“If I lick it, will you go to the medbay?” I asked, then immediately groaned at myself. Had I really just said that out loud?
Torran’s expression told me that yes, I had. “If you lick it,” he said, his voice a rumble of desire, “then I’ll go wherever you like.”
I leaned forward and took the spoon in my mouth, making sure that Torran caught sight of my tongue curling around the end of it. I hollowed my cheeks, far more than was necessary to lick a spoon, but if I was going to play with fire, I was going to do it right.
I moaned low, just loud enough for Torran to catch it.
Then I released the cleaned spoon and grinned at him. “I’ll expect you in the medbay as soon as I put this next batch of cookies in the oven.”
He blinked, his eyes silver and teal, and then he chuckled. “Well played,” he murmured.
It took me the better part of twenty minutes to peel Torran out of his armor and cut away the base layer he wore. Underneath, his skin was livid with bruises. I gently traced my fingers over a particularly bad one on his ribs.
“What happened?” I breathed. “Why didn’t your armor protect you?”
He chuckled without humor. “It did.”
I looked up and met his eyes. “Explain.”
“The telekinetic figured out pretty quickly that I was more interested in protecting you than myself.” He gestured at the bruises. “She tried to break my concentration. She failed.”
“Was she caught?”
Torran’s expression hardened. “No. The guards caught a pair of humans, but Morten and the telekinetic were not with them.”
I sighed and dropped my gaze to the floor. “If only I’d been faster. I had her. Another second and my blade would’ve done more than piss her off.”
Torran tipped my face up with gentle fingers. “You overrode a powerful telekinetic, injured her, and made her lose concentration long enough that she stopped using you as a shield, giving us a chance to attack. If not for you, we would not have escaped so easily.”
I huffed a laugh at him. “I don’t know about easy. I can still hear my bones cracking.”
His expression darkened until something dangerous lurked in his eyes. “I failed to protect you.”
“We’re both still alive, so let’s call it a win, okay?”
Torran looked like he wanted to argue, but when I just stared at him, he reluctantly nodded.
I pulled out the salve we used to treat bruises and unscrewed the cap. “This will ease the pain until Havil can heal you. Do you need help applying it?”
Cunning lightened some of the darkness in his eyes. “If I say yes, are you going to apply it for me?” Without waiting for an answer, he lay back, and pointed at the vibrant bruise over his ribs that dipped all the way down until it disappeared beneath his underwear. “I’m not sure I can reach it all. Would you mind?”
From his expression, I knew exactly what he was doing, but I would take the flimsiest of excuses if it meant I got to put my hands on him. I warmed the salve between my palms, then smoothed my hands over his bruised body.
He sucked in a breath between his teeth.
I jerked my hands away. “Too much?”
“You didn’t hurt me,” he said, which didn’t answer the question. His fists clenched. “Please continue.”
“If you are uncomfortable—”
“If I’m uncomfortable, it’s because I want to pull you on top of me and drive us both to the edge of sanity. I thought the pain would blunt the need, but it seems my body has other ideas. If proof of my desire makes you uncomfortable, then I will do it myself.”
I swallowed and my eyes dropped to the growing bulge barely hidden by the low-slung briefs that wrapped around his hips. The desire that always simmered in my blood around Torran flamed higher. “You could renounce the life debt,” I suggested. “If you’re not too hurt.”
He shook his head immediately. “Not until we’re out of Valovian space.”
I licked my lips. “You could, ah, help yourself.”
His eyes brightened as the silver grew. “If I wasn’t hurt, I would, cho akinti. But for now, I’ll just enjoy your hands tending to me, if you don’t mind.”
The endearment washed over me. I didn’t know what it meant, and I was too shy to ask, but his voice caressed the words like they were precious.
Like I was precious.
I returned my hands to his ribs. His chest expanded, but he didn’t say anything, so I smoothed the salve over the worst of his bruises.
And there were a lot. His body was littered with so many deep purple marks that I worried about internal bleeding. I didn’t know what I’d looked like before Havil healed me. Maybe I’d been just as bad, since I’d felt the telekinetic crushing me with my armor, but I winced at every bruise on Torran. If he hadn’t been protecting me, he could’ve protected himself.
“Why did you let her hurt you like this?” I murmured.
“Because the moment I took my concentration away from you, she would’ve killed you. It was all I could do to keep her from crushing you or your mind, and you were still severely injured. I didn’t expect a telekinetic of my level. We are very rare.” He said it without a hint of boasting. “My pride nearly cost your life.”
I perked up. “If telekinetics at your level are rare, does that mean you know who she was?”
Torran sighed and closed his eyes. “I believe she is one of Empress Nepru’s Fiazefferia.”
I sucked in a breath. That was a word I knew. It roughly translated as Sun Guardians, and while I didn’t know much about Valovian culture, even I’d heard of the famed Sun Guardians. Part assassin, part protector, and part advisor, they were the empress’s right hand, and their identities were guarded at the highest level.
They were also known to be fiercely loyal.
“Did she betray the empress?” I whispered, already suspecting the truth.
“I don’t know, but it would surprise me if she did. More likely the empress sent her to infiltrate Morten’s team and keep an eye on his plans.”
“But she had Cien. She put him in an explosive vest and hurt him.”
Torran shook his head. “She could’ve killed him at any point, but he barely had a bruise on him. I didn’t have time to examine the vest, but my guess is that it was a convincing fake.”
“She wanted me and my team dead so the empress could blame us for the kidnapping and restart the war. Will the captured human kidnappers be enough?”
Torran’s mouth compressed into a flat line. “I don’t know. Depends on how strong their tie to the FHP is.”
I closed my eyes. “Why? Why does the Valovian Empire want another war?”
“Empress Nepru fears what the FHP is planning on Bastion. It would take us years, maybe decades, to build a similar station on our side of the wormhole, while Bastion continues to grow unchecked. If FHP operatives truly have infiltrated Valovia, she’ll take it as a sign that the FHP is actively working against her and Bastion is an immediate threat.”
It was a valid concern, but starting a war over it seemed drastic. However, maybe she had tried diplomatic routes and had gotten nowhere. I wouldn’t put much of anything past the Feds.