Page 12 of Two Aliens Are Better Than One (Bodyguards in Space #1)
Chapter 11
Relzo
I avoided Lucky for ten days, which was impressive considering the situation. Nela kept “accidentally” showing up wherever I was, dropping hints about what an idiot I was being. She was the only person in my life other than Vaelu who knew. I’d confessed the life-mate bond to her one drunken New Year’s Eve, when I’d been home in Merax celebrating the Earth holiday with our friends and families. But she was sworn to secrecy.
That year, Lucky had been busy with exams or a dissertation, maybe, and hadn’t been able to make it home, and I’d been lonely as hell, hanging out with her pretty little sister, maybe a little surprised to find she’d turned into a sexy adult. Nela had tried to kiss me, and I’d been tempted, but after a moment the contact only made me feel sick. I’d put a stop to it, explaining the life-mate situation when she got all drunk and pouty. Now, she seemed determined to make me confess to Lucky.
Avoiding Lucky wasn’t easy. The space station was not designed for solitude. And it wasn’t that I didn’t want to see her. I ached to see her — to sit down and have one of our long talks, full of laughter and wacky storytelling and everything else I loved about her. But I wasn’t ready yet.
Vaelu thought I was being an idiot, of course, but he knew the intimate details of my inner struggles with what had happened, with my new identity. I didn’t know who I was without my work, not now that I had a telepath living full time in my head.
How could I be a guy who enjoyed being bound to another person like this? There was no denying that I loved it, but I’d always prided myself on my independence, my ability to avoid complications and connections. And this was the most complicated complication I could imagine. Here was a person I could no longer live without. It hurt when we were in different parts of the space station. And all I wanted to do was to make the difficult parts of his life better for him. From what I could tell, he had a lot of difficult parts of his life. I’d spent most of the past week trying to help him ground himself among the chaos in his mind. It was tough but he said this was his calling, so I tried to make it work.
“I can hear you,” he muttered. He was on his back in his bed, a hot compress over his eyes, and I laughed and crawled in with him, straddling him and covering him with my body. He liked that, to be cocooned under me, like I was a protective shield that helped him shut out the world. He sighed happily, running a hand down my spine as I settled my cheek on a pillow next to his shoulder, which he’d probably left there for that very purpose.
“You were doing so well, and then that client came in.”
“And it all went to shit,” he finished for me, laughing.
“I worry. I’m a worrier. This can’t be healthy.”
“It’s my destiny to share this ability with those who need it.”
“They’re like fucking leeches, asking you to take away their pain. Don’t they know it goes into you?”
“I don’t suppose they care.” He huffed out a long sigh.
“The minute you want to leave this place, we’re out of here. I have friends. We could live on a nice big piece of land, with no one around for miles. Or on a ship, so you’d only have to interact with a select few.”
“Sounds dreamy,” he said. “But then how do I help people?”
“Perhaps you only help people you really want to help. Not that asshole with the bad sexual harassment habit.”
“He is not an ideal client,” Vaelu admitted with a sigh. “You’re right, I just don’t know how to get rid of him. He’s wealthy and influential.”
“I could post his dirty thoughts on the Net and let the people decide if they still want him in office.”
“You are going to get us both arrested.”
“Arrested? I’m the cops!” I laughed and rolled over beside him, coaxing him onto his stomach, rubbing his back and ass until he finally fell asleep. When he was awake I could feel his exhaustion seeping into every bone of my body, but once he fell asleep I was suddenly and abruptly revived, as if his mind had left the building and I was my old self again.
I wasn’t sure I liked it. He was very warm and snuggly.
After trying to fall asleep for a little while I gave up and got dressed, deciding I’d sneak down to the garden pod at the core of the space station. From Vaelu’s apartments it looked both impressive and spectacular, and I missed seeing trees and nature. I needed a little time alone with my thoughts to sort out what to do about Lucky. It was easy enough to imagine some kind of sexy, lust-filled menage situation when I was alone with Vaelu, late at night, telling stories, but harder to believe that it would really happen.
I was staring down at my communicator, at the last text Lucky had sent me, as I boarded the tram that headed towards the central core, where the garden was, as well as the restaurants and shops. There was even a whole tourist district for people who came to visit the station. It was a travel destination and also a launch point for many of the big commercial intergalactic cruisers that could be taken to other planets.
A throat cleared and I looked up, my heart stopping when I saw that someone was on the tram with me, staring at my communicator.
“Fancy seeing you here,” Lucky said. “And watching you ignore my text messages adds a little unexpected something to the transit experience.”
“I’m not ignoring…”
“Oh, come on. I looked back at the thread, too, Relzo.” She blinked hard and looked away. “I used to think you were busy with work, but it’s now clear that you’re putting up with me because we used to be good friends. You barely respond, hardly even read my messages.”
My stomach dropped, and I felt a little like I might throw up. “No. That’s not true. It’s only because I’ve been undercover, not because I don’t want to talk.”
“Oh yeah? What’s your excuse now?” She stepped forward, her body language confrontational.
“Um, I accidentally bound myself permanently to an elite and powerful Chokreini telepath who has a lot of psychological issues that stem from his abilities, and I’m freaking the fuck out.”
“Oh,” she whispered, her entire demeanor changing. “Wait, what?”
I leaned back against the tram wall. “I can’t even talk about it here, because it’s that illegal. But we have a thing. It’s called the ankra. He’s in my head and I’m in his, and there’s no getting out of it.”
“Fuck. Are you okay?” She reached out, rubbing my forearm. I shuddered under her touch, my body lighting up with need.
“That’s the weird part. I’m fine. I love it. Love him.”
She swallowed hard, blinking again. “I’m here, Rel. Why not talk to me?”
“I want to. But… it’s not that simple.”
“Come on, let’s go somewhere more quiet where we can talk. There are eyes and ears everywhere, and you’ve probably already said too much,” she said, looping her arm through mine.
“I’m sorry I suck as a friend.” I settled my other hand on her lower back, and she steered me through a bustling marketplace, heading for the copse of trees I’d spotted from Vaelu’s room. For a while we didn’t even talk, both lost in our own thoughts, I supposed.
“You don’t suck as a friend,” she finally said. “I just miss you. I’ve missed you since the moment we parted ways years ago, and it’s an ache that never goes away. Text messaging is never enough.”
“I know. I feel the same. Maybe this is our chance to reconnect. To figure out what we are.”
“Maybe,” she said, glancing towards me. “So you love him?”
“Yes, but not like a romantic partner, I don’t think. Like family, but more.”
“Okay. Why couldn’t you talk to me about that?”
“Because,” I said, meeting her eyes, hoping she’d figure it out so I wouldn’t have to say it. The eye contact with her was always so loaded, and I couldn’t tell if it was because she was my life-mate and my body was responding to her or because she was truly looking at me with such intensity. But the conversation flowed more easily after everything was out in the open. Or almost everything, anyway. And we talked for hours, not stopping until a wave of alarm coming from Vaelu shot through me. He was awake, and he needed me.
“Fuck, he’s in pain,” I whispered, rubbing my head.
“Like someone’s hurting him?”
“No. His clients take a lot out of him, and he was sleeping. I thought it’d be okay to leave, but now…”
She smiled and pressed her hand across mine. “Go. We’re okay. We’ll talk later.”
“Are you sure?”
“I can see how painful it is for you to know he’s in pain and not be there for him. Go.”