Chayden laughed nervously. “You know, one of you is going to have to let her out of there eventually.”
Fain scoffed. “For the record, it ain’t going to be me. My parents killed the dumb ones.”
“Yeah, well, you don’t see stupid stapled on my forehead either. I think you should do it.” Hauk gave his brother a pointed stare.
Fain’s expression was one of abject horror. “Why?”
“You didn’t put her in there. She might still like you.” He gestured to himself and Chayden. “Dumbass there is the one who threw her in head first and I’m the idiot who locked the door.”
Caillen’s eyes widened as a wave of anger went through him. “What did you do?” If they’d manhandled her, he was going to make them limp their way to old age.
Chayden stood up and braced himself as if expecting a fight. “I didn’t do nothing. I just picked her up and carried her inside over my shoulder before the Sentella sentries tackled and cuffed her. Believe me, I saved her that horror. And by the way, I do not envy you that relationship. She is hell in high heels and she fights like an eight-armed Prostig.”
That wasn’t good enough for him. “You better not have hurt her.”
“Relax.” Chayden gestured toward the cell. “Go see for yourself. She’s pissed, but fine and unbruised.”
“Yeah,” Hauk added. “And let her out of there while you’re at it. I like having my balls attached to my body so I don’t intend to go near her for a while. At least a century or two. Maybe five… dozen.”
Caillen disregarded Hauk as he headed for the door. Maybe he should guard his boys too…
With his little Qill, one could never be too careful.
As soon as he entered the tiny bare, steel-walled room, Desideria spun around and by the look on her face he fully expectea kick to the groin like Hauk had feared. But the moment her gaze focused on his face and she realized it was him, a beautiful smile curved her lips and added fire to her eyes.
Two heartbeats later, she ran to him so fast that he staggered back from her assault. She kissed him desperately.
The taste of her combined with the sweet scent of her hair and breath drove all thoughts out of his mind for several seconds as his body roared to life and craved her so badly that it was all he could do to remember they were being watched. Even so, he couldn’t focus on anything other than how good she felt in his arms.
She pulled back to stare up at him with a look of such concern that it made his stomach clench. Now this was something he could definitely get used to. “Are you all right?” There was a note of desperation in her voice.
“Am I not supposed to be?” he teased her.
She cupped his face in her hands. “Not the way you hit that wall. I’ve never seen anything more terrifying. I thought I’d lost you.”
“Just damaged my leg. Probably rattled my brains. It hurts, but I’ll limp. As for the brains… never used them enough to miss them anyway.”
Letting out a frustrated breath, she shook her head at him. “I swear I’m wrapping you in a padded, blaster-proof suit and locking you inside a shielded bomb shelter.”
He didn’t know why, but that threat made him smile. Gods, how glad he was to see her alive and well. He kissed the tip of her nose. “Am I forgiven then?”
“For what?”
He started to remind her of the “um” mistake, but luckily his errant common sense finally tackled him to the ground and told him to shut his mouth before he ruined this moment. He quickly searched for something a little more intelligent to say.
“For scaring you.”
She fisted her hands in his shirt and pulled his head down to hers. “No. Don’t ever do that to me again.”
He smiled at her angry tone. “I heard you put a major ass whipping on our assassin friend.”
“He’ll be feeling it for a while. I would have ripped his heart out had Fain not stopped me.”
“Why?”
Desideria barely caught the answer before it rushed past her lips. Maybe she should tell him she loved him. But fear of his reaction kept those words locked tight. He might be happy about it or it could make him run for the door. Caillen was a complicated man and this was definitely not the time or place.
Especially after his “um” comment earlier. He might think she’d forgotten about it, but she hadn’t. At the end of the day, he was a player and what little she knew about such people was that they were phobic when it came to any kind of commitment or emotions.
Never be the first to lay your heart on the table…
First man in was always slaughtered at the door and she didn’t want to be hurt or rejected.
She cleared her throat before she answered. “He had information and I needed it.”
There was a light in those beautiful dark eyes that said Caillen didn’t believe her. But at least he didn’t call her on the lie.
This time.