A Hero's Bargain Page 8

  Not in bed with his angel, that was for sure. He was a fucking idiot. No doubt about it.

  “Ryder.”

  His gaze snapped back to her at the sound of her voice. She was beautiful standing there in the dusky light.

  Very slowly she pulled her tunic over her head to reveal pale ivory skin. She laid the tunic on a chair, then her trousers slipped from her hips. She stepped out of them and placed them neatly with her shirt before she turned to face him.

  His gaze swept her. She was slender, and strong, her hips gently flaring and rounding down to long, muscled legs. Her breasts were high and firm, her nipples brown against the paleness of her skin. His skin prickled as heat coiled in his belly. She was lovely. Her eyes met his. She took a deep breath and spoke so low Ryder had to strain to hear her.

  “And if I want you for myself? What will you do then?”

  He held out his hand to her.

  Chapter 11

  Saba let go of it all. All the worry about the village. All the fear for the future of the Ramalho. Her concerns over what her friends would think of her behavior. Her fear of what being with a man would be like. Well, most of that fear. What lingered set her alight with the most curious anticipation.

  Ryder offered so much more than she’d realized at first.

  His fingers closed around hers, warm and sure, as he pulled her to him. She was suddenly skin-to-skin with him, thighs touching, his swollen manhood captured between their bodies, nestling in the thick, soft down that covered her most secret place. He cupped the back of her head, gently massaging her scalp as he backed her slowly to the bed.

  The backs of her knees bumped against the frame. Abruptly, Saba plopped down on the edge of the mattress and found herself staring directly at his aroused penis. Without conscious thought, she wrapped her fingers around his shaft. The skin was so silky soft to be so stretched, to contain such a hard core. She ran curious fingertips along his length. A pearly drop of his seed appeared. She ran her finger across the drop then tasted it. It wasn’t unpleasant, exactly, but now she understood some of the women’s talk about using their mouths to pleasure a man. Ryder dropped to the bed beside her, staring.

  “Was that wrong?”

  He licked his lips and slowly shook his head. He stretched out on the bed and patted the spot beside him. Her heart threatened to beat its way out of her chest. She eased back on the bed and into his arms.

  “Nothing you want to do is wrong, Saba. Nothing we do is wrong. But if you don’t like something, or you’re not sure about it, tell me. Will you do that?”

  She nodded, agreeing to something she wasn’t so sure about. What if she did something he didn’t like? Looking into his gleaming eyes, the more she thought about that, the more she suspected him not liking anything she did would not be a problem. He cupped her breast, his fingertips teasing at her taut nipple and she ceased thinking of everything else.

  His fingers played gently over the swell of her breast, stroking the outside, then underneath. She moved closer to his luring warmth. His arms tightened around her, soothing her yet exciting her with the strength of his embrace. The narrow ray of late afternoon sunlight that sneaked its way through a crack at the edge of the shutter gave the room a feeling of silent isolation. There was only them to know what happened in the bed. She grew bold and raised her lips to his. His mouth tasted of the ale.

  He returned her tentative kiss, moving his mouth on hers in gentle instruction. He pulled away and whispered to her, “Give me more, Saba.”

  More? She pressed her lips back to his and touched her tongue to his. He responded in kind then rolled her beneath him. She cried out into his mouth as his body covered hers. His hips thrust to hers and she went liquid with the sudden aching, pounding that welled up inside her, swamping her with its strength. Ryder moved against her again, his rigid maleness gliding on the welcome her body sent down to him.

  Saba pushed at his chest, needing to breathe, needing a moment to let the ache between her legs ease. He grunted but did not release her. Ryder’s lips traveled down her neck, licking and nipping, sending jolts of electricity deep into her belly. His mouth closed over her tingling nipple, suckling. The throbbing drumbeat at her center grew painfully demanding. She clutched at him, needing him to do something to help her.

  His hand cupped her heat. One long finger slipped into her wet folds, seeking. There was the sudden pressure of his thumb, the quick dip of his fingers inside her. The world spiraled down to where he touched her, pulsing and drawing in upon itself until she knew nothing else. There was a brief moment where she ceased awareness then she took a sudden wonderful lurch upward into starry darkness. Waves and waves of undreamed bliss washed through her, unrelenting until she suddenly dropped back into herself. She sucked in a great lungful of much needed air.

  Ryder was tense, half sprawled across her. She slid her hand down his damp back, feeling his bunched muscles. His mouth was fever hot as it claimed hers. His hips pumped slowly against her side. Instinctively she knew this was how he would move inside her. Her mouth went dry as he rose up over her, his eyes gone black in a face drawn tight with arousal.

  “I will take you now, Saba. Tell me if you don’t want it.”

  She couldn’t speak. Surely he wouldn’t stop now. Surely.

  “Will that happen to me again?” Her voice sounded deep and breathless in her ears. He tried to smile.

  “I can’t promise I can last that long, but later—I promise you. Yes.”

  Later? She didn’t know what he meant and she wasn’t going to ask. She nodded, trusting that she’d discover what he was saying.

  He moved over her, settling in the cradle of her hips. His knees nudged hers open. She felt vulnerable, exposed then she couldn’t think any longer. His maleness probed at her, seeking the place where her body would yield to his hardness. He kissed her again, his tongue thrusting into her mouth, stealing her desire to breathe. Her flesh suddenly gave way to his.

  She bucked against him, surprised at the sensation of being penetrated. She tried to close her thighs. He grasped one leg behind her knee, opening her further. Her plea for him to wait was drowned in his kiss. He thrust into her, seating himself deeply.

  Saba struggled against the unexpected burning pain of his possession. His hands were gentle as they brushed the tears from her face. His lips kissed her eyes.

  “Easy, Saba. Be still, angel. The discomfort will be gone in a moment. Shhh.”

  She sucked in a deep breath. Discomfort is it? She smacked her fist into his ribs. And she knew where they were sore, too. He hissed.

  “You’re hurting me!” She drew back to pummel him again. He caught her wrist.

  “I’m sorry. Just be still. It will ease. Please trust me.”

  She squirmed and inadvertently raised her hips, crying out sharply as her movements drove him deeper inside her. He pumped into her, then withdrew almost all the way from her, and thrust into her again. She froze, breathless. The pain was forgotten.

  “Ryder.” She jerked her hips up to his, wanting the incredible friction again.

  “Easy, angel. I’m trying to be easy.”

  Her legs lifted to lock around his waist. He groaned, a low deep sound of intense pleasure. She murmured his name again. He heard.

  He gathered her into his arms and flexed his hips, gliding into her heat. She wrapped her arms around his neck and gave herself over to the power in his body.

  Ryder drove into her, over and over, lengthening his thrusts as her body spoke to his. A spark reignited in her core. He suddenly slammed into her, his hips jerking tightly to hers. A wet, scalding heat flooded into her woman’s sheath. His seed.

  He hung above her for long moments, his body pulsing within hers. She let her legs drop from his waist, sorry it was over. Ryder eased his weight down onto her, full length, and went limp as a dead man. He groaned in her ear, a low, shivery sound that spoke of complete male satisfaction.

  She buried her fingers in his long, damp ha
ir. His lips brushed her hair, just above her ear. Her eyes flooded with tears at the gesture.

  No wonder everyone was so obsessed with coupling.

  To hold a man like this was not as she thought it to be. She’d expected that once it was over, a man’s interest would wane, his thoughts returning to those matters men deemed important. It was not what she sensed in Ryder.

  Her traitorous heart sought more than the logic of her mind told her she would have, swelling with tenderness for the man so content in her arms. To hold him when his strength had been abandoned in favor of gentleness called to something so ancient, so primitive, in her that it stole her breath. Women for untold generations had offered up this moment to men. In return they received the future, given in a man’s seed.

  Here in this moment, when a man was able to forget worry, to forget pain, to forget uncertainty and seek solace without pride, there was a peace she’d never expected. It was a shared moment bare of everything that interfered with two hearts seeking their match. It was comfort offered and comfort given. Freely.

  Saba wanted a lifetime of these moments and she would never have them because Ryder would not stay with her. She knew it as surely as she knew the seasons. He was not of this world and he would leave her to search for a way to return to his home.

  Another would not do, not now. Not even Tyree, a man she respected but did not love. This stranger in her arms, who was truly no longer a stranger to her, was the one she wanted beside her. She would have to convince him there was no way to leave this world, and after that, to stay with her people. The old legends teased at her memory. Surely there was something in them that would help her.

  “What’s wrong, angel?” His voice was low and soft in her ear, as his lips brushed her hair again. He shifted his weight up onto his elbows and looked at her, concern evident in his eyes. “Did I hurt you too much?”

  The memory of the fleeting pain as he took her was already gone. She shook her head. “No. I can’t even remember it now.”

  His fingertips caressed her cheek. “You don’t need to be brave for me, Saba. I know I hurt you. If it’s any consolation, it probably won’t ever cause you pain again.”

  “I’m not being brave. I would tell you if you caused me pain.” She ran her toes along his calf. He started to move off her. She flipped her leg over his buttocks. He smiled at her, a little sadly, she thought.

  “I’ve got to move, angel. My spine is on fire.”

  She released him immediately. He groaned as he slid from her to lie face down on the bed. She rolled toward him and carefully ran her hand over his back. He grunted but did not flinch.

  “You should relax.”

  He started to shake. Panic welled up in her.

  “What’s wrong!”

  Ryder rolled onto his side, facing her, and grinning. His strong hand traveled across the swell of her hip. “I can’t remember the last time I was this relaxed.”

  “But your back…” She was confused, but maybe he’d intended that.

  “As soon as I moved and stretched just that little bit the sensation went away.” He leaned forward and kissed her lightly. “It’s a strange feeling, Saba. I can only describe it as intense heat and tell the healer that every time I experience it, it’s weaker and weaker.”

  The healer in her was glad to learn his symptoms were abating. An errant thought crossed her mind. Surely he would not have. Would he?

  “Ryder, did you use some of your own treatments on yourself?”

  The playful glint left his eyes. Her heart sank, knowing he considered whether or not to be truthful with her. It showed plainly on his face, tarnishing the joy of being with him.

  He stroked his thumb across her lips. “Yes. When I first knew I was in trouble I injected myself with a broad-spectrum anti-venom.” His lips thinned into a grim line. “I don’t know how much I got, but it wasn’t enough.”

  Saba trembled with relief that he’d chosen to tell her the truth. He must have thought she was chilled, and reached for the blanket, pulling it over them. She nestled closer to him, a thousand questions rattling around inside her head, but there was only one she had to ask tonight. The one that plagued her more than all the rest together.

  “When the errol is destroyed, will you leave here?”

  His emotional withdrawal from her was so swift and thorough, Saba flinched. Ryder hadn’t moved, or even blinked at her questions, yet she felt him sever the connection they’d shared. Emptiness welled up inside her. His voice was rough, and bitter.

  “And go where, angel? Home? I need a ship to get home and I’m betting there’s not one fucking ship on this whole godforsaken planet.” He rolled away from her to sit on the edge of the bed. “I’ve got nowhere to go, Saba. I liked my life but it’s gone and I’m stuck here. I’ll have to make a place for myself, like it or not.”

  He rose to stand by the cooling hearth. The room was still in twilight gloom. From outside came the sound of a woman calling her children to come in for the evening meal. Beyond that was the dull thud of iron on wood as someone worked preparing fuel for the villagers’ fires. There was soft cooing overhead as songbirds settled for the night in the thick thatching of the roof.

  Saba watched him stand there, unmoving, until she could be still no longer. She whispered his name into the darkness.

  “Ryder?”

  He took a deep breath and gusted out a ragged sigh. His voice, too, was a whisper in the darkness.

  “No, angel, I’m not leaving. But I’m not going to indiscriminately kill for you, either.”

  Chapter 12

  Ryder turned and looked at her ashen face, a mere spot of white against the deepening shadows of the room. His decision had not come easily. Saba gathered her wits, and her breath, for a small explosion. He sensed it in the air between them. He held up his hand. Her mouth dropped open then snapped closed.

  Now she was pissed.

  “Now before you go jumping to conclusions, hear me out.”

  “Hear you out! You worthless piece of…of…of…” She sputtered to a halt, and Ryder knew if he so much as twitched, she’d probably crack his skull with a piece of pottery.

  “Saba, listen to me.” He spied the wine bottle, picked it up, and carried it to the bed. Gods, the back of his legs felt tight, as if the muscles had been stretched on a rack then allowed to snap back to their proper length.

  He uncorked the bottle, took a swig, then handed it to her. She didn’t disappoint him, swilling down several swallows before setting the bottle out of his reach. Ryder eased onto the edge of the bed and held his hand out to her.

  “Will you hear me out now?” He leaned back onto the pillows with her when she nodded, coaxing her to lay her head on his shoulder, then pulling her closer.

  She needed to understand he couldn’t simply kill another sentient being without being convinced there was no other option. It went against his nature. And he was sure the errol was intelligent.

  “Tyree and I spoke for a long time and we touched on many things. He told me of how the errol came to be here and how the Ramalho feared I would be another since I arrived in the same way. He also told me no one has actually seen the creature up close, but it walks upright, like a man.” He tugged on the blanket to cover his legs. She snatched at it as it uncovered her rump. They jostled for a more comfortable position where they could share the blanket.

  “Saba, I fear the errol is no more than a being, not unlike myself, whose spaceship crashed here. What if he’s from a place where the language is so different you just can’t understand?”

  “I do not care! He has killed so many of us! Never once did he try to make friends with us. Not once.”

  “You call it ‘he’ and not ‘it.’ Did you know that?”

  “What does Tyree think of your decision? Tell me that!”

  Of course she’d cut straight to the heart of things. It was one of the things he found so interesting about her.

  “I’ve not told Tyree. Not exactly, anyway
.”

  Saba pushed away from him, anger blazing in her eyes.

  “What does that mean?” Her lips pursed in a most delectable way. “Just tell me and don’t try to act funny.”

  “Angel. You’re upset with me.” He pointed to the wine. “Take another drink.”

  “I think I will.” She snatched up the bottle and lifted it to her lips. He grabbed it on the fourth swallow.

  “Save me some, will you?” He took a drink. There wasn’t much left so he finished it. She did have more, after all, and he knew where it was stashed. He put the empty bottle on the floor then gathered her into his arms again. She resisted, pushing against him.

  “We had an agreement!” She kicked at his legs. “You will honor it!”

  He tightened his hold on her. “I will honor it. But I’ll do it the way I deem best for all involved. That includes me.”

  “You…you…” She was squirming, trying to get out of his grasp. All she succeeded in doing was rubbing her breasts against him so delightfully his penis took notice, and Ryder started to believe maybe he’d be able to take her again.

  Thank you all the gods of the universe.

  “Son of a bitch? Mother fucking cocksucker? Piece of shit? I’ve been called all sorts of things, angel.” He took another deep breath. “But murderer isn’t on my resume and I don’t want it there.” His hold on her slipped.

  “I was going to call you taog dung!” Her fist struck the center of his chest.

  “Nice love tap, angel. I’ll just roll over and you can spank me. I’d like that.” He leered at her. She blinked uncomprehendingly at him.

  “Saba, calm down and listen.” He gave her a little shake. Her entire body jerked in surprise. “Just be quiet.”

  She stilled, her beautiful eyes black, and wary. Compulsion sliced through him. He lowered his mouth to hers and she burst into flame in his arms.

  Her mouth opened in welcome. Her tongue met his, dancing and teasing. His erection completed in a breathtaking rush, hazing his awareness to all but the tight throbbing in his groin. Then he was back into himself and able to focus on Saba.