Close Obsession (28 page)

As soon as her family drove away, Mia wrapped her arms around Korum’s waist and hugged him tightly. Still holding him, she looked up and found him regarding her with a tender look on his beautiful face. “Thank you,” she told him sincerely. “This really meant a lot to me.”

He stroked her cheek gently. “I would do anything to make you happy, darling,” he said softly. “You know that, right?”

Mia nodded and buried her face in his chest, feeling like she couldn’t contain all the emotions filling her chest right now. She loved him so much it hurt. And in that moment, she was almost certain that he loved her too.

* * *

The next morning, Mia woke up to the sound of Krinar language being spoken. A soft female voice, oddly familiar, could be heard, interspersed with Korum’s deeper tones. The doctor, Mia realized. She must’ve already arrived to inspect Marisa.

Getting out of bed, Mia quickly dressed and washed up, checking the time. Sure enough, her sister was supposed to get there in a few minutes.

Entering the living room, Mia saw a beautiful Krinar woman sitting there, chatting with Korum about the local beaches. Tall and slim, she reminded Mia of a Brazilian supermodel, with her bronzed skin, dark brown hair streaked with golden highlights, and sparkling hazel eyes. Again, something nagged at the back on Mia’s mind, some elusive memory that she couldn’t quite place.

She approached them, and the K female rose and extended her hand to Mia. “Hi,” she said warmly. “I’m Ellet.”

Smiling, Mia shook her hand briefly, surprised at the human greeting. Other than Korum’s cousin Leeta, Mia hadn’t spoken to a lot of K females. All four of the other assistants in Saret’s lab happened to be male, and Mia hadn’t really socialized with anyone else yet.

“Thanks for coming all the way here,” Mia told her. “I can’t even begin to tell you how much I appreciate your help with this.”

“Oh, it’s my pleasure,” Ellet said, beaming with a megawatt smile and causing Mia to like her immediately. “This is my first time in Florida, and I’m loving it so far. So much like Costa Rica, yet so much more developed and with so many humans!”

Mia raised her eyebrows in surprise. Developed and teeming with humans were usually negative factors for most Krinar, but Ellet seemed to be saying just the opposite.

“Ellet loves humans,” Korum said dryly. “You’re her specialty. I don’t know why she’s even bothering to stay in Lenkarda – New York would be a much better place for her.”

“It’s a little too cold and dirty for my taste,” Ellet said, smiling. “But Florida seems much more promising . . .”

“Really?” Mia asked, staring at her. “You would move here and do what? Open a clinic?”

Ellet smiled. “I would like to, but I probably won’t be able to get permission. It goes against the mandate.”

“The mandate?”

“The non-interference mandate – one of the conditions under which the Elders have agreed to let us live here, on Earth,” Ellet explained, shooting Korum a quick and unreadable look.

“Oh, I see,” Mia said, though she didn’t really. She knew that the Ks hadn’t shared any of their technology and science, and she presumed it was because they wanted to see how their grand evolutionary experiment would turn out. However, she hadn’t realized there was an actual mandate in place.

Before she could ask any more questions, the doorbell rang. Marisa had arrived.

Mia went to open the door.

Once again, her sister looked wan and pale, the dark color of her hair only emphasizing the unhealthy pallor of her face. The medication Korum had given her yesterday was obviously no longer working.

“Ellet is already here,” Mia told her. “She’s very nice – you’ll like her.”

Marisa nodded, looking a little green. “Mia,” she whispered, “what if they find something really wrong with me or the baby? Something that our doctors haven’t been able to diagnose? What if it’s something bad – like truly bad?”

“What? No! I’m sure you’re perfectly fine. It’s probably just some weird hormonal imbalance . . . You can’t start stressing about crazy what-ifs before the doctor even looks at you! Here, come here . . .” Mia pulled her in for a hug and felt her slim body shaking in her arms.

In that moment, Ellet and Korum entered the hallway, having apparently overheard something with their sharp Krinar hearing.

“You must be Marisa,” Ellet said warmly, coming up to her sister and studying her with an inquisitive look on her perfect face.

Marisa pulled away from Mia, looking a little stunned to be confronted with such a gorgeous creature.

The Krinar woman gave her a wide smile. “I’m Ellet,” she said gently, “and I’m an expert in human biology. Please, don’t worry, you have nothing to be afraid of. Come, let’s go into the living room and I’ll take a look to see if there’s anything wrong. And even if there is, I’m sure that we can fix it. The human body holds few mysteries for us at this point.”

Marisa nodded, looking somewhat reassured, and they all walked into the living room.

“Please, can you stand still for just one minute?” Ellet requested, reaching for a small white device that was sitting on the coffee table next to the couch. Picking it up, she directed it toward Mia’s sister, running it slowly over her body from head to toe, focusing especially on her stomach area.

Then, putting down the device, she said, “Did your doctor tell you that you have borderline hyperemesis gravidarum?”

Marisa blinked. “Uh, he did mention something along those lines, but I thought that was just a name for severe nausea and vomiting . . .”

“It is. It’s a condition that happens when you have excessive levels of beta hCG hormone. It could be dangerous if you get severely dehydrated, and I don’t think human doctors know how to treat it other than assigning you IV fluids in the more extreme cases and making sure you rest. However, I should be able to fix it for you, so the rest of your pregnancy proceeds smoothly.”

Marisa gave her a desperately hopeful look. “Really? You can make it go away?”

“I can normalize the hormone levels for you. Since you’re only in your first trimester, you may still experience mild nausea every now and then, so I’ll give you a little something that you can take for that. But you’ll be able to eat and function normally again – and start gaining weight like you’re supposed to.”

“And the baby? Is everything okay with the baby?” Marisa asked tremulously.

Ellet smiled. “Yes. She’s going to be a beautiful girl.”

“Oh my God, a girl!” Tears of happiness filled Marisa’s eyes. For as long as Mia could remember, Marisa had talked about wanting a daughter, and now it seemed like her dream would be coming true. Mia grinned at her and squeezed her hand.

“All right, ready? We’ll need privacy for the next step,” Ellet said.

“You can go into one of the bedrooms upstairs,” Korum told her. “We’ll be waiting down here.”

Marisa looked a little nervous. “What are you going to do?” she asked Ellet. “Is it like an operation?”

“I won’t have to cut you or anything,” the K reassured her. “It’s just a small device that needs to go inside you. It will take about five minutes, and then you’ll be able to go home.”

“Go ahead,” Mia encouraged her. “It’ll be okay . . .”

Marisa and Ellet went upstairs, and Mia sat down next to Korum. “Thanks again for getting Ellet to come out here,” she told him. “She’s wonderful.”

“Yes, she’s one of the nicest individuals I know,” Korum admitted. “She’s still relatively young, only about four hundred years old, but she’s very passionate about what she does and she’s made a lot of contributions to her field.” He sounded admiring.

A sudden unpleasant thought occurred to Mia. “Did you and her ever . . . ?” Ellet was one of the most beautiful women Mia had ever seen, even in Lenkarda.

Korum shrugged. “It was nothing serious – just a casual fling a few years ago. It’s nothing that you need to be concerned with.”

Mia swallowed, the pit of her stomach suddenly burning with jealousy. “You were lovers?” A wave of nausea rolled through her as she pictured them together in bed, the K’s pouty lips on Korum’s body, her slender hands touching him in intimate places.

“Only briefly. You have to understand something, my sweet – sex is a fun, recreational activity for us. Unless it takes place in the context of a serious relationship, we don’t assign any meaning to it.”

Mia stared at him, trying to digest that for a second and to push away the unpleasant, pornographic images still lingering in her mind. “So what determines whether you’re in a serious relationship or not?”

“Whether we care about the other person and to what degree.”

“And you didn’t care about Ellet?”

He shook his head. “No. We were too similar in some ways. It quickly became obvious that we didn’t have much beyond the initial attraction – which faded within a few weeks.”

“But she’s so incredibly beautiful . . . How can you possibly not be attracted to her anymore? And she to you?” Mia asked quietly, feeling irrationally upset. What could Korum want with a regular human who couldn’t hold a candle to one of his former lovers? If his attraction to Ellet had faded so quickly, what chance did Mia have of holding his attention longer? They had been together just over six weeks at this point. Would he get bored of her within another month?

Korum reached out and cupped her cheek in his large, warm palm. “Mia,” he said softly, “what are you worrying about? I’ve known thousands of beautiful women, but I’ve never wanted one of them as much as I want you . . .”

Mia looked at him, the knot in her stomach easing.

“And you are far more appealing to me, physically, than she ever was,” he continued, his eyes turning a brighter shade of gold. “How can you even have doubts about that at this point? Is it not enough that I all but keep you chained to my bed? If you were any more attractive to me, I would stay buried inside your sweet little body day and night . . . and then where would we be?”

A hot blush spread over Mia’s face, and she could feel herself reacting physically to his words. At the same time, she realized that her sister and Ellet would be coming down any minute. “Korum, please,” she whispered, “what if they overhear us?”

He gave her a wicked grin. “Then they’ll learn something shocking – the fact that we have sex . . .”

As if on cue, Mia heard footsteps on the stairs, and Marisa entered the room, followed closely by Ellet.

Quickly pulling away from Korum, Mia jumped up and ran to her sister. “Marisa! How did it go?”

Marisa shook her head, looking like she was in a mild state of shock. “I barely felt anything when Ellet touched me, but now I’m already starting to feel less sick . . .”

“You’ll feel even better in a couple of hours as the nanos gradually normalize your hormonal production,” Ellet said, looking pleased. “Also, if you still have any residual traces of nausea, just take that powder I gave you and you should be fine for the rest of your pregnancy. And like I told you, I would be more than happy to come out here when it’s time for you to deliver . . .”

Marisa sniffed, looking all teary-eyed, and then gave Ellet a hug, obviously surprising the K. “Thank you, Ellet, so, so much! I wish everyone knew how nice your kind can be –”

Ellet hugged her back a little awkwardly. “Thank you, Marisa, but remember what I told you. You can’t go around telling people about this – or I could get in trouble. We’re not supposed to interfere with humans too much –”

“Why not?” Mia asked. “What’s the big deal if you help one pregnant woman?”

Korum came up to her and wrapped his arm around her shoulders, pressing her against him. “I’ll explain it to you later, my sweet,” he said, and there was a warning note in his tone. “For now, why don’t you and Marisa hang out for a while? I have to catch up with Ellet about a few things back in Lenkarda.”

He wanted to be left alone with his former lover? The sick feeling of jealousy she thought she had under control returned in full force. Nevertheless, she nodded stiffly and asked, “Marisa, would you want to go for a walk on the beach?”

Her sister smiled. “Sure. That sounds lovely,” she said, and Mia knew that the signs of tension had not escaped Marisa’s sharp eye.

Korum bent down to kiss her forehead and then released her from his embrace. “Go ahead,” he said. “Your morning shake is in the kitchen. I made one for Marisa as well. You can take it with you if you want.”

Mia thanked him, and the two sisters left, grabbing their shakes on the way.

Chapter 18

“All right, baby sis, spill. What was up with your reaction back there?” Marisa took a sip of her shake and looked at Mia expectantly as they strolled along the water, the ocean surf pounding against the sand only a few feet away.

Mia kicked a small shell out of the way, getting sand into her flip-flop in the process. “I just learned he had a thing with Ellet in the past,” she told Marisa glumly. “And now he wants to be alone with her in the house. How am I supposed to react to that?”

“Ouch.”

“Yeah.”

Marisa was silent for a few seconds, apparently mulling that over. “I don’t think he has anything going on with her anymore . . .” she said thoughtfully. “In fact, I’m pretty sure of it. He has eyes only for you – it’s almost scary, actually, how intensely he watches you all the time. Still, that wasn’t a very nice thing to do. But maybe he had some business to discuss with her?”