Sienna walked straight to my bed. The last person I expected to see in the middle of the night. She wore white pajamas, and her long golden hair curtained her upper body. She was so beautiful. I smiled. “You’re quite a sight.”
Sienna said nothing, simply stood by the bed. I tilted my head. Come to think of it, her eyes were opened, but sort of…unseeing, with a glazed-over look I didn’t recognize. She was barefoot, and I worried she’d catch the human cold. She shouldn’t be walking around barefoot. “I’ll call someone to bring a chair,” I said.
Lers had removed the visitors’ chairs and wanted me to rest and sleep undisturbed. Sienna simply stood there.
I shifted onto my side and propped my head on an arm. The moment I moved, my mate did something extraordinary. She climbed up and lay down with me, her back to my side. For a second, I didn’t move, allowing her time to change her mind. I scooted a little to give her more room. She moved with me, her back pressed against my front.
I rested a hand on her hip, moved my thumb over the bare skin there. Under the thin sheet, my dick grew, nestled right between her thighs. I pulled the golden hair away from her neck and buried my face into the crook of her neck. I inhaled the scent of my mate.
I kissed her skin.
I rubbed my beard on her shoulder.
Sienna didn’t complain. In fact, her breathing grew heavier. It sounded almost like a soft snore.
The laser replicator scanning my healthy foot beeped. Ah, when I’d moved, it scanned Sienna’s foot, and the measurements didn’t agree. I didn’t know why Lers bothered replicating my foot from the image of my healthy foot. I wouldn’t need a transplant. Not sure why he treated me as if I’d recover. Not sure why he’d even wasted his time with me. In any case, I wasn’t supposed to move. Groaning, I kicked the stand that held the laser, and it rolled away. Wanting privacy with my mate, I glared at the camera in the corner. The tiny green light shut off. No eyes in the room.
Okay, so now we would sleep together. I pressed my dick with the heel of my hand, tried to move it away or maybe even deflate it. No luck. Even half-asleep, my mate was the sexiest girl on the planet. I inhaled peach shampoo. Peaches. Rey used that shampoo. Sweet peaches. My dick pulsed. But I had enough sense to slide back and give our bodies some more distance. I didn’t want to scare her off.
Sienna scooted back with me.
Eventually, I’d fall off the bed.
I lay there with her for a few minutes wondering what the hell was going on, listening to her steady breaths. I hovered over her to see her face. Yup. Sleeping. What in the world?
Down the hallway, footsteps sounded. One of the med staff probably checking in on me. I sniffed, frowned, and tensed, recognizing his smell.
“Come in,” I said, and the doors slid open.
John stood in the hallway. Barefoot and shirtless, wearing only his jeans. He didn’t walk in but leaned his shoulder on the doorjamb and tucked a hand into his pocket. Cold gray eyes regarded me, softening only when he watched her.
I let him stay there. He’d come in here after her, hadn’t expected to find her in my bed. I hadn’t expected her to come, so we were both lost in her world.
“She sleepwalks.” He fiddled with something in his hand. “I bet you didn’t know that.”
“No,” I said. It explained her behavior.
“One early morning, when she was thirteen, she woke up screaming.”
All ears, I sat up a bit. I wanted to know everything there was to know about my mate. Even if he shot me later. This night, he’d give me something worthy to die for.
“Her sheets were covered in blood, but otherwise, we didn’t see any cuts, any open wounds. Took her to the healer, paid him with two sacks of flour and a bag of tobacco. Guess what happened to Sienna?”
“Something terrible.”
“She got her first period.” John smiled. “I didn’t know what it was. It hadn’t crossed my mind. She didn’t know, ’cause there was no woman to tell her. Yeah, we made it through the teen years. Then you came around. Kind of like her period. Sudden, painful, and the way life goes.” He gritted his teeth. “She likes fresh-squeezed grapefruit, drinks it knowing it makes her stomach bloat. Her favorite color is black because it hides the dirt. She eats like a bird, and when she does eat, she takes a long fucking time to finish. The same way I know all that is how I know she loves you.”
He pulled something out of his pocket and threw it at me.
I caught it in my hand.
It was a dark red bullet. I turned it between my fingers. Torrent was engraved on the side. Motherfucker really did have my name on it.
“You said there were two bullets. Where’s the other one?”