Page 61 of Shielded Heart 1
After carefully climbing off his chest, she took a singlestep away, paused, and turned toward Arc to peck a kiss on his lips. She pulled back before he could catch her, smiling.
That simple little kiss struck him hard; he’d never been kissed like that before. It hadn’t been an impassioned kiss, hadn’t been a lustful kiss, but an affectionatekiss. Its warmth spread across his face, flowing directly into his heart.
Absently, he brought up the control on his holocom and opened the nearby door for Samantha—the same one through which she’d entered—keeping his eyes on her as she walked away. There was a sway to her hips now, extremely subtle but undeniable.
She’d not once walked that way in the time he’d known her.
Only after the door was closed did he sit up fully, swinging his feet onto the floor. He lowered a hand to his protruding cock and squeezed it through his loincloth, hoping in vain to alleviate its ache. He shuddered; there’d be no relief now.
The door alert sounded again.
Arcanthus’s nostrils flared with an exasperated exhalation. He flicked the command to open the hidden entry on the platform before he dismissed the holocom screen, leaned back, and stretched his arms along the sofa’s backrest. He laid his tail on the cushion beside him, unable to keep its tip from thumping up and down in irritation.
Drakkal entered the chamber on the platform, passing dozens of screens on his way to the steps. He descended and stopped in front of Arcanthus, staring down with his brows low. “Do I really need to see that?”
Arcanthus dipped his gaze to his groin, where his erect cock created a distinct, writhing bulge in his loincloth. “Yes. It’s one of the consequences for interrupting me.”
Drakkal shook his head and rolled his eyes. “I know she’s your mate, but we dohave other things to take care of.”
“Taking care ofheris my first priority,Drak.”
“And did you?”
“Not to my satisfaction.”
The azhera dipped his chin toward Arc’s crotch. “Clearly. You ready to be serious now?”
Arcanthus tipped his head back onto the backrest and sighed. “I’m always serious, Drakkal.” He couldn’t stay angry at the azhera for wanting to address the problems they were facing, but it would be difficult to focus on anything when his body craved Samantha so badly it hurt. “What did you find?”
Drakkal eased himself down on the couch across from Arcanthus’s. His tail lashed restlessly over the cushion. “We pulled surveillance holos from the Ventrillian Mall. Managed to get some good images of the groalthuun who was taking pictures of you. He pops up on yesterday’s feed from outside Samantha’s apartment building, too.”
Lifting his head, Arc met Drakkal’s gaze. “Show me.”
A few motions of Drakkal’s fingers in his holocom’s controls brought up a wide, projected image in the air between them—the groalthuun, standing in the crowd at the mall. The image split to show the same groalthuun from a different angle, this time in front of the entry door to Samantha’s building, with the large orange onigox beside him.
“That’s the one.”
“It took a lot of digging, but we found numerous aliases for him. Most common one is Straek.”
Arcanthus tipped his chin toward the onigox’s image. “The orange bastard said that name at one point. That he was going to have Straek take Samantha after I was dead.”
Drakkal dismissed the image and lowered his arms, resting them over his thighs as he leaned forward. His expression was grim. “He’s part of the Inner Reach Syndicate.”
Something icy slithered into Arcanthus’s gut, and his eyes flared. He pushed off the backrest and leaned forward himself,subconsciously mimicking his friend’s position. “The Inner Reach? You’re sure, Drakkal?”
The azhera nodded once. “Obviously, there’s not much information beyond that, not without you looking into it yourself. They keep their activities under tight wraps.”
“Understandably so.” Arcanthus dropped his gaze to the floor. His cock finally retracted into his slit, its ache subsiding as numbness spread through him. If Drakkal interrupting hadn’t been enough to dampen the mood,thiswas overkill.
“This can’t be a coincidence, Arc.”
“But why? Why after all this time? This…this was probably just because of Samantha. He was scouting her because she’s a terran, and the Syndicate traffics in slaves. They just saw me as a potential threat—”
“You said they went to her apartment and asked her aboutyou,” Drakkal said firmly, calling Arc’s eyes back to him. “You were recognized.”
Arcanthus’s heart pounded. Memories threatened to flood to the surface—memories of suffering, betrayal, terror—and he barely held them back. “But I’ve never seen this Straek before a few days ago. Have you? There’s no way he could’ve known who I am.”
“But someone whodoesknow you must’ve seen those pictures.”
