Her Mate's Secret Baby:Interstellar Brides, Book 9(20)

She walked around me slowly, her fingers tracing the new, pink scars on  my back, the wounds still not completely healed on my chest and thighs.  My muscles flexed and I could barely breathe as she touched me gently.  Reverently. "Why aren't you healed? I thought you guys had technology  that could heal almost anything. God, were you hurt that badly?"

A shudder raced down my spine and my cock thickened, growing impossibly  large. When she came around from behind me, she'd see it almost touched  my navel. My balls were heavy, aching to fill her again. If fucking her  for just one night made Noah, we could certainly do it again. "Now you  sound like the doctors, mate." My voice was deep, rough with need.

"Answer the question."

"There was no time."

"No time?" Natalie walked to stand before me and I looked down into her  upturned face, trapped by the need I saw burning in her bright blue  eyes. "I don't understand."

"It would have taken long hours to heal completely." I raised my hand to  her lovely face and traced her cheek with my fingertips. Her skin was  as soft as I remembered. "But I refused."

"This is crazy, Roark. Why? Why wouldn't you let them heal you?"

"It had been ten days, mate. Ten days and they said you were dead. I was  frantic. I had to find you, to know for sure. If you were out there, I  had to get to you. And I did."

Natalie leapt into my arms and I caught her, tucked my hands under her  ripe ass as she wrapped her legs around my hips. Her fingers threaded  through my hair and pulled, hard, demanding I lower my head and kiss  her. Her mouth was soft, her kiss hot and she was so responsive. She  opened to me and I tasted her, my tongue tangling with hers.

She pulled back, her breath ragged. "God, it's been over a year."

I looked into her pale eyes, saw the passion and the need. The truth. "I  don't understand. It's been ten days and that was long enough. How  could it be a year? I see proof of it in our son, but it makes no  sense."

"Warden Egara said time isn't the same. I'd only spent just one night  with you, but when I was transported back, it had been eleven weeks  since I'd left Earth. Eleven!"

The reality of what happened settled heavily, like a nox had sat on my chest. "I'm sorry, mate. Fark."

What she must have felt to arrive back on Earth, alone, thinking me dead.

"I'm so glad you're here, but I'm so mad at you."

I brushed her wild hair back from her face. "Mad?"

She stepped away, looked down at the magical flames. "You left me to go  to your parents." I heard the way her voice broke. "You chose them over  me."

I went to her, spun her to face me. "Left you? I saw to your safety  first." Didn't she know I would take care of her above anything else? By  the hurt, angry look in her eyes, the answer was no.

She shook her head. "No. You sent me off with the doctor. You cared more  about your parents. You worried for them, saw to their safety."         

     



 

I closed my eyes, exhaled. "Fark. Gara, I didn't want you with me during  the ambush because I couldn't guarantee your safety if you were by my  side. I knew if you went with the doctor, you would be safe, protected."

She shook her head again, this time with lines of anguish on her face.  "I wasn't safe. They died, Roark. The guards, the doctor. God, they died  right in front of me. She put me on the transport pad just in case,  then the Drovers came. It was the doctor who saved me."

She shuddered and I pulled her into my arms, held her tightly, her cheek  pressed into my chest. I'd almost lost her. Because of the doctor's  smart planning, the guards that protected her, she was alive.

I spread my hand over her head, holding her to me so she would hear the  words as they rumbled through my chest. "I vowed to protect you,  Natalie. I sent you to the safest location in the Outpost. The one place  I believed you would be safe."

She shook her head and I felt the hot sting of her tears on my bare  chest. I lifted both hands to her cheeks and angled her head up, forced  her to look into my eyes. "You are my mate, Natalie. I know you do not  yet understand what you mean to me, but know this, I will always put you  first. I will always protect you. I will always come for you."

Natalie bit her lip, her eyes clouded with doubt. "What about your parents?"

I lowered my forehead and pressed it to hers. "They are my family, gara, and important to me. But you are my heart."

"And Noah? What about him?" She sniffed and looked hopeful, cautious,  and very protective of our son. All things a mother should be. I found I  liked her fire, the intensity of her devotion to Noah. Seeing her as a  fierce, loving mother only made me want her more. I could not wait to  fill her with my seed, see her grow round with a second child. I wanted a  girl next, with her mother's eyes. "What do you think about having a  son?"

"He is the greatest gift anyone has ever given me, mate. I will love him  and protect him with my life, as I will love and protect you. Always."

My mate studied me and I held her gaze, stood naked and vulnerable  before her. For eight days I'd been tortured, but I knew my suffering  was nothing compared to hers. I'd believed her dead for but a single  day. She'd believed me dead for more than a year, gone through a  pregnancy unprotected and alone. Raised our son on her own. Fought off  unwanted male attention …

At least, I wanted to think she had not given her body to another. But  with her beauty, her luscious curves, I had no doubt the sniveling fool  here when I arrived was not the first man to want my mate.

"I want to take you home, Natalie."

"Back to Trion?"

"Yes. I want you home with me. There is so much I didn't get to show  you, and Noah. The capital, Xalia, is a beautiful city, with gardens and  markets, so much life. And the medallion I gave you is a key that  unlocks a vault deep below the city."

"What?" She looked at me wide eyed. "You gave that to me?"

I nodded. "You are my mate. Of course you would have it. That's how I  found you. The medallion. It only opens for my DNA. Noah touched it,  didn't he?"

She thought for a moment and nodded.

"While you hold the key to the southern continent on your chain, Noah has the power to open it. He helped me find you again."

Warm air escaped her parted lips with a hint of a shudder. "What's in it?"

"Knowledge. Wealth. Power. The planet at your feet, mate. I gave you  everything, love." I traced her bottom lip with my thumb, hungry to  taste her. But I would not take her without her consent. "Come home with  me."





***





Natalie



All the months of anguish, of mourning, of anger, somehow seeped away,  like water down the drain. Time hadn't been on our side. We'd only had a  day together before we were ripped apart. While I'd known since I first  transported back to Earth that time was different on Trion, I hadn't  considered it might be the reason Roark had never come, why it had taken  him so long. The doctor told me he was dead. I'd hoped, but I'd thought  him dead, believed I'd never see him again. Time meant nothing when  death was involved.

But for Roark, he'd come as soon as he could. God, he'd been captured,  tortured and hurt enough to need the fancy pod medicine. I wanted to cry  over what he'd gone through, but he was here and didn't seem to think  it was important. As soon as he found out I was alive, he'd done exactly  as promised. It had only been ten days for him. Ten! He'd rushed across  the galaxy to me and discovered a sleazy man wearing lobsters in my  entry and a baby on my hip. While I'd had plenty of time to adjust to  having a baby, he'd only had a mate for eleven days. He'd been a father  for an hour.         

     



 

In such a short time, he'd gained a mate and a baby. I had to assume no other Trion male could make a baby in such a short time.

It was important for Roark to know his child, to bond with him after the  months he'd missed, but Noah was asleep. It was time to revel in the  knowledge that we still had each other. Seeing him, holding him,  breathing him in wasn't enough.

I needed the connection we'd shared on Trion in the oasis. I needed to  join with Roark so I didn't know where he began and I ended. I needed  him inside me. Deep.

"Yes," I breathed, either in response to his words or to my thoughts of  having him filling me up. Which didn't matter. I wanted both. I dropped  to my knees, my hands sliding down his torso, over chiseled abs to rest  on his rock-hard thighs. Directly before me, bobbing, was his cock. I  licked my lips in anticipation of tasting him. The head was wide and  plush, the color of it a ruddy red. Fluid seeped from the tip and made  my mouth water. He was so long, I couldn't take all of him. A vein  bulged down the throbbing length and I was eager for him, to feel him,  taste him on my tongue. When I saw his fingers clench into fists, he was  as needy as I. He was holding back all that coiled tension, that  desperation.