Final Protocol (9 page)

In the split second I took my gaze away from him, he pounced.

I sucked in a breath and threw myself backward, but it was too late. I ended up pinned underneath his heavy body, and to be honest, I think I
wanted
to be there. To feel him against me, one more time.

It was the only logical reason for letting him catch me so easily.

And it was the stupidest move. I fought not to break down as we scuffled and he ended it by simply wrenching my hands over my head.

Panic started to edge in and I jerked against his hold. “Let me go,” I said, squeezing the words out.

“I won’t hurt you,” he said.

And then I felt his hand move down.

I twisted and jerked and heaved, trying to tear away from him, but he was so strong.

And then, in a blink, he let my wrists go.

I gaped at him.

“I just had to get the blaster away.” Torment darkened his features and he reached up.

When he touched my cheek, tears threatened to blind me but I blinked them back. “I can’t watch you die again, Caz,” he murmured.

I blinked. Shock rippled through me.

Die again…?

Then his mouth brushed mine. “I can’t do it.”

Closing my eyes, I told myself to get away.

But what I did was turn my mouth into his kiss.

A hunger, so dark and deep and desperate, sprang to life inside me and I reached up, curling my arms around his neck.

He groaned against my lips.

“End this,” he demanded, his mouth moving against mine. “End this before it’s too late.”

“It’s already too late.” I curled my legs around him and arched up.

His body went rigid and for the briefest span of time, he did nothing.

And then he was on his feet, sweeping me up with ease.

The walls whirled around us and time blurred together.

When I could think again, barely, I realized we were in the sleeping unit, a bed that was too hard and unyielding against my back, while he knelt on the floor in front of me. I reached for the tab at my neck, and my suit went pliable, allowing him to peel it from me.

Cool air kissed my skin, skin that had been heated for far too long. There was a slight tug as the sleeve of my suit caught on the bracer I wore, and then another as he fought off the solid boots I’d worn to protect my feet against the harsh, unforgiving terrain of Hsain.

It took so little time for him to strip me naked, and he came down on me still wearing his clothes. When I twisted my fingers in the tunic, he paused and eased up, just long enough to tear the clothing away. I whimpered as he came back to me, the feel of his chest hot and heavy, his heart thudding in time with mine.

“I love you,” he whispered in my ear, one arm banding around me and holding me tight against him. “You can’t understand…”

The words dissolved into a guttural groan as he settled between my thighs, and I cried out at the feel of his cock rubbing against my wetness. When he pushed inside, I braced myself. But he fit me like we’d been made to match the other, and a low throb of pleasure began to pulse in my belly. He stroked deep within, each thrust hard and deep and driving, as though he fought to reach the very heart of me.

There was no reason to struggle though. Even after all this time, my heart was still his.

It was a bittersweet knowledge that flooded me, even as the pleasure overtook me.

It burned inside me even as I cried out his name and came.

Chapter Eleven

“Are you done yet?”

The man’s voice was cool and silken. It should have sounded pleasant but it made me shudder in fear.

“Yes.” It was a meek response and I wheeled my eyes around, watching as a small, skinny, wraithlike creature moved away from Orion’s prone body.

“Excellent…now. Let’s put it to the test. On your knees, Bressen.”

I flinched as Orion jerked and then went to his knees. I could see his muscles straining, as though he fought the very movement. And he was, I realized.

The man with golden hair and golden eyes stood a few feet away, holding a small device in his hand. “It’s crude, this version of a bioseal,” he said. “Nothing as elegant as we’d hoped you’d create for us. But crude or not, it’s effective. Stand up.”

My heart shattered as Orion did just that, and the rage that glowed in his eyes made it clear he didn’t
do
it because he was told. He did it because he was forced—controlled.

“Wonderful.” The man beamed, pleased.

“Gold, you can do whatever you want to me, but let her go,” Orion said.

Gold frowned and shot the delicate creature at Orion’s side a narrow look. “I want him better controlled than that. But…” He waved his hand. “We’ll work on it.”

When he looked back at Orion, malice glinted on his face. “Just what would you do if I let her go?”

“Anything,” Orion promised.

He never once looked at me.

I shuddered as the man—Gold—turned toward me. “You must be quite the prize for him to make
that
promise,” he said, his voice sly. “I’ve been watching you and I’ll admit, you’re quite the pretty piece, but for him to promise
anything
?”

He stroked a hand down my face. “There is very little I want from you, Orion,” he said, even though he continued to watch me. “All I want is…recompense. For the time and trouble you cost me by leaving the project unfinished. Now I’ll have to let Rui continue to study your research and hope he can improve upon it.”

The little being at Orion’s side twitched. Rui. It must have been Rui.

Gold’s fingers tightened on my face, squeezing, and I groaned under the crushing pressure. “Oh, there’s one other thing I need,” Gold said.

Then he leaned in and licked my cheek. “You’re sweet, pet. Does he enjoy that? How sweet and soft you are?” Gold murmured.

He didn’t want an answer though. He looked over at Orion in the next moment. “That other thing…I want you to
suffer
. You betrayed me. Nobody does that and walks away unscathed.”

“Kill me then,” Orion said.

“I’ve other ideas.” He smiled at me and then let go.

I sagged to the floor, blood roaring in my ears.

He kicked me.

I fell over as pain blistered through me. He did again and again and again…

A furious roar cut through the pain whipping inside me. Dully, I turned my head.

“Stop him!”

Blood splattered.

Something smacked into the floor between Orion and me, and in my pain-dazed state, it took me a while to understand what it was. The little metallic device—the seal. He’d…

Stunned, I looked up just in time to see five men wrestling Orion to the ground. “You can’t win this!” Gold shouted.

More men surrounded me.

Still, Orion fought.

“I’ll…kill…you,” he snarled. The sound of his voice tore into my heart, and that pain eclipsed the agony in my side, in my ribs.

“You would have to fight your way through ten men.” Gold’s voice was jeering. “You’re bleeding and you’re probably going to go into shock once the adrenaline wears off. You just
ripped
a neural connection out. You’re lucky you didn’t paralyze yourself or sever the connections completely.”

Abruptly, he started to laugh. Gold, with his lovely eyes and lovely hair, knelt at my side, and I resisted him when he tried to turn me to face him. It wasn’t until he wrenched my head up with his hand fisted in my hair that I tore my eyes from Orion.

“That’s it,” he said, delighted. “That is
it
, Orion. You arrogant prick, I’ve discovered just how you can make it all better.”

“Let her go. Set her free,” Orion panted, no longer fighting. “I already told you I’d do whatever you want.”

I was bleeding. I wiped the red trickle from my mouth and stared at Orion as he struggled against the men who held him.

“Tell me what you want, Gold!” he snarled.

The hand in my hair tightened and I tried not to cry out at the pain, but some noise worked free and I heard Orion’s furious bellow.

Agony sliced through me as Gold dragged me to my feet, using his grip on my hair. “I’ve already discussed the conditions in which I’ll leave her alone.”

Blood roared in my ears. “Don’t do it,” I whispered, my voice raspy. Or I tried. I couldn’t make more than a weak croak before Gold shook me.

“Be quiet,” he purred against my ear.

“Do what I want…and I’ll leave her alone.”

When I made a low noise, he released his hand from my hair, stroked it down in a gentle gesture. “Hush, pet.” Then, in a bored voice, Gold said, “Decide. Soon. Or I will.”

“Fine. I’ll…” The words were erratic, ragged. “You win. I’ll do whatever you want.”

“Perfect.” There was a faint, electronic whine. “Now…kill her.”

Orion’s gaze came to me and horror bloomed in his eyes. His howl of fury echoed around the room. “No!”

“Oh, yes.” Golden leaned in, cuddling me against him in a sickening mockery of a lover’s embrace. “You will kill her…or I will keep her.”

I came choking out of the dream.

Sitting up, I pressed a hand to my chest. Stunned and confused, I looked around.

Painfully bright light streamed through the window, gilding the form of the man standing there to gold.
Orion
. My heart sobbed and my chest ached.

It had nothing to do with the memory of the man I loved plunging a knife into my chest.

As though aware of my thoughts, Orion turned to face me.

He was bare-chested, wearing nothing but a low-slung pair of trousers that clung to his hips as if by a wish.

His hair was tousled.

And his eyes were dead.

“You remember in your dreams,” he said, his voice dull.

“Yes.” Panting, I rubbed a hand over my breastbone.

He hadn’t left me
.

He nodded to the bedside. “The blaster is there.”

I shot it a look as I slid out of the bed. I didn’t see my suit, so I grabbed the bedcovering and wrapped it around me, robe-like. “He…” I swallowed. “He told me you’d just given me to him to satisfy your debt.”

Orion closed his eyes. “I’m sorry. None of this… He used you to punish me. He never would have known about you if I hadn’t gotten involved with him.”

“You didn’t leave me.” I barely made sense of what he’d said, so caught up in that one bit of knowledge that nothing else mattered.

“I would have
never
left you,” he said, his voice breaking.

And then he opened his eyes and looked at me.

“You know what hurt the most?” I asked, forcing the words past the knot that all but choked me. “I remembered…everything…at first. Or I thought I did. But I don’t remember you…what you did.” Pressing my hand to my head, I struggled to continue. “He told me you’d left me. I remembered you and that you’d left me—I
believed
him and that’s what hurt the most.”

Now, I looked back at him. “You didn’t.”

I started to cry.

Bits and pieces of the cold shroud I’d wrapped myself in fell away.
Silence
fell away and I almost felt like me again—the broken, battered girl who’d still believed her lover was coming for her.

“Don’t…” His voice was pleading.

I looked up at him. Through my tears, I saw that Orion stood only a few feet away, one hand lifted toward me. As our gazes met, he went to lower that hand. I caught it in mine.

And then I hurled myself at him.

His arms came around me as I started to sob yet again.

“Don’t cry,
me estril
,” he whispered raggedly.

My star.

I sucked back the sobs, fought them down as I clung to him. “How…?” I had to stop and start two more times before I could manage it. “How did this happen?”

“I don’t know.” His lips tentatively brushed over my brow.

Tilting my head back, I stared at him. “I remember—the knife. Falling. Darkness. All of it. So how am I even alive?”

“He had a cryo-unit,” Orion said, his voice bitter. “He’d nearly been killed once and only going into cryostasis kept him alive long enough for a surgeon to tend to him. After that, he retrofitted all of his transports with a cryo-unit and he had them on every property he was known to frequent.” His lips twisted in an ugly smile. “I’ve learned a great deal about him in the past decade.”

Orion smoothed a hand down my hair, burying his face in it. “He must have placed you inside the chamber, had you treated.”

“But I was…” I couldn’t say it now.

“Perhaps. For a few moments. But if you went into cryostasis fast enough, you could have been resuscitated after you were operated on and still had a chance.” He closed his eyes. “I should have…”

He shook his head.

“I didn’t know. After I stabbed you, I turned the knife on myself. I don’t remember anything until weeks later when I woke up in some piss-poor excuse of a medi-center. They told me I’d been found on the street and went into a coma shortly after being brought in. But I don’t believe that.”

He held out a wrist and I found myself staring at the sliver-thin, neat little scars. “He must have had Rui deal with my injuries—Rui likely stabilized you as well. His race has much skill with healing. It’s why Gold took him to begin with.”

He stopped speaking abruptly while his arms contracted around me. “He had you…for
ten fucking years
,” he rasped.

“He did.” And I would remember them—all my life.

But now…

Easing back, I stared up at his face. “All I’ve wanted for the past ten years, ever since waking up to find him standing over me, was to kill him.”

“I…”

I pressed my finger to his lips. “I still want him dead. But I have something else now.”

When he didn’t answer, I leaned in and replaced my finger with my lips. “I have a life. I have
you
.”