“You may be right—the Goddess works in mysterious ways,” Strong said and yawned despite himself. He’d been up for over twenty-five Earth hours by now and he was beat.
“You should go home to bed,” Clear told him. “You look dead on your feet, Strong.”
“I nearly am,” Strong admitted. Actually, his shift had ended an hour ago. But to be honest, he simply couldn’t bear to leave the little Elite’s side.
You’re as foolish over her as Clear is, a little voice whispered in the back of his head. Admit it, Strong—you’re smitten.
Ruefully, he acknowledged it was true. The curvy little Elite had gotten under his skin and now he couldn’t stop thinking about her.
“You should go,” Clear said again.
“I don’t want to,” Strong admitted. Reaching out, he stroked Melanie’s cheek gently with the back of his hand. “I don’t want to leave her.”
“Then let’s not.” Clear looked up at him hopefully. “Let’s take her home and let her sleep between us. Our energy will help to heal her hand and we won’t have to leave her here alone.”
“Well…” Strong knew he would never have considered such an idea with any other patient. But the curvy, mature Elite was special.
And there was truth to what his brother said—though Twin Kindred couldn’t heal their mates with a bite, like the Blood Kindred could, placing a female they both cared for between them did facilitate the healing process. It was a kind of energy they generated when the beloved female was cradled between their bodies—sometimes it was effective when nothing else was.
“Please?” Clear asked, looking up at him. “I don’t feel right about leaving her here, Strong. She needs us—needs the healing we can give her by holding her between us.”
Strong frowned.
“You know her better than I do. Would she be upset to wake up between the two of us? It’s hardly standard practice to take a patient home with you and put her in your bed, after all.”
“She’ll be surprised but not upset, I think,” Clear said. “As long as we make it clear to her that we haven’t touched her inappropriately and we only wanted to heal her, I don’t think Melanie will have a problem with waking up between us.”
“Well then…” Strong hesitated but he knew that his mind was already made up. He couldn’t bear the thought of leaving Melanie here in the Med Center for someone else to care for either. He wanted to take her home with them as much as Clear did. “All right,” he said at last, nodding. “Let me go tell the Charge Nurse that I’ll be checking her out. I don’t want her to worry.”
“I’ll get her ready to go.” Clear started to scoop the little Elite into his arms but Strong stopped him.
“Let me carry her this time,” he said to his twin. “It will look better since I’m the doctor treating her.”
Clear tried and failed to smother a grin.
“Also you want to hold her. Don’t try to deny it, Brother—I can feel it through our link.”
“Yes, I want to hold her,” Strong admitted. “I feel like you have a head start on me since you’ve been working with her for months. I want to hold her in my arms as we carry her home with us.”
“I understand.” Clear nodded and sank back into the chair beside Melanie’s bed. “I’ll wait for you.”
“Thank you.” Strong nodded and went to find the Charge Nurse and explain that he was checking Melanie out of the Med Center. He didn’t anticipate any problems. The nurse on duty tonight was mated to Twin Kindred herself, so she fully understood the healing power that came from a female lying between the two males who cared for her.
Strong just hoped his brother was right and that Melanie would understand as well. If she didn’t, they could be in a very sticky situation once she woke up…
6
When she woke up, Melanie was lying on her left side, cradled in warmth and darkness. There was a hard, firm pillow at her back and one in front of her too. The sensation of being held between them made her feel safe and protected and she sighed deeply and stretched luxuriously before cuddling down again between the warm pillows.
Only, who ever heard of pillows that breathed?
Because these pillows were breathing. They seemed to be moving slowly up and down in perfect rhythm with each other. In and out…in and out…
There was also a delicious smell in the air, Melanie realized. It was actually a combination of scents—a warm, spicy, masculine musk mixed with a sharp, clean scent like the tang of a northern ocean. Combined, the notes made her whole body tingle when she inhaled it.
Mmm…so good! She sniffed again and realized the scent was coming from the two breathing pillows that were holding her between them. Was it some kind of Kindred therapy? She remembered vaguely that she’d hurt her hand. Was this part of the treatment?
She shifted again and lifted her hand to study it in the dim light. It looked all right. At least, there was no hole in it now. In fact, though it was difficult to tell in the low illumination, it looked perfectly normal.
Experimentally, she used her hand to stroke the pillow in front of her. It had a smooth, warm texture that felt good under her fingertips. Melanie ran her hand up and down its surface, enjoying the tactile pleasure of touching without any pain whatsoever.
“Enjoying yourself, little one?”
The deep, rumbling voice coming from the pillow she’d been petting made Melanie gasp and jerk her hand away.
“What—?” she began. And then the pillow moved and turned over.
Before she knew it, she was face to face—or face to chest—with Strong, Clear’s twin brother.
“Oh!” she gasped, looking up at him. “What…what are you doing in my bed?”
“You’re in our bed, actually,” Strong told her. He frowned. “I hope you don’t mind. I didn’t want to just leave you at the Med Center at the end of my shift. You’d been through a lot and I wanted to keep an eye on you.”
“So you and Clear brought me home and put me in bed with you?” Melanie demanded. “Is that what you usually do with patients you want to keep an eye on?”
“Not at all,” he assured her. “It’s actually very unusual.”
“Before you get upset, let me assure you that nothing inappropriate happened.” This was Clear, speaking from behind her. “We asked the nurse to put you into a gown for greater comfort. Neither Strong or myself saw you or handled your body while you were undressed.”
Melanie gave a little jump and looked over her shoulder.
“I never said I thought you, uh, molested me,” she protested. “This just seems…like a strange kind of treatment—bringing me home to bed with you. You know?”
“It may seem strange to you,” Strong rumbled. “But when a Twin Kindred becomes attached to a female, there is healing to be had by holding her between himself and his twin.”
“We can’t bite you and heal you like a Blood Kindred can with his mate,” Clear added. “But when we have a female we care about between us, we exude a kind of ‘healing energy.’ Does that make sense?”