Marked for Pleasure (14 page)

“Get that man to the Med Station,” the princess snapped. She slammed her hand on the Emergency button. “This is Princess Sera Placido. I want a med team here now.”

“A medical team will be there momentarily. Thank you for your patience.” The sultry voice sounded odd in the room that smelled like burned flesh and blood.

The princess pushed past Rhea, tearing her dress as she did. “Let me.” She bent down and tied strips around Leo's chest, trying to stop the blood.

Rhea crept closer to Conner and dropped to her knees beside him. “Conner,” she said and laid a hand on his arm. He turned his stricken, white face to hers.

“I-it was bad enough the first time,” he managed to say, though his voice sounded strangled.

“He's still alive,” she told him and squeezed his arm. “Don't give up hope.”

Suddenly the room was filled with people and voices. Rhea and Conner were shooed away from Leo. The princess, by virtue of her rank, was able to hold her ground. She loudly proclaimed Conner, Rhea, and Leo her rescuers. She demanded to see General Halloway, who had diverted her shuttle to this den of iniquity.

Rhea would have admired the princess's performance if she hadn't been so worried about her silent and brooding mate.

It was a blur: the questions, the authorities, everything.

She and Conner were forced apart. Rhea faced a stone-faced Sethos Five officer, who made her repeat her story several times. It wasn't until a Teran Five ambassador appeared to escort her to a suite within the club several hours later that she was told General Halloway had been arrested as a traitor, General Ancred's actions disavowed by Sethos Prime, and that Minister Ander Rylan had declared the Brotherhood had tried to assassinate him.

The ambassador was a nervous man in his fifties with graying temples and sharp gray eyes. “Minister Rylan has insisted that you and your two companions are to be given every amenity,” he said.

Exhausted, Rhea barely registered the room's contents. She blinked and gazed at the man. “Where is Leo Eyler?” Somehow she believed that's where Conner would be too. In the hours following the end of the confrontation, she had no idea if Leo had made it or not.

The ambassador removed a small disc from his suit-jacket pocket. “Input this into the room's computer, and it will connect you to the medical facility where he is being treated. The last I heard, he was out of danger.”

“And Conner?” she asked.

“He demanded to see General Halloway,” the ambassador said with a frown and shook his head. “The man is dead on his feet, but he said he needed to end it, so he could go home. As soon as he is finished, I will bring him here. Meanwhile, eat, sleep, relax. You've done a good job of working for the Teran system, Ms. Tucker.”

After the man left, she thought she'd toss and turn, waiting for her mate to come to her. Instead, she dropped into oblivion as soon as her head hit the pillow.

When was the last time he had slept? Conner rubbed his hand over his face and stumbled down the corridor behind the Sethos Five soldier. To face General Halloway.

He entered a small room and stared at the other two men in the room. Ander Rylan was focused on the two-way mirror on the back wall. A Sethos Five government official spoke on a HITU in low tones, so Conner didn't know what he was saying. Rylan nodded to Conner.

Rylan immediately held out his hand and shook Conner's. “I don't know how to thank you.”

“I'm just glad the Brotherhood failed, Minister.”

The minister stared back at the mirror. “He has refused to talk. I doubt you'll get much from him.”

Conner's fists clenched. “I'd appreciate it if you'd let me try.”

Rylan nodded and opened a small door to the right of the mirror. He waved Conner inside.

A rock settled in Conner's stomach. He had to do this, or he'd never be free. Still, he hesitated, his steps uncertain, but he finally walked into the room. The door closed behind him, and he pulled out a chair across from the general.

He studied the man who had recruited his best friend and then himself to stop the Brotherhood. Even now, as he stared at the old man, he had a tough time believing the general had set the assassins on him.

“Leo sends his regards,” he began. The general's watery blue eyes met his, and a muscle in the man's jaw pulsed. Conner continued. “What I don't understand is why you didn't tell General Ancred that Leo was right there under his nose. I mean, you tried to kill him once. Why let him live on that Primarian warship?”

General Halloway glared at him, and Conner nodded. “Ah, I see. You didn't know.” Conner leaned forward and smiled. “Now that's funny. Leo gathered the information we needed, General. Your name has been given up by several of the captured assassins.”

“How is Rhea Tucker?” the general asked, his voice gravelly and harsh.

What the fuck was the old man getting at? Conner kept his cool. “She is mated to me. I think that surprises you, doesn't it, General? She was supposed to kill me, but instead, she and I teamed up to stop you.”

The general smiled, a razor-sharp lift of his mouth that made Conner's stomach roll. “I found the irony too delicious. After all, the Brotherhood sprayed her worthless colony, and sending her after you was amusing.”

The fact that two years of a young woman's life were destroyed in the process, not to mention her family had been killed, didn't seem to affect the old man in the least. Conner shook his head. “You should have known a woman like that was no killer, General.”

He shrugged. “She wasn't supposed to live through the explosion on the
Star of Pleasure
.” The old man leaned forward. “You think you've killed the snake by stopping me, by stopping Ancred. You go on believing that. The Brotherhood will find you, Mitchum.”

Conner shot up out of his chair and thrust his face in the general's. “I'm counting on it. Every one of your cells on every planet is being destroyed. You really should have done a better job wiping your HITU before you were captured.”

The color dropped from the general's face. “There's nothing to retrieve.”

“No?” Conner whipped out the HITU in his pocket. The Sethos Five officer who had questioned him for hours had finally allowed him to view the general's handheld in hopes that Conner could crack the general's code. Conner had cracked it in minutes.

The general stared at Conner, the older man's mouth in a tight line. “How—” He clamped his lips shut.

“You thought you'd wiped the hard drive. But you were sloppy.” Conner showed him the screen with the information streaming over it in deadly lines of code. “Every name, every house, every assignment.” Conner shook his head. “You can imagine the concern when Sethos Five discovered they had three cells right here. And Rylan wasn't thrilled to find out there were four other Teran Five ministers on your hit list.” Conner noted the general's hands were clenching and unclenching. “But best of all, General, we discovered you weren't really in charge of it all.” He smiled at the old man. “You were a lackey just like the rest of the assassins. You and Ancred worked for someone else.”

The general suddenly launched himself at Conner. But Conner was ready for him. Two vicious blows to the man's face knocked him back into his chair, slumped and defeated. Conner's heart pounded. “You have betrayed our colony, using our culture, our gifts, to murder people for raw power. Your boss? He was just a power-hungry asshole, but you? You were a Nylar dominant. You knew the risks of grasping control, yet you used our way of life to allow this prick to implement his plan of system domination.” Conner shook his head. “He was just another dictator looking for an army to do his bidding. But you? You betrayed everything Nylar stands for.” Conner rose to his feet. “I have formally requested that you are escorted to Nylar to be punished.”

After a moment, the general's head rose, his face crumpled. “No, I refuse. I renounce my citizenship. I will not go to Nylar.”

Conner smiled. “Oh, but you will. And there will be no martyr's death for you, General. You will live out your life under Nylar punishment for those who break our laws.”

“You have no authority.” Now the old man was grasping at straws.

Conner tapped the HITU. “This gives me every authority I need. The contents have been sent to Nylar. You'll be drugged and transported in an hour.” Conner leaned down and peered into the man's face. “You forgot the most important rule we follow on Nylar, General. The power exchange works both ways. Every time you exercised your power, you armed those you sought to dominate. It's our basic principle. One you will learn the hard way.”

He turned his back on the general. The old man's voice reached him. “I should have killed you myself rather than sent that cunt after yo—”

Conner moved so fast, the general barely got the last word out before his throat was blocked by Conner's hand. He clawed at Conner's fingers, his face red. “She is my mate, General. And your first lesson in real power. She held it all in her hands.” He released the general, who gagged and collapsed.

On his way out, he handed the HITU to the government official. “Where is my mate?”

The Sethos Five official wasted no time and found a soldier to escort him away from that interrogation room to his future.

Leo was in a medical facility, out of danger but still unconscious. Nylar officials were scrambling to round up the cells the general hid within the colony. In fact, all the colonies would be busy for months cleaning up the Brotherhood mess.

General Ancred had been hung.

Archaic but effective. Sethos Prime didn't tolerate any dictatorship but their own. They considered Ancred's commitment to the leader of the Brotherhood traitorous and punishable by death.

In a way, Ancred was the lucky one. The general would be punished by the Nylar law. The kind of psychological warfare exercised by the mistresses on Nylar was frightening. Conner didn't want to think about it.

The leader was still at large, but the general's HITU had given them everything they needed to capture him. Conner's part in this hunt was over.

All he wanted was his mate.

The soldier escorted him to a room at the
Star of Pleasure
club, and Conner eagerly opened the door.

When he noted Rhea sound asleep on the huge bed, he let out a slow breath, knots in his chest unraveling. He hadn't even known how worried he'd been about her. To see her safe and sound made him weak with relief.

He stripped off his clothes, fully intending on waking her up and reminding her she belonged to him. But fatigue swamped him as he slipped in beside her. The deep, rhythmic breathing of her sleep, the way the shadows darkened around her eyes, the warmth of her skin on his, washed over him. His eyes drooped and closed.

Sleep claimed him, and he let it cradle him.

Warm, hard muscle pressed against Rhea's breasts. In her foggy brain, she couldn't place what it might be. But it smelled wonderful, male, musky. She snuggled closer. Conner. She buried her nose in the curve of his neck and nibbled on his skin. Still more asleep than awake, she twisted her legs around his. The mark on her arm flared and heated just as her pussy throbbed.

He moaned when her fingers traveled over his muscles to his hip bone and pressed into the mark there. His cock stirred, its length hot against her leg. She reached between their bodies and grasped his hardness in her fingers to stroke him. He thrust into her hand, a slow, deliberate movement.

His hands slid over her back to hold her closer. One hand reached the back of her head and gripped her hair. He angled her head so he could swoop in and kiss her. Her system flared to life, her senses tingling. His tongue swept in and tangled with hers. He plundered her mouth again and again. Her breath mingled with his, and she gasped when his hand explored lower down her back to the small opening of her ass. His fingers rimmed her anus, and she squirmed, her pussy aching for him to fill her.

When had she taken her clothes off? And thank God she had. She slithered closer. Her breasts mashed against Conner's chest. His cock dug into the soft flesh of her thigh, and she trapped her hand around him. She reveled in the low growl that came from deep in his chest.

She continued to squeeze his dick in her hand, and his kisses became more intense, his fingers digging deeper into her anal passage. Her pussy ached and strained against the hard muscle of his thigh. Her back arched, and fire raced through her veins as the firm nub of her clit met the bunched sinews of his leg.

He disentangled his body from hers and flipped her onto her stomach, one hand still buried in her hair to keep her face raised. She opened her eyes. The naked desire, the dark need, on his features made her senses spin out of control. His hand released her head, and he laid erotic bites down her spine. Then he dipped down and did something she'd never expected.