He wrinkled his nose at the smell, but said nothing before he dutifully drank it. "Thank you."
"You're very welcome." She took the cup back then smiled at Darice. "I'm making more salad for your dinner."
Squeezing his eyes shut, he twisted his face into an expression of supreme disgust. "I don't like eating plants."
She widened her smile. "And that's why I made it for you."
Dancer laughed. "Now you know what it's like to have a sibling, Dare. They all treat you that way. The minute they know you don't like something, they're honor bound to torture you with it. For eternity."
"Then I'm glad I'm currently an only child." He closed his eyes again and sighed contentedly.
Dancer caught her hand before she moved away. "What can I do for you?"
Sumi hesitated, wondering if he even realized how he phrased things. He never thought of himself first. Rather, he put everyone's needs above his own. "Rest. Get better for me."
"I feel useless lying here. I should be --"
"You should be resting," she repeated firmly. Then she dropped her gaze to Darice. "Plus, I think he needs some uninterrupted guy time."
Only then did Dancer nod. "If you need anything, let me know."
"Fair enough." Sumi brushed a stray piece of hair back from Darice's cheek before she stood and left them alone.
As she reached the opening, she heard Darice's faint voice. "Are all humans like her, Dancer?"
"How do you mean?"
"Kind and gentle. Caring."
"Sadly, no. Especially not to Andarions. She's very different from most of her kind."
"Ah... Is that why you like her?"
"No. It's why I treasure her. Now, shush and give me peace from your questions for a while."
Those words made her heart swell with an inexplicable joy. Dancer treasured her. Was it even possible?
"Are you okay?"
She looked up at Thia's question as she neared the fire. "Fine. Why?"
Thia shrugged. "You have a strange, weepy look on your face."
She set the cup down and checked their dinner. "Do I?"
"Yeah, you kind of look like I do whenever I get a new boyfriend."
Sumi arched her brow at that offhand comment. "How many boyfriends have you had?"
"A ton. I cycle through them faster than socks."
"Really?"
Thia nodded as she fed Illyse. "Not entirely my fault. First, they get pissy that I don't sleep with them within fifteen minutes of meeting them. Then when they find out why, i.e., my father, the psycho-killer let's-gut-people-for-fun, really is an assassin and bigger than most shuttles, and has not one, but five major armies at his command, they hit the door screaming."
"I can see where that might be unnerving."
Thia checked the cooking stew. "Did your father ever have issue with your choice of boyfriends?"
"Not really. From the time I turned fifteen, my father assumed I was a slut, so he didn't care who I dated. Best I ever got out of him was that he better not find us naked in his bed."
"I'm sorry, Sumi."
"Nothing to be sorry about. It is what it is."
To her complete shock, Thia hugged her. "I think you're great."
"I think you're great, too." Sumi gave the girl a strong squeeze before she released her and finished making their dinner.
That night, she took sentry duty, and it gave her a whole new appreciation for Dancer's stamina.
Yawning, she stretched then jogged in place, trying to stay alert.
"You look like an adorable little girl when you do that."
She jerked around with a gasp to find Dancer standing behind her. "Dear gods, man, make a sound when you move!"
"Not a man," he reminded her simply.
She took a deep breath to steady her nerves. "Sorry. I didn't mean to insult you. I just don't understand how someone so huge is so silent. It's not natural."
He gave her a charming, lopsided grin. "Grow up with two parents who have Andarion hearing and a nasty temper, and you'll learn to be silent, too."
"I guess so," she said with a laugh. "Get caught much?"
"Never. But I was often sacrificed."
"Meaning?"
"Whenever they got caught, my brothers threw me to the parental units and ran for cover, leaving me behind to face them. Alone. They were both selfish bastards that way."
She cringed at what had to be less-than-pleasant memories for him. "Sorry."
Dancer shrugged nonchalantly. "Curse of being the youngest. I never could get away in time. But it gave me a lot of good survival skills. And a really tough ass. For that, I'm eternally grateful." He took the rifle from her shoulder. "You should go rest."
"I'm not the one who was poisoned," she reminded him.
"That wasn't poisoned. Trust me. I've eaten Jayne's cooking. It's far deadlier."
He was so incredibly tempting. More so in that he never really insulted anyone. Not even Dariana. Rather, he had a teasing, fun-loving way of looking at others' shortcomings and actions.
"I still don't feel right leaving you to guard us after what you've been through, and what you've already done for us."
"Then sit with me and keep me company." He sank down in front of the small outcropping of rocks so that he could lean against them.
The sight of him there, like that... was more than a mere woman could turn away from. She sat down beside him and made sure to keep a little distance between them.
Dancer gave her a chiding stare. "I don't bite, Sumi."
"I know." She was more afraid she might start nibbling on some of that lush tawny skin. Especially his jaw. It was the sexiest thing she'd ever seen on any male.
Against her better judgment, she leaned into his arms and let him hold her like he'd done Darice earlier. He rested his chin on the top of her head as his warmth enveloped her. As promised, he kept his hands to himself while they sat there, listening to the quiet desert breeze.
Hauk smiled as he felt Sumi fall asleep in a matter of heartbeats. Only then did he adjust her weight slightly so that she wasn't pressing so much on the part of him that was most desperate for her. His senses light, he brushed his face against the softest hair he'd ever felt and inhaled her unique scent.
She was the sweetest heaven.
And the most torturous hell.
As he held her, he was rock hard and aching for a taste of her soft, voluptuous body. His back and side throbbed, but he welcomed the distraction from the heavy need in his groin that he could do nothing about.
Closing his eyes, he let her scent wash over him as stupid fantasies tormented him with things he knew he couldn't have.
Fantasies of her touching him that made no sense. He was an Andarion, fully pledged. She was a human League assassin. Both of them were forbidden to have relations with anyone. Both were hunted by enemies and had a death sentence hanging over them.
Yet as he felt her breath on his skin, none of that mattered. All he wanted was to offer himself to her.
To have her claim him as her mate before everyone. Just once he wanted to know what it was like to be inside a female's body, and have her hold him while they made love.
Every year since he'd turned nineteen, he'd gone to Dariana in his ancestral temple, in full faith and before his family and hers, for unification. And every year, she'd brutally denied him in front of them all. As if he was defective or unworthy of her.
In the beginning, he'd been hopeful that she'd find some way to forgive him for what had happened to Keris. That in time, she might accept his troth. But that hope had died somewhere in his midtwenties when it became crystal clear that she had no intention of ever seeing his pledge met. Rather, she took a perverse pleasure whenever she opened up his back before their families, and abandoned him to their ridicule and scorn.
When he'd turned thirty, he'd gone to his mother on the eve of another humiliation, and had begged her to negotiate a rare severance with Dariana.
She'd answered hi
s request with the back of her hand. "How dare you shame me with such! You're a War Hauk. You will do your duty and you will stand before her like the proud Andarion warrior you're supposed to be, not some sniveling cockless coward! Besides, there is no one else who will have you. Look in a mirror. You're deformed and revolting. You should be grateful that she hasn't already broken pledge with you. At least this way, we can pretend you have some value and desirability."
And as Dariana had done every year before that, when the priest had asked if she found him acceptable for her lineage, she'd sliced open his back and walked out the door. It was the most brutal way for an Andarion female to deny her lineage to a male.
Worse, it'd become a sick sort of ritual for him. One that made him more furious every time he was forced to endure it.
Every year Dariana denied him, he saw more of his mother's love for him die. She could barely stand to look at him now. She blamed him fully for the shame he brought to their family.
In his heart, he knew Sumi would never do that to him. She would be honorable enough to slit his throat and end his hell. A death sentence for them both. Not force him to undergo public humiliation, year after year.
He took her tiny hand into his and smiled. Of course, she'd need a knife to hurt him. Her delicate hands could never rip open his back, or his throat.
And before he could stop himself, he placed her hand on his cheek and nuzzled it. He didn't understand how she'd come to mean so much to him so quickly. He wasn't a trusting soul. Nor did he make friends easily. He expected the worst from others, and seldom was he disappointed.
Yet this tiny assassin had found a place in his heart where very few dwelled. And instead of cutting her out of it, he was allowing her to burrow in even deeper.
What the hell is wrong with me?
Dariana was right. He was defective. He had to be to even think the thoughts that were in his head.
No good could ever come of a relationship with her. Andarions and humans didn't mix. They never had.
And sadly, no matter how much he might want otherwise, they never would. Humans weren't welcome in his world and Andarions were voraciously hated everywhere they went outside of their own territories.
When this was over, he'd have to leave Sumi and do his due diligence. Tie his blood to a bitch who hated him. If he was half the Andarion Fain was, he'd say fuck it and be done with all of them.
But he was the last of his mother's sons. If he walked away from his lineage, it would destroy her. She would be honor bound to kill herself. It was acceptable for one son to leave their lineage.
Not two.
While his mother no longer cared much for him, she cared about her lineage and honor. He couldn't buy his happiness for such a cost. The one thing he'd learned in his life was that no one could build a better future over the corpses of others. Better he should suffer for eternity than save himself at the expense of his family.
It was the Andarion way.
And he was an Andarion War Hauk.
It was his duty to serve his family and people. To honor them no matter the personal sacrifice.
But in the back of his mind was an image of Sumi in his family paint. And a burning in his gut to have a female, just once, accept him as mate-worthy and not look at him as if he was a total piece of shit.
CHAPTER 12
S
umi came awake slowly to a deep warmth. When she reached to rub her eyes, her hand brushed against rock-hard skin. Startled, she jumped and slammed her head straight into Dancer's face.
He muffled a curse as he moved his jaw to make sure it still worked. He frowned at her. "Morning, mia."
Horrified at what she'd done, she cupped his jaw in her hand. "Oh, Dancer, I'm so sorry. I forgot where I was."
"It's fine. You're not the first one to slap me awake. Doubt you'll be the last."
That didn't make her feel a bit better. Before she could stop herself, she pushed up in his arms to place a chaste kiss on his lips then one on his cheek where she'd inadvertently struck him. "Better?"
He brushed the back of his finger over her face. "For that, mu tara, you can hold my head in a grinder."
His offer amused her. "By Andarion standards, is that better or worse than a toilet?"
He arched a surprised brow. "You heard that yesterday?"
She nodded. "So how many times did your brother dunk your head, anyway?"
"Enough that Fain swears the oxygen dep gave me permanent brain damage."
Laughing, she rolled her eyes at him. "You're terrible."
"Fain's words, not mine." He took a deep breath as his eyes teased her playfully. "I wish I could keep you here against me, but the kids are waking."
Which meant Darice would stroke if he caught them like this. She would say screw it, but didn't want Dancer in trouble with Dariana.
Reluctantly, she withdrew from him and stood up just a few heartbeats before Darice came bounding out of the cave as if the little booger knew she was standing too close to his uncle.
I swear that little bastard has radar.
He gave them a suspicious look, but for once kept his mouth shut. "Is there any of that stew left from last night? It was good."
Sumi tsked at him. "The surprise in your voice as you say that almost offends me."
Darice grinned at her. "Yeah, but --"
"I'll have it heated in a few minutes."
Yelping in happy delight, he ran off toward the stream to wash and dress.
"Wow," Sumi breathed at his uncharacteristic enthusiasm. "I had no idea it was that easy to reprogram his attitude. I should have made stew my first night."
Dancer laughed. "They say the quickest way to a man's heart is through his stomach. For Andarions, it's even more true."
"And here The League taught me that the quickest way to a man's heart was through the chest cavity. Shows what they know, huh?"
With the sexiest smile she'd ever seen, Dancer scraped his fangs against his bottom lip. "I love it when you talk assassin to me."
Laughing, she wrinkled her nose at him. "You're so sick. Why am I so attracted to you?"
They both sobered as those words left her lips. For several heartbeats neither of them moved as the words hung heavy between them. And lit a fire in his eyes that made her heart quicken.
Finally, Sumi cleared her throat. "I know you're pledged, Dancer. I didn't mean to trespass."
He looked away, but not before she saw the regret in his eyes. The sad torment. "I should check on Darice. He has all the hygiene of a wild torna."
Sumi wanted to kick herself as she watched him walk away. Why did I say that? What is wrong with me?
She knew better. But something about Dancer sucked all her common sense out and made her forget everything, except the beauty that was a fierce Andarion male and her desire to make him laugh and smile.
Leaning her head back, she glared up at the sky. I swear I'm going to keep my hands away from him.
Her thoughts, too.
She had no choice. Even if she wasn't here to gather evidence against him, she knew that there was no chance in hell for a future with him.
His love for Fain would never allow it. It would kill his brother to see them together, knowing they had divorced because Omira refused to have Fain's children. That would be the cruelest blow of all.
No, come hell or high water, she would stop this before it went any further.
Sumi had almost convinced herself of that when Darice returned to eat the stew she'd warmed for breakfast. Thia had just awakened and was still yawning as she sat next to the fire.
As Sumi went to get some food for herself, she heard the dreaded symphony of a war zone. Both of the kids bolted to their feet beside her. Her heart hammering, she motioned for Thia to cover her, and return to the cave for protection while she headed for the battle.
And a battle it was. Near the stream where he'd gone to bathe, Dancer was pinned down near a short outcropping of rocks by three men. She could tell by the di
mness of the blasts that Dancer was almost out of ammunition. It was what the assassins were waiting for.
As soon as he was empty, they'd end him.
What they didn't know was that Dancer had a secret weapon. And she was about to unleash hell on them for daring this. Moving silently and with every bit of League training she'd mastered, Sumi closed the distance between her and Dancer's attackers.
She caught the first one completely unaware. Shooting him in the back, she rolled and dropped a bead on the second one. He dodged her blast and returned fire. Anger pounded through her that she'd missed what should have been an easy mark.
Grinding her teeth, she threw a fully charged blaster to Dancer and then laid down cover fire for him so that he could reach it. As soon as he had the weapon, he took the one on her left and she finished off the third.