Shana hesitated for a moment before she nodded her head in agreement. She slipped off her shoes next to the mat and padded barefoot over to where he stood in the middle of the room. She had found a pair of shorts and a T-shirt to wear that morning. The clothes were too big for her, but at least the shorts had a drawstring in them to tighten around her waist.
“Just do as I do,” Kai told her as he turned to face the wall length mirror. His heart began pounding as soon as she stood near him. He glanced away from her and freed his mind from her.
Shana nodded her head at him as she, too, faced the mirror.
He stood behind her when he began the warm-ups again for her. Shana followed him step for step. Once she was warmed up, Kai began doing his katas.
He was surprised that she was able to match him kick for kick and block for block. He turned to her and asked, “How do you know these movements?” He was surprised that she had kept up with him. Even when he had moved faster with each step he took, she was still able to keep pace.
“I don’t know.” She answered with a confused expression on her face.
Kai tossed her a white towel, and she wiped the sweat off her face. “I--” she began, only to be interrupted by the Bot.
Kai turned to look down at the Bot for a moment then turned to look at Shana, “I have a phone call that I have to take. Please excuse me.” Kai bowed to her and quickly left the room, wiping the sweat from his face and neck with a white towel as he walked down the hallway to his office.
Shana wiped the sweat from her own face and neck as she sat down on the mat. She was confused that she knew the moves to Kai’s katas
How did I know those moves? she asked herself as she bent over her outstretched legs, grabbing onto her ankles with her hands and exhaling.
If I could only remember, she screamed inside of her mind.
Time... It will take some time for my memory to come back. At least I hope it will come back. But those dreams that I have been having. Are they real or just dreams? Shana thought to herself as she stood up. She glanced at herself in the mirror. She covered her cheek with her fingertips. Who am I? Better yet, what am I?
~ * ~
“What do you have for me?” Kai asked Carlos when his picture came on the screen.
“Nothing. Absolutely nothing on the woman who crashed-landed here.” Carlos’s expression was grinning. “The computer is turning up empty.”
Kai sat at his desk and drummed his fingers on the top. “She had to come from somewhere--not unless they are cloning people again,” Kai said in a hard voice.
“We need to find out who she is and why she’s here. Soon,” Kai said then thought to himself, before she begins to mean something to me.
When Kai was done with his call, he took a detour to his bathroom and took a quick shower, washing the dried sweat off his body.
When he appeared in the dining room, he saw that the woman was sitting at the table waiting for him. An image rushed through his mind as he saw himself coming home to find her waiting for him every night for the rest of his life, after he was through being the Guardian for the day.
Kai shook that image from his mind as he took a seat next to her at the table. “What are we having today?” he asked.
“I don’t know. I haven’t been served yet. I cannot talk to the Bot,” Shana answered as she smiled over at him and pointed to the Bot.
Kai’s heart began to pound when she smiled at him. He gripped the arms of the chair tightly until his knuckles turned white. He had the urge to kiss her again, but he fought it.
In Kai’s mind he told the Bots to serve breakfast in a hurry. And they did.
It was late morning when he told her, “I have to leave now. I have some business that I need to take care of, but I will be home later this evening.” He didn’t want to leave her again. He wanted to spend more time with her. But it couldn’t be helped. He knew she would be fine while he was gone.
“What does he do? What kind of business does he always have that calls him away day and night?” Shana asked herself after Kai had left the house. She threw her hands in the air and muttered, “Why doesn’t he take me with him?”
Shana had grown bored while she was waiting for his return. It was already evening time when she took a novel off one of the bookcases in the library. She looked at the cover and read the back blurb of the mystery novel. The story seemed like it might be interesting. She walked over to the couch and lay down with her head on a soft pillow. She began to read the mystery thriller. For some reason, she knew this author. Why was she not surprised to find this particular book here?
As she read the book, more images of her past washed over her mind. This time Shana was on a ship. Someone was firing on her.
“Damn those Hungarians.” She swore and returned fire on them. “You won’t get away from me,” she said in a hard and lethal voice as fire burned in her eyes.
Pain rushed into her mind suddenly at the same time she remembered the Hungarian ship exploded. The pain in her head was so bad that Shana rolled herself into a ball with her hands cupping her head. She cried out for someone to stop the pain.
Her eyes were closed tightly and tears streamed down her face.
~ * ~
“No! That can’t be true,” Mikla cried out as she gripped her hands over her stomach. The baby within rolled and kicked as if it could sense what Mikla was feeling.
“I am sorry to be the one to tell you this.” Gregor spoke softly to his mate as he stood behind her and wrapped his arms around her, his dark head bending close to hers.
“Don’t,” Mikla stressed as she grabbed his wrist and pushed away from him. “I know Shana. She would not have let something like this happen. She’s a great pilot. One of the best that ever was,” Mikla shouted at Gregor. He winced at the sound of her voice.
“Calm down,” Gregor spoke softly.
“Don’t tell me to calm down!” she shouted at him as she spun around to face him.
“Think of the baby,” he told her as he cautiously walked toward her and placed his hands over the baby within her.
“I just don’t want to believe that she’s gone. If it were true, then I would feel it in here.” Mikla sobbed as she placed her hand over her heart.
Gregor wrapped his arms around his mate as he let her cry over the loss of her friend.
“We’ll name the baby after her if it’s a girl.”
Four
“Are you sure she’s from Earth?” Kai asked as he looked down onto his desk. The contents were spread out in front of him. Kai picked up a piece of paper and scanned the report quickly, just to be sure that he didn’t miss anything of importance the first time that he read it. He couldn’t believe what he was reading. At first he thought that the reports were wrong. He had stared at the same words over and over, and the report still did not make any sense.
The woman that he had rescued from the burning ship was from Earth.
“I am sure,” Rodriguez said as he placed his elbows on the table. His index fingers pointed upwards in front of him. “That is what the reports said about the crashed ship.”
Kai sighed as he leaned back in his chair, then suddenly he stiffened up in the chair.
“We need to find out why she’s here,” Rodriguez said as he stood up from his chair and braced his hands on Kai’s desk. The expression on his face was hard and determined to find out at any cost why the woman had crashed landed on Paradise.
Kai was about to respond to the other man’s demands when a series of beeps and whirrs sounded in his mind, right in the middle of his important meeting with Rodriguez. Kai stood up from his chair.
“Excuse me. We’ll have to finish this at a later time. I have an emergency at home.” He spoke as he walked at a fast pace out of his office, leaving a very confused Rodriguez behind him.
He didn’t hear Rodriguez’s sharply exhaled breath as he turned to look at the closed door behind Kai. Everyone on Paradise knew that Kai Morgan was keeping the woman in
his house.
~ * ~
Kai jumped into the hovercraft and turned on the ignition. The hovercraft lifted off the ground and into the air. Kai rushed home in less then thirty minutes from the other side of Paradise.
The hovercraft wasn’t completely shut down when Kai jumped out of it onto the landing dock. He heard the engine stop as he rushed inside his house, his heart beating at a fast pace.
His gaze swept the living room, and he found her on the floor rocking back and forth on her side with her hands pressed onto her forehead. Kai rushed to her side and touched her shoulder with one hand and using his other hand he swept the hair from her face. She looked up at him with glazed eyes. She didn’t seem to recognize him.
“Please!” She cried out softly. She reached out with a trembling hand, placing the palm on his cheek. “Please stop the pain,” she spoke with agony in her voice.
She lowered her hand back down to the top of her head she as she continued to rock back and forth on her back. “It hurts too much,” she whispered. Her eyes were opened and glazed with pain. His heart constricted as he stared down into her pain filled eyes.
Something tore deeply inside of him to see her in so much pain. Kai sighed deeply and picked her up in his arms. He placed a gentle kiss on her forehead and carried her down to the med-unit.
He gently placed her in the unit and lowered the lid. Kai heard the air pressure inside the box indicating the Shana was getting enough oxygen. Colored lights flashed on the gray box. Kai stood there watching the unit as it worked on the woman. His hands were fisted at his sides as he waited for the med-unit to do its job and take her headache away.
He could still feel her soft skin on his lips from when he kissed her forehead. Kai reached up and touched his lips. She tasted like satin and silk. Soft. And all woman. He could feel himself harden just thinking about her. Kai moved his feet to shift the tightness of his jeans, trying to find a more comfortable position. He turned when he heard the beeps at his side and changed his focus from the box down to his Bot.
“She will be fine. You did good by telling me of her condition,” Kai said to the Bot as he moved his gaze back to the box. The lights turned green indicating that the med-unit had completed taking away Shana’s headache.
Kai walked over to the box and lifted the lid. The machine was still working on her. He began to pace along the length of the unit, his heart racing inside of his chest. He couldn’t get the image of her lying on the floor in so much pain out his mind. He had never felt like this about another person before, and he couldn’t figure out what it meant. Or why. All that he knew was that he never wanted to see her like that again.
Her eyes were closed as she slept from the drugs that she had been given. Kai reached out and smoothed his finger along her cheek, feeling the softness against his skin. He sighed as he bent and picked her up out of the box, enjoying the feel of her heartbeat next to his. He paused in the hallway, immersed in the feeling of their combined heartbeats. He opened his eyes and carried her into the bedroom that she had been using, wishing that she was sharing his bed instead. He mentally shook his head. It will not happen until I know for a fact who she is and why she is here on my planet. He scratched his chin with his forefinger.
He gently laid her on the bed. Kai sat down next to her and held her hand. She slowly opened her eyes, but they were still glazed from the drugs.
“What happened?” she asked in a hoarse voice.
Kai let go of her hand and reached down to the Bot, taking a glass of water from the metal hand. With his other hand he helped her to sit up in the bed and gave it to her. He took the glass when her arm grew unsteady and she spilled water on the bed. He held the glass to her lips while she took a few sips, then removed it when shook her head that she was done.
“You had a severe headache. The Bot called me home. You were on the floor. In pain,” he told her softly, his face showing the emotions of his tender words. He helped her lay her head on the pillow. “How are you feeling?” he asked as his gaze held hers. Kai twisted a lock of her hair around his finger, feeling the silkiness of her red hair.
“What are you to me? I feel as if I should know you. But I don’t remember you,” she asked softly, holding his gaze with hers. She reached up and cupped his cheek in her palm. She could feel her heart beating at a fast pace. She saw him close his eyes and he gulped.
“Please, tell me,” she begged quietly. She was confused about what this man was to her. She had this feeling that she should know him but didn’t remember.
Kai opened his eyes slowly and wished that he hadn’t. He could see confused emotions in her eyes. He knew that he should tell her the truth. He tore his gaze from hers, stood from the bed and took a few paces away from her. He turned back to face her. His eyes held hers.
He wished he knew her name, but he didn’t. He stared down at her, then he quietly turned away from her and left the bedroom.
Shana was about to call him back. Her mouth moved but no sound came out of her. She tried to search her mind for the answers, but her mind was a total blank. She lay back down on the bed and let her eyes close. As she drifted back to sleep, she thought, maybe tomorrow I will have the answers to these questions that had been plaguing me.
~ * ~
Kai sat down at his desk in the private office in his home. He turned his computer on and sat back as he waited for the computer to warm up. His ankles crossed when he slouched down in his chair. His index finger slowly moved back and forth along his chin. Once the computer was ready, Kai punched his fingers on the keyboard, searching for the woman’s identity.
He silently thanked the Romani’s for giving him access to Earth’s computers. With their knowledge he could hack into any government’s files. At least now he knew that the woman who had crashed landed on Paradise was from Earth. There could only be so many reasons why she was here, Kai told himself as he stared at the computer.
The one question that kept repeating itself over and over in his mind was, why is she here?
An hour later he finally had some of the answers to his questions. He sat back in his chair with a surprised look on his face as he stared at her file on the computer.
Her name is Shana Moon. Her age is 24. Single. Never been married or bred. She was born in the city of Atlantis. The file didn’t list her parents’ names. In case of an emergency contact was the name Mikla Haze--who, according to the computer file, is her friend and is currently breeding.
Shana was a government agent. But her files still did not give him the answer as to why she was here.
A noise came from behind him. Kai turned and saw Shana standing in the doorway. He reached out blindly and cleared the screen. “You should be resting,” he said as he stood up, speaking in a soft voice as he began to walk toward her.
“I couldn’t sleep with all the questions running through my mind,” Shana said as she looked up at him when he stood in front of her. She barely came up to his chest. Looking deeply into his blue eyes she could feel his heat seep into her. Her heart began to beat wildly inside of her chest.
“What questions are running through your mind?” Kai asked, not even sure if he really wanted to know--or if he already knew the answers to those questions.
“The first question that comes to my mind is ‘Who am I?’” she said as she took a step around him and entered his private office.
A computer sat on a light wood desk with a black leather chair tucked behind it. The light peach carpet quieted her footsteps. A white leather couch lined up against one of the walls. The room was pure masculine and reminded her of Kai. Both light and dark. She glanced around the office noting the strange paintings of creatures on beige walls. They seemed to be different yet the same, in a variety of different scenes and poses. Some were gory and yet others were gentle. She turned back to him slightly puzzled.
“What kind of creatures are those?” She pointed to several different paintings.
Kai looked at the paintings to which she had p
ointed to. “Those are dragons. They are mythical creatures,” he said and turned back to her. “The answer to your first question... I know the answer to that one.” He didn’t bother to tell her that he had just learned it seconds before she had entered his office.
Kai cupped her face in his hands and stared down into her green eyes. “Your name is Shana Moon.” He couldn’t fight the pull any longer. He had to taste those sweet lips with his. He felt himself hardening and thickening. He inhaled deep breaths as he wrapped his arms around her waist, bringing her closer to him. He saw her eyes deepen into a darker green. He could feel her heart beat wildly as her face softened. It was time to stop fighting against this wild urge to kiss her.
He claimed her lips with his in a deep, soul-searing kiss.
White heat exploded around them as their tongues dueled with one another. Kai pulled Shana tighter into his arms. His hands cupped her buttocks as he pulled her to his hardness. He groaned out loud as his groin hardened even more against her softness. Yes! Finally! his mind screamed. He grinded his hips into her. Kai felt her hands tangle in his hair at his nape. Shana’s lips fit his perfectly. She felt perfect against his hardening body. Her leg lifted around his hips.
Her fingers tugged at his shirt. Shana slipped her hands inside to touch the warm skin underneath it. She ran her palms over his well-muscled chest, then her fingers teased his flat nipples until they hardened. Kai shivered. Shana moaned into his mouth as he unbuttoned the shirt that she was wearing. He spread the shirt open and his hands slid down to her bare breasts.
Ever since the accident, Shana had been wearing his long shirts that reached down to her knees. For days her long legs had been on been on his mind. Kai slid his hand from her back and down her smooth thigh, feeling the silkiness beneath his fingertips. A soft moan escaped from his lips. His soft caresses along her legs grew bolder.
Sensations shook Shana as she felt his fingertips along her thighs. She drew her leg up his and wrapped it around his waist. Kai slipped his hands around and cupped her buttocks, lifting her higher into his arms. He slid their bodies against each other as he lowered her back down to the floor, his lips never leaving hers. Shana closed her eyes tightly at the feelings that Kai was evoking within her. Sensation after sensation overwhelmed her. His hands swept down to her stomach as he broke off the kiss.
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