THE OFF WORLD COLLECTION (Short, Steamy Science Fiction Romances) (Off-World Series) Read Online Free PDF Page B

wish.”
    It sounded lovely, but still she had doubts. “Rohan, how will we live in a cave?”
    Again, that smug look crossed his features. “We have taken the tools we need and enough stores from your people and mine to feed us for a full cycle of seasons. There are fish in the cool streams that flow near the entrance, and I have trapped pelds from the plains for breeding, so that we will have meat. The animals appear to be doing well, living in the cave.”
    She nodded. Pelds were docile grazing animals that lived in herds. She had thought herself of raising them for milk and cheese, but the Guardians had vetoed the suggestion.
    Rohan continued. “You are going to use the lights we have installed to grow food for us and the animals.”
    She tipped her head to one side. “You counted on me being there to do that?”
    Any trace of arrogance left his gaze, and his tone was utterly sincere as he spoke. “I hoped. I prayed to the gods that you would come with me.”
    She gave him a fierce look. “I will follow you anywhere you choose to take me, if you promise never to leave me again.”
    His eyes burned with an intensity that robbed her of breath.
    “You have my word, Elena. My solemn oath as a warrior.”
    That was enough for her: his solemn oath. “Rohan, I love you. I never stopped loving you,” she told him.
    They embraced once more, and Elena felt the joy flowing back and forth between them.
    Slowly, with clear reluctance, Rohan loosened his hold on her. “We must go,” he told her, helping her to her feet. His fingers clasped hers tightly, and his gaze smoldered as he looked down at her. “I want to kiss you again, but if I do, I will lose all reason and drag you down to the ground with me.”
    The words and the desire in his eyes made her body turn to hot liquid. “Are you sure there isn’t time for that?” she whispered, yearning to join with him in this magical place of their reunion.
    He growled something rough and urgent deep in his throat. “Do not tempt me past endurance, woman. I dream every night of mating . . . no, as you say, of making love with you. It has been too long since our bodies were joined. I need you, Elena, but I will wait until we are far from here, in a place where your soldiers will not search for you. And then I will make love with you---and give you the child I promised you.”
    Her heart filled to bursting. He didn’t know about the baby. He truly had come back for her, and her alone.
    She gave him a slow smile. “You already have given me what you promised,” she replied softly, taking his hand and slipping it beneath her fur so that he could feel the gently rounded curve of her abdomen.
    He sucked in a sharp breath, and his dark eyes blazed with an emotion too intense to name. “My child is already growing inside you,” he said. Then his expression became grave. “Did you know of this when I left?”
    “Yes.” Her hand pressed more tightly over his. “I had just learned for certain the day before you came back from that trip with the engineers.”
    “And you did not tell me,” he growled. “You let me walk away from you. From our child.”
    “That day---” She gulped. “I was waiting for you, planning to tell you that I was carrying your son.”
    He made a low, strangled sound. “A son.”
    She nodded, then swallowed hard. “It felt as if the world had crashed down around me when you said you were going away. Yet I didn’t want to use the baby to hold you. I want our bond to be strong enough.”
    He took her gently in his arms. “It was enough, my cresteran. But I did not know it then. I was not wise enough to understand the feelings that I have for you---this fullness in my heart you call love. Will you ever forgive me for leaving you?” He swallowed hard. “For saying I would seek another mate when I knew in my soul that the two of us were joined for all time?”
    She clasped her arms tightly around him. “I forgave you the instant you scooped me up and