more defensible than ours.”

“But there’s no one left to question.
Convenient ... for someone.”

“Indeed,” Barak responded.

They fell silent as Jaxon approached. He
saluted Daggar. The fist-over-heart thump was beginning to seem
natural to her.

“Everything is ready, my lord.”

The warriors and Daggar boarded, but she held
back waiting for Barak and Alrik. They stood a few feet away and
spoke too softly for her to overhear. Not for lack of trying on her
part. More secrets, and she was getting damned sick of them. She
gave up pretense and just walked over. Barak glanced at her but
continued talking to Alrik.

“Take the hover craft. I’ll have a shuttle
rendezvous with you later.”

“A hover craft? Great. My base is only a
couple of hours from here by craft.”

Alrik frowned. “You’re going topside. You can
get your things later.”

“Later?” She made her eyes big and innocent.
“Like when it’s safer, my lord General? How many years do you
suppose that will take?”

His expression grew glacial and she wondered
if she’d finally gone too far. But what the hell? It seemed to be a
day for pushing her luck. He reached out and took her hand, pulled
her up against his chest and whispered in her ear.

“I wonder if you will call me that tonight
while I fuck you? I think I would like that. It might make up for
some of the aggravation you have put me through today.”

She wanted to pretend it was outrage that
forced the gasping breath from her body, but it was nothing less
than pure lust and they both knew it. Damn. And she’d been doing so
well. With one look, one crude suggestion she was fighting her body
again. She needed to focus on something other than getting
laid.

That concentration wouldn’t come as she stood
next to Alrik and met his gaze. He wasn’t fighting the connection
between them either and she found it impossible to deliberate on
anything but the memory of his big body blanketing hers, of his
cock thrusting into her and the best sex of her life.

Barak cleared his throat. A timely
interruption as she was once again close to jumping Alrik, and not
to hurt him. Alrik broke his gaze away and turned to his spymaster.
Barak tossed him a thin key card and moved to the ship’s ramp.
Alrik smoothly snatched it out of the air.

“It’s about two kilometers east. Do you want
a lift?”

Alrik scowled. “We’ll walk.”

The spymaster boarded and the door closed
behind him. She released a pent-up sigh of relief and expectation.
Alrik didn’t speak, just turned, walked to the rocky incline, and
climbed. She followed as quietly as she could, trying to not bring
any notice upon herself. He was pissed, but he didn’t seem to know
why any more than she did.

Keeping her mouth shut was definitely the
safest course.

Chapter Twelve

Alrik reached the top and turned to help
Laney up. She didn’t need his assistance; he’d seen her climb
easily, gracefully, earlier in the day. So he was amazed when she
took his hand and let him pull her up, then she stood before him
with an almost docile expression on her face. Who was he angrier
with? Her for forcing him to see her as the soldier today? Or
himself for his inability to say no to her?

This was dangerous, foolhardy, going into her
camp, but even as he’d argued against it he’d known he was going to
allow it. There could be a trap for him or her waiting there. Hell,
it could be a trap for him set up by her. He didn’t believe that.
It wasn’t smart to trust her yet and he couldn’t say why he did,
but there it was.

“Let’s go,” he said.

His voice was gruffer than he’d intended and
her eyes widened slightly for a brief second with anger and
surprise. She was a woman who didn’t like being ordered around.
Tough. She’d have to take direction on Delroi whether she liked it
or not. Not because he wished her subservient but because she
didn’t know the people, the dangerous politics that reached out to
swirl around them even here. He didn’t try to explain any of that
now, though, and she didn’t press him to talk, thank the gods. He
set off in the direction Barak had indicated and she fell into step
beside him.

After a moment they paused together and
watched as the shuttle lifted from the valley floor. When it was no
more than a speck in the sky, Laney sighed and started walking
again. Her hand hovered over her belly for a moment before she
shoved it in her pocket.

He smiled, thinking of what lay there, safe
and protected in his mother’s womb. It would be weeks before they
knew the sex, but he didn’t need the test to know he would have a
son. And after what she’d done today, he had no doubt that Laney
would stop at nothing to protect the boy. She’d made a choice out
there that put her squarely on Alrik’s side. He frowned. No. That
wasn’t exactly true. She was with him because of the child. No
other reason. Yet.

“You’re getting all dour and sulky again,”
she said.

He looked down to meet her gaze. She cocked
one eyebrow and gave him a grin that could only be called saucy. He
wanted those lips wrapped around his cock. He’d been trying so hard
to temper his dominance that he felt a little bad for the thought,
but it was impossible to ignore his need for her, impossible to
ignore the hard core of him that wished she’d willingly submit to
his will. He struggled to reign in the primitive need, knew if he
did have her submission in all things he’d only wish to have the
fire of her spirit back.

“I don’t sulk,” he managed to answer mildly,
even though his heart started to thud wildly, as if he was in the
heat of battle.

“Ahh, so your silence isn’t some kind of
punishment because I did things today you didn’t want me to? Or for
going back to my base? Or, you know, just my defiance in
general?”

He didn’t answer and she shook her head. “It
may have escaped your notice, but I took a side today. Made a
choice to go along with your treaty and your plans.”

They rounded a curve in the path and the
hovercraft came into view. It was sheltered behind a half ring of
large boulders. He looked around. Plenty of privacy for what he had
in mind. She walked forward, but he grabbed her hand before she
could get in.

“I had a different sort of punishment in mind
than silence.”

Keeping her face blank, she turned to face
him, arching her eyebrow again, but he felt her surge of interest.
“Here?”

He felt her enter his mind and watched her
eyebrow climb even higher as she caught his desire, her lust rising
to meet it. She licked her lips.

“I don’t know that that’s really a
punishment.”

“Humor me.”

“Of course, my lord.”

Her tone was light and teasing. She smiled,
slow and sultry and moved closer to him. She lay her hands against
his chest, lingering as she moved them down, taking her time. Even
through his clothing her touch made him burn. Lust rose like a fine
red mist in his mind, in the air between them. Her hands drifted
lower until finally they stopped on his belt buckle. She only
paused a minute before releasing the catch, then the button and
zipper on his pants. They fell to the ground and she hooked her
fingers in his underwear, pulling them down as she sank to her
knees.

His erection jutted forward. With one hand,
she gripped his hip while the other wrapped loosely around the base
of his cock. Then her lips brushed over the head, light, gentle.
Almost a caress. She traced it with her tongue and fire raced up
his spine at the sensation. He groaned and she looked up at him
shyly. He wondered how much of it was an act for his benefit, but
quickly banished the thought. The bond wouldn’t allow artifice
between them. Not in this.

All thought fled though as she took him into
her mouth. Just the head. Lightly sucking as she ran her tongue
over the slit there. He quit breathing and thrust forward. He
wanted her to take all of him, needed to embed himself in the wet
warmth of her mouth. She obliged him. Let his cock slide farther
into her mouth, suckling as it did. He pulled out, thrust back in,
gradually building a rhythm, increasing his speed. As his strokes
grew faster, her mouth grew slicker and tighter. She made soft
mewling sounds each time he touched the back of her throat.

It didn’t take long before he was gritting
his teeth. He hadn’t planned on coming in her mouth this first
time, but if he didn’t stop her soon the choice would be out of his
hands. Just another minute and she’d stop
.
But he found it
impossible to do so. His release rushed through him, exploding
through his body as he jetted in her mouth. He stopped moving,
frozen as it broke over him but she kept sucking, her throat moving
to swallow his cum. When there was no more, she licked his shaft,
careful to clean it of every drop. She smiled as she sat back on
her heels, palms resting on her thighs.

“That what you had in mind?” The submissive
position inflamed him even as her words and tone made it clear she
didn’t see herself in that light. She was cocky and self-assured.
His
der’lan
was well aware by now of the effect she had on
him.

“Not quite,” was his almost growled
response.

She rose gracefully and he grabbed her before
she could skip away, burying his hand under the pinned up mass of
her hair and claiming her lips for his own. She moaned and pressed
closer, molding her body against his. He was hard again in an
instant.