My Man Michael Read Online Free PDF Page A

Mallet’s eyes narrowed. “Now you’re just fucking with me, aren’t you?”
    She went quiet, fidgeted, and then looked at him with clear disapproval. “I’m sorry, sir, but your language unsettles me. It’s not appropriate for where we will go.”
    “Your colony?”
    “Yes. If you’ll agree.” This time she pressed her fingers to his mouth. “And if you agree, I, as Claviger, can make your leg whole again. It will be as if the damage never occurred. You will be the same man you were before the accident, but in a different time and place. You will stand with the members of my family to take responsibility for my people.”
    Despite the craziness of her assertions, her audacity turned Mallet on. He nipped the tip of her middle finger with his teeth. Not hard, just enough to get her attention before he licked, tasted—
    She jerked back fast, disappeared, and reappeared again almost immediately.
    “I’m sorry,” she said in a rush, for the first time with an inflection of emotion wavering in her tone. “You must not do such things with your . . . your teeth and your . . . tongue? Yes, I’m sure it was your tongue.”
    Wow. Such a reaction. He raised a brow and smiled. “It was.”
    She took a step back, then caught herself and stiffened her shoulders.
    “How’d you do that flickering in and out?”
    Her face tightened. “I tried to leave, my computer insisted I stay.” Her chest expanded on a breath. “Because it is important that I stay to finish our discussions, I’m asking you, please do not do anything so . . . perturbing again.”
    Grinning, Mallet shifted to face her more fully. “I perturbed you?”
    She nodded. “Such things leave me unsure how to react.”
    “I could show you how to react.” Okay, so pain kept him more immobile than not, and he couldn’t do squat without breaking a sweat. On top of his pathetic condition, she was probably looney tunes, but her sweetness made the lunacy irrelevant. Even under such absurd circumstances, Mallet couldn’t help but turn on the charm and give it a shot.
    She intrigued him more than any other woman he’d met.
    After drawing another deep breath, she flipped back her hair and lifted a stubborn chin.
    Though Mallet hoped for agreement, he waited for her anger. He waited for a typical female rejection, maybe even a slap in the face.
    “I’m sorry, sir,” she stated, “but I may not breed. It is forbidden for a warrior.”
    That statement wiped all thought from Mallet’s brain. She couldn’t breed ? Okay, so maybe her lunacy mattered a little after all.
    Mallet took in the seriousness of her expression and decided to play along. “Sorry, sugar, but I ain’t going anywhere I can’t breed .”
    She blinked hard and fast. “Oh, no, you misunderstand. It is forbidden for me —for most warriors. But you are an exception. You would be accepted as a prominent placeholder in the hierarchy, equal to the Arbiter. You would be expected, even encouraged to procreate.”
    “No shit?”
    “It would be wonderful if you filled our ranks with your offspring.”
    Damn, but he couldn’t help it. Not since the accident had he found anything remotely funny, but several times now she’d made him smile. Now, with this craziness, he guffawed aloud, and once he got started he couldn’t stop.
    She was a warrior?
    From the twenty-third century?
    She wanted to take him back there with her, and once there, he’d be encouraged to “get it on”?
    The more that Mallet laughed, the more her expression soured until she pinched up and said, “Sir, your humor is misplaced.”
    His leg hurt like hell, his ribs screamed in protest, and the rawness in his throat caused real agony, but it just didn’t matter.
    “You think?” Wiping tears of mirth from his eyes, he settled from robust laughter to a warm smile. “Tell me this, honey, who am I supposed to procreate with?”
    Her hazel eyes burned. Her lips went stiff. “You will be offered a selection of available