Colliding Worlds Trilogy 01 - Collision Page 5

  “In?”

  “As in a trigger to start building an alliance with the U.S. leaders. We help him get back to his unit. He’s got to have connections, and those connections can connect us with someone who can get us on the right track toward a partnership. An American-Sephian coalition.”

  It had been something that nagged the back of her mind since she moved to the base. The Sephians came here without any prior contact. That alone looked suspicious. If they tried to introduce themselves to the President or some senator, it would get them killed or imprisoned. Neither would help their cause.

  Tonight was Sienna’s first shot at trying to help out. It took nearly three months for the Sephians to trust her enough to not track her every move. Unfortunately, she brought with her few benefits. She had no real connections to speak of. She’d done plenty of work with the military as a ten-ninety-nine, but most of that had been at the mid-and lower officer-level. Her best option was Bobby’s unit.

  After several moments of thinking through her words, Legian responded with his unique cross between a grumble and a sigh that she’d come to call his grumbligh. She knew he couldn’t argue her point. More than anything, the Sephians needed the world’s leaders on their side to beat the more technologically advanced Draeken. It would be foolish to leave a potential solution lying on the ground.

  Legian pulled out what looked like black rubber bands and fastened Jax’s hands behind his back. With a grunt given more for effect than strain, he lifted the unconscious soldier onto his shoulders, and they made their escape through the woods.

  But Sienna’s gut was telling her that they weren’t out of the proverbial woods yet.

  Chapter Six

  An hour later, a very sweaty Legian dropped Jax like he was nothing more than a sack of rotten potatoes onto a slate-covered creek bed and began rummaging through the soldier’s pockets. He pulled out the GPS device and looked it over. Then he pressed the Easy Button he held in his other hand, and a bleep reappeared in the bull’s-eye of the GPS. He held up the device, raising an eyebrow at Sienna.

  Still panting from the nighttime marathon, her eyes widened at the same time her mouth dropped open in shock. She pointed at the device. “Do you want them to find us? Turn that thing back on until we get back to the base.”

  He re-clicked the Easy Button, and the bleep disappeared. “The blocker is not one hundred percent effective. We can’t risk it failing en route. There’s only one way to be safe.”

  She could have sworn he had a shit-ass grin on his face when he said the last bit. “I know, I know.” Sienna pulled off her shirt and threw it at him, which brought on an unadulterated smile in response. With a huff, she gave him her back so she wouldn’t have to look at him. Although she could be sure he never took his eyes off her. Legian never seemed to tire of looking at his tahren.

  She leaned against the trunk of a tall evergreen tree and let out a long, deep breath. She had really screwed things up this time. The entire base — all five hundred-plus Sephians — were put at risk because of her good intentions. The only human on the base, she had to be better, smarter, much smarter than everyone else. Instead, tonight proved she was a fuck-up with a long way to go.

  And she should’ve known better. Growing up, Sienna always had to be on her toes. Traveling with her parents to the most screwed up places in the world put a neon sign on her back that said, “American. Take Me.” She’d been both smart and lucky. She had lost friends whose parents were in similar lines of work. Some were returned unharmed after being kidnapped for ransom. Others never made it home.

  And many more were left behind at some prep school in the States for their protection. She didn’t know what would’ve been worse: getting kidnapped or abandoned. Her parents weren’t what you’d call the warm fuzzy type, but at least they’d never left her behind. If only she could reach Kat now.

  “Sienna?” Legian asked.

  Her back straightened, but she didn’t turn around. “You call the base for pick up yet?” The bond had its perks, but sometimes having the soullare was a real pain in the ass. Sometimes she didn’t want to talk about her feelings. Sometimes she wanted to wallow in them.

  A dry chuckle escaped her lips. Of all things to complain about. Her lover asking her about her feelings. Hell, she’d dreamed of finding a man who would do that. Guess it all boiled down to be-careful-what-you-wish-for crap.

  Sienna could feel Legian’s eyes boring into her back. She walked over to a large rock and brushed off grit and dead leaves. Pulling out her bandana, she laid it out daintily across the surface, sat down and unlaced her boots. The autumn air was chilly, and goose bumps prickled against the cold sweat on her skin. She rubbed her arms while she kicked off a boot. It landed with a thud on the rocky forest floor.

  Whenever the moon peeped out from a cloud, the giant evergreen trees of the forest became ominous skyscrapers, with crooked, threatening arms reaching down toward her. It gave her the heebie-jeebies. The whole night would have made a perfect scene for a horror movie. Scary scene? Yep. Half-naked woman? Yep. Big, scary killer? Hell, Legian could pull off that look in his sleep. A shiver shot through her. Hopefully their night didn’t have a scary ending.

  “I’ll call once I know we cannot be followed.”

  She balked. “You mean you’ll call once you’re done getting a peep show.”

  At least he had the sense not to comment. As a reward, she put her seductive powers to work unbuckling her belt and unbuttoning the fly on her Levis. He continued to rifle through Jax’s pockets, glancing up every couple seconds to watch her with a growing intensity. She pushed the jeans off her hips. Legian tilted back on his heels, resting his arms on his thighs, his attention one hundred percent focused on her. Sienna leaned against the rock and pulled off her jeans, one leg at a time. By the time she had nothing on except her bra and underwear, Legian was making no attempt at hiding his arousal.

  Something small hopped onto her foot. “Eep!” She shimmied up the rock. He frowned, and then came to his feet.

  “Bug.” Holding her knees to her chest, Sienna shivered when the night breeze brushed past her. She hated bugs. And tonight she had seen too many bugs of both the natural and man-made kind.

  Legian gave her that slow shake of his head — the one where he didn’t understand her and gave up trying. She blew him a raspberry, and he went back to examining the pretty impressive pile of weaponry he accumulated from frisking Jax. She stayed on the rock, above the creepy crawly traffic on the ground and watched.

  Her tahren was a nice golden package of raw sex, even when he was in soldier mode. Heck, that just made him even sexier. She had no idea how she found a man who handled her whims and still had a spine. Sure, they’d had their share of complications. Enough to put that Mars-Venus book to shame. The truth was those snags were minor compared to what really mattered.

  She was so absorbed in staring at Legian, she hadn’t realized he’d finished going through Jax’s belongings and was now watching her right back. When he caught her eye, he nodded toward what little clothing remained on her body. “Everything goes.”

  She shook her head and crossed her arms over her chest. “There’s no way in hell Jax got a tracer in my undies.”

  “Want to bet the safety of the base on that?”

  She scowled at him another moment before surrendering the remainder of her clothes, all the while muttering under her breath. If Legian heard anything, he knew better than to say.

  In all her naked glory, she shivered in the night air, not enjoying her situation one bit. “If I get a tick anywhere near a girl part, you’re taking care of it. And then you’re going to kiss it. A lot. Now give me something to cover up with. Before my tatas freeze and fall off.”

  Legian raised an eyebrow and a slight grin before walking over and pulling her into his arms. “I would hate for you to lose those. They’re one of my favorite parts on you.”

  “Figure of speech. Hopefully,” she muttered before turning on him. “Th
ere is no way in hell I’m walking onto the base wearing nothing but my birthday suit.”

  He pulled his head back far enough to allow his hungry eyes to climb down her body. “You should wear it more often,” he murmured in her ear.

  She shivered. Only this time it wasn’t from the cold.

  Legian stepped back and pulled off his shirt. His golden skin sparkled in the moonlight as he laid the material across her shoulders. Her nipples hardened against his hot skin. Something grew long and hard against her, which she rubbed against and received a pleasurable growl in response.

  “I know where ‘extra’ in ‘extraterrestrial’ came from.” She giggled, reaching down to cup him. He nibbled on her neck. New goose bumps popped up across her skin.

  A murmur passed from his lips and over her skin as he kissed a trail down her neck and shoulder. She lowered her head to the side to give him better access. Hazily, she looked out into the night to see two furious brown eyes watching them.

  She hollered something that even she couldn’t make out before she curled into Legian’s body for cover.

  In a blur, Legian pulled out his gun and jerked around, knocking her off the rock in a heap. She pushed the barrel toward the ground at the same time clutching Legian’s shirt against her. “Jesus. Don’t shoot him. He startled me. That’s all. I didn’t think he’d wake up so soon.”

  “You tazed me.” Jax actually sounded hurt.

  “You pointed a gun at me. Call us even,” Sienna snapped back.

  Jax gritted his teeth. “Bobby would be rolling over in his grave right now.”

  Her jaw dropped before clamping back shut. That hurt. A lot. “Fuck you,” she snarled. “You have no right to judge.” Legian embraced her, pulling her up, and his warm energy calmed her. Enough to put a Band-Aid over the hurt inside.

  After laying a kiss upon her forehead, Legian stalked toward Jax, who was now in a sitting position on the ground. Legian knelt down on one knee and leaned an arm on his other leg. All business, he held the gun steady at the soldier. “You’re awake. We need to talk.”

  Jax tossed a glare in her direction and then gave a grunt in response that sounded more like, “Yeah, right, like that’s gonna happen.”

  Sienna hastily pulled Legian’s shirt over her head, thankful for his height so that the shirt fell to her knees. Instantly she picked up the now-familiar scent every Sephian naturally carried. It had taken her a week before she noticed the base smelled like a faint, soft rain. Now she couldn’t imagine how she hadn’t noticed it right away.

  She walked over to the two men, stopping at Legian’s side. He may be her tahren, but it didn’t mean she trusted him to play nice. Especially since they both already had a bone to pick with Jax. In fact, she knew he wouldn’t play nice if she wasn’t there.

  “I gave my word I’d reach out to you in a week. Why’d you bug me? Why’d you come after us?” she asked.

  “Jerrick, Jackson. Lieutenant. U.S. Army Rangers. Four-five-eight-eight-seven-two-nine-eight-seven.”

  She rolled her eyes at the soldier giving Legian a stare-down. “Oh, that name, rank, and serial number thing is so nineteen-nineties. I’ve known you for years, Jax. We’re not the enemy. We’re on the same team.”

  Silence.

  “That’s why we brought you with us. Legian and his people are here to protect us. The real enemy is out there.” She gestured around the dark woods.

  “Then untie me.”

  Legian grunted.

  “So you can attack us?” She shook her head. “We don’t mean you harm, but we’re also not idiots. Sorry, you stay tied up. Consider it a temporary inconvenience until we know you’re not going to do something stupid, and we can prove to you that the Sephians are here to help.”

  Jax looked at her. “If that’s true, then why didn’t they contact us?”

  “It’s not that easy. Look at him.” She ran her hand over Legian’s ethereal warm skin. “The Sephians don’t exactly blend in. They know that once they’re out of the so-called closet, there’s no going back. They want to take things slow and play their cards right.”

  “Invading our country is an act of war. And aiding them is an act of treason.”

  “Yadda, yadda, yadda. Listen, it’s not like the movies,” she replied. “The Sephians aren’t invading anything.”

  Legian cut in. “Your small planet has no recorded visits from other worlds. You are too proud a race to accept that you are not alone. We felt you were not ready to accept the knowledge.”

  She smirked at Legian’s irony in calling another race too proud.

  He continued. “We had no desire to come here. We have our own world. Unfortunately, we could not avoid it. My tahren speaks the truth. We have come to protect you. Your world has been invaded, and you don’t know it yet.”

  “Invaded by an army of goldenrods. Yeah, I got it,” Jax replied, sarcasm dripping from his words.

  Sienna’s lips curled up, and Legian frowned. He shook a fist in the air at Jax. “You ungracious human.” He spit out the word like it tasted bad on the tongue. “You have no idea what we’ve sacrificed to come to your world.”

  “Play nice. I hate it when you say that word like that,” she scolded, pulling Legian’s arm around her.

  Jax pulled himself to his knees far easier than she could if her hands were tied behind her back. “Well, then, why don’t you explain it to this human,” he sneered. The challenge was clear.

  “Guys, guys.” She stepped between the kneeling man and the laser-wielding alien. “Testosterone overload here. You two can have your pissing match later.” When both ignored her, she continued. “This is all beside the point. The Draeken are the real issue here. Okay, Jax. I have a better idea. How about we show you?”

  Legian grabbed her arm.

  “Ow, ow, ow. Delicate human here, remember?” She lay a hand over his and pulled gently from of his grip.

  “Tread carefully, Sienna,” Legian cautioned.

  “What better way to show that we come in peace than to bring a military officer onto base as a guest?” She placed a quick peck on his clenched jaw before turning to Jax. “Come to our base. Watch the videos. Hear the stories. You’ll see for yourself that we’re not the enemy here.”

  “This man has already shown you he can’t be trusted.” Legian raised his gun, nudging her to the side.

  Sienna rubbed her neck. “He was just doing his job.”

  Legian shook his head. “We can’t afford the risk. Not without Apolo’s approval.”

  “We can’t afford not to take the risk,” she replied, grabbing onto his forearm. “We walk a fine line already. If you hurt one of my kind, how can they believe that the Sephians are the good guys? Besides, look at the risk you took for me. And everything turned out fine.”

  As fast as a frozen snail in Alaska, Legian lowered his gun.

  Sienna hopped up and gave him a kiss on the cheek. “Trust me on this one.”

  “Sometimes I think you became my tahren to drive me mad.”

  She waved him off. “You know I’m right.” She turned to their new “guest,” whom Legian continued to glare at. “Now, Jax. How about showing some friendship and telling us where you planted the bugs on me so I don’t have to stand around with my bare ass to the world?”

  The hardened look on his face said enough.

  After a minute of the stare-down, she gave up. “Fine. Be a jerk,” she snapped back and stomped over to the big rock, picked up her crumpled jeans, and pulled out her Swiss Army Knife.

  “What are you doing?” Legian asked.

  “Untying him. Showing him some faith.”

  “He stays tied.”

  Legian was wearing that look again. The one where once he made up his mind, she’d have an easier time melting an iceberg in Antarctica than convincing him otherwise. Reluctantly, she snapped the knife shut.

  “Fine. You’re both jerks. I’ll let you win. For now.” She gave her best snarky hair flip, turned around and promptly tripped
, landing unattractively on her butt.

  She looked up to see both men chuckling at her.

  Great. Just great.

  Chapter Seven

  Sienna snuggled into Legian’s arms, wearing nothing but a man’s long-sleeved thermal in the middle of a forest full of things that literally went bump in the night. The night air was full of strange sounds. Insects, owls, and other things she had no idea what they were. The sounds, paired with menacing surroundings and a grumpy soldier — make that two grumpy soldiers — made the entire setting less than comfortable.

  She would’ve tried for a catnap, but the Sephians were a nocturnal bunch. Over the past few months, with the occasional late night snooze, she’d switched to their sleep schedules. Making midnight her lunchtime.

  Legian wrapped his arm tighter around her when she shivered. His higher body temperature kept the chill off, but it didn’t make the situation any better. The worst part was the waiting. Even though Bobby had been killed years ago and they’d only been married for a little over a year, she felt almost as if she were cheating on his memory by being with Legian in front of Jax, who was keeping busy watching Legian like he was a puppy beater.

  Their current situation was like a beetle that randomly reared its ugly head, biting her back to the reality. “So, guys …” She drew out the words over a couple seconds until both men turned to face her. “Things have been in a status quo up until tonight. But that will have to change.”

  Even though neither man spoke, she could feel tension rolling off Legian, and the tightness in Jax’s face hinted that he felt the same.

  “We can’t put off the military forever,” she continued. “At best, the Sephians will be considered squatters on American soil. At worst … well, let’s not go there.” She turned to Jax. “I was thinking if you could get a message up the line, we could hook up a hotshot general or someone with the Sephian leader here. That way, they could talk mano-a-mano. The Sephians have a ton of technology to offer. The military could get access to the Sephian brain trust. And, we’d all join forces against the Draeken.” Easy peasy.