Bane: A SciFi Alien Romance (The Ladyships Book 2) Read online

  With her hair enticingly tousled and her lips gratifyingly swollen, she reached for him. “Therion?”

  He raised a hand, fending her off. “Need a moment.”

  Who was he kidding? A moment wouldn’t fix this.

  They were both fully clothed, and he reacted like this? He was a fucking insensitive bastard to thrust when they weren’t using a brace. True, it was only a dry hump. But if he failed to restrain himself while they were clothed, what would happen if they had been naked?

  He could have hurt her.

  Hell, he could have hurt her baby.

  Snapping his eyes toward her, it shocked him to find her slumped against the bunk. She’d pressed her hands to her mouth, her eyes still round with wonderment.

  She gasped. “I am so, so sorry. Did I hurt you? Good lord, I hurt you, didn’t I?”

  Therion started at her. She wasn’t outraged. She wasn’t offended.

  She was sorry?

  She touched her red cheeks. “We should go back to Feldser.” She started to scrambled to her feet. “I’ll get Feld—”

  Therion tugged her back down, being careful to settle her on the deck and not onto his dastardly lap. “Maude, I’m good. Truly, I’m good.”

  She eyed him warily. “You are? I’m heavy.”

  “You’re a godsdamned feather.”

  “Oh,” she breathed. “That’s a lovely thing to say. Thank you.”

  He bit back a scoff. Heavy? Thank you?

  Her tiny body wasn’t the problem. The problem was his thrust-lusty hips, and the fact that this cabin didn’t have a brace. And why would there be a brace here? Braces belonged in the bedroom, where couples could calibrate the straps and stirrups, ensuring that a man didn’t thrust too deeply. Even with a pregnant woman, a brace was used until they were certain that the medullary bone had been completely absorbed. Only then could a man seat himself fully inside his partner. A well-bred Teras man would never have sex without a brace. It just wasn’t done. Ever.

  They settled into silence, right back where they fucking started.

  Therion groaned and scrubbed his face, trying to clear his head. All this started because she wanted to explain why she had kept the baby a secret.

  He had no gripe with Maude. Seph already proved that Humans fiercely protect their offspring. Seph hadn’t told Zver about her son until after they had secured Prykimis. He truly couldn’t fault Maude for being Human and keeping her secret.

  As for secrets, he guessed it was his turn now—to unload all the things that went unsaid while they were at the Gwyretti compound.

  He settled himself on the deck and looked her in the eye. “I’ve got some things to tell you.”

  She pleased him when she mirrored him, settling herself on deck with a nod. “All right. Go on.”

  “I’ll start simple.”

  “That would be best.”

  He dove right into it. “I’m hauling our asses back to Dominion space. Prykimis is already on an intercept course with us.”

  She nodded, but her voiced quivered. “All right.”

  “Maude?” Although he sat on the deck, he ducked his head to get a good look at her. “Are you all right?”

  She blinked and her voice sounded tight. “Um. It’s just the reminder that we’re in outer space.”

  “The only space there is.” He resisted the urge to reach out and tucked a hand under her chin. With his arm span, he could reach her, no problem. “Hey, Maude? There’s nothing to this. I’ve been traveling between planets my whole life. Even as an infant, my family never thought twice about dragging my adorable little arse along. This is perfectly safe.”

  She swallowed, drawing his attention to the column of her throat that had the barest hint of praal beneath the skin. To think, if he’d remained in control, he could have known the taste of her there.

  “I’ve never been in space before,” she whispered.

  He followed his impulse and reached out, brushing his fingertips along her barely-there praal, right under her chin. “Maude, hate to tell you, but just being here means you’ve been in space before.”

  Her brow furrowed and bless Direis, she didn’t pull back from him. “But I don’t remember being abducted from Earth.”

  “Doesn’t change it now, does it?”

  “No.” She sounded unhappy, but much calmer. “I guess it doesn’t.”

  He shrugged and let his hand drop back to his knee. “Besides, my gappa’s at the helm. He’s been piloting since he was a tyke. We’re fine.”

  “Gappa? You’ve said that before.”

  “It’s Bulanii, which I don’t think you speak?” When she shook her head, he continued, “Well, your Gwyr and Terish are fucking spot-on. Especially your Gwyr.” He gave her a smile. “Good for you. Not many non-Gwyretti take the time to learn the language.”

  Maude blushed, which tickled his anthers. “There wasn’t much effort involved. I woke speaking Gwyr. You speak it too.”

  “Aye, I do. Needed to learn it to salvage Prykimis. The Gwyretti have a knack for finding the best bits of old Athelasan tech. They’re just shit at refurbishing it.”

  “But ‘gappa’s’ Bulanii. I still don’t know what it means.”

  “Means grandfather.”

  She leaned back against the bunk and gaped at him. “The pilot is your grandfather?”

  He grimaced. Based on her reaction, he knew she’d take issue with the rest. “Trust me here. Things are about to get complicated, so I’m gonna be direct. I watched the mistakes my brother made, and I’m rather pissed that I’ve repeated them myself. Here I go.” He exhaled, sucked in a breath and rambled, “The pilot’s my grandfather. Culler’s my cousin. Gummy’s an arse licker.”

  She stared for several seconds before blinking. Aye, he truly stunned her, didn’t he?

  “What about Gummy?” she asked.

  Well, shit. He thought he could float that one past her. “Gummy’s my grandmother.”

  “Gummy’s a woman!” she shrieked.

  Therion winced and slapped his hands over his sensitive ears. Hell, Maude probably rung the ears of every Teras aboard the damn freighter.

  “Why did you let me think, all this time, that Gummy was a man?” She shoved at him, but failed to move him. All she did was push herself back against the bunk. “It’s bad enough that people think I’m an idiot, but then you go and prove it. Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “The goal was to fool everyone, Maude. We were undercover and it worked brilliantly.”

  “Brilliantly!” Her voice rose again. “You had your grandma sold into slavery!”

  Therion chuckled at the image of Gummy hauling around shit buckets. By Unholde, that would never cease to amuse him.

  “Therion!” She whapped him on the shoulder. “You’re smiling about this? She’s a helpless old woman!”

  Therion scoffed. “Who do you think took out half the garrison without even lifting a finger? Gummy.”

  Maude still gawked at him.

  “She’s a technopath, Maude.” Therion jabbed a thumb over his shoulder. “When I say she didn’t lift a finger, I literally mean that she didn’t lift a finger. Once you fired up the power cells, she used her technopathy to activate the rampart’s defenses. With a passing thought, that shifty arse downed a dozen guards.”

  Maude dropped her eyes, and he watched her thoughts turn inward. “But…”

  Therion gave her a moment, then he reached out and gently jostled her. “Don’t waste your time worrying over Gummy. She’s an unnatural disaster that just had the time of her life. The Trine hardly let her get out anymore. They’re tired of trying to contain the fuck-all ruckus that traipses around after that woman.”

  “Your grandmother?” He heard the astonishment, rather than disbelief, in her tone.

  “Yep. My Gummy.”

  It pleased the hell out of him that Maude graced him with a sweet smile. That she didn’t hate him. “So, Gummy means grandmother in Bulanii?”

  Therion huf
fed. “Nah. Called her ‘Gummy’ since I was a tyke. She was always barking about gumption.”

  “That’s adorable,” she whispered. “That you gave her a special name.”

  “Ech. Stop right there. There’s nothing adorable about Gummy.”

  “She’s been nice to me.”

  Therion ran his eyes over Maude, checking her for dementia. “Gummy’s never nice. Especially not to other Athela.”

  “Athela? I don’t know what that means.”

  “Remember I told you that people with technopathy are important? Well, the women more so. They have a greater chance of passing along the talent to their children. We call them Athela. Gummy’s Lady Vedma. You’re actually Lady Maude in our society.”

  “Am I?” She beamed at him. “I have ladyship status?”

  She was Lady Maude, and very much above a gritty drifter like him.

  “Aye,” he told her with an ache in his chest and the phantom press of her kiss on his lips. “That you are.”

  Chapter Nine

  Maude stood in the shower as the cold water ran over her. She shivered and sighed. After being so miserably hot for days on end and having access to only buckets of tepid water, she sank into the chilly spray and scrubbed sand from her skin.

  As she soaped up her arm, she could feel each grain that had slipped beneath Kora’s vine-like tendrils to grate against her skin.

  She swallowed, clearing her throat, as her heart kicked in her chest. Please work.

  “Kora, I’d like to clean my arm, please.”

  Kora hummed softly in her mind. “[I go.]”

  The tendril rose up, just a hair from her skin, and slithered backward. Maude held her breath as her skin pulsed with the phantom sensation of Kora still being pressed against her. Her gaze locked onto the tan lines that had formed in the pattern of Kora’s vines. Although she wore the cloak and stayed underground, the twin suns of Radost had marked her.

  She took the cloth Therion gave her—abraded on one side for exfoliating—and scrubbed at her skin. Maude was fair-skinned and lacked the warm undertones that gave other people sun-kissed tans. She burned like a lobster, even in the shade, and although she knew sunburns needed to heal, she scrubbed at her arms anyway.

  She had been such a blind idiot on Radost.

  She’d given the Gwyretti the benefit of the doubt. She treated them like people and didn’t assume, because of difference of skin color or features, that they hadn’t deserved courtesy and understanding. Her little cousin Josie had taught her that. She never saw the tone of Josie’s skin until they had been out one day and some horrid woman had snarled a racial slur. Yet the same courtesy and understanding that Maude had freely given to the Gwyretti, she hadn’t extended to Kora. She’d been close-minded. A bigot.

  To think, she would’ve remained at the Gwyretti’s mercy had Kora not been with her the entire time, keeping them at bay.

  Her stomach twisted as she recalled her past behavior. Since the moment she’d awakened, Kora had been trying desperately to connect with her, and she’d coldly ignored her.

  Why? Because she suspected that there was a connection between the voice and spider and had feared the reality of what that truly meant. That something intelligent—and very much out of her realm of experience—had latched onto her body. Because her mind had shuffled forward to horrid scenarios. That returning home wouldn’t be a possibility if an alien life-form were attached to her. She’d live her life inside a government lab, if they would let her live at all.

  Emotions that weren’t hers washed over her. Kora’s concern and sympathy halted Maude’s frantic scrubbing.

  Maude’s next breath came as a sob that pinched her chest. She pressed her lips closed, refusing to cry again. But goddamn it, she never in her life had felt so foolish.

  “I’m sorry I didn’t listen,” Maude whispered, but it didn’t feel like enough. She tried to touch Kora, to give her a comforting pat, but Maude couldn’t twist her arm to reach Kora now that she laid flat along Maude’s spine.

  Kora had pulled back like this earlier, too, aligning along Maude’s spine when she had been in Therion’s arms. There had been no barrier between her body and his, enabling her to feel…

  Maude shivered in the cold water, but this tremor carried heat coiling from her core and tingling her nipples. As amazing as the ignition of down-and-dirty arousal felt, her mind and heart doused it with ice-cold buckets of reality.

  She couldn’t get involved with Therion because she was carrying Nicole’s baby.

  Just because she was a surrogate didn’t mean that sex was off the table. The doctors had said, barring no complications, there would be no restrictions in that regard. Maude herself had put the ban on relationships, including casual sex, because she’d seen no reason to complicate a new relationship. Besides, once the baby was born, she was prepared to throw herself into the role of devoted auntie-nanny for however long Nicole needed help.

  Getting home. That was her sole priority.

  Although, as she stood beneath the cold water, the refreshing chill passing over her skin was nothing like the invigorating shivers that Therion had given her. He’d gotten under her skin with his easy smiles and intuitive handling of her. He knew when to coddle or to confront her, and the coddling surprised her because he managed to shelter and protect her without sneering or snipping.

  And he didn’t want her apologies—her automatic concession for her shortcomings—not because he was sick of hearing them, but because he believed they weren’t warranted. At least, she thought this was why he told her that she need never apologize to him.

  “[I wake,]” Kora whispered to her, probably in response to the turmoil twisting her gut.

  Why was Therion’s regard so important to her? She was going home and would never see him again.

  “[I wake.]” This time, Kora was chiding—scolding Maude for missing the big picture.

  But Maude squeezed her eyes shut, ignoring the thousand-year-old entity and stubbornly kept her blinders on. For once, rather than struggling to grasp a concept, she chose to dismiss what she didn’t want to see.

  Therion’s WristCune, strapped atop of the bit of Kora on his wrist, pinged. He stared at the message. Seph had finally replied to him.

  Starburst: Why’d you send me a picture of a heart-shaped ass?

  Therion tapped out a reply.

  Thanebanger: What kind of malformed organs do Humans have???

  Starburst: I am assuming this is HER ass.

  Thanebanger: How’d you know?

  Starburst: Lack of praal. Why did you send this to me?

  Thanebanger: Because I’m in love.

  Starburst: With her ass? God, you’re such an ass.

  Thanebanger: I’m in love with ALL OF HER. But especially her ass.

  Starburst: Did you at least shake her hand first or just palm her ass?

  Thanebanger: We skipped over that.

  Starburst: Skipped over it to do what? Ass grabbing?

  Thanebanger: We’ve grabbed other things.

  Starburst: You’re supposed to be rescuing her!

  Thanebanger: And I totally am.

  Starburst: God, you suck.

  Therion started tapping out a reply.

  Thanebanger: Not yet, but I’m totally gonna suck her—

  His grandfather cleared his throat. When Therion glanced at the man, his gappa arched a reproachful brow.

  Therion glared at him. “Gummy does shit like reading private messages. You’re a better man than Gummy. Literally.” Then he reconsidered. “Though she’s a kickass Mystery Man. I’ll give her that. But still. Take the fucking high road, Gappa.”

  His grandfather stared at him, giving him that same silent assessment that Zver would do. Gods, those two were shits squeezed from the same asshole.

  However, to be fair, Therion and Dyr shared resemblances as well. Both were tall Teras men with clade-ink all over their arms and neck, although his gappa, the hardcore grunt that he was, also ha
d tattoos on his hands. Therion had never gone that far because constantly covering his hands would have been shitting-a-hunk-of-sard pain. Dyr, when he’d been Unsworn, had covered practically every patch of exposed skin with clade ink. He’d often said that it kept the clawing Athela at bay, but then he’d get this sappy gleam in his eyes that would heat into something uncomfortably intense. “Well, except for your gamma.”

  Gods. His gappa was a mean shit, to allude to all ‘that’ with Gummy. Of all the women in the Dominion and the Tendex, Gappa lusted after Gummy, the nastiest git alive.

  Hell, if Gummy shuffled in NavCom right now, she’d see Therion slouching in the seat before the freighter’s engineering console, while his gappa slouched in the pilot’s seat. Therion grumped at their ridiculously similar poses. Gummy would cackle at them and call them twin turds. Then, his gappa would give her a thanely stare before snuggling up to her like ratka pup.

  “Seph has a point,” his gappa said, pulling Therion back to his current fuck-all conundrum: Maude and finding her the perfect thane.

  Therion huffed. “And what point is that?”

  “That you’re supposed to be rescuing her.”

  “And I have.”

  He did exactly as ordered. He’d infiltrated Lider’s compound like a drifting Unsworn, thrashed the place, and strode out with the lady. Aye, she suffered some slight trauma and mild unconsciousness, but he’d totally heroed up and shit. His job was done. It was time for a thane to take over.

  A fucking thane.

  A flash of his disgust must have crossed his face, because Gappa inhaled and said, “You’re drafting a message to Nim?”

  Aye, he was. Nim was thane of House Vidan. Not a bastion, but not a bastard, either. While Therion had drifted amongst marauders and Unsworns, Nim made an appearance from time-to-time. He would duck into the shadows to raze fucks who’d crossed him or his house. Fortunately, the man didn’t dwell there, causing unnecessary harm. For an arse sucking thane, Nim was tolerable.

  “Dammit, Gappa.” Therion jabbed a finger at Dyr. “What did I just say about being a better man than that antherless idiot?”

  Dyr narrowed his eyes at him. “We’re going to have words about that, Therion.”