Merry & Seduced (20 page)

Camryn gave her a nod of encouragement, but no one else spoke. The pause lengthened until it became uncomfortable. Just as she was about to fill the gap, Marcus spoke.

“Is that why you became involved with me? Because I have a child?”

“No! I gravitate toward children, but I’ve never become involved with a parent before. I’m sorry I wasn’t honest with you, but it was safer for all of us to remain incognito.”

“We’re going to leave you alone now, Amme. Is that all right?” Ry asked.

“Yes.”

“We’ll be outside in the garden. Com if you need us.”

“But I want to listen,” Olivia said. “I have questions.”

“Out,” Camryn said.

Olivia was still protesting when Camryn forcibly led her from the kitchen. “But Amme went swimming,” she said. “Why doesn’t she get rusty? Will you show me the changing thing? That’s so radical. What about the others? What can they do?
Ooh
, how did you get here? Where’s your space ship?”

“Good luck with finding her off button,” Marcus said.

Amme heard Camryn chuckle as Olivia started another series of questions.

Amme waited, but when Marcus didn’t say anything else, nerves made her plunge into the void. “Do I disgust you?”

“No! Of course not.” Marcus turned her to face him. “Tell me about cyborgs.”

“My race lives on the planet Sheng. The people of my planet value hard work and like to maximize profit. They believe that every citizen should be useful and specialization is the key to make this happen.”

“So you became a childcare worker.”

“Yes. I started work early, as soon as I graduated from formal training. Childcare cyborgs like me aren’t expected to produce offspring. Any relationships are of a temporary nature because of my inbuilt need to nurture other people’s children. I told you I can’t have children. This is why. The ability to reproduce was adjusted when I was given enhancements.”

He blinked at this, opened his mouth then shut it again. “How did you come to leave Sheng?”

“The older childcare cyborgs are given off-planet assignments. A portion of our wages goes back to our planet. Or it did. Once I left Ornum, which is where I met Camryn and Ry, my current contract was terminated. The controllers on Sheng will have marked me absent from duty. If I return to Sheng, they will punish me.”

“How?”

“Termination. My life has changed a lot since joining Ry and his crew. I have independence and friends.”

“Hell.” Marcus raked a hand through his hair, leaving a tuff standing on end. “I intended to ask you to stay when your friends left. I wanted to ask you to marry me.” He searched her expression and sighed.

Euphoria grabbed her gut and twisted it then she noticed his expression, and her stomach plummeted. He’d wanted to ask her, not he intended to ask her. “But?”

“But now I don’t know,” Marcus said. “I need time to think.”

“Do you want us all to leave right now?” Amme asked, and she was proud of her even tone. “Should we cancel the party?”

“Yes. No.” He laughed but it emerged strained and faded quickly. “You’re only here for a few more days. It’s too late to cancel the party, and besides, I’m not sure what excuse I’d give. No, we’ll still have the party.”

Amme tugged her hands from his. That was it then. “I’ll…um…I’ll go and tell the others.”

For a sec, she thought he might stop her, might call after her and say he’d reconsidered. It didn’t happen, and she walked outside into the sunshine, her mind charging in hundreds of different directions, her heart-pump galloping way too fast again.

Camryn saw her first and rushed to her side. “What is it? Tell me.”

“He was going to ask me to stay, to marry him.” Amme felt the prickling behind her eyes and knew she was about to cry. “I think he’s changed his mind.”

“What about the party?” Kaya asked, coming to join them.

“He said it’s too late to cancel. The party will go ahead. He said it’s all right for us all to stay until we leave.”

“The wedding?” Camryn asked.

“I didn’t ask, but I presume that is okay too.” Amme shrugged and blinked rapidly. She forced a curve to lips that didn’t want to crack a smile. “I’ll go and pack.”

“W
hat the devil are you doing?” Olivia demanded. She tugged on Marcus’s sleeve when he didn’t answer. “You can’t let Amme leave. She’s upstairs packing.”

Marcus brushed past Olivia and strode inside. She couldn’t leave. That wasn’t what he wanted. He took the stairs two at a time and barged into the room allocated to Amme.

She swiveled on his entrance, a pale apricot frothy bit of nothing clutched in her hand.

“You don’t have to leave.”

Amme turned away and dropped the piece of lingerie into an open case. “You don’t want me here.”

“I didn’t say that. Amme!” Marcus grabbed her arm and held it until she gave him her attention. “I’m confused. I don’t know what I think. Please stay here. Autumn won’t understand if you move out. I don’t want her to think it’s her fault.”

“I’m leaving anyway.”

Marcus sighed. “I know. Autumn will think it’s something she’s done because you’re living somewhere else. Coming so soon after her mother dying… I don’t want her to think this is her fault.” He slid a quick glance in Amme’s direction and wasn’t sure if she bought his reasons for her staying. The truth was he didn’t know what to do, what to think, how to behave.

Amme was an alien.

He’d slept with an alien.

Hell, he was in love with an alien.

And didn’t that beat all.

“Please stay for Autumn’s sake. I won’t make things difficult for you.”

“How do I know I can trust you? What’s to stop you from causing trouble for me? Selling out my friends?”

“I’d do that if I thought you were putting Autumn at risk, and that’s not the case. You put yourself in danger to save Autumn. When I asked Autumn what happened she said the lady tried to push her down the stairs and you stopped her. You broke Autumn’s fall, which is the reason she’s not in a hospital or worse right now. For that reason alone, I’d never do anything to put you or your friends in danger.”

“Why should I…we trust you?”

“For the same reason I trust you. Neither of us have done anything to warrant distrust,” Marcus said. “I want you to stay, but the final decision is yours. If you feel more comfortable staying with Camryn or with your other friends, that’s fine.” Marcus stomped from the room. He found Camryn hovered at the base of the stairs.

“Everything all right?”

“I hope I’ve talked Amme into staying,” he said.

“For good? Oh, that’s great. I’m so pleased for you both.”

“Until you leave.” Marcus ignored the shock, the disappointment, evidenced by the slump of her shoulders. “Do you need anything else for the party?”

“No, everything is in hand.”

“Good, I need to go out. Can you keep an eye on Autumn?”

“Sure,” Camryn said. “At least you trust us to watch your daughter and not to hurt your sister.” She shot him a glare and stalked off to join her friends. When she reached them, she spoke rapidly and every one of them turned to glower at him, including his sister.

He opened his mouth to say something and closed it again because nothing he could say would make this better, not until he understood exactly what it was he thought. The implications, because it wasn’t just himself to think about now. He had responsibilities. A daughter. His sister.

“Fuck,” he muttered.

Marcus stalked inside, grabbed his car keys and his wallet and a few minutes later, he screeched from the driveway, fishtailing on the loose gravel at the end of the drive. The car sped to the right from habit, yet he had no idea where he should go. The glimpse of the sign for Max’s training stables decided him, and he slammed on the brakes, skidding a little as he made the turn.

Childish but satisfying.

He drove at a slower pace down the winding road to get to Max’s house. Once there, he knocked on the door.

“Hi, Ellen,” he said when she answered, her stomach bulging so much it appeared as if she could pop at any second. “I need to talk to Max. Is he around?”

“He’s with clients down at the stables,” she said. “Why don’t you wait—”

But Marcus was already striding toward the stable block, his mind clearing from the fog currently shrouding his thought processes. He’d talk to Max. At least Max would understand what he was going through.

When he arrived at the stables he found Max speaking to four men while an assistant led a glossy chestnut thoroughbred around the yard. They wore designer suits but their shiny shoes had picked up dust during the tramp through the stables.

“The filly has excellent breeding and conformation. Early signs are good. She loves racing and hates another horse beating her.” Max wore his boots, but his jeans and shirt appeared tidier than usual.

“Can we see her run?” one of the men asked.

“Sure.” Max turned and noticed him lurking in the background. “Gentlemen, this is my neighbor, Marcus Polo.”

“Ah, of the famous travel company,” one said.

“My parents,” Marcus said smoothly, the angst bucking like a grouchy horse in his gut subsiding with a slide into more normal channels. A familiar and comforting world while the alien one he’d found himself thrust into just plain caused confusion.

“Did you need something?” Max asked.

“I wanted to speak with you, but it can wait. I’d love to see this horse run.” He winked at the men. “Never know when I might want to add to my stable.”

Max gaped at him.

“We have first refusal of this horse,” one of the men said.

“Of course you do,” Marcus said easily. “But I like what I see. If she runs as good as she looks, she’d make a good purchase. That’s if you decide not to take her. You don’t mind if I watch her run too?”

“Of course not,” the tallest of the men said, but Marcus caught the quick exchange of glances between the group.

Marcus slipped a sly wink at Max, and his friend grinned.

An hour later Marcus stood beside Max and watched the men leave.

“They didn’t even dicker about the price,” Max said. “I’d priced her higher than normal because I knew they’d want a discount. You don’t know anything about horses. You haven’t been on a horse since you fell off when you were four. That’s what you told me.”

“Partly true. Amme and I took Autumn riding before Christmas. Brought all the bad memories back but that doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate a fine beast.” The thought led him directly to the reason he’d come here. “Your sister is a leopard shifter.”

Max paled. “You can’t report her to the authorities. They’d try to lock her up, her friends. Marcus, I’m begging you. Camryn is my sister.”

“So you did know. They said you knew but I wanted confirmation. Relax, Max. I’m not going to put Camryn or her friends in danger, especially when they’ve never done anything to warrant it. Besides, the authorities wouldn’t believe me. If I wanted to cause trouble for your sister and her friends, I’d leak photos and info to the alien conspiracy theorists. They’d cause a ruckus.”

“Hell.” Max flinched, his shoulders stiffening. “Don’t do that.”

Marcus barked out a laugh. “Not gonna happen. You hear about my intruder?”

“Yeah, Camryn told me. You might as well come inside. I could do with a cup of coffee. Ellen will want to know what happened with the sale. This is the first of the horses I’ve bred for sale, and thanks to you, we got a great price.”

Inside, with a coffee in front of him, he didn’t know how to begin.

Blunt and straight forward, he decided. Get it out. “I’ve been sleeping with Amme. I’d decided to ask her to stay. I’d intended to ask her to marry me.”

“But she’s an alien,” Ellen said.

“I didn’t know that,” Marcus said. “All I knew was a caring and beautiful woman who helped make me feel as if I could really be part of a family. She helped with Autumn and gave me confidence. And Olivia. Because of Amme, Olivia and I have reconnected.”

“You didn’t notice any differences?” Max asked.

“Not a one. When we first met I heard them speak in strange clicks and grunts, but I thought they’d been mucking around. They all speak perfect English.”

“They put a translator on you,” Ellen said.

“Yeah. One on Autumn too. Although Amme’s English has improved a lot. She can easily hold her own without a translator.”

“Exactly how did you find out?” Max asked. “Camryn didn’t have time to give me full details.”

“I went out with a woman named Sophie a couple of times and broke it off because we didn’t seem to mesh well. But she kept ringing and emailing me. I thought if I ignored it she’d finally go away, but things escalated. As far as I can make out, she managed to copy my house keys and let herself in. Her plan was to take Autumn, but Amme discovered her before she whisked Autumn away. The bitch pushed Autumn down the stairs. Amme—Amme managed to save her but ended up getting hurt.” Marcus swallowed as the memories rushed through him. “When I reached her, Amme didn’t have a pulse. Her leg twisted at a weird angle and one arm… Her skin had torn and I could see her circuitry.”

“She’s a robot?” Ellen asked.

“No, a cyborg,” Max said.

“You knew?” Ellen demanded.

“Camryn is my sister. She told me everything,” Max said. “Ellen, you didn’t want to know, so I didn’t tell you.”

“You don’t approve?” Marcus asked Ellen.

“You have to understand that Camryn put Max through hell before she disappeared. Then we didn’t know where she’d gone or what had happened to her. When she reappeared, I thought she’d just hurt Max again. I haven’t spent much time with her friends, but Max and Luke have. I have seen the way they interact. From what I’ve seen and heard, it was important for them to keep their word to Camryn to visit Max, and they wanted to support her.” Her laugh was wry. “All they wanted was a holiday. Rest, relaxation and some fruity drinks. Max loves his sister, and I’m trying to be supportive. I don’t want to do anything to hurt my husband. I admit it’s taking work accepting reality, but I’m trying, and they won’t be here for much longer.”

Max went to his wife and wrapped his arm around her shoulders. He gave her a quick, affectionate kiss. “Thank you.”