Page 14 of Tribute
She blinked up at the unexpected face of Commander Palk, who was buck naked.
“Where’s Akran?” she whispered.
“He’s busy.”
Palk stepped to one side so that she could see into the room. Rehz was naked and kneeling on the floor in front of a chair. His back was scored with bloody red lines and his head was bowed over as he panted for breath.
“You were supposed to go to medical, Lee, and be terminated.”
She set her jaw and stared up into Palk’s austere face. “If I didn’t make the cut, neither did any of the males. You didn’t take them on. Just me. That’s not fair.”
“Life’s not fair. Didn’t anyone ever tell you that?”
She steadied herself with one hand against the doorframe and fought a wave of sickening blackness. “But you didn’t follow through on your promise.”
“And what was that?”
“To beat me to death.” She smiled through her bleeding lips. “I’m still standing, and you walked away. I think that makes me the winner, doesn’t it?”
Without another sound, she slid to the floor and didn’t even feel it.
“Well, well, well.”
Rehz wanted to turn around so badly it was almost killing him. Palk snapped his fingers.
“Come here, Akran.”
He rose painfully and walked over to the door. His back hurt like hell and his cock was so stiff that he didn’t think he’d be able to come even if Palk allowed it. His heart stuttered as he stared down at Anna Lee. There wasn’t a piece of her that wasn’tbruised or marked in some way. He could even smell the all-too-familiar tang of Palk’s come on her.
“Take her to medical, will you?” Palk laughed. “You were right. She’s fucking unbelievable. I did everything in my power to stamp her into the ground and she just refused to stay down.”
“So she gets to progress?” Rehz risked the question.
“Yes.”
Rehz dropped his attention to the unconscious figure on the floor and let out his breath. “I’ll get some pants.”
CHAPTER
FOUR
Anna cracked open an eye and immediately closed it again. She was alive and in medical and, of course, bloody. Rehz Akran was sitting beside her bed.
“Lee.”
She swallowed and turned her head toward him. He took her hand, which shocked the hell out of her.
“Congratulations. You passed into stage two of the program.”
“Oh, great.”
“Palk was very impressed.” He hesitated. “And I was damn proud of you.”
She stared at the familiar harsh lines of his face and let her gaze trail down the peculiar tattoo-like raised scar that wound around his neck and ended somewhere behind his ear. Now that she thought about it, all the trainers had some variation of the same marking.
“We’ll start training again tomorrow at a new facility.” He squeezed her fingers and then stood up. “I’ll see you then.”
She found herself nodding as he turned and left. He moved like the big, dangerous predator he was, but . . . She squinted as a memory came back to her of him with Palk. Had she really seenhim on his knees, or was it just that she wanted to put him there so badly?
