Chapter Seventeen

Noelle had been kicking her heels in the colony jail for days before she was allowed any visitors at all. Almost a week had passed since she’d spoken to her advocate—which was the same day she’d returned Drak’s ship and then headed back to the colony and presented herself for the interrogation and the analysis of her PMAI.

It was amazing to her that five different people could look at the same damn thing and all interpret it in a different way!

She’d been sure that all she needed to do was to allow them access to her Personal Memory Assist Implant and they’d be able to see she hadn’t done anything wrong. She still didn’t see that she had! But all of the council members had had a different opinion—both of her activities at Prince Drak’s castle and when she’d sent his ship back!

Well, she couldn’t actually claim she’d had no idea they would want to study the Prince’s ship—not truthfully anyway. And she hadn’t been able to lie about it convincingly and pretend she didn’t know they’d want it since she’d hidden it to start with and then sneaked out of the colony and sent it back.

Nobody was buying that one! The jury was still out on her activities at the castle. At least half seemed to consider that she was under duress and shouldn’t be penalized for doing whatever it took to survive. The others thought she’d been way too enthusiastic for somebody that was doing something they were forced to do.

Either way, she wasn’t particularly perturbed. The advocate had said she was most likely to get probation rather than actual jail time—not because they didn’t consider she’d committed a crime but because they were anxious to use her to promote relations with the natives!

Politics!

She was surprised but gratified when Monica arrived. She didn’t know if Monica hadn’t been to see her because she considered her guilty and didn’t want to be friends anymore, though, or if she hadn’t because they wouldn’t let her so she was far more subdued in greeting her than she felt.

“They sent me to get you,” Monica explained without preamble when the guard had unlocked the door.

“Really? They’ve decided already?” Noelle asked uneasily. “My advocate said it might be as much as a month before they made a decision. Not that I’m objecting, mind you! This place totally sucks!”

“No. It isn’t that. Your … uh … boyfriend arrived and he’s pissed.”

Noelle, who’d followed her friend from the cell, stopped abruptly. “You mean Drak?”

Monica gave her a look. “You have more than one boyfriend?”

Noelle headed back into the cell and plopped down on the bunk. “If he’s pissed, I don’t think I want to talk to him.”

Monica followed her, grasped her arm and hauled her off the bunk. “He’s pissed because they said he couldn’t talk to you and they sent me out instead.”

“Oh. Oh? You’re saying he’s pissed off because I didn’t come out? Not just pissed off at me?”

“He didn’t seem mad,” Monica lied, “until I said you couldn’t come out. Then he said he would take the place apart stone by stone if we didn’t send you out.”

“Uh oh. That really sounds like he’s pissed at me, Monica.”

“No, no! He’s just … well a barbarian and you know they’re … aggressive and uncivilized. He just meant he wanted to talk. I’m sure he’ll calm right down when you get there.”

“Really?”

“Yes. He said you belonged to him and he had come to get you.”

Noelle felt a thrill run through her. “Really? And he wasn’t acting like he wanted to kill me or anything? He just wanted me back?”

“Naw! Nothing like that. I assured him you were madly in love with him and nothing would please you more.”

Noelle stopped abruptly. “You didn’t!”

“Why not? You aren’t keeping it a secret from anybody here!” Monica said irritably, tugging her into motion. “I knew you’d be too shy to tell him yourself.”

Noelle narrowed her eyes at her friend. “Thank you for being so fucking helpful!”

“You’re welcome,” Monica said through her teeth, hauling Noelle through the outer door of the jail and out into the blinding sunlight. “He came all the way from Aiper to get you and threatened death and destruction to everybody for hiding you. I could tell he was just wild about you, too.”

“Really?” Noelle asked a little doubtfully.

“Absolutely. Now you go talk to him, girl! Tell him it was all just a little misunderstanding and we’re just as glad to see him as you are.”

Noelle looked down at the bright orange jumpsuit she was wearing. It was seriously unflattering—especially the color! It really clashed with her hair and skin. Besides that it didn’t touch her anywhere and was hideously unflattering to her figure. “Couldn’t I change first?” she asked plaintively.

“I don’t think he wants to wait.”

Sighing, Noelle glanced around since her vision had adjusted to the bright sunlight and she could actually see without her eyes tearing up. She saw then that it looked as if everybody in the colony had turned out.

They all had weapons and looked scared shitless.

After studying them a moment, she glanced at Noelle and then headed toward the gate in the distance. She could see the ship not far beyond the gate and a number of figures standing around the gangplank. And one standing alone a good distance from all the others.

Her heart skipped several beats. Fear and excitement warred inside her, but she ignored her doubts and quickened her steps. It seemed to take forever to reach the gate and she was so unnerved that it would’ve been hard to say whether it was the brisk walk that had her panting for breath and her heart thundering in her ears, or excitement to see Drak, or fear that he would kill her outright the moment she got close enough for him to get his hands on her.

She didn’t really believe he would harm her, however. She was just feeling horribly guilty and knew he was probably too pissed off at her to forgive her.

His expression as she walked through the gates and approached him seemed to bear that thought up. It was hard and uncompromising. She paused a few yards from him, wringing her hands nervously, tempted to whirl around and race back inside. She didn’t think she could make it before he could catch her, however, and besides that she was afraid the guards would fire and hurt him.

Sucking in a bracing breath, she approached him, halting within arm’s length the second time and tilting her head to look up at him earnestly. “I’m sorry. I’m really, really sorry. You don’t hate me, do you?”

Some of the tension seemed to ease from him. “No. I don’t.” He paused, his gaze moving over her. “What is that thing you are wearing? It is hideous.”

Noelle uttered a snort of laughter although she also reddened. “I know. I think it’s hideous, too, but they make you wear these when they put you in jail.”

His expression hardened again. “Your friend did not explain to me why you were in jail.”

Noelle shrugged. “Well … they weren’t happy when they found out I’d been working on restoring some of your technology. We aren’t supposed to interfere like that. And then they were upset that I sent your ship back. They wanted to study it—apparently it’s completely different if they study things like that and keep them than me studying them and fixing them for you. I explained that it was yours and I had to send it back—because it was yours and also because you and your people really need it. But … well ….” She shrugged.

He moved imperceptibly closer. “You knew you would be punished, but you returned the ship to me anyway?”

Noelle bit her lip. “I had to make it right.” She studied his expression. “Well, try, anyway.”

Abruptly, he caught a fistful of her hair and jerked her head back. Noelle heard the collective gasp of shock from the colonists at the move, but she was far more focused on the descent of his face toward hers. His other arm encircled her, tightening around her, pulling her fully against his length as he bent down and captured her lips in a kiss that was savage, hot and hungry, ruthless and intoxicating in a totally delightful way. Everything inside of her seemed to surge toward him, to move closer, to open wide to envelop his essence. She thought, if he hadn’t been holding her up, she would’ve melted into a puddle.

She knew then an absolute truth that she’d been struggling with.

She loved this man—barbarian, savage, alien. It didn’t matter. Monica was right. She loved everything about him.

She wavered a little drunkenly when he broke the kiss, stared at her face for a long moment and then abruptly hoisted her up and tossed her across his shoulder. When he turned to head back to his ship, Noelle shoved herself upright and waved gaily to all of the colonists gathered to see her off. “Bye! Bye everyone! See you guys in a few months!”

Mostly, they simply gaped at her, but she saw one here and there amongst them that finally lifted a hand and waved tentatively just before she and the prince entered the ship and they disappeared from her view.

Drak strode directly to his cabin and bolted the door, setting her on her feet beside his bunk. “Strip,” he growled.

With shaking hands, Noelle hurriedly stripped the horrible jumpsuit off and then the T-shirt and underpants.

“Get on the bunk.”

She climbed up and settled in the center.

Drak gave her a look and after a moment she lifted her arms above her head. He manacled them and then lifted and separated her thighs, positioning them with the thigh slings.

When he’d finished, he stepped back, studied her for a long moment and then left.

Noelle was disconcerted—at first—a little unnerved, torn between anticipation and uneasiness and doubt.

She felt the rumble and vibration as the engines roared to life and then the pull of gravity as the ship shot skyward. In a few minutes there was an odd little lift and then downward thrust as the ship reached the edge of space and artificial gravity kicked in a little sluggishly.

A few minutes later Drak entered the cabin once more and bolted the door behind him. Holding her gaze, he slowly stripped his own clothing off and then moved toward her. By the time he’d settled on his belly between her thighs Noelle felt like she might pass out her heart was thundering so hard in anticipation.

He teased her mercilessly—as he had the first time he’d bound her and punished her for defying him. Heat curled in her belly, built until it was sheer torture before he ceased to torment her and positioned himself to enter her.

She was so slick and wet with need her body had little resistance despite his girth. She lost her breath when she felt the double penetration, the burn as he stretched her almost beyond her limits and drove deep. She groaned as if he’d driven a lance into her.

He didn’t leave her to punish her as he had before. He carried her with him, driving into her in a steady rhythm that pushed her closer and closer to the peak until, abruptly, he pushed her over it. She cried out at the intensity of the rapture, folding in upon herself to luxuriate in it as the quakes inside her intensified for several moments and then began to calm once more.

When he’d gathered himself from his own release, he removed the chains and carefully gathered her close. Noelle was stunned at the display of affection, but thrilled. Grateful, she settled limply against him.

“I have never experienced anything to compare to the way I felt when you left,” he said after a long moment. “I have certainly never felt more terror and grief. I thought I had lost both of you, that you would die out here.”

Noelle stroked his shoulder. “I’m so sorry I put you through that. I didn’t mean to.”

“Why did you leave?”

Noelle wrestled with her answer. “I was afraid.”

She felt him stiffen. His hand fell still. “Of me … Because I’m a … savage.”

Noelle swallowed with an effort. “Not of you.” She frowned. “I don’t honestly think I ever was. I was afraid I’d love you and I wouldn’t matter to you. I was afraid that you would give me a child and then take back the only part of you that you’d shared … that I’d lose you twice.

“I know that’s the tradition your people have practiced for generations now, maybe centuries. But it didn’t used to be that way—before the cataclysm. Couldn’t … couldn’t we go back to some of the old customs? The ones more like our customs where parents stay together and rear the child?”

He was silent for several moments. “You’d want to do that? As harsh as conditions are on Aiper?”

“Well, there’s lots of room for improvement. I mean—it doesn’t actually have to be as uncomfortable as it is.”

He began to stroke her back. “What would you change?”

Noelle didn’t have to think it over. She’d been giving that a lot of thought. She immediately launched into her list.

Drak silenced her and redirected her thoughts a few minutes later by kissing her stupid. “I’ll consider it—all of it,” he said, satisfied when he’d silenced her. “No promises. My people aren’t going to be open to a lot of changes, especially radical changes from what they’re used to. They won’t take it well if we try to rush into anything new.”

Noelle sighed with impatience but nodded. “Ok.”

Drak captured her chin and tipped her head back so that she met his gaze. “I love you, star-child, and I am willing to do my best to take care of you and make you happy … but, when all is said and done, I am a barbarian. I cannot change what I am. I cannot be like the men of your village.”

“Thank god!” Noelle exclaimed.