Inseparable

by D. M. Mortier

  Thought that would get your attention. It was Saina’s turn to ignore him. “Guys, leave us please?”

  Mike and Joe scrambled to their feet and were almost falling all over themselves in their hurry to leave the room.

  Juliet leaned against the wall and glared up at Saina. “I’m tired, and I’m not going anywhere.”

  “Please, Jules, can you at least go to your own room?”

  “Don’t think I won’t tell Matt about this. He’s been nothing but patient with you,” her roommate muttered as she left the room.

  Chapter Four

  “Who is he?” Thorne hadn’t moved an inch since he’d asked his question the first time.

  “When are you leaving for Parth?” Saina nonchalantly moved around the room and started cleaning up the mess the brief scuffle had created.

  “I’m not going anywhere anytime soon. So why don’t you tell me about this boyfriend? What’s his name?”

  “Thorne, seriously? I’m a grown woman. I don’t owe you an explanation about my private life,” Saina dismissed.

  Thorne closed the space between them and gazed down at her with an angry expression. “Princess, you have always been my responsibility. I will find out why no one has told me about this boyfriend.”

  “Don’t call me that, and I am no one’s responsibility. I’m twenty-one years old, remember? A legal adult.”

  Thorne crowded her space, standing only inches in front of her.

  Refusing to back down, Saina didn’t move an inch.

  “I don’t give a damn how old you get. You will always be my responsibility,” he muttered through clenched teeth.

  She laughed bitterly and moved away from him then. “That’s real funny, Thorne. I haven’t seen you in years…”

  “Five years, six months, four days, ten hours and twenty minutes,” Thorne injected.

  Saina glared at him. “I haven’t seen you in years,” she repeated stubbornly. “The most I can tell, I’m probably just an inconvenient, sometimes forgotten, burden to you.”

  “You’ve never been that,” he denied hotly.

  Saina rolled her eyes at him. “So how is it that, despite your coming to Earth at least six times a year, and meeting with Charles or Amanda, you never come to see me? You probably came to see me today only out of desperation.”

  “That’s not it at all.”

  “Then what was it?”

  “I thought I was going to die and I wanted to say goodbye.”

  “And the thought that I may be able to revive you never crossed your mind?”

  “No!” Thorne bit out. “The first time you saved my life I had no idea you could do that. Your people in Europon don’t have such abilities. My mother is from Europon, and she’s never talked about such a possibility. Why would I think you could heal such mortal wounds now? I still don’t know what that was the last time.”

  “Thorne…”

  “Enough! You’re mine to take care of whether you like it or not. I take my responsibilities very seriously.”

  “I’m an adult. I’m no one’s responsibility,” Saina seethed. “Get that through your thick skull. I don’t need or want you to take care of me.”

  “Your Caribbean accent is impressive,” Thorne observed.

  “You’re not listening to me.”

  “On the contrary, I’ve listened to everything that you’ve said to me tonight. When it comes to the role I play in your life, we’ll have to agree to disagree.” He smiled down at her gently. “I haven’t thanked you for saving my life.”

  “That’s easy,” she muttered. “You want to thank me? Take me back to Calison with you.”

  Thorne laughed bitterly. “I can’t.”

  “Perhaps I need to rephrase that. I’m coming to Calison with you. I want to visit my parents.”

  “Maybe you don’t understand something.” He tried for a softer, more reasoning voice. “You’re here for your own safety. After all these years of protecting you, keeping you alive, why would I jeopardize that now? Especially when I’m no longer confident that I can protect you in Calison or anywhere on Parth for that matter. Here, that’s relatively easy. I didn’t anticipate this boyfriend, but we’re going to fix that.”

  “If I stay here on Earth, I’ll just be going through the motions of life. Yes, I can be a damn good doctor here, but on Calison, I can help you.”

  Thorne stared at her silently for a few seconds before whispering, “That’s not possible, Saina. I had thought the same, but I now realize that’s just not possible.”

  “I can help out in your research. I heard that you have a state-of-the-art research lab. You have the best doctors and researchers, certainly far better than here on Earth. I can learn so much from them all.”

  “You’re learning here on Earth, and I have research companies here you can work for.”

  “Thorne, I want to help you, help watch your back and keep you safe. I hate seeing what these animals have been able to do to you.”

  “Despite what it seems, I’m usually much more careful than this. If this was anywhere but my lab, I would’ve never been caught off guard like that.” He took a step toward her. “My father and yours gave you to me to protect and to take care of.” He continued toward her. “I want—”

  “If you want to continue breathing, I suggest you stay where you are and don’t finish that statement. I can heal you, but I can also hurt you too.”

  He frowned at her. “I know Charles and Amanda have taught you who you really are. So, you must understand the danger you would be in.”

  “Yeah, I know what to expect.” She was emphatic, determined to show him how strong she was. “Thorne, I can do this. I can take care of myself.”

  “The answer is still no.”

  “I’m not going to be left behind again. I wrote a letter to you every month after you left on my sixteenth birthday when you didn’t come see me anymore. I stopped writing those damn letters two years ago when you never bothered to respond. I’m not going through that again.” She started pacing about the room, continuing to tidy things she’d already taken care of. “I feel like I’ve been in the middle of an identity crisis for years!” She turned to stare back at him, wanting him to see how that had hurt her. “I know that I’m stupid to hope for the moon, but that’s what it means when you love someone. I’m willing to support and love you from afar, but that doesn’t include another fraggin’ planet! I’ve studied hard to be a doctor, and I’m a good one here on Earth, but I know I’m built for something even greater than that.”

  “You’re twisting my words and my intent. I love you, too. I want to take care of you. I swear no one will care for you as much I will. Saina, I need you to stay here where it’s safe. If something happened to you, I wouldn’t be able to live with myself.” He closed the space between them and stood looking down at her. “On Parth, by law, you are my wife. And I can’t lie, it bothers me to think of you with another man, but I’ve always known that I will have to live with that.”

  “You have to live with that?” Saina asked in disbelief. “Are you forgetting that’s my reality?”

  “Hear me out, Saina,” he told her earnestly. “Yes, I have to live with the knowledge that you will belong to someone else. However, I love you enough to ensure that you make the right choices and know that you can always rely on me for support.”

  “You’re married and have been that way for years. Sorry, I’m not that magnanimous. I want to at least be with you. I want us to have a chance.”

  “Saina…”

  “Why did you stop coming to see me?” Saina asked suddenly, still puzzled after all these years about his reasoning for leaving her alone. “When you came to Earth, you spoke to Charles and Amanda but not me. Why? I’d always thought that you cared about me. Heck, I thought we were close. What happened?”

  “We were close. And, yes, I cared for you as I’ve always done.” He turned his back to her and was silent for a long
time as he stared out into the night through the tiny bedroom window. “I felt our separation every time I had to return to Parth,” he finally offered quietly. “It was bizarre to feel that dependent on a child. It wasn’t sexual, but I didn’t understand it then. Saina, I still don’t understand what this is.”

  “No, you’ve known me as a child, and yet you claim to care for me, to love me. What kind of love are we talking about here? I know what I mean when I say it, but what do you mean?” She sat on the edge of her bed, the hours she had put in at the hospital over the past two days finally catching up with her. She yawned loudly. “Because you know nothing about me.” He’s asking the impossible. How can I possibly continue living like this? He’s out of his mind if he thinks I would ever agree to not seeing him again for years.

  “It’s difficult to explain what I feel.” He sighed and finally turned to look at her. “I know you through your letters. I know you through the reports I get from Charles and Amanda. Your kindness and gentleness shines through every report about you. And I know you through your touch. No one has touched me so deeply.” His voice was hoarse with emotion as he seemed to struggle to make her understand. “You’ve known me the same length of time as I’ve known you, and yet you love me. Why can’t you believe in that and believe that I can feel just as deeply? Until today, those feeling had never been sexual. With that in the mix, this is more than I ever anticipated.” He held her gaze steadily. “However, you and I both know that there’s nothing we can do about it.”

  “I disagree. I’m not asking you to live without me, and I’m not willing to live without you. I want us to have something more than this.”

  “That’s not fair to you. You mean more to me than an occasional lay. I want the moon and stars for you.”

  “I want nothing except you. And being together would be an expression of my love. I know you feel what could be for us.”

  “Saina...”

  “You don’t have to answer me now. Please think about it,” she implored.

  “Saina, regardless of what you think of me, I want the best for you. I just happen to think that Earth is the best for you now. I understand that you’re curious about your home planet, but you will have to accept that Parth is not safe for you right now.”

  “There’s nothing I need to accept. Charles and Amanda reminded me all my life that I was your wife. Stupid me, I accepted that, believed that.” She leaned back on the bed in defeat. “I can’t live like this anymore,” she whispered. “I’ve been living in limbo, and I’m done waiting. Fate has brought you here today. And I’m looking forward to finally being with you, to be a part of your work, and one day having a family with you. I want to give you the world too.”

  “Saina…”

  “No, Thorne!” She sat upright and glared at him. “Until tonight, I never realized that we were never supposed to be together, despite our vows to each other. Am I supposed to watch the love of my life continue to suffer?”

  “Saina…”

  “Stop saying my damn name and put us both out of our misery.”

  “I can’t take you to Parth. The target on you would be overwhelming. You mean too much to me. And then we will be torturing each other with what we can’t have.” He lowered his voice to barely above a whisper. “I won’t put you through that.”

  “Well, Thorne, it’s up to you. You know that I don’t need to settle. I don’t need to wait for any man. I have found someone who loves me, who is unencumbered.” While she was trying to convey strength to him, she was really dying inside. “If you’re so willing to give me to someone, I can fix that for you. I’ll give myself to Matt.”

  Thorne leaned toward her. His face pushed into hers. “Who is he?” he asked softly. He clenched his teeth tightly. “You think I’m going to let some punk have you? I have sworn to always cherish and love you. I take my vows seriously, Saina.”

  “Your vows?” Saina had been given a copy of their vows by Amanda when she was eighteen, and ever since, she’d woven a dream of happily ever after for them. “Yes, you made those vows to me, but you also vowed to cherish and love another woman.”

  “No, I never vowed that with Anastasia. It is a simple marriage contract. No vows were exchanged. I made sure of that.”

  “That doesn’t change anything.” She was shocked to hear that piece of news, but she couldn’t put much hope in it.

  “No, it doesn’t. I may not be able to live with you as my wife, but I want to ensure you don’t suffer because of it.” His voice softened with each word. “Do you think this is easy for me?”

  “No,” she had to admit. As he’d said earlier, she felt every bit of his frustration and his lust coming at her now in tidal waves. She was dying to flame those emotions, add fuel to his lust. “You’re married to a psycho bitch who’s trying to kill you. That’s not easy at all,” Saina conceded bitterly.

  “This isn’t about me. This is about you.”

  “Thorne, don’t leave me here,” Saina coaxed gently. “Take me with you.”

  Thorne turned to walk away, but Saina moved with a speed he hadn’t anticipated, causing him to stumble clumsily as she came to stand in front of him.

  “Don’t leave,” Saina begged.

  “Damn that’s impressive,” he breathed out. His gaze bore down on her with admiration. “My abilities are magnified here on Earth, but I didn’t expect this of you. What else can you do?”

  “I would tell you if I was your woman.”

  “Saina…”

  She rolled her eyes at him. “Okay, okay. I won’t hit on you if you promise to stay for a while.”

  He sighed deeply. “I’m going to stay here on Earth for a few days. However, this doesn’t change anything. You and I both know that I must go back. I can’t chance my people being hurt.”

  “They are eventually going to succeed in killing you, Thorne.” Saina was sad again, frustrated that there was nothing she could do. “I can help if I go to Parth.”

  He smiled at her tiredly. “I have lived for hundreds of years already. I am not afraid to die.”

  “Is that normal?” She looked up at him in shock. “I mean your living for so long.”

  “Again, it seems that Charles and Amanda didn’t teach you enough about your birth planet.”

  “No, they were too busy teaching me how to please you.”

  “Really?” He peered down with masculine interest. “Teaching you to please me how?”

  Saina sucked in her breath, stunned that he was unaware of her training. “I would show you, but that constitutes hitting on you.” Damn, the spike in his lust at her obvious meaning had her so wet she was almost tempted to ignore her promise and mount him anyway.

  “I’m so fucked,” he murmured huskily.

  She smiled sweetly, trying to cover her amorous intentions. There was a sliver of a plan developing in her mind.

  He shook his head at her teasing grin. “Whatever you’re planning, get it out of your mind. It’s not happening.”

  Saina knew that he was trying to sound convincing.

  “I’ll see you tomorrow, Saina. Obviously, we’re not going to resolve our differing views tonight.”

  “We’re definitely a long way from that. I want to return to Parth. I clearly out grew Charles and Amanda’s guidance years ago, and I’ve enough Ph.Ds. to last me a few lifetimes.” She moved closer to him trying to get him to accept how serious she was about this. “I can’t accept the life you’re insisting I live,” she said softly. “You go back to Parth without me, Thorne, and I won’t survive this life here.”

  Thorne gazed at her quietly for a few tense seconds before speaking. “You mean the world to me, and I won’t jeopardize your life for anything. Not even for us to be together,” Thorne said calmly before teleporting.

  Saina watched him go and was immediately sorry that he’d left. A sense of emptiness engulfed her, crashing over her. Whenever he’d left in the past, she’d always felt their se
paration. This time was different. Admitting how they felt out loud now made the separation worse. Never had she ever had such physical evidence of the rightness of their union. It was as though something vital had been ripped from her body. Despite living her entire life as an alien on a planet that was not her own, she had always had an optimistic, cheerful demeanor. She only now realized that her happiness had been because she had had absolute certainty that Thorne would come back for her and she would be his wife. For the first time in her life, she started to doubt their chance of ever being together.

  Saina had done everything to learn how to be the best queen for Calison and the best wife for Thorne. She studied Calison’s history and their way of life until she was almost cross-eyed. For Thorne, she had been determined to learn how to please him, learning as much as she could about his scientific work, the laws of every realm on Parth, and about the people. Even her profession had been chosen for what would benefit Thorne and the people of Calison. She studied every sexual position in the Kama Sutra and taught herself how to kiss and how to perform a blowjob like a pro. Her education was gained predominantly from the internet, pornographic videos, and props bought from a sex novelty store. Her relationship with Matt had been a part of her training as well. He was her prop on how to interact with the opposite sex. She’d thought the fact that Matt wanted more only spoke to the success of her ability.

  Her entire approach to life on Earth and all her choices had been made with the anticipation of being Thorne’s wife. Never had she dreamed that he would offer to marry her off to someone else. Now she would have to give some serious thought about the life she wanted because there wasn’t a chance in hell of her ever accepting the conditions Thorne envisaged. No matter how much danger he thought she’d be in.

  Chapter Five

  Thorne did return the next day and was curious about Saina’s work in a human hospital. Despite the digger looks she gave him when he showed up in a doctor’s white coat to observe her work in the emergency room, there wasn’t much she could do to get rid of him. Since he was the president and CEO of the largest pharmaceutical company on Earth, any hospital would bend over backwards to accommodate his every whim. Duke University Hospital was no different. It didn’t hurt that he also had an honorary Ph.D. on Earth. Since no one knew that he was from another planet, they had no idea that he was more than qualified as a doctor. The education he’d attained in medical science was highly more complex and advanced than anything available on Earth.