“Yeah, sorry.” He shrugged. “Someone might have a spare room, if you want me to ask around?”
She shook her head. She didn’t want people to find out about Cai. While she respected her fellow scientists, Cai was a different species many would want to poke and prod. Not to mention, his unique abilities would make him susceptible to other attentions, and she’d feed anyone who tried to crawl into bed with him to the sharks. “No, I’ll figure it out. Thanks.”
Heading for the foods, she stopped in the middle of the first aisle and eyed what was available, at a loss for what to buy. She hadn’t learned to cook until she was an adult, and her skills were sorely lacking.
“Paging Dr. Jordan Richardson. Dr. Richardson, code yellow.”
Her head snapped around. A code yellow was rarely a good thing. Spinning, she almost collided with Cai.
“Hey, I have to go. Can you find your way back to the room?” Her free hand clutched the loose material of his shirt, every bad scenario running through her head.
“Yes. What’s wrong?” He gripped her arms tighter.
“My sharks. A code yellow could be anything.” She shoved the basket at him. “I’ve got to go.”
Chapter 4
Cai looked at the basket, then to the spot where Jordan had stood. He wanted to run after her. The emotion radiating off her was stressed, anxious and tinged with fear. He didn’t like it, but he also recognized he didn’t belong in her scientific world.
The clerk shook his head. “If you need help finding your way back, let me know. It’s quiet enough, I could take you.”
He could trace their path by following the resonance of their mutual feedback. “I’ll be fine. But, can you tell me what currency you accept?”
“Standard UI’s or station credits.”
“Perfect.” He smiled and lifted the basket. “I might need something bigger.”
Returning to the decorations, he considered the glittery, shining pieces. He knew from Jordan’s parents that Christmas was an over the top affair. While he couldn’t give her that, he’d start with something cozy.
The cashier brought him a rolling cart, an old novelty here where everything hovered. “I’m Blain.”
He took the boy’s extended hand. “Cai.”
“You aren’t really a friend. Her family sent you, didn’t they?”
Cai rubbed his fingers together, and rolled Blain’s touch around in his head. Blain cared for Jordan, but as a friend. “If they did, should I tell you the truth?”
Blain shrugged. By Cai’s estimation he couldn’t be much older than nineteen or twenty, old enough to get into trouble. “Everyone knows who her family is. There wasn’t a real security officer on the station until she was hired. Who would want to mess with us?” He shook his head and slipped his hands into his pockets. “I’ve seen the hols, I pay attention to the news. She’s a target, isn’t she?”
“I can’t answer that.” Cai leaned against the table, and weighed his options where Blain was concerned. Other than Jordan, he was alone, and another ally would be useful. “But I can say that you are a very intelligent young man.”
He nodded slowly, catching Cai’s meaning. “I’ll let you know if I see or hear anything.”
“I would appreciate that.”
A thin man stepped through the doors and blinked at the Christmas décor as if he’d never seen it before. Blain sighed and turned toward his new customer.
“I need to help him. If I can do anything, let me know.”
“Blain, why do you want to help?”
He paused mid stride and glanced over his shoulder. “Jordan doesn’t care who your family is, your age or the color of your skin. There should be more people like her.” Blain approached the customer and began speaking, the dulcet tones of something besides Intergalactic spilling from his lips.
Turning back to the decorations, he made a plan, one wholly unconnected to protecting and all about living. Jordan’s life lacked the emotional connection of most children. He didn’t need his pur to tell him that much. She might not be the woman he left home for, but she was the woman who fit him, and he intended showing her what they could have.
* * * *
Hours later, he’d made a dent in clearing out the empty plastos from Jordan’s quarters, stocked the kitchen with an assortment of real foods and begun to pin some of the decorations to the walls. But, his fingers were starting to ache. His muscles were in kinks from days spent in stasis. He could fix the stasis chamber if there were no other options for feedback and put himself back in stasis, but the prospect of locking himself in didn’t hold any appeal.
Standing in the middle of the kitchen, he smoothed his hands over his bare chest, his heartbeat too fast and his breathing labored. When his first match died, he’d initially panicked. He hadn’t met her, but his fate had twined with hers. The arrangement with Jordan’s parents was business. If he could keep her safe from the threats of kidnapping, he would be taken care of. Each of her parents was powerful. If their marriage didn’t work out, they’d made it clear he would still have their providing pockets. But the money didn’t matter anymore, not that he’d needed theirs to begin with. He hadn’t anticipated liking her, which put him in a tough situation.
To distract himself from the growing need for feedback, he pulled out the drawers from his stasis chamber. Hidden under the ridged panel in the bottom was a small case, no bigger than his hand, and thinner than his finger. Popping it open, he ran his fingers over the tiny tracking units. Desperation made him grasp at all straws. When he’d been approached in the shuttle bay about aiding in Jordan’s kidnapping, he’d been noncommittal. That he hadn’t turned the devices over to her parents shamed him, but he could fix that now.
Tossing them in the trash receptacle ensured that option was closed to him, as it should have been all along. Granted, at the time he hadn’t been thinking properly. It was the first time he’d realized he could die a slow, painful death.
The first thing to go would be the feeling in his extremities as the pur lost its sensitivity. The small tendrils would die. Without the feedback, his nervous system would go into shock, his vital organs wouldn’t be able to regulate themselves and parts of him would slowly die until convulsions ruptured something that couldn’t be fixed.
The door to the quarters slid open, arresting his attention. Jordan stopped barely inside the threshold, her eyes wide, taking in the changes he’d made.
He crossed the distance between them in two strides. Her head swung toward him and a confused expression spread across her features. Wrapping an arm around her waist, he pulled her flush against his chest and dug his fingers into her wet hair. The feedback was instantaneous, surprise, panic and a spike of adrenaline, but she didn’t fight him.
Using her shock in his favor, he kissed her, slipping into her mouth and suckling her lips. She moved against him in small jerks, as if unsure how to respond. Her lips moved a little, and her tongue flicked against his with the barest of touches. He was dizzy from the sudden sustenance.
Jordan gripped his arms, her fingers digging painfully into the muscles. But she didn’t push him away. He tilted her head to the side to give him more access, but she broke off and gasped for breath.
“Sorry,” he rasped, lips gliding over her cheek.
“I’m assuming that was necessary?” she said, breathless.
“Yes.” He brushed her nose with a light kiss and forced himself to loosen his hold on her. “Sorry,” he said again.
“No, we–we need to talk about this. I didn’t think about leaving you.” She released her hold on his arms and splayed her hands against his chest, skin to skin. Everywhere she touched tingled. “I should have remembered. That was my fault.”
“I–” He paused, whetting his lips and straightened. “I panicked. It’s not an easy thing to learn to live differently.” He smoothed her hair off her face. “Why is your hair wet?”
“Oh, the code yellow.” A smile flickered across her lips. �
�One of my sharks had pups. I did a dive to check them out. They’re only the second young we’ve recorded being born to any of the sharks.” Her face practically glowed and feedback rolled off her in strong waves.
“Tell me about them,” he urged.
“They’re nurse sharks. Smaller, not as aggressive compared to something like the white. They birth live young. My nurse shark had a litter of fifteen, which is smaller than usual, but all things considered, I’m more excited that my sharks are reproducing.” Jordan grinned, completely unaware she gripped his shoulders.
“That sounds wonderful. I’d like to see them.”
“I need to do a dive tomorrow and check on them. That would be perfect, actually. I can’t dive solo.”
“Mm-hmm.” He nodded, resting his forehead against hers.
She frowned. Lifting a hand to his face, she pressed her palm against his forehead. “Are you normally this cold? Your skin is clammy.”
He put his hand over hers and slid it down to his cheek. “No.”
“Cai.” She licked her lips. Every few seconds she would dart a glance at his mouth. “I can’t figure out how to help you if you don’t tell me what you need.”
It was the devil in him that slid his hand down to the top of her ass and up, under her shirt until they were skin to skin. He wanted her. Anyone would do, but he wanted her. Knowing she didn’t feel the same was an obstacle he’d figure out. But for now he was satisfied with a touch and a kiss.
She shifted against him, wiggling at the invasive touch. She had no idea what the little movements were doing to him. How he wanted to push her up against the plas panel and take her.
“It’s not important.”
Scowling, she pulled her hand back. “Yes it is. You’re lying to me.”
He sighed. “I’m not lying. It’s part of learning to live differently.”
“You said you could die without the feedback.” She jabbed her finger into his chest.
“Yes. Fine. Yes, the lack of feedback has gotten problematic, but my life isn’t at risk.”
“But it hurts, doesn’t it? When you don’t get enough.”
He shifted. It was one thing to be accustomed to the needs of his kind, but another to be dependent on someone who didn’t understand. “Yes, it’s uncomfortable. I panicked.” It took strength of will to unwind his arms from around her and step away. “I’ll be okay.”
“Cai, this is serious.” She followed after him and clasped his upper arms, running her palms up and down. “Ignoring the problem won’t make it go away. We need to find a solution.”
His arms wound around her hips of their own accord, tugging her against his chest. “Okay, how about this? Dinner, I give you a crash course in Galairian biology, and we decorate.”
“What did you do?”
“I bought decorations.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s the holidays and I wanted to.”
“I’ll pay you back.”
“Don’t worry about it. I’ve got it covered. Trust me a little.”
“I don’t want you to buy things for me.”
“Tough. We’re going to have to learn some compromises.” He planted a kiss on her temple and released her. “Now, food.”
* * * *
Jordan frowned at the wreath. Little shooting stars and balls hung from the interwoven synth branches. It was one of the fancy ones that smelled of real pine.
“Cai, you spent too much on all of this. You should let me at least pay for half of it.”
She felt his body heat first, which was all the warning she got before his arm snaked around her waist and he planted a kiss on her cheek. She struggled with the idea of touching so freely. He acted as if they’d always been this way together.
“I told you to not worry about it.” He squeezed her hip.
He faced away from her and yawned. She hadn’t allowed herself to think beyond the afternoon, and now it was evening.
“You’re tense.” His hands cupped her shoulders. He still hadn’t put on a shirt, and she was beginning to suspect it wasn’t for the benefit of his pur. “It’s getting late.”
“I guess, um, you’ll have to share my bed.” She licked her lips, her reflection distorted in the glass ornaments hanging from the wreath. She didn’t need to see herself to know she was blushing.
Cai was quiet for a moment. She could only guess he was filtering through her emotions, which surprised her to find it didn’t bother her.
“The stasis chamber is comfortable,” he said, giving her shoulders a light squeeze.
“You aren’t sleeping in a box.” She turned to face him, scowling at the idea that the chamber was even up for consideration.
“All right. Fine.” He held his hands up and grinned. “Twist my arm a little harder, will you?”
“Good.” Oh sharks, she’d told a guy to sleep with her.
Cai turned her and pushed her toward the bedroom door. “Mind if I shower first?”
“Go ahead, I showered after my dive.” She fiddled with a few things on the counter while he got his things together and entered the bathroom. As soon as the door shut behind him, she raced into the bedroom. It was beyond neat, which meant at some point when she hadn’t been watching, he’d been in here.
She changed as fast as she could and dove into bed. Scooting to one side, she closed her eyes. The minutes dragged on. She could almost hear the shower through the walls, imagine Cai naked and wet.
Burying her face in the pillow she groaned and began reciting genus and species of every animal on the reef. She was drifting off to sleep when the bed dipped.
Cai’s arm settled on top of her side and his body was warm against her. “Goodnight, Jordan.”
“Night,” she mumbled, starting over again on her recitation.
* * * *
Jordan buttoned up her lab coat and reminded herself yet again she shouldn’t be ogling Cai. It was wrong, but part of her couldn’t help sneaking glances at him as he stood in the medscan, wearing only the tiniest pair of shorts she’d ever seen. The sensors blinked in rapid succession, the whole outer apparatus revolving around him. He was a handsome specimen of a man; the species wasn’t important.
Turning before he caught her staring again, she focused on the readings spit out by the computers. She knew she could help him. Her hunches were spot on, and the data thus far was backing up her theory.
The buzzer rang, and the medscan popped open. The equipment wasn’t intended to be used in a dry dock mode, so she created a patch to get it to function.
“That’s it?” he asked, stepping out of the tube and meandering slowly toward her. He gazed around at the consoles, all the equipment built on a bigger scale for their use with some of the larger reef inhabitants.
“Yup.” She glanced up, her traitorous eyes straying to his arms and across his chest. “You can go back to my quarters, if you want. I’ll be in here working on this for a bit.”
“Okay.”
Cai wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her against his side. Her heart beat a little faster every time he touched her. He pressed a kiss to her temple, but made no move to take her mouth. She focused on the numbers and compounds on the screen, rather than her disappointment. If he could tell every emotion, he’d pick up on it, but her thoughts were her own. He released her and moved off to where his clothes were folded neatly on a table.
Focusing, she set her mind to puzzling out the problem. Cai needed the emotional feedback to sustain his pur system. The feedback was nothing more than a static electric charge jumping from body to body, amplified by the system, which then caused a chemical reaction to produce the emotional residue, which he tasted.
She’d combed the databases for information on Cai’s race and found a surprising amount of data. Combined with what he’d told her, she thought she had a handle on what preparation needed to be done to take a stab at his problem. The issue, it seemed, was mapping each emotion to a chemical and the transference of the chemi
cals through pheromones on the skin.
Sending the data to a pull board, she loaded a visual of the chemicals onto the display. The pull board was one of the recent installments she liked the best. It allowed her to physically move components around the board and pull up and add other information. She could literally piece atoms together.
Mapping the chemicals though was like fitting together shattered glass. She charged through it roughshod a few times, only to have to restart. Her breakthrough came when she figured out one of the alpha chemicals. Mapping one was finding the bottom step in a dark room. The only place to go was up, even if she fumbled a few times.
At long last, it began to make sense. When she stepped away from the board, her back and arms ached, indicators of how long she’d been lost in work. But, a test batch of a possible serum was synthesizing. At the earliest it would be done in four to six hours. Her stomach growled. Checking the clock, she was shocked by how much time had passed.
Cai.
She spun around, took two steps and stopped. Cai sat on top of a counter, his shirt gaping open and his hair loose around his face. He wore a goofy smile on his face, no doubt at her expense.
“How long have you been there?” She crossed to him, reaching out to check his pulse and run her hand along his arm.
His hand closed over hers, pressing her palm against his arm. “I never left.”
“You’ve been sitting here for hours?”
“No, I walked around a bit.”
“Cai, that’s not what I mean.” She frowned at the irregularity of his heartbeat. She tugged her hand from his and pressed it over his heart, counting to the triple beat she’d read up on.
“Jor, I’m fine.” He laughed. “I’ve been here the whole time. I’m not delicate.”
“But it’s been hours since I saw you.” Since she’d touched him.
The side of his mouth screwed up in a not quite smile. “I’ve been right here.”
“You feel fine.” She frowned. They’d been physically apart for hours, the day before he’d been desperate and in a lot of pain. Today he held her hand and gave her a goofy smile, which threatened to turn her insides to liquid mush. Big change.
A Kiss For a Cure Page 4
