Chapter 10 #2
"The claim is acknowledged," Kaarigan said. "And logged. It does not, however, supersede the Program's jurisdiction over matching and eligibility determinations."
"I'm not superseding anything." Kirr's tone was pleasant. His eyes were not. "I'm making sure you understand what happens if you try to send her or her cousin back to Earth."
Another long silence.
"The panel will deliberate," Kaarigan repeated. "Ms. Sawyer. War-Commander M'Aab. You may go."
Dismissed. Like children sent away while the adults decided their fate.
Kirr's palm settled at her lower back again as she stood up on unsteady legs. He guided her toward the doors, his body a wall between her and the officials.
The doors slid shut behind them.
She made it three steps down the corridor before the shaking started.
"That's it?" Her voice came out thin and brittle. "They just—we're just supposed to wait while they decide whether to throw me out?"
"Harper…”
"I kept people alive.” The words scraped her throat raw.
"And they're sitting up there weighing it against paperwork.
Against a crashed flyer and a missed pickup.
" She pressed her palm against the corridor wall, needing something solid.
"They called Delilah 'the other one.' Like she's not even a person. Like she's just a… a line item!”
Kirr turned her to face him, his hands settling on her shoulders, heavy and warm.
"You're still here," he said. "Still under my protection. Still with me."
"For now." Her throat tightened. "But they could still—"
"They could try." His thumbs traced small circles against her collarbone through the fabric of her shirt. "They would fail."
"You can't just—"
His lips quirked. "I claimed you before witnesses. You and Delilah both. The M'Aab clan does not abandon its own."
She stared up at him.
"Why?" The word slipped out before she could catch it. "Why would you do that?"
His golden eyes went fierce. Possessive.
"Because you're mine."
The words should have made her bristle. It should have triggered every defensive instinct she had. Instead, they settled into her chest like an anchor.
She wanted to believe him. Wanted to trust that his clan’s claim meant something, and that the LMP couldn't just rip her away from everything she'd started to build here.
But wanting and having were different things. She'd learned that lesson early.
"Don't," Kirr growled the moment the door shut behind them. Harper opened her mouth—to apologize, to panic, to ask him what the hell they were going to do—but he was already crossing the distance between them. "Don't think. Not right now."
He didn't give her a chance to speak.
Instead, his hands clamped onto her waist and he hauled her against him. The impact knocked the wind out of her, and then all she could feel was him… solid and as immovable as a cliff. He looked down at her, golden eyes burning with a ferocity that stole the air from her lungs.
His fingers closed around her jaw, making her look up at him. "Eyes on me, kelarris."
She looked up, and his golden gaze caught her, locking her in so she couldn't look away.
Then his mouth crashed down on hers.
It wasn't a gentle kiss. It wasn't the comforting, tentative exploration they'd shared before. Nowhere near. This was something else. This was him staking a claim., and God, she needed it. She needed the dominance of his want and need to drown out the terror screaming in her head.
Making a broken sound in her throat, she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him back with everything she had… pouring all her exhaustion and fear into it. She didn't want to think about tomorrow. She wanted to forget everything apart from him.
He groaned, a low rumble that vibrated through her chest, and took control.
He swept her up into his arms, her feet leaving the floor as if gravity had quit, using her momentum to wrap her legs around his lean waist. He was huge, a solid wall of muscle and heat, and for the first time in her life, being small didn't feel like a disadvantage… She felt safe. Protected.
He didn't take her into her room. He strode past her door without even glancing at it.
Her pulse jumped as he carried her across the threshold of his bedroom.
His space. She'd only glimpsed it through the open door before, so being carried here felt different. Felt permanent. She didn’t get more than a glimpse of the dim room, dominated by the huge bed covered in dark sheets and heavy furs, before he lowered her onto it.
He followed her down so she was pressed between the softness of the bed and his large, hard warrior's body.
She caught her breath at the sheer scale of him.
It was almost overwhelming. Seven feet of Latharian warrior loomed over her, blotting out the dim light, blotting out everything until her entire world narrowed down to the heated gold of his eyes and the weight of him on top of her.
"Mine," he rasped, his voice rough with need. He cupped her face, his thumb tracing her cheekbone. “So beautiful and all mine.”
Then he sat back, straddling her hips, his weight settled on his heels so he didn't crush her.
"Arms up," he ordered.
She started to lift her hands. Then stopped, biting her lip. What if he didn’t like what he saw? She’d seen images of latharian women in the archives. They had been tall and willowy, utterly beautiful. Nothing like her.
His eyes held hers. Patient. Waiting.
She raised her arms above her head.
He stripped her clothes quickly, utterly focused on every inch of skin that was revealed. Her tunic, her trousers, her underthings… he removed them like he was unwrapping a gift he'd been waiting a lifetime to open.
Then, finally, she lay naked beneath him, feeling exposed and vulnerable. Her hands twitched, every instinct she had urging her to cover up.
"No." His voice was quiet, but the command was absolute. "Keep them there."
Heat crawled over her cheeks, but she kept them there and something cracked open inside her chest.
His gaze dragged over her, and it felt just like he was touching her, caressing her. Then he reached out, tracing the curve of her waist with his fingertips, barely touching, just enough to make her skin tingle with need.
Down over the swell of her hip, then back up and along her ribs. Mapping her. Learning her.
"Beautiful," he murmured. "So small. So perfect."
Tears leaked from the corners of her eyes, tracking hot paths into her hair. She didn't even know why she was crying. Only that she'd been holding on so tight for so long, and he was making her let go.
He kissed the tears away with a low murmur, his lips warm against her temples. Then his mouth traced lower. The line of her jaw. The sensitive skin beneath her ear. The column of her throat where her pulse fluttered wild against his lips.
He took his time. That was what undid her.
She expected him to rush. Expected the same frantic pace as their kisses, all heat and desperation.
But he moved down her body slowly, like they had all the time in the world.
His mouth found her collarbone, teeth scraping lightly before his tongue soothed the sting.
Lower, to the swell of her breast, where he paused just to breathe her in.
"Kirr..." His name came out shaky. Needy.
"I've got you."
Closing his mouth over her nipple, he sucked, and her back arched off the bed.
The sensation shot straight down between her thighs, sharp and electric.
He didn't let up, working her with his tongue while his hand found her other breast, rolling the peak between his fingers until she was squirming beneath him.
Her hands started to drop, reaching for him.
"No." He didn't even look up. Just that single word, and she froze. Put her arms back above her head. Her whole body trembled with the effort of staying still while he took her apart.
He kissed his way down her stomach. Pressed his lips to the soft curve of her belly that she'd always hated, the part of herself she tried to hide. But he kissed it like it was precious. Like every inch of her was something to be savored.
When he settled between her thighs and pressed them wider, she tensed.
"Kirr, you don't have to—"
"I know." He looked up at her, golden eyes dark with hunger. "I want to. I want to taste every part of you."
Then his mouth was on her, and she stopped thinking entirely.
His tongue traced through her folds, slow and deliberate, learning what made her gasp and what made her moan.
He found the bundle of nerves at the apex and circled it, teasing, never quite giving her enough pressure.
She tried to lift her hips, to chase the sensation, but his hands clamped down on her thighs and held her still.
"Be still," he growled, the vibrations against her slick flesh making her tense. "Take what I give you."
She whimpered. Actually whimpered. Shit… she'd never made that sound in her life.
He rewarded her with more pressure, sucking lightly while he slid one thick finger inside her. The stretch made her clench around him, desperate for more. He added a second finger, curling them to find a spot inside her that made stars burst behind her eyes.
His mouth and his hand worked together, building her toward something she felt gathering at the base of her spine. She was shaking now, trembling, her hands fisted in the sheets above her head because if she let go she'd grab his hair and try to take control, and she couldn't, she couldn't—
"That's it," he murmured against her. "Let go, kelarris. I've got you."
She shattered as her climax ripped through her without warning, her body convulsing around his fingers while his mouth kept working her through it. She might have screamed. She definitely sobbed, the pleasure so intense it almost hurt.
When the aftershocks finally faded, she lay boneless on the mattress, gasping for air. He kissed the inside of her thigh, her hip, her stomach, working his way back up her body while she tried to remember how to breathe.