Page 55 of Warrior's Captive
Tai’ri made a show of looking around.
“I’m Yolu,” the young man said. He eyed Vivian. “You’re way hotter than he deserves.”
Vivian laughed. “I don’t know about that. It’s nice to meet you.” She gave Tai’ri a sideways look. “How many siblings do you have?”
“Better save that for another time,” Yolu said.
That they were brothers was apparent once Vivian really looked. Yolu’s bone structure echoed Tai’ri’s, and he carried himself with the same quiet self-assurance. She couldn’t imagine Tai’ri with the short, white tipped spiky hair or slashed shirt, though.
“Here.” He held the tray out to Tai’ri, who set it on a small side table. “The Matrons said to feed her.” With a quick grin, he was gone.
“Your family seems kind,” she said. “You’re very fortunate.”
He studied her face. “Do you think this is a family you would feel comfortable being a part of? Raising our child in?”
The real question he wasn’t asking . . . do you think you will stay with me?
Vivian realized she was hungry, for once, and eyed the platter. Tai’ri waited patiently as she used the food as an excuse for more time to respond.
“Whether I’m comfortable or not, the child genetically belongs here as much as it does on Earth,” she said. “Eventually I would like to go home, see my parents. If it’s safe.”
He stilled beside her. “It will be safe.”
The thread of darkness in his tone again, the rare glimpse he gave through the window to the other facets of his personality. Not for the first time, she wondered who he was when he was working for Ibukay. The spy, the warrior, the chameleon who could kill coldly, whether in defense or for a mission.
He was still waiting for a reply. “Yes,” she said quietly. “I could envision myself as a part of this.”
With the admission, something inside her relaxed. One of her barriers crumpled, and she opened up a little more to the possibility of a real future on Yedahn. With this man, as a family.
The baby stirred, pressing in her groin. She rubbed her hand over the roundness that could be a bottom or a head.
“It will be alright, baby,” she murmured.
Tai’ri nuzzled the top of her head. “That’s the first time I’ve heard you speak to her.”
Tears pricked Vivian eyes with the sting of guilt. The first time she had spoken to her child, who had done nothing wrong and deserved its mother’s love.
She took a deep breath, blinked away the tumultuous emotions. She would do better. “Tai’ri, we need to talk.”
“Frightening words.”
A small laugh escaped her. “No, no. I—” she glanced up at him, met the steady gaze that looked at her as if nothing else could claim his attention as long as she desired it. “I just realized the other day . . . I don’t know what the future brings for me. For us. I don’t know what you want—”
“Then I haven’t made myself very clear.” His voice was deep, the words deliberate and shaded with meaning she’d have to be a fool not to hear.
She plucked at his sleeve. “It’s just the other day I was thinking that if I had met you under normal circumstances—well, normalish—I would have wanted to get to know you.”
His hand slid around the back of her neck. “Are you trying to tell me that you’re falling madly in love with me?”
Vivian wrinkled her nose at him, then laughed. His lips curled, and as warmth unfurled in her chest, her marks moved, sparking and sending tendrils of liquid heat through her body. “And we’re going to have to have a talk about these marks.”
Hearing the breathlessness of her own voice, Vivian was unsurprised when Tai’ri lowered his head slowly, as if to give her time to pull away, and settled his lips over hers. She opened beneath him, hands sliding up to his shoulders. The room, the din of conversation, fell away and it was just him. His taste, his scent, the weight of his arm sliding around her shoulders and anchoring her to him.
“Go upstairs,” someone hooted. “There’s children here.”
“There’s nothing wrong with a display of healthy passion between consenting adults!” someone else yelled.
“That’s why we have so many babies in this family!” was the heated reply. “Two this year already! You’re not the one who has to plan all the apprenticeships when the younglings come of age.”
