Burning for Love by Evangeline Anderson
55
Rissa woke as someone was laying her down on a soft, giving surface.
A bed, she thought drowsily. Someone is putting me to bed. But who?
“Ka’rissa? Sweetheart?” a deep, rumbling voice murmured in her ear. A familiar voice—a beloved voice.
“James?” She opened her eyes and looked up at him. “Am…am I dreaming? I thought I was in the palace gardens, hiding in the bushes.”
“You were.” His voice sounded grim. “You very nearly overheated. I had to cool you down before I could bring you back to the Mother Ship.”
“Oh yes—I am sorry I got so hot,” Rissa apologized faintly. “It is only that…that I have not been able to help myself since you and I were parted.”
“Would that have something to do with this strange metal belt I see beneath your gown?” James was frowning as his metallic blue eyes flickered over the Chastity Device, cinched tight around her hips.
Rissa blushed and nodded.
“I am afraid so. It is made in such a way that I cannot…” She cleared her throat. “Cannot reach myself. And so I was unable to do anything to keep my Heat Cycle from getting out of control,” she explained.
His frown deepened.
“We need to get it off of you. Is it electrified, like the wire was?”
Rissa shook her head.
“I am afraid not. It is locked and the only remote that unlocks it is gone. The Duke threw it in the fire—it is utterly destroyed.”
“The Duke?” James looked surprised. “Do you mean Duke Grabbington? What was he doing at the palace—I thought he was in disgrace after our duel? And how did he get the only remote that unlocks your belt?”
Rapidly, Rissa told him the whole story and her awful discovery that Lord Shammington was actually Duke Grabbington in disguise.
“And then he said he would be happy when I burned to death because then he could be crowned King and rule the planet on his own, as he saw fit,” she finished at last. “And…and I very much fear, he will get his wish. For there is no way to take this horrid device off without the remote, which has been burned up and melted in the fire.”
She shed hot tears that turned to steam on her cheeks at the hopelessness of the situation. She never should have asked for help from the Kindred. Surely she was nothing but a fire hazard here aboard their lovely ship. And she didn’t wish to put James in danger either.
“You had better stand back from me,” she told him now, trying to hold back a sob. “I should never have called and asked for asylum. There is nothing you can do to help me and sooner or later I am certain to combust, just as my dear Mama did before me.”
His eyes hardened.
“You’re not going to die, sweetheart—I swear it.”
“But what can you do?” Rissa nodded down at the metal belt around her waist. “This device is made of solid plasti-steel. It is completely unbreakable.”
“Maybe by regular humanoid hands,” James said grimly. He flexed his enhanced arm and hand and smiled at her. “But I am no regular humanoid.”
A tiny sliver of hope pierced Rissa’s heart.
“Oh,” she whispered. “Do…do you really think you can get it off me?”
“I do.” He nodded firmly. “You’ll have to hold very still—I don’t want to cut you—the metal is going to be extremely sharp when I tear it.”
Her eyes widened.
“You’re going to tear it off?”
He frowned. “I’ll probably have to heat it up some first.” He gave Rissa an anxious look. “I don’t want to burn you.”
She shook her head.
“You cannot. My Fire Blood makes me impervious to outside heat. Go ahead, James—do what you have to in order to get it off me. Please.”
Her heartfelt plea definitely affected him. Stroking her cheek, he looked into her eyes earnestly.
“Of course I will, sweetheart,” he murmured. “Just trust me and lie as still as you can. All right?”
Rissa nodded.
“I trust you, James. She whispered. “Go ahead and do it.”
He nodded swiftly and got to work.
