Page 69 of Forbidden

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When Alex heard Doriena leave the house he immediately moved to the window. She was heading toward the transport pod. He’d just bet she was going to find Bakac herself.

Damned girl!

She had no idea what she was getting herself into. Bakac was nice enough, but not for his little sister. It was the nature of the Gothe’maran to be intensely sexual -- they were a warrior race in a culture embracing peace. All that pent up emotion had to go somewhere. He’d had his share of Gothe’maran women, and if the sexual appetites of the men were anything near what he’d experienced with women like Tisheena then there was no way Doriena could handle it.

Unless she wasn’t as innocent as he thought.

She was a beautiful young woman. Not painfully thin, like most Gothe’maran women, but her limbs were sleek and layered with fine muscle. If she stayed at the Academy, she’d undoubtedly develop quite a physique in a few years. Usually she kept her flame red hair secured tightly at the base of her skull, but on the rare occasions he’d seen it down, it flowed like an orange flame down her back to brush the top of her ass, emphasizing the fact that he wanted to bare the tempting bottom and spank it until it was as red as her hair. It was enough to make him avoid her for weeks. How could he possibly face her with the biggest hard-on in the Universe?

He immediately squashed that thought. She was his little sister, for crying out loud! He had protected her from men like Bakac all her life. He knew better than anyone how men looked at her. Because from time to time, he caught himself looking at her the same way -- with a sexual, predatory hunger.

God! This fascination with her was getting way out of hand.

Okay, so he’d kept any and every man he could away from her. His baby sister wasnotgoing to be exposed to the more violent nature of his stepfather’s people.

Which brought up another problem. She was doing very well at the Academy. If things kept going like they were, she would graduate with honors in a couple of years and take her place among the other officers in Military Command.

Correction. She’d take her place among the othermaleGothe’maran officers in Military Command.

He knew it was what she wanted, knew she wanted to follow in their father’s footsteps. He also knew she wasn’t anywhere near ready for the responsibilities that went with that job. Oh, Doriena was responsible. He just didn’t think she could make the shitty calls. The ones that she knew going in would result in the death of a comrade. He had no doubt she could cut the work. She was hardworking, physically and mentally strong, highly intelligent -- everything an officer needed to be. But she was too damned young! And too tenderhearted.

Definitely too young and tenderhearted to seek out Bakac.

Decision made, Alex headed back to the ground floor and the door.

“Alex.” His mother’s voice. “What’s going on? You were supposed to be here hours ago. Are you just getting home?”

“Mother.” Alex pinched the bridge of his nose. How was he supposed to explain to his mother that he’d been out fucking around -- literally -- so he wouldn’t have to take his sister to meet his best friend? “Yes. I just got home, but I’m leaving again.”

“Where’s your sister?”

Alex took a breath. “She left.”

“It wouldn’t have anything to do with her missing the Spars, would it?”

“Maybe.”

Alex’s mother, Anna Mak’un, wife of General Kahn Mak’un, approached him, a dangerous look on her face. It was something Alex had rarely seen.

“Do you have any idea where she went?” Her voice was deceptively calm. Alex knew his mother well enough to know she was working herself into a good “mad,” but he’d be damned if he knew how to defuse her. Mainly because he knew he deserved it.

“I suspect she may have gone to seek out Bakac on her own.”

He expected the explosion in that moment, but that deadly calm stayed firmly intact. It was almost worse than if she’d lashed out at him. He hated for his mother to be mad at him.

“Do you feel anything you said or did directly influenced her decision to leave this house knowing she was going against the wishes of her father and I?”

There it was. If he told the truth, he was in trouble. He didn’t even want to think about what would happen if he lied. Because shealwaysknew when he lied.

Oh, well. Better to get it over with.

“I think it was a combination of both.”

His mother was a phenomenal woman, which was probably one of the reasons his father adored her so much. Even almost thirty years after they’d met, the affection the two of them had for each other was more than obvious to everyone who encountered them. In fact, the tender looks and caresses were commonplace and expected when the couple were in the same room. She was also a terrifying woman to have angry with you. He’d been on the receiving end of her wrath more than once, and it was never pleasant.

She simply looked at him a few moments, the silence stretching on and on. He desperately needed to break the tension, but didn’t dare speak. Just when he thought he couldn’t take another second of the blistering silence, she turned and walked away. As he watched her go, his father emerged from his study and immediately enfolded his wife in his arms.

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