Their Unusual Mating [Paranormal Protection Unit 5] (Siren Publishing Classic) (21 page)

Rimi walked into the room and took a seat opposite of Lee’s chair and leaned back in the seat. “Talk to me, honey. You have that look on your face. You know the one that I’m talking about,” she murmured. “Talk to me, honey, please?”

Setting the data pad down, he looked at her. “They were humans, sent here to get you before, and I quote, ‘it was too late,’ and kill anyone that was in the way or anyone that they felt the need to take out of the equation.”

Rimi’s eyes were wide. “Oh lord,” she whispered. “Humans. But how in the world would they know that we were supposed to be together? I hadn’t even known you before I came here, well other than my dreams, but I’m the only one who knew about those.”

“Remember what Quincy was telling us about the lineages? Apparently they know you are related to someone down the line and therefore a likely candidate for a mating to one of us,” he told her quietly. “They are covering all their bases and grabbing anyone that could potentially be a mate or has obviously mated. They had orders to take Katherine, too, if they had a chance of success.”

“Heaven’s sakes,” she whispered. “So they had to have been working on these lineages for a great long time. That means that…” She tapped her finger to her lip and then sat back. “I know that this will sound totally goofy, but has Quincy tapped into Ancestry.com to see if maybe he can find a thread back to these humans?”

“He’s working on it and has a bunch of hackers working, too,” he murmured, whatever that meant. “But he’s also in charge of all operations for the Teams, which is his primary job. He’s working and overseeing everything else, but it’s a lot right now, even for him.”

“This is very true,” she told him with a sigh. “That poor man really does have a lot on his plate. I hope that Talon pays him well.” Sighing, she rubbed her temples. “I don’t even know half of my family history past grandparents, so I can’t even come close to imagining how hard and long these people had to work.”

“Quincy’s team also has resources we could only dream of,” he pointed out. “As well as full access to government records and computers. Not entirely sure if it’s actually legal or permitted, but he seems to be using them often.”

“And is Quincy looking into the potential government interference as well?” She knew that they likely had covered every possible way around everything, but she still had to ask. This was her life that some asshole was deciding to play with, her life and the life of the man she loved, and that seriously pissed her off in all kinds of different ways.

“He’s got programs on top of programs running and searching and doing Goddess knows what else.” Laighean shook his head. “He started going on about parameters and programs that do something or other and my eyes rolled back in my head, so I left.”

“Oh lord, it would make my head hurt to listen to that.” Rimi was a painter. She was so not a technical type of person at all. When someone began to talk techie stuff, it made her head hurt and she felt so very, very stupid.

“It definitely makes my head hurt. At least you would be able to understand the words and have references for everything. Unfortunately I’m still lagging just a little behind the curve on everything,” he said quietly.

“Well, honey, I might understand some of the words, but I have to be honest, I can’t figure out about ninety percent of what he is talking about at any given time, which is fine of course, because as long as others understand, that’s really all that matters, right?”

“That is true,” he agreed, leaning over to scoop up one of the kittens. Letting the little ball of fur loose on the desktop, he rolled a pen across the surface to give him something to attack. “I’m feeling cooped up. Feel like going for a walk with me?” he asked her curiously.

“I would love to go for a walk. Think that we can have a swim while we are out there?” She just wanted time in nature with her bond-mate. She needed that time with him. “I know you need it as much as I do, honey. I really do.”

“Absolutely,” he told her honestly, standing up and lifting the kitten from the desk. “But we should wear suits. The guard rotations are a lot tighter since the incident,” he said with a sigh. “I really don’t want to reroute them. It might not be safe.”

“Oh yeah. All right. We will wear suits so that they don’t see you and get even more jealous of you then they already are,” she teased. “After all, you have me,” she shot back with a snicker. “I’m more concerned about ensuring you are covered so they can all keep their lives,” he told her in a soft and smooth tone as he followed her. Letting the kitten down when the little fur ball wiggled, having spotted his friends, he smiled at his mate when she looked his way.

“I think that you adore the kittens just as much as they do you,” she said with a grin. “That makes me all kinds of happy, too, you know, to know that they love you as much as I love them.” Moving closer to him, she smiled. “Now then, let’s go and find us a couple of suits so that we can go for that walk and then swim.”

“I like all animals,” he told her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. “Not all animals like me, though, so I’m always very cautious.” Leading her up the stairs, he guided her to their bedroom. “There should be a couple of choices for you in the dresser. Katherine purchased them, so whatever they are, they are all on her.”

“Sounds good to me.” Katherine had marvelous taste in clothing. She always had. “Hopefully she didn’t give me any of the very skimpy ones that she seems to think that I should wear all the freaking time,” she grumbled.

Laighean kept his face absolutely blank. “I wouldn’t know. She stopped by yesterday with a bag, went to the drawer and after dumping the contents told me to stay out of it until you had a chance to look.” Like that had stopped him, please. Oh he’d looked, and he had a feeling she wouldn’t be pleased with what little was in there.

She pulled open the drawer and sighed. Pulling out the stringy things, she shook her head. “Seriously? Why even wear these when it leaves absolutely nothing to the imagination?” The suit was white, so it wouldn’t even leave her nipple color to the imagination.

“There are colors in there.” He pointed to the drawer as he caught her worry. “And if those don’t work for you, I did pick something up that is likely a lot more modest, next drawer down,” he told her with a faint smile.

“You are a savior,” she whispered to him and smiled. “I think that I would rather wear yours, darling, than Katherine’s.” Lee seemed to know just what she wanted and needed at all times, without her consciously knowing.

“You are my mate,” he pointed out honestly. “I’m supposed to know and anticipate.” Laighean smiled faintly. “But you had better look at it first before you say I’m a savior. I was going for a bit of modesty, but I’m not sure if I did well enough.”

Pulling out the one-piece suit, she smiled. “This is perfect.” Well, it still had the back cut out and the sides, but it covered far more than Katherine’s idea of a suit. Peeling out of her clothes, she pulled on the suit that he got her and smiled. “See, covered. Perfect.”

Walking around her slowly, he nodded. “I think it looks very nice on you, Rimi.” He smiled. “And it’s a lot more sexy with what it hides over what Katherine’s show off.” Pressing a kiss to her lips, he went to the closet and collected the swim trunks he’d gotten on a shopping trip of absolute hell.

She couldn’t help but grin and nodded. “I couldn’t agree more, honey. Sometimes more is less.” She teased him with a smile. “Besides, you know everything that I have to hide and show, darling, so that’s a very good thing, right?”

“That I do,” he agreed with a growing smile. “I personally prefer you naked, but since I refuse anyone else to see you that way except under the most dire of emergencies, Goddess willing that never happens, this is perfect.”

“I happen to agree on that.” She didn’t like to be naked in front of anyone. She had a weird sense of self, and she didn’t like anyone other than her bond-mate seeing her naked. Could be because he had been there with her from the moment she was born.

Pulling on his trunks, he collected towels and robes, passing her one to wear as he shrugged into the other. Holding out his hand, he took hers when she reached to him. “Let’s go for that walk, and when we are tired of that, a swim,” he murmured, squeezing her fingers.

“Sounds perfect to me,” she said with a smile. “Because the walk will get us ready for our swim, and then we will swim and that will cool us off.” She loved to be able to swim with him, enjoyed it so very much because it always made her happy to see what kind of treasures they could find under the water.

Chuckling softly at her, he squeezed her fingers. “You just like looking at the bottom to see what you can find there. It’s not the swim so much as the treasures you can dig up.” He pointed out the truth.

“But they are all always so much fun to find. You and I both know that, darling. It’s colorful but not as colorful as the ocean. I would love to be able to go scuba diving with you one day, darling. I think that it would be a great deal of fun to dive with you and see the colors that are under the sea.”

“We will arrange a vacation so that we can go and swim in the ocean,” he told her softly. “I would like to take you back to where I was born and raised. The oceans there are lovely, or they were.” Laighean frowned as he paused for her to put on her flip-flops.

“I would love that.” She looked to him and smiled. “I would like to go back to where you are from, honey, because I truly do want to find out more about you. I want to know all about you, honey.” She wanted to spend life with him and wanted to know about what he went through as a child since he had been through her whole life with her.

“It wasn’t nearly as interesting as yours, Charisma,” he told her as they stepped outside. Moving down the stairs, he got them onto a nice, easy path for their walk. Slipping his arm around her waist, Laighean guided her along slowly. “It was a very simple life, none of this flash and glamour of the world you grew up in.”

“Yeah, but at least you had a bit of that with being a part of me as I grew up, honey, so you really could say that in a way you also grew up in this generation as well,” she teased. “Because in a way you really did.”

“I suppose, but I was really full grown, a warrior long since having passed the age of minority,” he murmured quietly. “I do have to say that I enjoyed it though, being with you as you grew from child to young woman into who you are today, my love.”

Blushing, Rimi admitted, “I liked it, too. I know for the longest time the family thought that I was having a breakdown, but then they learned to accept it and knew that no matter what, you were a good thing for me, with me. I loved having you as a part of me. I didn’t understand it at all, but I loved it all the same.”

“I did worry,” he murmured quietly to her. “I worried that what we were doing, that our bond might be detrimental to you. I didn’t want to ever cause you any trouble or pain,” he whispered. “I am glad that you didn’t have any issue though.”

“Nope, not a one. The only issue that I had was those couple crappy dates, but that was perfectly fine with me. I had you, and you were honestly all that I’ve ever wanted or needed in life. You are the one and only one for me. Now and always.”

“I am grateful you didn’t date,” he murmured quietly. “I don’t think I would have come out of it sane if you had.” He would have had to hunt every single one of the males down and eviscerate them slowly and painfully.

“Exactly. Granted of course I had no idea that you were real at that time, but to me you were. To me you were everything. I swear I don’t think that I’ve been through one single day in my whole life without talking to you, asking your advice, or just reaching to be soothed by you.”

“You soothed me as much if not more, Rimi,” he pointed out in honesty. “You helped me through those last years and kept me from going entirely insane. You made my time in stasis more bearable and the re-entry into the world much easier.”

“Well I’m glad that I could help.” She loved that she had been able to help him even when she didn’t realize she was. “But if not for me you wouldn’t have had to be ‘aware’ as you were in stasis. If not for me you could have rested peacefully. Not taking it back,” she added quickly, “because I needed you in my life, Lee, but the facts are the facts.”

Figuring since she was his mate it couldn’t hurt to tell her, Laighean stopped their walk and turned her to face him, his hands taking both of hers. “No matter what anyone ever tells you, stasis is not like a nearly perfect imitation of death where everything is literally frozen in time, mind, heart, and body. Thoughts occur, dreams happen, and when you can’t move, can’t breathe of your own free will, it’s an absolute and complete hell.”

“Oh God, honey, I…” She didn’t know what to say to that. She didn’t know at all what to even think about it. Reaching up, she cupped his face in her hands and pulled him in closer. “I love you so much, Lee. I’m so sorry that you had that hell to live through, but I’m also grateful that you did because it means that you are with me, honey.” She knew how shallow that sounded, but the truth was that she was just happy that he was hers, and he was there with her.

“It’s not shallow, love,” he murmured with a chuckle. He did wish though that the Goddess had let him sleep until meeting her. He would have felt better about that connection. Especially in the initial stages when he’d thought he’d lost his marbles and was actually going insane.

“Hey, you didn’t. You are here with me, love,” she whispered to him. “Right here in the here and now with me, love. We are together. We are forever. We are both stronger for the connection that we had from that moment and beyond.”

“That was almost poetic,” he teased, lifting his head slightly to stare at her. Smiling, Laighean kissed her lips. “Fae know not to dwell in the past. We never forget it, but we know better than to immerse ourselves so far into the errors that came before.”

“That’s a very good thing, love. It’s good never to dwell.” Because it meant that they would be able to simply enjoy the present and the future instead of anything else. “Okay enough of all of this. Let’s change the subject please.”