Total pages in book: 112
Estimated words: 105936 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 530(@200wpm)___ 424(@250wpm)___ 353(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 105936 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 530(@200wpm)___ 424(@250wpm)___ 353(@300wpm)
Both Slade and Aurora turned to me, their eyes wide with shock. Doubtless they had thought I had cried myself to sleep or that I was too miserable to respond, no matter what I heard. But I wasn’t going to be quiet while the man I loved was accused!
Slade recovered first. He strode across the lush carpet of the living area and glared directly down into my eyes.
“Are you going to stand here and say that Turk didn’t do anything sexual to you during all that time you spent in his quarters? Because that’s where I heard you were staying—in his quarters, sleeping with him every night!”
I took a step back but lifted my chin defiantly.
“I won’t lie,” I said. “We did…a few things.”
“A few things? Like what? What did he fucking do to you?” Slade demanded. He took me by the shoulders and shook me hard enough to make my teeth click together. “What? What?” he snarled.
“None of your fucking business!” I tore myself away from his grip. “I needed him—that’s the only reason he touched me!” I turned to Aurora, who had a much more sympathetic look on her face. Slade looked angry enough to kill someone—presumably Turk. “Please—try to understand! I had so many strange symptoms.”
“Symptoms?” she raised her eyebrows. “Tell me—like what?”
“First of all, I got so cold if he wasn’t holding me,” I told her. “I mean I was shivering so hard my teeth were chattering!”
Her eyes went wide and she looked at Slade.
“That’s just like what I experienced when we first got together! Isn’t that a symptom of The Needing?”
He scowled, still angry apparently.
“It could have been any number of things,” he muttered. “Maybe it was just cold in his fucking bedroom.”
“What else happened?” Aurora asked me. “Tell me, Jessina!”
“Well…” I bit my lower lip. I hated to go into details—it was so embarrassing. But I felt I had to go on—had to clear Turk’s name. “My breasts,” I said at last. “They filled up with this thick, sticky nectar.”
Luckily, Turk had sucked the nectar out of me that morning when we first woke up, as was his usual habit. But I knew I would start making more soon—and who was going to help me now that he was gone?
“That’s a symptom of The Needing too!” Aurora exclaimed. She turned to Slade. “They are Fated Mates—you have to believe her.”
My big brother looked at me grudgingly.
“So I’m really supposed to believe that Turk only touched you because you needed him to?”
“I begged him to,” I said steadily. “He didn’t want to—he felt really guilty because I’m your little sister. But if he hadn’t helped me, I’d probably be dead right now!” I was thinking of the night I’d run such a high fever, when my breasts were so full they were aching. “He helped me, Slade—he saved me! Please, you have to make everyone believe that. They won’t listen to me because I’m a woman!”
He clenched his jaw and I could see he was fighting with himself. He was still really angry at Turk but at least he wasn’t dismissing my words out of hand.
“Fine,” he said at last. “I believe you—only because you’ve never lied to me before. Well, until you got this harebrained idea to run off and become a Cross-Dimensional Navigator.”
“Grr. Horstauf said I’m the best navigator he’s ever trained,” I said proudly, lifting my chin. “I have no blind spots. In fact, I saved The Illyrian right before we came home. The other navigator shot us out into the middle of an asteroid field and I had to plot a course out of it!”
Aurora’s eyes went wide.
“Did you really? That’s amazing!”
“No, that’s ridiculous!” a loud voice said.
I jerked my gaze to the side and saw my stepmother and my Sire entering the front door.
“There you are, Slade, darling!” Lyrah sang out. She was wearing a pale pink and green dress that looked painted on her fake curves. “I hope you don’t mind—we let ourselves in.”
“There you are,” my Sire repeated, but he was talking to me and his face looked like a thundercloud.
“Er…hello, Daddy,” I said faintly. He looked like he might like to strangle me.
“So what was all that nonsense about navigating a ship in an asteroid field?” Lyrah asked, opening her eyes wide at me. “Are you making up stories again, Jessina?”
“You know I wasn’t,” I said stiffly. “I was telling Slade and Aurora what happened aboard The Illyrian.”
“Yes, well perhaps the less said about that the better,” Lyrah said primly. “For the sake of your reputation, let’s just keep it to ourselves, shall we?”
The way she was treating me like a child infuriated me. I wasn’t a girl anymore. I had navigated a starship across the universe and back again and found my Fated Mate. I deserved some respect, damn it!