Read Online Dana Cartwright Mission 3: Kal-King by Joyz W. Riter - Free Book Online

my mind, but you never said where to meet you.”
    He laughed and gave her hand a soft squeeze. “I’ll have to remember to be more specific next time.”
    She took the carafe of coffee, sipped some, savored the taste, then asked the most immediate of her million questions, “What are you doing on Tonner III?”
    He countered with a question, “What are you doing out of uniform?”
    She sighed at his diversion and averted her eyes. “That’s a long story; I’ll tell you sometime when we have hours to…”
    “I can get the answer quite easily,” he reminded, again sliding his hand to the nape of her neck for a telepathic link. She didn’t fight him, but closed her eyes and seemed to enjoy his gentle probing into the details of her struggles. However, he had a difficult time because of the pain in her body.  
    “You need comforting,” he whispered, this time kissing her upon the lips, not caring what anyone at the plaza might think.  
    I love you , he told her telepathically. It seemed the most important thing to say.
    “Come,” he invited, after she’d sipped about half the coffee. He took it from her, throwing its contents away onto the parched ground, which swallowed it up greedily. Then he collapsed the container and hid it in a secret pocket of his tunic as he led her by the hand. They left the marketplace, now bathed in a shimmering, cool artificial lighting pink glow, deluged with life forms, small to tall.  
    Kieran escorted, carefully setting a pace Dana could keep, to a full-service cab. Once they were inside, he gave the driver the name of Tonnertown’s most lavish resort hotel, Wind-o-mar.
    “I spent the first night there,” she told him, “because Ambassador Taurian prepaid for us.”
    Kieran sighed, “I know all that. I saw the incident report.”
    She seemed close to tears. “No one believes me. It was no accident. The Ambassador wasn’t strapped in. I gave him the approach warning. He was searching for something among the luggage. And then, there was an explosion. It was…”
    “Hush,” he whispered, pulling her closer so they could cuddle together during the remainder of the ride and during the wait at the resort under the awning as other robo-cabs discharged passengers. The driver diverted, since it was already dark, and helped them both out of the cab at a side entrance that avoided the crush of the lobby.
    Kieran’s room pass took them to the palatial penthouse suite, one floor above the one she’d occupied the first night. It boasted a steamy water-spa, which he instinctively knew would ease some of the pain in her leg. He pointed her toward it, while securing the door and watched as she wandered about, drinking in the luxurious smells of evergreen scented candles and exotic off-world plants.  
    The spa area had the look and feel of an earthly flower garden.  
    Kieran dimmed the lights with a verbal command and soothing instrumental music from a lyre began to issue from the speakers.
    “Very nice,” she said, dropping her backpack on the carpeting as he slid off his solar cloak and outer robe, draping them across the back of the common room sofa.  
    “Enjoy yourself,” he offered, while moving purposefully about the suite, to closets and such, returning to her side with fluffy bath towels, lush robes, a hairbrush and a toiletries kit, which he set down on the carpeting near the spa.
    He knelt at her feet and undid the fasteners on her boots, letting her lean upon his shoulder as he pulled them off one by one. With a frown he noted the hidden sheath always concealed in her left boot was missing, along with the vintage, Sterilian dagger.
    Like a loving caretaker, he helped her out of the jumpsuit, kissing her tenderly, hands caressing, erasing all doubts and cares. She clung at first, then allowed his strong arms to guide her first step into the warm water.
    She seemed painfully thin to his observations; her always narrow hips now almost skeletal. Her waist and the mounds