My heart ached. If spared, someday those Baelese children would be grown. Would they rise up to try and take over again? If they were raised differently than other Baelese, maybe they could learn compassion and empathy, like the Senator had.
Or had he? In my heart, I truly believed he had, but his sense of honor and loyalty to his people clouded his better judgment. He was too easily influenced by others. But not by me, it seemed. It figures the first time a guy turned down sex with me would be the one time it really mattered. Granted, I always went for the kind of jerks who didn’t care about anyone but themselves.
Except Tater, who I failed.
My last words to him had been that we couldn’t be together. We couldn’t touch again. Why didn’t I just let myself love him? Why couldn’t those have been my last words to him?
I fell onto the bed face first and curled into a ball. My dress was too confining in the chest, suffocating me. I sat up and yanked it over my head, throwing it at the wall. Next I tore off my uncomfortable bra and thinning, stretched underwear before curling back into myself. This is how I would die. Naked. The same way I was born.
How exactly does a person fall asleep when they know they’re about to die? And not just a small doze, but a hard, dead-to-the-world, deep sleep? I don’t know, but when I heard my door open, I was groggy and confused, and I panicked.
I made an inhuman yelping sound as I leaped backward into the headboard, yanking the covers over my nakedness. For a few seconds I didn’t even know where I was.
And then the Senator slipped in, closing the door by leaning against it, filling my whole room with his presence.
Holy . . .
My life and situation came into clarity with a single realization: I was naked. And even with the blanket pulled up, he was staring, his eyes ravishing me. I immediately started panting, unable to look away. What time was it? We had to get out of here!
“Navis,” I whispered, too afraid to move. His eyes weren’t the way they were when I left him today. They now had laser beam focus. Had he been thinking about me all this time? Driven to distraction, as he called it? Because this was the look of a man with a woman on his mind.
His hands reached up and undid a button of his shirt. My entire body went slack with surprise. I couldn’t move as he slowly prowled forward, undoing buttons, pulling off his shirt.Damn.
When he made it to the side of my bed, we both stared. I wanted to ask what time it was, but I was afraid to bring attention to the fact that I didn’t have a clock.
So, instead, I whispered, “Navis, let’s leave.”
He reached for my hand, and placed it on his chest. He closed his eyes as I felt the warmth of his skin. I sensed his need—not just a physical need to be touched and satisfied, but a need for connection, for emotion, forsomething—and maybe it made me a bad person, but my heart hurt for him. I pushed that thought aside. In order for me to get what I wanted, he had to be under my control.
I scooted forward, dragging the blanket to keep myself covered, and I went up on my knees, placing my lips against his chest. His hands went into my hair, and the sound he made was of pure bliss.
With my heart pounding, I let the blanket drop so I could take his hands into mine, and lead them to my breasts. Aliens were not immune to the lure of boobs, apparently, because his laser beam focus turned to euphoria as he cupped my soft skin. I gasped when he ran his thumbs over my nipples.
“There are things,” he said in a seductively low voice, “that Baelese women do not allow. Many things.”
He gently pushed me down and pulled the blanket away, looking down my body until his gaze stopped at my core. His hands ran over my hips to my inner thighs, and my breathing hitched. This was crazy, and my thoughts were a mess. Everything that made me who I was, my morals and emotions, were unraveling and tangling. I was coming undone.
“Tell me what you want, Navis,” I breathed.
Instead, he showed me, lowering his face between my legs. When his hot lips touched me, I grasped his hair, fighting the moan that begged to escape my throat. There were surely guards nearby. He was taking a huge risk coming here.
Frantic fear swirled with my longing to be needed and touched, becoming a cyclone of confusion in my head. This was wrong.
I sat up and pulled him forward onto the bed, pushing him to sit against the headboard so I could take control. I straddled him, and his arms went behind my back, pulling my chest against his as our lips crashed together. The feel of him . . . physically, he could very much pass for a human. His slacks were rough against my softness as he jutted his strong hips up against mine. The growl that came out of him scared me. He was getting too far gone.Focus, Remy!I needed his help. If I let this go further, he would be of no use to me.
In the back of my mind were emotions of wrongness, thoughts of Tater, and the nagging question . . . what time was it? Why had Linette wanted me out of the building—what was going to happen? I knew what I had to do. His walkie-talkie was on his hip. He could give an order, and I would be taken back to Primo Town. Perhaps I could make a visit to his office for a weapon first. In his current frame of mind, I had no doubt he’d give me the code to his weapon case against the wall.
But then what? He’d stay here, in the same building where all the Baelese kids were. If someone was coming to attack, they would all die. But they’re the enemy, right? I held Navis tighter, pressing my forehead to his as we panted for air.Oh, God, help me.I didn’t want them to die. If I could get them to safety, we could have a new reality. The Baelese were brilliant. The children could be raised the right way. They could help us rebuild, and we could work together, two species, the best of both worlds.
My words came out breathless. “Let’s take the children on one of the busses and leave. A night astronomy lesson.”
“Remy.” He growled again and took one of my nipples in his mouth, making me shudder and fight to think straight. He pressed his hips upward and I clenched my thighs to stop him.
“Look at me.” I took his face, lifting onto my knees so that our damned crotches couldn’t touch. His eyes were bleary. I started to shake as my mind cleared.
“We need to leave,” I said sternly. “I have a bad feeling, okay? There’s danger. Let’s get the kids out of here. Now.”
“Danger,” he whispered, eyes glazed.
