Hunter's Mate by Bernadette Gardner

Author:Bernadette Gardner
Language: eng
Format: epub

Chapter Eight

“Do you think perhaps we’re taking too fatalistic an approach to the situation?” Kash asked in flawless English. After three flagons of Sha-Shiri mountain ale, he could no longer form words in his native language.

Victoria lay on his bed on her belly with her head hanging over the side. A half empty flagon of ale dangled from her hand.

“A fatalishtic approach to invet...invet...inevitable death? No. Not at all.”

“On Sha-Shiri, death is not considered something to fear.”

“I don’t dear--I don’t feth ... I don’t fear death. With another falgon--flagon of ale, I wouldn’t even fear a puppet or a clown for that matter.”

“What are these words?”

“Puppet? Puppets are terrifying fake people used to torment small children. I’m fuppet – pupfet ... puppet phobic. And clowns--don’t get me started on the horror of clowns.”

“I feel like we should be doing something besides drinking ale.”

“We should. We should be confessing our sins and divulging our deepest, darkest secrets to each other.”

“Is this a human custom?”

“It is.” Victoria sat up and Kash craned his neck to watch her. She wrapped her lips around the narrow mouth of the ale flagon and took a long draught. Kash’s gaze went to the long, pale column of her throat as she swallowed and he imagined licking the smooth skin there. If he pressed his lips to the pulse point below her jaw would he taste her heart beat? If he pressed his lips to hers would he taste ale and desire?

She swallowed and leveled a serious gaze at him. “You go first.”

“Go where?”

“Confess your sins.”

“Sha-Shiri do not believe in sin. I have done things I regret, but I have never committed an act for which I feel I require divine forgiveness.”

“Hokay. Then what are your regrets?”

“I regret taking on this mission.”

She blinked. “Oh.”

“There were others with greater experience who should have been chosen. The position was offered to me because I was young and virile and best suited for breeding among the volunteers. I regret I could not thwart Ashan and I regret that I’d begun to trust him and even enjoy his company to a degree. I should have seen through his subterfuge.”

“No one else did. Apparently he was a pretty good counter agent, too. And you saved me from breeding. That’s something to be proud of.” Victoria drank again and Kash indulged in dangerous thoughts. “Now tell me a deep, dark secret.”

He shifted position to face her. She loomed above him on the bed, a flush of color highlighting her cheeks and disappearing into the collar of her thin clothing. Her nipples peaked beneath the fabric, drawing his feral gaze. With the ale coursing through his blood, he felt bold enough to confess.

“For a moment--just one--I wish I was Val’tek. I would stretch you beneath me, tear your covering off, and bring you to surrender.”

* * * *

Victoria’s heart lodged in her throat at Kash’s words. His voice had grown deeper and fuller like it had been when he’d whispered false threats to her in the confines of the holding cell her first day aboard.

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