Bargain With the Enemy Read Online Free Page A

band of glittering stars appearing in the sky above. On the horizon a moon banded by rings hovered above the tallest mountain. Thin ribbons of pale light glowed like pointing fingers of accusation towards where he paced the length of the starkly furnished room.
    With an impatient snap of his head against his shoulder, he attempted to ease the itch on the tip of his nose. A complete waste of time.
    He did not dare release his grasp of the baby in his arms.
    Despite having faced and conquered dire situations in the past, situations that would have made most warriors turn weak kneed and run, not one of those desperate times compared to this…this situation that revolved around one determined, stubborn, screaming infant.
    The dark-haired Darkon female he’d hired, trotted to and fro at his side. Her serene face puckered into lines of anxiety and her lamentations added to the growing crescendo of noise that could have toppled the strongest building.
    Ivo raised his eyes to the ceiling and prayed to his goddess of old for patience. Some silence would be good.
    Any silence.
    A brief respite from this all consuming noise which pierced through his skull and threatened to rattle loose all the teeth in his head. How could so much noise emanate from something so small? He rubbed the little back with a gentle hand which failed to soothe the distraught baby.
    They had both tried everything.
    But nothing gave Mia any consolation. Not the one hundred percent free-roaming berbers’ milk, not the freshly squeezed niska juice, not the fabled water from the Flaviani Springs, not the expensive plush soft toys, not the lively youngling tunes playing with nauseating repetitiveness from his compu intercom.
    Nothing gave her solace.
    â€˜She cries for her parent,’ Ursa El Florentt said, wringing her hands over another excruciatingly shrill wail. ‘Perhaps…’
    The rest of her words died away as Ivo glared at her.
    He compressed his lips and stalked back and forth.
    Nothing! Nothing would induce him to go begging for assistance from that inferior honourless female!
    The memory of their recent encounter still left him with a bitter twist to his mouth. Bitter, because deep down inside in a place he rarely visited he had nurtured a hope that perhaps she would prove to be otherwise. For one long moment, he had been so sure she truly cared for her offspring. Only to have this impression blown away by the alacrity of her acceptance of his offered creds.
    Worse had been his body’s unbridled response to her proximity. Dormant for so long, it had required all of his formidable self control to refrain from seeking release in her lusciously curved body.
    Where had that ferocious hunger come from? Could it be caused by the cycles of celibacy he’d endured? Up until now, he’d scoffed at any of his fellow warriors who had bragged about the potency of their Earth mates’ ability to fire their senses. Even awakening the “pull”, that fabled almost mystical bonding of mate to mate.
    He was a Traditionalist.
    A warrior who followed the old teachings and scorned all need for any physical connection to anyone.
    And yet her warm, faintly floral scent still filled his senses. The memory of her plump breasts and rounded bottom made his hands itch to hold and shape. Worse, his sex still throbbed painfully in a rigid arousal he had no hope of easing any time soon.
    A vivid vision of her heart-shaped face, the contours of her lips and the velvety softness of her brown eyes floated in front of his eyes.
    This is madness. Ivo set his jaw. I must be mistaken. This is the same female my brother bedded and who bore his seed. Unthinkable for me to take what had been his!
    A snort of self-derision exploded from him. The baby in his arms lifted her head, her clear blue eyes wide with surprise, her bow of a mouth pursed closed.
    Relief flooded him.
    Mia scrunched up her face and returned to her blood curdling screams.
    At least