Rystani Warrior 02 - The Dare Read Online Free PDF Page B

who could wrap her arms around a man, kiss him, stroke him, caress him. She wanted to be a true partner, and if she had to give up her immortality to have her chance at love, so be it.
    Apparently, Kirek decided that they were too close to their final destination for his father to turn back. He climbed out from his hiding spot. “Hi, Dad.”
    “Stars!” Etru swore, and Dora prepared to take over the piloting if necessary, but his hand remained steady on the controls. “How many times have I told you that a skimmer is no place for a child?”
    “If I stayed home, I’d miss all the excitement.” Knowing his father was too busy to hold him, Kirek slid onto Kahn’s lap, the clever boy sure of his welcome. “I’m going to be a starship pilot one day.”
    Kahn chuckled and his arm closed lovingly around Kirek’s waist. “You should have asked to come along.”
    “You would have said no.”
    “Starship pilots obey orders,” Kahn countered. “Your mother must—”
    “I notified Miri that Kirek’s with his father,” Dora informed Kahn and Etru, remaining silent about exactly when she’d sent the message. However, when Kahn rolled his eyes at the ceiling, a Terran habit he’d picked up from Tessa, Dora suspected he’d figured out that her scanners had picked up the boy and she’d informed Miri, but not him, shortly after takeoff.
    During their conversation, Tessa prepared emergency kits in the back. Dora lowered her tone so only Tessa could hear. “I’m modifying my portable unit in hopes that when you enter the cavern, we can maintain contact.”
    “Great.”
    “The modification may not work.”
    Tessa picked up a laser weapon. “Understood. How long until the drop?”
    “Two minutes.”
    Up front Kahn stood, placed Kirek in the copilot seat, and then strapped him in. “Stay.” His tone was harsh, but he gave away his true feelings when he tousled the boy’s hair with a gentle hand.
    “He’s not going anywhere,” Etru muttered.
    At Kahn’s approach, Tessa braced as if fearing her husband was about to give her the same order. But Kahn had learned that his wife rarely obeyed him. At the sight of three packed kits, his eyebrow lifted. “You’re coming along?”
    “You might get into too much trouble on your own. Besides you’ve been telling me I work too hard and need to relax more.”
    “You call dropping out of a skimmer relaxation?” Kahn sighed at his rhetorical question, but his lips ticked upward into a grin. He opened the hatch and wind blasted into the skimmer. Kahn leaned forward and gave his wife a fierce kiss. Almost always during times of intimate contact, one of them commanded Dora to leave their presence—while all the interesting stuff happened. However, they appeared so wrapped in the kiss that she had a perfect opportunity to observe.
    All she could think was … yum.
    Dora couldn’t wait to find a man to look at her with that kind of heat and tenderness. A man who’d kiss her with that combination of untamed need and savage possessiveness.
    As always when she thought of a mate, her thoughts turned to Zical. Dora had done her best to ensure that the composition and elasticity of her human vocal cords produced the same timbre as her computer-generated voice. Would he find her human voice as sexy as her computer one? If she made herself attractive enough, would he be compelled to make love to her?
     

Chapter Three
    BY THE STARS, had he fainted? Zical rubbed his aching forehead, groaned, and forced his eyes open. The blinding golden light had disappeared. Soothing darkness backlit from the portal allowed him to view the alien machinery surrounding him, and he was relieved to find himself on his stomach only a few feet from the cavern’s entrance. After he gathered his strength and regained his feet, he’d do what he should have done in the first place—what Dora had suggested—go back outside and report his find.
    Dora’s tone prodded him, but with the ringing in his ears,