Page 34 of Rescued

But Sonya only shook her head.

“I’d rather not talk about it, if you don’t mind. You, uh, have a beautiful baritone,” she added, clearly wanting to change the subject.

“Thank you.” He sighed and tried to let go of the idea of the Trollox touching her. There was nothing he could do about it now except keep it from ever happening again. “Your voice is ethereal,” he added softly. “From the first moment I heard it, I had to know you.”

This was the truth. He could still remember that first time he’d heard his own Sonya sing at The Speak Easy. He’d stopped in for a drink and had lost his heart. He hadn’t left the club that night until he’d gotten her number and a promise that she would go out with him.

And now, here he was all over again—the sound of her voice brought back so many memories—so much love and joy and pain and sorrow… Suddenly the longing to hold her was so great, he was afraid he wouldn’t be able to help himself if he just sat there looking at her and wanting her so much, it nearly made him sick.

He stood abruptly and went to stand at the floor-to-ceiling windows that covered two sides of the room. The view of downtown Opulex outside was fantastic—the many lighted spires rising high into the night sky. Hovercars and hovercoaches flitted by on lighted airways, marked out in neon on different levels far above the ground.

Davrik didn’t see any of it. He was seeing his own Sonya, as she had been on that last day, right before she’d stepped into the shuttle that had crashed into the sea. He was hearing her musical laughter and tasting her sweet lips as she kissed him goodbye for what he hadn’t known was going to be the very last time.

Oh, baby girl, he thought as emotions rose in him like waves that might drown him. Oh Gods, miss you so damn much! And here you are again, in another way, a different form. But so much the same it hurts my heart. Goddess, please…

“Hey…” There was a soft touch on his arm and he looked down to see Sonya standing there beside him. She was looking up at him with concern in her chocolate brown eyes. “Hey,” she said again. “What is it? I can tell something’s bothering you.”

“It’s nothing.” Davrik cleared his throat and swiped at his eyes. “Nothing at all. Forgive me. Your voice…it affected me deeply.”

He turned and went back to sit on the bed. If he stood too near her, he would want to hold her. He ached to cuddle her in his arms and kiss her forehead as he had with his own Sonya but he knew he couldn’t do that. Not yet and maybe not ever. This Sonya had been trafficked and abused and sold to males who only wanted to use her body for their own selfish pleasure and didn’t care if they hurt her. She wasn’t going to trust some strange male—which was all he was to her right now.

I’m nothing to her, he thought, feeling hopeless. But she’s everything to me.

TWENTY

SONYA

Sonya couldn’t figure the VIP client out.

First he protested that he hadn’t bought her to hurt her—that he just wanted to get to know her. Then he somehow knew a tune from Earth which ought to have been impossible.

After all, before the Scourge had come five years before, nobody on Earth had any idea there were aliens out there. So how would he have access to music from Earth? Considering he was at least eight feet tall and had pearly gray skin, he wouldn’t exactly blend in with a crowd of humans.

She’d also been floored by the way he harmonized with her. Sonya had perfect pitch and she could always tell if someone was sharp or flat. With the VIP client, every note had been exactly on point. Not only that but his voice blended with hers in the closest harmony she’d ever sung—he had anticipated every grace note and lilt that she threw into the song to make it her own and stayed with her effortlessly. It almost felt as though they had been singing together for years—but of course they hadn’t. She’d never seen him before in her life!

Or had she? Sonya frowned to herself. It was so strange but it almost seemed like she’d seen him before…maybe in a dream. But that didn’t make sense—she never remembered her dreams except for the night terrors that tormented her sometimes.

God, she hoped she didn’t have another one like she’d had last night during the time she was entertaining the VIP client! She was pretty sure he wouldn’t be happy about being woken up by screaming and crying in the middle of the night. Panic attacks were not sexy.

You haven’t had any night terrors for ages before last night, she reminded herself. You only had one last night because of that horrible Sir Grox!

Thoughts of the hideous Trollox sent a shiver down her spine and she tried to push the evil creature out of her head by studying the VIP client again.

What had he said his name was? Davrik? He was actually handsome, in a giant alien kind of way, she decided. Now that she’d mostly gotten over the fact that he had the same skin tones as a Scourge, she couldn’t help noticing his broad shoulders and thick, black hair. Not to mention those pale blue eyes that were so intense when he looked at her—almost as though he was staring into her soul.

Could he really just be a music connoisseur who liked her voice? Could that really be the entire reason he had bought and paid for her for an entire week?

Sonya wished she could believe that, but she had her doubts. She’d heard the other girls whisper about how much the Supreme Treatment package cost—it was hard to believe that anyone would pay a price equivalent to the cost of owning your own private jet just to hear her sing to him.

He must want something, she thought, looking at him from the corner of her eye. His jaw was clenched and there was a look of pain on his face, as though some inner anguish was tormenting him. What was going on with him? What—?

Suddenly the bracelet on her wrist—the one Oozle had given her to wear—made an ominous beeping sound.

Sonya looked down at it and realized that the clear, thumb-sized jewel in the center of the gold chain links had turned dark red. She shook it, trying to turn it off. Damn it—what the hell was wrong with it?

But the shaking had no effect. The bracelet beeped again and then a small, mechanical sounding voice said,

“Warning—continuous non-contact for the past fifteen solar minutes detected. Continued non-proximity and non-contact with VIP patron will result in immediate consequences.”

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