Free The Journey's End by Kelly Lucille Page A

from sparring with the youngest fighters
most nights.  Nori had long since decided never to watch him fighting, even in
practice.  She had watched him spar with General Renik once and that was
enough.  It had just been the two of them.  The general was good, but Menelaus
had moved so fast and with such fluidity, that it had looked like the general
was standing still.  She had rarely seen anything as beautiful as Menelaus with
a sword in his hand, and she had jumped him as soon as they were alone.  It was
the last time she had watched him fight.  There was no way she could see that
and keep her distance.
    Tonight he walked in and dumped his gear by the bed.  His
face was cast down as if he was contemplating some problem.  When he finally
glanced her way, he took one look at her already naked in his bed and froze. 
Then, very casually, he wiped his forehead with his already removed tunic.
    “What could I have possibly done to deserve this?”
    “You think this is for you?”  she asked, a purr in her voice
as her hand trailed her naked thigh.  “Maybe I’m just extra sleepy tonight.”
    “Yes,” he said, his heated eyes following the hand as she
intended.  “You look it.”  That made her laugh.
    She nodded toward the bathing room.  “Your bath is ready.”
    He didn’t bother to look away from her as he stripped off
his leathers, “Would you be joining me?”
    "Would you be wanting me?"
    His grey eyes heated to molten silver.  He picked her up on
his way to the bath while she laughed and proceeded to get them both very
clean, very quickly. Then after taking her vigorously in the tub, he carried
her back to his bed where they lay together, still damp from the bath.  Nori
sighed and cuddled closer.  There were some things she would miss.  Too many
things, actually.
    "I always want you," he said.  Drawing her
attention to a face that was dead serious.  "Since the moment I saw you up
on that bar facing off against two armies.  So slight of frame and so
unbelievably fierce."  He took her hand and kissed the knuckles. 
"You took my breath away."
    Just like that, she was the one having a hard time breathing. 
"You seemed quite composed."
    "So did you," he said, not letting her lighten the
mood.  "But you felt it too."
    She dropped her head back to his chest hurriedly. 
"That was my beast reacting to your strength.  It wasn't romance."
    He was quiet for so long, she thought he'd let it go. 
"Why do you talk as if you are not one and the same?  As if having such
strength somehow makes you less?"
    Her body went rock hard against his, and he held her tight. 
They both knew she would be gone in a moment if he didn't hold on.
    "Don't freeze up.  Just talk to me,"  his voice
said. He wanted to shake the answers out of her, instead he waited.  Eventually,
surprising them both, she talked.
    "Shakien is a planet of barbarism.  Might makes right
and the weak are crushed by the strong.  We have a noble class similar to yours, 
though they rarely fight their own battles as yours seems to.  The way Kirny
acted with Lara and Margeaux’s treatment of that farm girl show me once again
that we are not alone in our perfidy.  Still, even through the dregs of the universe
I have traveled since, it is only the Shakien that causes beings of all planets
to back away in horror when they realize."
    "When they realize?"
    "That I'm Shakien.  Beast folk.  Beings of rage and
fang. Children from every known world are warned not to get close to one lest
we fly into a rage and slaughter everyone."
    "You are not like that."
    That made her laugh, but not in a happy way.  "I am
exactly like that.  All Shakien are in the right circumstance."
    "I've seen you in a rage..."
    "You've seen nothing,"  she spat out, interrupting
him.  "Mildly annoyed and in heat, maybe; but not rage.  That you've not
seen,  or you would never have touched me."
    "You think I wouldn't want you?"
    "No one ever has before." 
    He held her