Her eyebrows popped up. “What is that?”
I glanced at the wiggling, golden puff as I attempted to keep it from leaping out of my hands. “It’s a Gerwyn. The Zagrath keep them as pets. They’re said to be very enjoyable.”
Juliette’s mouth trembled and she pressed her lips together.
“Are you laughing?”
She slapped a hand over her mouth, shaking her head as she shook with obvious laughter. “It’s just that you don’t look like you’re enjoying yourself very much. It looks like you’re trying to subdue a sea eel.”
Her laugh was infectious, and I couldn’t keep a chuckle from slipping out of me. “Maybe I should have asked first if you wanted a pet.”
“Here.” She reached for the creature, and I gladly handed it over. Instead of struggling in her arms, the Gerwyn went limp and allowed her to stroke its head. Or at least, what I thought might be his head. There was so much fur it was impossible to tell.
After a few moments, the fur relaxed, and the tiny creature beneath was revealed, his eyes wide and his whiskers twitching as he looked up at Juliette.
She rubbed behind his ears and one of his back legs jiggled. “He looks a bit like a puppy.”
“A puppy?”
“A pet that humans had on Earth. They still have them on some colonies, but I’ve only seen images.” She peered at me. “Where did you get this guy?”
“On our raiding mission. The empire does a big business in trapping exotic creatures and selling them as pets. Most of the cargo on the ship we raided was exotic creatures.”
“So you rescued him?”
I jerked one shoulder up. “I thought you might enjoy the company.”
“What about the other creatures?”
“In our hold being tended to by my raiders, who are none too happy about it. We are returning them to the planet from where they were taken and releasing them. It’s a diversion, but I cannot keep them in my hold for long.”
She tilted her head at me. “I thought Vandar raiders blew up imperial cargo ships.”
“We do not murder innocent creatures, no matter what the Zagrath claim about us.” I pivoted away from her and walked to the low table, pouring myself a glass of wine and gulping it down.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to suggest you would. I guess I should have learned by now that the Vandar aren’t what I thought they’d be. Corvak already proved that he would fight for our planet when he didn’t have to, and you’re supposed to be the scariest Raas, but you go around rescuing boys from pleasure houses and animals being taken from their homes.”
The wine seared my throat and warmed my belly. So, she’d been talking to Baru. “You do not believe I am scary anymore?”
“I wouldn’t want to make you angry, but you don’t frighten me anymore, no.”
I put down the empty goblet and flopped down on the nearest pallet, the battle, bath, and wine making my movements sluggish and my eyes even heavier than usual. “It would be a mistake to underestimate how dangerous I can be, especially to you.”
Juliette lowered herself onto the edge of the pallet and set the Gerwyn down beside her. “Because you’re Raas, and can do anything you wish?”
I interlaced my hands behind my head and watched her. “No, although both of those things are true. I am dangerous because I can show you a side of yourself you didn’t know existed, and one you might not want to give up.”
She frowned at me, a wrinkle forming between her eyes. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’ll be very happy when you return me to my home planet like you promised.”
“You will wish to return to that dull, restrictive world after you’ve seen what exists beyond?”
“It’s not dull,” she said, her shrill tone making the Gerwyn flinch, and its fur fluff up again.
“You would prefer a long existence that never changes, over the adventure of life in space?” Since I’d spent my life on a horde ship, a never-changing planet seemed like slow torture.
“Space is dangerous, especially the way you live out here.” She shook her head and her curls bobbled around her face. “You’ve already been wounded.”
“Any life worth living has risks. If you aren’t scared every so often, you aren’t really living.”
“Spoken like a Vandar,” she muttered, rubbing the Gerwyn’s belly when he rolled over. “Some of us don’t like being scared all the time.”
I sat up and leaned close to her, curling my tail around her waist. “What about some of the time?”
She lifted her chin. “You don’t scare me.”
I lifted her hand and turned it over so that the pale skin of her wrist was exposed. I pressed a kiss to it, the pulse fluttering madly under my lips. “It isn’t wise to lie to a Raas.”
“I’m not lying.” Her eyes were dark, the pupils dominating the paler ring of blue. “I know you won’t hurt me. I’ve seen the heart beneath the steel.”
Juliette did not understand the two sides of the Vandar, and how my compassion did not make me any less violent and deadly to my enemies. Nor did it quench my desire to dominate her and claim her body as mine. I wanted to be tender with her, like my majak had advised, but I also wanted to throw her back and bury myself between her soft thighs. Conflicting desires stormed within me and I fought to control them.
I forced her fist open and placed another kiss on her skin, this one on her palm. “You should not be afraid of me hurting you, Juliette. You should be afraid of the opposite. You should be afraid of me giving you so much pleasure you never want to leave me.” I licked her palm with the tip of my tongue. “I will make
