Pops fell back, smoke wisping from the clothes in the center of his chest.
The man leaned over, grabbed the money, and then turned and walked away without another word.
* * * *
“Take a deep breath,” Valin instructed as he listened to Alivia’s heart. After a few seconds he stepped back and hung his stethoscope around his neck. “You get a clean bill of health. My first cryo regeneration and I must say I’ve even impressed myself.”
Alivia gave a faint smile and pointed to her throat.
Valin frowned. “Ah, yes. Except for the whole swollen larynx. That should pass soon and you’ll be able to talk again. It was taking the tubes out that caused the scraping and for that I apologize.”
She shrugged.
Noah touched her hand. “Her hands are cold. Is that a side effect?”
“Her blood pressure is a little low,” Valin admitted. “But that’s because her system is still flushing the tynilium out. You’ll also need some mild stretching exercises, Alivia, since we don’t want your muscles to atrophy on us. And even though your lungs sound good I don’t think using bronchodilators for a few days will hurt anything.”
She picked up the journal.
“Food? I’m hungry.”
“You’ll have to stick with broth for right now,” Valin told her. “Your stomach hasn’t digested food in thirty-one years. It needs to acclimate to the body’s needs again. But don’t worry, in a day or so everything will be back to normal, even your muscle tone and strength. That’s the beauty of tynilium. Your body will be just like how it went in.”
“Well, don’t you worry about anything.” Noah patted her arm. “I’ll be cooking to save you from Ronan’s ghastly food. He can’t even boil water without messing that up.”
She grinned and looked over at Ronan who leaned in the doorway with his arms folded over his chest. He gave a little one-shoulder shrug, not even trying to deny what Noah said. Her heart stuttered a little at his muscular physique but she did her best to squelch the feeling.
“True, but I seem to recall someone munching down on my cooking when he was sick,” Ronan stated a bit darkly, although the gleam in his eyes eased the harshness of his tone.
Noah snorted. “I was sick. My taste buds were fried. I could’ve eaten a barrel full of eels and not known it.”
Valin laughed. Noah helped her off the exam table, and she pulled the shirt down over the slightly too-big pants. Although the men hadn’t said anything, she assumed the clothes had been Noah’s, and she was grateful. She didn’t know how she would have reacted had she woken up naked.
When he said that the doctor who had brought her out of cryo stasis wanted to see her, she had balked at first. Dealing with two men was bad enough, but three? She’d spent her whole life in seclusion. The only man she had ever talked to was Kaden, and he acted more like her father than her bodyguard. It was why she had trusted him implicitly when he insisted she needed to leave Marvala, even when he told her she needed to be frozen. She’d not questioned any of his orders.
She was struggling not to be angry at him, or at fate, for what had happened.
Noah had treated her like she was a delicate flower and part of her liked being pampered again. It reminded her of home and her nannies, who made sure she wanted for nothing. So she placed her trust in his hands and every time he smiled at her, her heart gave a little jump of excitement.
Dr. Valin Dennington also turned out to be nice, shattering her fear the moment he smiled at her. Kindness oozed from his eyes as he performed his checkup. He didn’t touch her inappropriately or try to pressure her to do anything, which was surprising since her nannies had always told her that men wanted one thing and one thing only. Alivia didn’t know what that one thing was but had been watching intently for it from all three men. So far, however, they’d been nothing but kind.
Ronan stood up straight. “Would you like a walk around the perimeter, Alivia?”
Nerves fluttered inside but she eagerly nodded, excited to see the outdoors again. But when Ronan held out his hand for her, she hesitated in taking it. Noah walked up next to her.
“It’s okay, Alivia,” Noah said. “Ronan would never hurt you.”
“That’s not why I’m hesitating.”
Noah cocked his head. “Then what is it?”
She swallowed, glad that it no longer hurt. “I’ve never willingly touched a man before.”
“You hugged us last night.”
“No. You hugged me and I was too confused and weak to protest the impropriety.”
“The what?” Ronan asked.
“Despite how I’m dressed I am a lady,” she wrote.
“Never took you for anything less, honey,” Ronan told her.
“I am a good girl,” she continued writing, reciting her nannies’ words verbatim. “A proper lady who does nothing to sully the name of my benevolent mother.”
Silence had descended in the room. And then she slapped her hand over what she wrote, even though they had already read the words. Her eyes widened as she glanced at each man.
“Your benevolent mother?” Noah finally questioned.
“I was raised in a cloister,” she wrote quickly, not looking at them. “My Mother Superior.” She took a deep breath to settle her nerves and once she composed herself she looked up and smiled at Ronan. “You said we could take a walk?”
Ronan looked like a statue, staring at her with dark eyes as cold as ice. He didn’t believe her. It was written plain as day on his face but Alivia couldn’t trust him.
Not yet.
Chapter Seven
Noah walked behind Ronan and Alivia, finding it difficult to move his gaze off her ass. He’d never really been attracted to girls before, so he found his fascination with her a little puzzling. Maybe it was because of how he’d found her or perhaps it was because he found her, like discovering an angel in the heavens. He felt protective so maybe that led to a bigger part of the picture.
Still, that didn’t explain why his cock always hardened whenever she was near. Like now, he had to adjust himself in his pants. The only other person who had made him feel this way was Ronan, and he’d been with enough people to know that this was an unusual feeling.
He sighed as his mind slipped for a moment into the past, back to a life he tried very hard to forget. He didn’t know why he was feeling so nostalgic, even though the memories were anything but pleasant. Noah worked hard to keep everything in perspective but he had to keep reminding himself that nothing had been his fault. He was not the person he was made to be.
Taking a deep breath, he deliberately pushed the memories back into the vault he usually kept locked. It was no good dwelling on things that were long behind him. Ronan had found him, had saved him, and Noah couldn’t be happier.
He and Ronan were good together.
Still, he couldn’t seem to keep his eyes off Alivia. She was beautiful, regal. Of course, she was also a liar. That whole growing-up-in-a-cloister nonsense was clearly a blatant slap of her mistrust. Not that he could blame her for not fully trusting him and Ronan. Alivia didn’t exactly have an easy start at her reanimation. There was a thirty-one-year time gap where the universe had continued to expand while she stayed perpetually youthful.
It suddenly dawned on him that she was, technically, an older woman. She was old enough be his mother.
He scrunched his nose in yuck.
He so did not want to go there.
Did she like younger men?
He saw Ronan watching her as well, although he walked next to her so his gaze couldn’t be on her perfectly heart-shaped ass. Noah hadn’t missed Ronan’s captivated attention on Alivia, but surprisingly, it didn’t bother him too much, maybe because he shared Ronan’s enthrallment. She was…how would he describe her?
An innocent siren.
A sleeping beauty with luscious full lips, a mouthwatering figure, and an ass he wanted to sink his cock into.
Just thinking of her as the meat i
n a Ronan and Noah sandwich almost made him come in his pants. As he shifted his cock, yet again, he wondered if he was going to have wear looser pants whenever she was nearby.
* * * *
Ronan couldn’t help sneaking glances at Alivia, who walked slowly beside him. She was beautiful, but that wasn’t what was ringing all the alarm bells in his head. From the first time he laid eyes on her he knew she was trouble. He couldn’t ignore facts and the most blatant fact was that she was dangerous. He could feel it in his bones.
But the question he couldn’t answer was if she was dangerous because of who she was or because she affected his libido.
“How’re your legs?” he asked.
“Steady,” she wrote.
“Don’t overdo it,” he told her. “If you feel weak, just grab onto me.”
She shot him a surprised look.
“What?” he asked, slightly defensive.
She shrugged. “You seem uptight.”
He didn’t say anything for a minute as he tried to compose his thoughts. He wished Noah was talking to her. The younger man was better at words than he was. Not to mention her nearness had an unsettling effect on his libido.
“You lied,” he said, knowing the words were harsh and abrupt but deciding to be honest.
She stumbled and his hand shot out to hold her steady, wrapping around her upper arm. Electricity arced between them, shooting tingles up and down his spine. She looked at him, eyes wide, and bit her bottom lip with her two upper teeth. Suddenly, all he wanted to do was suck that lip into his mouth. He wanted to kiss her. He wanted to sink into her mouth and explore the moist recesses with his tongue.
His cock hardened in his pants, rubbing painfully against his fly. Noah came up behind them and Ronan reluctantly let go of her. He took a few steps away and glanced at his partner. Guilt flooded through him. He and Noah had been sexual partners for three years now and in all that time Ronan had never had the urge to cheat. He’d never even looked at anyone else and he couldn’t imagine life without Noah.
So why did this scrap of a girl ignite a fire in his blood?
Alivia resumed walking along the path. Ronan shot Noah a bleak look and followed after her.
“I didn’t mean to lie. In fact, I was taught lying was a sin.”
“Which explains how you do it so badly,” Noah quipped.
She smiled. “Yes. Even I knew it was a bad lie.”
“It just makes me wonder if everything you said is a lie,” Ronan replied.
“I’m sorry.”
“Okay. Let’s start over. Who is your benevolent mother?”
“My mother.”
He waited for more explanation but that’s as much as she offered. He gave a frustrated growl. “And if I ask who Kaden is, you’ll tell me your bodyguard. Right?”
She gave an apologetic shrug. “Would you trust you if you were me?”
She had a point.
“Ah, hell,” he said darkly.
“We’re just trying to help you, Alivia,” Noah said.
“Why? You don’t know me.”
“I feel responsible for you,” he replied.
Ronan shot him a surprised look.
“I found you,” Noah continued. “I have special ears, you see. Bionic. I can hear stuff normal people can’t and I heard this hum I had to follow. That’s how I found your ship. I heard your cryo coffin’s energy output and believe me when I say it was like finding a needle in a haystack. If I hadn’t come across that signal you might have been lost another thirty-one years.”
Her gaze flickered for a moment to Noah’s ears as a thousand emotions flitted across her face. Pity surged through Ronan as she finally settled on sadness.
“It’s possible everyone I knew is gone.”
“Yes,” Noah answered even though she hadn’t asked a question.
“I’m scared. And sad.”
Ronan didn’t know what to say to her to make it all better. He wished he could take her in his arms so he could hug her, comfort her. No matter what his reaction to her might be, he couldn’t imagine the hell of going to sleep only to wake up thirty-one years later.
The universe had changed, but she hadn’t.
“How old are you?” he asked.
She blinked her big green eyes up at him. “Twenty-one.”
That got to him. No way could he imagine being twenty-one for thirty-one fucking years.
“Listen,” he said. “You don’t have to tell me that you’re trouble. My instinct is that you can probably bring a shitload of it down on our heads in about two seconds. And I’ll be honest, I didn’t want to pull your coffin out of that wreck of an ancient spaceship. You’ve got Noah to thank for that. But now that you’re here, standing in front of me, I promise to protect you until we can figure out what the hell happened to you.”
He saw tears well up in her eyes and he wasn’t sure if they were happy tears or angry tears. But when he read her hastily jotted note, he relaxed enough to give her an encouraging smile.
“Thank you.”
“Can you tell us where you’re from?” Noah softly asked.
She looked between them for a moment, as if she was weighing a monumental decision, and perhaps she was. She had to figure out if she could trust them or not.
“Before I tell you, can you promise to take me somewhere?”
Even though his instincts were to say hell no, he found himself nodding.
“I need to visit the place where I grew up. I need to find out what happened to the three women who raised me. My nannies.”
Ronan glanced at Noah and saw his own question swirling around in the sky-blue eyes. Nannies? As in plural? He turned his attention back to Alivia.
“Where?”
“Marvala.”
Ronan felt his eyes widen. Holy shit!
Chapter Eight
The man flew through the first night, ignoring the sting of his tired eyes. The jungle was thick and kept him mentally focused, which helped keep him awake. He knew he wouldn’t be able to keep up the pace, but he would push himself as long as he needed until he found her.
She would have to disappear, again. Maybe forever this time.
A beep came from his neural com link, and he tapped behind his ear to accept the transmission, knowing who was on the other end.
“Have you found the bitch?”
“I’m on her trail.”
“And you know what to do?”
“Yes, my king. When I find her, I neutralize her.”
“You can have a little fun, if you wish. I’m not completely tyrannical. Take your time but just make sure, when you’re done, I never have to wonder if Alivia will ever challenge my claim to the throne.”
“Yes, my king.”
“Very good. Get it done.”
The transmission clicked off, leaving the man filled with the words rumbling through his head. He throttled forward, pushing onward through the tiredness, through the unpleasant taste in his mouth, through any guilt. He had a mission and he was determined to fulfill it.
* * * *
“So what’s Marvala?”
Ronan looked at Noah over the top of his cards. After their talk, Alivia admitted to being exhausted so they had retired back to Valin’s compound. Ronan wasn’t the least bit tired so he suggested a game of cards to Noah and Valin. Two hours later, Valin had gone to sleep, leaving him and Noah at the kitchen table, each with a considerable stack of poker chips.
“Ever heard of the City of Caesars?”
Noah shook his head.
“El Dorado? The ancient Earth fortress Fort Knox?”
Noah pointed at him. “I’ve heard of that one.”
“Well, they’re all legends pertaining to unimaginable wealth. Marvala was all of them combined, a planet rich with jewel mines and gold. The Carians were the ruling family.”
“Wait, I know that name. The Carian Kingdom was on Marvala?”
Ronan nodded.
“Didn’t they have a civil war?”<
br />
“Yeah, about thirty years ago if I remember correctly.”
“That’s when Alivia was put into cryo stasis. If she’s from Marvala, then maybe she’s someone important. Royal family?”
“I don’t know,” Ronan said with a sigh. “I don’t know much about Marvala or the Carian Kingdom other than the basic historical facts. It was a rich and artistic culture but then it fell.”
“So if we take her back there…”
“We could be walking into a shitload of trouble, for her and for us,” Ronan finished. “If she was hidden for her protection then returning might put a target back on her.”
“I don’t know if I like that idea,” Noah said as he threw his cards down. “I fold.”
Ronan laid down his as well. Truthfully, his mind hadn’t been on playing so he hadn’t a clue if he would have won that round or not. He didn’t touch the small pile of chips in the center.
“I don’t want to play anymore,” he said. “I’m too distracted. Too on edge.”
Noah raised his eyebrows suggestively. “I can ease that edge for you.”
Instantly, Ronan’s cock hardened as heat suffused through his blood. He shot a glance toward the bedroom. “Our bed is being occupied.”
Noah rose and walked over to stand behind Ronan. His hands settled on his shoulders and he rubbed at the tension evident in the coiled muscles. “We don’t have to be horizontal,” he murmured in Ronan’s ear.
Ronan’s head fell back. “That feels so good.”
“We can fuck right here,” Noah continued, seducing the bigger man with words. “I can straddle your lap and you can sink that big cock of yours in my ass.”
Ronan moaned and he captured Noah’s hands. “You’d have to be quiet and I want you screaming my name when you come.”
“Then where?”
“Follow me.”
Noah kissed him quickly before rising. Ronan held onto Noah’s hand and led him out the door. The moon overhead shone bright, providing them light along the path they had walked earlier. Ronan had noticed a spot that would be a perfect place for an interlude, one far enough away to drown out any passionate cries.
Sleeping Beauty (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) Page 5
