Chapter 25

CHAPTER

TWENTY-FIVE

JESSICA

Registering the bond with the Agency is as odd as it is easy.

I call Mary again and she beams at us both. “Are congratulations in order?”

“Yes.”

She claps her hands and bounces in her chair. “Sorry. I can’t help myself. I just love love.”

Her smile is so bright, it makes me want to take a step back. She turns slightly to the right and starts tapping in a string of commands. What she’s doing, I can only guess.

“Since you’re not technically registered with the Agency, it’s just a paperwork formality we’re working with here. No payment transfers required or any other nonsense.”

I’m sure the Agency doesn’t think that the payment portion of their contracts are nonsense.

“I am so sorry,” Mary offers us a wincing smile and then looks at Trench. “I don’t know who you are.”

Nothing like offense travels through our bond. “My Agency file is 108-T-9.”

“Thank you, that will save us a lot of time.” But her smile disappears a moment later as her eyes zig zag across the information on her screen.

She looks uncomfortable with what she finds there, and I slip my hand into Trench’s, but he doesn’t seem to care that Mary’s face makes it clear she’s seen his past Agency experience.

She clears her throat and when she looks back, she’s composed herself again. “Okay. All set on our end. Nothing needs to change for the two of you, I will shoot the information over to the CSS, just so they know what’s going on.”

“Thank you for your help.”

“Congratulations and have fun!” She winks at us and gives a little wave.

The screen goes dark, and Trench looks down at me.

I bite my lip, because I want to bite his. “It’s official now, I’m yours. You can’t get rid of me now.”

“The last thing I want is to be rid of you.”

He wraps me in his arms and lifts me up, starting for the stairs.

“Not yet.” I pull back from him, laughing as I pretend to beat at his chest with my fists. “I need to make one more call.”

He sets me down, but I feel the suspicion through the bond, a little question without words.

“I have to break the bad news to my boss.”

Trench snorts and picks me up again. “I think he’ll get the point when you don’t get off the ship.”

“Do you want to be responsible for starting an interplanetary bureaucratic blowout?”

He pauses, brow ridges pinched. “That sounds bad.”

“It could be.” I stick my tongue out at him and then concede. “Probably not. I just want to get it out of the way.”

He puts me down and I kiss him one more time.

“I am however going to avoid telling my mother for as long as possible. She’s going to have a meltdown.”

He chuckles, and that tingle of amusement flutters across my skin.

The physical manifestations of the bond are going to take some getting used to, but I love it.

“Is she that bad?”

“I think you might find her scarier than a cavrinskh if you met her alone and were standing between her and her daughters.”

“Fine, make your call, I’ll go grab the towels, since I think we’re out.” He goes downstairs before I put through the call.

Sitting down—I have no idea how long this is going to take—I wait for the Sian system to connect us across two galaxies in real time.

Dr. Hastings answers with a cup of coffee at his lips. I had forgotten to check the time for him, but the windows are dark and he looks tired.

I would apologize if I didn’t know the reason he pulled all-nighters was to get away from the father he lived with rather than paying to house in a care facility.

“What do you want?”

He doesn’t even look at me as he asks it. That’s fine. I’m about to ruin his evening. He’s just getting an unknowing head start on being pissed at me.

“I have news.”

He puts down his papers and turns to face me fully. “Good or bad?”

“Depends entirely on your perspective.”

I don’t really know if there’s a good way to tell anyone hey, I fucked a really sexy alien, and now I’m never coming back to Earth .

“What’s my perspective on it, then?”

“Probably bad,” I say. “I have to tender my resignation, unless the university wants to pay me to work here exclusively.”

He blinks at me, mouth screwing tighter and tighter.

“No,” he finally spits out, turning back to his work like that’s the end of it.

“I beg your pardon?”

“You don’t get to stay. That wasn’t the deal.”

“I mean… pursuant to article forty-seven of the Sian-Earth treaty, no person who is Sian or who is bonded to a member of the Sian race can be forcibly removed from Isia.” And I would certainly never leave of my own volition.

I see the realization of what I’ve just said hit him. Watch him work through the implications.

Dr. Hastings looks stunned. And then he just looks mad.

Bluster makes him stutter, and then, “That’s unacceptable.”

“It’s a fact, and one that can’t be changed.”

“The contracts had very specific language. You have breached that contract and you will be on the next ship back here, or else. The Agency will breach theirs if they don’t send you back at our first request.”

Or else? The words ring through my head and it’s my turn to blink at him.

Trench has come back up the stairs, standing at the top, watching me and waiting. I know he can feel everything I can, but I don’t try to mute any of my annoyance or the smug satisfaction as I run through my memory of every single thing I’ve sent back since I arrived.

“I never signed the contract.”

“Yes you did. We never would have let you leave if you hadn’t.”

“I didn’t, and you did.” I scoot forward in my seat. “You gave me no time to get to the spaceport and in the rush, I wasn’t able to get to it. I thought someone would send it on after me, but then I forgot about it and it never arrived.”

He goes silent, glaring at the screen and then he turns sharply, tapping through commands on a terminal out of sight.

I see, more than hear him swear. And the relief that hits me is heady.

“You and your sister are two of a kind, aren’t you? Breaking promises and betraying your planet for what? So you can be some alien’s whore?”

Trench is beside me in an instant, and Dr. Hasting’s words die on a staccato squeak.

But the insult doesn’t bother me. “What do you know about my sister?”

“Enough,” he says, looking between the two of us. “This isn’t the end of it. Do you understand me?”

“I understand, but I don’t agree. This is very definitely the end of it.”

He glares at me, and I remember the look. He’s trying to find a way to get what he wants.

But what does he want? What does he gain by bringing me back early now?

I glance at the table with all of my specimens. Specimens from men not on the stopper so packed full of Sian sperm there’s no chance their bondmate could avoid getting pregnant…

“Can I ask you a question, Dr. Hastings?” He doesn’t tell me yes or no. “Did you send me here as a scientist? Or as a potential specimen?”

“Don’t be ridiculous.” Of course, he’d never admit to it on a recordable medium.

He mumbles more curses at me and disconnects the line.

“I don’t think that’s the last time he’s going to want to talk.” I look up at Trench, who still glares at the dark screen.

“He’ll have a hard time trying anything. The Agency has you in their system now. They aren’t going to let anyone take you back out.”

I reach up and he takes my hand, pulling me to my feet and against him.

“Nothing and no one can take you away from me now.”

TRENCH

Jessica dozes against my chest, the hot water swirling around us makes her drowsy. I feel it through the bond like a weight in my own limbs.

I love the heaviness. It’s just another reminder that she is a part of me now. We’ve done this before…

She hums. It’s a little questioning sound. “What are you thinking about?”

“How different the same thing can be, just a few days apart.”

I feel her smile, even though I can’t see it, and then she moves, twisting just enough that she can turn her face up to me.

She kisses me, and I luxuriate in the feel of her and the way she feels in me.

“You’re mine now,” she says, sleepily. “Better get used to it.”

“That might be too much to ask.”

She laughs sleepily. “At least I know you’ll never forget.”

I lift her fingers to my lips and kiss their tips. “I’ll never forget, but I will wake up every day in awe of it.”

With a satisfied sigh, she sets her head against my shoulder.

“If I’d known you were waiting for me, I would have tried to get here faster.”

That makes me pause. Because she didn’t come here planning to stay.

“You were only supposed to be here for three months.” I stroke her arm, thinking. “We’ll need to get replacements for the things you left behind.”

“There shouldn’t be much. I’ll have Chrys send over the things I can’t get here.” She snorts and then scooches up to kiss my cheek. “The import fees are probably going to be astronomical.”

“We’ll work something out. Between Riann and Mary, I’m sure we can make it happen without too much fuss.”

She smiles at me, but then something sours in the bond and she frowns.

“What is it?”

“I’m either going to have to transfer ownership of my condo to Chrys or figure out how to sell it from another planet.”

“Hey,” I tip her head up, brushing my lips over hers. “We’ll think about that later. No stressful thoughts in the bathtub or our bed.”

Her lips quirk in a little smile. “I mean, you started it, but deal.”

She turns in my arms, straddling me before guiding me into her body again… exactly where I belong.

I’m hers, now and forever.