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If anything happened to his Dramok while he was gone, he’d tear the station to pieces. What had happened on Laro wouldn’t compare to his wrath.
Piras swallowed past the thickness of his throat as half his clan disappeared in the umbilical. He’d miss the pair he’d spent almost every waking moment with for over five years.
“Okay, so why didn’t you tell them you have a phased bodyguard from the spy division assigned to you? Finding out he’s showing up tomorrow might have helped them feel better, don’t you think?” Scrubbing tears from her cheeks didn’t keep Hope from eyeing Piras with a note of belligerence. Her dark glare gave him a not entirely unpleasant jolt, but he’d be lucky if she allowed him to sleep in the same bed with her tonight.
“It’s for the best, that’s all. Thanks for keeping it quiet.” He set his sights on the door leading to the public shuttle bay. A couple of armed Nobeks, verified to have had no relatives on Laro Station when it had fallen thanks to Piras’ seeming treachery, waited to escort him.
Hope’s hand on his arm halted him before he took more than a step. She was a small woman, but she had the commanding aura of a Dramok when it suited her. “Piras.”
He relented, because his beloved wouldn’t until he did so. “If Kila had discovered Fleet Command assigned me a bodyguard, he’d have insisted on knowing who it was. He’d have demanded to personally check his credentials and threaten severe bodily harm if I were attacked.”
“Typical Nobek, in other words. Why’s it such a big deal? Kila’s a member of the spy department of Fleet Command. Who could they have assigned he shouldn’t be aware of?”
“Someone he wouldn’t approve of. I can’t say more until we’re in our quarters or my office, my Matara. It’s absolutely essential his identity remains undisclosed for now.”
Hope scowled, but she allowed them to head home. “He will remain outside our quarters, won’t he? My privacy’s never been up for grabs, and the fleet can stuff it if they think they’ll waltz in for a peek whenever they wish.”
“He’ll only accompany me when I leave our quarters. I actually have to wait for him to confirm his presence before I open the door.” Though the phased bodyguard could easily walk in if he wanted. Piras and Hope would never be the wiser unless they phased themselves.
He won’t. I trust the bastard.Piras bit his lips together. He could have laughed. Dark humor filled the situation.
Kila wouldn’t have agreed. He’d have found no hilarity in it at all. Thinking about his clanmate’s reaction if he’d had the least inkling quelled Piras’ urge to laugh.
He’s going to kill me for this.Despite the fact it hadn’t been Piras’ idea.
Chapter Five
Earth II
“…the governor steadfastly refuses to discuss her relationship to Clan Rihep, of which Nobek Kuran, in charge of Earth’s security division, is a member. However, my sources tell me Governor Nichols isn’t merely spending time in the company of these men, but the majority of nights on board Alpha Space Station, where they live. One has to wonder why the legislature has yet to censure her activities…”
“Bitch,” the woman next to Nobek Kuran muttered.
Kuran brushed his fingers against Governor Stacy Nichols’ after glancing around her office. The door was closed, drapes were drawn over the windows, and no one knew he was there. Nonetheless, he couldn’t help his need to be overwhelmingly cautious. She was taking plenty of shit because of him as it was.
The reporter on the news vid transmission, pretty but swiftly becoming a major pain in the ass to Earth II’s chief executive, rattled on. Footage of Stacy hurrying from her shuttle early that morning after landing swapped places with Blythe Nelson’s eager, impish visage. The blonde continued to list Stacy’s supposed transgressions, her attitude soaked in the savor of scandal.
Stacy switched it off and faced Kuran. “Do you think she’d be so determined to perform a hatchet job on me if I hadn’t refused to give her an interview?”
“Who knows?” He had an urge to kiss the frown line between her brows, then her plump lips. Then the rest of her toned but curvaceous body.
Nelson might have been ten years younger than Stacy, but she didn’t hold a candle to his clan’s lover. Stacy Nichols was all woman. Having made love to her only an hour prior, he shouldn’t have been as amorous as he was. The relationship was still new, however, and he couldn’t get enough of her.
“After she ambushed us on the space station a few weeks ago, I wouldn’t give her the time of day,” Stacy snarled, her sensible but stylish shoes thudding her temper to the thick carpet as she crossed to her polished maple desk. “How she could think I’d agree to any dialogue is beyond me.”
“It almost got her banned from the station itself and banned on pain of a prison sentence from certain levels.” Kuran tried to soothe her temper, recognizing it was part of what was giving him lustful thoughts. A fired-up Stacy was a sexy Stacy in his book.
“Yes, she can’t bother us there. That’s something.” Stacy gazed at her computer, yet to be powered up for the day’s tasks.
Kuran stood on the opposite side of her desk. He drummed his fingers on its surface, and she glanced at him.
“What is it?”
“I was there when you informed the lieutenant governor and your cabinet of our relationship.” His presence had been clandestine. He’d been phased and invisible. “Do you remember what you said about openly dating my clan when the moment was right?”
“I’d hoped to have the search for an Earther replacement for your head of planet security position well underway before I announced it.” She huffed. “Nelson just shot my plan in the ass.”
“You also said the women of Earth needed to understand they were free to love whomever they wished, and there’d be no government involvement in their personal affairs. You were planning to make it a major point in the upcoming election.”
