The Barbarian's Captive (10 page)

“Calm, sprite,” he said, taking her by the hand and leading her to a door on the far wall she hadn’t noticed. Her eyes dipped to his bare back. The muscles rippling there would have fascinated her more if she wasn’t on fire and about to die. And if she wasn’t nearly delirious with fever, she would have definitely paid more notice to his trim waist, his muscular ass with the indentations on each side, and the thick thigh muscles that bunched and flexed beneath them as he walked. Another wave of heat blazed suddenly through her, centering between her thighs as she became fully aroused, aching with need. Drenched with liquid wanting, it was as though she hadn’t had sex in a decade despite being brought to a spectacular orgasm only a short while ago.

She also felt like she was coming out of her skin. Pulling fiercely on the hand that gripped her, she began to panic, needing desperately to get free. “I’m really sick, Kerr. I need to see your healer. Now.”

“You’re not sick, Eva. This was expected, although the reaction isn’t usually this extreme.”

“What reaction?” She stopped in her tracks, yanking her hand out of his. “You knew this would happen? Did you drug me or something?”

He spun back and hooked her around the waist with a long arm. Lifting her as easily as if she were a child, Kerr settled her against his side and continued on through the door into a large bathroom.

“You weren’t drugged,” he scoffed. “It’s merely the bonding transformation taking hold. A cool bath will help.”

Kerr walked down three steps into a huge sunken tub that looked more like a small pool, switching on the faucets. Four in all, they rapidly filled the large space with tepid water. Eva sank into it, scooping handfuls over her shoulders and splashing her face. It felt glorious. When the water rose high enough, she lay back, wetting her hair and letting the water soothe the burning on the back of her neck.

“Better?” Kerr asked as he crouched in the water beside her, a concerned look in his eyes.

“Yes. Explain what you were saying about something taking hold?”

“The bonding transformation. When a Primarian male takes a mate, it is for a lifetime, Eva. This isn’t a euphemism; it is a fact of nature. Beginning at the first breaching, a biocellular change takes place and continues over time, strengthening with each joining, until the transformation and the mating bond are complete.”

“I don’t know what that means. Can you explain in English, please?”

He grinned while reaching for a sponge and squeezing it so that the water rushed over her back. She pulled aside her hair, giving him better access, and sighing with relief. “That feels so good. My skin is on fire.”

“Little one, you do realize you’ve been speaking Primarian, not your English, since the translator was placed?”

She twisted to face him. “I have?”

“Of course, that’s how you understood my title, and why you can understand
maes eternium
when I say it now.”

“Forever mine,” she breathed in amazement. “You said that last night.”

“Yes, it is customary at the first breaching.”

“Is that what that wand was all about?” Her face flushed at the memories of what he’d done to her.

“No, that was a compatibility and breeding sensor. We were lucky that Mordrun had one with him. Why he carried one on a hunting expedition, I don’t know, but the man has uncanny instincts sometimes.”

“So, it told you what? If I was ovulating or something?”

“It told me everything I needed to know about our compatibility. Whether your chemical makeup would be attuned to bonding with me — which it is — and it also gave me details such as the width, depth and pliability of your channel. It also measured your pelvic saddle. With your species’ small size, we had concerns if you could carry and safely deliver our sons which average in excess of sixty nelos.”

“Nelos?” she asked, eyes wide. “Is that like a pound? If so, that’s an elephant not a baby, and physically impossible. No way!”

She backed away from him, splashing as she turned to climb out of the pool, but Kerr caught her by the wrist and towed her back toward him. “A nelo is equivalent to approximately one-fifth of one of your earth pounds.”

“But that’s still twelve pounds! And you said average. That means some could be more than that.” She scanned his massive shoulders and long arms; he had to weigh two fifty, at least. “You’re huge. How much did you weigh at birth?”

“Just over thirteen of your pounds, according to my mother.”

She gaped at him in horror. That he had a mother hadn’t occurred to her at all. She’d panic over that at a later time when she wasn’t freaking out about delivering a baby the equivalent of a Thanksgiving Day turkey.

“It will be fine, sprite. All the tests have assured this.”

“Things can go wrong. Do you know about Cesarean sections? Because our babies weigh about half that much. Six to eight pounds is the norm, and even then there are sometimes complications.”

His hands slipped around her waist and eased her onto her back. While she floated, he once again began to gently trickle handfuls of water over her. Still feeling too warm, this new shocker he’d laid upon her was making that discomfort take a definite back seat.

“Jarlan is our best healer and has a skilled team of other physics and assistants, and clearly, our technology far exceeds your own. Already, he’s researching ways to make it easier if your time is difficult.” Gently, he cupped her cheek, his calm assurances and the conviction in his golden gaze easing her distress somewhat. “We value you, Eva, and I wouldn’t have authorized your transport to the
Intrepid
if I wasn’t assured of a safe and successful mating between our species.”

She lapsed into a brooding silence, taking it all in. There was another thing that bothered her beyond the logistics of it all. No matter his assertions about her being cared for and valued, the capture and mating had one purpose: breeding. It seemed clinical and purposeful, stripping all the joy of falling in love with a man of her choosing, and afterward, creating a new life. All in all, it was a calculated way of going about building a family and despite the fever on her skin, left her feeling cold.

She took the sponge from his hand. “Do you have soap? I’m feeling better now, and would like to wash, please.”

“Of course.” He produced a container of liquid soap which he poured on the sponge he reclaimed. Its scent filled the air, reminding her viscerally of Kerr, fresh and masculine. It made her feel worse, somehow.

She reached for it again, but he withheld it. Her eyes rose to his. “I thought to bathe in private.”

“No.”

His terse response didn’t surprise her, all the same it was disappointing, wanting time alone to process all of this. Her eyes stung, tears threatening again. Turning her back, she tried to blink them away, blaming the stress and sudden tumult of her life. She’d been close to tears more in the past twenty-four hours than she’d been in her entire adult life. She lowered her lashes to hide both her emotional reaction and her frustration.

“We are mated now, Eva. It is my duty and pleasure to care for you, whether by bathing you, providing for your comfort, or keeping you safe. It also means I get the duty of bringing you to the height of pleasure and making you scream and tremble in my arms.”

Duty. That word left her cold too. Was there no love amongst these people? As far as screaming in his arms, she’d done that already — twice. She stiffened, feeling like an easy conquest, which she was.

”
Faex!
” he uttered under his breath. The word didn’t translate for some reason, but it sounded much like a curse she used on occasion. “Ah, sprite, I was teasing you with that last part, despite it being true. You enjoyed it as much as I did and that is nothing to be ashamed of. Primarians cherish a strong bond. It increases the breeding odds.”

She grimaced. It always came full circle with him, reducing her to nothing more than a pair of ovaries and a uterus. She moved away from him and began to stand. His hand wrapped around her upper arm and pulled her back into the water. He wasn’t satisfied until she was facing him, and still it wasn’t enough, his hand tilted her face up to his so she couldn’t hide behind the veil of her long hair.

“What’s wrong now?”

“The question is what is right? I’d like you to set us free and return us to our ship.”

“Impossible.” His eyes flared with anger. “The bonding has begun and it is irreversible.” He released her and retrieved the discarded sponge, squeezing it until a rich lather appeared. “Lift your hair and I’ll scrub your back.” She stared at her him for a moment, considering protesting, but had learned quickly that fighting him inevitably left her with a sore behind — and him getting his way. She twisted away, pulling her hair forward and offering him her bare back.

“Wise decision.”

They said nothing further, while he washed her.

“Turn back to me, now.”

She did so, steeling herself against the desire he stirred in her as he bathed her neck, chest and breasts with the fragrant soap. He didn’t linger, which made it easier.

“Can you explain why I felt feverish? You said you expected this reaction.”

“To a certain extent. With my people, upon breaching, the initial introduction of the male’s seed starts a chemical reaction in the female’s body. Over time and further intimate interactions—”

“You mean fucking?”

He frowned at her. “Yes, although we aren’t so vulgar — and I’ll ask that you not be in the future. Is that clear?”

Feeling less than cooperative, she didn’t answer. “We refer to it as having sex. Is that acceptable?”

“Yes, we have that word as well, although it is more of a clinical term for the act. As I was saying, it brings about a permanent change in the female’s biocellular makeup. Throughout the transformation, visible changes may occur. Initially, her scent changes and with each subsequent joining, as she becomes irrevocably his in mind, body and spirit, other outward alterations may occur. Most often it is a subtle change in eye color, sometimes it is the hair, and in rare instances — with a perfectly matched pair — what we call ‘fated mates,’ a marking identical to the male’s will appear on the female’s body.”

“What kind of marking?” Her eyes searched his skin. There was a lot of it exposed, although only from the waist up. Her eyes dipped to the water line and she bit her lip as she imagined where else it could be.

“No, it’s not there,” he replied, sounding amused. He turned and lifted his hair, exposing an intricate tribal tattoo that started at the back of his neck and spread downward across his upper back and shoulders. It wasn’t surprising; his dark hair, falling halfway down his back, had hid it from view.

She reached out and touched it, the area as smooth as the rest of his skin. “How does a tattoo suddenly appear? That’s impossible.”

“This is not a tattoo, Eva. It is something all males are born with and appears at the time of the male’s maturation. The symbol is familial, the same one marking each male in the line. With a fated mate, the biochemical match is so exact, and the cellular changes so profound, that after the transformation the symbol is replicated on the female — to scale, of course — in the exact same place.”

“That would be cool if it didn’t freak me out.”

He laughed, twisting back to her and pulling her close in the waist-high water. As he did, he dipped his head into the curve of her neck and inhaled deeply. With a grunt of satisfaction, he lingered there, breathing her in fully, as his arms pulled her in tighter. One of his hands splayed across her wet back, while the other went beneath the water and cupped her bottom, plastering her front against his.

“Cool it may be,” he whispered, his breath warm against her cheek. “But it doesn’t happen to us all. The scenting however, is universal. You have my scent now. You are mine.”

“What?”

“Breathe in. What do you smell?”

“Your soap. I recognize the fragrance.”

“The soap is unscented. What you smell is my scent upon you.”

Her lips parted in amazement. As they did, his eyes dropped and he moved in. She could tell he was intent on a kiss.

“Wait,” she said, stopping his progress with her fingers pressed against his mouth. “I have more questions.”

He chuckled, his breath tickling her skin. “Of course, you do.”

She withdrew her hand, letting it slide to his shoulder. “Is that not allowed? Questions, I mean. How else will I learn all of this?”

“I’m teasing. Ask away. Although make it a good one, then I must have you again. Being this close, with you warm, wet, and naked against me is driving me to distraction.”

“Oh, well, it is a series of questions, actually.”

His rested his head against hers. “Always the inquisitive one, my mate.”

“I’m a scientist; it’s natural.”

“So is our joining, and the intense attraction I feel for you. It is more than the instinct for breeding. I desired you the instant I saw you and told the others to back off, that you were mine.”

“Only you chased me then?”

“Yes, you are faster than I expected, although very noisy. Not much of a challenge, I’m afraid, until I got you in my arms.”

“I was the last one captured. So I was more of a challenge than the others.”

A glint of amusement flashed in his golden gaze.

She grunted. “You toyed with me, didn’t you?”

“We were there to hunt. It was my off-planet time, which doesn’t come as often as I’d like. You were the most interesting game I’d found all week, and I couldn’t resist the thrill of the chase. So shoot me.”

“Don’t tempt me.”

His head fell back, his laugh rich and full. Though he was quick to smile, and easily amused, this was the first unreserved laughter she had witnessed. It was marvelous, changing his face from handsome to breathtaking. He needed to do it more often.

As it tapered off, leaving his extraordinary eyes glowing, Kerr shifted her so that she straddled his lap, his erection slipping between her thighs. She shuddered as it grazed her clit before finding its goal deep inside. His hands curved around her bottom, fingers riding between her cheeks, the tips teasing her anus as he slowly lifted her up.