Bridging the Distance Read online

  She was finally squeaky clean and had been anticipating wrapping herself in several of the big, fluffy towels and drying off at a leisurely pace when she finally got out.

  No time for that now.

  Grabbing a towel from the rack, she hurriedly wrapped it around herself as she ran, dripping, out the bathroom door and into the bedroom.

  The sight that met her eyes was worse than she’d imagined.

  Torn had Bound down on the floor and was punching his brother as hard as he could with his free hand. Bound was doing his best to shield his face with his arms but he wasn’t trying to fight back. He was saying something—something Lorelei couldn’t make out at first.

  “I’m not going to fight you,” he gasped as Torn continued to pound him mercilessly. “You’re my brother—I love you.”

  The words nearly broke Lorelei’s heart and she ran forward shouting, not even caring when her towel began to slip.

  “Stop it, Torn! Stop it, you’ll kill him!”

  Torn didn’t seem to hear her. His face was a mask of murderous rage and he seemed wholly intent on pounding the life out of the man beneath him. The black speck-like nanites had congregated around his eyes again, making them blaze like a demon’s. He looked almost exactly as he had when she’d first found him in the cage at the back of the Fren and Chulk, before she’d touched him.

  Worst of all, his metal arm, still pinned against his side, was straining to be free and it looked like the metallic strap that held it in place was actually beginning to fray in some places.

  Oh God, Lorelei thought frantically. If that thing breaks and he gets free he’ll kill us both!

  “Stop it,” she cried again, grabbing for the Dark Twin’s free arm and, at the same time, trying to shield Bound from his brother’s blows. “Stop it!”

  As her hands made skin-to-skin contact with both twins at once, something happened—something so strange that for a moment, Lorelei thought she might be dreaming.

  A shock of pleasure ran through her—pure, sexual pleasure. Though she would have sworn a moment before that she had never been less turned on in her life, her nipples were suddenly hard little points beneath the damp towel and her pussy was throbbing and wet between her thighs.

  Did it have something to do with the Touch Interface of the nanites? The bond between the twins? Lorelei didn’t know—she only knew that she felt like an electrical wire strung between two conductors—a wire that was suddenly humming with sexual energy.

  It seemed that Bound and Torn felt it too—or at least, they stopped fighting. The Dark Twin’s free arm stopped in mid-punch and the rage on his face abruptly cleared. He looked down at Bound, who slowly lowered his arms.

  “Do…do I know you?” The Dark Twin’s voice was low and hoarse from shouting. His green eyes no longer blazed—now they were filled with confusion and a kind of mute yearning.

  “Torn!” Bound struggled to sit up and his twin let him. “Yes, you know me—I’m Bound, your brother!”

  One cheekbone was bruised and blood trickled from the corner of his mouth but he wiped it away on the back of his hand and Lorelei thought with relief that he didn’t look that much worse for wear.

  Bound looked at her, his blue eyes shining.

  “It’s coming back to him—he’s beginning to remember!” he exclaimed.

  “I’m so happy for you.” Lorelei smiled at him, immensely relieved that the fight seemed to be over. The sexual current that raced through her body seemed to have lessened a little, but it was still there under the surface of things, teasing her nipples…licking between her legs… She shifted uncomfortably and her towel nearly dropped off. “Oops!”

  Letting go of her hold on both warriors, she reached up to adjust her towel. The moment her skin was no longer touching theirs, the current of sexual need was abruptly severed.

  Lorelei felt a sense of relief. Whew—that had been uncomfortable! She wasn’t used to having her sex drive turned off and on like a freaking light switch! She sat back on her heels, clutching her towel tightly around herself, and watched Bound and Torn who were still staring at each other uncertainly.

  “I…had a brother once.” Torn’s emerald eyes were uncertain. “I…lost him. Or he lost me.”

  “I came to find you. Lorelei and I came to find you,” Bound was laughing and crying at the same time. He reached out to hug his twin again but Torn pulled back.

  “Stop. I don’t…I’m not sure,” he muttered hoarsely.

  “My Lady?” Bound looked at Lorelei appealingly. “Please, it seemed he almost knew me a moment ago when you were touching both of us. Can you…would you try again?”

  Lorelei wasn’t exactly eager to have that weird current of sexual need running through her again—it made her feel like she’d lost control of her own body. But the pleading look in Bound’s intense blue eyes was more than she could resist.

  “Of course,” she murmured. “But why don’t we all stand up? All this stooping on the floor is about to make my towel fall off.”

  “As you wish, My Lady.” Bound got to his feet and Torn followed suit, standing opposite his brother and staring at him uncertainly.

  “All right.” Lorelei took a deep breath. “Now, give me your hands.”

  “Of course, My Lady.”

  “Yes, Mistress,” they murmured at the same time.

  Torn held out his left hand—the one not strapped to his waist—and Bound held out his right.

  Taking a deep breath and bracing herself, Lorelei took both big, masculine hands in her own.

  Immediately the current was switched back on and this time she could tell she wasn’t the only one who felt it.

  “Gods!” Torn groaned as a rigid bulge began to grow in the tight, black leather trousers he wore.

  Born made a muffled exclamation and widened his stance almost involuntarily, as though to make more room for the heavy shaft hardening between this legs.

  “You feel it too?” Lorelei asked Bound, just to be sure. “Feel that, uh, current when I touch both of you at once?”

  “I…do.” He groaned softly. “My Lady, I’ve never felt anything like this before.”

  “So…it’s not a Kindred thing? A Twin Kindred thing, I mean?” Lorelei asked.

  He shook his head. “I’ve never heard of anything like it before.”

  “What’s happening?” Torn asked, looking at both of them. As before, when she had touched them both, his face looked like a man waking from a dream—as though her touch brought him back to reality somehow. “Why am I so fucking horny all of a sudden?” he demanded.

  “I’m not sure,” Lorelei said honestly. “Maybe…maybe it has something to do with the nanites inside you. The Touch Interface—maybe we’re overloading it somehow.”

  I should stop touching them—I should take my hands away! But somehow she didn’t want to. Especially if it was helping. Torn was looking at Bound with the strangest expression on his face—a look like someone who has a word right on the tip of his tongue but can’t quite spit it out.

  “Do I know you?” he asked the Light Twin again. “I feel like I know you.”

  “You do…you do know me. We’re brothers,” Bound assured him.

  “I don’t know…” Torn shook his head, frowning. “I’m just…not sure.”

  Lorelei looked at both of them, feeling helpless. If only she could bring them closer together! If only she could find a way to help Torn regain his memory and his bond to Bound!

  There is a way, whispered a soft voice in her ear.

  Lorelei whipped her head around. Where had that come from?

  Do not worry where my voice is coming from, daughter—only heed my words, the low, feminine voice spoke again. There is a way to bring these two back to each other and you know what it is. I have put the three of you together for a reason. You are their missing piece. Only you can bridge the distance that separates them. Do not fear to do what you know will work.

  Then the voice—and the warm, overwhelming pr