Judged (3 page)

She sighed and turned. “Then, it is a good thing I am not cooking for myself alone.”

He stepped toward her, and she watched in astonishment as his nostrils flexed. “You don’t have a mate.”

“I don’t have an Oefric mate. I am a Kalian widow. I need to get that cheese out of the afternoon sun, so if you will clear the area, I will be on my way.”

He stepped forward. “I thought that it must be you. Hold still and I won’t hurt you.”

He pulled a blade and came toward her with a set of restraint cuffs in his other hand.

The moment he was close enough, Alice ducked and kicked out, surprising him. The knife grazed against her bicep, and she hissed, kicking him in the head and dazing him.

With her hands shaking, she started up the skimmer and headed for Kadenz’s home.

Taking the long route meant that she had to go faster than she would like through the back pathways to make it home before the cheese spoiled.

She skidded the skimmer down the path to the house and made it inside with the cheese in good time.

Alice sighed and closed her eyes. The family was after her. If she didn’t have an heir, the title would revert immediately. There would be no need for any messy court case. She was surprised they hadn’t thought of it sooner. She had.

She brought in the rest of the shopping, ignoring the path of blood that she was tracking into the house. Once everything was put away, she got the med kit from under the seat of her skimmer, next to the power packs.

Sitting at the kitchen table, she left out her supplies and stripped off the gloves of her suit. Shrugging at the necessity of it, she opened her suit and pulled her left arm out just in time for Kadenz to come in.

“What happened?” He was at her side in moment, his nostrils flaring just as the man in the market had.

“Apparently, there is a price on my head. If I die, the title reverts, as does the estate entailed to me. This is the result of an ill-advised attempt to defend myself.” She scowled and began to clean the wound. Her drive got a lot of dust in it, so the cleansing was painful.

“Let me do that.”

“Why are you here? I thought I had a few hours until you came back inside.” She winced as he took over wiping at the five-inch gash with the cleanser from the kit.

“I smelled blood.” He gave her a look through dark lashes. His eyes were a green-brown with golden flecks, his lashes thick and sooty. He looked vaguely hungry at the mention of blood.

“Sorry about that. I didn’t have time to stop for medical attention.”

He sighed and held the tissue closed while using the sealing spray with short bursts, working his way down the injury. “What happened precisely?”

“I was loading up the skimmer with my purchases and an Oefric male came up behind me, sniffing me and telling me I didn’t have a mate. I told him I was a widow and that seemed to cinch it for him. He pulled a knife and a set of restraints. I waited until he got close and took his knee out. He cut me on the way down, and I kicked him to stun him before I took off.”

“You kicked an Oefric and ran away?”

She winced as the sealing continued with small increments.

“No, I kicked an Oefric and used the skimmer to jet away. If he followed on foot, I might have lost him.”

Kadenz nodded. “Might have but probably didn’t. Well, I am very glad that I came in here. At least I won’t be caught by surprise.”

He finished his work and examined her wound closely. “He was stabbing at you when this was done.”

She twisted her lips. “I am aware of that. It wouldn’t have bled so much if he hadn’t.”

He sighed. “He’s on the property.”

“What?” Alice looked toward the door.

“His scent is coming in through the window.” Kadenz pulled his work shirt off over his head.

Alice swallowed nervously. “He’s here?”

“Someone followed you, because I am not expecting any guests that smell like metal.”

In front of her eyes, Kadenz shifted into something that was half man in tight pants and half beast, claws and fangs extended.

She couldn’t figure out if it was more canine or feline. She didn’t have a chance to guess. A snarl from outside had him running to meet the sound.

Alice got to her feet and rushed to the doorway. Two man-beasts were wrestling on the ground and blood was flowing out of one of them. It took a bit of squinting to figure out who was who, but the dark blood on the buttocks of one of the creatures told her which one was Kadenz. She was thankful for the fork at that moment. The small mark meant that when the large furry creature came toward her, she didn’t scream and run.

Alice moved past Kadenz and tried to approach the hunter on the ground, but her host held her back. He shifted back to his normal shape. “You don’t want to get near the body. I made a bit of a mess.”

She looked and saw the still form that had reverted to the shape of the man in the market. His pale blue eyes were wide open and staring at her.

Alice turned away and cleared her throat. “Do you have any wounds that need tending? Turnabout is fair play.”

“A few scratches that need cleaning if you wouldn’t mind. Oh, and a puncture wound on my ass.”

She cleared her throat and let him turn her back toward the house. “Oh, that. Sorry about that.”

“Don’t be. I deserved it. If it makes you feel better, you can patch it up.”

She laughed. “Fine. Come in and sit down.”

“No, first, I will shower so that you won’t have extra work. You might want to change as well. Your breast is showing, and while it is a lovely sight, I feel that I am impinging on your privacy.”

Alice yelped and pulled her suit up. It had indeed slipped down to mid-torso on the left side.

“I don’t have another mourning suit.” She muttered it as she headed up to her room.

Several suits and costumes were lifted and set aside as inappropriate for her work. She settled on a relatively simple dress with her Terran undergarments comfortingly in place. The dress was relatively simple by Kalian standards. The edges were covered with three inches of thick embroidery. She fastened the sleeves back with a sash cross-tied behind her back.

She stepped out of her room and Kadenz came out of the first room with only a towel to conceal his hips and the only point of him she was still unclear on.

He blinked. “That is quite the gown.”

“It is the least formal thing I was allowed to bring. Hecor was a stickler for formality at all times.” She shrugged and reached into the deep vee of the dress. “Here is your credit chit. I bought enough to last us just over a week. If we need more, I can go again.”

Kadenz shook his head. “I have called the peacekeepers to come and retrieve the body. You are not to mention your earlier interaction with him.”

She scowled. “There were witnesses.”

He reached behind her and pulled the jewelled pins that kept her hair in place. The red strands tumbled down over her shoulders and over her breasts.

She sighed and reached up to loosen the locks into even waves. “Better?”

His eyes glowed so hot that they should have lit her on fire and the towel was considering a move to horizontal. His voice was low and guttural when he whispered, “Much better.”

To say she ran to the kitchen would have been inaccurate, but she did move as fast as grace and dignity would allow her. The sooner he was patched up, the sooner all his muscles and the furring of hair on his chest would stop teasing her with the trail of hair that led to the insistent erection.

It was time for first aid and, hopefully, trousers would follow.

He was right; his body was merely marred with light scratches. It was her puncture on his ass that had reopened.

There was no option. “Take off the towel. It keeps slipping and I can’t see what I am doing.”

It was whisked off before she finished her sentence. She swallowed the sudden rush of moisture to her mouth but could do nothing about the heat between her thighs. He might have been a little too lean but his muscle was all perfectly toned and flexing as she touched the curve of his ass.

His erection began to weep as she worked, and the musky scent was both heady and distracting. She had really jabbed him good. “Sorry about that. I hadn’t realized that I went that deep.”

“It is fine. Just hurry up.”

“I am going as fast as I can. I am not really a fan of this particular situation, Kadenz.”

He sighed. “I just feel a little vulnerable.”

She used the sealing spray on him and sighed in relief when it was done. “You can go and put something on now. You are all patched up.”

He slowly wrapped the towel around his hips before he leaned down and kissed her, running his hand through the wealth of her hair.

Out of reflex, she punched his abs but only managed to bruise her knuckles.

When he lifted his head, he whispered, “The peacekeepers are on their way, and I don’t want you to seem unattached if they ask. Pretend that we are lovers if you value your life.”

She nodded and pressed a hand to her swollen lips. As a Companion, she had been kissed before, but rarely had her body risen to the occasion. She could feel her own arousal vibrating under her skin, and it was in that state that she got up to answer the kitchen door when the peacekeepers arrived to investigate the death.

The peacekeepers sat her down at the table and began to question her. “Miss, do you know the deceased?”

She stuck to the truth. “He approached me as I left the marketplace. I declined his offer and he attacked me. I knocked him down and ran for my skimmer.”

“Did he say why he approached you?”

She shook her head. “He was under the impression that I was available.”

Kadenz came in wearing a loose grey shirt and black trousers with black boots. “He was mistaken. He wounded her and followed her blood trail back here.”

The peacekeepers leaped to their feet.

The more senior of the two spoke. “Judge Roarcroft, I thought that this was your home, but I wasn’t sure with this young woman here.”

“I am retired, Sargent.”

“Yes, Judge.” The sargent’s lips twitched in amusement.

Kadenz came up behind Alice and put his hands on her shoulders. “I am only thankful that I was home and smelled him coming. Alice might have tried to defend herself, and if her first strike wasn’t true, we all know what would have happened.”

All three men shivered at the thought.

Alice wanted to know what they thought would happen, but she remained silent and put her hand on top of Kadenz’s.

He said to the peacekeepers, “We have treated her wound, but I can show you the suit he sliced into and the medical supplies we used to clean the dirt out of the slice. Her blood led him here.”

The peacekeepers shook their heads, “That will not be necessary, Judge. We have seen the blood on the skimmer as well as the traces of food items. Her statement holds true to the events, as does his lack of conveyance. He hunted her.”

The peacekeepers engaged in more pleasantries with him, and Alice was left watching as all three men went out into the yard and stood around the body, taking images of the body, the area that hosted the fight and her skimmer.

In an hour, the body was gone with the peacekeepers and Alice was working on preparing a cold lunch. It gave her something to concentrate on while Kadenz washed her skimmer.

“Kadenz, lunch.” She said it at conversational level, but he was inside within a minute.

“Wow. That looks lovely.”

She had gotten bored and arranged the cheese, meat, fruit and veg in swirling patterns. She opened a bottle of chilled white wine and poured two glasses.

He shook his head. “You are spoiling me.”

“Consider this payback for taking on that savage earlier. I am fairly sure that the hunter wanted me dead at that point.” She nibbled at a piece of flatbread with cheese on it and watched him load up a plate with surprisingly graceful movements.

“It was my pleasure. Someone who takes advantage of a woman alone does not deserve to live.” He spoke with confidence and absolute belief.

“Was that what made you retire?”

He snorted. “You caught that?”

“There are only a few things that would get a judge to retire and social laws that cannot be changed is one of them.”

“It is the way other species behave with their females that truly drives me to the edge of control. The Kalians simply pay for their women, the Draklan’s steal them, the Colidors steal them and hold them until they are pregnant and then take possession of the woman’s property. These cultures have their reasons, but they are hard to deal with.”

“So, you quit.”

“I took a leave of absence for a minimum of two years.”

“How far are you into your leave?”

“Three weeks.”

She laughed. “Well, that explains why you are trying to run the winery by yourself. What will you do when the harvest comes?”

“I will hire workers. For now, I am busy weeding the plants and keeping the vines trained.” He shrugged. “If you keep me supplied with food while you are here, I should be fine.”

She laughed. “That won’t be a problem as long as the credit chit doesn’t run out. I used forty-five credits today. How much is left on it?”

He munched on a vegetable and pondered, “Sixty thousand or so.”

Her mouth dropped open, and he put two fingers under it to close it with a soft snap.

“Why is this place so run down if you have those kinds of funds at your disposal?”

“Because I need to work, and when you work until you are exhausted, you don’t think and you certainly don’t care where you sleep.”

“May I buy some more practical clothing when I go back to the market?”

“You are not going back there without me.”

She scowled. “I will be fine.”

“I mean it, Alice. If there is one hunter, there will be more. You are not safe.”

She snorted. “Fine, but this dress is the simplest one, and it is going to get very boring very quickly.”

He grinned. “I find it very fetching. The peacekeepers commented on it when we went outside, and I explained that your daily-wear suit had been torn by the attack. They assumed it is your best dress and not the worst.”