Series: Zandian Brides Series by Renee Rose
Total pages in book: 61
Estimated words: 57939 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 290(@200wpm)___ 232(@250wpm)___ 193(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 57939 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 290(@200wpm)___ 232(@250wpm)___ 193(@300wpm)
He growls. “Exactly.”
“That part of you is okay, too.” I smile. I’m so sated with pleasure that I might be dripping with joy. “That was amazing.”
“It was,” he sounds wondrous, almost surprised. “It was.”
We’re quiet for a minute, but it’s not awkward.
“It looks like I’ve unlocked the secret to getting you to share your memories.” His voice is dry and amused at the same time.
I don’t want to really talk about this because it makes me sad to think that such incredible sex is just a tool for him to get me to talk, when to me it feels life-altering. So I just nod.
Then I ask something that’s been on my mind more and more lately. “Why are you not mated to another Zandian? Or human? I mean, why are you available to take care of me?”
He tenses slightly. “There are no Zandian females. And I just never met the right human to tempt me.”
“Okay.” I hesitate. “It’s just that Axe said. Your friend? I think I remember him saying something on the ship about a previous relationship?” I hold my breath. I probably shouldn’t pry, and this is a very sensitive topic. “When you rescued me? You were talking?”
“Veck. You remember that?” He takes a breath. “Well, that’s not untrue. I, ah.” He clears his throat. “There was one…being. But it was a while back. And things didn’t end well.”
“How?” I sense this is important. That it matters more than he’ll admit.
“Sia, this is old history.” His voice is irritable. Then he relents. He stares at the ceiling of the domicile as he speaks. “There was a human, Illiana. We had rescued her from a slave auction.”
He stops speaking, and I just wait for him to continue. I sense that this is a very important topic to him, maybe more critical than he’d admit.
“We bonded.” His voice is flat. “And I promised to make her my mate. This happened very quickly.” He takes a breath. “We were still on the alien planet. But it seemed…” he shakes his head. “At the time, it seemed natural. It made sense. We really got each other. Illiana was her name. We spent six planet rotations together, hiding out with the team, preparing to escape the planet. And I was crazy about her.”
“Hmmm.” I want him to keep talking. Already I hate this Illiana, for the simple fact that she ensnared Daven’s heart. “So what happened?”
“What happened.” He says it like a statement. “Is that we were hiding in some outbuilding, ready to make a run for a craft, another vessel, since ours had been destroyed. This was dangerous, Sia–I wasn’t sure we’d make it. She saw some of her previous captors and called out to them, told them that we were hiding. That she had valuable intel about us, and she’d only been with us to get knowledge.”
“Oh, Mother Earth. She didn’t.” I put a hand to my mouth, outraged. “But why?”
He shrugs, still not looking at me. “Stars, who can know? Perhaps she thought we were outnumbered, and she’d be recaptured anyway, so she decided to throw her lot in with them? Or maybe she really was just tricking us the entire time? It just seemed so…real…what we had together. I cared for her already. Very much.” His jaw clenches. “And she seemed to reciprocate.”
“That’s awful.” I touch his arm.
“We Zandians fought off the attackers and got a craft. Escaped–without her. She had made her choice at that point, and we needed to save ourselves.”
“I’m so sorry.” I stroke his shoulder. “What a horrible being.”
“It was my own fault for trusting her so fast and so completely. I should have known better. I do now.”
He looks at me, finally, but his eyes are hooded and distant. “I swore to myself that I’d never endanger Zandia or myself again by trusting an unworthy being. My loyalty is to my king and my planet. That will never waver. Ever. I endangered that mission because of my misplaced trust.” He shakes his head. “I dishonored myself. It is shameful.”
“It wasn’t your fault.” My voice is low. “You can’t hold yourself responsible.” My belly fills with unease, and my chest aches. I’ve already lied to him so many times; he knows I’m unreliable at best. If he has any sentiment for me at all, he’ll obviously put it aside in a heartbeat because I’m not honest. And I can’t blame him. I would too.
“Of course I can. My duty requires it.” He shrugs. Then he looks into my eyes. “So, Sia, I need you to be upfront with me. Tell me the truth about what you’ve remembered. The things we both know you’re not saying. Show me that I’m not hurting my planet by trusting you. By allowing you here in my domicile. On my planet. My home.”