Page 26 of Warrior (The Outlander Book Club… in Space! #2)

Daicon

I’m in trouble.

Deep, blissful, pleasurable trouble.

I’d convinced myself somehow that I could have one taste of Daisy’s body. One stolen, perfect moment in her arms and then walk away, letting her go, knowing that she could never truly be mine.

I’m a fucking idiot.

When I was a slave in the mines, there were moments when exhaustion lay so thick my mind would waft away to pleasurable memories and imaginations of myself with a mate.

Nothing in my imagination came close to the truly perfect moment of holding Daisy... sheathing myself deep inside her soft warm body. My entire life, I’d wanted nothing more than to be a warrior, to fight and die in battle as a Vaktaire war chief.

I would never touch another sword if it meant Daisy could truly be mine.

The moss at my back felt soft, a better cushioning than the cot in her small room. Wisps of dampness lingering in the air from the heated pools cooled my heated skin. The sound of tinkling water from the waterfall filled the air with a relaxing melody.

She stirred at my side, cuddling closer to my chest, a soft moan breaking from her lips.

The sound was faint and light, not the deep throaty groans she made during the heat of pleasure.

Daisy was so delicate and soft, and the roughness of our joining shamed me, but once joined with her sweet body, I lost all control.

“I did not mean to hurt you, sweet one.

“Hurt me?” Daisy chuckled and raised her head to gaze at me, an adorable furrow creasing her brow. “Why do you think you hurt me?”

“You screamed.”

Her laugh grew deeper. “It was a good scream.” Her cheeks flushed bright pink. “A really good scream. I’ve... I never. It was never like that for me before.”

The dampness brought a curl to her thick hair. I brushed an errant strand behind her ear, the texture like silk on my fingers. “I worried. I am much bigger than you.”

“Hence why it felt so good.” Her lips, pouty and reddened from my kisses, curved into a smile. “You are perfect.”

My fingers curled around her nape, pulling her face nearer. “No sweetling, you are the perfect one,” I argued before claiming her lips with mine.

Her mouth opened for me, tongues tangling in a slow, sensual dance. I let my hand trail over the curve of her ass, lifting her to straddle my thighs, when I heard a sound heralding the end of our brief interlude.

“What is it?” Daisy asked when I released her lips with a grimace.

“The younglings return from the mine.” I jerked my chin in the direction of the common area they were still a few minutes away from reaching.

“Oh crap,” Daisy scrambled off me, grabbing for her dress.

I bent my hands behind my head, enjoying the flex of her curves as she dressed. Settling on her knees at my side, she glared at me in mock aggravation. “Not that I mind the view, but don’t you need to put your pants on? The kids will be here any minute.”

I sat up, although frowning at the idea. My cock was already stiffening again with want of her. As I reached for my breeches, a sobering thought taunted through my brain.

“Do you not want the younglings to know of us?”

Daisy gaped at me for a moment, then her eyes softened, a faint smile curving her lips. “Do you mean the children finding out you’re my boyfriend?”

“Boyfriend?” I’d heard the word before in my Earth studies, but the concept never made much sense to me.

“I guess boyfriend isn't the best word. What do you call it? Mate?” Daisy followed me to my feet as I slipped on the breeches, grunting as I fastened the cloth straining across my crotch.

I steeled, forcing the words off my tongue. “I cannot.”

“Can’t what?” Daisy asked over her shoulder as she wandered toward the piles of laundry.

“I can never claim you as mate.” I nearly choked. Saying the words aloud, hollowed a deep hole in the center of my heart.

Daisy shrugged, not looking up from where she knelt by the laundry, sorting the garments into piles. “Are you talking about that heart-stopping thing?

Shock opened and closed my mouth several times before it filled with words. “Heart stopping? You mean the valakana.”

“Ewok didn’t tell me what the mating ritual was called, just that its dangerous.” She picked up a wad of cloth, sniffing it and gave a faint disgusted cough.

“Ewok?”

Emmy’s giggle washed away the trepidation that had gripped me from the word boyfriend .

“Apparently, you were right about Kerzak olfactory senses.” Her eyes rolled dramatically amid pinkening cheeks. “He told me this morning he could smell you on me and asked if we mated.”

A deep chuckled barked from lips at the pleasure someone—even a nosy youngling—recognized our closeness. “What did he tell you?”

“He said the ritual causes your heart to stop and that species other than the Vaktaire often die from it.”

I knelt by her side, halting the fling of her hands as she sorted the garments by wrapping her fingers with mine. Her eyes flickered upward, the gold specks warring with green for dominance.

“Ewok is right, sweetling. The valakana, when a Vaktaire formally claims a mate and receives the blessing of the goddess Valana, is very dangerous and can be deadly.”

Daisy swallowed hard, and I caught the shimmer of wetness growing between her lashes.

“What does that mean... for us?”

My hand slipped around her waist, pulling her across my thighs, pressing a kiss to her forehead as I cradled her.

“It means I can never say the words aloud to claim you. To do so would put your very life in danger.” I stiffened, waiting for tears or perhaps anger.

I had claimed her body while knowing she could never truly be mine. I deserved her ire.

Daisy laughed.

I blinked down at her, which made her amusement deepen, her soft fingers stroking my jawline.

“I learned a long time ago that talk is cheap. Actions speak much louder than words.”

“What does that mean?” Hope blossomed in my chest.

“It means I don’t care what you can or cannot call me,” Daisy pressed a soft kiss at the base of my throat. “What matters most is how you treat me.”

I leaned my forehead against her, drawing in the floral sunshine scent, now tinged with the musk of her pleasure. “I vow to treat you like the most precious object in the universe.”

“Then you can be my boyfriend,” Daisy giggled, turning her head toward the rush of noise heralding the youngling’s entrance into the common area.

“Boyfriend,” I muttered, standing, and lifting Daisy to her feet. I would need to learn more about this Earth term and be the best boyfriend in the universe.

After a few more sniffs, Daisy declared only one pile of laundry as clean.

We stuffed the garments into a large duffel that I flung over my shoulder.

Daisy stepped close as we meandered toward the common area, slipping her hand into mine.

My heart surged with the outward expression of our closeness.

Of course, there was no way to keep it secret giving Ewok’s nose.

The younglings milled around the tool pile, laying off the work of the day. Ewok’s small head whipped about, eyes widening the minute they lit on Daisy.

“Kida!” He ran to our side as quickly as the short, chubby legs could carry him.

“What’s the matter?” I felt a pang of loss as Daisy’s hand pulled from my grasp as she knelt, holding her arms out for Ewok.

The tiny Kerzak opened his mouth, nostrils flaring.

The worry left his face in an instant as the dark eyes darted from Daisy to me and back.

His black lips curved upward, the gaze at her full of affection.

When he cut his eyes to me again, the message in his expression was nearly audible.

Hurt daisy and I will hurt you. I gave a slow, deep nod of agreement and the little furball relaxed.

“Tell her Ewok.” George ambled up behind him, oblivious to what passed between the three of us. His mind was elsewhere and the crease in his brow set off an alarm pinging over my nerves. A warrior’s sixth sense of looming dread.

“What’s wrong?” I laid a hand on George’s shoulder.

“The guards are going to destroy the mine.” Ewok blurted.

“What?” Daisy’s worried gaze bounced between the four of us.

“Why do you say that?” I pressed. A few feet behind George, the rest of the young ones milled, standing in a tight circle.

Until that moment, I thought the smell of a battlefield—the scent of blood and battle and death—ranked as the worst scent.

I was wrong. The scent of fear emanating off the younglings curdled my stomach.

“Cuietsu overhead some of the guards talking.” George motioned for the smaller boy to step forward.

I’d seen fear in Cuietsu’s eyes the night he told us of Ewok’s attack.

The expression on his small face now was one of pure terror.

He shuffled forward, wringing his hands so viciously I feared he might yank off a finger.

I stepped forward, laying a hand on his shoulder.

Tremors ran through him like a small earthquake, making his tail twitch back and forth uncontrollably.

“What did you hear, young one?”

Verdesian eyes are solid black with white pupils that appear as slits surrounded by irises colored to denote their tribe. Cuietsu’s irises were a pale clear green around a wide white pupil as they trained on my face.

“I had to pee, so I went behind a boulder.” He was so small a decent size boulder would hide him quite well.

“The guards didn’t know I was there, and they were talking about leaving in a few days.

” The tiny hands increased their wringing.

“One of them said they would come in at night and plant the charges so we wouldn’t know, and the mine would explode after they left. ”

“Sweet fancy Moses!” Daisy’s widened gaze found mine as she pulled Cuietsu into an embrace. “How brave you are.”