The Mercenary (The War Chronicles Book 1) Read online

  “You can thank me by letting me see you in it sometime” he suggested huskily from behind her.

  Saakshi fled into the bathing enclosure.

  The ensuing meal was conducted mostly in silence, although Saakshi did enjoy her first taste of coffa. She stole sidelong glances at Zoran, who continued to look coldly implacable and completely unapproachable. Things were still tense between them as they approached the space station in the small docking shuttle. Saakshi wondered a little despairingly whether their arrangement was at an end. Suddenly, he turned to her to reach for her hand. She watched as he unclipped the suppressor device still attached to her ownership bracelet from the night before. He clasped her palm in his larger hand to place the tiny silver-colored disk on it carefully before closing her fingers around it. He continued to hold her fist closed over the device, his hand enclosing hers.

  “I want you to keep this” he directed, holding up his other hand to forestall any protest in advance.

  “I have no use for this device - I got it for you. You’ll need it if you ever need to get to me or my ship in a hurry.”

  Saakshi nodded mutely to signal her acceptance, utterly disarmed again by his generosity.

  “Thank you” she placed her other hand briefly over his, holding her fist closed.

  At the soft words, the remaining anger leached out of his eyes and his face relaxed. His hand let go of her fist.

  “Be careful with it and don’t keep it on you except when you need to bypass the sensors. Keeyori law makes it illegal for you to have a suppressor device on your person while on this station. So, make sure you hide it somewhere easily accessible. Alright?” he asked, wanting to make sure that she comprehended his message.

  Saakshi nodded to indicate that she understood him. His eyes scanned her face, leaning forward to place a quick hard kiss on her lips before stepping away, seemingly content. Saakshi guessed that the gift was his way of letting her know that he planned to be around.

  He walked her over to Trader Pik’s and left her with a quiet admonition to not leave the premises until he could make it over to escort her to his ship.

  Five

  Zoran strode into Pik’s a few hours before the end of her last shift. He waited patiently by the semi-circular bar for Saakshi to return from serving a large table.

  “Have dinner with me tonight, tseriya?” he asked persuasively.

  Saakshi only had time for a quick glance at him while she readied cups and goblets for her next order.

  “I still have a few hours until I’m done.”

  “I can wait. I’ll set it up in my chamber?” he asked, his voice threaded with a faint query.

  She nodded quickly, without looking up from loading the goblets onto a large tray. When she glanced up again, he was gone.

  He was waiting to escort her when Saakshi glanced around, having handed her tablet to the server girl for the next shift. He leant indolently against a wall by the main walkway, an intimidating glare from those dark eyes dispatching anyone foolish enough to stop and give him a second glance. Though he’d picked a position that made him easily visible from the bar and the open seating area around it, she noted that he’d chosen to wait for her outside Trader Pik’s. Saakshi plucked the suppressor device from the underside of the bar where she’d placed it for safekeeping to clip it onto her bracelet before heading out to him.

  He glanced down at her as she came up beside him. A smile lurked in the dark eyes as he studied her.

  “Ready?” he inquired.

  She nodded her assent and they fell in seamlessly with the crowd moving through the walkway. He walked beside her this time, glaring at anyone who dared to step too close to her.

  “Hungry?” he asked her, once they were alone in the dock shuttle.

  “Very” she was honest. “Thank you for waiting for me.”

  He stepped closer to her, wrapping one arm around her waist to clasp her to his big body while he fisted the other delicately in her hair to hold her for him as he bent his head. Tiny nibbling kisses at the corners of her mouth teased her, a sensuous request for admission. The moment she opened for him, his tongue surged in, his kiss hot and urgent. He kissed her thoroughly, pulling back only when the shuttle alarm beeped its proximity to the starship dock. Saakshi stared up at him, dazed and reeling from the kiss. He looked back at her; his breathing heavy and his eyes blazing with the nameless emotion she’d noted before when his gaze would follow her around Trader Pik’s.

  “Need to feed you first” he muttered. “I can wait.”

  He tugged her gently by her hand to tread the somewhat familiar path to his chamber. Once inside, he ushered her to the dinner table. It had been set up for two with platters of food and a rectangular wine chiller with a selection of bottles. Saakshi stared at the assortment of food in awe.

  “I don’t know what you like, so I got a little of everything” he explained.

  “Oh” she gasped in stunned amazement, dazzled by the variety and quantity of the spread laid out. “I’m not picky. I like most food. Is this from the Synthesizer?”

  “No. It’s been prepared by the ship chef.”

  “Real food?” she exclaimed anew. “Wow, I don’t think I’ve had any since before they put me in prison. And never a feast like this” she added shyly.

  He held out a chair for her in invitation before seating her with old-fashioned courtesy.

  “Shall I uncork some wine for us?” he offered. “It’s real too. I had to raid Chef’s secret stash.”

  “I’ll have whatever you’re having. I’ve only had wine once in my life and that was synthesized.”

  He scanned the various bottles carefully to select a pale green one, uncorking the bottle efficiently to pour the liquid into the delicate wine goblets set out for them.

  He seated himself across from Saakshi to gesture at the spread on the table.

  “Help yourself” he encouraged. “Let me know if there’s something you’re not familiar with. This is mostly what I like that Chef could get on short notice.”

  Saakshi helped herself to a little of everything, and then sat back to enjoy the unexpected bounty. Zoran ate slowly and methodically but seemed to put away an enormous quantity of food all the same. He caught her staring at him and smiled.

  “We don’t eat like this all the time, you know. Just when we’re on downtime. When we fight, it’s all synthesized food.”

  “Then, this is downtime for you?”

  “Not quite” he shook his head. “We’re on a job, although most of the time, we can dock at this station and still get it done.”

  Saakshi wanted to ask him about his job. Pik had told her that he was currently on contract with the Alliance, but she hesitated, not sure whether he would welcome her questions when it came to his profession.

  When Saakshi had eaten her fill, she glanced up to observe the Captain’s black eyes intent on her as he sipped his wine.

  “No Terilian ale for you?” she teased.

  He chuckled in response.

  “Not tonight. I love the stuff, but I’ve probably drunk as much Terilian ale in the last couple of months as I have before in all my life.”

  She stared at him, her gray eyes wide with surprise.

  “What? You think I go to strange alehouses to spend hours drinking Terilian ale by myself for the sheer entertainment of it?” he asked her, one dark eyebrow arched in amused inquiry.

  “I thought that was how Hadari’Kor relaxed. You know, a break from all the fighting” she answered slowly, her words uncertain and halting.

  His lips twisted with amusement.

  “I can drink ale here in my chamber, or in company of my mercs in any of the ship’s recreation rooms. That is not what attracted me to Trader Pik’s. I went to Pik’s to catch a glimpse of a beautiful server girl who never gave me a second look and yet haunted my dreams” he declared softly in that husky, scratchy voice.

  “Oh” Saakshi stammered, unable to look away from the almost hypnotic qua
lity of the black eyes.

  He thinks I am beautiful.

  A heavy silence full of anticipation descended on them. Saakshi stared into slumberous dark eyes, her heart pounding with excitement.

  “Shower or bed?” he asked eventually.

  “Umm … shower, please. I’ve worked a double shift” she managed to stutter under the gamut of dark eyes that tempted her with excitement, danger and unbridled passion.

  He stood up to pour himself more wine. When he sat back down, his eyes had almost reverted back to normal.

  “Go ahead. I’ll have the table cleared up while you shower.”

  Saakshi almost ran into the bathing enclosure. When she returned, attired in the ubiquitous robe, he’d taken off his boots and was relaxing with yet more wine. The dinner table looked pristine, cleared of all the food and plates.

  “I think I’ll take a shower too.” He put down his goblet of wine to head into the bathing enclosure.

  When Zoran returned a while later, he found Saakshi asleep by the edge of the bed. She lay curled up like a child with her damp hair fanned out on the coverlet, still enveloped by his robe. Her breath formed little puffs through lips open just a smidgeon, her lashes creating half-moons over her eyes. Those weary eyes! Her eyes had been what had drawn his attention to her first. That, and the pull of a sexual attraction that had slammed into Zoran to catch him completely unawares. Zoran had always gone for warrior females. Females like him – independent, able to handle themselves in a fight and wedded to a peripatetic, demanding and high-pressure profession as soldiers in the never-ending war responsible for igniting a blaze in this corner of space.

  His little Budheya, on the other hand, had grown up in a hard scrabble of an existence, fighting for sheer survival, her people trodden under the rule of the brutal Ketaari. Yet, somehow, despite the hardships, she had survived with a sense of optimism and a capacity to enjoy life. And with a sweetness and an innocence that squeezed at his heart to leave him chock-full with unfamiliar feelings and emotions that reached deep into Zoran’s soul to shake him at his very core. In sleep, she looked young, defenseless and vulnerable. As he watched over Saakshi’s exhausted self, Zoran made himself a silent pledge. He would no longer stand by the sidelines anymore, he vowed. Her approaching him for assistance, with a tentative and hesitant appeal, had warmed his soul just as the proposition she had offered him had enraged every fiber of his being. But as Zoran gazed down at her, he also understood that circumstances offered him a golden opportunity, one he had secretly desired for a long time now. He was going to make damn certain he didn’t screw this up, he promised himself fiercely. Zoran tugged a pillow under her sleeping head, adjusted her to leave her sleeping more comfortably on the vast bed, and covered her with a blanket before striding off to get dressed and make some calls.

  Saakshi luxuriated in the sensations of an amazing dream where warm hands, damp lips and an inquisitive tongue explored every inch of her, leisurely. The tongue moved up her stomach in a damp trail to leave behind little tingling spots of pleasure on her skin. To her breasts where a warm mouth suckled while the tongue laved at her nipples. She stretched languorously on the soft coverlet in her dream-like state. Her eyes half-opened to stare down at the black head and gray shoulders focused solely on his ministrations at her bosom. Her body arched off the bed languidly, sleepily nudging her breast into his ravenous mouth as her hands reached out to cradle his dark head to her. She sighed softly as her fingers ran through the thick, coarse hair. His dark eyes snapped up to meet her slumberous ones, his mouth still suckling on her. The blazing fire in the depths of the black eyes made Saakshi’s heart pound in its cage like a wild animal. She liked this dream very much, Saakshi sighed with satisfaction. Her eyes closed as she felt her thighs being nudged apart where he lay between them. The big body surged over her, bracing himself on either side of her with his forearms as he seated himself in her with a few deliberate thrusts. She gasped aloud, awakened abruptly to alertness as she felt his fullness in her.

  “Alright, tseriya?” he inquired huskily.

  Zoran waited for her to confirm she was alright before commencing to move in her, slowly at first, but gradually increasing the tempo of his deep thrusts. He stared down into her gray eyes, his own filled with an unfathomable emotion, his expression tight with desire. She reached out instinctively to stroke him, caressing the sleek lines on his shoulder to feel the rippling muscles there as they flexed with his thrusts. The thick base of her ownership bracelet grazed his shoulder. Saakshi ceased the caress abruptly to bring her hand back down to grip the coverlet.

  He stopped in mid flex to stare down at her.

  “Don’t stop, tseriya” he gasped out, his breathing ragged. “I like it when you touch me.”

  She hesitated.

  “I don’t care about the bracelet. I can barely feel it.” He leaned down to take her mouth in a hard kiss.

  “I would be proud to wear your mark with the other battle scars I carry on me” he said hoarsely.

  Her hands came up to clasp him closer and his eyes closed on a long sigh.

  Saakshi wriggled her hips, urging him closer to clamp her slim legs, toned from years in the resistance, over his hips. That was all the encouragement he needed to snap his eyes open and start moving in her. Saakshi squeezed his big body with her hands and legs to hold him closer, her body wordlessly attempting to communicate what she was not yet ready to. He groaned in response, an intensely masculine sound as he flexed into her, faster and harder. The black eyes watched as she shattered into a million pieces with a scream, his own eyes wild and out of control. Gritting his teeth, he clenched his jaw, holding her sated eyes captive as he approached his own climax while she still clasped him tightly to her. He came with a guttural groan, the large body taut before he slumped over her with his face cradled in the curve between her shoulder and neck. Saakshi soothed one hand over his flushed back, and ran the other through his thick hair as a mix of contentment and happiness flooded her. Gradually, his breathing slowed down and his big body relaxed. Only then did he slip out of her, flipping over to lie beside her. Zoran reached for her, drawing her body close. He lay on his back, head pillowed on one arm while the other held her clasped to him. They lay together in contented silence.

  “You don’t have any scars” Saakshi remarked softly.

  “Hmm?” he asked, a big calloused finger unconsciously drawing lazy circles over her hip.

  “You implied that you carry battle scars, but I don’t see any” she explained.

  “The tattoos hide them, but you can feel them when you touch me.”

  The large hand over her hip grasped one of her palms to guide it to his chest, encouraging her to feel his skin and the calluses and scars all over, before it resumed its previous occupation of drawing circles on her hip.

  “I fight for a living, tseriya. I carry plenty of marks of being a merc.”

  She caressed her fingers slowly over him, tracing the tattoos and reveling in the feel of the smooth warm skin marred by little puckers and scars. He wanted to wear his scars, she realized. They symbolized something important to him. He had access to medical technology that could easily take care of the scars, but he’d chosen to proudly wear them.

  “So … umm … last night and now … was it? What I mean is … was it … umm” she stammered, unable to come right out and ask him what had been on her mind since their first time together.

  Zoran turned his head to look at her, his eyes wicked with masculine amusement.

  “Are you fishing for compliments, tseriya?” his voice was bland, the tone belied by the expression in his eyes.

  “Oh no” she was earnest. “Just wondering if I’ve … if you’re satisfied. You did warn me that you’re hard to please” she muttered, horrendously embarrassed.

  A hint of dark color surged up his cheeks. For the first time since she had known him, he looked discomfited. For a moment, he hesitated.

  “Forget what I said that day. I was fu
rious and said a lot of things I didn’t mean. It wasn’t one of my finer moments.”

  He paused briefly while Saakshi pondered his words.

  “To answer your question, I’m completely and utterly satisfied. This is better than anything I ever imagined” he stated softly, the expression in the dark eyes stark and with no pretense.

  She dropped her gaze from him to concentrate on tracing a tattoo on his chest with her fingers. His hand abandoned the interesting geometric patterns it had been busy doodling on her hip to encapsulate the smaller palm busy on his chest. His clasp held her hand flush against his heart.

  “You did a very brave thing that day when you came to me for help” the black eyes were sober. “I will admit my initial reaction was governed by my temper, but once I’d calmed down, I could appreciate the enormous courage it took you to come to me.”

  Saakshi studied her hand, the one cradled within his larger one as it rested against his heart.

  “All those weeks at Pik’s when you watched me, I was never frightened of you. A little self-conscious sometimes, especially when the other server girls teased me” she confessed softly. “I’ve had to survive on my instincts for a while now, and they told me that you meant me no harm. Not like the Unta-Golar. He terrifies me” her voice trembled with the hint of a quiver, despite her best attempts.

  Zoran took a firmer grip of the small palm enclosed in his larger one to squeeze it reassuringly.

  “I won’t let him get his hands on you” he vowed, his voice steady and the black eyes urging her to believe him. “You trusted me enough to come to me. Now, I’m asking you believe me.”

  Saakshi found herself staring into dark eyes awash with unspoken promises. After a long moment, she nodded mutely.

  A long while later, she braved herself to question him on another matter she’d been very curious about.

  “When I came to you that day, were you sure we’d be compatible?” she asked curiously.

  “Oh, I was very sure you’d be compatible the first time I laid eyes on you at Pik’s” he countered promptly, with a very satisfied masculine expression in the depth of his eyes.