Page 18 of Two Aliens Are Better Than One (Bodyguards in Space #1)

Chapter 17

Vaelu

I chewed on my bottom lip as I pressed Lucky’s doorbell. Even from here I could feel the way Relzo was retreating, beating himself up for the fucked-up situation. He hadn’t had a choice when he’d touched me. I’d been so close to blacking out from the uncontrolled voices in my head that it had scared the shit out of me. Relzo had pulled me back, made it better. Sucked my cock, then thrust his own into my mouth.

That had been an unexpected pleasure, but I knew it wouldn’t be the same without her.

The situation was urgent so I’d left him to pack up our apartment, taking one last minute to connect with Lucky, because he needed her and he would never tell her that in those words. We needed her, and that need had been made all the worse by having her, as if the bond inside him had been activated, intensified by the sexual interaction.

When she opened the door she looked like she’d been crying, her eyes wet and red-rimmed.

“Hi, you okay?” I reached out and stroked my thumb over her cheek, wiping away the wetness there. I was no longer afraid of being caught, because we already had been.

“Not if you’re still leaving.”

I nodded. “If we can leave quickly and without a fuss, we’ll simply be exiled. But what you saw on the Net was true. Relzo is at risk if the Velasu Council gets wind of what happened. They’ll investigate how he influenced me into the ankra bond, and probably find him guilty.”

“He’s not, though!”

“No. None of what happened was intentional, and certainly not his fault. And I wouldn’t give him up for the world,” I said, smiling a little.

There were questions in her eyes, but there were no words I could use that could communicate everything to her. Verbal communication wasn’t my skill, but there was something better than that, something only I could do.

“May I?” I asked, lifting a hand to her brow, not quite touching her. “It’ll be faster.”

Her eyes darted to the side, suspicious, but she nodded. I had to be careful. If I sank too deeply into her psyche I’d lose my awareness of the outside world, and she was as warm and inviting as Relzo was. She’d nurture me after a tough session the same way he had. I tried to show her why I could feel the link between them, the way their minds matched, fit together like pieces of a puzzle. The way being with both of them had made me feel complete for the first time in my life.

“We shut out the outside world,” she whispered, eyes widening. “Both of us?”

I nodded. “I’m powerful, very powerful compared to others of my kind. But it comes with a cost, and many velasu of my strength don’t last long. But my grandfather…” I trailed off and showed her a vision of him, his face showing his happy, long life, with his bond mate and the woman they’d loved until they were well into their eighties. She’d died recently, and the two older men had held each other together. I wanted that with them, a long and lasting love.

“Is that common where you’re from? A menage marriage?”

“It is only allowed for velasu. It’s thought that we need more emotional support than your average Chokreini.”

“Why did he encourage me to stay behind, then?” she whispered.

“He wants you to live your best life, and he worries about the life you’ll live with us. As an exile I won’t be welcome in many places, and Relzo and I are lost right now. We don’t know what we’ll do for a living, or where we’ll even live.”

“Merax would welcome you.”

“I know that,” I said, smiling. “And he has shown me your home. It’s beautiful. But it’s also wild and primitive, and he’s worried there’s nothing for you there.”

“There’s a woman there who does research on local plants. She’s the one who fueled my interest in biology to start with.”

“But it wouldn’t be the same.”

“No,” she said softly.

“Well, I suppose you have a lot to think about,” I said, leaning forward to kiss her forehead. She smiled, nodding. “He doesn’t want your decision to be for him.”

“But I love him,” she said, smiling, tears springing to her eyes again. “I’ve always loved him.”

“Then you know how stubborn he is. He wants you to do the right thing for you. It doesn’t mean he doesn’t want you with us. Just not for the wrong reasons. Not for reasons that will hurt you in the long run.”

She laughed softly. “You showed me how he and I fit, but he fits with you, too. Before you, he would just shut down his emotions and pretend they didn’t exist. Now I understand he was trying to resist bonding with me, but it permeated every part of his life. He barely communicated and worked almost nonstop, volunteering for dangerous assignments and never taking the recommended breaks. He was like a machine, able to blend into any situation because he never let himself connect to anyone. Now, it’s like you’ve unlocked my best friend again. So, thank you.”

I frowned. “I can’t imagine our Relzo as a cool, emotionless machine. He’s quite volatile.”

“Our Relzo,” she murmured, smiling. Then she stood on her tiptoes and kissed me, full on the lips, cupping my face. “Our Vaelu.” She ran her thumb over my bottom lip, holding eye contact for a moment, then took a step back.

“We won’t disappear,” I said. “Our immediate plan is to retreat to Merax 9 until things blow over. You’ll be able to come to us when you’re ready. I’ll keep him happy until then.”

“How?”

“I don’t know. He liked it when I sucked his dick.”

At that, she burst out laughing. “I want to be there for the first time you fuck each other. So I might have to consider fleeing with you, yeah?”

I rolled my eyes. “We will not fuck each other.” But the thought of pressing inside Relzo and making him scream had a certain appeal.

“He wants it. If you decide to, wait for me.”

“I’d like that. But he wants you to consider your career, so you’d best do that. We leave in three hours, when his friend’s ship arrives.” With a little wave I turned and walked out of her apartment, heading one door down and letting myself into mine. I knew Relzo was accustomed to packing quickly, grabbing the most important things and abandoning the rest, but I could tell he had taken care to try to find things he knew had meaning to me.

“You ready?” he asked. “There’s a communication from the Velasu Council. I would suggest we get underway before they arrive.”

I nodded, reaching for him and pulling him close. I brushed my lips against the side of his throat, breathing him in, and he looped two arms around my waist and two around my shoulders, holding me caged the way I liked. “If she comes, you need to let her.”

“But…”

“There is no argument here,” I said, pushing the same firmness with my mind that I had used with him during sex. He melted a little at that. Relzo had a logical, calculating mind, and while that appealed to me when I needed to be calmed and centered, he fell back on logic even when he needed to lead with his heart. His eyes were wide as they met mine. “We love you, and it’s okay for you to ask for what you want and need, even if it disrupts our lives.” I kissed his forehead as he took a shaky breath.

“I want her to be happy.”

“She’s happiest when she’s with her best friend. She showed me that today. Everything else will fall into place if you trust it.”

“You’re manipulating me with your brain magic, aren’t you?” he muttered.

“You get off on being controlled. If you can’t stop making decisions that hurt the woman we love, I’m going to make you into our little sex puppet who only cares about one thing. Getting his dick wet and his holes filled.”

“Great, now I’m going to have to walk through the space station with a hard-on.”

I leaned close, loving the way he shivered as my breath brushed against his skin. “You want your holes filled, baby?” I whispered. “She said she thought you wanted to be fucked.”

“Yes.”

“So many fun games we can play — you, me, and Lucky.”