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She nodded again. He sat her again on the low pedestal that opened beneath her and squatted back on his haunches, staring at her.
“Um, I don’t need help for this,” she said, glaring at him as her bowels gurgled with newly urgent need.
“Nonetheless, I will help you,” he insisted.
“I don’t want help.”
“Nonetheless, I will help you,” he repeated, his tone dispassionate rather than argumentative.
Her control gave way and she clenched her hands in her lap as her bladder and bowels obeyed biological imperative and the male’s implacable will. Looking at her lap because she was too embarrassed to look him in the eye, she did not see him quickly divest himself of his kilt and climb into the tub. The pedestal whooshed with a tepid spray and warm blast of air.
Reaching over the edge of the tub, Sarus plucked her from the pedestal and lowered her into the water. Evangeline yelped and thrashed in surprise. He held her steady until she calmed and submitted to his care.
Sarus positioned himself such that his body provided her support while he washed her with tender thoroughness. Evangeline’s mouth opened to protest, then closed without having uttered a sound. When she stiffened, he purred and lethargy suffused her body. She had nearly drifted to sleep by the time he finished. He wrapped her in a generously sized towel and carried her into the bedchamber. She perched on the edge of the mattress which the house’s robotics had refreshed with clean linens, and he combed her shoulder length curls. Then he gently slid her back and pushed her down.
“You really don’t have to—” she spluttered when he took the comb to the thatch of curls guarding her sex.
“I will care for you,” Sarus repeated, splaying a huge hand across her abdomen as he ran the comb through the wiry curls.
Evangeline closed her eyes, her skin once again blushing with embarrassment and … arousal?Oh, no, this is wrong, so wrong!However, Sarus purred and her body and mind responded to the sound by relaxing. When he drew the covers over her naked body, exhaustion and digestion had taken their toll and she slept. He took a seat beside the bed where he watched her sleep.
Poppet slinked into the room and hopped onto the bed. The cat cast him a suspicious glare before curling up beside the slumbering woman.
“We will watch over her together then, little warrior,” Sarus murmured, not being foolish enough to attempt to touch the fierce little beast and suffer its sharp teeth a third time.
He stayed there until Horas returned.
“How is she?” the older male inquired.
“I scented her arousal when I bathed her, but she is still weak.”
Horas’ eyes brightened, then he frowned. “We are yet unbonded.”
Sarus nodded, understanding what the other male had not said. “If we are both to mate her …”
“I will not relinquish her,” Horas said and drew a knife.
“Nor I,” Sarus said. He, too, drew a knife.
Both males slashed their own palms. Before the blood could spill to the floor, they clasped their wounded palms together and chanted a long prayer to Durja. Blood mixed with blood, establishing and sealing an irrevocable bond between the two males. They kept their palms together until the prayer ended. When they pulled apart, the wounds had closed, leaving thin scars that would never fade.
“Durja favors this dyad,” Horas said.
Chapter7
“The humans’ new ambassador wants to resume the games, even though one of the brides is still missing,” Horas informed Sarus three days later. He kept his voice to a low murmur below the reaches of human auditory capability, so if their pretty female did hear anything, she would detect nothing more than a soft, low rumble deep in his chest.
The two males watched Evangeline as she sat on the floor wrapped in a sheet for modesty because she refused to go about naked. She dangled a string from a short stick in front of the cat, playing with the small, fierce beast. The healer’s treatment had prevented infection and accelerated her recovery, so she felt normal except for the strange attraction that compelled her to yield to the males’ ministrations and enjoy them. Her protests that she could bathe herself, comb her own hair, and attend to other personal needs met with tolerant amusement and gentle, unyielding dismissal of her independence.
“Engineer Arrenji shih Tezk should not receive an opportunity to steal her away from us,” Sarus grumbled at the same low pitch. He could pick up a hint without being told. That was one reason why he was a highly ranked commander.
Horas nodded and the tip of his tail twitched, catching Poppet’s attention for an instant. Evangeline quickly recaptured the cat’s attention by wriggling the string in front of the animal’s face. Horas tilted his head back, then looked at the younger male. Light from overhead gleamed on his polished crest. “It’s unusual for two contestants to form a dyad bond.”
“Actually, it’s unheard of,” Sarus agreed in a dry tone. “Usually a male suitor in the games is already part of a bonded dyad.”
He referred to the Ahn’hudi practice by which the dominant male in a dyad chose the bride for both males.
“That makes our selection for the bride games odd, don’t you think?” Horas pointed out, alluding to the fact that both of them were alpha males who would have normally paired with beta males like the supercilious engineer.
