Authors: Susan A. Bliler
Aries’
eyes were closed and she gasped in surprise when Conn’s mouth drew in one hard nipple. Aries pleaded his name as she was pushed closer and closer to the precipice of rapture.
Curling his fingers inside her, Conn quickly fingered the spot in her that sent Aries over the edge. She called his name even as her tight channel
clamped tightly to his fingers
wishing to milk his seed but instead settling on holding his fingers deep inside her until the pleasure th
at
rolled through her
crescendoed
then
slowly began to subside.
Aries righted her head and her eyes locked with the darker more animalistic ones of Conn. Mortification was instant.
She’d just ridden his fingers to completion and had no idea what to say
even knowing his fingers were still lodged deep inside her
.
Slowly withdrawing his fingers, Conn lifted them from the pool and Aries’ cheeks flamed to see them still coated with her honey. Conn didn’t take his eyes from hers as he inserted his fingers into his mouth and sucked them clean with an appreciative groan.
Aries opened her mouth to speak, “I-I…”
A knock at the door halted her. “Everything all right in there?”
Aries had never been so relieved to hear Dr. Ames’ voice.
“Go away
!
” Conn growled
vi
ciously.
“Just don’t take too long Commander
Drago
, i
t’s time for Aries to take her meds.”
Cursing under his breath, Conn blinked several times and drew in a deep breath. His eyes lightened back to normal and he wrapped the towel around Aries before
he
lifted her from the water and
carried
her from the pool. He dried her quickly and removed the plastic from her limbs all while sporting an enormous erection.
“Sorry I didn’t get to your hair.” He didn’t look up from drying her feet. “Tomorrow.”
Tomorrow!
Aries was terrified of repeating the incident that had just occurred and there was no way in hell she’d let him bathe her again tomorrow.
She didn’t respond though and she was dressed and strolled back to her room without another word from Conn.
Chapter
28
Sitting
in her room
, Aries
felt deflated at the fact that
not only had Conn not been back to bathe her the second night as promised
, i
t had now been a full week without
him bathing her or even breaching the subject at all.
Wordlessly he showed up to her appointments, refused to make eye contact, then left before Dr. Ames could even finish her examination.
God I wish Jenny was here!
So far as
Aries
knew
,
she was
one of
only
a handful of
female
s
at Apex
and
it was scary and extremely lonely. She missed her long
conversations
with Jenny and she desperately needed someone to talk to about Conn’s sudden shift in attitude. He’d been so bad that
Aries had spent the past few days
fighting the urge to run away. It was, after all, what she did best. Problem was her body was still broken and
was healing at what Dr. Ames r
eferred to as, ‘an alarmingly slow rate for a Walker’.
It had
prompted her to share with the d
octor Jenny’s theory on why she had no halo.
Jenny thought that Aries had been born of parents that were both human, with on
ly one parent carrying partial
Walker
genes. Aries had jokingly asked if Jenny was claiming t
hat one of her parents was a
Walker
half-breed and Jenny
had responded with a curt
nod.
Jenny
though
t
the
Walker
genes were so recessed in Aries that not only did she not generate a halo, but it’s why she couldn’t shift for all
those years. A
pparently, a
ny other
Walker
would have naturally shifted under period
s
of great duress, but Aries had to be taught.
Jenny claimed it also explained the faint scent of pain that Aries always carried.
It was her body fighting the
Walker
genes and her inherent urge to shift. Once
Aries had
shifted with Remy,
Jenny surmised that the scent of pain would now be
gone.
Aries hadn’t noticed and pointed out that Conn hadn’t either. Jenny explained that in her
current state Conn wouldn’t notice because she smelled too greatly of pain from the trauma her
body was still healing from. Jenny only noticed the scent was gone because she was intentionally trying to pinpoint it but couldn’t find it. She warned that once Aries fully healed Conn too would notice the absence of the scent.
Jenny had already shared her theory with Conn so it was inevitable that he’d find out that Aries had learned to shift. The
thought
made Aries sick because she knew he’d ask her when and where it happened and he’d be able to scent any lie she made
. S
he’d be forced to confess that she’d shifted for the first time with Remy
and she knew for a fact that Conn would go ballistic
.
She’d saved Remy once, but doubted she could talk Conn into sparing his life a second time. But who knew, Conn had been so detached from her lately that she doubted whether or not he’d even truly care.
The door to her room clicked open and
Dr.
Ames
entered
,
“Mrs.
Drago
, how are you feeling today?”
“
Bracken,” she corrected. At first she’d hoped of becoming friends with the
lovely blonde haired woman who
se vivid
blue eyes shone brightly through her
red-rimmed glasses
,
but that hope had been short-lived. The Doctor was no-nonsense and
was much better with assessing and treating injuries than she was at
dispensing any
acceptable form of
bed-side-manner.
Dr. Ames stood over Aries and ignored her as she scrolled through her e-tablet. She made a few notations then returned the hand-held device to the pocket of her lab coat before
leani
ng over to pull back on the eye
lid of Aries’
still
swollen eye before flashing a tiny light into her pupil.
The door clicked open and Aries didn’t have to look, she knew it was Conn.
He always came to her appointments, seemingly unwilling to
allow her to be alone with any
Walker
aside from him.
Her belly squeezed in excitement at his presence
and the giddiness sickened her
. Pulling back from the Doctor’s inspection, Aries rubbed gingerly at her
sore
eye, “That hurts.” She frowned darkly at the Doctor then turned her scowl on Conn. “Would you mind leaving?”
Conn’s brows rose as he crossed his arms over his chest. “Yes. I would.”
Aries implored the Doctor, “Can you make him leave? Don’t I have some right of privacy?”
She was angry that he’d been avoiding her, and even more angry that it upset her so much. She missed him and it hurt that he’d simply abandoned her.
Two can play that game.
D
r.
Ames frowned
at her, “But he’s your…”
“He’s my nothing,” Aries cut in. “I don’t want him here.”
Dr. Ames turned to eye C
onn over
her shoulder
. “You heard her.” She motioned with her head toward the door.
Uncrossing his arms, Conn
stalked closer to the bed. He didn’t even acknowledge D
r.
Ames instead opting to glower at Aries. “I’m not leaving. What’s wrong with you?”
He demanded
.
Aries’ lip curled, “What’s wrong with you?”
She turned her face to stare at the wall speaking to Dr. Ames. “You’re not examining me until he’s gone.”
“I’m not leaving Aries. Get over it.” Conn’s words were spoken on a low growl.
“Get over yourself. I don’t need you here babysitting me.
As a matter of fact, I don’t
need
you for anything.”
Dr. Ames tried to interject, “If I may..”
“No,” Conn snapped, “you may not.
” The Doctor gasped when Conn grabbed her arm and pulled her to the door, “As a matter of fact, I’d like to be alone with
my
angel.” He opened the door and shoved Dr. Ames out
with a sarcastic
, “If
you
don’t mind.”
“Wait, I’m…”
Conn closed the door in the Doctor’s face, then turned to find Aries shaking her head, “What in the hell do you think you’re doing?”
He crossed the room in a flash and leaned over her. His nostrils flared as he scented her.
“Stop it!” Aries pushed his chest with her good hand, “
Stop smelling me
!”
“What in the hell
is going on? I scent your anger, but I
don’t understand it
s source.”
She wanted him gone. If he was so willing to abandon her at the first opportunity then she wanted him to do so fully. As much as she knew it would hurt she didn’t want him coming back, not even to check on her health.
“I told you I don’t want you here. What’s so hard to understand.” She reached up and locked slender fingers around the halo, “And take this damn thing off me.”
Conn drew in a deep breath then exp
elled it slowly before pulling
a chair to her bedside and sitting. “Talk. I want to know what’s going on and I want to know the truth.”
“
I
want to know the truth! Why are you here?” She fought to keep her lip from trembling, but knew Conn had seen it when his eyes dipped to her lips and his features instantly softened. She jerked her head away to stare at the opposite wall. “I don’t want you coming here anymore. I want your halo off. I want you to stay away from me.”
He grabbed her good hand and she jerked it free, wincing at the pain the movement brought.
“Damn it Aries!”
She turned to him when she heard his ch
air crash back against the wall as he rose with a ferocity.
“I’m not going to let you push me away. Now tell me what in the hell is wrong with you so I can fix it!”
Angry tears stung the back of her eyes. “You!” She pointed a finger at him, “You are what’s wrong
with me. You drag me to
Stone
Crow
to sell me then help me escape. We made love and I know it was for a purpose but it still meant something to me, but clearly I’m the
only
one that it meant anything to
.
You can’t even stand to be around me anymore and it…it…” she struggled searching for the right word to describe the turmoil she’d been going through.
“It hurts Conn! And you only make it worse when you come here and I get my hopes up that you’ll stop being an ass and start acting like the old you.” Her voice dropped to a whisper, “But you never do. You’re a jerk and I don’t want to have to deal with it anymore.”
She bit her lip to keep from
prattling on
. She hadn’t intended on telling him as much and she knew her face was flushed from the revelation.
The door opened and Dr. Ames poked her head in.
“Get out!” Conn growled.
The Doctor looked from Conn to Aries before quickly disappearing back out the door.
“Look at me,”
the deep timber of his voice drew her eyes to his. He paced back and forth at the foot of her bed before stopping and bracing his arms on the foot rail to face her with an angry sneer. “Don’t you ever, and I mean ever, think that what we shared at my bunker meant anything less to me then it did to you.” He spoke through gritted teeth, “It meant more!” He jerked his hands from the foot rail and stood. “I’m sorry I’ve hurt you. It was unintentional.” He dipped his head but kept his eyes locked on hers, “I will do better!”
Aries could only watch as he turned and exited the room with a loud slam of the door. She barely caught his, “I’ll do better” portion of the speech because her mind was still reeling at
his revelation that their night of lovemaking had not only meant something to him, but in his eyes it meant more to him than it did to her.