Slade Read online

  “Do you think we’ll be found by your people tomorrow?”

  Slade hesitated. “I don’t know, Doc.”

  “I have a first name, you know. It’s Trisha. Would it kill you to use it?”

  Silence. “It wouldn’t kill me.”

  Trisha took a deep breath. She’d had a hellish day, didn’t feel well, her body ached, and hunger clawed at her belly. Her frustration level rose. “But you won’t use it, will you? Why do you go out of your way to try to annoy me? What did I ever do to you?”

  Long minutes of silence passed. Trisha shook her head, guessing he wasn’t going to answer. A hand touched her arm and she jumped, startled. She hadn’t expected that at all.

  “Let’s lie down. We should sleep a few hours while we can.”

  “What if they find us? Should we take shifts sleeping while one of us keeps guard?”

  “No. We’re downwind from them. I’d smell them if they were near enough to us for them to reach us that soon. I’m going to lie down next to you. You can use me for a pillow, Doc. You need my body heat to stay warm.”

  “No thanks.”

  She heard him either snort or chuckle but wasn’t sure which. “It’s getting pretty cold and the ground is hard, Doc. When you get tired of both you can curl up to me. Good night.”

  His hand left Trisha and he stretched out next to her because his body settled against part of her thigh. Her vision adjusted somewhat until she could nearly make out his shape on the ground. The wind blew colder as time passed. Trisha settled down, moving a few inches away from Slade. She turned on her side and used her arm as a pillow. Hunger and exhaustion nagged at her. As she lay there another problem arose.

  “Slade?”

  “What?”

  “I have to use the bathroom.”

  He sighed. “Fine.” He sat up. “Give me your hand and I’ll lead you somewhere farther downwind.”

  “Why?”

  He hesitated. “I don’t want to smell urine. I really don’t want to be downwind if you have to do more than that.”

  “Oh.” She blushed. She’d never thought of that.

  He gently pulled Trisha to her feet and she followed him. He walked about twenty feet before stopping. “You can go right here. I’ll go about fifteen feet away. I may as well go while you’re at it.”

  “How do I know you won’t watch?”

  He suddenly laughed. “I’m perverse but that doesn’t do it for me, Doc. I’ll be back real soon so hurry.”

  It had been fifteen years since Trisha had been camping. She unfastened her slacks and dropped her pants. Being blind didn’t help. She prayed that Slade really wasn’t somewhere he could see her. She heard something faintly and smiled. She envied him being a man at that moment. She quickly finished up and righted her clothes. She stepped a few feet forward and waited.

  “Hope you don’t wipe with your hand,” he snorted softly. “Tell me now if you did and I don’t take that one.”

  “I didn’t.” Trisha sighed. “You are just sick. Did anyone ever tell you that? Who would do that?”

  He laughed. “I don’t know but I wanted to make sure.” He clasped her hand in his and led her back to their resting spot. “Good night, Doc.”

  “Stop calling me that. It’s Trisha. Why won’t you say my name? What did I ever do to you to make you not like me so much?”

  Silence.

  Anger gripped her. “I’ll keep talking if you don’t answer me. I thought you wanted to get some sleep.”

  “You wouldn’t dare. I saved your life by carrying you for miles on my back today.”

  “I totally would. Tell me what I did to deserve you not even saying my name. I want an answer. You have no idea how annoying it is. I’m going to start calling you 215 if you don’t knock it off or at least explain to me why you feel the need to make me mad.”

  A growl tore through the silence of the night. Trisha instantly knew she’d gone too far. She had known it the second the words passed her lips but it was too late to take it back. She’d read somewhere that all the New Species absolutely hated being called by their file numbers. She hadn’t meant to really insult him. She’d only thought it would annoy him the way he did her by calling her anything but her name.

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you.” Her voice softened. “I just want to know why you refuse to say my name.”

  Pain lanced through Slade at the reminder of his past. Anger quickly followed. Is that how she viewed him every time she looked at him? As a victim? As the half-wild creature he’d been when he’d awoken inside the hospital room assuming she’d just been new enough to the testing facility to be foolish enough to remove his restraints? Usually, given an opportunity, he would have instantly killed a human male but she’d been female.

  He’d never kill a female. He’d grabbed her instead. Even half out of it, he hadn’t wanted to harm her. Once he had her body pinned under his, her scent had filled his nose, and he’d peered into those incredible eyes, her pouty lips, and his body had roared to life. He’d wanted her more than any woman he’d ever touched.

  He’d wanted to keep her for as long as possible. Enjoy every inch of her and make her burn with the passion he felt. He would have gone days without food or water just to know her body. To possess something so wonderful and forbidden. Any punishment would have been worth the cost of pleasuring them both until they couldn’t move. Then and only then, he’d have released her from his arms. The memory of the time they shared could have lasted him for years when his mind threatened to break from the pain and agony he suffered on a regular basis.

  Of course it hadn’t gone the way he’d planned. He’d been in for a shock when more humans rushed into the room to pin him down, his reflexes slowed by the drugs in his system, and he’d awoken to discover his world changed forever. He no longer was locked inside his cell, no longer chained to a wall, and the scents around him assured him that nothing was familiar. They kept him restrained but he understood why it had been necessary. He wouldn’t have attacked them but he would have tried to flee.

  Four females in uniforms had leaned against the wall of the hospital room to inform him he’d been rescued, his people freed, and they’d slowly explained he needed to calm down. They’d shown him videos on a little machine of more of his people, taped footage of the rescue, and sworn no harm would befall him. It had taken time for it to sink in that they were telling him the truth. The shock had staggered him. The females meant no harm, they didn’t work for Mercile, and that life no longer existed.

  He’d been transferred from the hospital to a remote motel in the desert with dozens of his people. All female military officers had been assigned to protect them at the secured location. Humans had quickly assessed that New Species males wouldn’t attack human females and had used that as a way to assure they didn’t feel threatened. It had worked. The females hadn’t even carried guns except for the ones who patrolled the perimeters to keep humans away.

  The U.S. Government had promised them a place of their own, where their people could live safely from the press and from other humans who viewed them as a threat. They’d read books, watched television, and talked to humans who answered all their questions. The months spent in the desert waiting for such a place to finish construction had calmed them, assured them that they had human rights, and his new life had begun at Homeland. He’d gone from being a test subject to a man. The Doc obviously didn’t agree. To her, he’d always be 215.

  It hurt. All he’d wanted was to have her view him as a sexual male, her equal, and he’d messed that up for good by insulting her by not recognizing her when he met her again. She obviously didn’t have forgiveness in her heart. The pain turned to anger quickly. Damn her. If any male deserves some leeway, it is me.

  The memory of touching her, tasting her skin, and the scent of her arousal flashed. She might not think of him as a man but her body could be persuaded otherwise. Lust and desire gripped him hard. Maybe she just needed to be taught withou