by S. E. Smith
“Stitch!” he loudly called, pushing back so he could twist until he was sitting on the side of the bed. “Stitch!”
Stitch came out of the office. It was obvious that the healer had expected his shout because he held the device to mark him in his hands. Edge grabbed the hem of his shirt and pulled it over his head. He tossed it to the side. Rolling his shoulders, he held out his arms.
“I wondered how long it would take you to notice. Vice owes me a case of Trusset liquor and Thunder owes me a case of Port from Earth,” Stitch said with satisfaction, placing the cuffs around Edge’s wrists.
“You were betting on how long it would take me to discover my Amate’s claim?” he asked in disbelief.
“Yes, though Jag bet me that you wouldn’t even make it. He owes me a month’s leave,” Stitch chuckled.
Edge shook his head in disgust. “You were betting on whether I lived or died as well?” he demanded with a growl.
“Don’t worry. Gail overheard Jag and has been giving him hell about it,” Lina chuckled.
“She isn’t the only one. Now, what do you want this to say?” Stitch asked in a dry voice.
“Get out,” Edge ordered, pulling his hands away from Stitch. “We will do this—without you.”
“Fine,” Stitch snapped. “Say your vow, press your thumb to the imprint, and it will automatically open when it is complete. I hope you know this is only the second time it has been used. I never could understand why it was a requirement to have one of these on board every ship. Now I know.”
Edge watched Stitch pivot on his heel. The healer strode out of the medical bay, leaving Edge and Lina blissfully alone. Focusing on Lina, Edge slowly rose from the bed before kneeling on one knee in front of Lina. Edge tenderly cupped her hands in his and searched her eyes.
“I, Edge, claim Lina as my Amate. I vow to love and protect her. I give my life into her hands, knowing that she will do the same for me,” he said in a deep, clear voice.
He released her hand and placed his thumb on the device. It glowed red before turning to a soft green. In less than a minute, the locking mechanism popped open. Rising to his feet, he removed the marking bands and placed them on the bed.
“I love you, Lina, with all my heart,” he murmured, tenderly cupping her cheek and bending to brush a kiss across her lips.
The sound of muffled giggling near the door stopped him. Tilting his head, he glared at the five women peeking through the opening. They each had huge grins on their faces.
“I swear this wedding has to be right up there with the drive thru one in Vegas,” Gail observed with a grin.
“How would you know?” Andy asked.
Gail chuckled. “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas. Thank you, Elvis,” she added with a wink.
“Welcome back to the world of the living, Edge,” Mirela replied.
Edge nodded, realizing the women were not planning on leaving any time soon. He looked down at Lina when she laughed and wrapped her arm around his waist. He stifled a groan when she deliberately ran her fingers along the bare flesh of his back and down to his hip.
“It is good to see you alive as well, Mirela,” he replied before he frowned. “I still have not been told what happened,” he said. “Where are we and how did we escape the Waxian forces?”
“It was so cool!” Mechelle replied with a suddenly animated expression. “I totally bet that Waxian captain is catching hell for destroying one of their own warships, not that it would have mattered because the Nebula One was doing a pretty good job without any help from some dopey captain that blasts a hole right through the middle of their own warship. I still think the coolest thing was the invisibility cloak.”
“Invisibility cloak? Warship?” he repeated with a skeptical expression.
“You might want to sit down for this,” Lina said with a laugh.
Edge listened as Lina and the other women shared how Thunder and Vice had suddenly appeared, how they had all escaped from the moon, and how the Nebula One had kicked the Waxian’s ass. He looked up over their heads at one point to see Jag, Thunder, Vice, and a man he did not recognize standing in the doorway listening to the fantastic tale with bemused expressions.
Jag gave him a pointed look. Edge bowed his head in acknowledgement. He knew that Jag would want to debrief him on his captivity and what—if anything—he might have discovered during that time. The commanding officer would have to wait.
For now, he would listen to the women tell their exciting tale and count the seconds until he could carry Lina away to the cabin that would have been assigned to them. A smile curved his lips and he rested his chin against Lina’s soft hair when she leaned against him. He held Lina in his arms and rubbed his thumb across the marks around her wrists.
“Would you like to go to our cabin and get cleaned up and eat?” she murmured, tilting her head against his shoulder.
“I thought you would never ask,” he replied against her ear.
Lina’s body shook with laughter. Rising to their feet, the other women quickly realized that the rest of the story would have to wait. He patiently waited as each one congratulated them on their ‘marriage’. They paused by the door where Jag and the other men were standing.
“Thank you,” Edge quietly said, wrapping his arm around Lina’s waist.
Jag shook his head. “Our only regret was not locating you sooner. Get cleaned up and eat some food. You’ve been assigned a cabin. It is three doors down on the left. I want you in my office off the bridge in two…,” he paused and looked at the raised eyebrow and mutinous expression on Lina’s face before he continued, “three hours for debriefing.”
Edge bowed his head in agreement. “I will be there,” he replied as he guided Lina through the door and followed the directions Jag had given them to their cabin.
“Is he always such a hard-ass?” Lina murmured.
Edge chuckled. “Yes,” he replied, knowing that Jag could hear her soft comment.
Chapter Thirty-Two
The warmth of the fine mist from the shower felt good across his shoulders. He chuckled when he thought of Lina’s insistence that he go ahead first. He could hear her talking to Gail in the other room.
The older woman had delivered a tray of food, complete with the ‘miracle water’ as Lina liked to call it. The combination of food and the nutrient enriched water had gone a long way to restoring his strength. Now that his body was free of the drugs, he could feel his energy returning.
He turned around in the shower when he heard Lina thank Gail and the door to their cabin open and close. A moment later, she stood in the doorway to the cleansing room. He brushed his wet hair back from his face. Her sparkling eyes followed the movement before sliding down over his body.
“Join me,” he encouraged.
A hint of a smile curved her lips. “Good things will happen if I do,” she warned with a smile before her expression changed to one of concern. “How are you feeling?”
His gaze moved over her. “Why don’t you come find out?” he suggested.
Her laughter filled the room. “You really have been around us gals too long,” she retorted.
He watched as she reached down and pulled her black shirt over her head. Heat filled him when he saw the lacy, black bra. She didn’t remove it immediately, instead her hands slid down her stomach to the waist of her pants. She unfastened them and pushed them down. She had removed her boots earlier, so there was nothing stopping her from kicking off the pants.
Clad only in black panties and bra, she took her time removing these last two items. He feasted his gaze on the pale twin mounds of her breasts, but his mouth watered for what lay hidden by the dark brown curls between her legs. His body, rested and rejuvenated, throbbed with desire.
The dark bands of his Amate mark around her wrists filled him with pride. He slid the door open when she walked forward. She stepped into the enclosure and the door slid shut behind her.
“I love you, Lina. You are truly my goddess,�
� he murmured, burying his hands in her hair and kissing her.
Pleasure coursed through him when her lips parted under his. Her hands caressed his body, moving from his hips, up to his chest, over his shoulders, and back down his sides as if she was memorizing him. His buttocks tightened when her hands cupped them. Her tongue tangled with his even as his cock throbbed between them.
He broke off the kiss and looked at her with burning desire. He wanted to feel her lips wrapped around his cock before he buried himself inside her. Wrapping his hands in her hair, he shuddered when she grasped his cock with both hands.
“We don’t have much time before you’re supposed to meet with Jag. I guess we’ll have to make this hard and fast,” she said, tilting her head to the side.
He rocked his hips back and forth as she caressed him. The combination of tight squeezes and fast stroking mixed with a slower, even rhythm made his cock swell in her hand. He agreed that it should be hard, but maybe not quite so fast. He reached down and wrapped his fingers around her wrists.
“This time, it is my turn to take care of you,” he said in a deep voice filled with emotion.
Pulling her hands away from his body, he gently turned her. Lifting her hands, he placed them against the opposite wall. He swiped his hand over the cleansing foam option. The mist changed to a light blue.
Starting at her shoulders, he followed the light blue trail of foam bubbles running down her back. He gently massaged her skin, noting the scars on her back for the first time. He’d seen the small round one before and knew what it was from—she had been shot with a human weapon.
“How did this happen?” he demanded, brushing his thumb over the scar.
Lina bent her head. “I was on a patrol and we took some fire. Never did find out who it was. Kali Parks, Destin’s sister, saw them before I did. If she hadn’t grabbed me when she did, I’d have been dead. She stopped the bleeding, called in for help, and Doc patched me up. Luckily, it didn’t do much more than hurt like a son-of-a-bitch,” she said.
“And this one,” he asked, running his finger over a long thin scar that ran along her right shoulder blade.
“Rebar. I didn’t duck low enough trying to hide from a group of Trivators,” she said. “That one took twenty-two stitches and almost got us caught. You guys have a great sense of smell. Thankfully for us, some other bozo decided to use the Trivators for target practice and they changed course.”
“You should never have been placed in such danger,” he said before he continued washing her.
Lina uttered a short, tense laugh and shook her head. “My life wasn’t all that dangerous until your people came to our world,” she murmured.
Edge could hear the change in her voice. He slid his hands around her and gently turned her in his arms. He glanced down at her, but she avoided looking in his eyes.
“Tell me,” he quietly ordered.
She shook her head. Lifting his hand, he changed the cleansing foam to a rinse. Cupping her chin, he tilted her head back and looked deeply into her eyes.
“Tell me… please,” he requested.
Her lips parted. He could see the emotion welling up in her eyes. Caressing her cheek with his thumb, he waited.
“I saw you before… back on Earth,” she said, shocking him.
“When? Where? I would have remembered if we had met,” he swore, trying to understand how he could have met her and not remembered it.
“We never met,” she said with a shake of her head. “I would like to get out of the shower.”
He watched in confusion as she opened the door and stepped out. She ignored the body dryer, and instead grabbed a towel from the shelf and quickly dried off. He turned off the shower and stepped out onto the drying vent. With haunted eyes, she finger combed her hair and stared at him through the mirror before she wrapped the towel around her body and disappeared into the other room.
He impatiently waited until he was dry before he strode into the other room. Lina was sitting on the bed, staring out of the window into space. Walking over to the bed, he sat down beside her and waited for her to speak.
“You were on Earth not long after the first wave of Trivators came,” she began.
“Yes, I did three tours on your world. The first one ten years ago,” he admitted, still puzzled.
She took a deep, shuddering breath. He saw her fingers nervously twisting the material of the bath towel. Reaching out, he covered her hand with his.
“Mirela and Mechelle didn’t recognize you, but I did. Some call it a gift, others a curse, but I never forget a face,” she said with a bitter snort.
He could see that this was difficult but very important to her. “I… don’t remember much except for a few of the patrols and some of the people I met,” he confessed. He’d been to many places and had done a lot of things over the years. He had vague memories, but nothing that he could connect with Lina.
Lina’s fingers stilled and she breathed deeply. He could practically feel her tension. She released her nervous grip on the towel and wrapped her arms around her waist as if to protect herself.
“Do you remember a shootout in Chicago? It was dark and there were… there were four men and a woman,” she whispered.
Edge frowned. He’d been on patrol with Blade and Sniper. The biggest reason he remembered the incident was because a woman was killed. It had bothered all three of them, and he had talked to one of the Trivator counselors in order to understand his guilt for not protecting her.
“Yes. We were ambushed. A human called for help and we responded. When we reached them, they opened fire on us,” he said.
Lina violently shook her head and scooted off the bed. She walked over to the window, and stood there with her fist pressed to her mouth. In the reflection of the window, he could see the tears in her eyes.
Concerned, he stood up and walked over to stand behind her. She stiffened when he placed his hands on her bare shoulders, but she didn’t pull away from him. He could feel her trembling.
“Tell me, please,” he begged, pulling her back against his body and wrapping his arms around her.
“They weren’t… He didn’t….” She uttered a choked sob and paused. “Leon loved to explore at night. His favorite… his favorite place to go was the Alder Observatory by the river. At night we could see the spaceships in orbit. He dreamed… he dreamed of going to the stars. He talked about us going together,” she choked out.
Dread filled him as she spoke. They hadn’t planned to kill the humans, just wound them and then take them into custody, but that didn’t change the fact that they had all died.
“Which one was he?” he asked.
“We were in one of the downtown parking garages. Leon saw a group of Trivators on patrol and we were waiting for them to move on. Three men and a woman took us by surprise while we were hiding. They… they planned to….” She shook her head and looked up to stare out of the window again. “Leon knew if he yelled for help, the Trivators on patrol would probably hear it and come to see what was going on. We used the opportunity to escape. We thought we might have a better chance if we ran toward you. The worst that might happen is we would get caught and maybe sent to the base. That would be preferable to what would have happened if we hadn’t done anything. We made it several blocks before I stepped on a loose piece of concrete and twisted my ankle. I couldn’t walk, much less run. Leon told me to hide under a truck, and he would lead them away with the hope that the patrol would come to his aid,” she explained in a voice suddenly devoid of emotion.
“We came, and they opened fire on us,” Edge remembered.
“Yes,” she replied.
“There was one male, he struggled with the woman,” he said.
Lina nodded. “She shot Leon several times. I didn’t know that at first. I heard a lot of gunfire and laser blasts. Everything happened so quickly and then it was over. I saw you… I saw you step out of the shadows. You walked over and stood over Leon for several seconds before you bent down and
turned him over. I heard you say he was dead,” she said, shaking her head. “I thought you had killed him.”
“Lina,” he murmured, turning her in his arms.
She refused to look up at him. He lifted his hands and cupped her face. Silent tears slid down her cheeks. He brushed them away and pulled her, unresisting, into his arms. Holding her tightly against his chest, he soothingly ran his hand up and down her back.
“We didn’t want to harm any of them,” he promised. “They were shooting at us, and we had no choice. Sniper shot your Leon in the shoulder. It was the woman who killed him.”
“I know. Doc told me. I had no one to hate but you. The woman was dead. I told myself that if you… that if the Trivators hadn’t come, then none of this would have happened and Leon would still be alive. I didn’t want to feel anything but hatred. I needed someone to focus that hatred on—and that someone was you,” she confessed, looking up at him with such despair in her eyes that it made him groan.
“Yet, you wear my mark,” he said, releasing her cheek and reaching down to lift her wrist up so he could press a kiss to it. “You accepted my claim.”
Tears clouded her beautiful brown eyes. “I never wanted to love anyone again, and then I met you. I swore the Fates were laughing at me when I realized which Trivator the Waxian held. I wanted to leave you, but we needed you. I wanted to hate you, but….” She tried to look away, but he refused to release her chin.
“But…,” he murmured.
She tilted her chin in defiance. “But then I started to get to know you. You were so damn stubborn and wouldn’t give up,” she said.
He shook his head. “I told you to leave me,” he reminded her.
A rueful grin curved her lips. “Yes, you did, but only to protect us. Then, you closed your eyes and gave me your trust. I honestly don’t know of another single person in the entire universe who would have done that on a narrow plank five stories high,” she confessed.