Read Online Primal Heat by Crystal Jordan - Free Book Online

planet has been an odd combination of fawningly welcoming and catastrophically vicious.”
    â€œWe’re a complicated bunch.” She smirked. “You don’t want to deal with us. Go away.”
    He snorted and scooped up another handful of water to drink. “Yes, that’s going to solve your problems with Arthur now.”
    â€œWe wouldn’t have had these problems if you hadn’t shown up.” She sighed, and a wave of her powerless frustration billowed out from her like a cloud.
    â€œI know.” He nodded, feeling some of that dissatisfaction himself. After all these months of futile negotiating, he understood her position very well.
    A flicker of surprise crossed her expression. “You…know?”
    â€œOf course. I am not stupid or unaware of the consequences of our arrival on your planet and people.” He leaned toward her, her delicate, feminine scent as heady to him as ever. He forced himself to consider the discussion at hand, not something that he’d had to do often as a diplomat. “You seem impervious to the damage you have caused to us though. Why is that, do you think? Is it truly that you think we brought it upon ourselves?”
    â€œNo. Yes. No.” Her slender, dark brows contracted, the inner conflict roiling out to touch him. “I don’t know.”
    â€œA definitive answer. I like those.” He let a small smile tuck in one side of his mouth, wanting to soothe her, but not knowing how, and knowing that he shouldn’t care either way. What was so simple with other people in his profession was always complicated with his One. He didn’t like it.
    She huffed out a breath and pushed to her feet. “Quit politicking me.”
    â€œQuit oversimplifying the situation to make it suit you,” he retorted. He rose with her, towering over her. “There is no one who is entirely innocent here, but also no one who is entirely to blame. The nuances aren’t mere inconveniences; they are vital to understanding the true meaning of the problem.”
    Which he’d been unsuccessful at discussing with any of the heads of state on Earth who would see him. America, especially, was stubborn in its need to have a clear right or wrong, winner or loser, black or white. It bespoke a young culture, not yet matured to a full grasp of their own place in the order of things.
    â€œYou can do all the detailed navel-gazing you want, but don’t miss the big picture…lives are at stake. Your people’s, my people’s. People have died and more are going to die unless we do something. You get to run off into space whenever Kyber finds his soul mate or whatever, but you leaving won’t solve the problem. Not anymore. Arthur will still be in power after you’re gone, and he’s not going to give up that power without a fight. And again—the big picture—that means innocent people will die.” She sighed, crossing her arms and drawing his gaze to her breasts. He could see the outline of her nipples through her shirt and his cock rose in eager response. She closed her eyes and shook her head. “I don’t…think you brought this on yourselves. It’s just that, as a soldier, it’s never a good thing to think too long or too hard about the damage you do to the enemy. You have to have some emotional distance from that or it’ll make you crazy. You don’t survive in the military long if you can’t make that separation between us and them .”
    â€œYou’ve survived as a warrior a long time, haven’t you?” He’d wager a great deal that she’d never had to struggle with this kind of gray area before, and he hated seeing the distress reflected in her expression.
    â€œMy entire adult life.” She nodded, eyes the color of the bluest ocean on Suen moving over his face. She looked so lost, nothing like the hardened soldier he knew her to be. He reached for her,