Chapter 7 #2
He flung open the door, but she was already out of sight. He sprinted toward the stairs and was blocked by Kai and Bron.
“What the fuck are you doing?” he growled. “Let me past.”
“She doesn’t want to see you,” Kai snarled back. “And what she says goes at the moment. What the fuck is wrong with you, Rehz?”
He stopped fighting and took a stumbling step backward, staring at them. Bron glanced at Kai and then cleared his throat.
“Maybe you need some time to think. Palk needs an escort to the military prison on Pries Island. Why don’t you go along as a special advisor?”
The prison was horrific. That made Rehz feel good inside. He’d spent a long time briefing the guards about Palk and was fairly certain the man wouldn’t be going anywhere for the rest of his natural life. Although you never knew with a hrel snake like Palk . . .
He made his way back from the officers’ mess to his accommodation and shut the door.
The place was basic, with a bed, a small window, and not much else, but at least he was alone.
He tried to think of when he’d last been without any responsibilities.
He sat down on the side of the bed and stared at his booted feet.
No responsibilities.
For the first time in ten years, he was completely alone and could do whatever the fuck he wanted. Travel, stay in bed all day, eat, drink, and shit when he wanted, not on someone else’s schedule . . .
And he could think. That was the difficult part. Every time he stopped moving, all he could see was Anna’s face at their last meeting. The way she’d closed down on him when she thought he regretted everything. She didn’t need him. She was a survivor.
Fuck it. He was so damned proud of her. Now that he had time to think, he saw how stupid he’d been, how obsessed with saving her.
Had he really resented her saving herself, or even for wanting to deal with that embryo?
He’d considered doing it for her, so why was he so furious when she acted like the strong woman she was and planned to do it herself?
He’d grown so used to being the man in charge, the one who made life-and-death decisions every fucking day, that he’d forgotten other people had the right to make their own choices too.
Just because he’d spent ten years trying to force Tributes to survive the Ungrich didn’t mean he knew jack. And Anna didn’t need him to survive. She was her own person.
The thing was—did he need her?
A knock on the door startled him from his thoughts, and he rose to answer it. It was one of the guards, who saluted when he opened the door.
“Commander Rehz Akran? We have a transport available for your return this evening.”
“Thank you, I’ll get my stuff together. Where is the transport’s destination?”
“Wherever you require, sir.”
“Can you take me to see the president?”
The guard saluted again. “I’ll find out, sir.”
When Anna heard the front door open, she called out. “I’m in here, Aled. I’ve got the last of it packed up.”
She’d spent the last two days since her return to the city packing up her stuff from the apartment she’d shared with Rehz.
There was no sign of him, and that certainly made things easier.
The problem was, she really didn’t know what she was going to do next.
Kai had found her an apartment in the building where he lived, and she’d decided to start with that small separation.
It wasn’t enough. She needed a lot more space between her and Rehz Akran before she could really move on.
A shadow fell across her, and she looked up to see Rehz, his hand braced on the doorframe. He wore his usual black garb but without the insignia of a trainer. His face was clean-shaven, the harsh planes of it exposed to the sunlight.
“Anna Lee.”
She sat back on her heels and hefted the last box onto the pile. “I’ll be out of your way soon. I thought you were Aled.” Gods, it still hurt to look at him, so she busied herself sticking the tape down on the edge of the box.
“Can we talk?”
“I’m not sure I have anything left to say to you, Rehz Akran.”
“Where are you planning on going?”
She kept her back to him. “I’m not sure.”
He sighed. “Anna, you don’t have to leave. You have an apartment downstairs. I’ll fucking leave if you like. Have you thought this through?”
“Which part? That there isn’t a single place on this planet that is safe for me? Or that I’m a danger to everyone who comes near me?”
He sat down on one of the piles of boxes. “I talked to the president.”
“He offered you a job? Great.” She had to turn around and face him, but it goddam hurt.
“I talked to him about you.”
“That wasn’t your responsibility.”
“I wanted to do something good for you. Something that would give you more choices. You’ve had the worst fucking luck on this planet, haven’t you?
” He hesitated and looked up at her. “I also wanted to show that I respect and admire you. I know you don’t need anyone to save you, and I’m pretty damn sure you’re capable of making all the right decisions for yourself. ”
Anna folded her arms across her chest. “And?”
“I suggested to the president that you be given permission to go off planet.”
She blinked at him. “What ?”
“Mitan citizens aren’t encouraged to leave their world, and very few outsiders come in.”
“I know that. Once I got here, I couldn’t get away. That’s why I ended up breaking all sorts of laws and was sentenced to death.”
Rehz nodded. “I suggested to the president that you would be an ideal candidate to travel the galaxy and find Mitan some allies.”
“Me? What the hell do I know?”
“You know about the threat facing our population. You know we might need to abandon this planet if we can’t find a way to neutralize the Ungrich .”
“And the president would be okay with little old me sharing that information?”
“You and a selected team of diplomats and security personnel. But the first task is to get out there and record your impressions of who might make good friends and enemies for Mitan in a more informal way.” He looked down at his feet.
“I thought it would be a good way to keep off the planet’s surface while still keeping all the benefits of citizenship. ”
Anna studied him closely. “And what about you?”
He shrugged. “I’ll be here.” He looked right into her eyes. “When you want to see me. If you want to see me, I mean. Yeah.” He winced. “I’m still trying to think of ways to keep you safe, even though I have no right to.”
“Did the president tell you I’d already put in a request to leave Mitan?”
“I didn’t know that.” The faint hope in his gray eyes faded. “You want to go back to your family on Earth. I can totally understand why.”
“He refused my request.”
“That’s not right.” He frowned. “Do you want me to talk to him again? I could—” He stopped.
“Hell, I’m doing it again, aren’t I? Seeing as he only made it yesterday, I suspect that his offer for you to leave the planet as a diplomat still stands, and you just haven’t been notified through official channels yet. ”
“You’d be okay about me going, then?” She found herself wanting to smile at him, which was stupid.
“Yes, of course I would, I—oh fuck it.” He groaned and shot to his feet.
“I can’t do it. I can’t let you fucking walk away from me again because I’m too stupid to swallow my pride.
Sure, I can survive without you, but what’s the point?
You mean everything to me. I might not fucking need you, and you sure as hell don’t need me, but I want you more than my next breath.
” He held out his hand. “Anna, if you leave Mitan, I’m coming with you. ”
“Even if I don’t come back?”
He nodded and took another step toward her, pinning her against the pile of boxes she sat on. “Especially if you don’t come back. I’d rather you didn’t.”
She looked up into his anguished eyes. “You’re an idiot, Rehz Akran.”
“A fucking idiot.” He smoothed her hair away from her face with fingers that shook. “But you’ll never find a male who loves you more.”
“Even when I’m trying to save the world?”
“Especially when you’re trying to do that.” He sighed. “I’m overprotective, Anna Lee. You know that. I’ll try and keep it down to a reasonable level.”
She touched his cheek. “What made you change your mind?”
“A week hanging around in Palk’s new home, waiting for the transport to return, gave me plenty of time to work out what a fool I was being.
” He framed her face in his hands. “If you want to save my ass, Anna Lee? You just go right ahead. I’m done being a trainer.
If you decide to take up the president’s offer, I can come with you and head up your security team or something. ”
Anna bit her lip. “Damn, I was thinking of asking Bron.”
Rehz stared at her for a long moment and then shook his head. “I suppose I deserved that.”
“Yes, you did.” She searched his face. “Just because I don’t need you to save me, Rehz, doesn’t mean that I don’t want you.”
“By your side?” He leaned in and kissed her nose.
She held him off for another few seconds, the palms of her hands pressed against his chest. “As my equal.”
“I can do that.”
She took a deep breath. “Then maybe we can make this work somehow.”
“Yeah?” His smile was slow in coming and then lit up his whole face.
She kissed his mouth. “I love you, Rehz Akran, even when you are an overbearing, possessive idiot.”
He kissed her back so gently and reverently that tears came into her eyes. “I love you too, Anna Lee, even when you are right.”
She slid her arm around his neck and pulled him tight against her, bringing him between her knees.
His hand curved around her ass. For a long moment they simply held each other.
She’d almost given up on him—had been prepared to go on without him—and now she didn’t have to. A wave of thankfulness swamped her.
“I want you,” he murmured. “I want to be inside you so bad.”
She moaned as the thick ridge of his cock pressed against her needy, wet flesh, and he rocked his hips in an urgent appeal she couldn’t deny.
“Yes.”
Within seconds her panties and skirt were gone and his cock was uncovered sufficiently to drive inside her.
That was all they needed, just his stiff, probing shaft sliding deep inside her soft wetness.
She clung to his shoulders as he fucked her with barely restrained strength, all the while murmuring a filthy, dirty litany of his need and his plans for her and . . .
She climaxed, digging her fingernails into the back of his jacket.
He kept moving, his strokes shorter and more forceful, making her body shake with every thrust. He threaded his fingers in her hair, yanking her head back to meet the heat of his mouth as he mimicked the urgent thrust of his cock with his tongue.
With a stifled cry he came, each hot pulse deep inside her punctuated by yet another slam of his hips and a grind against her clit that sent her following him over into the abyss.
When Rehz finally managed to lift his head, he detected the sound of clapping from the doorway.
“Nice technique, Rehz,” Kai said. “You’ve made Aled and me hard. Okay if we make use of your spare bedroom?”
Rehz looked down into Anna’s beautiful eyes and found them full of amusement and something else, something far hotter and deeper that was just for him.
“Go on, guys. Enjoy yourselves.”
Kai grabbed Aled’s hand and started moving as Rehz eased himself out of Anna’s embrace.
“By the way,” he called after them. “Anyone fancy a trip to Earth?”