Found

by Reagan Woods

  Lacy wailed as her orgasm rushed at her, overwhelming her senses and blacking out her vision. Vaguely, she registered Bram’s roar of satisfaction over the ringing in her ears. It was the last thing she heard other than their labored breaths for a few long moments.

  Chapter 47

  “I’m sorry,” Bram apologized roughly, wrapping his body around Lacy’s. “That was…more intense than I anticipated.” He’d carried her shaking form to the sleep surface after the shower fiasco.

  Lacy was pregnant, that much was obvious even to an idiot like him. At first, he’d believed someone found her and raped her and she was too frightened to tell him, but that wasn’t like her at all. No, this wasn’t some outside culprit, it was all his fault.

  The change in her appetites and habits had come on gradually. He’d attributed her exhaustion to hard work, her appetite for fresh fruit to living planet-side, and any number of other little nuances to learning to live together. Now, he realized she’d likely been pregnant since the first time they made love, or, as she liked to say, since she’d taken his cherry. He had no idea what fruit had to do with it.

  “Are you going to say anything?” He mumbled into her hair, embarrassed by his behavior. Jumping a pregnant female from behind in the shower wasn’t the move of a considerate male. That he was already feeling possessive of her sweet body because his seed had taken root there was no excuse. He should have had more control.

  She yawned and wiggled her round bottom against his still-very-interested groin. “I’m not accepting apologies today,” she pressed back into him again. “I’m only taking orgasms. Sorry.”

  “Lacy,” he growled, in no mood for games. “If I’ve hurt you, we need a medic.”

  “You didn’t hurt me, Bram,” she shrugged out of his hold and rolled, scooting up on the sleep surface until they were face to face. “That was the best sex of my life. I came so hard, I kind of blacked out there at the end.” Her demented smile was back but the lack of focus in her eyes told him she was still running on post-coital endorphins.

  “Do you want to talk about the baby?” He asked cautiously. “Or not? I don’t want to push if you’re not ready.”

  Lacy’s eyes widened and she bit her lower lip – hard enough that the skin blanched. “Baby?” Her voice shook.

  “The baby, yes,” he nodded. It was time to take responsibility for his actions. “I made a slight miscalculation.”

  Her whole body went still, her gaze watchful. “Tell me more,” she commanded, face pinched.

  Bram took her hand, the one fisted on her hip, and threaded his fingers through hers. She resisted for a moment before giving in. He needed to feel connected with her. It was going to be awful when she inevitably pulled away, when she discovered what he’d done. “As a young male, I splurged on healing implants – little capsules of healing agent embedded in my skin - in case I ever got into a problem on a hunt. When I awoke on the pirate ship, one of the implants remained intact.” He showed her the small scar on his wrist where the implant had been. “Now, it seems to be missing.”

  “Er – I think I might know what happened,” she frowned thoughtfully. “Lyon – or maybe it was Zocan? – one of them. Anyway, you were dying, and I was freaking out, doing chest compressions and using the healing wand,” she stopped and pointed to the silver stick on a low table. “That I will never be without again, by the way. Things are a little fuzzy at that point, but one of the Lyarans starts prodding your arms and neck and whips out this knife and stabs you. Bam!” Her free hand smacked the coverlet for effect. “I was so happy to see blood welling from the cut that I didn’t stop what I was doing.” She pursed her lips before continuing, “He kind of took his life in his own hands. I was feeling mighty stabby, but I restrained myself and only kicked him in the face once.”

  Humbled beyond words, Bram closed his eyes against the fierce rush of love he felt for Lacy. The canny little female surprised him over and over with her loyalty, her smarts and her heart. “I repaid your unwillingness to let me die by planting a half-breed in your belly,” he admitted with shame. “The healing agents overwhelmed my sterilization implant.”

  Her pink mouth dropped open. “You were a virgin with a sterilization implant? Why?”

  “To prevent offspring.” He frowned. “Obviously. Every male hopes he will bed a female at some point in his miserable existence. I simply wanted to be certain I never foisted my flawed DNA on anyone else.”

  “It’s going to be okay,” she said with a soft, drowsy smile. “You’ll see.”

  “Wake up, Lacy. This is important.” Letting go her hand, he threaded his fingers into her hair and tugged her head back until their eyes met.

  “My genetic material is undesirable,” he explained patiently.

  “No, it isn’t,” she denied, resisting his grip enough to shake her head. “I love you. All of you. It doesn’t matter what kind of non-Earther you are. It’s all alien to me. You’re you. That’s what matters.”

  It was a sweet sentiment, but she didn’t understand the universe like he did, he reasoned. “Lacy, you won’t be saying that when the baby gets here.”

  “I promise you, Bram, I will always feel this way,” she assured solemnly, her finger tracing an ‘x’ over her heart. “This isn’t exactly ideal, but it’s not the end of the world, either.” She paused to chew her lip again. Slowly, a smile began to spread across her face. “I’m actually kind of excited.”

  He prodded her scalp with careful hands, something was clearly off with her.

  “Um.” Lacy’s eyes rolled as if she could see his hand through her head. “What are you doing?”

  “I think you must’ve bumped your head.” That was the only explanation for her bizarre statement.

  Her shout of laughter confirmed that something was, indeed, amiss. “I promise you I don’t have a head injury.” She sat up and grabbed her stomach as she guffawed. “Oh, God! Unless you think you dicked my brains out.”

  “It’s not that funny,” he said dryly as she wiped a tear from her cheek.

  “Oh, baby, yes, it is,” she snickered. “Now, I’m hungry. I have a pretty tight schedule of eating, puking and fucking, so you’re going to need to keep up your strength.” The crazy female had the gall to smack his hip before she bounced to her feet. “Chop! Chop!”

  Chapter 48

  Lacy rubbed her aching back with both hands as she straightened to take a break from pulling weeds. She hadn’t realized there were so many before because all the flora was foreign. Now, she was working like a demon to finish the weeding before the wet season started.

  She was also in the gardens because it placed her far, far away from temptation. This morning’s produce delivery had included a hand-written note addressed in flowing script to Bram. Given that she’d never seen Doranese longhand, it had taken her a minute to figure out what she was looking at. She hadn’t even been aware these aliens had paper. All the reading and learning she did was on a screen.

  That was interesting, but the fact that Sesk’aa had to have sent the note ate at Lacy. She’d bet good money – if she had any – that the sneaky Doranos woman was about to call in her marker. Somehow, Lacy knew Sesk’aa’s plans would throw a wrench in the happy, quiet life she and Bram were leading.

  Bram would be back from this week’s hunt tonight. It was the last one he was leading for the season as the afternoon rain showers got longer and longer. Apparently, the seasonal change was early this year and he had to cancel a few lucrative outings, but Lacy thought he was secretly relieved. She certainly was. Being at the base camp alone sucked.

  The sound of raised voices at the back gate sent Lacy scurrying inside. She must have misjudged the time because one of those voices certainly belonged to Bram. Hurriedly, she grabbed the note from the entry and raced up the steps to their room.

  “Lacy?” He called softly a few minutes later as the door clicked shut behind him. “Are you awake?”

  “Welcome back,” she said, stepping out
of the bathroom where she’d been busily wiping off her makeup and removing her wig. “Was the jungle good to you?”

  “It was a successful hunt.” He smiled and paused to eye her bare legs appreciatively. “The scenery is better here, though.”

  She fluttered her eyelashes flirtily and did her own once-over. As usual, he looked good enough to eat. The sleeves of his fitted black shirt were rolled up and displayed his thick forearms perfectly. His broad shoulders and biceps visibly strained the seams of the simple garment. His well-worn black pants molded to his ass as if to brag that they got to cup those two sculpted cheeks all day long.

  With a low growl, he eliminated the distance between them and swept her up for a penetrating kiss. His mouth ate at hers ravenously as his hands roamed beneath the short hem of her dress.

  Lacy wrapped her legs around his waist and reached between them to undo the magnatabs that held those braggart pants in place.

  Bram duck walked them to the bed as she kissed his neck and the open collar of his shirt. “I should shower first,” he mumbled, laying her on the bed and immediately following her down.

  “Showers are overrated,” she protested. “I think you should show me how much you missed me.” She waggled her eyebrows suggestively.

  His fingers found her opening and teased her into a mind-shattering climax. While she was still panting, he dove between her thighs and slicked his mouth over her still-pulsing pussy. “Ohmigod.” Her eyes rolled back in her head as he lathed every inch of her with the pointed tip of his tongue. “I’m keeping you forever,” she panted. “I was on the fence before, but now you’re not going anywhere.”

  He chuckled and tried to speak. She wasn’t having it. Thighs locked around his cheeks, she buried her fingers in the long hair on his head and said, “Seriously. Not going anywhere.”

  With a hungry growl, he dove back into his task and soon she was screaming a second time. Legs falling bonelessly to the sides, she allowed the poor man to breathe. She sighed gustily. “I love you.”

  Wiping his wet mouth on the inside of her thigh, he raised an inquiring brow. “Is it safe to move now?”

  “It is if you’re going to move on top of me,” she emphasized with a smirk. “Otherwise, get comfortable. It’s been a long week without you and my hands just can’t do what that magnificent cock can.”

  His brow furrowed, pink eyes narrowing dangerously. “Your hands should stay away from my property.” To emphasize his point, he nipped the sensitive skin between her thigh and her mound.

  “My hands have been very naughty this week,” she taunted, waving them in the air. “They’d like to be held down while you punish the rest of me.”

  “That can be arranged,” he agreed, crawling up her body with intention written all over his face. His eyes flicked to the bedside table then returned there with a frown. “What’s that?”

  “Er -.” Shit. She’d forgotten about the note – well, more like she’d been distracted. “It came with the produce this morning.”

  Face impassive, he snagged the envelope off the table and settled more firmly between her spread thighs as he perused the writing. He tore into it unceremoniously and stared silently at the paper.

  “Well?” Lacy pressed, looking up at his blank expression. “What does she want?”

  “She has a job for me.” His lips flattened with displeasure. With a tug to his ear, he looked down at her with a bemused expression on his face. “Sesk’aa wants me to bring the skimmer back to our meeting point and sneak back here.”

  “What does she want you to smuggle?” Lacy asked skeptically. She’d seen these arrangements made a hundred times. Powerful people were the same the universe over and it seemed his mother was no exception.

  Bram shook his head, obviously at a loss. “People.”

  Lacy inhaled sharply. It was worse than she thought. Deep inside, she’d believed that Sesk’aa wanted to use Bram the way the Council had used their assassin. Lacy never considered that Bram might be pulled into something like human trafficking.

  “That’s crazy talk considering your views on slavery. I mean, you wouldn’t let anyone enslave me and you didn’t even know me yet,” she pointed out. “How’s that supposed to work?” At his confused expression, she explained, “On Earth, when people were smuggled into and out of places, it usually wasn’t for any good purpose.”

  “According to this, the political winds of change are whirling like a cyclone. These people were in power and are now in hiding,” he paused to study the paper again, a look of utter shock on his face. “The only other thing she’ll tell me is that one of them is my father,” he finished slowly.

  “Woah.” What else was there to say? Check and mate to Sesk’aa. She’d put Bram in the position of running a one-man underground railroad and she’d ensured he was invested in the outcome by making the answer to a life-long question contingent on his cooperation. “When do we leave?”

  Chapter 49

  In hindsight, the decision to seek refuge on an alien planet with her hot-ass alien baby daddy wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. Lacy kicked a purple piece of gravel out of her way as she paced erratically. Her hormones might be out of whack, but she called bullshit on Bram’s alpha over-protectiveness. He was all, ‘you can’t leave the safety of the base camp, Lacy. Think about the baby. It’s too dangerous to run a covert mission in your condition.’

  Her best argument hadn’t altered his determination to leave. She was pregnant – and she didn’t know another soul on this backwater world. He was it; her person, her lover, her man. Her partner. If he didn’t make it back, what the hell was she supposed to do?

  He promised there was a contingency plan in place. All she had to do was go to the basement of the slaughterhouse on the far corner of the property. There, she’d find what she needed. She’d wanted to choke him. Could he be more cryptic?

  The slaughterhouse creeped her out. She’d only ventured in once. That was more than enough. Humongous skulls and stretched hides covered the high ceiling while racks of sharp, pointy instruments stood ready along the walls. The pulley system over the huge drain in the hard-packed floor had sent her scrambling for the door. It didn’t take a genius to understand that was where the bloodletting happened, and after Xani, she needed to skip sharp instruments and butchery whenever possible.

  Whether it was the siren song of finally knowing his father or simply the motivation of getting his mother off his back that decided him, Bram answered Sesk’aa’s summons. He’d been gone a week now and she was starting to worry.

  The food fairy had gone on strike, too. In addition to her worries over Bram, she was running low on dry rations and preserves.

  To distract herself, Lacy cleaned every inch of the camp building, and she’d ruthlessly ordered the gardens. All that was left for her was to wait. And wait. And wait.

  And decide if today was the day she braved the slaughterhouse basement.

  Chewing her bottom lip, she paced the patio and watched the alien sun dip lower over the jungle. This day, she was immune to the soothing melodies of the tinkling fountains and the peaceful evening breeze that ruffled through the ferns. If she was going, she needed to make her move. The idea of being in the killing room at night just didn’t work for her.

  Off to her right through the misting rain, she could see Heza and to her left Cuva’s little moon, Ashti, rise. One more night. She’d give him one more night to return. Then, she would face reality. If he didn’t come back, she had approximately six months to find a safe spot before the baby was due. She prayed it wouldn’t come to that.

  Logically, Lacy realized it was better to wait for darkness in this hemisphere before bringing a ship in. That’s what she told herself as she curled up in a chair she’d pulled to the window in the master suite. It would be another night spent watching the alien sky for any sign of her man.

  She was not cut out for this waiting shit.

  “Lacy,” Bram’s low voice threaded through her dreams. “
Wake up.” Gentle fingers brushed the hair from her face.

  “Bram?” She sat up, feeling the heat of his body as his shadow loomed over her. Her arms found his solid shoulders in the darkness and she wrapped herself around him in a full body hug. “Try and leave me here again,” she said on a sniff, glad he couldn’t see the fat tears that spilled down her cheeks. “I swear to God…”

  The tension and worry she’d carried for the last week came crashing down and she buried her face in his chest. Silent sobs wracked her frame as she held on for dear life. He could leave her to earn a living – on planet – all he liked. Her heart couldn’t take it if he went off-planet like that again.

  “Shhh,” he crooned as he pulled back to place a tender kiss against her lips. His hands cupped her face reverently. “I missed you, too,” he murmured between kisses.

  “Never again,” she repeated, hating that she felt so vulnerable and needy.

  Bram sighed, pulling her out of the chair and into his arms. “I don’t want to get into this tonight.” His big hands chaffed up and down her narrow back soothingly.

  That didn’t sound like an agreement, but there were other factors at play. “Your father, is he…?”

  “It’s a long story,” his deep voice sounded weary. “He and a companion are here. You and I can discuss what to do with them tomorrow. I landed our shuttle high in the mountains two nights ago. It’s a hard hike down and we’ve been going non-stop.”

  Lacy’s stomach flipped as her sleep-fuzzed mind sorted through his words. “Do you think you were followed?” Her hands fisted in his shirt, nails biting through to her palms.

  “No,” he denied quickly, gently dislodging her grip and smoothing open her hands with his thumbs. “Landing that far away was a precaution, nothing more. It would be the height of arrogance to lead potential pursuers straight to our door.”

  “I’m just happy you’re back,” Lacy admitted, exhausted with relief but still apprehensive. There was no way she was agreeing to whatever scheme the manipulative Sesk’aa had pulled him into. Of course, there was more to the story. Wasn’t there always with the political types? What mattered was that Bram had done his part and now he was out of it. That was going to be her mantra. After a good night’s sleep. “We’ll get the rest sorted out in the morning.”