Cheating Time (30 page)

I'd like to join him in
that fight.

I'm not sure what Surrogate Soldier Jayden
St. Romaine was supposed to be doing, but he ended up spending the
rest of the day in the kitchen with Rorie and me. It seemed Thorne
had abandoned his infirmary duties that morning in order to help
with breakfast but had to get back to treating the sick, because by
the time he'd finished his shower, there were several people
looking for him. His only option was to resume his doctoral duties
and leave us to help Rorie with hers.

"I'll be in our tent if you need anything,"
he'd said a half dozen times before he decided I might actually be
well enough to be left on my own.

It was as if he thought of me as a fragile
being who needed his constant attention. My run-in with the snakes
had Thorne treating me exactly the way I'd treated Tawney after I'd
found out she was dying. Somehow, I needed him to know I was
actually fine. That I wasn't broken. That I was going to make
it.

That I'm going to throat
punch him if he treats me like I'm anything less than his equal
after today.

I was feeling better by the hour. There was
no reason to tiptoe around me or pretend as though I had the same
death sentence Tawney had. I could run five miles right now if I
had to. Now that I was being honest with myself, Tawney hadn't been
able to do that for quite some time.

Hindsight really is
20/20.

When I looked back on the last several
months, I remembered more days where she slept than trained. I
remembered more days where she lay reading rather than taking the
long, leisurely walks she loved. Mostly, I remembered the clammy
skin she'd blamed on the training that I now knew she wasn't
doing.

Tawney's sick. Not me. I
won't be treated like I am.

* * *

Lunch and supper were uneventful. I saw more
of the Rorie, who took charge of the responsibilities assigned to
her by her brother. She adored the ground he walked on and would
rather have chopped off both hands than disappoint him or fail at
something he went out of his way to get others to agree to allow
her to do.

More interesting to me than anything was the
way Rorie and Jayden bonded. If she told him to do something, he
treated her like she was his general and he was her soldier.
Everything about this turn of events, where she was solidly in
charge and ordering around two people who followed her every
command, proved that, Down syndrome or not, Rorie was a functional
member of our society.

Putting a face to the genocide, I felt more
resentment than ever before over the current state of affairs
whereby embryos with genetic defects were aborted by the
MicroPharm. Rorie should be the poster child against these types of
uninformed actions. I just had to believe there were parents who
were as willing as Thorne to work with these babies and help them
become as functional as Rorie.

Even more than being functional, there were
things to be learned from Rorie's simple take on every problem.
Rather than worry about the ripple effects of every decision, she
focused only on the most basic component of her problem, and she
worked only on that problem until she had a resolution. She didn't
concern herself with something that might happen hours from now,
and while there were certainly instances when decisions needed to
be thought through for their long-term implications, I knew not
every decision needed that kind of time and attention.

Rorie was nothing short of refreshing, and I
understood perfectly why Thorne protected her by keeping her with
him. I was sure there were people in the world who would take
advantage of the very traits I found most endearing and use them
against her.

Against Thorne.

I was snapped from my reverie when Jayden
came up behind Rorie, grabbed her shoulders in his hands, and said,
"Rorie, why don't you let Carlie and me do the dishes? You're the
cook. We're the kitchen labor. You've done your part. Let us do
ours."

Rorie looked up at Jayden, and I saw the
circles under her eyes that had Jayden putting an end to her day in
a way that made it seem like it was the manner all kitchens were
run.

She was too tired to argue. She turned and
smiled up at Jayden before saying, "Thank you."

I'd noticed throughout the day that the more
tired she got, the thicker her words were. Her gratitude as
expressed to Jayden was louder than normal and uttered as if her
tongue blocked the back of her throat. It was obvious Thorne had
coached her on the fine art of perfectly articulating her words,
using her mouth and tongue to make the words clear, and the
importance of keeping her voice low.

At this moment, we were seeing Rorie
unfiltered, the way few people knew her, because Thorne sheltered
her in a way that prevented her from getting too close to most
people. She had something she wanted to say, and then she wanted to
go to bed. Nothing more. Nothing less.

Jayden smiled. "We'll be back at it
tomorrow. Go get some rest. We'll see you in the morning."

Without another word or a backward glance,
Rorie shuffled her way toward the door and was gone.

Jayden glanced over at me and smiled. He was
glad we were finally alone.

"You're good with her," I said.

Jayden's shoulders bobbed. "I've never seen
anyone who worked so hard in my life. There's just so much to learn
from her."

I stopped and turned toward Jayden, admiring
him anew.

"What?" he asked.

"Nothing. I was just thinking the same
thing. It never occurred to me you would be thinking the same thing
as me," I admitted.

Jayden's grin turned lopsided and he took a
few steps toward me, pinning my back against the sink.

"You and I've had the same thoughts several
times now. Usually, when we're wrapped around each other," he
whispered into my ears.

My face flushed, but there was no way to
suppress my ear-to-ear grin as I remembered the few times he and I
made out.
Heavily
.

"You think so?" I tried to pretend I'd not
enjoyed every second of his touch, and failed miserably. My giggles
told a different story.

"Like right now," Jayden hummed. "Like me,
you're thinking how much better it would be if we were kissing and
not washing dishes."

I shook my head. "No, I'm not, because I
know if I do kiss you, I might never finish washing these damn
dishes," I said, laughing. "Really… are they multiplying, for
goodness sakes?"

Jayden kissed my neck. In response, I tilted
my head to the side and gave him open access. His warm wet breath
exhilarated me as much as a ride on a rollercoaster would have.

Jayden took advantage of my offering,
kissing my neck deeper, opening his mouth, and softly drawing me
in. My body responded in an unfamiliar fashion. Before I knew what
I was doing, I grabbed the bottom of Jayden's T-shirt, sliding my
palms up his stomach and to his chest.

The Surrogate Soldier's heart racing in pace
with my own. Soon, his lips found mine. We kissed long and hard
until Jayden's tongue coaxed my lips apart. With him, there just
didn't seem to be a way to get close enough, for me to be touching
enough of his skin, for us to be together enough.

Jayden might have kissed me, and it might
have been the toe-curling kind, but he didn't push me. My hands
were all over him while his remained firmly planted on my hips.
With great effort, based on his trembling arms, he was doing
everything in his power not to mold his body into mine the way I
wanted to do with him.

Well, if the mountain
won't come to Muhammad, then Muhammad must go to the
mountain.

Determined to have him wrap his arms around
me and hug me as properly as he was kissing me, I snaked my arms
around his back and ran my hands up and down the length of him
while squeezing myself as deep into him as he'd allow.

When I did that, he let out a long, feral
moan and did just as I'd wanted, just as I needed. He wrapped his
arms around me and slid his hands down to my bottom, pulling me
between his legs.

He pulled his lips away from mine and moved
them to my ear. "I know this is wrong, Carlie, but I want you more
than I've ever wanted anyone… anything. More than I've wanted my
next breath or needed by next heartbeat.
Jesus!
That's how bad I want you," he whispered
hoarsely.

In response, I rocked into him before
curling my head back, closing my eyes, and saying, "It's what I
want, too, Jayden. It's not wrong if it's what I want too. Is
it?"

Suddenly sobered, Jayden stilled. He didn't
physically pull away from me, but in that instant, there was
something that changed between us. I was sure it was the damn
promises he'd made to Dad and Mom and the guilt he'd feel if he did
anything with me or to me while I was technically under his
charge.

I glanced up at him. His body may have
stopped, but his eyes were sparkling jewels of jade. There was no
hiding what he still wanted when I stared him down. Eye to eye.

Irritated and knowing I was about to get a
rise out of him, I said, "Jayden, you're no fun at all. You're too
serious. Too worried you're not going to live up to your promises.
Too much of a soldier."

As I'd expected, he pulled away. "I was bred
to be a soldier. You either like that about me or you don't."

Jayden was hurt. I reached over to where
he'd begun washing dishes and ignoring me.

"Jayden, I wasn't talking about who you are
as a person. That is what I love about you. What I meant is that
you're too committed to following Dad's orders because he's your
general." I leaned over and whispered into his ear like he'd done
me earlier. "The last thing I need right now… is a soldier
following orders. I need someone following his instincts… his
heart."

Unromantically keeping his hands in the
water, he turned toward me and said, "That's the problem. I keep
doing all of these things with you, and the entire time my
instincts are telling me it's wrong, that your life will be harder
if you're with a Surrogate… You'll be ostracized… You'll never have
children… You'll be the one who sacrifices. Not me. Being with you
would be a dream come true for me. For you, it would end up being
your worst nightmare. You're just too young and naïve to realize
it."

Before I could dispute him or tell him I
didn't care what others think or that I had no intention of having
kids anyway, someone behind me cleared his throat. Jayden glanced
over my shoulder and his scowl told me exactly who it was. He'd
been looking at Thorne with the same contemptuous glare every time
he'd seen him.

"What do you want?" Jayden asked
gruffly.

Proving he wasn't nearly as intelligent as
I'd given him credit for in the past, Thorne ignored the clear
threat in Jayden's tone and the roll of his muscles.

"I came to walk Carles back to the
infirmary." As if he had a death wish or secret knowledge that he
was more powerful than the Surrogate standing before me, he said
clearly and concisely, "I'm her physician, and I need to look at
her wounds. Make sure they're healing properly. Then I need to
refill her MicroPharm. Her monitoring systems are sending out
alerts that her reserves are low."

Jayden's contempt quickly turned into
something closer to rage as he chuckled. It almost had me running,
and it wasn't even directed at me.

"If you think you—of all people—are going to
see her naked or that you're going to be the one to refill her
MicroPharm, you don't have any idea what I'm capable of."

I knew where Jayden was coming from. I had
bites all over my body.

I put my hand over his soapy warm wrist and
for everyone's sake—his, mine, and Thorne's—I reasoned with him.
"Jayden, he's been caring for me for days. He's already seen every
bite, and I suspect, given my miraculous recovery, he's had to
refill my MicroPharm reservoir numerous times."

I could tell by the hurt way he glanced over
at me that he'd not considered any of that a possibility. While I
carefully tried to pull my foot out of my mouth, I leaned over and
kissed his cheek.

"He's my doctor. Nothing else. If you want
to come with us, you can. You can be in the room while he examines
me if it will make you feel better."

I heard Thorne's
humph
of protest, but I kept my gaze fixed on
Jayden. He was my only concern right then.

"No, it'll be uncomfortable enough without
me being in there. After I finish washing the dishes, I'll grab my
sleeping bag and lay it out next to you…" He hesitated. "If you
don't mind."

I grinned back at him. "I don't mind at
all."