Erin M. Leaf (12 page)

“Theo’s right,” she said quietly.

“Thanks.” He didn’t look away from
the darkness.

Chapter Eight

“It doesn’t look bad, thank
goodness,” Bea said, gently blotting at Gideon’s leg. Her hand nudged the edge
of the white robe he wore, knocking it down his thigh. Bea focused on his
wound, trying not to look at anything that would get her in trouble, as much as
she wanted to. She was a professional, and she did not peek at patients’
private areas without a good reason.

Except when you looked at Theo’s,
she told herself,
feeling her face go hot as she remembered his erection.
And this is a guy you kissed, so he’s not exactly just a patient.
Embarrassed, she hitched the sleeve of her robe up out of the way and continued
to examine his wound. “I thought you’d need stitches, but it’s just a really
deep scrape.” She smiled up at him, relieved and hoping he couldn’t tell what
she was thinking. Beneath the scratch, his thigh was muscled and lightly
sprinkled with golden hair. She wanted to run her fingers over his skin. She
wanted to kiss him again. The memory of what they’d done in the elevator made
her squirm.

He gave her a faint smile in
return, seemingly oblivious to the thoughts running through her head. “I think
the poison was worse than the wound. It hurt like hell when it happened.” The
silver at the back of his eyes flashed at her, lighting his blue irises.

Looking away, she wondered if her
eyes still looked like that. Both Eran and Gideon had said something about
bonding… she pushed the thought down. She had enough to deal with. Dwelling on
some supernatural connection wasn’t going to help her right now.

She patted his knee. “It’s clean
now, and already healing. The bath helped a lot.” She started to wrap a clean
bandage around his thigh. He stared at the wall while she worked, and Bea
struggled to control her emotions. She wanted him to pay attention to her, like
a girl with a crush. She bit her lip and kept working. At least she’d been able
to bathe.

They’d
all
washed up, the men in one room and the women in another. When
Eran had shown her the huge pool she couldn’t believe it. To see that much
water on a planet so dry had shocked her. She’d talked a little more with Ella
and Ivy. She liked Theo’s family, a lot. She liked Theo. And Gideon. If she
weren’t so exhausted, this might almost feel like a vacation, except for the
giant alien invasion thing.
And if only I had some underwear,
she
thought, fighting back a blush. The robe was incredibly soft, but it had a
tendency to gape open. Eran had taken all their clothes away for cleaning. Only
Ivy had something to change into.

“Here, eat some food before you
fall over.” Theo walked over with a tray. Some kind of fruit she didn’t
recognize and soft shapes of what looked like cheese sat on the polished silver
surface. “It’s good. Trust me,” he said, recognizing her reluctant look. “I
already ate some and didn’t keel over.” He grinned.

“You’d eat anything that wasn’t
nailed down,” Gideon retorted, still staring at the wall.

Bea smiled when Theo made a face at
his partner.

Theo caught her and winked. “Go
on,” he said, nudging her with the tray.

Bea tucked the end of the bandage
under the rest against Gideon’s thigh so it wouldn’t unravel and picked up a
piece of something that looked like an apple. She stared at it, but when her
stomach rumbled, she decided to risk it. She needed food. Survival trumped her
wariness. She bit into it and an explosion of crunchy sweetness slid over her
tongue. “God, it’s good!” she mumbled, taking another bite. She grabbed another
piece.

Theo laughed. “I had the same
reaction.”

She swallowed. “Where did you get
this?”

He shrugged. “Eran brought the
tray.”

Gideon snagged a piece, rearranging
his robe so it wouldn’t fall open. He bit into the fruit and his eyes widened. “I
remember this.”

“Is there somewhere we can sleep?”
Ella asked, walking over with Ivy. The girl looked exhausted, clutching her
backpack against her chest. Her eyes were red, like she’d been crying. “We’ve
eaten and I’m beat.”

Bea wished she could do something
to make Ivy feel better, but she knew that even doctors couldn’t fix
everything.

“Eran said to take any of the rooms
in this suite,” Gideon told her gently.

 
“Good. We’ll be over there. We’ll figure out
what we’re going to do after we all get some rest,” Ella said, heading towards
one of the doors. Ivy waved and followed her mom.

Bea watched them walk away. Was she
supposed to join them? Or was she supposed to sleep alone? A spark of worry
shot through her. She didn’t want to be alone. She picked up a piece of
maybe-cheese and nibbled on the edge as she sunk down lower into the cushions.
At the back of her head, the image of the hospital burning sat like a lump she
couldn’t quite swallow, but her tiredness fuzzed out the edges of the memory.

Instead of letting her eyes close,
she glanced around the room again. It was a large chamber just down the
corridor from the bathing pools. Like everything else in this complex, the
walls were made of hardened sand. The lights were subdued and set high into the
walls. The furniture was white and soft and sort of looked like low sofas. One
wall was made of glass and looked out over the desert. Stars twinkled over the
dark horizon, like diamonds on velvet. She stared at them, wishing the past
twenty-four hours hadn’t happened.

“You’ll sleep with us,” Gideon said
quietly.

She swiveled her head to look at
him. “What?” She couldn’t make sense of his words. She put the food down and
let her head tip back. Maybe she
could
nod off here…

“I don’t think I could sleep if you
were too far away from me,” he said quietly, surprising her. He grabbed a piece
of fruit and took a slow bite. “Theo, too.”

“Gideon—” Theo began to say, but
Gideon interrupted him.

“No, no arguing. Neither of you
understand what’s really happened. We’ve bonded and that has certain
consequences, from what I remember.” Gideon swallowed his food and rubbed his
face. “At least at first.”

“I don’t know what you mean,” Bea
said tiredly.

Gideon ran a hand down her arm. She
shivered. He was so warm.

“You need rest,” he murmured. “Come
on, let’s try to get some sleep.”

“I thought you could barely
remember what happened when you were first put into foster care,” Theo said.

Gideon stood up. “I don’t, but what
I do remember is very clear.”

“Bonding?” Theo raised an eyebrow.

Gideon’s face tightened. “No
arguing. Not tonight. Please?” Suddenly, he looked like he’d reached the end of
his rope.

Theo sighed. “Fine.” He reached
down and helped Bea to her feet, the silver at the back of his eyes flashing as
he bent down.

She swayed, so exhausted she was
lightheaded.

“Oh for God’s sake,” Theo muttered,
then he swept her up into his arms.

“What are you doing? I’m too heavy,”
Bea cried, abruptly awake again. She clutched his shoulders as he began to walk
across the room. “You’re going to hurt yourself.”

He laughed. “I know you think you
weigh a lot, but you really don’t. You’re curvy, but you’re little.”

She flushed. He didn’t know what he
was talking about. “I’m a doctor. I know very well that I’m overweight.”

Gideon followed them through one of
the doorways. “Those little charts doctors use for obesity are totally stupid.”
He shook his head. “You’re gorgeous just the way you are.”

Bea sighed, winding her arms around
Theo’s neck when she realized he really wasn’t going to put her down. “They’re
not stupid,” she said under her breath. She thought of all the frustrating
clothes-buying trips in her life and knew he didn’t get it.

“Relax, okay?” Theo walked over to
a huge mattress set directly on the floor near the window. A mountain of
pillows and neatly folded blankets lay to one side. “I’ve got you,” he said,
going to his knees.

Bea had no choice but to trust him.
He put her down gently, rearranging some pillows so that she would be
comfortable, then kissed her forehead. Gideon unfolded a blanket and spread it
over her body. She yawned despite herself. Theo stood back up and headed to the
window.

“See? You’re exhausted. Go to
sleep, Bea,” Gideon said, blue eyes soft. “You can argue with us in the
morning.”

She frowned at him, but another
yawn ruined effect she was trying for. “You’re staying?”

He nodded, settling down next to
her. “Yeah.”

She let herself slump down into the
soft cushions. Across the room, Theo stared out the glass. The robe didn’t do a
damn thing to hide his muscular back. He was an impressive man, in more ways
than one. So was Gideon. Together, they devastated all the carefully
constructed defenses she’d spent so many years perfecting. She liked it, but
she also found it frightening, the feelings they caused.
Go to sleep, Bea,
she told herself.
Worry tomorrow.
She let out a breath and focused on the sky beyond
the glass. More stars than she was used to seeing sparkled in the night sky.
None of the constellations were familiar. What was she going to do when she
woke up?

Gideon stretched, then rolled
closer, tucking an arm around her waist. “Sleep,” he murmured.

He smelled clean and warm. Bea didn’t
understand her attraction to them. How quickly it had happened. How beautiful
they made her feel, with just one kiss.

Theo walked back over. He watched
them for a moment, then crawled onto the bed, lying much closer than Bea
expected. The heat from his body soothed her and she yawned again.

“Gideon’s right. Go to sleep, Bea.
We’ll be here,” he said, kissing her shoulder.

As if his lips were magic, she
slipped into sleep between one breath and the next.

****

When she woke up, the sun was just
beginning to peek over the horizon. Light poured in the room, and she rolled
over to protect her eyes, only to find Theo and Gideon sleeping next to each
other. Theo’s robe had disappeared, probably from moving in the night. He lay
with a corner of the blanket just over his groin, the bulge of his cock intriguingly
visible beneath. She held still for a moment, and then, unable to stop herself,
her eyes moved down his body. His long, muscular legs were slightly parted and
relaxed on the mattress. One hand lay on Gideon’s bare back. Gideon’s robe was also
pushed down, as if he’d grown hot and shoved it away. The contrast of Theo’s
tanned arm against Gideon’s lighter skin had her mouth going dry. Gideon’s
tousled auburn hair looked like fire in the early light.

“My God,” she murmured to herself, sitting
up slowly. She stared at them, feeling a little guilty. The pillows and the bed
were all white, as if to highlight the sleeping men. She wanted to touch them
so badly she curled her hands into fists. She had no claim on them. One kiss
didn’t mean anything, no matter how passionate. They weren’t hers.

Story of my life,
she thought, suddenly
sad. She’d dated, sure, but between her career and her weight, she’d never
managed to fall in love. Most of the men she’d been with had only been looking
for one thing. One of the guys had even told her that she needed to lose a few
pounds if she wanted to keep dating him. He’d been a marathon runner. Bea had
too much self-respect to do anything except show him the door. She let her eyes
linger on Gideon’s muscular back, then looked away from temptation, staring at
the wall as she fought to convince herself that she didn’t need a man in her
life. The sand’s soothing patterns failed to soothe, however.

“Bea,” Gideon murmured.

She startled.
He’s awake.
His blue eyes were dark as the ocean in the dawn light, at least until he
smiled and that elusive silver flashed at her.

“Come back to bed,” he said, making
no move to dislodge Theo’s hand. He didn’t seem the least bit disturbed by his
best friend’s proximity.

“I never left,” she retorted,
poking the covers on her lap.

He shook his head. “You’re a
contrary woman, Bea.” He sat up and reached for her, waking Theo as his arm
slid away from Gideon’s waist.

“What’s going on?” Theo mumbled.

Bea dodged Gideon’s hand. “Nothing.
Go back to sleep.”

Theo grunted, then sat up. The
cover slid away from his groin, showing his cock slowly thickening against the
stark white bandage on his thigh. Bea couldn’t look away. She’d seen him
before, in the hospital, but now everything was different. He was thick and
gorgeous and she was shocked at how much just looking at him affected her.

Gideon leaned in and grabbed Bea’s
hand. She let him, this time. She couldn’t help it. God help her, she wanted
him, too. Even after everything that had happened, when she should be trying to
figure out how to put her life back together, all she could think about was how
much she wanted to make love to these men. Kissing hadn’t been enough. Not
nearly enough. She was parched, starving for affection. For more. Gideon kissed
each of her fingertips, very slowly. She didn’t know what to do. She couldn’t
pull away. She couldn’t deny the heat sparkling through her. He kissed her
pinky and she trembled.