The Impatient Lord (7 page)

Beneath the smear of blood
on her fingers, her skin was red and bumpy. Tiny blisters ran their way up her forearm covered in a fine white powder. She examined her skin, flipping her hand back and forth, as if staring would make the blemishes go away. Riona slapped at her arm, trying to wipe the blisters off, only to realize her other arm looked just as bad. She was covered.

Touching her face, she searched for a reflective surface. The best she could find was the thick door. It would have been clear but for the privacy setting obscuring the outside from view
. She made a move to stand only to feel a tug at her waist. She lifted her arms, recoiling from the sight of thick yellow tubes inserted into her side. Shaking, she pulled at them, wanting them out. The medical tubes must have been inside her for a while because the friction of removing them burned, indicating her body had begun to heal itself to them. She gave a small cry as they finally tugged free. Yellow fluid tinged with blood trickled from the wounds.

The small room was built as some sort of laboratory. Handheld medics, injector refills and oth
er more primitive medicines lined the transparent cabinet on the wall. She walked past the bottles, seeing tight handwritten script on the apothecary containers. The air smelled sickeningly sweet, like a decontaminator after its cleaning cycle. The only real furniture was the medical bed she’d been resting on.

Holding her side, she limped to the door to see her face.
A drop of blood trickled down her back and trailed over her naked skin. Her blurred reflection revealed red splotches along her entire body—her
very naked
body. She belatedly covered her chest with a gasp and looked for her clothes. It didn’t take long to deduce there was nothing for her to wear.

Frightened
, she went to the door sensor and placed her hand against it. The unit tried to suck her finger into the wall. She jerked back just in time to see an electrical snap inside the formed indent where her finger had been. The sensor molded back into a flat surface.

Drawing attention to her naked self was the last thing she wanted to do, but what ch
oice did she have? It was quite possible sensors had detected her movements the second she’d awoken and alerted her captors.

The room looked a little t
oo technically advanced for the primitive Draig people. Had they sold her? Or worse, had Range found her? She remembered intense agony and being paralyzed. It would be like him to take out his frustrations in such a way. She looked at her skin. Well, she wouldn’t have taken him for being
this
sadistic, but then she’d never skipped out on owing him fifty-thousand space credits before.

Who was she trying to fool? The money would be secondary to the man
’s pride. Insulting the pirate didn’t seem as funny at the moment. The thing about criminals was they didn’t have a problem breaking the law. Kidnapping, torture… Riona looked at her hips and legs. What else had they done to her? Her lower stomach hurt, but then so did the rest of her body.

“
Hello?” Her voice was raspy and her throat ached.

Riona couldn
’t think about it. If he’d sexually assaulted her, that very act would have begun her biological countdown.

“
Range?” she called, leaning her forehead against the door. There was no one else angry enough with her to do this. The only way she would have such a rash was if it was intentional. It wasn’t like they were living in the twentieth century. Medical booths could cure just about anything. If someone had enough technology to put her in this room, they could have easily given her medical treatment. The fact her skin was flaking off in strange patches meant her current state was on purpose. “I know you can hear me. You’ve had your fun. Now it’s time to deal.”

He didn
’t answer.

“
You have to listen, Range. Think about your crew. What’s more important? Revenge or loot? I can get your money for you. In fact, I was working on it when you came for me. That little planet you picked me up on, you saw it, you know the kind of primitives they have there. Well, they also have an ore that’s worth a fortune.”

Still, no answer.

“I was going to get you jewels,” she whispered, thinking of the royal crowns. She should have taken them. At the time, she hadn’t wanted to be that kind of thief, but in light of her painfully real alternative, she was quickly changing her mind. Tears threatened her eyes and she hated the weakness of them. Her voice barely sounded as she added, “I had a way to get a reward. I was going to save them from…”

Still, nothing.

She hit her hand hard against the door. “Blast it, Range! Let me out of here. I told you I can get you your money. All I need is a little bit of time. I had the angle all worked out.” She thought of the crazy man who called her his wife. No part of her liked what she was doing, but she had little choice. If not only to save herself, Riona thought of her sister. Aeron would not last in such a primitive place. Her sister wasn’t built for adventure. She’d seen the Galaxy Brides ship leave. She’d seen that possessive man carry Aeron off. “Range, I have a mark. He doesn’t suspect a thing. In fact, he thinks I’m marrying him. I’ll have your credits for you in no time.”

The longer silence persisted, the more worried she became. There was no telling where
she was. The room was small. Surely that meant she was on a ship somewhere. When she closed her eyes, she felt the room move and her weak body sway. Those tiny vibrations could only mean one thing. Turbulent space travel. Right?

“
Range?” Her voice lost some of its bravado. Tired, she leaned into the door, pressing her forehead against her wrist. “By the bounty of Jareth, I swear this guy is an easy mark. I’ll have enough
Galaxa-promethium
to pay you back twice over.
Galaxa-promethium
, Range, that’s the ore for long-distance space travel. It’s like liquid currency. Everyone will accept it. Now let me out of here so we can negotiate the interest rate…”

Riona
’s words trailed off as she detected movement. Feet were outside the door. She lifted her head as it slid open to keep from falling.

“
It’s about time,” she said with a boldness she didn’t feel. “Now how about giving a girl some…”

It wasn
’t Range. Her heart nearly stopped in her chest. The half-naked
husband
from the Breeding Festival stood before her. He was the very last person she expected to see.

“
Clothes,” she finished weakly. “You’re not…”

“
Range?” the man supplied coldly.

“
Naked,” she whispered, confused.

Though he was
fully dressed, she remembered what he’d looked like in a pair of snug pants at the festival grounds. He’d been bare-chested then. Now, he wore an immaculately tailored, loose-fitting shirt that hung over his tight pants. A tiny, symmetrical pattern had been embroidered around the bottom hem of the shirt. It was vastly different than the savage garb of the wedding event. Like this, he appeared refined. How was it she’d dismissed him as some crazy barbarian before?

Conf
used, she glanced behind him. It wasn’t a ship. In fact, it appeared as if she was in someone’s home. This man’s most likely. The place was lavish, all smooth stone walls and floors with thick rugs and wooden furniture. The oversized décor fit nicely into the spacious abode. A banner of a dragon standard hung on the wall. Its predominant placement gave away its importance. When she again looked at him, she saw his eyes shift and change with a golden hue. She knew the Draig men were dragon shifters. She’d seen him turn. The fact he had special abilities hardly scared her. She’d seen plenty of aliens, even if this one happened to be an incredibly sexy-crazy alien who made her heart beat a little faster. Already weak from whatever strange illness plagued her skin, she swayed on her feet but managed to keep standing.

“
Are you in pain?” he asked.

She shook her head in denial.
It was a lie. She hurt, but that was secondary at the moment.

“
Princess Nadja sent some medicines for you to try once you awoke to help with any pain should you start feeling it,” he said.

“
Nadja from the ship? She’s a princess?” Riona recalled the quiet, dignified woman. That made sense. Nadja was very poised as if she came from money and privilege. “Why would she care about my pain?”

“
She’s your cousin-by-marriage and wants to help,” the dragon man stated. “She’s been studying plant properties on the planet.”

He made a move as if to touch her face and she flinched, snapping her head away.

“Where is this place?” she whispered. Nothing about it made sense. The Draig were primitive people. This was not a primitive home. “It doesn’t look like your planet.”

“
This is our planet and this is your new home, wife,” the man ground out between his teeth. She felt more than saw the irritation in him. It radiated off every rigid gesture, seeping from his pores. Guilt compounded fear. She stepped back, very aware of how vulnerable she was in her naked state. The room was small, too small. She didn’t answer. How could she? He stared at her for a long moment and then added, “I hope it’s not too primitive for you.”

With that
, he turned and left her.

Riona instantly regretted the insult meant for Range
’s ears. She’d never have said it to this man’s face. Insulting innocent people was not her style. She knew in that second, his parting look would be one of those rare moments forever emblazoned in her memory. She didn’t know him well enough to read the expression, but the look of it would haunt her as she forever tried to decipher what it had meant.

He left the doo
r open, not trapping her inside. She didn’t follow him, not right away. Instead, she stood looking out into the wealthy home he’d invited her into. There was nothing primitive about it. She had been so sure she was on Range’s ship. A strange sense of relief and worry filled her. At least with Range, she knew what she was up against. He would act in the interest of himself and his crew. This man, this
husband
, was a mystery.

A mystery she was
stuck with.

Riona looked down at her side. The bleeding hadn
’t stopped. She swayed on her feet and pressed her hand to the wound. Maybe forcibly yanking medical tubes out of her body hadn’t been the best way to remove them.

“
Ah, dragon guy?” she whispered as she lifted her bloody hand to look at it. “I hate to trouble you, but…” She half-sank, half-fell to the floor. Riona pressed her head to the doorframe and closed her eyes. “I’m not doing so well.”

* * *

Mirek’s heart pounded, but he wasn’t sure if it was excitement, or fear, or anger that caused the violent reaction in his chest. Her words stung. In his happiness to see her awake, he was tempted to forget what she’d said. But that would be foolish, wouldn’t it? Her motives for marrying him were in those words.

Mirek wasn
’t like his brothers and cousins. He had an intuitive knowledge from his exposure to other alien cultures. The rest of the universe did not think as they did. It was possible that his bride did not marry for love or for fate. It could be as she’d said, she’d married him for money.

H
is heart argued that it was the will of the gods. His crystal had glowed. This was fate. The gods had brought her to him.

His mind countered that no one really knew why the crystal glowed. It could be fate or it could be the combination of sex pheromones a
nd lack of radiation from the sun at night. He’d had the thought before but had never let himself actually consider it as a possibility. Mirek wanted so much to believe in fate.

He had to believe in something. He had to believe in the will of the gods. If
there wasn’t fate, then what was there? And if he had doubts, would the gods continue to punish him and force her back to sleep?

This was a test. The gods
had made her say those things and they watched to see if he was worthy.

Curses! He was going to fail.

He couldn’t fail.

But what if he did? His wife
didn’t deserve such punishment.

And yet…

“Mirek? Is it true?”

He blinked, looking up in surprise to see Aeron waddling toward him. She was adorably pregnant like the rest of
his sisters-by-marriage.

“
Is my sister awake?” Aeron asked. Her features were flushed and she was lady enough not to mention the fact she’d caught him arguing with himself.

“
Yes. I was coming to tell you. She’s awake. She’s…”

Aeron frowned in worry. She grabbed his arm. “
What it is? Is it bad? I can tell by your face something is not as it should be.”

“
She’s awake. Her medical readings look good from what I can tell, but she doesn’t want me touching her. I thought maybe she’d let you examine her, seeing as you’re familiar to her?”