Shifter Planet by D.B. Reynolds Read Free Book Online Page B

might be despoiled.
    “I think you’re probably right,” she conceded, feeling as if she had to redeem herself for even suggesting otherwise. “I love your trees, though. I’m hoping to get out into the Green as much as I can while we’re here. Maybe do some camping.”
    “Not without an escort you won’t. It’s not safe.”
    “I’ve trekked through worse.”
    “I doubt it. Trust me on this.”
    “You’ll just have to go camping with me, then.”
    “Or you could limit your explorations, since you won’t be here that long anyway.”
    “Again with the kicking me off the planet. I might stay just to piss you off.”
    He studied her solemnly, then closed the small distance between them and rested one hand on her hip, his expression the determined look of a man facing his doom. He left his hand there for a heartbeat, then sighed, and gave her a smile of such relief that she knew he’d been steeling himself for the kind of jolt they’d both felt earlier, when they’d held hands.
    She could have told him they probably needed to be skin-to-skin for that kind of heat, but since she didn’t know quite what to make of it either, she let him enjoy his relief.
    “You don’t want to piss me off, Amanda,” he said, his voice soft and deep.
    She raised her eyebrows in surprise. Had she ever known a man whose moods shifted so easily? She looked up at him, and had to brace herself with one hand on his chest. It was that or fall over. His eyes gleamed in the low light of the patio, untamed and dangerous. It was more than their unusual color. They were the eyes of a wild thing, a predator sizing her up for dinner.
    Some women might have been intimidated, frightened even. Not her.
    Her heart sped up, but it wasn’t in fear. She’d never met a man so intensely masculine. It called to everything feminine inside of her and, suddenly, she didn’t give a damn if she got burned. She wanted him.
    “Rhodry,” she whispered. “Do you—”
    “Amanda!” Fionn’s happy cry interrupted whatever she’d been about to say. She wasn’t sure herself what it would have been. It died unsaid as Fionn’s voice hit like a splash of cold water. Rhodry stepped back immediately, his expression closing down tighter than it had been all evening. He was back to the glowering Rhodry of the landing field when she’d first arrived.
    “What’s this, de Mendoza?” Fionn said cheerfully, strolling over to join them. “Hogging the beautiful women?”
    “I doubt there’s a shortage in the city,” he said coolly.
    “I already know all of them . I don’t know Amanda .” He drew out her name playfully, coming close enough to drape an arm around her shoulders. He was much easier with casual touching than Rhodry was, but it wasn’t him that she wanted.
    “Come on, darling,” Fionn persisted, tugging her back toward the ballroom. “You’ve spent all your time dancing with Rhodi here. You have to dance with me now. It’s only fair.”
    She glanced at Rhodry, caught the flex of muscle in his jaw as he stared at Fionn’s arm.
    “It’s awfully late,” she protested, but he wasn’t listening, and Rhodry wasn’t saying anything.
    Fionn opened the glass-paned door to the ballroom and drew her inside. “One dance. You’re supposed to make nice with the locals, right? One dance.”
    She sighed. He was right. “One dance,” she agreed. The too warm, perfumed air of the ballroom hit her in the face, and she looked back over her shoulder, searching the cool night shadows. Hoping Rhodry would wait for her.
    He was nowhere to be found.

Chapter Five
    T he détente between Nakata’s fleet and the people of Harp lasted two days. Since being summoned to the city by Cristobal, Rhodry had spent all of his free time down at the Guild Hall. It wasn’t the same as living in the Devlin family compound surrounded by his cousins, but at least it was a place for people who shared his love of the Green and its wild nature. And the hall’s location at