“So there are six of us?”
“I don’t think so. I remember a big group. I think there were many more who weren’t publicized, like me.”
“Yeah, I made the national news. Lots of people came out of the woodwork to adopt me, but Dad was the one who found me, and there was never a doubt in his mind he was going to adopt and raise me.” It had been her favorite story growing up, her Dad finding her naked in the backseat of his locked patrol car. When he asked her how she had gotten there, she said she didn’t know, but she asked for a blanket. Mike spilled his hot coffee all over himself, and began to swear in Polish. After two minutes, she repeated her request for a blanket only this time she asked for it in Polish.
“All of the found assimilated the different languages they were exposed to their first two years.”
“How many do you know?” she asked.
“Seven.”
Noah picked up her wrist and looked at the angry scar. “They don’t hurt anymore,” she rushed to assure him. He raised his eyebrow. “Well not much. You know I really don’t like that you can feel what I’m feeling.”
“Remember it works both ways. You were tapping into my life in the jungle.”
Kelly shuddered, some of those memories were awful. “You hated what you were forced to do.”
“Sometimes, yes. But it was the right thing. It needed to be done.”
She felt his pain, it hadn’t been physical pain, but it was pain nonetheless. “How are we connected? Were we always connected? I don’t remember. I remember you as a little boy, but I remember us being together in a meadow. What do you remember?” He tipped her chin, and they looked into one another’s eyes.
“It’s out there real Whoo Whoo stuff. Kelly, maybe we should talk about this some other time.”
“More Whoo Whoo than children waking up naked with amnesia all around the world on the same day? More out there than they all learned to speak multiple languages by just hearing them spoken once? We were lucky we weren’t locked up and dissected.”
“But that’s part of it too, Kali. We were placed with the exact right people who protected us, who would never let that happen to us.”
“So tell me what you remember, where did we come from, are we from another planet?”
“I think we came from an alternate universe. I remember somebody explaining we were coming here to make a difference. We were going to do things to help this world get back on the right track.”
“Huh? Noah, that makes no sense, we were just children. I’m just a teacher. I teach ninth grade algebra and social studies, how in the hell am I making a difference,” Kelly said using air quotes. “How could I be helping to put the world back on track? For that matter, what track does this world need to be on?”
“I don’t know Kali. Think about me, I’m just a Lieutenant Commander in the Navy. It doesn’t make sense to me either. At least Alfred was a member of the House of Commons. Look, it’s only been since I met you, since your rescue, that bits and pieces of these memories have started to surface. They aren’t making a whole hell of a lot of a sense to me either.”
Kelly opened her mouth to ask another question, but yawned instead.
“Oh Kali, we need to get you into bed.” Noah stood and he put out his hand. Kelly was so tired she took a moment, just looking at it, confused, to figure out he was going to help her off the couch. She put her hand in his and he pulled her up. As soon as she was standing he easily swung her into his arms.
“Noah, don’t be an idiot, put me down, men don’t really carry women.” She yawned again, and he laughed. He walked across the living room towards the hallway.
“Men who don’t carry women around are totally missing out. I take it your room is the one on the end?” Kelly snuggled against his chest and nodded. He must have understood because he opened the door and laid her on the burgundy comforter. Before she could even think twice, he had her shoes and socks off, and under the covers. He gave her a quick kiss on the lips and was out the door. Kelly blinked once and was asleep.
* * *
Noah called Rydell.
“Where the hell did you disappear to? Are you okay? Is the family okay?” It’s the reason he was one of his best friends. No recriminations, just immediately worried about him.
“I’m fine. Remember the mission in Chicago?”
“Oh, you’re with the girl.”
“Fuck me, how’d you know, Dave?”
“There was something about her, and you were so protective. I could tell. You were out of sorts the entire time we were in the jungle.”
“Shit man, it could have been because people were trying to kill us.”
“People are always trying to kill us. Nope, you were distracted, not a detriment or anything, I would have told you, but I could tell she was on your mind.”
“She was.”
“Jesus, she wasn’t taken again, was she?”
“No, it was something else, just a feeling I had.” Noah let out a long breath, trying to figure out how to explain things to his friend.
“I’m never going to discount one of your feelings Sam, they’ve saved my ass too many damn times. Should I consider you off the rotation?”
“Yep.”
“Permanently?”
Noah looked down the hallway to the closed door at the end. “Yeah, Dave, I’m not going to be going back into live action again. I’ll be talking to the Admiral.”
“I’m happy for you man.”
“Thanks.” They talked for a bit longer about the rest of the team. When Noah hung up, he realized he actually had a lingering headache and he went to check out the medicine cabinet and took some ibuprofen. Then he grabbed his duffel bag and went into the spare room.
“You didn’t lie Kali, this room isn’t big enough. I need to be in the master suite with you.” Despite the long day, it took him a long time to finally get to sleep.
Chapter Eleven
Her condominium, which once felt too big, now felt like a matchbox. Every time she turned around she brushed against Noah. The man was always right beside her or behind her. She knew he was doing it on purpose.
It was the third day of school and she had gone to bed early knowing she would be up at an ungodly hour to start her lesson plans. She was rustling through the kitchen cabinets for some hot chocolate when she turned around and ran right into Noah.
“Dammit!” she said in a choked whisper. For some reason the darkness demanded a quiet tone, if not a vehement one. “You have to start making noise so I know you’re behind me.”
“Beautiful, I made enough noise to wake the dead.” Noah plucked the container of cocoa from her hands and reached over her head for the tea kettle. It caused his chest to brush against her breasts that were only covered by the thin silk of her robe. Dammit. She didn’t even have a nightgown on under her robe. As soon as he turned towards the sink to fill up the kettle she belted the robe tighter. She heard him chuckle.
“You’ve been here for two weeks, nothing has happened. At what point are we going to say this is silly and you go home?” She watched his shoulders bunch. His cinnamon color skin gleamed in the moonlight streaming through the kitchen window.
“I’m not leaving until the people behind your kidnapping are behind bars, or better yet, they’re dead.” He put the water on to boil, and then he reached around her again for two mugs. He took his time, and slid against her. She had a difficult time concentrating as he spooned the powder into the cups.
When the hot chocolate was made, he handed her a mug. “So, teach, why are we up so early?”
“I’ve got to get today’s lesson plan figured out, and I went to bed too early last night.”
“You’ve been burning the candle at both ends lately, Kali. Is it always like this?”
“Pretty much, at least at the start and the end of each semester. Especially when you’re teaching two diverse subjects like social studies and algebra.”
“I would have thought with your ability
to speak different languages you would have been teaching a language course.”
“That’s what I requested, but because I don’t have as much tenure as other teachers, I didn’t get it. Maybe in a few years.” Kali sipped her hot chocolate and looked at the papers spread on the kitchen table.
“I bet you’re a great teacher.”
“What makes you say that?”
“The way you care. How much effort you put into this. Does every teacher e-mail all the parents and introduce themselves?”
“No. But doing that kind of thing makes this more of a partnership, and I’ve found it helps.”
“Don’t I see you e-mailing more than just the parents?”
“Yes, I talk to the parents, and sometimes they have me e-mail an aunt, or a grandparent, or an older sibling. Sometimes I have as many as five people on a mailing list for one child, it’s kind of a safety net. In those cases, the child has a real high ratio of success. I’ve been doing it for the last two years. The principal is beginning to take interest.”
“But it’s one of the things taking up a lot of your time. It seems to make for long days.”
“The kids are worth it.” She kept her eyes on the math problems, because seeing the brown skin of Noah’s arms against the white of her kitchen tabletop was just too mouth-watering.
“Is there anything I can do to help?”
Kelly thought about it. “Do you know anything about the Donner party?” When Noah nodded, she gave him part of the social studies project plan, and she focused on the algebra. They worked in companionable silence, and she did her best to keep her eyes on the paperwork. However, every time she looked up, Noah was looking at her.
* * *
Mai was kidnapped in Taiwan. They didn’t have one fucking lead. Admiral Sakuro was furious, because Mai, Sarah and Niko had all been under close supervision by his team. Noah met the admiral nineteen years ago when he was in fifth grade. It was Nelson Sakuro, then Lieutenant Sakuro who introduced him to the Japanese language.
“It is impossible he did not know Japanese before today. This is some sort of trick.” The imposing man was furious. Noah hadn’t been afraid, he and his friends thought the man’s anger had been funny. They were all aware of Noah’s superpowers. He was like an X-Man. His teacher didn’t seem as amused. She invited the Lieutenant to give a talk about the Navy, and she was not happy with the way he was talking to one of her students.
“Samson does not lie. He has an affinity for languages. He can learn them quickly.”
“Nobody can learn a language that quickly.”
“Samson can,” Miss Leilani assured him.
“Prove it.”
“How, he has already learned Japanese.”
Noah and his friends watched wide-eyed as the Lieutenant and their petite Hawaiian teacher stood toe-to-toe. Finally the gruff officer turned and looked at Noah.
“Can you do it again? Learn another language?”
“I think so.” Noah had always been able to do so, he didn’t see why he couldn’t do it again.
“Do you know Portuguese?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Good. Tomorrow I’ll bring a man who knows Portuguese, and we’ll prove this was a trick.”
“And when he learns the language, you will apologize for being rude.”
Noah was amazed at Miss Leilani’s bravery.
“If he can speak Portuguese by the end of the day tomorrow, I will apologize.” He turned to Noah. “Sayonara.”
The next day Nelson Sakuro brought in a man who could only speak Portuguese, and Noah had been able to converse with him within five minutes. From then on, Nelson had been an honorary Godfather to Noah, and he was let in on the secret Samson Noah Kukailimoku was one of the found children. As a result, he had made it a mission of the Navy to protect those children even as they grew into adulthood. He had all available resources working on finding Mai Zhang.
“I pulled Rydell out of the jungle. He’s working on this now,” the Admiral told Noah.
“He doesn’t do investigations, he does recovery.”
“Well we’re going to damn well recover her,” the Admiral said as he slammed down the phone.
Noah threw his cell phone on his bed, and pulled on his running gear. He needed to work up a sweat. He knew Kali was in the dining room grading papers, and he wasn’t in the mood to play the flirting game.
“Noah, what’s wrong?” She was waiting in front of the hallway when he got out of the bedroom. Dammit, he’d forgotten about their damn connection.
“Nothing. Nothing’s wrong. I need to go for a run.” He brushed past her. She grabbed his arm, and he jerked away causing her to lose her balance. She reached out and righted herself against the wall.
“Kali.” Noah had her in his arms in an instant. “Kali, are you okay?”
“Don’t be an idiot, I’m fine. It’s you I’m worried about. What’s wrong? And before you open your mouth to lie, remember who you’re talking to.” He looked into her beautiful blue eyes, and rested his forehead against hers.
“Mai’s been taken.”
Chapter Twelve
Kali didn’t say anything, just gripped him hard around the waist and waited.
“We should have done a better job. We had eyes on her, but she didn’t want full protection, and we let her. We shouldn’t have listened.”
“It was her choice to make.” Kali’s hands snaked around his neck pulling at his short hair. “Are you listening to me Noah? This is not your team’s fault. This is not your fault. You’re good men. You are one of the best men I know.”
“I’ll die before I’d let them take you again, Kali.”
She yanked on his hair. “Don’t you dare say that! You’re doing everything in your power to keep me safe, but if they take me, they take me.”
“I couldn’t bear it if they took you from me. The only way they will ever get you is over my dead body.” Looking at this woman in his arms, he realized it was the absolute truth. More than their connection from the past. It was the woman he had come to know.
“Noah, never say something like that again. I can’t bear the idea of losing you now I’ve found you again.” They stared at one another. Finally, Noah knew the time was right. This was not going to be some flirtation, some seduction, this was going to be the two of them making love. As his mind formed the thought, he saw the flare of acknowledgement and agreement in Kali’s eyes.
“Will this ruin things? You were my first and best friend Noah. I couldn’t stand it if this ruined things between us.”
“Close your eyes Beautiful, tell me what your heart says.” She continued to look at him. He gently brushed his hand over her eyelids. “Now, tell me what’s in your heart. What is the right thing for Noah and Kali?” Her hands drifted slowly downwards until they were pressed against his chest, his heart.
“We were meant to be together. But I’m still scared Noah. I’m not good at this stuff. I’m afraid I’ll screw up, somehow I’ll mess up and destroy what we have.”
Looking at someone who had their eyes closed was enlightening. It was as if their vulnerabilities all came to the surface, and Noah could clearly see and feel how Kali truly felt this step would somehow shatter their relationship. As if anything could ever come between them. He wouldn’t allow it.
“Not going to happen, you can’t do anything to ever mess this up.” He wrapped himself around her, his head resting on top of the fine silk of her hair, drinking in her warmth and the scent that was Kali. “I know down to my bones this is the right next step. We belong together, Beautiful.”
She pulled away and opened her eyes, looking deep into his. She nodded, and he swept in, his mouth soft, a gentle slide against her plump pink lips. Slowly he moved back and forth until she followed him and whimpered, then he swiped his tongue against her bottom lip, asking for entrance. She opened eagerly, and he went from soft to carnal, unable to stop his need to conquer. Kali’s answering moan, and the way she presse
d tightly against him was a balm to his senses. Suddenly he was scared, and it broke through his haze because it was Kali, not him.
“Beautiful, what is it?”
“I need you so bad. It’s going to hurt when you leave. I mean when your leave is up.” She shook her head, white gold hair flying around her face.
“I’m not leaving Kali.” She looked at him for long moments and then grabbed him around his neck. He gripped her ass and hoisted her up, heading for her bedroom. He laid her on the bed and followed her, relishing the feel of her beneath him. She was petite, and because of all she had been through, she was even more delicate now. He needed her so badly, but he needed to take care with her. He lifted up, so as not to crush her.
“No, I like you where you are.” Kali pulled him back down, but there was no way her feminine muscles were a match to his masculine ones.
“Careful. We’re going to be careful. I don’t want to hurt you.”
She pulled at his hair, giving up on trying to pull him down. “You can’t possibly hurt me. I want to feel you. You feel so good on top of me. Please Noah,” she breathed hotly into his ear as she nipped at his lobe, sending shivers down his spine. God she would be the death of him. He arched up and away, and she wailed his name, until she saw him rip his shirt over his head, then she stopped mid-wail.
“Clothes. Undress, Beautiful,” he prodded.
Kali clambered onto her knees and started stripping. Noah stopped unlacing his running shoes, watching helplessly when she was down to her bra and panties. Suddenly Kali stopped, hesitant.
“What? Please don’t stop now, I’m begging.”
“I’ve never been with anyone like you before,” Kali motioned to his chest. Noah looked at himself in confusion. Then he looked up, his eyes sparkling.
“You’ve only been with girls? That’s hot.”
“No, you big goof. I’ve never been with someone who looked like a damn underwear model. I know I’m pretty, but for God’s sake, I’m nowhere close to your league. I just can’t do this. Why don’t we try this after I’m back to my fighting weight?” Kali reached for her shirt, but before she could, he grabbed it and threw it across the room. Noah had her flat on her back, with one of his big hands under her cupping her ass, in less time then it took to blink.
Revealed (The Found Book 1) Page 5