Total pages in book: 118
Estimated words: 110492 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 552(@200wpm)___ 442(@250wpm)___ 368(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 110492 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 552(@200wpm)___ 442(@250wpm)___ 368(@300wpm)
“Are you all right?” Vic pulled her into his arms and looked down at her anxiously.
“I don’t know.” She rubbed the back of her head and winced—it really was tender to the touch. “What if I have a concussion? What if you leave and I black out in the shower and drown or something?” she asked.
It was a far-fetched and rather dramatic possibility but honestly, she would have said anything at that point to get the big Kindred to stay. She had been so miserable and depressed without him for the past week—she couldn’t bear the thought of him leaving again so soon.
Vic was looking really concerned by now.
“Maybe I should take you to the Med Center aboard the Mother Ship for a complete check-up,” he said anxiously.
“Maybe tomorrow morning,” Torri said. “For now, I think it’s okay if you just stay with me and watch me to make sure I don’t black out or go to sleep. You’re not supposed to let people with concussions fall asleep right away after they get one,” she added.
“All right—I can do that.” Vic nodded. “And tomorrow morning, if you’re still feeling bad, I’ll take you to the Med Center. But for now, we must find a way to keep you up the rest of the night.” He looked down at Torri. “Would you like to talk?”
Talking was the last thing Torri wanted to do. Talking hadn’t gotten her anywhere in the past—what she needed was some action—some way to keep Vic with her for always, which was what they both truly wanted. Some way to get around his damn loyalty protocols. But how could she possibly do that?
Bond with him, whispered a little voice in her head. If you bond with him, they can’t send him back into stasis.
Well, technically they could, but she had the idea, from her conversation with Commander Terex, that the Kindred considered the special soul-bond between a Kindred warrior and his woman to be sacred—too sacred to part them from each other.
The Kindred commander had also appeared to think it wasn’t possible for her to form a bond with Vic, and Vic himself had doubted it too.
But what if she proved them both wrong? What if she managed to form a bond with the big Kindred before they went back to the Mother Ship tomorrow? If she could do that, Commander Terex couldn’t treat Vic like a piece of machinery anymore. Because if he could form a soul-bond with her, that meant he had a soul in the first place and that he was a real person, not just a part of the Mother Ship.
But how did she go about forming the bond? Vic had never actually explained it to her, but it seemed to have something to do with having sex, Torri thought. Not just fooling around or making each other come, as they had in order to fill the yorn meter and pay for the ship’s repairs on their trip to Gemma Alpha Three, but actual penetration and sex.
But Vic had been reluctant to make love to her in the past, for fear of forming a bond or having a “failed bonding,” so Torri knew she would have to lead him down this road slowly…very slowly and carefully. It was going to be difficult, convincing the big Kindred to try and bond with her.
But at least now she had a plan.
Sixty-Two
“Do you want to talk to stay awake?” Vic asked again, since she hadn’t answered him the first time.
“Um…” Torri frowned. “Could you maybe help me take a shower first? I think it might make me feel better,” she added hopefully. “But I don’t want to black out and fall down in the shower stall, like I said.”
“Oh—of course, sweetheart. Can you climb the stairs up to the fresher or are you still dizzy?” Vic looked at her anxiously.
“I’m a little dizzy,” Torri murmured. “Maybe you could help me up the stairs?”
“I’ll help you any way I can,” Vic promised her. “Come on—let’s get you up to the fresher.”
He mostly supported her to the upper level of the cabin, where the bathroom was located, and Torri leaned on him heavily. Once up the stairs and into the bathroom, she asked him to help her undress.
Vic hesitated.
“I…don’t know if I should.”
“Why not?” Torri looked up at him with wide, innocent eyes.
He sighed.
“It’s just that it will make going back into stasis so much more difficult if we are intimate tonight, sweetheart.”
“Who said anything about being intimate?” Torri demanded. “I’m just asking for help because I feel dizzy—that’s all.” She put a hand to her head and swayed slightly.
“Forgive me,” Vic said quickly. “Of course. Let me help you.”
Leaning down, he lifted the hem of her nightgown and pulled it over her head, exposing her bare breasts and the thin, lacy little panties she was wearing.