The Bond That Ties Us (9 page)

“Nope. None at all.”

With amazing agility, she slid out from underneath where he stood and made her way to the door.

“Goodnight, Ambassador. I’m sure I’ll see you around the station.”

Before she opened the door, he felt it only fair to warn her.

“You’ll dream of me tonight.”

Haylie didn’t respond, but he knew she didn’t believe him. The doors closed silently behind her as she left. No matter. She would understand soon enough.

51

Haylie had to pause before she entered her quarters. So much had happened in the last few hours that her head felt like a spinning top. And if Sara was inside, she’d be sent around for another turn.

She scanned her hand on the security panel to release the door lock. It whooshed open to reveal a blessedly empty room. At least someone was giving her a break. Three steps got her into the room far enough to allow the sensor to automatically close the door behind her.

What a day.

Was it still today?

Her mind was racing, turning over possible answers to her problem.
The Kamran
Incident.
She laughed and wondered if he would mind being referred to as an incident.

Most likely.
In fact, she imagined she was already being referred to as the Haylie Predicament. He probably even has Taber trying to figure out a way of dealing with things.

She’d have to tell him that she preferred “incident” to “predicament”.

Haylie caught a glimpse of her profile in the mirror and stopped. Her face was flushed, but she looked rumpled and more than a little tired.
Having sex on the floor in a
public place will do that to a girl.

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

This always happened to her. She found someone and something always screwed it up. How the hell was she going to fight against biology and alien laws? It’s not like she could use a blaster to solve her problems this time.

Haylie realized that she was still standing by the doorway and moved to her bed.

She didn’t bother to undress and instead flopped onto the mattress and pulled the blanket and sheet over her.

To top things off, she was still horny. You’d think that a couple orgasms would cure a girl of that particular itch.
Apparently not.
And there wasn’t a damn thing she could do about it now.

Well, she could. But that would require moving and she wasn’t about to do that.

She wasn’t even mad at Kamran, simply at the situation. How the hell could she believe that fate had pushed them together? That was something her mother would’ve accepted. She’d take off to Briel without a second thought about the consequences.

There was no way Haylie would ever live her life like that.

But when she thought of Kamran and the feelings their short time together had pulled from her, her heart ached. She hated being alone. She’d spent too many days and 52

nights with her own thoughts. Nothing but her sketches and her blasted perfect memory to keep her company. The loneliness ate at her.

Not like her father. Other than the times they spent together when he was in port, he preferred solitude. Especially after her mother left. He’d died over a year ago now, but the pain was still there, still raw. Haylie smiled and wiped a stray tear away. He would have liked Kamran, a man with strong convictions. At least that was how he came across. Shit, she really didn’t know the first thing about him or his people. But the chances of the two races being pulled together this way seemed impossible. It was probably nothing more than an aftereffect of the cryo sleep.

She had to forget this whole mess. Get a good night’s sleep and begin fresh tomorrow.

Haylie propped herself up for a moment and pounded her pillow with her fist. She then gave her blanket a quick tug to balloon the air underneath. When she settled again, she took a deep breath and tried to calm her thoughts. She pushed away every image of her parents, her grief, even her desire and focused on the darkness behind her eyelids.

But in the dark, in the place moments before sleep could come, she was more in tune with Kamran than ever before. She could almost pinpoint his location if she concentrated hard enough. No, not concentrate, but relax. She sighed. There he was, down the corridor, across from where they had been earlier. His office?

When she tried to focus on the schematic of the station, she lost part of the thread that tied her to Kamran. She was still aware of him, though. Had he been there earlier, touching the back of her mind? The connection she hadn’t been aware of before, she now couldn’t miss it pulling at her consciousness.

Haylie sighed and felt the beginnings of sleep creeping up on her. Everything would be better…tomorrow.

Suddenly, she sat upright in bed and knew that Kamran was on the move and coming in her direction. Strange that that it took only a few rounds of mind-blowing sex to awaken one’s sixth sense.

She thought she should close her eyes to concentrate on his movements, but it turned out that she didn’t need to. Her awareness, coupled with her memory of the station schematics, made it more than easy to track his progress.

He wasn’t happy, more antsy than aggravated. She smiled—that must be her fault.

No, that wasn’t it. Haylie frowned, not used to the strange sensations she was now experiencing. The more she concentrated, the faster she lost the feeling. All she knew for sure was that Kamran was on his way to her.

She took a deep breath and concentrated on relaxing her tensed neck muscles.

Nothing seemed to work. Her body was hyperaware of everything. And somehow she was even more aroused than before. Her nipples hardened and she felt the moisture building in her pussy once more.

53

Haylie knew the second he entered the long corridor that led to her quarters. Her heartbeat began to trip over itself.
Not fair.
Why the hell wasn’t her brain in control of her body anymore?

As suddenly as his journey to her started, something halted it.
What the hell?
Haylie threw the blanket off, but struggled to get her sheet untangled from around her feet and get out of bed. She hopped on one foot and somehow managed to keep her balance.

She’d have to remember to take her shoes off next time.

Her short delay with the bedding was enough to prevent her from making it to the hallway in time. She could already sense Kamran going away. She froze for a second, indecision keeping her locked in place until she gave her head a shake. Like she would let him get away that easy.

Haylie slammed her hand against the door sensor and took a step into the hall. She looked up in time to have Sara run smack into her.

“Oh my God, are you okay?” Sara held her forehead as she spoke.

“Other than my newly acquired headache, I’m great.”

Haylie had to give her head a shake to try and clear away the burst of pain.

“Did I hit your nose? You’re bleeding. Let me see.”

Haylie swatted Sara’s hands away from her face. “Can we at least go inside first? I don’t want to bleed over the hallway.”

“I wonder if the food dispenser can manufacture some ice.”

Sara shoved her way past Haylie and made a beeline for the console along the back wall. Within minutes, Haylie was sitting back on her bed with a cloth full of ice cubes.

“Do I tilt forward or back? I never remember.”

“Here. Like this. And stop talking.”

Sara adjusted Haylie’s head until it was tilted slightly forward, but not too far down. A newfound tension in her neck started to scream at her.

“Well, that’s comfortable.” Haylie didn’t even bother to hide her sarcasm.

“I could run back to the med bay and get a cauterizer, but the bleeding would have stopped by the time I got back.”

“I’ll be fine. But if you broke my nose I’ll kick your ass.”

“Stop talking. And it’s not my fault you weren’t looking where I was going. Where the hell
were
you going in such a hurry, anyway? I figured you’d be sound asleep by this time. Wait, don’t answer. Hold that thought for five minutes. I don’t want you to talk until the bleeding stops.”

The last thing Haylie wanted to do was explain the evening’s events to Sara right now. The five-minute delay gave her a small amount of breathing room. At least long enough to come up with a lame excuse.

54

“I thought I heard something…outside. I was going to investigate.” Haylie said as she pulled the now wet and bloody cloth away from her face, allowing Sara to examine her injury.

“And you complain about me never taking it easy. Heard something outside of a soundproofed room. Crazy girl.” Sara’s frown deepened as she cleaned the remaining blood from Haylie’s face. “Man, I didn’t hit you that hard. Not hard enough to cause this. Did you do something earlier to your nose?”

“No. Could be the dry air?” Haylie cringed. She didn’t remember hitting her face during her sexual escapades earlier that night. A side effect to great Briel sex?

“Maybe. Keep an eye on it. You’ve been acting weird since we arrived. I may want to run some tests if strange things keep happening. And don’t bother to try to argue this time.”

“Yes, Doc.”

“Good. Now that we have that settled, we need to find you a man.”

Haylie started to cough. “What?”

“Don’t do that, or you’ll start your nose bleeding again. You need a man. Someone who will take your mind off things.”

Oh, if only she knew
.

“You know how I am on the dating scene.”

“Roger doesn’t count. He was a jerk, anyway,” Sara said and waved her hand in the air as if she were swatting a fly.

“Yes, well, according to him, I’m a cold bitch who generates as much heat as an ice cube. I believe that’s an exact quote.”

Sara leaned in close. “Did he say that before or after you arrested him for smuggling?”

She had a point. “After. But our relationship was faltering before that.”

“Gee, I wonder why.” Sara rolled her eyes. “You need a
real
man. Speaking of which, you’ll never guess who just stopped me outside the door. Don’t bother, ‘cause you won’t get it.”

Haylie didn’t miss a beat. “Ambassador Kamran?”

“No, it was Ambassador…hey, how did you know? You’re not going all psychic on me again, are you?” Sara inspected her through squinted eyes.

“No, it was a lucky guess.”

“How the hell do you make a guess like that?”

Haylie gave a noncommittal shrug. “Easy. I figured out who you thought the most unlikely person in the world was to come visit me and said that name. Hence, Ambassador Kamran.”

Sara harrumphed. “I guess that’s why you’re in security.”

“Now what did he
want
?”

55

“Who?” Sara grinned.

“Smart ass. The ambassador.” Haylie grinned back and remembered to unclench her teeth so she wouldn’t look vicious.

“Well, he first told me to call him Kamran.” Sara fluttered her eyelashes. “Second, he said you needed to have this.”

Sara retrieved a data pad she’d set down next to the food dispenser on her way to gather ice.

The cool plastic of the thin device seemed strange as it touched Haylie’s fingers. She could feel the residual warmth of his hands clinging to the device.
Impossible
. Haylie tapped her fingers along the bottom edge just below the control buttons. Why would he send her this?

“Did he say what this was for?”

“No. But I’m assuming it’s for something or other related to security. Why else would the Briel ambassador send you a data pad?”

Haylie cringed, “True.”

“Look, I’m beat. I’m going to pop into the bathroom for a quick minute to clean your blood off my hands and get a warm cloth so you can wash your face. Read your message and then we both need some sleep. Doctor’s orders.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Haylie waited until Sara left the room before activating the message. The backlight on the pad was bright, causing Haylie to squint for a second before her eyes adjusted.

Ms. Bond.

It was a pleasure to meet you this evening. I’m sorry that we had to cut our meeting short,
but I hope we can continue our conversation in the future. Here is the information you requested
on the background of my people. I hope you find it an interesting read. I would also like to
discuss with you the potential of pooling our security resources. I hope you will be able to fit me
into your schedule sometime tomorrow. Thank you for your time.

Ambassador Kamran.

A history lesson and an excuse for another date. She remembered what he had said about the Briel not having casual relationships and smiled. Maybe this was his way of getting to see her without raising suspicion. She knew he wasn’t going to be able to stay away. She could tell by the way he stood back in her office. His body was taut, like he was concentrating extra hard to hold still. She hadn’t meant to push him earlier, but she couldn’t resist. It had taken every ounce of her self control not to touch him, but the look on his face as she’d pulled away had been worth it.

“You look like the cat that ate the canary. Did he ask you out or something?” Sara said tossing her a warm cloth from the bathroom.

Haylie looked up fast from the data pad and barely managed to catch it. Better not to lie to Sara. She’d know anyway. “Briel don’t date. They find their mate through some 56