Page 9 of Two Aliens Are Better Than One (Bodyguards in Space #1)
Chapter 8
Relzo
I closed the door behind me with a groan, sliding to the floor and burying my face in my hands. Because, fuck, it had been so damn good to see her, and so painful. Everything inside me lit up like the dashboard panel of my cousin’s old PL960 shuttle, which was constantly having electrical problems. All right, maybe I needed a better analogy.
“You okay?” Vaelu enquired, and it occurred to me that perhaps he had heard that entire inner monologue. “You said there was someone else, not that she was your life-mate. Fuck.”
“Can you hear my inner monologue?” I asked. He grimaced, and I could vaguely hear him debating how to answer that question without hurting my feelings. “My feelings are not that easily hurt.”
“I can. But also, you just melted to the floor like a princess in a children’s movie who has just been stopped from going to the grand ball.” Well, that was oddly specific.
“You watch a lot of princess movies?” I asked, and he laughed.
“Maybe. I like happy endings.” He walked over and sat next to me, the thick muscles of his shoulders providing a steady, pleasant heat against my arm. “Why the hell would you not tell me you had a life-mate on the Chokreini Space Station?”
“I didn’t expect her to be your neighbor, for fuck’s sake.”
“You know, if you’d learn to communicate maybe things would go more smoothly.” He lay his head on my shoulder and I reached out and wrapped my fingers around his, closing my eyes and letting the comfort of our connection wash over me. This could grow addictive, the way I could snuggle him physically and move into his head like I was entering a warm hug for my brain. “Why didn’t you say hi to her? She wanted you to say hi to her.”
“Being attached to a telepath sucks,” I groaned.
“So dramatic.”
“Fuck off. Having a life-mate you can’t have hurts. And you probably know how much it hurts, so I don’t even have to explain it to you.”
“Yes, I experienced the pain, too. And the awkward erection.”
That made me laugh, and I wrapped my arm around his waist and tugged him closer, slipping a hand under his shirt and sighing at the strange comfort of skin-to-skin contact with him. “Why can’t I sort it out with her, when it’s so perfect with you?”
“Maybe if you rescue her and carry her around naked a bit, it’ll all come together.”
“Were you always this much of a dick? We spent three days together in that escape pod and I don’t remember this much teasing.”
“I think I’m finding the confidence to be who I really am with you.” And shit, that was a delightful thing to say. I grinned at him, and he snuggled in closer. “By the way, this four hands thing is interesting,” he said, looking down at our joined hands.
“Big advantage to my species. I can side hug and hold hands at the same time. Not that I was ever this much of a hugger. Or hand-holder. I can’t believe I held your hand in the hallway.”
“I told you we would become physically affectionate.”
“It’s more than that. It’s like you’re inside me, pushing deeper, and I feel what you feel. But not as sexual as that sounded. Basically, my head is a mess.”
“It’ll sort itself out. We’ll come to understand how we fit,” he whispered. “Though I must admit, I’m always a mess.”
“We already fit. And I don’t mind the mess,” I said, loving the way he relaxed against me at the verbal confirmation of what he surely already knew. “By the way, if we could somehow hide that both of our dicks now get hard in her presence, that would be fantastic. It’s a biological reaction I can’t control.”
“So you’re attracted to her, but you don’t like her? I’ve heard of that happening with the life-mate bond.”
I snorted. “No. I love the shit out of her. It just doesn’t work.”
“Because you tried?” He grinned, knowing I hadn’t. I wondered if this was what he did with his clients, egging them on, sorting out their mixed-up brains and setting them on the right path. He was some kind of telepathic therapist, but that was as much as I knew.
“You know I didn’t. Stop being so self-righteous. Remember, I can see inside your head.”
He laughed, leaning his head against my shoulder again, and the softness that I could sense inside him pushed forward, wrapping around my pain and anxiety about Lucky like a warm blanket. It was that lonely part of us that matched so perfectly that had made up my mind when he gave me permission to put a stop to the bond. Something about it called out to me, told me that this man would end up being the best friend I’d ever had. Granted, that wasn’t saying all that much, but still.
“How do you know so much about life-mates?”
He glanced at me. “It’s a hobby of mine, studying the way other species exhibit psychic abilities. I’m curious about the link between all of our species. That’s why I funded the project Lucky works on.”
“So not only did you already know my life-mate, but you’re funding her work?”
“Yep. This has to be the weirdest ankra bond ever to happen,” he said. “A Zangrel warrior? I would not have pictured myself with someone so uncouth.”
“Wishing you could take it back now, huh?” I asked.
“No.” His stern answer surprised me, though I felt the truth of it with every fiber of my being. “Your mind is comfortable for me. You’re a good person, steady and focused on what’s right. I already know that you will anchor me. Allow me to find peace even when I’m dealing with my clients. Assuming we can pull off this bodyguard farce.” He glanced down at our joined hands. “No holding hands in public.”
“But we’re besties.”
“I don’t know what that is.”
“Best friends, duh.”
“That does not even come close to describing what we are.”
“Does too.” I was smiling now, leaning into him the way he was leaning into me. And just like that, the pain and need my body’s weird hormones manufactured every time I got physically close to Lucky was all better, soothed by my connection to him.
“Shut up.” He was smiling, too, and I hadn’t even known his face could do that. Impulsively, I brushed my lips across his forehead, needing to show him the love that was rushing through me. We’d known each other for four days — a long, intense four days — but I shouldn’t love him this much this quickly. The strange connection forged by his powers was unlike anything I’d ever felt. I felt a little emotional whiplash. I felt like I was whole for the first time in years.
“You sure you don’t want to just run? I know a place,” I asked, a note of hope creeping into my voice. I tried to show him Merax 9, how peaceful it was.
He hesitated, and I could sense that he wanted to say what he had first said: that running would never be an option. This time, though, he shook his head and spoke something that felt more true. “Running will be extremely dangerous for you. The Council will claim you’ve manipulated me and try to have you arrested, possibly tortured, and killed as an example.”
“Shit.” I looked up at the ceiling, not entirely sure what to do. “We need to have an exit ready in case anything happens.”
“Probably. And until then, we need to make it work. The woman is a complication.”
“Don’t worry, I’ve resigned myself to never having her.”
“How can you, when the… physical sensations are so intense?”
I laughed. “My life doesn’t fit with hers, so I never told her about the life-mate bond. Humans don’t experience it, so it wasn’t a big deal for her to be separated from me.”
“Well, great. Because we are one now and I already wanted to fuck her. She kept having sexy thoughts around me. So now I really want to fuck her,” he muttered. “I want to show her she belongs to us. Both of us. Her place is between us.”
It was almost impossible to push back the rush of sensual images his words and thoughts had pushed into my mind. “As hot as that is to imagine, I don’t think she wants that.”
Vaelu snorted. “You weren’t privy to her horny thoughts.”
“Well, I know my best friend. If you show her who you really are, she will want to fuck you back.”
He shook his head. “Sealing the life-mate bond will make our already-complicated situation untenable.”
“I’m suggesting you fuck her, not me,” I said, surprised. “How does that seal the bond?”
“You and I are one now. It will be the same.” He stood and stalked off with a shake of his head, and I wasn’t entirely sure I understood. He kept saying that our bond would somehow bind us together, but I still felt mostly like myself. Sure, there were threads of his consciousness that popped into my head throughout the day, but it was manageable.
When we touched it was different, of course. I wasn’t sure that I could ever sleep without him again, without the way he wrapped around me, body and soul. But it wasn’t sexual, just the most delicious sort of warm comfort. For someone who had never had a family, he offered a lot of what I’d always craved, and he knew that was why I hadn’t stopped the ankra.
I undressed, removing everything but my boxer briefs, and climbed into his bed, knowing he wouldn’t be able to resist joining me for long. The ache of seeing Lucky again had me feeling some kind of way, and I needed the comfort he could give me like a drug. His skin shifted from purple to a lighter pink as he stared out at the stars for a few minutes, deliberately ignoring me.
“We cannot sleep together on the station.”
“No one will bother you in your quarters, Vaelu. You’re a special elite dude, right?”
“In theory. But it’s a risk. If we become accustomed to the comfort of skin to skin contact, we may accidentally do it in front of someone who knows what it means.” But even as he spoke, he was pulling off his clothes and climbing under the blankets with me. I didn’t know how to put what he made me feel — what the ankra made me feel — into words, but I needed him to touch me, to feel the way our thoughts wove together, like I needed to breathe. He was quiet for a moment, but I could feel his mind spinning, worrying about various scenarios, and I kissed his forehead again, wondering what it would be like to fuck Lucky together. With our minds bound, our bodies in tune, we’d be able to feel everything twofold, and we could lavish her with unbelievable pleasure, make her addicted to us.
“Fine,” I whispered. “We will pursue Lucky. But don’t blame me if it all goes horribly wrong.”
“Your goddamn thoughts have me so horny,” he muttered.
“Too bad. She’s my life-mate. I have a hard time getting off without her there. Maybe if we fantasize about her while jerking off together?”
“You might have told me about this before I bound myself permanently to you. I was assuming there would still be sex.”
“You were too desperate for me to care.” I nuzzled his shoulder, sighing at the happy shot of magical Vaelu hormones, or whatever, that had my mind feeling buzzy and a little soft around the edges.
“It’s annoying to have someone who knows your every thought. And then makes you feel this good.”
“Doesn’t feel annoying to me,” I said, grinning.
“We’re being weird. No one jumps into sleeping half-naked together after an unplanned bond.” Even his grumpy thoughts made me feel happy.
“Why the hell not? Maybe they’re the weird ones.”