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  Her wings flexed and fluttered, but she kept her heels on the ground. "They are addictive!"

  "And one of the best stimulators of breeding in nineteen species. They will beat a path to our orbit." He was almost salivating with greed.

  "You can't have me growing those year after year. They will destroy the soil." She took two steps toward him and stopped with a jerk. The chains weren't letting her get near him.

  "We can move the settlements. Follow the fallow fields." He seemed perturbed that she was not appreciating his genius.

  "You won't have fallow fields if you plant the hybrids! They poison the ground that they grow in and you know it and if you don't know it, do some fucking research!"

  He folded his ruffles flat against his neck. "I can see that I will have to visit you another time. You are not properly grateful for this opportunity."

  Tenario stomped out of her rooms and she returned to the window seat, tears in her eyes. They had planted Askuke hybrids. The plants would remove all of the minerals from the soil, but they wouldn't stop there. The very life energy that soil contained would go into the plants, stealing every bit of potential from the ground until nothing was left but dead dust.

  She groaned and pressed her forehead to the glass to cool her feverish skin. They weren't giving her enough water and it was shaking her concentration.

  Only the prefect was allowed to speak to her and he didn't listen when she told him that the supplies were not up to standards.

  She lifted the window until it was open a few inches and inhaled the air that brought in traces of the planet, humidity and the soil. If the guards caught her, they would simply close the window, but for now, she was enjoying every second of it.

  Voices seemed to be raised by the front gate. She tilted her ear to the short space in the window and listened intently. All of the voices were male. One had the same subsonic vibration as Eckobar, the other was fascinating and cool. A voice in control of the situation. The high shrill tones were those of the guards and after a five-minute discussion, they took on an acquiescent tone.

  Silence fell for a few minutes and she reluctantly closed her window and paced the ten feet that she had available on her chain. She fluttered her wings to move the air in the room, waiting for something to happen.

  She didn't have to wait long. The prefect blustered into her room with a look of fury on his face. "This is outrageous. How could you?"

  Sylvain was blinking in surprise. "How could I what?"

  "How could you have neglected to tell me you were married?" His neck flaps were opening and closing violently.

  A Kozue warrior entered the room and Eckobar was right behind him.

  Relief flooded through her just before she was struck by Tenario's words. "Married?"

  The male's hair was navy blue, his skin a silvery grey and his eyes burnished gold. The rest of him was all taut muscle fighting for acknowledgement under his tunic. "I am surprised that you would forget such a momentous moment in our life together."

  A marriage. It was a way out of Porvin. Sylvain smiled softly as she looked at the Kozue as she noted Eckobar's approval. He was nodding slightly and she took her cue from him.

  "What possible reason could there have been for me to refuse you, other than my husband's existence?"

  "Why did no one know of it? The prefect of Gossin knows nothing of it."

  Sylvain forced herself to blush as she took slow steps toward the Kozue. "His people value pure bloodlines. I don't even know what I am. We agreed to keep it quiet so that his people would not feel compelled to kill me to preserve their line."

  The male came to her when she ran out of chain and pressed a heated kiss to her lips. Her surprise swiftly fell beneath a passion that roared up from inside her. Whoever this man was, he sure knew how to kiss.

  His fingers wrapped around her waist and stroked the bottom base of her wings. Her low moan and the arch of her body against him gave him signals that no one could mistake.

  When he broke the kiss, he looked down at her with a gleam in his eyes that turned them to molten, swirling gold. "Hello, wife. It is good to see you again."

  Her swollen lips parted and she drew her tongue across her lower lip to answer, "I am happy to greet you, husband."

  He was very happy to be pressed against her, that much she could confirm.

  "Why is she chained?" Her husband was glaring at the prefect.

  "She…I…It was necessary to keep her under control. She can be violent." He was shrinking under the glare of the man who held her.

  "Take them off. Now."

  The prefect ran to the door and got the key from the guard. He handed it to her husband and scuttled away. It was amazing what the presence of an alpha male did to the prefect's manner.

  Her husband lifted her hands and unlocked the cuffs, releasing her from the hated weight. When her hips were free of the final chain, she stepped toward the man in her arms and he stepped back, giving her the space that she had been unable to reach before this. "Oh, thank you."

  "My pleasure."

  She threw herself forward and hugged him the way she would have hugged Eckobar if he wasn't covered with spikes.

  "Eckobar, I still do not wish to part with Sylvain. She needs to continue with her treatments and it will be easier for her and her husband to remain here than to return to the carnival and back every day."

  Eckobar looked as if he would argue, but he noticed the short shake of the Kozue's head and he nodded. "Of course, though I would like for her to attend a party we are having for our seamstress. She is with egg."

  Flustered, the prefect nodded. "Of course, what day?"

  If Sylvain hadn't been holding the Kozue, she wouldn't have felt him press three fingers to her hip.

  Eckobar smiled. "Three days. At sundown. Shorvah will be excited to see her again. The carnival has been worrying."

  The prefect nodded, but didn't look happy about the addition to the room. "I will have meals for two sent up."

  "Two extra carafes of water, please." The lack of water was making her weak and if she could get some by using the threat of the Kozue, she would.

  Tenario nodded briefly. "The guard will remain outside. If you wish to walk the grounds, he will follow you."

  Her husband nodded. "Understood, now please leave us. We have been parted for too long. This might get loud."

  The Porvin prefect darkened several shades while Eckobar stifled a laugh. He left them with a wave that held four fingers up. The everything-is-under-control signal that was used when an animal that had broken loose was found and restrained again.

  Sylvain smiled and leaned her head against the broad chest of her husband and when the prefect left, she breathed deeply. She went up on her toes and whispered in his ear, "What is your name?"

  He chuckled and whispered back, "Garoz. You will be free from this place in three days."

  She tried to move out of his arms. "I think we need to get to know each other before this kind of contact is appropriate."

  "I believe that the guard has been told to listen for sounds of copulating. So while it is a little awkward, I believe that we should maintain the ruse." His hands were stroking the base of her wings again as if he knew what he was up to.

  She shivered in his arms and processed his statement. "Are you saying that we need to have sex to sell the pretence that we are married?"

  He kissed the side of her neck while his hands worked her wing base. "Something like that. Also I have not been able to get the thought of you with these wings fluttering above me out of my head."

  She pushed out of his arms and whispered, "I don't even know you!"

  "Eckobar vouched for me. That will have to be enough for now. Simply know that you can trust me and I don't wish you any harm. My goal is to get you out of here in one delectable piece." He tilted his head and gave her a soft smile. "It is your choice whether we do it the easy way or the hard way."

  She licked her lips and he focussed his attent
ion on her tongue. "Let me think about it."

  "You have three minutes and then the guards are going to come in to see why we are so quiet."

  Sylvain took a deep breath. "Fine. Get on the bed. I want to keep my wings out of this."

  Chapter Four

  Garoz's smile made her stomach flip and when he unbuttoned his tunic and lay back on her bedding, she had to remind herself to breathe. The expanse of his silvery skin was calling to her hands, she carefully straddled him while lifting her skirt out from under her legs and with a soft sigh, she stroked the hard flesh of his chest and shoulders, easing the fabric aside.

  She was leaning down to kiss his chest and take a taste of that enticing skin when the door flew open and two trays were brought in by guards while a third watched the door.

  Garoz lifted his hands to her waist and glared at the guards until they left the room, bowing as they closed the door behind them.

  "Do you think they believed it?" She was still less than an inch from his skin and whispering.

  "I think that the guard at the door is still listening. Are you still willing?" He stroked her face and rubbed his thumb along her lower lip.

  She shivered. It had been a while and he was so very…perfect. "Yes."

  Her breath mingled with his as she reached down to kiss him. As they kissed, tongues twining, her hands stroked his chest while he caressed her thighs under her skirt. His dexterity was amazing as he stroked past the tiny barrier of her panties and rubbed against her centre. The slick moisture that she was producing eased his strokes as he rubbed her clit in a rhythm that brought her to the edge of screaming in under two minutes.

  She was biting her lip in an effort to stifle her cries when he brought one hand to her neck and pulled her down to him. "Sing for me, Sylvain."

  Syl gasped as he thrust two fingers into her and the strokes combined with the pressure of his thumb had their entanglement broadcast to anyone within hearing distance.

  He continued slow strokes until she ceased to clasp his fingers with pulsing intensity and then he withdrew his hand, bringing it to his lips and tasting her.

  "Now, without so many clothes." His voice was husky, the skin of his face tight across his cheekbones and his eyes glittering with intensity.

  She knew she was blushing, but she sat up on him and reached behind her neck to release her dress.

  The gauzy fabric pooled around her waist, but she didn't have time to feel cool air. Garoz's hands were on her the moment the fabric hit her waist. She leaned her head back as he cupped her breasts and she shifted her hips on him until she was rubbing against the hot ridge under his trousers.

  Tension spilled through her and she pressed her hands over his while she enjoyed the moment before she released his hands and started working on the clasp on his trousers. She eased his cock free and heard as well as felt her panties disappear.

  Sylvain bit her lip again as she stroked him with intensity, loving the heat as well as the strength in his flesh.

  "Put me inside you, sweetling."

  She trembled and rose on her knees, positioning him at her slit and rocking her hips to coat him with her moisture. She braced her hands on his chest and eased him into her, inch by inch. She looked at his face and smiled, his chest was heaving, his eyes were narrowed to slits and when she seated herself fully on him, his hands cupped her hips and started to move her before she could find her pace.

  His pace started slow and then as cries started to break from her throat with the friction of her clit against his pubic bone, it took on a blinding speed that scorched her with the heat of flesh against flesh.

  Broken cries echoed in the room as she got closer and closer to the edge, but when he reached up, pulled her forward and firmly gripped the base of her wings, she came apart.

  Searing rainbows burst behind her eyes and her body shook uncontrollably as he arched up into her and shouted his release.

  Sylvain had her head on his chest, facing the door when it opened a crack to show the face of the prefect. She kept trying to hold back her breathing, but when the door closed, she let out a chuckle.

  "You were right. They did check."

  His fingers were stroking her neck. "It is a male reaction. He wanted to make sure that you were not faking your marriage. I believe that we just proved it."

  Sylvain lifted her hips and let him slide free of her, she dismounted from him and put the top of her dress back into place. Her dress appeared demure, but she and Garoz were both aware that it was all that stood between her and complete nudity. "There is a lav over there."

  She gestured to the panel door and he nodded, leaving her for a moment before returning with a washcloth. "Lift your dress, Sylvain. As much as I like my scent on you, it will be uncomfortable after a few minutes."

  Blushing furiously, she lifted the dress to let him clean between her thighs. The cool cloth soothed her, but she was too embarrassed to enjoy it. When he was done, Syl went to the small table and set one tray for him and the water-heavy tray for her.

  "There is no need to be embarrassed. I will explain more to you when we are at the carnival, but for now, you only need to know that I will keep anyone from trying to confine or harm you. You will be safe with me." His words were whispered into her neck as he helped her settle on a backless stool.

  "I believe you." She smiled. It was true. Nothing he had done had been aggressive or endangered her in any way. Less danger than some of her carnival acts had put her in. A little public sex was not one of her hang-ups. In fact, it was kind of funny to have the prefect poke his head in.

  She poured a glass of water and he stopped her. He took her glass, sniffed it and then handed it back to her. "They can't poison me. They need me for a week."

  He chuckled. "You have a point. If they could harm me, I am sure they would."

  She didn't ask him what he meant by that. If they were being monitored, it would stand out as glaring if she had to ask him why he could not be harmed. She turned to the greens and vegetables that she had been served and concentrated on them.

  "So, Syl, what have you been up to since I last saw you?"

  So, there was a way to work around it after all. She put a coy tone into her voice. "I forget, how long has it been since you jaunted off for family business? One would have thought you had forgotten your poor wife."

  "It was only two months, love." He lifted her hand to his lips and he flashed a wicked smile. "I can remind you of our last time together after the meal. Now, what were you up to?"

  "Just the usual, the planting on Osharin, then the next world and now Porvin."

  "Did they threaten you when they took you?"

  "No, but the guns at the carnival and the cannons aimed at the ships were giveaways that they meant business." She bit a small pod in half viciously. The threat to her people had been her biggest hot button.

  "The cannons were still there when Eckobar informed me that you had been taken." His words came in between mouthfuls of food.

  "I see. That isn't good. I wish I was back there." She stabbed at her salad and drank half a carafe of water.

  "Have you ever considered leaving the carnival?" His casual tone dropped the words between them.

  She swallowed and then spluttered as she inhaled the water. "You know very well why I can't."

  "Things change, Syl. Things are changing right now." He finished his meal and sat back. "If no one decides to move forward, everyone stays in place."

  She was going to snap at him for digging at the topic, but a knock on the door got their attention.

  Tenario straightened his shoulders. "Sylvain, you are needed in the fields. The special crop requires your attention."

  She felt her face tighten as she stood. She gulped down the other carafe of water and nodded. To her surprise, her sandals were still in place. Even frolicking with Garoz hadn't managed to do more than eradicate her underwear.

  When he got to his feet next to her, she took his hand in a move that probably surprised
him. She didn't care. She wanted him next to her.

  "He can't come."

  "He is my husband. He will be at my side." She didn't stomp her foot, but it was implied.

  Garoz casually closed his tunic and wrapped his arm around her hips. "It is a sensitive time for her. She is in heat and gets irritable and irrational if I am not nearby."

  Tenario scratched his head. "No one has mentioned it before."

  "She was still maturing. Her kind takes almost four decades to reach adulthood."

  Sylvain fought not to show the shock that ripped through her. Apparently, she was not the only one of her kind Garoz had ever seen. That was going to be pillow talk for the evening if he stayed with her.

  Chapter Five

  The field of Askuke was suffering. Sylvain left the guards and her man behind to wander through the field. When they had been single-leaf seedlings, she hadn't recognized them for what they were.

  The Askuke were deadly to the soil. Not only would they drain the soil, but they also would start a ripple effect that would skew the harvests of the rest of the planet forever. Tenario's kidnapping of her now made sense. The plants absorbed life and their pods were both a narcotic and an effective treatment for infertility. Eating them gave you the life that they took from their planet.

  With a daily dose of her talent, the Askuke might make it to maturity and the rest of the local growing area might make it to harvest. There was no way to be sure.

  In a stopgap measure, she sent a burst of her growing energy through the wilting plants. With the waves of energy sucked in by the plants, she didn't know how long she would be able to maintain their growth.

  Her feet didn't even enjoy the feel of the soil. There was no life in this field, no joy, no wonder. It was a sucking black hole of greed and need. She didn't think she could fill it.

  Tired and emotionally drained by trying to feed this one field, she stomped back to the men waiting for her. "I don't know how long I can do that."

  She took a breath for another sentence and pitched forward into Garoz's arms.

  * * * *

  Garoz caught her and lifted her while being cautious of her wings. "Has this happened before?"