Alien General's Baby (Brion Brides 7)(20)

Yet this was what she’d volunteered for and she’d never go back on her word.

"Yes," Braen replied. "It's not perfect, but it narrowed down the search considerably. It looks like the Darnetta system. We need to get closer. Thank you, Governor Price."

"Let me know you if you need me again," Audrey said, turning to Naima then.

Her tired eyes seemed sad for a moment before adding: "Take care of yourself, Naima. Never take the bracelet off unless you have to. Never try anything foolish. It will be tempting to try and find out more, but trust me, it doesn't work. You don’t want to see what it wants to show you.

"The Fearless will always get more from you than you do from it. It can smell your weaknesses. Stay close to the general."

With that ominous piece of wisdom, Audrey was gone. Naima suspected that the "anything foolish" comment was meant for her alone, meaning the stone in her pocket. She didn't say anything about it.





11





Naima





Leading her back to her quarters, Braen didn't speak and neither did Naima. The weight of Audrey's words hung around them like a heavy cloak.

As soon as they were alone, the general pulled her into his arms and kissed her fiercely. There were no questions, no doubts, no hesitations. Forgetting herself, Naima melted into the kiss, feeling Braen's hands hold her close to him.

It was nice. Just what Naima needed after hearing the Fearless' terrifying laugh. It took a couple of seconds for that pesky rationality of hers to rear its ugly head again.

It's like the monster wants us to find it… Even if he didn’t, this isn’t fair on Braen.

She pushed him away.

The world seemed to hold its breath along with Naima, waiting for the thunder and lightning that was sure to come. There was nothing but a hungry smile on Braen's lips.

"It is customary for the geshas to fight the bond at first," he said, clearly pleased. "I wasn't sure you knew that. That part of our bonds is not known so widely."

Naima had known that curious tradition. She instantly regretted playing along, even if it was unintentional. She frowned, searching for words to make herself perfectly understood to the warlord.

"This can't be," she finally said with all the confidence she could manage, what with her heart beating and her body longing to get back into the embrace. "I want you to understand that, General. I'm not doing this as some sort of foreplay. I’m not fighting you for the sake of fighting you. I am fighting you because this cannot happen."

"You can call me Braen," he replied, a hint of doubt muddled in with the amusement in his blue eyes. "You are my gesha. It is your right to call me by my name."

"I'd rather not," Naima said, feeling her hands shaking a little when the general's eyes flashed and so did his valor squares. "I don't want to play games with you, General."

Braen's body language changed from relaxed to tense so swiftly Naima actually took a step back. Then, she pressed her lips together and stood her ground.

These are your choices. You need to stand by them, even in the face of the most infuriatingly compelling man in the damn universe.

"This is not a game for me," the general said, his deep voice turning the words into a hiss.

"I agree," Naima answered. "That's what I've been trying to tell you, General. I'm not playing either. I've read about your bonds. I know what the fighting of the gesha means. It's supposed to be this romantic notion that the couple fights for each other and comes together against all odds, but I think it's..."

She trailed off, instantly regretting saying too much. Braen's burning eyes held her in place like invisible chains around her body.

"Yes?" the general asked with the maddening calm of an approaching storm. "Say what you were going to say."

When Naima didn't respond, Braen cocked his head to the side slightly, adding with obvious irritation: "I'm not going to explain this to you again. You are my gesha. There is nothing you can say that will change that, no words that would put you in danger. You can speak freely."#p#分页标题#e#

Not as freely as you think, Naima thought, slicking her tongue over her teeth.

Visions of her mother, waiting anxiously for her father to return home from one of his missions around the solar system, played so clearly in her mind. She’d watched the woman for years, slowly withering as the breath of love she felt for Naima’s father was never returned in full.

While general Braen was no wilting daisy, the mechanics here were too strikingly similar in Naima’s head. How could anyone choose love when it was so easy to fuck up? Especially when your supposed partner believed in it absolutely and without question.

"I think the fighting is a play," Naima said, conviction making her voice stronger as she looked the general in the eyes. "I think the couples delude themselves into believing that the charade actually brings them closer. Someone always gets hurt.

“I will not fall for that trap, no matter what you say. I'm sorry, General. When I say this can't happen, I really mean it. We have a whole galaxy to save. I just want to focus on that. Isn't that more important?"

"No."

Naima simply stared at the general as he watched her with a whole new expression, one she didn't fully comprehend. The valor squares that had been casting the room in a furious red glow receded to calm and Braen relaxed as well. She scowled, about to say more.

The general raised his hand and Naima stayed silent.

"It is not," he said. "Not to me. Before you call me heartless, I assure you I am not. I have taken many lives and I will take a whole lot more, but Brions aren't opposed to life as many in the union   believe. I want the same as you do. I want the Fearless gone and the lifestone to be safe."

Safe with you? Naima added in her mind, perhaps adding more edge to it than she intended.

After all, seeing him as all the stories told about his people made him out to be was a lot easier than imagining that she and the rest of the galaxy had been wrong this whole time. If Brions weren’t hungry for power to a fault, then what were they?

"I realize that the numbers don't make sense to you. There are so many species, thousands of worlds, billions and billions of lives. What is that compared to one person? One fated couple?"

"It is incomparable," Naima cut in, her anger getting the better of her.

"It really is," Braen agreed and his calm was becoming to gnaw at her defenses, bringing the emotions she sought to ignore far too close to the surface. "Imagine it. If I saved everyone and lost you. It would be acceptable to you?"

"I don't want to die, but yes," Naima retorted. "Why can't you understand that what you’re saying is completely crazy? You can’t put the needs of the few in front of the needs of the many."

"Because," Braen said, the slightest hint of hurt in his voice, "As you said, you don't feel what I feel. Geshas don't get the recognizing moment and I'm not the first man to have this conversation, especially with a Terran.

“If I lost you, there would be nothing. No joy could compare to seeing you smile. No victory would taste as good as your lips. Food would lose its taste and the world its color. People around me would turn into ghosts and I myself would die, even if I didn't stop breathing. If I lost you, I couldn’t save the universe. So in this case, the few come before the many, so the many would have any chance of survival at all."

Naima didn't know what to say, how to respond to something that extreme.

"It is still crazy," she said, trying to smile, to joke about words that had to be jest, otherwise they were just impossible. "I'm nice and all and pretty lovable, you know, but that is a bit much. A whole lot too much. I don't think there is a person who deserves a reaction like that."

She was starting to feel nauseous again. This was even worse than she’d pictured in her head. All the moments that she’d watched her mother slowly wither and crumble were now being laid out before her along with Braen’s words. It was like he was narrating her worst nightmare to her, even though Naima had thought that there could be nothing scarier than the Fearless.

Apparently she’d been wrong. The thought of destroying someone was far worse than the possibility of being destroyed by something herself.

Braen took a step closer, a soft smile upon his lips and this time, when he pulled Naima into his arms, she didn't struggle. She didn’t have the mental faculties available at the moment to mount a defense, especially when all she wanted was to bury her head in Braen’s chest and hyperventilate a little.#p#分页标题#e#

"Deserve," the general repeated. "This has nothing to do with deserving or worth or any other objective quality you want to name. This just is. And while you are free to fight and try to rationalize a gift like this, I will protect and cherish you until my very last breath."

This is absolutely over-the-top. No, scratch that. It sped past over-the-top a while ago. It's butter mountains and milk lakes. I'm force-fed a fairytale. A fairytale in which I’m going to be the villain.

"You don't even know me," she protested as the last resort, her voice weak.

"I want to," Braen said. "And I will. So far, I'm liking everything about you."