Free Bianca D'Arc by King of Cups

ratcheting down
as their labored breathing came more under control. They clung to
each other as their racing pulses began to slow. He was her anchor,
her one stable point in the universe.
    “ That was...” She didn’t have
words for what she’d felt—what they’d just done
together.
    “ Amazing.” He finished her
thought, kissing her gently, almost reverently. “I agree. Every
time with you only gets better. That’s never happened to me before,
Della. Never.”
    “ Not for me either.”
    She smiled, loving that they were able to
communicate on such an intimate level. He was still inside her.
Their voices were low, their thoughts shared quietly without the
need for lots of explanation. At the moment, everything seemed
clear between them. There was little need for words.
    And yet there was so much left unsaid.

Chapter Eight
     
    Alex didn’t quite know what had just happened. It
had almost felt like they’d... joined... in more than just the
obvious way. He’d felt her responses as if they were his own and he
thought maybe she’d felt something similar. He didn’t know how to
put it into words and didn’t really want to sit around dissecting
what had almost been a religious experience.
    They grew closer day by day, minute by minute. How
was he going to leave this behind when they were finally free? How
was he going to live without her?
    He disengaged from her body and let her slide
downward, one leg at a time. Her shipsuit was somewhere on the
floor. His was around his knees. He would have left it there or
kicked it off entirely except when he turned, he saw someone
sitting on the bed, waiting for them.
    Tren.
    Della gasped and grabbed for her discarded suit to
hold in front of her. It didn’t do much to shield her beautiful
naked body and Alex growled when he saw the direction of the
younger man’s gaze.
    “ What the hell are you doing
here?” Alex fastened his suit over his hips, staring down the
interloper while Della made a dash for the attached lavatory. The
panel slid shut behind her as Alex advanced into their
quarters.
    “ Forgive me. I wanted to talk to
you both without my uncle’s knowledge. I thought I’d wait for you
here but when you tumbled into the doorway...”
    “ You could’ve said something.”
Alex was angry on Della’s behalf. For his own part, he didn’t give
a damn what the other man had seen. Soldiers lived together in
cramped spaces and got used to nudity. But he knew Della was
embarrassed and that made him mad.
    “ I tried. Truly.” Tren chuckled,
which turned Alex’s anger toward annoyance. “You were too caught up
in your mate to hear anything. I vow a Zithian helabeast could have
bitten you on the ass and you wouldn’t have noticed.”
    Alex had to admit the kid had a point. “All right.
So what was so important that you had to stalk us in our quarters?
I’ll tell you right now I don’t like sneaking around behind your
uncle’s back. He’s been straight with me. I won’t repay his
kindness with deception.”
    “ I can respect that. In fact, I
expect he’s aware I’m here by now. It wasn’t my intent to keep my
discussion with you a secret but if I’d told my uncle I wanted to
talk to you, he might’ve found ways to prevent it.”
    “ Why?” Alex was interested now and
not quite as annoyed.
    “ Sometimes he operates under the
misapprehension that the less I know, the better. I think he’s
wrong on that score.”
    “ Why would he think that?” Alex
insisted. Alex had come to know Theos as a very deliberate man. If
he thought the younger man should be kept in the dark, he very
likely had good reasons.
    “ Because of my father,” Tren
admitted. “My father was the second son, never meant to rule. Only
tragedy brought him to the throne and sometimes my father can be
ruthless in protecting the succession. If he knew about
you...”
    “ He’d order my death.” Alex
sighed, reading the truth of his words on the young man’s face.
Moving to the door