He surveyed the room. “I don’t see any luggage.”
“Because there isn’t any. We don’t need it. We’re only going to be here a couple of nights.”
He arched a brow. “No cell phone either? No tablet or laptop?”
“No.”
He eyed her balefully. “You don’t find that suspicious?”
“No.” Her mind worked furiously. “Look, we do this several times a year. We get tired of the constant hustle and bustle, the stress of work and deadlines and dealing with everyday hassles. So whenever it starts to feel like we’re ready to explode or like we’re so busy we just pass each other in the hallway, we get out of the city, leave everything behind, and spend two or three days together. No cell phones. No tablets. No laptops. No distractions. No interruptions. Just the two of us reconnecting.”
Taelon glared at the men. “And we were reconnecting very well until you interrupted us.”
One of the men snorted when he tried to hold back a laugh.
Agent Walker cut him a look. “Why here?” He looked around the drab room. “I wouldn’t exactly call this place romantic.”
It was pretty crappy. Lisa feigned a sigh. “How many cars are in the parking lot right now?”
“Aside from ours? One.”
“Exactly. No other patrons means no noise. This place is quiet. We were worried at first when we saw the guy in the Humvee. But he took a room way down on the end. So if he blasted music or his TV, we didn’t hear it.”
His gaze sharpened. “You saw the driver of the Humvee?”
“Yes. He was already here when we arrived and signed in right after we did.”
“What did he look like?”
Taelon spoke. “He looked like you. Same clothes. Short hair. No weapon though, as far as we could see.”
“His uniform was black like ours, not green camo?”
“Correct.”
Lisa frowned. “Is he who you’re looking for? Is he dangerous?”
Taelon nodded, getting into the game. “Should we leave?”
“No.” The man’s brow furrowed as if he still wasn’t sure he trusted them but found their explanation plausible. “No, you should be fine. His bed hasn’t been slept in and there’s no sign of him. He probably bailed during the night.”
One of the other men grimaced. “Henderson is going to be pissed.”
“So is Reordon,” Walker said. “He and the North Carolina crew want every loose end tied up.” He studied Lisa and Taelon a moment more, then sighed. “Fine. We’ll leave now.”
“About fucking time,” Taelon growled.
Lips tightening, Walker followed the others out.
“And lock the damn door!” Taelon called after them.
The door closed. Keys jangled. The lock turned. Then footsteps retreated.
Lisa looked up at Taelon. “Do you think they bought it?”
“I think so.”
“I’m shaking,” she admitted in a whisper.
The anger left his handsome features, replaced by concern. “I know. I can feel it.” Relaxing beside her, he rolled her toward him and drew her up against his warm body. “It’s okay,” he murmured, wrapping his arms around her.
Lisa willed her limbs to stop quaking. Nausea soured her stomach. Tears threatened.
“It’s okay,” he whispered, drawing a hand over her hair in a tender caress that just made her want to cry more. Damn hormones.
Her big belly was wedged against his. She hoped it wasn’t hurting his wound.
“You did well,” he said softly. “You’re a quick thinker. And brave. I never would’ve guessed you were afraid if I hadn’t been touching you.”
She shook her head. “I was terrified.”
His lips quirked up in a wry smile. “I was, too.”
Taelon stroked Lisa’s hair, hoping to calm her and ease her fear. Her fragile body still trembled against his.
Moisture she refused to let fall glistened in her brown eyes. “You weren’t scared.”
“Yes, I was.” He really had been. Not for himself but for her. In his current state, he knew there was no way he could defeat four Earth men in physical combat. And because he wasn’t familiar with Earth weapons, he hadn’t even considered turning the one Lisa had hidden upon the soldiers. They would’ve killed him before he finished drawing it out from under the pillows.
So he had been terrified the men would drag Lisa out of bed and harm her despite whatever pathetic fight he managed to put up.
“Well, you sure didn’t look it,” she countered. “Or sound it.” Her lips twitched. “For someone from another planet, you have an excellent command of the English language. You cursed like you were born here.”
He smiled. “One of the female butchers at the base accused the males of cursing like sailors. Did I use the words correctly?”
She chuckled. “Yes, you did.”
Her tummy jumped against him.
All levity fled as Taelon sucked in a breath.
Her smile faltered. “What’s wrong?”
Again he felt movement against his abdomen, as though something inside her was either shifting position or trying to burrow its way out.
He jerked back, then grimaced at the pain it spawned in his chest.
Lisa winced and gripped her stomach.
The covers fell to their waist. His gaze fastened on her stomach. He actually saw something move inside it this time. “Drek!” Pulse quickening, he sat up and regarded her with wide eyes.
“Taelon?” Leaning up on one elbow, she draped an arm across her breasts. “What is it?”
There’s a monster inside me. He heard again the bleak confession she had offered when he’d spoken to her telepathically.
Bypassing her beautiful breasts, he stared at the large mound of her stomach, bracketed by such thin arms.
“Taelon?”
You don’t know what they’ve done, she had sobbed.
Unease and anger warred inside him. What had those butchers done to her?
Rolling out of bed, she reached down and pulled her long tunic over her head.
Taelon watched her, fear and concern rendering him temporarily speechless.
Once the dark fabric covered her, falling halfway down her pants-covered thighs, she faced him. Her cheeks flushed. “I’m sorry. Is it…?” She bit her lip and looked away. The pink darkened as she cleared her throat. “Is it because I took my shirt off? Because I kissed you? I know you said that’s forbidden, but I was just trying to—”
“No,” he blurted, sorry to have caused her any distress. “No. It isn’t that. That was…” Amazing. He would not have thought he could possibly become aroused while experiencing such physical agony, but the touch of her lips—the feel of her beautiful breasts pressed against him—had set his blood on fire.
“I didn’t mean to offend you,” she hastened to say.
“You didn’t.” He held a hand out to her. “You didn’t, Lisa. I vow it.”
Hesitantly, she placed her hand in his.
Taelon tugged it until she stiffly sat on the edge of the bed.
Swiveling to face him, she drew a knee up onto the mattress. “Then what is it?” she asked softly. “You looked… horrified or something. Is it…? Do you not find Earth women attractive?”
Appalled that she would believe he in any way found her wanting, he shook his head. “No. You’re beautiful, Lisa.” When her brow puckered with doubt, he shook his head. “No one else—on your planet or mine—could’ve sparked the intense physical response in me that you did. I truly do find you beautiful.”
“Then what was it?”
He swallowed, almost afraid to discuss it with her. But he needed to know. “Your stomach moved against mine.”
Her eyebrows shot up. “What?”
“I felt your stomach—or something in your stomach—move against me.”
He remembered the way she had seemed to lose her sanity for a moment when he’d seen her the first time, the way she had push
ed at her stomach and mentally shouted, Get it out! Get it out! Get it out!
“Oh.” Her brow puckered as she curled an arm around her belly.
You have to help me, she had sobbed. You have to find me. You have to kill me. Please!
There’s a monster inside me.
“What did they do to you, Lisa?” He met and held her gaze. “Did they…” He thought of some of the atrocious experiments Sectas had accused the Gathendiens of perpetrating over the millennia. “Did they put a parasite in you?” Was that why she was so thin everywhere except her large stomach?
He knew such things existed in the universe. The yaksaba parasite on Harcos 4 would make a home for itself inside a host’s stomach and claim all the nutrients the host consumed, slowly starving the host until he or she was little more than skin and bones. Once the host was too weak to eat or drink, the parasite would then eat its way out of the host, leaving nothing behind but an empty shell.
Lisa’s belly was large, her arms and legs too thin.
The thought that one of those things could be inside her made him want to howl with fury.
Her eyes widened. “No,” she quickly said. “It isn’t a parasite. It’s… it’s…” Her words faltered. “The doctors at the base… Well, they…” Biting her lip, she closed her eyes and shook her head. “I don’t know how to tell you this, Taelon. I really don’t.”
He squeezed her hand. “You can tell me anything, Lisa. We’ll figure it out. I’ll find a way to help you. I vow it.” The yaksaba parasite was more often than not impossible to remove without killing the host. But if that’s what this was, he would find a way to do it.
When she opened her eyes, moisture glimmered in them. “You’re so damn sweet.”
“Not sweet,” he denied. “Just concerned about you. Please, don’t weep.”
“I’m sorry. It’s just… stupid hormones.”
He didn’t know what that meant, but didn’t wish to distress her further by asking. “Don’t apologize. On my planet, tears are not viewed as a weakness but as a natural expression of one’s emotions and an ordinary response to pain or stress.”
“Your planet sounds pretty awesome.”
“It is.” He flashed her a grin. “Except for the no-touching part.”
She laughed. “Yeah. That would suck.” Drawing in a couple of deep breaths, she seemed to calm. Her tears receded. Her shoulders straightened as she again met his gaze. “Okay. You know they took samples from you, right? The doctors you call butchers?”
“Yes. And they are butchers. No medic on my planet would purposefully inflict such harm on another.” The Earth doctors were apparently no better than the Gathendiens, who were considered the scourge of the galaxy.
“And you know they took all kinds of samples, right?” she continued. “I mean… all kinds.”
He frowned. “Yes.” He hoped she wouldn’t ask for a list or a description. Some had been beyond humiliating.
“Well…” She chewed her lower lip, something he now realized was a nervous habit. “They, uh…” She cleared her throat. “They put one of your samples in me.”
He stared at her, uncomprehending. “What?”
Her hand tightened around his. And he could actually feel her anxiety increase even though he wasn’t an empath. “They impregnated me with some of your sperm,” she uttered starkly.
Chapter Seven
Taelon’s mind blanked.
A full minute passed.
“Taelon?” Lisa prompted tentatively.
“They what?”
She smoothed her free hand over her belly. “They impregnated me with your sperm. I’m carrying your baby.”
He lowered his gaze to the large mound. When her meaning finally sank in, his heart stopped, then began to slam painfully against his ribs. “You’re breeding?”
She nodded.
“You’re carrying my child?” he asked, needing to ensure nothing was lost in translation.
“Yes,” she admitted, voice hushed.
Awe filled him as he stared at the mound that sheltered his child. His child!
The Gathendiens had unleashed a virus on Lasara almost a century ago that had rendered almost all females either infertile or incapable of carrying a baby to term. Were their people not so long-lived, they would be nearly extinct. Taelon’s mother was one of the few who had retained her fertility and bore him twenty years later, then Amiriska thirty years after that. He had never in his lifetime seen a pregnant woman. Not on his planet. Not in person. Only in pictures when his instructors in school had taught them about reproduction. Any woman who managed to conceive was immediately transported to a medical facility run by their allies, the Sectas, who were more advanced medically than his own race.
Even when he ventured to other planets for war games and on diplomatic missions, Taelon spent most of his time with warriors and negotiating with other rulers and diplomats. And when he did manage to secure time to rest and fraternize, the women who pursued him were all single and covetous of the prestige bonding to a member of the Lasaran royal family would bring them. None were already mated or breeding.
Releasing Lisa’s hand, he reached toward her belly, then hesitated. He glanced up. “May I touch it?”
She nodded.
Taelon gently settled a hand on the mound.
Her lips twitched. “It’s okay. You don’t have to be so careful.” Covering his hand with her much smaller one, she pressed it firmly against her.
Something thumped against his palm.
He sucked in a breath.
Her lips twitched. “The baby kicks a lot.”
Shifting onto his knees, he scooted closer and cupped her belly with both hands. Again, he felt movement. A startled laugh escaped him as he looked up at her. “That’s really my baby in there?”
“Our baby,” she said. “They fertilized my egg with your sperm.”
Some of the joy welling up inside him dimmed. “They gave you no choice in the matter?”
She shook her head. “They kept me in a medically induced coma. I had no idea I was pregnant until I woke up three days ago.”
No wonder she had been so confused. “Whose baby did you think you carried?”
“They claimed it was Brad’s, but I knew that was bullshit. Brad and I were just friends. Acquaintances really. We never saw each other outside of the institute. But they kept up the lie, trying to convince me. Then Brad snuck into the room I was held in and told me the truth—that the baby inside me was an alien’s.”
Understanding dawned. No wonder she had lost it when she’d first seen him. He had shown her a hideous, slimy, razor-toothed creature, and she had believed something similar was growing inside her. “Lisa, I’m so sorry. When you came looking for me, I thought you were one of them and showed you…” Showed her a true monster.
“It’s okay. We both know the truth now.”
And the truth was: she carried his child.
Taelon slid his hands over the mound and unexpectedly found himself blinking back tears. “Amiriska was right.”
“Who?”
He swallowed back the grief that threatened. “My younger sister, Amiriska. One of our enemies—the Gathendiens—released a virus on our planet that rendered many of our females infertile. Amiriska consulted the Sectas and thought Earth women and our men could procreate successfully. She came here hoping to form an alliance with your leaders in which we would help you eliminate your food and water shortages and provide you with free, unlimited clean energy that would eliminate your dependence upon fossil fuels, maybe even help you terraform your moon to alleviate your overpopulation, in exchange for your government allowing Earth women who were interested to travel to my planet and see if they could find mates among our males.”
“To help you repopulate?”
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
“The Earth butchers captured her, just as they captured me.”
“What?” Horror filled her features. “Oh no.
Taelon, was she there? At the base? Was she there last night? We didn’t free her! We—”
“She wasn’t there.”
His words did not lessen her anxiety. “Are you sure? Maybe we should go back. I mean, maybe—”
“She wasn’t there, Lisa.” That she would feel such concern for his sister—a woman she had never even met—and would risk her life to go back for her touched him deeply. “She wasn’t there,” he repeated. “And there’s nothing to go back to. You saw the explosion.”
Shifting, she drew her other leg up onto the bed and knelt. She inched forward until her knees rested between his, almost touching the erection that lingered after her touch and kisses earlier.
Taelon kept his hands on their child, steadfastly ignoring the impulse that tempted him to slide his arms around her and draw her close again.
She cupped his face in her small hands, her thumbs rasping over the stubble that coated his jaw. “Did they kill her?” she asked softly.
Pain stabbed him. “I don’t know. She was held at another military base. One that was destroyed.” He frowned. “Much like this one was destroyed.” Could there be a connection between the two incidents? “I hope she survived and escaped. Or perhaps was moved to another installation. Our intel led me to believe the base you and I were held in was a good match. So I went there looking for her. She wasn’t there. But I hoped I would read something in the minds of the soldiers or the men in charge that would reveal her fate.”
Her eyes widened. “You can read minds?”
“Yes. That’s how I spoke to you telepathically.”
“Oh. Right.” Her cheeks pinkened. “You don’t just… read my mind all the time though, do you?”
“No. I would’ve known about the baby if I did. Lasarans believe it rude to peruse the thoughts of others without their permission.”
“You’re Lasaran?”
“Yes. I’m from the planet Lasara, which is on the other side of what you call the Milky Way Galaxy.”
“This is so unreal.”
He glanced at her tummy. “Yes, it is.”
“Did you find out anything about your sister?”
“Not much. There were a couple of lower-ranked soldiers who had seen her at the other base when they were stationed there, but they didn’t know what happened to her. They believed at least one of the officers who were visiting would know. But before I could read those men’s minds, they saw through my camouflage and captured me.”
The Lasaran (Aldebarian Alliance Book 1) Page 11