Total pages in book: 112
Estimated words: 105936 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 530(@200wpm)___ 424(@250wpm)___ 353(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 105936 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 530(@200wpm)___ 424(@250wpm)___ 353(@300wpm)
I was also pretty sure I was running a fever. My whole body felt hot and sluggish and I was so tired I could barely move. I stumbled into the bathroom and took another shower to try and cool off but I swear the chilly water practically made steam rise from my heated flesh.
I dried myself as best I could and went back to bed. My pajama top was too dirty and sticky to put back on, so I found an undershirt of Turk’s to wear. It was big enough that I could pull the fabric away from my swollen breasts—at least if I lay on my side.
I fell back in bed, feeling suddenly dizzy. Goddess of the Four Faces, was it just me or was everything blurry and strange? My eyes were stinging and when I reached up, I felt something wet on my cheeks. My breasts and nipples hurt so much, I was crying.
But there was no one to hear me. The one who should have been by my side—my Fated Mate—had rejected me. I was sick and alone and no one cared.
I had never felt so low—I wanted to die.
45
TURK
Iwoke up from a thin, uneasy sleep with a feeling that something bad was happening to Jessina. I don’t know where the feeling came from but it was strong—it pushed at me with an urgency I couldn’t deny. It was the same feeling I’d had back when I had still thought she was Cass and Jerx had been attacking her—a feeling of danger and dread.
Fumbling with the light blanket that covered me, I stumbled out of my chair-cot and went to the door of my quarters. I couldn’t hear anything because of the privacy sound-proofing but the moment I opened the door, a low moaning caught my ear.
It was a painful, hopeless sound that tore at my heart. I felt a surge of guilt as I remembered Jessina’s earlier request to see the ship’s medic. I should have allowed her to go to him—or brought him up to see her. Instead I had shouted at her and locked her up in my quarters. What the fuck was wrong with me?
“Jessina? Little bird?”
She didn’t answer.
“Lights low,” I said and the corner glows came up, showing me Jessina.
She was lying on her side in the bed and she didn’t move, even when I called her name again.
Quickly, I went to the bed and touched her shoulder—she didn’t respond—just kept up that low, painful noise that sounded like an animal in distress.
She was wearing one of my white undershirts and her skin through the thin fabric felt hot. Experimentally, I put a hand on her forehead. Goddess of the Four Faces, she was burning up!
More worried than ever, I turned her over and saw tear-tracks on her cheeks, shiny in the light of the glows. But even more concerning were the stains on the white undershirt. There were two big splotches right over her nipples.
The wet spots had made the white shirt nearly transparent and I frowned at what I saw—were her nipples bigger than they had been? I knew her breasts certainly were. What the Hell was going on here?
“Jessina? Little bird?” I asked, patting her hot cheek.
At last her eyelids fluttered open.
“Oh, Turk…I hurt…so bad,” she moaned softly.
“Where, baby?” I asked anxiously, though I was pretty sure I knew.
“There…” She made a vague motion that encompassed both breasts. “Hurts…so full…so tight. And I’m hot. I was cold before but now I’m so hot.”
“I can tell you’re hot, baby,” I told her. “Hang on—let me get something to cool you down.”
I went to the bathroom and got a towel and wet it in the sink. Coming back to the bedroom, I sat on the side of the bed and bathed her face with it. She moaned gratefully but plucked at the shirt she was wearing.
“Please, Turk…it hurts,” she moaned. “Please…can’t you help me?”
“I don’t know, little bird, but I’ll try,” I promised.
I pulled up the undershirt, revealing her breasts. Sure enough, I’d been right—they were at least twice as large as they had been and her nipples were tight and prominent. The sticky liquid I’d seen on the shirt was coming from them—it was leaking steadily down the undersides of her overfull breasts like some kind of honey.
“Oh, little bird!” I couldn’t keep the anxiety out of my voice. I didn’t want to believe what I was seeing but I was afraid it was a symptom of a much larger problem.
Could this be part of The Need? The collection of symptoms a woman went through when she found her Fated Mate and needed him to ease her pain? I didn’t want to believe it, but I was afraid it might be true.
“Hurts!” she moaned again and started to cry. Her tears tore at my heart, shredding it to pieces. Goddess of the Four Faces, this was my fault somehow—I just knew it! I never should have locked her up and denied her access to the medic! In fact, I was going to go get him right now, I told myself.