Page 24 of Auctioned to the Convicts
He was observant, her soldier, and very blind at the same time. He didn’t hear what she was trying to tell him.
“They will all claim me in time, Ky’Li. You must accept this.”
“I will not accept it. Enough of this already, Hannah. I told you, I will keep them from touching you. Or do you doubt my abilities?”
“I know you can do anything, and that you will. But you shouldn’t, Ky’Li. It’s not right.”
“What’s not right is sleeping with more than one man. That is for a whore, not my sha’vi.”
She hissed in air as she sat straighter.
“I’ve insulted you,” he said, suddenly upset.
“I need you to listen to me.”
“I’m tired, sha’vi. My head is pounding and I don’t have my unit, I mean my squad, around me to protect me while I sleep. And while I’m stuck here recovering, my female will be off with males that I don’t want near her. I cannot protect her as I’ve promised, making me both a liar and inadequate as a pa’vi all at once.”
Her poor soldier was as overwhelmed as she was. She laid her head on his chest. “I’m sorry, Ky’Li. I didn’t mean to stress you.”
“Legs on the bed, now, sha’vi.”
She had been leaning into him, with her legs bent over the side. She climbed up onto the bed, stretching out against his side. A sigh escaped her. She’d been on her feet most of the day, but having Ky’Li tucking her against his solid body felt amazing and comfortable, like coming home. She let her hand rest on his bare chest. As her mind drifted, her fingers danced over the peaks and valleys of his chiseled muscles.
“Keep doing that and I’ll take you here, sha’vi.”
She stilled her hand.
His rich laugh startled her. The man didn’t seem at all bothered by their circumstances. Any of it. His hand sifted through her hair, slowly, almost reverently.
“What is pa’vi?” Hannah asked.
“I am your pa’vi. Your mate. Your one and only. Just as you are my sha’vi, my one and only.”
She angled her head to take in his handsome face. Pride, pure and complete, filled his face, even the way he held his head as he watched her.
“You’re troubled,” Ky’Li said, his eyes narrowing.
He was concerned for her. Always her protector, Ky’Li. How would she make him understand that he could not be herone and only?
“Am I that easy to read?” she asked, avoiding what she wanted to say.
“You’re my sha’vi. If I cannot read your body language and soothe you, then I don’t deserve you.”
“That’s sweet, Ky.”
He cracked a smile. “I like that. It’s what my parents and brothers used to call me. You will call me that, but only you, Hannah.”
She nodded, suddenly feeling the weight of this unit. Four men. “I’m nervous,” she confessed.
“I won’t harm you, but I will take you. There is no question about that, as you’re mine now.”
The way he said that made her thighs clench. Ky had a strength to him that she lacked. He was confident and self-assured. The man knew what he wanted and had no qualms about taking it or in this case her.
From the moment she’d laid eyes on him on the shuttle, she had been attracted to him, and that attraction hadn’t waned. If anything, it intensified the more she got to know him.
“When you are ready, we will become one, sanctify our union.”
“What of Vaughn, Sersie, and Ren?”
