Read Online Marianne's Abduction by Ravenna Tate - Free Book Online Page A

necessary.
    Should
he tell her he’d had sex with only two women his entire life, and that both
times, they hadn’t wanted to see him again? No. She would assume he’d hurt
them, and that would kill him. Better to let her think his past relationships
had simply not worked out for him. He’d rather die than have her think ill of
him.
    “Is
she all right?”
    River’s
soft voice startled him. He turned and nodded. “Yes. Just
watching her sleep.”
    “Should
we cover her? The rooms get cold overnight with the AC on.”
    Vaughn
smiled. River had it bad for this girl already. He’d seen it the first day she
was here. Not that he blamed him. But they had to be careful here. This woman
had been through a lot, and it’s not like she’d simply forget about her dead
fiancé. Not to mention the fucking Tyranns had taken her aunt and uncle
prisoner. She wasn’t here to fall in love with two men who were aliens in her eyes.
    Then you shouldn’t have fucked
her.
    River
pulled the comforter out from under her so slowly that Vaughn held his breath
as he watched his brother. He covered Marianne, and then he gently kissed her
hair. She stirred but didn’t wake up. When he joined Vaughn in the hallway,
River asked what they were going to do now.
    “We’re
awake. Let’s work.”
    “I
mean about Marianne.”
    He
knew what River had meant. “I don’t know. I was thinking about that just now.
What do you want to do?”
    “Never
let her leave.”
    Vaughn
sighed. This wasn’t the time to tease River. He didn’t give away his affections
easily, and he wouldn’t find Vaughn’s ribbing funny. “I feel the same way.
Let’s just take it one day at a time for now, okay? We need to find her aunt
and uncle, and figure out how to get them off Voyeur Moon without killing them
in the process.”
    “And
then what?”
    “And
then we’ll see. I don’t know what’s going to happen anymore than you do.”
    “I’ve
never felt this way about any woman.”
    “And
I have?”
    River
nodded. “I know you haven’t.”
    “Come
on. Let’s get some work done.”
    ****
    River’s
attention wasn’t focused on work. His thoughts kept wandering to the look in
her eyes as he made love to her, the way her hair had smelled tonight, all
clean and flowery, and the soft moans that had filled her bedroom.
    For
over a week he’d sat in this very room next to her, working with her, thinking
up excuses to sit closer to her or touch her, even for a fraction of a second.
He hadn’t expected this tonight. He hadn’t imagined her simply standing up, walking
back into the quarters, shedding her clothes as she
went. He hadn’t been able to picture the first time he’d make love to her
because he’d never believed in the depths of his soul that it would happen.
    And
now that it had, he couldn’t imagine it never happening again. He couldn’t
imagine it not happening every day for the rest of his life. He didn’t want to
think about a life without her in it, but he knew she’d have to leave one day.
    They’d
find her aunt and uncle, and she would go somewhere safe to live with them.
Someplace the Tyranns could never find her or them again. Or they wouldn’t find
Blake and Betsy Williams, and Marianne would have to leave anyway because every
day she was here, she was on borrowed time.
    And
he and Vaughn would return to their work, behind the scenes, and try to forget
her. And it would never happen. Not a chance.
    He
and Vaughn had been working for close to four hours when River frowned, staring
at the database he’d just uncovered. For almost a year, they’d been searching
for documentation that directly linked the Tyranns to the Earthlings who had
come to Sera to work. They had bits and pieces, but nothing that fit them all
together.
    The
Tyranns used computer programs like people used to use scraps of paper. A note here, a sentence fragment there, and maybe once in a while a
complete letter. But nothing was organized, or fit together in a