Pursued Read online

  Keep me healthy. Meaning he’ll have to touch me—to feed the tumor inside him. The tumor that just happens to be me. “About that.” Elise cleared her throat. “I, uh, feel fine. I think you, um, touched me enough during our ride back to Earth. So you don’t…don’t need to do it—to touch me, I mean—anymore.”

  “Oh, yeah? That your expert medical opinion?” Merrick raised his eyebrows at her, frowning.

  Elise lifted her chin. “I just think that in light of the fact that the feelings we’ve both been experiencing have proved to be, um, false, we should keep…keep contact to a minimum.”

  “Fine.” He shrugged as though unconcerned and looked back at the viewscreen. “Have it your way. But if you don’t want to touch during the day, then you’re sharing my bed at night.”

  “What?” Elise looked at him, uncertain of what she’d heard. “What did you say?”

  “I said we’re going to be sleeping together,” he growled. “Whether you like it or not. Sylvan says that a prolonged period of physical contact at night might help you get by with less during the day. So deal with it.”

  Elise felt panic rising in her throat. “Together…in bed?”

  “That’s what I said.” He gave her a level look. “You know, while you were recuperating in the med station, you actually wanted me to climb in bed with you. Remember that?”

  “Of course I do!” Elise snapped, crossing her arms protectively over her chest. “But that was before—”

  “Before we found out the bond was fake. Right,” he growled.

  But that wasn’t what she’d been going to say at all. Before I remembered, she thought, biting her lip. Before I remembered who I am. Before I remembered about the vault…

  “It’s fine,” she said stiffly. “If Dr. Sylvan thinks it’s necessary then I’ll deal with it. After all, we’re both adults here.”

  “Exactly.” Merrick nodded stiffly. “There doesn’t have to be anything to it but me giving you what you need.”

  What I need is you! Elise wanted to shout. But she didn’t need him, not really. It was just the artificial bond telling her she wanted him so badly, tricking her into believing she would die if he didn’t hold her and call her ‘baby’ in that deep, gravelly voice of his. I have to concentrate on James, she told herself desperately. On how much I love him, on how wonderful our life together is going to be.

  As their little ship aimed for the deep red gash in the fabric of space which she supposed was the ‘fold’, she closed her eyes and tried remembering how she’d first met her fiancé, two years ago.

  It had been on the steps of the Tampa courthouse. Elise had been rushing to get to court and James had been leaving at the same time. Neither had been looking where they were going and they’d run headlong into each other, sending legal briefs and data chips everywhere. Honestly, it was like some kind of scene from a movie—the meet-cute where the heroine falls into the hero’s lap but fails to recognize, at first, what a great guy he is.

  After they’d gotten everything sorted out, James had asked her for coffee. Elise had refused, telling him she was late for court. She’d left him standing on the steps, a bemused expression on his handsome face. Later, after a long and harrowing case, she’d been surprised to see him waiting for her when she got out of the courtroom.

  “I thought we could try this again,” he’d said, with that disarming British charm which had first attracted her to him. “I’m James. Would you care for a cup of coffee?”

  That time Elise had accepted and then somehow they had begun dating regularly. After she found out who James was, she was surprised he didn’t already have a girlfriend. But he explained that he was very picky—which was flattering, of course, since he had evidently decided to pick her.

  Finally, after a year of dating, during which he was remarkably patient when she refused to have sex, James had asked her to marry him. Elise was reasonably sure he’d run a pretty thorough background check on her before he asked, but apparently he hadn’t found anything he didn’t like. And so the ring had come out after a late dinner at Three Tables and he’d even gotten down on one knee.

  The ring, Elise thought with a start. She realized she hadn’t even thought of it once since she’d woken up on the Kindred Mother Ship with Merrick bending over her. Where was it? Oh, right—she’d left it at home on that fateful day she’d decided to take a quick trip to Sarasota, where the AllFather had captured her. Elise supposed that it was a good thing it was safe. It was a seven carat, pink oval-cut diamond which had been in James’ family for generations. If she’d lost it, her future mother-in-law would have had a fit. But strangely, she didn’t miss its heavy weight on her finger. It had always seemed too large to her somehow, as though it was weighing her down. Which, she supposed, was why she’d decided to slip it off and leave it at home that day.

  Stop thinking about the damn ring, she told herself, trying to get back on point. Think of James. Remember how much you love him…

  But for some reason, even though she’d seen him recently, her fiancé’s face was blurred in her vision. Instead of his smooth, handsome face she saw Merrick’s scarred, scowling visage. Instead of his cultured accent she heard Merrick’s low, growling tones, making the sound of rocks rubbing together at the bottom of a riverbed. Suddenly she realized she was hearing his voice because he was talking to her.

  “We’re through the fold. You’re awfully quiet over there,” he murmured and she looked up to see he was watching her from the corner of his eye. “Feeling okay?”

  “Fine,” she said stiffly, though to be honest, her stomach was a bit queasy, and she was beginning to regret the chocolate cupcake she’d had with Olivia and her friends. “I’m…just fine.” She tried not to look at him while she talked, tried not to notice his warm, masculine, fur and musk scent that drifted to her in the small, enclosed area. The urge to reach out and touch him was so strong she had to curl her hands into fists in her lap to keep from doing it. I have to get away from here. From him. I’m too weak to deal with this now, she thought. “We seem to be flying pretty smoothly now,” she said, trying to keep her voice light and even. “May I be excused to go to the back of the ship, please?”

  “That’s very fucking polite of you. Just can’t wait to get away, huh?” He frowned.

  “I just want to lie down for awhile,” Elise said, which was true. “I…I’m tired.”

  “Tired or hungry?” he said and she knew he wasn’t talking about a desire for food.

  “Just tired,” she said defensively. “It’s been a very tiring day.”

  He sighed and ran a hand over his shaved head. “Yeah. You got that fucking right. Fine, go lie down. I’ll be there in a little while.”

  Elise felt her heart jump and had to work to keep her face blank. “Should I lie down on my bed or…or yours, then?” she asked in a slightly choked voice. “I mean, since we’ll be…be sleeping together. Or sleeping next to each other, I guess I should say,” she added quickly. “That would be more accurate.”

  “Don’t worry.” Merrick gave her a long, level look. “I knew what you meant the first time. And I’m not going to do anything you don’t want, Elise. Give me some credit.”

  “Fine.” She nodded stiffly. “So which bed? Yours or mine?”

  “Mine is bigger.” He turned his eyes back to the viewscreen. “Probably be more comfortable.”

  “Probably,” Elise agreed faintly. She knew Merrick was just trying to give her what her body needed, but she couldn’t help feeling deeply uncomfortable, just the same. Part of her—a deep part she thought she’d buried for good—longed for his big body against hers, and not just because of the hunger. But there was another part that was scared to death. An unburied body from deep in the vault screaming that she needed to be careful or something terrible might happen. ‘Just lie back,’—that was what he said, it whispered nastily in her ear. ‘It won’t hurt. You might even enjoy it.’ Except it did hurt, didn’t it? It never stopped hurting. Over and ove