Charming Charly (English Edition) (Lords of Arr'Carthian 3) (5 page)

Suddenly angry shouting could be heard, along with loud swearing. Amano moved away from Charly and listened out.

“What’s going on there then?” he wondered. “I’d better take a look.”

He opened the door and was almost knocked over by Kordan who was running along the corridor, as if he had been stung by a tarantula. His cousin did not even seem to notice him. With a dazed expression, Amano jumped back to take cover.
 

“What is it?” he could hear Charly’s voice behind him.

“If I only knew,” he replied, shaking his head.

***

“I’m hungry,” said Charly, a while later.

“Should I fetch you something or would you rather go to the canteen?”

“Let’s eat in the canteen,” said Charly, after brief consideration. “I’d like to be amongst people. It was damn unnerving being locked in here alone.”

Amano put his hand on her arm and, this time, she did not shake it off. She was not ready to enter a relationship, but by now she trusted him enough to allow such harmless touches. He had proved that he was not going to force himself on her. She was amazed to realize that she even liked it a lot when he touched her.

“We’ll reach Karrx7 soon,” he said, at the same time gently moving his hand down her arm to the back of her hand and leaving it there. “There you can move about in the fresh air to your heart’s desire and enjoy your freedom. There you’ll be safe.”

“Freedom?” she said bitterly. “It would be freedom if I could go wherever I wanted to go.”

“But you can. Of course there are certain limits that you need to adhere to for safety reasons, but in my land you can …”

“That’s what I mean,” she interrupted him. “I can’t go where I want to go! I want to go back to earth.”

Amano turned away from her and she could see that he was upset.

“I’m really trying, as much as possible, to make everything as pleasant as possible for you,” he said, with his back to her. “You’re not making it very easy for me.”

“I’m sorry,” she said quietly, and she really meant it.
 

She knew she was being unfair to him. And she also knew that he hoped for more from their relationship. She was all too aware of his yearning looks. But she could not give him what he longed for. She could not even bear the thought of sex. The idea was too repulsive.
 

“Come on,” he said at last, turning round to give her a forced smile. “Let’s go and get something to eat.”

“Open!” said Amano, when they reached the canteen, and the door slid open.
 

“Oh my God!” Charly uttered in a whisper, her eyes widening at the sight that met them. Lory was sitting on one of the tables, naked, with her legs wrapped around Kordan’s hips, and he was thrusting wildly into her. They both seemed to be so lost in their love game that they did not even notice that they had an audience.
 

“I think we’ll need to postpone eating,” whispered Amano, amused. “Come on – let’s leave the two of them alone.”

 
Lory had not looked as if Kordan was forcing himself upon her. How could she give herself freely to this … to this monster?

“Do you think he’s given her any … any drugs?” she asked Amano on the way back to her cabin.

“Drugs?” Amano asked in surprise. “Why?”

“Because Lory hates this monster. She would never …”

Amano stood still and took hold of Charly’s arm.

“Charly, Kordan is not a monster. He may come across as cold but he is a good man. Trust your friend to make her own decisions. That did not exactly look like rape to me.”

Charly looked at him and shook her head. She was confused and did not know how to respond. For goodness’ sake! She did not even know what she should
think.

“Let’s go to the bridge. We have another food generator there. It’s an older model and doesn’t have as much choice, but we’ll be able to magic up a simple meal.”

Chapter 4

Y-Quadrant

In the Orbit of the Planet Karrx7

4th Day of the Month of Manao in the Year 7067

Federation Time

After Charly had seen Lory in the canteen, her friend had moved into Amano’s cabin with her. She seemed to be avoiding Kordan, but when they did meet up, they always came to blows. Charly had tried to get something out of her, but she did not want to ask directly about what she had seen. The more time passed, the more she was convinced that Lory felt something for the Carthian.
 

She went into the room, where Lory was sitting in an armchair, gazing into space.

“Are you ready?” she asked.

They would soon be taken down to the Carthians‘ planet and Charly was already very excited. She was looking forward to leaving the confines of this cabin and breathing fresh air again. She was looking forward to flowers, because Amano had enthused to her a lot about the forests in his home.

Her friend looked up and nodded. She got up slowly from the armchair and stared at Charly, appraising the situation.

“You’re in love with him, aren’t you?”

Charly blushed. She felt as if she had been found out. She actually had started to develop feelings for Amano, but that in no way meant that she would risk entering a relationship. A relationship led necessarily to sex. And sex was, for her, absolutely out of the question.
 

“I don’t know,” replied Charly vaguely. “I like him. He’s very … nice.”

Lory snorted.

“
Nice?
” she blurted scornfully. “
You’re clearly suffering from Stockholm Syndrome. How can you think it’s
nice
that he’s abducted you and dragged you here to his damn alien planet?”

“They rescued us, Lory.” She tried to make herself clear to her friend.

“Rescued us!” cried Lory derisively. “Have you already forgotten, darling? We already had our
re-turn-ticket
to earth
in the bag.”

“Amano says that this Ellyod Allegrass is a renowned space pirate and very dangerous. He thinks that man would not have flown us to earth, but would probably have sold us as slaves somewhere.”

“Does he have proof?” Lory snapped. “
No! He does not. He can claim whatever he likes to soften you up.”

“I don’t know what’s wrong with you, but I’m not going to listen to this any longer.” said Charly, annoyed. “
I’m supposed to take you to the transporter room, because we’re leaving the ship now, but if you’d rather stay up here? Be my guest! As for me, I’m going now.”

Angry, she left the room and marched through the narrow corridor to the lift. Whatever was Lory thinking? She was the one who had given in to one of these aliens. And going by her mood, it had been more than just sex. So how come she was throwing insults at her? Incensed, she stepped into the lift.
 

“Transporter room,” she said. The door closed and the lift started moving.
 

***

Being beamed down was not a particularly pleasant sensation, but Charly was overwhelmed when they landed in a clearing and she looked around cautiously. The trees around them were massive and the air was so fresh after the space ship, that had continually smelt something like a clinic.
 

“Are you ready?”
asked Amano, taking her by the arm.

They walked along a wide forest path that ran between the huge trees. The path ended at a high wall. A massive gate opened at Kordan’s command and they entered a huge, well-maintained park. Before them was a large palace with high turrets. The building consisted of three wings and it was three storeys high. Fascinated, Charly stared at the splendid building that looked to her like a fairytale castle. Maybe she could feel quite happy here. She almost felt like a princess.
 

Then she saw Solima running towards her, waving to her, laughing. With a quiet cry of joy, she ran towards the girl.
 

“Charly!” called Solima overjoyed, falling into her arms.
 

Charly hugged the girl. She was pleased to see the girl well. It did not bear thinking of what the child might have experienced.
 

“I’m happy to see you again,” she said sincerely, taking a good look at the gleeful girl.

“I’m happy, too,” said Solima with a broad grin. “We were so worried that Kordan and Amano might not find you or that you’d be dead. But when we heard the news of your rescue we were overjoyed.”

Charly felt a warm hand placed on her back. She turned her head and saw Amano smiling down at her. For the first time since Amano had stood before her in the suite, she saw him for what he really was – her rescuer. She responded timidly to his smile and allowed him to put his arm round her shoulder. It was unfamiliar and she tensed up a little, but she could not help noticing how good her rescuer smelt and how powerfully his body moved beside her.

“We should say ‘hello’ to the others,” he said quietly into her ear and his hot breath tickled her, releasing a warm shiver that made her tremble gently.

Now she spotted the group of people sitting some distance away, looking across at them. She could see Keela and Amber with two warriors and a somewhat older couple. Charly guessed that this was the king and queen.
 
 

“OK,” she agreed quietly. She was a little nervous.

“Come along then, ladies,” said Amano, putting his free hand on Solima’s shoulder. Together they approached the group of people. Charly noticed, out of the corner of her eye, that Lory and Kordan were now right behind her, too. They reached Keela and the others at the same time.
 

The king rose and smiled at them amicably.

“Welcome! We’re pleased that you’ve finally arrived here safely. I hope you will be happy with us and recover from the adventures that lie behind you.”
 

“Safely,” snorted Lory next to her.
 

“Thank you for your lovely welcome, Your Highness,” Charly interjected diplomatically.
“It was so good of you to send your men to our rescue.”

The king smiled at her warmly and she took an immediate liking to him. The queen, too, seemed very pleasant.
 

“Just call me Mortociar, my child.” the king requested. “We consider you girls as part of the family. Do sit with us and take a little refreshment.”

“I need to make something clear here,” Lory interrupted, ignoring Kordan’s admonishing look. “I am
not
here of my own accord and I’ve already told this ox here that I do not intend to share a room with him and that I am not his possession, just because I’ve slept with him. I don’t know how that all works here, but where I come from sex alone is not a promise of marriage. I do not expect a luxury suite or any other privileges. If I could have a little room and if someone could help me find a way back to earth, I would actually be very grateful.”

“Dear Lory – that’s your name, isn’t it?” began the queen, and as Lory nodded, she continued: ”I apologize for any trouble that you’ve had to endure up to now. I can understand your agitation. Please take a little time to calm down and consider your movements carefully. Of course we’re happy to help you get home, but this may take a long time. At the moment we don’t even have any idea where your planet is. I will instruct our astronomer to sit with you to solve this problem, but we can’t involve ourselves in matters between you and Kordan. As long as you’re here on Karrx7, Kordan is responsible for you, and I hope that you can put your problems aside and that you will perhaps stay with us after all. The two of you are clearly mates, even if you cannot yet recognize and accept this right now.”

Charly looked at the queen during her little speech. She was a picture-perfect woman and her eyes displayed warmth and friendliness.
 

 
“Mates? Is everyone here completely mad?” asked Lory. “I’d rather go into the forest and live there than spend the rest of my life with this … Arrgh, put me down, you ox!”

Horrified, Charly watched, as Kordan picked Lory up and simply threw her over his shoulder. Her friend struggled and thumped the giant where she managed to reach him, but Kordan appeared to take no notice. Charly wanted to rush to her assistance but Amano held her back by her arm.
 

“He won’t do anything to her,” he murmured into her ear. “Kordan would never hurt her. Trust me.”

She nodded and carried on watching the performance. But she did not feel entirely comfortable about it.
 

 
“Bastard! Son of a bitch! Put me down …,” Lory bellowed, beside herself.

“Aunt, uncle!” said Kordan to the royal couple, turning to go,
without paying attention to Lory’s raging and swearing.
 

Charly watched them both leave, then looked round the group. The royal couple did not appear to take very much notice of the incident.
 
Only Keela look as horrified as she herself felt.
 

“Can … can no one do anything about that?” asked Keela, clearly upset. “I mean, she really does not seem to want this. He won’t hurt her, will he?”

The queen put her hand reassuringly on her arm.
 

“Don’t worry. Our males are never violent towards females. Apart from holding her tightly or carrying her away, Kordan will do nothing to her. And you heard yourself that they have slept together, so he clearly does not leave her as cold as she would like to make out now. Carthians do not rape. If they had sex together, then it was because she also wanted to.”