IntimateEnemy by Jocelyn Modo Page B

With one close look she knew the
male wasn’t Trius, couldn’t be Trius. How she’d failed to recognize him as a
Vitca senator well known for his extreme separatist views, she didn’t know.
    But before she could reorder her thoughts, a scent so
wonderful, so perfect, followed her into the lifter she lost her breath,
knowing immediately what it meant. She looked out the clear wall of the lifter.
In the brief seconds before the lifter began its ascent, she saw on the floor
below an intense-looking male standing with two others. He scanned the crowd
with space-black eyes that held the intensity of a male who had sensed a female
matching his trinity-of-being, triggering his hormones so that he harmonized
with her physically as well.
    He was all hard lines and thick muscle, his black eyes cold,
his body built for fighting, hunting, killing. His mouth was a cruel slash
across his bitter face. In fact, the only thing warm about his appearance was
the color of his skin. Not pale white like hers or deep brown like the Nashete.
No, her intimate’s skin shone like a golden sun on a clear day planetside. The
kind of warmth she wanted to bask in, wrap herself around and sink into. The
kind of warmth she had never known from any male—family or friend. His chin
lifted and his nostrils flared, no doubt scenting her.
    She swallowed hard, her throat tight. Sweat beaded on her
skin and her breath came in harsh pants. She thought she might hyperventilate.
    “Gods of the unseen universe, help me,” she said under her
breath, though why she bothered to pray, she didn’t know. She could catch only
a glimpse of him from her vantage point, but if the signals her body was
producing were any indication, this was the male the unseen gods had chosen to
be her intimate, the one she was meant to meet, marry and mate with while in
the seen universe.
    And just his proximity had sent her trinity-of-being into
overdrive, preparing her to bond with him. Damn it!
    Azure didn’t have time for falling in love. She had lives to
save.
    * * * * *
    Lone Lamin considered himself patient in all things. But
after hours of encountering prejudice from both the Nashete and Vitca races, he
wanted to punch someone in the mouth, knock their teeth down their throat and
watch them cough up blood instead of all of those rude little comments they
kept making behind their hands.
    Maybe his brothers Wharm and Kanaen had been right and they
should have used the top secret Nashete transport chips to materialize onto the
station. Riding public transportation to make a statement instead had been
effective. But damned if the bigotry they’d faced on their way to the peace
talks hadn’t taken its toll on their trinity-of-beings. Still, he couldn’t
bring himself to regret his decision to come to this thing. Especially not
after their father’s murder had devastated them short months ago.
    Their Vitca mother, a female with pure breeding and purer
tastes had also been their father’s intimate. A truth she could not swallow for
long. As soon as the minimum amount of time required by the peace marriage
contract was up, she had abandoned him along with her three sons when they were
still children. Their Nashete father had raised them to believe that their dual
blood made them special. Not less than the pure bloods. And they had come to
the peace talks to honor his memory. Lone reminded himself of this as another
group of Vitcas sneered at them down their long, noble noses.
    “Pathetic,” Kanaen said loudly as he arched a thick, black
eyebrow at the nearest group. “Could they be any more predictable and boring?”
    Wharm elbowed their youngest brother in the chest. “Acting
like an ass isn’t helping, Kana.”
    Kanaen snorted. “They can smell us a mile away. Both races
know we’re dual bloods. And neither wants anything to do with us.”
    “Patience—” Lone’s voice broke as the air shifted, bringing
him a scent so soft and sweet, so moving that his heart lost its