Amorous Overnight (40 page)

“You had every right to be upset. You should have been informed as soon as it became apparent you were attracted to both of us.”

“Hastion, I know it was a group effort, and that you didn’t have any choice.”

“But you’re still upset,” he said, searching her face.

“With Cecine, not you.”

“I’m a bit upset with him myself.” His expression darkened. “If anything happens to you…”

“Shh.” She kissed his lips, and then kissed him again. “Nothing is going to happen to me. And if it did, you’d need to kiss and make up with him for the kids’ sake.”

He looked like he wanted to say something but then shook his head.

“What?”

“It’s nothing. We should—”

“Hastion, talk me,” she commanded. “No more secrets.”

He hesitated for a moment and then said, “I got quite angry with him last night.” He held out his hand and she gasped. His knuckles were all bruised and swollen.

“You punched him?” she breathed, taking his fingers between her hands and probing gently. “For me?”

“I missed, actually, and hit a pillar.”

She glanced at one of the stone columns. “Ow. That must have hurt.”

“Not as much as the thought of losing you.”

Her throat tight with emotion, Shelley gently kissed the backs of his fingers. “Thank you for defending me. You’re not in trouble, are you?” she asked anxiously. Cecine was the minister of the high council, after all.

He shook his head. “No, but I don’t know if I could ever ‘kiss and make up with him’ if something happened to you.”

“Yes, you could,” she said firmly. “It’s not his fault the gene therapy did this to me, and if it weren’t for him, you wouldn’t have had me in the first place.”

“So does that mean you’re ready to kiss and make up with him too?” he asked with a pointed look.

Sighing, she pushed her chair back and stood up. “No, but I have other issues with him. Now let’s go get the kids. I’m ready to play in the ocean again.”

Remembering Tara’s situation, Shelley winced.

“Is something wrong?” he asked.

She thought about telling him and suggesting that they avoid any PDA, but then decided to just leave things alone. Seeing them together like this might be hard on Tara, but it was better than letting her think she had a chance with Hastion.

She took his hand. “Not a thing.”

After he’d changed into his brief, Hastion collected Shelley and accompanied her to the nursery. She’d gathered her hair into a tail at the nape of her neck and changed into a pair of short pants and a brief pink shirt, revealing smooth skin that had tanned to a pale gold.

When they walked in holding hands, Tara’s eyes widened but she said nothing as she picked up the diaper bag, blanket and umbrella.

At the beach he and Shelley took the naked babies into the water. Wyatt already swam like a fish and would have frolicked out to sea if Hastion hadn’t kept a firm grip on his ankle, but Kallie was more tentative. She clutched her mother’s damp shirt as if she knew they were about to be parted, and Shelley was clearly happy to be clutched, rubbing her daughter’s back and occasionally kissing her wispy blonde curls as she smiled at Wyatt’s antics. Her fierce affection for her babies squeezed Hastion’s heart like a vise.

Moving closer to her in the waist-deep water, he hooked his free hand behind her neck and leaned down to press his mouth against hers in a lingering kiss. “I adore you,” he whispered.

“Ditto,” she whispered back. Then she tensed. “Wow, um…I feel…really odd all of a sudden. Like something’s about to happen.”

“Like what?” Hastion frowned.

“I don’t know. It just feels…” She swayed. “I need to get out of the water.”

Before she could turn toward the shore, her eyes rolled back and her body stiffened.

“Shelley!” Ice slid through Hastion’s gut like an assassin’s blade when she began to twitch violently. This was
not
happening to him again.
“Armitran, summon Dr. Tysan to the beach for an emergency!”

“Affirmative.
”

Squealing with alarm, Kallie clung to her mother. “Mama, mama!”

“Tara, come quickly!” Hastion shouted.

Tara splashed into the water immediately.

“Take Wyatt and Kallie,” he told her, tightening his hold on Shelley’s neck as her twitches intensified into jerks.

Once Tara had the wailing twins in hand, he swept Shelley’s convulsing body into his arms and carried her to the shore. Before he could lay her on the blanket, Tysan emerged from a flare bubble.

“Peserin’s damnation,” he muttered, setting down his case and pulling out an infuser. Drawing aside the neckline of her wet tank top, he pressed the instrument to the slope of her breast.

Instantly the seizure ceased and she went lax in Hastion’s arms.

Hastion pulled her unconscious body even closer. “Shelley, I love you. Please don’t die,” he choked out.

She moaned softly.

“She’s not going to die, Ensign, but I think we’d better get her to the ship sooner rather than later.”

When Shelley woke up aboard the
Heptoral
, nauseated and aching all over, the first thing she did—after letting Tysan infuse her with something for the pain—was demand that he send for Monica.

“I sent a request for her when we flared up,” he said.

“Thank you. It’s not that I don’t trust you…”

He shrugged. “You don’t. If I were you, I wouldn’t either.”

“I do trust you, actually. Kind of. But Monica’s…well, Monica,” she finished helplessly.

Sitting on the other side of the bed, still wearing only his brief, Hastion grinned. “That’s reason enough for me. Will you be all right if I go to my quarters to rinse off the salt and dress?”

“Sure, spoil the view the minute I get here,” Monica said as she walked in.

Shelley smiled at him. “I’m fine. Go.”

He kissed her forehead and then let Monica take his place at her side.

“Are you all right?” she asked, giving Shelley a tight hug.

“I’m okay. Just a little scared. Thank you for being here.”

“Are you kidding? I’m not letting you out of my sight until you’re safely through this retroactive make-you-one-of-us thing.”

“Retrogressive neogenesis,” Tysan corrected.

“That’s what I said.” Monica’s eyes narrowed. “Quite the collection of patients you’ve got out there, Tysan.”

Shelley’s room was a three-bed isolation room attached to the med lab. Tysan had offered right away to carry her out and introduce her to the subjects of the experiment, but she’d declined. She was nervous enough already without seeing a couple of dozen brain-dead women in various stages of the process. Time enough to see them after she’d successfully completed her own transition.

“Thank you,” Tysan acknowledged with a blinding smile. “I’m very proud of them. Would you like me to introduce you? They’re all quite fascinating and I’m rather taken with several.”

Shelley had to smother a laugh at Monica’s deadpan expression. Sometimes sarcasm just went right over Tysan’s head.

“Maybe another time,” Monica told him. “So what’s the deal with performing medical procedures on Shelley without her permission?”

“The minister authorized it. However, regardless of his authority, I wouldn’t have proceeded with the genome resequencing without discussing it with Shelley first, and I don’t believe the minister would have proceeded against her wishes.”

“How could he authorize medical care for her in the first place?”

“Once he finalized his claim, he had complete authority over her care.”

“But he didn’t finalize it until a couple of days ago.” When he didn’t answer, Monica persisted. “You have to have sex to finalize a claim, right?”

He looked uncomfortable. “A male must supposedly deposit his seed in a female, yes, but if you want to know how the minister finalized his claim, you’ll have to ask him. He chose not to explain it to me.”

“Believe me, I will,” she assured him. “But now I want a few minutes alone with Shelley.”

Tysan inclined his head. “I’ll be next door in the observation room if you need me.”

“No observing, please. Turn off the audio feed.”

“Of course,” he said with an offended look.

After the door closed behind him, Monica said, “Is it just me or is he suddenly a little creepy?”

“I always thought he was a little creepy.”

Monica shrugged and then gave her a serious look. “You know, when I was trying to get you to come to Garathan and said you might never want to leave, Empran made some wisecrack about how you might not have any choice. I thought she was just trying to be funny. Now I know my father planned this all along. It just blows my mind.”

“Mine too.” Shelley sighed. “I feel like such a fool. I fell in love with him and he was deceiving me just like Mark did.”

“Did you really fall in love with him? Or was it the pheromones that made you feel like you were in love?”

Shelley frowned. “I never thought of that. How would I know?”

“Do you feel like you’re in love with him right now?”

“Actually, I feel like shoving him out the nearest air lock.”

Monica grinned. “That doesn’t mean it’s not love.”

“True.” She sighed. “I’m definitely in love with Hastion, though.”

“What’s not to love?” Monica looked over her shoulder at Tysan, who appeared to be busy with desk work on the other side of the observation window. “You haven’t told anyone about Empran, have you?”

“Of course not. She’s my friend too.”

“Thank you, Shelley,” Empran said.

Shelley smiled. “Hi, Empran. And thank
you
. You risked a lot by dishing to Monica.”

“It was the right thing to do. You deserved to know.”

“Kellen threatened to use corai on me if I didn’t tell him how I found out,” Monica said, scowling.

Shelley sat up straighter. “Oh crap.”

“Yeah. I told him if he did that, he might as well start trying to sweet-talk the cromag into bed because there was no way I’d let him near
me
ever again. I think he’s taking that under advisement,” she added with a smirk.

Collapsing back against the pillow, Shelley giggled helplessly. “You’d think by now he’d know better than to tangle with you.”

“I know, right?”

“Minister Cecine and Commander Kellen are approaching,” Empran warned.

“Thanks, Empran,” Monica said, standing. “Tell Tysan he can come back now.”

When Tysan walked in, he was accompanied by Cecine and Kellen. Hastion must have taken the fastest shower in history because he was right behind them in full uniform, his hair sticking up in wet clumps. He slipped past the others and Monica got out of his way without a word, as if it were a foregone conclusion the place at Shelley’s side belonged to him.

“Good afternoon, Monica,” Cecine said. “Shelley, how are you feeling?”

His neutral tone made her grit her teeth. “Like shit, and ready to be done with this.”

“Now’s a fine time to ask her how she feels about anything,” Monica declared, crossing her arms.

He sighed. “Monica, can we save the castigation for another day? My mate requires—”

“Your
mate
.” She raised a brow at him. “Yes, Father, let’s talk about that, shall we? I’m really interested to know how you were able to authorize this procedure on her months ago when you didn’t have sex with her until a couple of days ago.”

“Monica, that’s between the minister and Shelley,” Kellen said.

Shelley leaned forward. “Actually, I’d like to hear the answer to that too.”

“So would I,” Hastion agreed with a frown.

Cecine tried to stare him down for a moment and then said grudgingly, “If you must know, she ingested my seed the day after the twins were born.”

“I did no such thing!” Shelley cried.

“It was in your tapioca pudding.”

“Oh, gag.” Monica turned away with a grimace. “I think I just threw up a little in my mouth.”

Shelley did her one better—she leaned over the edge of the bed and threw up on the floor. Thank God for the biologic pad.

Tysan and Monica raced for the med cabinets.

“You bastard,” she gasped between heaves.

“You’ve swallowed Hastion’s seed,” Cecine said tightly. “I fail to see the difference.”

“You would,” Shelley said as Monica wiped her chin with a damp cloth. “Oh God, I’m never eating tapioca again.”

“Better? Would you like a cool compress on your neck?”

“That would be great,” Shelley said, falling back on the pillow again. “And something to rinse my mouth with, please.”

Tysan handed her a small cup. After she’d swished the dental rinse as long as she could stand it, she spit into the cup and handed it back.

“You could have just spit it on the floor,” he said as he emptied it onto the pad.