Payton's Surprise (The Perfect Match Book 2)

by Serena Simpson

  “Nothing.”

  “You’re a horrible liar. I don’t know if it’s your youth or something that will follow you into adulthood.”

  “Thanks, I love you too.”

  “Hey, when did your ability to lie have anything to do with my love for you?”

  “We’ve been here for a month, but lately, I feel like someone is watching me. I expect at any moment for someone to drop out of the sky with a weapon to kill me.”

  “Why would they come after you? You're gone, not a threat to them.”

  “It doesn’t work like that.” She sat down, watching the build site. “As long as I’m alive, I have the right, the blood right, the birthright, to rule the planet.”

  “Aww, no democratic government for you.”

  “What?”

  “Nothing, a dream that went along with my old life. I understand why they might want you dead. I don’t get why they would want to follow one teen across the galaxy on the laughable chance that she may raise an army.”

  “That’s what the galaxy all about. How many nights did you go to sleep with your parents telling you about the last great battle to be fought for the right to rule a land?”

  “Never, but I get it. My parents told me about the blonde hair blue eyed princess meeting her prince charming. I would have rather they told me about the battles and how to be a kick-ass princess no matter what color my hair or eyes.”

  “Or the color of her skin.”

  “I’ve been an asshole, Leela. I have no defense. Who I was and who I am are too different people.”

  “I know, Payton, I trust you.”

  “I trust you to teen leader.”

  “Ugh!” She picked up a pebble and threw it at Payton before she hopped up and danced out of the way of any incoming pebbles.

  “When you least expect it, I’m going to have my bird peck at you!”

  “Oh no, not the dreaded bird who doesn’t have a name. Save me from the bird of wrath.” She laughed as she started back down the hill, leaving Payton to watch over her.

  “You know all you have to do is tell me your name. Then I could tell everyone else, and they would stop laughing at you.”

  The bird lifted his head and gave her a ‘like I care’ look. She sighed; that was her bird. He didn’t give a damn, but he was always there when she needed him.

  “You’ll tell us your name when you're ready. I’m just a bit off today. Do you think someone is looking for Leela? What has my life come to? I’m talking to a bird.” She threw her hands in the air before taking a seat. The hill reminded her of the earth for some strange reason. The grass up here was almost green, and if she squinted her eyes just right, the bark on the trees was brown.

  It wasn’t earth, and it honestly didn’t matter. This ball of land in this remote part of space was her new home, and she would protect it with her blood. She loved the earth, but never once had she ever thought the planet was worth dying for or, more importantly, these people are worth dying for. Her ragtag group of friends was worth fighting and dying for. Yeah, she’d rather live than die.

  That buzzing started up again. She was beginning to associate it with the Fulyer. There were still questions about what happened to her, but whatever it was must have something to do with the insane buzzing that happened sometimes.

  “How would you follow a teen leader? Yeah, that’s what I would do too.” She grabbed her walking stick to help her stand before she limped her way off the top of the hill. “Look, I’m running.” She laughed so hard she had to stop moving to catch her breath. It was more of a limp run. Still, it made her happy.

  When she got close to the medical facility, she slowed down. Cassic would have a fit if he saw her winded like something was wrong. Mmm, Cassic. The past month had all three of them kissing and touching. It was a slow progressive thing, but it made her feel like she was worth more than the royal jewels. Eat your heart out queen Elizabeth or whoever was queen now.

  “Payton,” Cassic tossed her a smile when she walked in. He was working with one of the children that followed Leela.

  “Hey, Branny.”

  “Hi, signy Payton. I hurt my leg, see.” He stuck out his dark leg. The pink line highlighted against the darkness of his skin.

  “How did you do that?”

  “I was running.”

  “Someone has to slow down until his feet catch up with his long legs.” Cassic tossed his pink hair before washing his hands and patching him up. “No running, walk. Go ahead, go back, and play.”

  “Thank you.” The boy placed one foot in front of the other carefully until he was out of sight.

  “Nothing can keep these kids down.”

  “I think that’s the nature of kids. Are you getting old?” She crossed the room and kissed him before moving away.

  “I feel younger when you're close.” Cassic started cleaning up his station.

  The new medbay as he continued to call it reminded her a lot of what was on the ship, but this was better. He was setting up a special place for whoever came after him.

  “What brings you here? Whatever it is, can it bring you here tomorrow too?” The gems around his eye lit up, telling her he was teasing, but he meant it also.

  “I was up on the hill with Leela.”

  “Aww, you escaped this place to visit earth for a few minutes.” She glared at him for a minute before shaking her head. They called that hill earth. It was kind of nice.

  “We were looking at the building site from a different point of view. It looks good. I think another month, and it will be small things left. When the rainy season comes, we should all be snug as a bug in a rug.” She looked up at the look on his face and wondered what his translator said. She’d ask, maybe after she stopped laughing at him.

  “Why would you want to be an insect stuck in a rug?”

  “On earth, if you’re a bug in a rug, your life is easy.”

  “I feel sorry for your people. Do you all walk around wishing to be bugs with multiple legs rolled in a rug?” He shivered and then shrugged, letting it go.

  She snorted. “Aww, you don’t know what you’re missing.”

  He reached out, pulling her close. “I have you. The rest of your world can keep their secret affliction with bugs.”

  She laughed into his shoulder, secretly agreeing with him. “I came with a question.” Reluctantly she moved back to give herself a chance to breathe.

  “What’s on your mind?” He took her into his office so they could sit at his desk.

  “Leela feels like someone is watching her. Which makes no sense. Who can watch her way out here? Heck, how do they even know where we are?”

  “Think of your planet. Was there any place that was hard to monitor?”

  “There were a couple of countries that made it hard for us to know what was happening inside their borders.”

  “Did those in charge give up or find a way?”

  “There is always a way.”

  He picked her hand up and rubbed the glowing jewels at his wrist against her.

  “There is always a way,” Payton repeated to herself. “If she feels like she’s being watched?”

  “She’s probably being watched.”

  “Which brings me to my next question. What’s the possibility that she has a tracking device on her. Hear me out before you say anything. I’m preparing for a takeover of the world. The one thing I need to do is get rid of the ruling family, but the queen is pregnant. How do I get rid of the child?” She got up and leaned over the desk until he was staring at him eye to eye. “Take it from me if a child dies the whole world mourns. Killing the child won’t help me. I’m not ready to make my move, anyway. I need a backup plan, so I chip the child. All I have to do is get someone sympathetic to my cause in the delivery room.

  “This way, I can assure them I would never hurt a small defenseless child. I gain points, and I can keep my eye on a new enemy.” She held her breath as she waited for his input.

  “Is that what would
have happened on your planet?”

  “Honestly, I don’t know. It always depends on who is in power or who wants power.”

  “I think you may have a good idea. She wasn’t hurt and didn’t need me to do much of an examination. If she agrees, I can give her a physical looking for anything that might be activated and giving her presence away.”

  “I’ll go talk to her. Thanks, Cassic.”

  *~*~*~*

  “What are you doing?” Leela asked when Payton sat next to her.

  “When I was a kid, I used to look up at the stars and wonder what was out there. I concluded early in life that there was nothing outside of the stars. It made sense in a sort of quiet way. It also left me on edge. If there was nothing out there but stars that used to be planets like mine, why were they there? On my planet, we have these things called movies. Every movie has a certain sequence of events, a kind of cause, and effect. It doesn’t matter what movie or genre; there is always cause and effect. That’s a basic principle of human life. If I use that as a blueprint, then I was missing either the cause or effect of the stars. Low and behold, I was wrong. Here you are a different sentient being.”

  Leela placed her finger in front of her mouth and whispered, shh. “You keep talking like that, and my people are going to hire you to teach me philosophy. I’m not sure I’d pass that class.”

  “Smarty-pants. I thought about what we were talking about early. Do you feel like you’re still being watched?”

  “It feels like I have a mark between my shoulder blades.”

  “I talked to Cassic, and he is willing to give you an exam with the caveat of looking for any hitchhiker you could have picked up along the way.”

  “Do you think someone is tracking me?”

  “I don’t know, but it’s possible. Did you have searches looking for trackers?”

  “No, my parents believed in taking people for their word. If you gave it, then they considered it binding.”

  “Do you believe the same?”

  “No, and yes. I believe your word. I would not believe a stranger who landed on this planet who gave his or her word.”

  “There are very few people who I believe. Most people have to prove themselves, and several will never be able to pass that test.” Payton stood, “Let’s go see if I am worrying for nothing.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  The lights on the bridge were on low. The silence reminded her of the eerie part of a horror film before the murderer makes his last attempt to drag you to hell. Neveah shivered. She didn’t need to be here. Her mates were in bed, probably doing interesting things to each other, all without her. That was where she wanted to be. Too bad this feeling that was hounding her wouldn’t go away. She raised her wrist, looking at the jewel that sat at her pulse point. She had one on both wrists.

  At first, she believed that it was just symbolic. Her mates said it would help her some, like making her faster and harder to kill. Both of those were things she could get behind. Now she knew it was more than that. These new feelings she had were attached to the jewels. She found herself being grateful to anything that made it easier for her to protect her mates.

  “Second-in-Command Neveah, I have incoming. They are requesting to talk to Captain Rale.”

  Hell no, she wanted to scream it out loud because it felt so good to think it.

  “Put them through.” She didn’t ask who it was, and Sassy didn’t volunteer a name. They both knew they were working on plausible deniability.

  “Captain Rale,” the distinctive voice said. He stopped when his eyes settled on Third-in-command Neveah. “Where is he?”

  “Gen Jaymor, what a pleasure it is to see you. It’s been a while.”

  “Neveah,” he sneered her name. “You could make Captains Rale’s life easier. Take off with the abomination and give us back our captain.”

  “Do you think he would come to you with his dick tucked between his legs? I see him mounting a challenge across the universe to reunite with his mates. If he didn’t, I would. I leave you and your planet alone because that is where my mates come from, and they are safe with me. If you hurt them, took them, then you would feel the wrath of a human female. When we have nothing left to lose, we are at our most dangerous. Don’t forget it. What can I do for you?”

  “Nothing. Have Captain Rale contact me about an incursion into our galaxy.” He cut the transmission.

  Neveah held up a finger, knowing that Sassy could see her. She moved it slowly over her head. They waited.

  “Connection cut Third-in-Command Neveah. Gen Jaymor tried to access a back door. Malic secured all the doors; he couldn’t infiltrate. He is looking for the Fulyer ship. That was all I was able to get before he realized I was in their system.”

  “You did a great job, Sassy. Get me three different routes to our destination. Monitor where we are now taking evasive maneuvers and then fall back to the secondary route Julze programmed in.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  Neveah gave her a wink before leaving the bridge.

  *~*~*~*

  “How was your day?” Payton asked Malic when he walked through their door. His tired smile was enough to make her heart beat faster.

  “A little harder than I thought. Anyone who thinks just sitting in front of a computer is harder than a day of physical labor needs to change places with me.”

  Malic had been acting as their foreman on the construction site. It was amazing what he was able to do with a set of diagrams.

  “You’re doing a great job.”

  “You say that every night.” He wrapped his arms around her, holding her still for a deep kiss.

  “Are you too tired for dessert?”

  “I’d have to be dead to be too tired for that.”

  “The soni is calling your name,” she laughed and shoved at him. He stumbled like he couldn’t stand her mighty push. “I’m getting dinner since both you and Cassic came home late.”

  Malic passed Cassic as he came from the soni. They stopped to share a deep kiss that Payton took her time admiring. There was something about seeing her males kiss that did something inside her stomach. Those butterflies flapped their wings, but seeing their love for each other calmed her down. She felt included even when she wasn’t on the receiving end of a kiss.

  Tonight, hopefully, things were going to change. She was aware of the time passing. Cassic was getting weaker even though he hid it well. According to him, he was doing better than he had for a long time. She knew it was because of her, but it didn’t make her feel better. Her males were going to die because she couldn’t be what they needed. She was what they wanted, and sometimes it was all that mattered.

  There were no candles. That meant the lights get turned down low.

  “Are you trying to kill me?” Cassic groused when he walked into a piece of furniture.

  “I’m setting the mood, making it sexy.”

  “Setting the mood?” He slid behind her with no problems, wrapping her in his embrace. “Tell me about this sexy mood.”

  Her cheeks flushed. She ignored them and decided to act like he couldn’t see the flush.

  “On earth, I might have bought some sexy panties or a teddy.”

  “A stuffed bear?” She leaned back against him and laughed.

  “I love how the translator works at times. We call stuffed bears teddy bears, but this teddy is a sexy night garment meant to be worn by a sexy person when enticing her or his male.”

  “I like what you wear.”

  “Maybe one day we’ll swing past earth, or we’ll have a chance to go shopping on one of the planets, and I’ll show you what you’re missing.” Her heart missed a beat when she remembered they wouldn’t be around that long.

  “It’s a date.” His husky voice was in her ear. “We’ll go when the falling water comes back. That will be their punishment for leaving us all alone to do the hard work.”

  She turned around to kiss him. She would live in this moment with him. It was better than dwel
ling on a future without him.

  “Have a seat.” She led him to the table. By the time Malic came out, she had the table set, and they were waiting for him. She listened to them trade stories as she watched them.

  “Payton, what’s wrong?” Malic was watching her.

  “Nothing. I was thinking about being a child. I thought my life would be like this growing up. I’d find the perfect person who loved me, and I’d sit at the dinner table and listen while he talked, and then he would listen to me. My life would be like a throwback to one of those black and white shows on television. It didn’t happen that way. Then I stumbled upon you, both of you. It’s like a dream come true.”

  “I couldn’t have dreamed you with all the time in the world,” Cassic told her. “At some point, I bowed my head and gave in to the realization that death was my future. Then I met you, stubborn and beautiful.” He walked over to her before bending down to kiss her. “Do you want?”

  “Yes, yes, with both of you. Yes, to both of you. I’ve waited for a lifetime, and I don’t want to miss what will be the happiest days of my life.”

  Cassic picked her up, carrying her to bed. “We’ll worry about cleaning up later.”

  “Much later,” she nibbled on his jaw. When her back hit the bed, she sat up and scrambled out her clothes. They weren’t any sexier than her body was, and she didn’t want them in her way later. She laid back to find both Malic and Cassic were staring at her. For a minute she had forgotten her stomach and how her breast sagged. She wasn’t that skinny, half-starved woman she used to be.

  “I could start eating only once a day.” The woman who was insecure spoke. She wanted to hide since her abs weren’t tight, and you couldn’t bounce a quarter off her ass. There was no running a marathon for her or wearing the latest size zero dress to come off the designer rack. Those days were long gone and would never come back.

  “Why?” Malic asked.

  “He means, why would you ruin perfection?” Cassic’s hand came out, wanting to touch before he drew it back.