Taydelaan (3 page)

For a moment, Jessica hesitated. What to do? How to explain? How much to tell her?

If Kayla had been their Taydelaan, Jessica and David would have explained it all to her, would have given her every chance to adjust to her new knowledge and helped her any way possible. But she wasn’t their Taydelaan, and they would be leaving the planet tonight, so how the hell did they handle this situation now?

In the end, David’s voice through the communicator made the decision for her.

“Okay, Jess, the boxes are here. The captain has agreed to store them in the cargo hold until we get back to Sesturia. I’ll be back to pick you up in a few hours, and we’ll go say good-bye to Kayla before we leave.”

Kayla watched Jessica intently, obviously noticing she didn’t hold a mobile phone and that David’s voice seemed to come from all around them, not just a single point. Jessica hesitated a moment too long before replying, uncertain what to do in front of Kayla.

“Jess, everything okay?”

Jessica held Kayla’s gaze, unwilling to break eye contact as she said the words that would change Kayla’s life forever. “David, Kayla is here. You need to get here quickly so we can explain what’s going on. She saw the boxes as they transported, and she looks really frightened. I think, at the very least, she deserves to know the truth.”

“Kayla, honey,” David’s voice said through the connection. “Please wait for me. We’ll explain everything as soon as I get there. I promise you it will all make sense. Please just wait with Jessica, and I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

Tears rolled down Kayla’s face more quickly now, and Jessica’s chest squeezed at how much they were hurting the woman. It wasn’t supposed to be this way. They were supposed to find their Taydelaan, not fall in love with a woman who wasn’t theirs. Jessica felt tears well in her own eyes as she approached the distraught woman in front of her.

“Kayla, it’ll be okay. I promise you, we’ll explain everything.”

She moved closer, holding her arms open in front of her, moving slowly like one would approach an injured animal. “Kayla, I’m so sorry. We didn’t mean to frighten you. Please stay with me until David gets here.”

Kayla closed her eyes, tears still leaking down her face, as her knees buckled and she slid down the wall. Jessica moved quickly to catch the other woman, her heart aching when Kayla flinched at her first touch. Undeterred, she wrapped her arms around Kayla’s waist and pulled her closer. After a moment’s resistance, Kayla leaned over and rested her head on Jessica’s shoulder.

Jessica soothed the other woman with quiet words, holding her tight as they both cried.

It wasn’t supposed to be this way.

Chapter Two

David wanted to risk everything to get back to Kayla and Jessica quickly, but the Sesturian security rules were very clear on how they could enter the Earth’s atmosphere and, short of overriding the cruiser’s computer and causing a whole lot of trouble, David had no choice but to wait and worry and fume quietly. He hadn’t tried to contact Jessica again since leaving the ship for fear of causing more problems for Kayla. He knew if Jessica had anything to tell, she would contact him, so he worried silently and tried not to tap his foot in agitation or check the chronometer every five seconds.

Finally, the cruiser landed in thick brush land, the cloaking system hiding it from all but those who physically stumbled into it. Branches and leaves dragged at him as he pressed through the native foliage, every small delay heightening his agitation. It had been nearly one whole Earth hour, and the need to be with both the women he loved clawed at him relentlessly.

He made it back to his car in record time and tried really hard to stay under the speed limit. By the time he pulled into the driveway, a million scenarios had already played through his mind, each worse than the last. David wrenched the door open, following his senses to his wife. He stopped suddenly when he saw the scene in front of him.

Jessica sat on the floor, her back against the wall, Kayla lying on the floor beside her. Kayla lay curled into a fetal position, and Jessica had pulled her closer so the woman could rest her head on Jessica’s thigh. Both of them had red puffy faces, and it seemed Kayla had literally cried herself to sleep.

But she was still here. She hadn’t run—yet.

Jessica looked up as he entered the room, her eyes filling with tears once more as he moved to sit beside her on the floor and then wrapped an arm around her shoulders.

He didn’t need to ask questions. He could hear her thoughts as clearly as if she spoke them aloud. “Jess, she’s not our Taydelaan. I love her as much as you do, but if we stay we’ll never find our third and we’ll end up hurting Kayla even more.”

“I thought I could leave without her, but I can’t. I know it doesn’t make sense, and I know I’m asking you to give up our chance of having children, but I just can’t let her go. You can feel her emotions. You know she feels as strongly for us as we feel for her.”

“But Jess, if she was our Taydelaan, we’d be able to hear her thoughts as well and feel her emotions far more strongly. We have a connection with her, I agree with that, but if we stay here we give up the chance of ever finding our true Taydelaan.” Even as he said the words, he knew Jessica could feel the rebellion in his heart. For years, they’d had but a single goal—find their Taydelaan, their third, the one who completed their triangle, and start a family. But now it didn’t seem quite so important. Faced with the love he and Jessica could feel from Kayla, and the feelings they had for her in return, the idea of falling for someone else seemed simply impossible.

Jessica was grinning at him even before he finished the thought. She’d always been able to read him far more easily than he could read her.

“Are you sure this is what you want?”

Jessica nodded enthusiastically, a broad smile spreading across her face. David smiled with her, unable to hide the relief coursing through him at the thought of staying with Kayla.

“We do have a small problem,” he said, trying to wrap his head around practicalities. “We’ve just given away all of our furniture, and you no longer have a job.”

Jessica waved her hand in a circular motion in the air. “Details. Details,” she dismissed easily. He watched her for a moment before he said the words she’d obviously been too happy to notice in his mind.

“We need to explain it all to Kayla and let her make up her own mind.”

Jessica’s smile wavered a little. Explaining their alien status might just be a deal breaker. He hoped Kayla was as determined and strong-willed as he thought she was, because he couldn’t imagine losing her now.

“Let’s take her back to her place and try to explain this mess somewhere where we can be comfortable.”

Jessica nodded slowly, glancing at the woman beside her and brushing a stray lock of hair from Kayla’s eyes. David moved to lift the sleeping woman into his arms.

Kayla stirred a little and then woke with a start. She wriggled as panic set in, and he held her tighter even as his mind raced with all the possible negative outcomes his reaction could cause. He willed himself to loosen his grip even as he spoke quietly to the woman in his arms.

“Kayla, honey, it’s only me. We’re just taking you back to your place so we can talk.”

She opened her eyes quickly, her panicked gaze dancing around the empty room until it landed on Jessica. She seemed to settle just a little at the sight of the other woman, so David made sure to keep his wife in Kayla’s line of sight as Jessica hurried to the kitchen, grabbed her handbag and headed toward the front door.

Chapter Three

“I don’t understand.” Kayla stood, hands on hips, shaking her head violently. “It doesn’t make any sense. If you both love me, why were you packed and ready to leave?”

“That was a mistake, baby. We’re not leaving. We’re staying here with you.”

“But you were going to leave me behind.”

Kayla couldn’t quite get her head around the alien thing, so she’d decided to concentrate on the confession they’d made about both loving her. Although, at this moment, the alien thing seemed far more plausible than these two happily married people wanting her in their relationship.

“Kayla,” Jessica began as she wrapped her arms around Kayla’s waist. “We were faced with a tough decision, and we made the wrong one. Please let us make it up to you. We’re not going anywhere, I promise you.”

“But what about your furniture, all of your clothes and…and stuff? You gave it all away. How will you live here now?”

David laughed, the deep rumble tickling against her back as he pulled both women into his embrace. “We can start over. It’s not like we haven’t done it before.”

“Where were you going again?” Okay, this was the hard part, really. Alien was simply not a word she associated with real life. Who would have guessed that all those sci-fi books and movies she’d loved so much would somehow infiltrate her reality?

Oh, hell.

“Am I having a breakdown or something?” She meant for it to sound like a joke, like she had no real belief that it could be true, but her voice came out sounding small and pathetic and very, very worried. Jessica hugged her tighter.

“No, Kayla. This is real. We are real, and what we feel for you is real.”

“Kayla, honey, we come from a planet called Sesturia. It takes approximately six Earth weeks to get there. One day, we’d love for you to visit with us and meet our families.”

“It really is a beautiful planet, and there are quite a few humans among the population these days.” Kayla could feel Jessica’s smile against her neck, and she shivered when the woman kissed the sensitive spot just below her ear. “Say you’ll think about it.” Jessica kissed the same spot, this time nibbling gently with her teeth. “Tell me what you feel right now.”

Giggling a little from the ticklish feeling, Kayla said the words in her heart. “I feel happy and nervous and frightened and curious and pretty much overwhelmed. I’m still kind of wondering if I’m having a delusional breakdown.” She pulled away so she could see both of their faces, smiled to lessen the seriousness of that last confession, and then continued. “But most of all, I feel loved. Are you sure you want to include me in your relationship?”

“Of course,” Jessica said as a brilliant smile spread across her face. “All relationships on our planet are triads. Each partner loves both of the others, and since we both love you and you love both of us, you fit perfectly.”

“Do you still want to go home?”

“Home is wherever you are, Kayla.” David stepped forward and pulled her into his embrace once more, but this time he lowered his face and captured her lips with his own. He must’ve felt her stiffen, because he laughed quietly and spoke with his lips pressed against hers. “It’s okay, honey. Jessica wants me to kiss you. She plans to kiss you as soon as I’m done.”

Her mouth fell open slightly as she processed his words. Even with everything they’d discussed in the last few hours, it didn’t seem quite possible that they could both want her is a physical sense as well as an emotional one, but here she was kissing the man of her dreams, and soon she’d be kissing the woman of her dreams, too.

David licked along her open mouth, his tongue teasing at hers, his lips and teeth nibbling gently against her tender flesh. Tentatively, she slid her tongue out to tangle with his, and with a deep groan of need, David sank his tongue into her mouth, kissing her wildly, no longer controlling his desire.

She could feel his stiff erection pressed against her belly and moaned her excitement when she felt Jessica’s hands slide between them, undoing the buttons of Kayla’s shirt before moving to free David’s cock from his jeans. Jessica grabbed Kayla’s hand and guided it to David’s warm flesh, encouraging her to wrap her fingers around his wide girth.

David groaned and kissed her harder before releasing her to gaze first into her eyes and then lower to the soft mounds barely covered by white lace. Jessica helped to pull Kayla’s shirt off her shoulders and quickly undid the catch to her bra. Carefully, slowly, Jessica lowered the lace to expose the creamy skin and puckered nipples to David’s avid gaze.

Lifting one soft mound from behind, Jessica offered the dusky nipple to David. He glanced quickly into Kayla’s eyes, before bending low to capture the hard nub between his lips. He sucked strongly but managed to catch Kayla before her weakening knees let her slither to the floor. She gasped with excitement as David lifted her in his arms, positioned her on the countertop, and insinuated himself between her thighs. He rubbed his stiff rod against the rapidly swelling flesh of her pussy, only a thin layer of lace holding them apart.

Jessica smoothed her hand up and down Kayla’s thigh, each movement bringing her fingers closer to Kayla’s throbbing mound. David moved back a little, giving Jessica space, as he once again claimed Kayla’s mouth in a soul-destroying kiss. Her whole body was on fire, the smell of her arousal filling the room.

Jessica’s fingers traveled higher up Kayla’s thighs, brushing lightly at the junction. Kayla gasped into David’s mouth as a single finger worked its way under the lace barrier and penetrated her willing flesh. David smiled against her mouth as his hands fell to her breasts, molding and shaping the soft mounds.

A second finger joined the first in her pussy, a slow gentle rhythm beginning as the digits slid in and out of her slippery flesh. Soon, Jessica’s thumb found her clit, the swollen nub peeking out from its protective hood begging for attention. The gentle friction seemed to reach every inch of her body. Kayla rocked back and forth, unable to stay still as her body raced toward fulfillment.