Saved by Venom: 3 (Grabbed) (7 page)

“So much.” She perked up at the very idea of having access to books.

Risk leaned closer to tap at the screen. Suddenly a digital library appeared in front of her. He touched a title and pages appeared. “You can pack thousands and thousands of books onto your tablet and organize them any way you’d like.”

“Wow.
Wow.
” She didn’t know what else to say as she flipped through the digital pages. “It’s been years since I’ve been able to read a whole book.”

Risk shot her a strange look. “What do you mean?”

“When I was a kid we had a private library that my parents kept locked up and hidden away from visitors.” She decided to skip the parts about her family losing everything. “Later, when I went out on my own, I started buying my own books but they’re so expensive. I usually visit the library or hit up the secondhand shop a few streets over from my apartment. All of the books I get that way have been censored.”

“Censored?”

“There might be entire paragraphs that are blacked out. Sometimes they cut out the offensive lines. It’s like looking through a window.”

“That’s ridiculous. What’s the point of reading a book if the best parts are missing?” He moved in a little closer. “What kinds of books do you like to read? I heard they recently added a romance section in the library for the wives. Apparently it’s very popular—and steamy.”

She caught his playful tone and smiled at him. “Why do I get the feeling that if I kept browsing your library, I’d find a whole section of romances?”

Risk laughed. “I won’t dignify that accusation with a response.”

As Dizzy tapped the screen to exit the library, she wondered if it would be possible to use the device to help her design her clothes. “Is there a way to draw on this thing? I saw the way you used that stylus to make lines while you were explaining my surgery. Is there a way to freehand draw?”

“Sure.” He took the tablet from her. “There are all sorts of applications you can download. The virtual storefront is fairly intuitive when it comes to searching. Once you’re comfortable with your device you’ll have no problem finding what you need.” He turned the tablet toward her to reveal a blank page with a long stripe along the bottom and pressed it back into her hands. “How about this one?”

She studied the screen. The wide, clear drawing space could be enlarged or minimized. The stripe along the bottom offered dozens of tools to create different effects. “This would definitely work.”

“Were you an artist back in The City? If you are, there’s another wife here, Hallie, who is very talented. She’s part of the wives’ group that meets a couple of times a month. You’ll meet her in the next few days at one of the mandatory information sessions.”

“Like an orientation?”

“Basically,” Risk said. “They used to just have you gals come on the ship without any type of support. Hallie, the general’s wife, has changed all that. The women who arrive on the
Valiant
attend a couple of mandatory meetings to learn about their rights and living on this ship and in our society.”

Dizzy thought this Hallie woman sounded like quite a force. “I have rights?”

Risk snorted with amusement. “Of course.”

“The paperwork they made me sign before the Grab and after made it seem like I was basically going to be property of the man who caught me.”

“The legal language is rather harsh,” he agreed. “Ownership in our world isn’t the same as it is in your world. To us owning a woman is the greatest responsibility—and a cherished gift. It takes a hell of a lot of valor points to earn the right to take a mate and reproduce so we take our roles as providers and protectors very seriously.”

She thought of the way Venom had treated her so far. There was no way he had been faking his concern over her illness or his relief when she’d woken up without pain or ringing in her ears. “Do you know Venom well?”

“Fairly well,” Risk remarked. “We were one year apart at the academy. I’ve always served in the field hospital that accompanies his battle group. I was even caught in the Sendarian siege.”

She frowned. “What was that?”

A haunted look crossed the surgeon’s face. “Sendaria is a planet that we mine quite extensively for our preferred fuel source. A little over ten years ago we were engaged above the planet with the Splinter faction. This was when they were much larger and better equipped. They caught us by surprise and hit three of our sky ships.”

“What happened then?”

“We went down hard and were totally cut off on the ground. We managed to make it to the heavily fortified city surrounding the main mining camp. Vicious—our general now—was the highest-ranking officer to survive and he took control. Our orders were to secure and defend those mines—whatever the cost.”

Dizzy swallowed hard. “And what did it cost?”

Risk had a faraway look. “Too much. In the months we were cut off from reinforcements and supplies, we lost nearly eighty percent of our forces. It was…bleak at the end.”

She remained still and quiet as he relived what appeared to be truly awful memories.

As if giving himself a mental shake, Risk inhaled a sharp breath. “We showed the best of ourselves during that siege. Vicious proved he could make the hard decisions when it counted. Menace showed that he could make a weapon out of damn near anything. Terror stopped at nothing to get the recon we needed. Hazard and Zephyr risked their lives a number of times on extremely dangerous missions to bring in what few supplies they could squeeze through the enemy blockade.”

“And Venom?” She had to know what had happened to him during that siege.

He hesitated and then seemed to choose his words carefully. “Venom volunteered to take up a position outside the city.”

“Why?”

“He’s a highly skilled sniper. It was where he was needed.”

She didn’t have to ask what they had needed him to do.

“He saved a lot of lives by putting his on the line.”

And taking so many more…

“Have I upset you?” Risk studied her carefully. “Please don’t think badly of Venom.”

She reeled back with some surprise. “Why would I think badly of him?”

“Your people are all pacifists.”

She rolled her eyes. “We’re not
all
anything. I’m not naive enough to think that war isn’t sometimes a necessity. An ugly one but necessary nonetheless.” She touched the scars on her throat. “We did nothing to provoke those monsters who blew us up that day. You can’t reason with people like that. I don’t pretend to understand what you Harcos have endured in this war but I would never think badly of any soldier fighting to protect people like me.”

“I’m glad to hear that.” Risk sat forward in his chair. His gaze turned professional. “Have you considered having those scars revised?”

She put a shielding hand to her neck. “What do you mean?”

“Our surgical techniques typically minimize scarring.” Risk pushed out of his seat and moved onto the bed so he could examine her more closely. “I can see that the surgeon who was working on you was rushed. You weren’t given the usual follow-up treatment that would have prevented these thicker ridges.”

He carefully tilted her head to the side to expose the old injuries better. There was nothing even the least bit flirtatious or unprofessional about his touch but it felt wrong to her.

Because it isn’t Venom touching me.

The thought struck her suddenly and left her feeling a bit unsettled. She didn’t harbor any feelings of resentment or anger toward Venom for catching and collaring her as his bride. If anything she felt such gratitude toward him. He didn’t know that he had basically saved her from becoming a loan shark’s plaything but she sure did. He had even made it possible for her to receive medical care that would vastly improve her life.

In the forest she had chosen to take his collar. At the processing station she had willingly signed her name on that contract. She had given herself to him—and having Risk’s hands on her now, no matter the context, felt uncomfortable.

Risk must have sensed it because his hands fell from her neck. “I should have asked before touching you.”

“It’s okay. I’m just not used to being touched by men.”

“You only have to get used to one man touching you—Venom. I seriously doubt he’ll allow any other man to touch you.”

“No, he won’t.” Venom’s rough, deep voice boomed from the doorway. “And if you intend to continue operating, Doc, you’d best keep those hands of yours off my woman.”

Dizzy held her breath as she glanced between the two men. Risk’s playful wink told her that he thought Venom’s bark didn’t have much bite behind it. She wasn’t so sure.

Venom looked awfully serious as he strode into the room carrying two covered trays. He shot the surgeon a pointed stare as he slid their dinners onto the table next to the bed. “Is this type of hands-on treatment something they taught you in medical school?”

“No, it’s a little something I picked up in a different sort of operating theater.”

Venom glared at Risk. “I don’t find that the least bit funny.”

“No, you wouldn’t.” Risk rose from his seated position. “I am her doctor, Venom.”

“Don’t forget that I’ve seen you
play doctor
at the officers’ club,” Venom grumbled testily.

Dizzy wasn’t quite sure what Venom meant by that remark but it drew a laugh from Risk. The surgeon shook his head as he stepped away from the bed and retrieved his tablet. “We’ll discharge you in the morning, Dizzy. A medic will come by periodically to check on you. That last dose of pain meds you received will wear off as the evening progresses. I don’t expect you to feel any discomfort but if you do let us know.”

“I will.” Arms crossed, Venom answered for her. She glanced at him with a look of utter frustration but he didn’t even acknowledge her. Instead he trailed Risk to the door and shut it firmly behind him.

When Venom got close enough to the bed, she reached out and whacked his arm. “You know I have a voice, right?”

Venom seemed startled by her smack. “Yes. And?”

“And I can answer questions for myself and decide who can and can’t touch me.”

“You may answer questions but
I
decide who can and can’t touch you.”

His reply stunned her. Until this moment, he had been uncommonly compromising and quite unlike the stories she had heard of these Harcos men and their dominant, commanding natures. This version of Venom—the haughty, arrogant man standing over her—seemed to fit the stereotypical sky warrior mold much better.

She recognized this was one of those moments where she had to be strong and stand up to him. “No.”

His eyes widened. “Yes.”

She sat up straighter. “No, Venom. I’m a grown woman. I’ve lived on my own since I was eighteen years old. I’ve supported myself and made my own decisions for five years. I don’t need you barking orders at me.”

“I didn’t bark at you.”

She gaped at him. “Out of everything I just said you’re focusing on that?”

An irritated expression tightened his features. “As long as you wear my collar I decide who can and can’t put their hands on you.”

She pointed to her bare neck. “I’m not wearing your collar now.”

“Well, that can be easily fixed.” Venom reached into his pocket and retrieved the white leather strap.

When he leaned down to put it on her again, she ducked to the side and blocked him. “No.”

“Dizzy.”

“Venom.”

He made a low, growling sound but didn’t attempt to manhandle her or force the collar on her. “You belong to me.”

“Yes, I do,” she answered calmly. “That doesn’t mean you get to boss me around, Venom.”

Confirming that she belonged to him seemed to ease some of the tension in his clenched jaw. Still, he remained stubbornly stuck on the touching issue. “Actually it does mean I get to boss you around, Dizzy. That’s how it works here.”

“Not for us,” she retorted quickly. Swallowing nervously, she continued, “I liked the way you took command out there in the forest and the way you made sure I was safe and warm—but I’m not going to have you dictating my every move.”

“I don’t intend to dictate your every move.”

“But you intend to tell me who I can be friends with?”

His forehead creased in confusion. “When did I say you couldn’t make friends?”

“You said that Risk couldn’t touch me.”

“Damn straight,” he said roughly. “You can be friends without him pawing all over you.”

“Wait.” She started to see where they had misunderstood each other. “When you say touch, you mean, like, in a sexual way. When I say touch I’m thinking, you know, a handshake or whatever.”

“I see.” Venom visibly relaxed. “Dizzy, you need to understand something about me. I survived some of the bloodiest battles of this war to earn the points to take a wife. I’m not sharing you with any other man.”

“Share me?” He wasn’t talking about sharing her time. She recoiled at the very thought of being shared with another man in bed. “Why would you share me?”

“I wouldn’t—but some men do.” He shifted as if uncomfortable. “Some men here swap wives or invite their friends to enjoy them in various games and in the bedroom.”

Dizzy didn’t like the sound of that at all. What other couples did behind closed doors was their own business but she wasn’t about to let someone who wasn’t her husband touch her like that. “You sure as hell aren’t sharing this wife.”

A slight smile curved his mouth. “You don’t need to worry about that. I’m not into that kind of thing.” Placing his big hands on either side of her, Venom leaned down and captured her mouth in a gentle kiss. “You’re mine—and
only
mine.”

Thinking of how lucky she was to have been Grabbed by a man who didn’t want to share her spurred Dizzy to snatch his white collar from his hands. She fastened it around her neck a little looser than he had when he’d first put it on her. He looked terribly pleased by her action. “What about you, Venom? Do you belong to me?”

“From the moment I first spotted you,” he admitted huskily and swept his fingertip down her cheek. “There was no one else for me.”

She marveled at his unwavering certainty. What had he seen in her that he liked so much? Was it simply her pretty face? What would happen to their relationship when her looks faded or his infatuation with her dissipated?