Determinant -Guardians of Vesturon [3] (39 page)

“January, Athyna’s father did indeed spend time on Earth. In fact, when Athyna was a young girl, Voldruk went rogue for a time and roamed the Smoky Mountains. It was difficult period for us as well as Athyna and her mother.”

“Yes, I remember my mother crying all the time,” Athyna said. “I don’t really remember much else because I was at the Academy then.”

“I went after him several times trying to talk sense into him. Voldruk and I were friends since childhood. He was always the one who bucked convention. We remained friends for life, until...”

“Yes, well, as we all are aware, he wasn’t the most upstanding of males,” Athyna finished.

“In any event, he did spend time in North Carolina January.”

“Then that must’ve been when he raped my mother.”

Maybe I shouldn’t have been so blunt about it, but I had come to terms with it a while ago and didn’t think about it before I said it.

Athyna’s face lost every bit of remaining color, which hadn’t been much to begin with. Then she crumpled to the floor.

I smacked myself on the head and said out loud, “Excellent work January. Just what the poor girl needed. First, she loses the love of her life. Then she finds out she has a sister and now I tell her that her dad’s a rapist. Sweet God in heaven I’m such a friggin’ idiot!”

I was on my knees trying to wake her up but Rykerian picked me up instead and carried me upstairs.

“Wait, where are you taking me? Rykerian, put me down! Stop!”

Of course, he completely ignored me and didn’t stop until he dumped me on the bed. He joined me there and sat back on his heels, rubbing his neck.

“Heavens, what a day!” he sighed.

It was the first time I had a chance to
really
look at him all day. Gawd, he was impossibly gorgeous. Would I ever get used to this boy—I had to quit saying that? He was no boy. This was a
man
...or a male as the Vesturions said. And he was pure male through and through. And no, I doubted very seriously I would ever get used to looking at him.

Before I could stop myself, I sat up and faced him, and stretching out my hand I laced my fingers though his oh-so-pretty hair.

“Have I ever told you how amazing you are?”

His eyebrows lifted, most likely at my shift in thought, but I didn’t stop.

“I know I’m drastically shifting gears on you, but I need to say this here and now. Your hair is the most extraordinary color I have ever seen. It baffles me when I try to describe it. I’ve laid awake at night trying to come up with the perfect name for it, but no can do. It looks like every single strand was individually hand painted. And then there are your eyes.” I moved my hand from his hair to his face, cupping his cheek with my palm and tracing his eyebrow with my thumb. “They are the color of the most magnificent cobalt sapphires that have ever existed. But the fact that they send currents of heat through my body when you look at me is what thrills me the most. And those lips of yours—sweet heavens Rykerian, I so love your lips. Soft, yet demanding and oh so
knowing.
Mmmm...and yummy.” I leaned into him and kissed him and traced the outline of his lips with my tongue. “Yeah...just as I remembered. Totally yummy lips.” The corners of his lips curved upward, but I didn’t stop...I couldn’t stop. This male was pure perfection.

My fingers danced down his neck across the spot where his pulse beat. I could see it picking up its pace as I bent my head to run my tongue around and around it. I heard him suck in his breath and I smiled. There was only one thing I wanted now, but our robes were in the way so I tugged viciously on his.

I felt his laughter deep in his throat and he put his hand on mine saying, “Are you trying to destroy these?”

“Maybe.”

“May I ask you something?”

“Anything.”

“Does it bother you knowing that Athyna is your half-sister?”

I froze briefly and thought for a moment. “Not at all. Your family obviously loves her. Therron loved her. You’ve known her your whole life and I imagine you love her. Her father...my father..and your father were close at one point, so no. It’s actually kind of cool that I even have a sister. Well, two sisters. But a Vesturion sister.”

“You couldn’t have a better one,” he said, pulling me to him, crushing his lips to mine. He somehow managed to remove our robes and finish what I had begun earlier.

Later, as we lay entwined together, I breathed, “I meant what I said earlier Rykerian. You really are the most beautiful man I’ve ever seen. And I didn’t get close to finishing describing you.”

“I appreciate the compliment, love. But...”

I cut him off by placing my fingers over his lips. “My turn. You’ve complimented me over and over but now I want to tell you some things. Sometimes, like right now, I am so filled with love for you, I can’t express the right words. I know it sounds so lame but...”

He took his fingers and placed them over my lips. Suddenly I felt his mental blocks fade away and our minds merged. All of our emotions flowed between us—love, happiness, sorrow, pain, joy, etc. It was the most mind-blowing and extraordinary thing I’ve ever experienced.

I hadn’t even realized I was crying until he took the sheet and wiped the moisture from my face.

“Why didn’t you tell me we could do
that?
”

“I thought it best for us to take things one step at a time. You know, sensory overload and all.”

My breathing was still uneven and my trembling hadn’t subsided, when I said, “So we don’t ever need to speak, do we?”

“Um, not really, but then I would be cheating myself from hearing your lovely voice,” he finished as he grabbed my chin and placed his lips on mine. It didn’t take long before the flames of passion consumed us and we were lost in each other again.

Something kept tickling my nose and every time I swatted it, it came back with a vengeance. I was getting totally annoyed now. Then the darn thing moved to my ear. It was tickling it, nibbling on it and then blowing in it. Wait a minute!

I opened my eyes and Rykerian’s face came into view. “I did not think you would ever open your eyes sleepy head. I was wondering whether you wanted to go and chat with your
sister.
”

“What?” I rolled over and then, “Oh my gawd! My
sister
!” I jumped out of bed and tripped on the rug, stumbled into the chair and crashed on the floor.

“January! Are you okay?”

“Owww! My toe! I stubbed my darn toe!”

Rykerian, of course, was there in a millisecond. He gently inspected my wounded toe and declared I would live.

“Well, duh! I knew that! The darn thing just hurts!”

“Would you like for me to kiss it for you?” he chuckled.

“No, but I have something else I’d like for you to kiss,” I suggested.

Before I knew it, we were rolling on the floor, doing those wickedly naughty things to each other. I guess we were both making so much noise, that at first we didn’t even hear the pounding. When it sounded like the door was going to be torn off its hinges and split in two, Rykerian yelled, “Do
not
even think about entering this room or you
will
regret it.”

“If the two of you could pull yourselves away from each other for several minutes, there are guests here that would like to speak to you,” Xarrid’s voice came through the barrier.

“We will be down shortly,” Rykerian answered curtly.

We quickly dressed, washed our faces and brushed our teeth and headed down to the kitchen, where everyone had congregated for breakfast. As we made our way to the stairs Rykerian started chuckling.

“What are you laughing at?”

He reached over and began to pick carpet fuzz out of my hair.

“Holy moly, I forgot to brush my hair!”

He was biting his lips to keep from laughing.

“It’s not funny!”

“I have never seen you look more...er...sexy!” he said, flashing a wicked grin.

“Whatever! I don’t want to look sexy right now! Give me a hand.”

We both made a feeble attempt at restoring order to my uncooperative, straw-like, and now slightly matted and fuzz-covered hair.

When we made it to the family kitchen, I knew we had failed miserably by the looks everyone cast our way.

Then came the remarks. Of course, with Jurek in attendance, I should have expected as much. I guess we deserved it. After all, it was ten o’clock in the morning!

Rykerian leaned into me, nuzzled and kissed my neck and softly said, “Thank you, love.”

“For what? Carpet fuzz?”

“Hmmm. For giving me one of the best nights of my life, when it should have been the worst. For giving me a morning to always remember and for making me laugh when just a day ago I did not think I would ever laugh again.” He smiled and kissed the corner of my mouth.

Whoa! Oh how this man had a way of making me melt right into my shoes!

I slid my hand to his cheek and said, “I think I should be the one thanking you. If you hadn’t persisted in your belief that I was the one for you, we wouldn’t be standing here today.” I brought my lips back to his.

“I think you two may need to go back to your bedroom!” Jurek suggested. My faced burned with embarrassment and Rykerian’s turned that wonderful shade of pink that looked so great on him. Then everyone laughed.

Athyna came up to me and hugged me. Immediately I launched into an apology. “Oh gawd Athyna, I’m such an idiot. I can’t believe I just blurted that out last night. I guess I got so used to hearing it from my nasty mother I didn’t stop to think about how it would sound to you. Please forgive my rude behavior.”

“It is okay January. Maddie and Rayn told me everything and I am sorry about all of that. I also wanted to congratulate you and Rykerian on your uniting. I know Therron would have been happy for you.”

That comment brought all conversation to a screeching halt.

Trying to break the uncomfortable moment, I blurted out, “Athyna, I am happy to know I have a sister. Rykerian tells me I’ve lucked out with you.”

“Yes, well he would say that,” she smiled.

Rykerian handed me a plate of food as we made our way to the table to eat.

The room began to grow a bit noisy again, not so much with jovial conversation, but chatter nonetheless.

Xarrid and Jurek were in close conversation, I suppose discussing their next move over how best to get control of the situation on Xanthus. Xarrid’s intentions of going back had been clearly made. He would not stop searching for Saylan until he found her and Jurek had agreed to help.

The day wore on with various people coming and going. I had met so many friends of the family over the last two days my head was spinning.

Rykerian, Rayn, Tesslar, Xarrid and Jurek were going to be meeting at the Command Center in the afternoon to formulate a plan on how next to proceed.

Sharra and Maddie were discussing plans for Sharra’s redesign of the Star Avengers. With the expansion of the war, the number of pilots needed was growing so Sharra was in charge of the entire Star Avenger program, including recruiting and establishing space bases in strategic locations. They were deciding how to best implement everything.

I was feeling quite useless so I began wandering around the house and ended up in the library, where I discovered ancient books written in a language I didn’t remotely understand. As I walked along, I started paying attention to the artwork on the walls. It was beautiful. Portraits, still life, and scenery all done in beautiful oils. This was such a lovely place, I felt like I should pinch myself or something.

I sat down in a chair and reflected on the last few months of my life. It had gone from sheer hell to absolute heaven. I’m sure I walked around with a goofy smile pasted on my face. I felt giddy most of the time now. Really, how couldn’t I? I was married to hawtness on a stick! He was ridiculously smart, had this awesome family, he made me feel like I was the center of his universe and...just shut up January! I’m gonna make myself hurl if I don’t stop it already!

“Don’t worry, you will get used to it,” Maddie barged in. “You had that look on your face. I remember feeling exactly like that when I first came here.”

“I know. I keep wanting to pinch myself.”

Maddie laughed. “In no time flat, you’ll feel right at home.”

“It’s crazy, because I already do.”

“That’s because your mate’s here. You’ll always feel at home wherever he is. And when you’re away from him, you’ll feel a part of you is missing. It’s painful not being with him.”

Rayn barged into the room then, “Sunshine, I’ve been looking for you.” In his usual manner, he wasted no time in making his way to Maddie and gathering her into his arms. That was my cue to disappear.

I headed back to the den and was intercepted by Rykerian. “I’ve been looking for you,” he said as he picked me up and carried me upstairs to our room. One thing was certain, these males were certainly...er, well, energetic!

*****

“You have this thing about carrying me around, don’t you?” I asked him afterward.

“I had not thought about it, but I guess I do. Does it not please you?”

“Oh no! It pleases me very much. As a matter of fact, I haven’t found anything about you that doesn’t please me. I’m the luckiest girl on Earth. Or on Vesturon. Or I should say the universe!”

He twirled a piece of my hair between his fingers and for whatever reason, my stomach lurched a bit.

“What’s going on?”

“We have made our plans January. Rayn wants to go with Xarrid and Jurek back to Xanthus to try to retrieve Saylan. I think they will also take Maddie.”

“Seriously? Maddie?”

“Maddie is a formidable fighter and she abhors anything Xanthian. Besides, she is a trained Guardian. She graduated first in her class which is a most difficult achievement.”

“What will you do?”

“You and I will go back to the Compound on Earth. We need to retrieve your family and bring them to the Compound for safety.”