Chapter 10
CHAPTER TEN
Honor concentrated on moving through the thick snow. They hadn’t gone far when her Sync iced over. The screen flickered and died. Dammit.
“It’s too cold for my Sync. I’ve lost the map. We’ll have to look for the entrance to the caves visually.” God, they’d be lucky to see anything in these conditions.
The cold was beginning to seep through her suit. It was designed to withstand the cold…but not the conditions the storm was bringing. She shivered.
Suddenly, Colm tugged her toward him. He pulled her in under his coat and wrapped it around them both. The shock of heat made her moan. The fur was warm, and the warrior even more so. She let it sink into her.
“This will slow us down,” she said.
“I won’t have you cold.”
The implacable will in his tone made her smile. “Thanks.”
They kept walking, the snow getting deeper, and the temperature dropping more. It was hard going, and with every step, Honor’s leg burned.
She wasn’t sure how much farther they’d gone, when she realized her eyelids were starting to droop. She shook her head and fought to stay conscious.
But the lethargy was sinking in, and she was losing the energy to fight it.
Her next step made her stumble and she fell to her knees in the snow.
Suddenly, she was scooped up into hard arms, the fur resettled around them. She was too cold to complain. She snuggled into Colm’s chest. “I have a confession to make.”
He made a small sound that rumbled through his chest.
“I like you holding me. My father never did. He was always trying to toughen me up. Running obstacle courses and sparring against my brothers.” She knew her father loved her, but he was a military man. “Snuggling and cuddling have never been part of my life.”
Colm’s arms tightened around her.
“I bet your family was perfect. Strong warrior father, caring mother, loving family.” It seemed Markaria had perfected strong family units.
Silence. She felt Colm’s body go stiff. She frowned and blinked her heavy eyelids. What had she said wrong?
“My father was a warrior.” Colm’s voice was almost as icy as the snow around them. “My mother was an artisan. She made jewelry.”
Silence again, and Honor felt the terrible tension in his body grow.
“What happened, Colm?” she asked quietly.
“My father…got sick. It made him angry, short-tempered, dangerous.”
There was so much pain in his voice. She knew for a Markarian warrior, control was vital. Protecting people was vital.
“My father was violent, and my mother couldn’t handle it. She provoked him even more, and would add fuel to his rages. But my father did the unthinkable…and used his strength against us.”
“He hit you?”
Colm nodded. “I spent as much time away from my home as possible. With Kavon. My mother escaped into her work. Eventually, they hated each other.” Final words.
She read between the lines. He’d been raised in a battle zone. There’d been no gentle hugs for him, either.
“What happened?”
“My father beat my mother to death and then killed himself.”
God. “I’m sorry.”
His jaw hardened. “I will never mate.”
A boom sound in the sky above them. He stopped and they both looked upward.
Bright flashes of light flickered through the thick clouds.
Honor struggled to see. God, she really hoped it was a rescue from the Drake. “I can’t make it out.” She frowned, straining to catch any details.
Then she got a glimpse of the craft…and the wild splashes of color on the side.
She shook her head, her hands clenching in the fur. “It’s not one of ours.”
“Then we best get out of sight,” he said.
He kept walking, with heavy, deliberate steps. The wind howled past them, tearing at the fur coat. The snow whipped into their faces. Even with Colm’s hot body beneath her and the fur around her, she was feeling the cold again. It was seeping in like an insidious intruder.
“I think we should be near the cave entrance.” She couldn’t see a damn thing. A lump the size of a rock lodged in her throat. What if they didn’t find the cave?
He stopped. “Be quiet.”
She went still. “What?”
“I heard something.”
Her heart tripped. “Wolves?” She fumbled under the fur for her laser pistols.
Colm was frowning. “I don’t think so.” He put her down and slowly scanned the area. Then he marched over to a spot and crouched on one knee.
She hurried after him and stared.
They were footprints. Humanoid footprints.
But they were huge.
When Colm started to follow them, she wasn’t sure it was the best idea. But soon, the prints just…stopped. Like whoever had made them had disappeared into thin air.
He brushed at the snow, and a second later she spotted the opening he’d uncovered. Beyond that was a sloping tunnel entrance into the ice caves.
Honor didn’t know whether to be excited or worried. But she did know they couldn’t stay out here in the storm with pirates after them and wolves prowling around. She clumsily opened her backpack and pulled out a flashlight. She flicked it on.
Colm entered first and she followed, steadying herself as her boots slipped a little on the slick ice.
“God, it’s beautiful.” The walls were a deep, rich blue that looked almost like glass. It was still cold, but without the howling wind and driving snow, the air felt much warmer than above.
They walked deeper into the tunnels.
“We need to find somewhere to rest and tend your wound,” he said.
“I can make it.”
The tunnel snaked lower, and the temperature increased from cold to cool. Her shivering stopped.
Soon, the tunnel opened into a small cavern. The walls were covered in a silver-blue moss that glowed with tiny pinpricks of light.
It looked like a fairy grotto in some ice queen’s castle. “Wow.”
“We have a similar plant on Markaria that grows in the north. It is infused with mites, an early version of the nanami.”
Honor studied the moss-like plant, touching it with her finger. “It’s bioluminescence.”
“Here.” He pointed to a large rock. “Let me see your leg.”
She moved over to him. Now that she was feeling warmer, the pain in her leg was much more noticeable. It was throbbing like hell. When she reached him, he gestured again, and she realized he wanted her to take her pants off.
“Are you trying to get me naked, warrior?”
“When I get you naked, you won’t need to ask me my intentions.” He looked at her. “Now let me look at your wound.”
She unfastened her enviro suit and pulled it off, then unfastened her cargo pants beneath.
She tossed them over the rock. In just her shirt and panties, with goose bumps prickling her skin, she gingerly settled on her discarded pants.
Now she could see her wound, and she winced. The gouge across her thigh looked bad.
Colm rummaged around in his pack and pulled out one of the basic first-aid kits. He opened it up and pulled out some antiseptic pads. He started cleaning her wound.
“How do you know your way around a first-aid kit so well? I wouldn’t have guessed you had them on Markaria?”
“We do now. Medical supplies and tech were the first things Aurina helped facilitate trade for.”
He took his time, working diligently to remove the blood and clean her wound.
Soon, he pressed an adhesive bandage over it.
Then he stroked her thigh. His warrior hands were callused, and they rasped against her skin.
She shivered, and this time it had little to do with the cold.
He stroked higher, moving to her inner thigh, his fingers moving in tiny circles.
Little shivers of sensation worked their way through her body.
He moved higher, teasing the edge of her black panties.
“I’m going to fuck you.”
“Oh?” Her voice was breathless. His voice vibrated with need.
His finger toyed with the edge of her panties, then it slipped under. “Not here. It isn’t safe yet. But I’ve had a taste of you. I want more.”
“Well, I want to fuck you, too.” She leaned in and nipped his bottom lip. “I don’t usually have time for men. They’re usually intimidated and idiots…I never expected a barbarian warrior to be like you.”
He moved his finger and it sank inside her. Honor moaned.
“I enjoy surprising you, my little warrior.”
“I’m not little.” Her voice was strangled. “Colm…”
“I regret I can’t fuck you here, Honor. The footprints outside have me wary. We need to move deeper into the tunnels, and find somewhere safer to hole up.”
That clever finger kept sliding inside her deeper and deeper. She fought back the small cries trying to escape her throat.
He leaned closer. “I want you safe.”
“Colm.”
He smiled. “Are you going to tend to my wound now?”
Trying to make coherent words while he was teasing her like this was difficult. “Your nanami will heal you, right?”
“It still needs cleaning.”
“You expect me to do it while you’re…”
“While I’ve got my fingers inside you?” He slid another thick finger into her damp heat. “Yes. I like the flush on your face. I like the tight feel of you.”
She let out a shaky moan. She felt full and stretched.
She reached blindly for the first-aid kit and pulled out some wipes.
She cleaned the blood off his face, her gaze on his, gasping as he kept sliding his fingers inside her.
She loved seeing the flashes of bright gold in his eyes.
Soon, her entire body was shaking, drowning in sensation.
Once she’d finished cleaning his wound, she realized that the injury was completely healed.
She dropped the wipes and grabbed his thick wrist. “God, Colm.”
He thrust inside her again, his thumb brushing her clit.
Honor came, arching her back, and biting down on her lip to muffle her scream. The orgasm tore through her, stronger even than the last time he’d touched her.
As she came back down, she realized she was in his arms. He was stroking her back and murmuring sweet words to her.
She smiled. Damn, she liked this warrior. He could be tough and hard, but also sweet.
He pulled back with a smile. Then he lifted his hand and licked his fingers. “Get dressed, Honor. We need to find somewhere safer.”