Coveting Ava

by Rena Marks

  “You’ll also like Lorelei,” Irina said. “We’ve become good friends with her. She and Reson just started dating. They were interested in each other, but then she became friends with one of his exes.”

  “Ouch.”

  “Yes,” Irina laughed. “But with our friendship, it was hard to avoid Reson. Eventually, they started spending more time together.”

  But then Irina tipped her head, looking at her funny. “Ava, how did you know the implant would destroy your mind upon your re-entry?”

  Ava shrugged. “I have no idea.”

  “I think bits and pieces are starting to come back.”

  “That was one small thing that I didn’t even notice. At this rate, it could take fifty years to get my memory to return.”

  “It’s hope. And I’m sure before fifty years have gone by, we’ll have Pax and Steele looking into it.”

  SHE AND BABY WERE BACK home again when Covet—dressed as Tom—returned home. As soon as she heard the front door open, she rushed up to greet him.

  “How was it? Are you safe?”

  She ran her hands up and down him to be sure, then cupped his buttocks.

  “I’m not meat, woman,” he said with a grin. “Come here.”

  He hauled her to him for a kiss—one that was just as searing as earlier. From her spot on the blanket, Baby clapped. “Da!”

  Ava stepped back so Covet could reach his daughter, swinging her high into his arms. Baby giggled, then used chubby fingers to feel all around his face.

  “She misses your other form, babe,” Ava said softly.

  Covet sighed, then went to sit on the sofa, his back toward Ava. He slipped into his original skin but kept his back to her so all she could see was the back color of his neck.

  Baby was delighted. She cooed and hugged him tight with chubby purple arms wrapped around his neck.

  From behind him, Ava wrapped her arms around them both, kissing Baby’s cheeks. She didn’t miss the slight stiffening of Covet’s body as she touched him.

  “I’ll start dinner,” she whispered in his ear, giving him time to decide if he wanted to remain in his form and face her.

  While she was in the kitchen, she could hear him and Baby playing. She wondered if he stayed purple. She had her answer when she called them both for the goulash she’d prepared.

  She tried not to let her disappointment show when Tom’s perfect face appeared.

  “My favorite,” he said, kissing her head before putting Baby in the high chair and strapping her in.

  Ava stirred Baby’s bowl. She’d placed the smallest amount in there so it would cool quicker.

  “You’re easy to please,” she said to him, placing the bowl on the table. She’d already set the salad and dinner rolls.

  She and Covet took turns feeding Baby, giving her bits of goulash she’d mashed with a fork. It was an easy arrangement; apparently, one they’d worked out many times before.

  “My world crashed when you were taken,” he said suddenly.

  The only sound was that of Baby’s lip-smacking. Her humming. Her chewing.

  “I’m back.”

  “Yes. It’s not quite the same. I’m being patient while you relearn to live.”

  Her kidnapping hadn’t only affected her and her feelings. She never stopped to think of how the stress affected him.

  “I think my memories are starting to return.”

  She caught the way his hand shook when he offered a bite to Baby.

  “Oh?”

  “I remembered on my own that re-entry to the gates should have caused permanent injury.”

  “I deactivated the implant. It was only managed because it had already blown when they took you.”

  “That’s what Irina told me. She explained you pulsed it with the scanner during my captivity to neutralize the magnetic field.”

  He was quiet. His voice was soft when he finally spoke. “How do you feel about your memories returning?”

  “Scared. A little. I know I’ll have to relive that last day.”

  “Everything turns out okay. Keep telling yourself that. You saved our daughter.”

  “And you saved me.”

  “I always will. You are so beautiful. From the first day I saw you, I looked at you and hurt.” His voice was full of heartache. “I didn’t think you’d ever see me as anything but your employer. I knew you loved Baby, though. I lived for the moments when our fingers would brush against each other when we passed her back and forth. I wondered what you thought of when you saw me.”

  She wanted to fix this. She wanted to tell him that he was just as beautiful to her and how much she loved him, but she didn’t remember what she thought in those early days.

  “You looked at Baby like she was the most beautiful thing in the world. And one day, it just happened.”

  “What happened?”

  “I flirted with you. It shouldn’t have worked. It was horrible and awkward. Corny. Cheesy. But it did.”

  She chuckled, making Baby giggle and open her mouth for more.

  “What did you say?”

  He squirmed, a bit uncomfortable. “The words aren’t really important...”

  “Covet.”

  He sighed. “I said, ‘Your hand looks heavy. Let me hold that for you.’”

  She laughed out loud. That was truly horrible. “You’re right. It shouldn’t have worked.”

  The corners of his mouth tilted upward. “But you were smitten. I couldn’t beat you off with a stick.”

  “Not that you tried,” she teased.

  “I’m not that stupid. I basked in the attention. I asked you to be my mate when we came up to breathe a week later.”

  “A week?” She thought Irina said they’d gotten mated a month later.

  “Yeah. You didn’t accept. You said you needed to sample the goods some more and to show you all I had. We spent another week in bed. The third week, we came up for air again. And I chased you around the apartment still showing you my charms. When you finally wore me out, you smiled and said you’d love to be my mate.”

  She shook her head. “You poor, poor man. I played you.”

  He grinned. “I let you.”

  “We both won.”

  He covered her hand with his. “We did.”

  She knew why she fell in love with this man. She may not be able to remember falling in love, but she knew it was still there somewhere inside her broken mind.

  When they finished with dinner, she cleaned the kitchen while he gave Baby her bath. She headed to the bathroom when she finished, and he was just getting Baby out of the tub. She followed him into the nursery where they dried her thoroughly and diapered her. She oiled her little body, rubbing it in gently. Then Covet dressed her as she yawned. They put her to bed together.

  “Want to watch a movie?” he asked her.

  “I do.”

  She cuddled with him on the couch, his arms around her. It was like he couldn’t get enough of touching her.

  “Covet,” she said.

  “Hmm?”

  “Irina told me about the surgery to stimulate my memory. I’d like to have it.”

  He held still. “It has dangers. It’s brain surgery.”

  “I know. But I want to remember the last six months. I don’t want to be robbed of those memories. Our memories together.”

  “It’s your decision, of course. But I’d rather have you safe without memories.”

  He held her to him as they watched the movie. She knew he was thinking about the dangers. Perhaps she needed to give it a bit more thought. It was the last thought on her mind as she drifted to sleep in his arms.

  “I’M GOING TO DO AN upgrade.” Steele’s eyes were thoughtful, even though he was always nearly impossible to read. His eyes were completely black and that was disconcerting enough.

  “To what? I can already push strollers with my mind,” Ava reminded him, making Pax snicker. At least, the Pax that was nearest to her.

  Pax had the unique ability to
break into multiples; clones of himself. Not exactly clones, because each shard took a portion of his personality. The clone nearest to her and Steele was the happiest portion of his being, who always came out when she was around. They shared a dry wit and tossed jokes back and forth.

  “Give them space,” Original Pax called to his clone from the other end of the room, irritated that he couldn’t control the personality’s escape from his being.

  “I can’t help it if she’s funny,” Pax Clone said, winking at her.

  “Make yourself useful,” Steele said, though he had a smile lifting at his lips. “Grab me an oscilleraider.”

  “This will only hurt a little,” Pax Clone warned her, clamping the cold device to her neck. “In a few minutes, you should feel the horrendous pain of natural childbirth...in your small, fragile, human neck.” She’d had the oscilleraider clamped on many times before. It was simply a heavy duty magnet, one that worked through the magnetic ink of her tattoo. It did nothing more than cling.

  She grinned. “So not funny. We really need to work on your humor.”

  He sighed. “Yeah, Robyn fell for it. She ordered me to return to Pax when I tried that one on her.”

  She snorted. Of all Pax’s clones, he was the one who came out most frequently. Once she’d asked him if he wished to have a name to distinguish himself from the others, but it confused him. He wasn’t separate, at all. He was Pax. Through and through. They all were. Just as the angry clone was Pax. The studious clone was Pax. So on and so forth.

  “Huh. Well, that’s new,” Steele muttered.

  There was always something up with their implant. It had its own brand of artificial intelligence, growing and maturing in unnecessary ways. “What now? Give it to me,” she sighed, making the breath sound much more dramatic. She would probably have to undergo another procedure to deactivate whatever the implant had come up with.

  He gave her a full out grin. “You have a recording function. It’s like a downloadable Cloud server. You’ll be able to record certain memories.”

  She stared at him warily. Steele had a wicked sense of humor, and she didn’t quite trust the grin he was giving her.

  Suddenly it dawned on her. “Oh. My. Goddess. I’ve recorded all my sex scenes with Covet in there, haven’t I?”

  Steele burst out laughing. The clone laughed. Even from across the room, Original Pax laughed. “I’m sure they’re in there. I’m not checking to find out. I don’t need to see Covet’s junk in that light, thank you very much.”

  He sobered after a few minutes, wiping his eyes. “I guess it’s a bit of a worthless feature. Just thought you should know.”

  “Thanks, buddy,” she said, rolling her eyes, while humorous clone continued to laugh at her expense.

  THE DREAM STARTLED her awake. She was still on the couch, with Covet, the movie playing.

  “What’s wrong? Are you okay?” he asked.

  “Steele. Pax,” she said, shaking her head to clear it from the befuddlement of sleep.

  “What about them?”

  “I remembered them. I mean...I know them.”

  He was silent for a few moments. “You may not need to have the surgery, Ava. Your memories are slowly returning.”

  “And those that don’t are recorded.”

  “What?”

  “The chip in my neck. It had a feature that worked similar to downloading to the Cloud. We forgot about it. But even while I was unconscious, I was aware. Therefore, anything that happened around me was being recorded.”

  He inhaled deeply. “Are you sure?”

  “Yes. That’s what the dream was about. It was a memory, of the time when Steele discovered the function. A shard of Pax was there, and he thought it was hilarious that I recorded all of our hot sex between us. I just had that one memory, so I don’t know if Steele ever shut down the function.”

  “We’ll need to get to the lab first thing tomorrow,” Covet said. “This has more meaning than you realize. The people who kidnapped you were Earth-Ground citizens—degenerates that had been in and out of the prison system. How they had contact with the missing officials of Crested Ute is a mystery. I think your memories might be a clue to that puzzle we can’t solve.”

  “So we’ll be able to connect the dots?”

  “More than that, Ava. I think we’ll be able to find who is helping shield Crested Ute. I think we’ll be able to take them down.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  COVET WAS ALREADY UP by the time she woke. It wasn’t unusual. With an infant, one of them always rose so the other could sleep. She showered and dressed, another habit she’d formed. Wake and jump to it. She knew Covet would appreciate it if she would take over Baby’s care so he could shower and get ready.

  Perhaps they’d go to breakfast in the mess hall today.

  As soon as she left the bedroom, she was surprised to hear voices in their living room. She was just as surprised to see Covet was already showered and dressed. A blanket was spread out on the floor, where Baby and another infant played. The other child was older, but he was a silvery gray color. Steele’s.

  “Ava, this is Beast. He’s babysitting Kaden today because he and his mate, Sunny, don’t have a shift until later this evening. He’ll watch him here for a few while we go visit Steele and Pax to see about your implant.”

  She nodded at Beast. He was easily the largest Xeno Sapien she’d ever seen, his dramatic black skin broken up with bright gold slashes.

  “We’re sure they’re available?”

  “Mental links, remember?” Covet tapped his temple, nodding.

  She smiled. “I did forget. Thank you for taking care of ours, too, Beast.”

  “No problem,” he rumbled. “Baby likes me. Don’t you, sweet girl?”

  Baby grinned toothlessly and raised her hand for a high-five.

  “Oh, and I’m sorry if I might have forgotten you,” Ava said, kissing the top of Baby’s head.

  “You did,” Beast said, winking. “But it’s all right. You and I were quite the item for a while. You always told me I was the best you ever had and I have those hot memories to last a lifetime.”

  Ava’s jaw dropped. She closed it when Covet snapped, “You were not. The only one who’s ever given Beast the time of day is Sunny. Don’t listen to him, Ava.”

  Ava couldn’t help but laugh. Covet pulled her to her feet and kept hold of her hand as they headed out the front door.

  “So he wasn’t my ex?” she teased Covet.

  “No. The only one you’ve ever been interested in is me.”

  “Hey,” she said softly, stopping in the hallway. “I know that.” She kissed his lips softly.

  “Sorry,” he grinned. “I’m always afraid you’re too good to be true. That someone’s going to snatch you away from me.”

  “Never,” she promised.

  His lips covered hers. She opened to him and his tongue stroked against hers in a familiar stroke. He tasted of Covet—warm, sweet, and familiar.

  She was breathless when he pulled away. “Wow, sexy. I’m sorry I fell asleep last night.”

  His lips curled upward at the edges. “You were exhausted after that little memory that triggered when you slept away the movie.”

  “Well, I’m not exhausted anymore.” She waggled her brows.

  “We’ll grab breakfast after we see Steele and Pax. We’ll grab a plate for Beast. And then we’ll put Baby down for her nap and see what quality time we can come up with for us.”

  She smiled. The understanding between them was sex was naked—including being nude from Tom’s human form. It was daylight out. She’d finally have Covet in his true form—and she couldn’t wait.

  She suddenly had more energy than she knew what to do with. Covet peered at her from beneath his lashes, grinning as if he knew the reason she was excited. She practically bounded into the front door of the lab.

  Just as simple as that, Ava realized she knew Steele and Pax. No, she remembered them. Completely and thoroughly, as if s
he’d never forgotten them. That one memory did this.

  “Morning, Steele. Good morning, Pax. Where are all the other bits?”

  Steele and Pax both stared at her. “You remember?”

  She looked around the lab. “I remember being here every week. Experimented on horribly.”

  Pax snorted. “Yeah, she remembers, all right.” Just then he gave a shudder and one of his shards broke away.

  The clone that was comprised solely of his joking personality came forth to her. “You’re back! I knew you couldn’t stay away for long.” He swept her into a large hug, depositing a kiss onto the top of her head.

  “You just missed a good one,” she told him. “I met Beast this morning. He assured me I’d forgotten we were lovers and he was the best.”

  Everyone in the room laughed...except for Covet.

  Steele elbowed him. “It’s much funnier when he does it to someone other than Robyn.”

  “Robyn seems to think he’s cute, too,” Covet reminded him. “Adorably funny with his bad jokes.”

  Steele winked at him. “Not to worry, brother. We’ll get him back. You remember when Beast was winning every fight in the gladiator pits? And someone had to find a champion to take him down? I was the one who got Sunny.”

  Covet grinned. People who’d bet on Beast lost quite a bit of money that day. Beast wouldn’t spar with his own mate and she raked the ground with him. Not to mention she was irritated that he’d helped teach all the other Xenos to gamble. She made it so they were all wary to place bets, never knowing when she’d show up to challenge her mate. Unfortunately, it made the gambling all that much more appealing.

  Pax’s clone brought her to the chair where she always sat during their examinations. It was a massage chair which leaned forward, a chin rest coming to settle in front of her, so she lay her face forward.

  “I understand you’re thinking about the hippocampus stimulation surgery?” Steele asked.

  “I was. It’s still on the waiting for a decision. Since I’ve had two memory returns now, it may be unnecessary. But last night’s memory was significant,” she said. “I remembered when you discovered that my chip had the capability to save my memories.”