Mated (The Sandaki Book 1) (10 page)

“When will the constant need end?” she murmured, pressing her lips against his.

“What?”

“The constant need I have for sex. No matter how much we do it, it’s not enough.”

“Normally, the mating heat abates within two suns risings, you are not of my people though. How often do your people breed?”

She cocked her head. “Breed? You mean when can we have a baby?”

“Yes, how often do the females come into heat?”

Laira sat back to look at him. “Well, on Earth, women ovulate every month. If the sperm catch it at the right time then bingo, there’s a baby. If you’re asking when people have sex? All the time. How often does it happen on your planet?”

He side-stepped her question. “I do not understand your term, month.”

“Umm, okay, a day on earth is twenty-four hours and an hour is sixty minutes. So that’s one sun’s rising. Normally, between thirty and thirty-one days, make up a month. So, every month, a human woman’s body releases an egg. If the conditions are right, she can get pregnant. Oh, and twelve months make up a year.”

Rakin listened closely to her explanation. “I think your year is equal to a
liyat
on my planet.”

“So does that mean we only have sex once a year?” Laira shook her head. She had to ask the question, and she couldn’t quite believe she was contemplating staying with this man. Would she stay with him? She’d have to think about it when she had time to herself. Then again, did she really have a choice? And, if she did stay, she knew that she needed to know how often she would have access to this man’s incredible body. She soooo hoped it was more than twice a year.

He shook his head. “No, when you go into heat that is when we will have relations. So if you do this once a
cachan
… I am most fortunate in finding you for my mate.”

“So we’ll only have sex once a month? Dude, that is so going to suck.” Laira ran her hands up and down his chest.

“How often do your people have sex?”

“Like I said, all the time. On Earth, people do it because it feels good, not just to have children. So they do it as much as they can make time for.”

He blinked then threw back his head and roared. Before she could ask him what was happening he picked her up and carried her to the bed. With her in his arms, he dropped onto the soft surface and pinned her under his nude body.

“What are you doing?” Laira asked, uncertain if she had pissed him off or not.

“You are a gift to me from the gods themselves.”

“Why? Because sex is an all-the-time thing?”

He nodded, smiling. “Yes.”

“So what do you do on your world? How long to do wait for sex?”

“It is not important. No more talking, mate. Show me this mouth contact from your planet.”

Laira knew they needed to continue the conversation, since she had to understand. Right now, the needs crawling through her body were too strong to ignore. She leaned up to press her mouth to his. Smoothly, she slid the tip of her tongue out and ran it along the seam of his lips. He opened his mouth, and she invaded as she wrapped her arms and legs around his muscled body. Tentatively, he met her tongue with his own and soon he had eased into her to taste and tempt. The more he stroked and teased, the hotter she became. She pulled her lips from his, panting, and they stared at one another.

“I really like being your gift,” Laira panted. “And if you need to have sex more than once a day, I am totally down with that.”

“You are kind to think only of your mate’s comfort.”

“That’s me. I just give and give.”

Laira woke wrapped in Rakin’s arms. She watched the darkness of space slide by outside a window that was across from the bed. She didn’t feel like moving or going anywhere; in fact, she felt comfortable and safe. Safe? When was the last time she felt that way? She really couldn’t say. It certainly wasn’t with the Silarin, but had she felt that way in her old life? She wasn’t sure, which was kind of sad. Life, B.S., before Silarin, was constant motion. She ran from her job, to school, and back home. Home wasn’t any more relaxing since she had homework to complete, household chores, bills, and on and on.When had she ever taken a break? She didn’t remember. Vacation was just a time when she didn’t have to go to work, there was never any downtime.

“What are you doing, mate?” he asked, his voice low and raspy.

“Thinking, which probably isn’t a good thing.”

“What do you think about?” He turned her in his arms so they could look at one another.

“I was just contemplating how crazy my life was before the Silarin took me.”

“How so?”

Laira told him about her job and school and working out. As she talked, his brows lowered. He looked…troubled? She gently rubbed the space between his eyes and down his nose. “What’s wrong?”

“Was there no one there to help you?”

She shook her head. “No, it was just me.”

“Where was your
naised sunnitavad
? Or your
isa
?”

“I don’t know what either of those are.”

“The woman and man who created you,” he said slowly as if searching for words.

“Parents, that’s what those people are called,” she said, playing with his hair. “Where I’m from, the woman is called mom or momma or mother and the man is usually dad, daddy, or father. Unless they don’t do a good job, then you don’t really want to call them anything. As for mine, I have no idea where my father went. He left before I was born. My mother didn’t care for me all that well, and I was finally removed from her custody. I was put in foster care until I was eighteen, then I was on my own.”

“Foster care?”

“It’s a system where kids are placed with other families or in facilities where they can be cared for. Usually, you stay with a family for a month or two then they move you somewhere else. At least, that’s how my placement went.”

“It is good that you’re with me, now,” he murmured and kissed her. “I will ensure you are taken care of.”

She smiled. “Rakin, it was no big deal. Foster care was what it was, and it only lasted until I was eighteen. Once I moved out on my own, I started college, but it got too expensive so I quit. I started working fulltime until I could go back to school again. By that time, I was used to my schedule and my life. I probably even liked it, especially the training. And I loved school. The work was overwhelming sometimes, but I love to learn. So what about you? Do you have parents?”

“Yes, of course.”

“So, are they still alive? Will I get to meet them?”

“Perhaps,” he said and changed the subject. “College? What is this place?”

Puzzled by his hesitance to talk about his family, Laira let it slide. “It’s where a person goes to get an advanced education. You learn about whatever you want. I was getting a degree in accounting, which is all about numbers.”

“So what do you do with numbers once you learn?”

“Well you can keep the books for businesses. Um, make sure that the money coming in is more than the money going out. At least, you do if the business is doing well. I’m going to miss learning new things. I really loved school.”

“I will teach you many things,
talla
,” he said, as he eased over her and pinned her to the bed.

“I can’t wait to see what they are. Like I said, I really like to learn new things.” She leaned up and kissed him.

Growling low, he claimed her lips as he palmed her breasts. Yep, she liked everything this man did to her, and he had some moves that totally earned him a star in her book.

After giving her numerous orgasms, the two of them shared another meal with a few more new dishes. Thankfully, there was none of the paste stuff on the table, for which she was thankful. Yawning, both of them had curled up together for what Laira thought of as a much-deserved nap.

Laira woke to find Rakin watching her. She smiled as he leaned in and kissed her. The man was sweet, even though he looked like a jungle cat. Of course, she hadn’t known him all that long so the whole sweet thing could be an act; however, she really didn’t think so.

“So what would you like to do now, mate?” he asked with a smile.

“I’d like for us to lie here and talk, but don’t you have to meet someone?” She thought for a moment. “When I first got here there was a woman you called. She said she needed to talk to you.”

“Haldise,” he said and slowly rolled out of bed. “I had forgotten. I do need to see her.”

“She was going to go over to the Silarin ship.” Laira curled on her side and watched him dress in a black kilt made of some kind of unknown heavy material.

He nodded. “I will be back soon.”

After he left, Laira sat wrapped in a sheet and stared out a window into space. Even after all the sex, she still felt the empty ache deep within her body. She didn’t know what the problem was, but hoped once the mating heat abated, the need for him would level off, too. Of course, all of that opened up a whole new vista to worry about. Rakin told her she was his mate, and whatever he had done to her had bound them together. Did she want to be bound to him? Hell, she’d never found a man she was even willing to live with but was now suddenly kinda married—permanently and irrevocably.

She got up to pace the room. Why didn’t the idea of being bound to Rakin forever bother her? She wasn’t sure. She didn’t think it had to do with just hormones. She actually liked him—or what she knew of him, anyway. He had a quirky sense of humor and was insatiable in bed. Did that create a good foundation to build a life on? She laughed aloud, shaking her head. Hell, it was more than her mother had ever had with the losers she’d found herself with. Rakin would never hurt her; of this, she was totally certain.

Laira flopped onto the bed. She was utterly exhausted, and she hated worrying. Since she was once again fretting about things she couldn’t control, it was worse. She needed to go find her friends. She had to talk everything over with them, maybe things would begin to make sense. She studied the sheet she currently wore and knew that wouldn’t do. She hunted around the room and discovered that any of Rakin’s actual clothing swallowed her since he was so much bigger. She’d finally settled on a piece of rich copper fabric she found tucked away in a small cubby. It looked to be about two feet wide and about eight feet long. She quickly wrapped it around and around her body, fashioning it into an odd sarong that thankfully covered all the important bits.

Feeling a bit more confident, she headed toward the door and stopped. Shit, she had no idea where the other women were. She waffled a bit, not sure what to do. Finally, getting angry, she huffed out a breath. She had survived kidnapping, reshaping, an auction, an attack and finally mating an alien. She could certainly find her friends without going through the vapors and nail biting like some cheesy, dime store novel heroine.

She stepped up to the door, and it soundlessly slid open. She peeked out and found a large beige passageway with no hint of identifying features. She glanced around and decided to go left, since either way looked exactly the same. Lining the walls were rows of weapons and the floor was cool under her bare feet. Obviously, the ship she’d found herself on was built for combat, unlike the Silarin’s tricked out vessel. Then again, who had won the contest between the two? Yeah, the Sandaki had kicked evil alien butt.

A large male, wearing a dark green kilt and knee-high combat boots exited a doorway in front of her and froze. Instantly, he dropped to the ground on one knee and would not meet her eyes. “
Taja
,” he murmured.

She looked around, trying to see whom he was speaking to, and when no one else appeared, she knew it had to be her. “Um, yeah, my name is Laira, and I’m trying to find my friends. They’re with all the women brought on board from the Silarin ship. Where are they?”

“I would be honored to escort you,
Taja
.” The man stood and, still not meeting her eyes, motioned for her to follow him.

Huh, she had some kind of a title now. She didn’t know what it meant. Obviously, since Rakin was
Taj
, that automatically made her
Taja
. The few people she’d seen deferred to him and knelt. She wondered if he was captain of the vessel. That would be cool. She hoped to hell this guy liked Rakin and wasn’t taking her to the nearest airlock or his bedchamber. If he decided to try anything funny, she would just explain that she was with Rakin and hoped that settled whatever issue would arise. If not, she hoped her mad Tae Bo skills would at least stun him enough so she could get away.

Rakin sat in the small cabin of Haldise,
Visoka Preestrinna
of the Sandaki. To see her off planet was odd, to have her occupying a cabin aboard a battle cruiser was unheard of. Right before he’d left, she’d approached and insisted she must come with him. Rakin had learned after many years to listen to the
Preestrinna
, since she possessed the ability of sight. If she said she should go, then she went. He brushed a hand across his face and hoped this meeting with her would not take long. He could feel the need for his mate rising within him.